Wild with Sarah Wilson

Anna Funder, a bestselling author known for her works on power dynamics, discusses her latest book 'Wifedom,' which scrutinizes the often-overlooked contributions of George Orwell's wife, Eileen O'Shaughnessy. The conversation delves into Orwell's 'doublethink' and its connection to modern patriarchy, exposing the nuances of literary erasure. Funder emphasizes the importance of women's visibility and voices in history while tackling the complexities of cancel culture and societal expectations regarding gender roles. She advocates for systemic changes to rectify these disparities.

Explore a captivating story that begins with a Christmas Eve camping trip in Australia, leading to profound connections with two fathers affected by the Middle East conflict. Delight in the evolution of friendship through literature and engaging conversations about pivotal global issues. Discover the power of human relationships while reflecting on seizing opportunities and embracing transformative connections. This narrative celebrates the significance of reaching out and the bonds that unite us.

Helen Lewis, an insightful columnist for The Atlantic and podcaster at the BBC, dives into the turbulent waters of feminism and trans rights. She unpacks the complexities of the feminist-trans wars erupting on ‘TERF Island,’ discussing the role of dialogue amidst polarization. Lewis also addresses the fallout between Kara Swisher and Elon Musk, alongside reflections on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict post-October 7. With a focus on the challenges of modern journalism and the dynamics of digital outrage, this conversation reveals the necessity for nuanced discourse in today’s world.

In this compelling discussion, Bassam Aramin, a Palestinian peace activist, and Rami Elhanan, an Israeli peace activist, share their transformative journeys shaped by tragic losses. Both fathers, who lost daughters in the conflict, emphasize that victimhood perpetuates violence. They argue for empathy and understanding, challenging divisive narratives. Bassam's study of the Holocaust while imprisoned profoundly impacts their dialogue, while Rami highlights the urgency of breaking free from entrenched identities. Together, they convey a powerful message of reconciliation and hope.

Liv Boeree, a world poker champion and astrophysicist, explores the concept of 'Moloch'—a game theory force driving society into harmful competition. She discusses how this phenomenon manifests in climate challenges, AI risks, and social media conflicts. Liv highlights the detrimental impact of beauty filters and the nuclear arms race, arguing for a shift towards win-win solutions. Her insights encourage collaboration over competition, advocating for a balanced approach to foster positive societal outcomes and mitigate the destructive tendencies we face.

