# How Fiction Makes Sense of the Crisis | Heather Milligan

An episode of [Planet: Critical](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1545009586), 15 Jan 2026, 54 min.

Audio: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/dg78ubkdpmdrf9sw/POD_Heather_Milligan6ffwj.mp3

We're kicking off the year with a very special interview about how present-day literature is reflecting the crisis we're collectively experiencing—and why some of the novels published today fail to grasp both the intensity and complexity of our world. Heather Milligan is a literature scholar specialising in the relatively recent genre of eco-gothic. She joins me to explain what defines climate literature, from cli-fi and apocalyptic narratives to eco-gothic tales, revealing the key differences between these two genres, and which tends to subtly reflect the same hubris by which humanity continues to believe itself the solution to Earth's emergency. This is a beautiful episode, filled with references to wonderful novels and key insights into why we turn to literature in times of crisis.

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