Podcasts · Drilled

Facing Climate Despair: How to Cope with Wen Stephenson

12 Oct 2025 · 1 h 06 min · Bonus

The climate crisis can feel overwhelming—to witness venture-capital-fueled AI domination, democracy’s steady drift toward authoritarianism, state-sanctioned genocide, and the collapse of one climate boundary after another is to encounter a profound sense of despair. But what if the path forward lies in accepting, rather than resisting, this despair? In his new book, Learning to Live in the Dark: Essays in a Time of Catastrophe, climate activist and journalist Wen Stephenson argues that the only way to confront the crises of our time is to meet this despair head-on. He shares how he's faced his own climate despairs and offers insights for living in an era of climate, political, and social crisis while holding onto humanity.

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Links in the notes 3

• https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2523-learning-to-live-in-the-dark
• https://wenstephenson.com/
• https://omnystudio.com/listener

The episode on the publisher’s site ↗ (opens in a new tab)