Substack subscribers have posed some beautiful thought-provoking questions this week. Do I suffer from a broken heart and how do I cope with it at a spiritual level? Do I stand by my I Quit Sugar message all these years later, particularly given an awareness of the triggering effect of restrictive messages? And where do we draw the line when someone we love uses the “mental illness card” to justify piss-poor behaviour. I recorded this with my long-suffering assistant Liana who I got to hang with yesterday.Access the full recording on Substack and join the conversation in the comment section and don't forget to add your questions to the AMA thread.You can catch my post about why I now distance myself from my bipolar diagnosis here.You can listen to my Wild chat with David Whyte here I mention David's book When the Heart Breaks: A Journey Through Requited and Unrequited Love Learn more about Liana hereIf you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" pageFor more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious LifeLet’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Prof. Joel Pearson (Neuroscientist; AI and intuition expert) developed the first scientific test to measure intuition, dragging it out of the woo-woo realm and into a cognitive framework. He’s now written The Intuition Toolkit: The New Science of Knowing What without Knowing Why to show us how and when to use this mysterious superpower in our lives (not while rock-climbing on a date, not at a casino!).Joel is the founder and Director of Future Minds Lab which applies neuroscience findings to art, AI, media, advertising and various philosophical quandaries. He’s also a National Health and Medical Research Council fellow and Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of New South Wales, Australia.In this chat we cover when and how to use intuition, why intuition is hijacked by anxiety and depression, whether AI will ever be able to have intuition, aphantasia and a bunch of deep, wide questions about what it means to be human, including the Hard Problem of Consciousness. Mostly, Joel is a great conversationalist, someone you’d want to sit next to at a dinner party.SHOW NOTESGet Joel’s book The Intuition Toolkit: The New Science of Knowing What without Knowing WhyFollow Joel on his Future Minds Lab Substack You might also like to listen to my WILD chat with Sheena Iyengar, the scientist who first ran those “paradox of choice” studiesAnd with George Paxinos, regarded as the world’s leading brain expert on whether our brains are “good” enough to save the planetI mention the book Klara and the Sun by Kazuo IshiguroIf you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" pageFor more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious LifeLet’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Peter Frankopan (Silk Roads author, Oxford historian) has just written a mega-history book called The Earth Transformed that reframes human history not via various major battles and legendary leaders but through a climate lens. Floods, droughts and, invariably, a volcano or two, dictated the fall of the Roman Empire, the fate of Cleopatra, the rise of gossip and beer halls, slavery and the different flavours of religion that exist around the world. I was keen to talk to Peter to find out what we might be able to learn from the past about adapting and surviving climate upheavals, what the factors that saw climate destroy some civilisations and not others and what it means to live in an era where climate calamities are global in scale, as are all the fundamental aspects of society – trade, finance, disease routes, warfare capabilities. Oh, and at the end we talk about what is entailed in writing a book that’s more than 600-pages!This conversation feeds into previous episodes about limits to growth with the Club of Rome’s Gaya Harrington and collapse theories with Meg Wheatley.SHOW NOTES The Earth Transformed: An Untold History is available hereRead more about Peter via his website and you can connect with him on Twitter/XIf you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" pageFor more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious LifeLet’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today’s question has come in from many of you over recent weeks. It’s an important one to ask as we grapple with the horror in the Middle East and our sense of powerlessness, as leaders around the world seem immobilised by geopolitical interests. I’ve invited Palestinian peace broker Aziz Abu Sarah to help answer it. Aziz is one of the world's most powerful and connected peacebuilders. He’s a National Geographic Explorer and Ted Fellow. He has founded and led countless global conflict resolution organisations and helped broker peace deals in more than 60 nations, including Syria and Afghanistan.I put it to him: Is there a role that those of us outside the region can play that will actually help, not hinder, the ultimate cause – peace and the cessation of the bloodshed and humanitarian disaster? What is the right thing to do on social media? What should we post and not post? Do protests, boycotts, and petitions work at this point? And is peace possible any time soon? I learned a lot more than I expected to from this chat – some of Aziz’s answers are very very confronting. Strap in for this one, dear friends. It’s big and hard. It’s also longer than my normal AMAs (and forgive me for the sound quality - I don’t quite have the budget yet for a producer for these Friday episodes!).I encourage you to head over to my Substack for additional content, including:Where Aziz will join the comments thread and happily answer additional questions there.I will share the credible peace organisations, influencers and journalists that he recommends we support.I will also share some other useful links that explain points raised in our conversation, including the Israeli bias in media.SHOW NOTESYou can listen to our previous conversation hereHere’s Aziz’s website, social media and his book, Crossing Boundaries: A Traveler's Guide to World PeaceIf you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" pageFor more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious LifeLet’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dr Kelly Weinersmith (behavioural ecologist and space expert) and her husband Zach have just spent four years researching a subject that perplexes many of us – why all the fuss about moving to Mars? Which begs, can we actually build a human settlement on Mars? And, would we want to?They share their findings in their new book A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through? which became an instant New York Times bestseller and Scientific American’s #1 Book for 2023.Kelly, an adjunct with Rice University in Texas, joins me to talk through both the broad and the granular implications of what I think amounts to a “destroy and run” attitude to our relationship with Earth. I have a lot of questions, like: What’s with the tech bros and their obsession with living on a dusty, toxic planet? Who would “own” space settlements? Who would control the oxygen? Surely we’re not going to let Elon run rampant with this? And can you actually have sex in space? If you’re after a TL;DR, Kelly concludes: “Space: quite bad”.SHOW NOTESA City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through? is available hereThe Wild episode with Douglas Rushkoff about billionaires and their apocalypse bunkers is hereIf you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" pageFor more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious LifeLet’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.