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No Small Endeavor with Lee C. Camp

251: Unabridged Interview: Kim Stanley Robinson

No Small Endeavor with Lee C. Camp

Lee Camp

Philosophy, Society & Culture, Religion & Spirituality

4.8555 Ratings

🗓️ 6 March 2026

⏱️ 70 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This is our unabridged interview with Kim Stanley Robinson. 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

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0:00.0

Hello, friends, Lee Seacamp here. You're listening to No Small Endeavor. This is our

0:05.8

unabridged interview with the acclaimed science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson. I have been a big

0:13.1

fan of Kim Stanley Robinson for a long time and unbeknownst to me, our team scheduled an interview

0:20.8

with Stan on my birthday without telling me.

0:25.5

And it was a delightful, of course they let me know ahead of time, but it was a delightful treat

0:30.5

that they gave me.

0:31.7

And of course, I found myself, usually these days I've gotten to interview so many delightful,

0:35.4

wonderful people.

0:36.0

I don't get very nervous or anxious before an interview, but I found myself just a little bit of extra energy, a little bit of

0:41.1

excitement, a little bit of anxiety interviewing the great Kim Stanley Robinson, all that, you know,

0:47.5

don't meet your heroes kind of stuff. And it was just a wonderful conversation. And it was really

0:52.1

lovely and really beautiful. If you don't know him,

0:54.9

then you're going to be fascinated with him after this interview. And I would say go out and read one

0:59.5

of his books, especially he was best known for his Mars trilogy. I've read two of the three so

1:05.0

far. And then I've read a bunch of his other books. But the one that we especially talked about

1:10.1

in this interview is his book ministry for the future that came out in 2020.

1:14.2

That's about the climate crisis.

1:16.4

It's a compelling, super helpful, really educational, very entertaining book.

1:21.1

Here's our interview with Kim Stanley Robinson, who now I get to call Stan.

1:26.7

Enjoy.

1:28.0

Hey, friends, Lee Kemp here. We all need advice, but it's not always clear who to ask, even in 2026,

1:34.6

which is why I recommend checking out how to the longstanding advice show and 2026 Amby Award nominated Best Personal Growth Podcast.

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