Bill McKibben: "Energy From Heaven, Not From Hell"
The Gist
Mike Pesca
4.4 • 3.6K Ratings
🗓️ 12 September 2025
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Bill McKibben discusses his new book Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization, making the case for renewables as civilization's best hope. He has long argued that we can't save the planet without a massive overhaul of how we live, but here he answers a challenge to whether that was ever right. McKibben dismisses geoengineering as "junkie's logic," yet warns it may be forced if clean energy isn't embraced quickly. Plus, a reflection on cycles of American political violence—reminders that past eras were bloodier, and that public appetite for violence often diminishes rather than escalates.
Produced by Corey Wara
Production Coordinator Ashley Khan
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Transcript
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| 0:58.2 | It's Friday, September 12th, 2025. |
| 1:01.2 | From Peachfish Productions, it's the gist. |
| 1:03.7 | I'm Mike Peska. |
| 1:04.9 | The escalation of political violence. |
| 1:07.3 | We all know the parade of horribles. |
| 1:09.6 | A Minnesota state legislator killed in her home in June. |
| 1:12.6 | Pennsylvania governor's house firebombed in April. Donald Trump two assassination attempts on the campaign trail. |
| 1:18.9 | And now Charlie Kirk gunned down while talking in Utah. To quote the Washington Post, and you can see this sentiment everywhere, America is facing a new era of political violence, reminiscent of some of its most bitter, tumultuous errors, including the 60s, citing the assassination of Kennedy, Kennedy, and MLK. |
| 1:41.4 | Well, I do think there is a case to be made, and I don't know if I believe in the case, |
| 1:47.0 | but it should be aired that it is not a new series of violence impending, though I'm scared |
| 1:53.1 | that it may be, but maybe it's more the case that this is the constant level of violence. |
| 1:57.7 | We're just noticing it more. If we don't learn from history or remember history |
| 2:02.5 | or if history is not impressed upon us, we begin to get convinced that we are in unprecedented |
| 2:08.4 | times. And with the assassination of Kirk, unprecedentedly bad. But it wasn't the 60s, |
| 2:14.5 | it was the 70s that was actually much more violent. It's just perhaps that some of the would-be worst assassination attempts were just attempts. |
| 2:24.2 | So even before the two attempts on Gerald Ford in 75, there was an attempt on candidate |
... |
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