meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
No Small Endeavor with Lee C. Camp

251: Kim Stanley Robinson: A Novelist Imagines a Livable Future

No Small Endeavor with Lee C. Camp

Lee Camp

Philosophy, Society & Culture, Religion & Spirituality

4.8555 Ratings

🗓️ 2 March 2026

⏱️ 53 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Do you feel the weight of climate dread—and wonder whether hope is still intellectually honest? Acclaimed science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson joins Lee C. Camp to name our shared fear about the future without surrendering to despair. Drawing from ⁠The Ministry for the Future⁠, Robinson offers a sober, deeply hopeful vision of change, one rooted not in heroics or denial, but in ordinary people, communal action, and the slow work of making things better. Together they explore how science, faith, and moral imagination can help us live well, even in a warming world. Key Ideas: Hope Without Illusion Robinson shows how genuine hope can coexist with fear, grounding optimism in science, collective action, and moral resolve rather than denial. Ordinary People Matter History often turns not on heroes or villains, but on everyday people, bureaucrats, scientists, neighbors, who do the right thing at critical moments. Utopia as Process A better future isn’t a flawless destination, but a continual movement toward less suffering, greater justice, and deeper solidarity. The Sacredness of the Biosphere Care for the planet is not just technical or political work, but a form of devotion rooted in humility, wonder, and reverence for life. Community Over Individualism Human flourishing depends on shared systems, food, labor, science, and governance that remind us how deeply we rely on one another. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ ⁠Show Notes, Resources and Transcript⁠⁠ for abridged episode with Kim Stanley Robinson⁠ Thank you to our sponsors: Boll and Branch: Get 20% off plus free shipping by visiting ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BollAndBranch.com/NSE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join NSE+⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ — our subscriber-only community — for ad-free listening, member-only bonus content, and early access to live show tickets. Your membership helps make No Small Endeavor sustainable. No Small Endeavor: An award-winning podcast that asks what it means to live a good life. Through conversations with leading thinkers across theology, philosophy, psychology, politics, and the social sciences, we explore human flourishing, meaning and purpose, faith and culture, science and religion, virtue and character, community, and the practices that help shape a good life grounded in truth, beauty, and goodness. Follow ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@nosmallendeavor⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Host Lee C. Camp: Lee has worked as a professor of theology & ethics for more than 25 years, teaching and writing on topics of faith & politics, inter-religious dialog, and human flourishing at the intersection of theology, moral philosophy, and social sciences. Follow ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@leeccamp ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

I'm Lee C. Camp, and this is no small endeavor, exploring what it means to live a good life.

0:07.0

It was literature that was my religion. It was the one system that gave me my sense of meaning and values.

0:16.0

That's acclaimed science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson.

0:20.0

When I write my novels, I want people to end those novels feeling better than when they began them.

0:27.1

That's a kind of calling.

0:29.0

Today we're discussing his recent work, The Ministry for the Future, a fictional mashup of non-fictional hard science and political economy.

0:37.3

The novel requires that we ask ourselves

0:40.3

what responsibility we have to future generations, in a world of inexorable climate change

0:47.0

driven by human action, and what the not-so-distant future might look like.

0:52.5

That would be my definition of utopia, not a final perfect society, but just things getting better.

0:58.5

All coming right up.

1:00.4

Hey, friend, if you didn't know, I started a newsletter a while back that comes out every two weeks.

1:05.3

I have been delighted to hear from so many of you about positive response to the newsletter.

1:09.9

We call it the No Small

1:11.8

Endeavor Notebook, where I riff on themes and topics related to our podcast, giving you additional

1:17.6

material for thinking and doing in your own quest to make sense of what it might mean to live a good

1:23.6

life. Join us by going now to Know Small Ende endeavor.com and sign up there. Again, go to

1:29.6

no small endeavor.com to sign up now for our free No Small Endeavor Notebook newsletter.

1:38.7

I'm Lacey Camp. This is No Small Endeavor, exploring what it means to live a good life.

1:46.4

Ministry for the future is upended my life.

1:49.4

When it came out in 2020, I was a well-regarded and successful science fiction writer.

1:56.3

But then ministry came out and boom, it made a splash.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Lee Camp, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Lee Camp and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.