Hanna E. Morris on Apocalyptic Authoritarianism.

Drilled

Critical Frequency

True Crime, Earth Sciences, Social Sciences, Science

4.8 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 7 July 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In her new book Apocalyptic Authoritarianism: Climate Crisis, Media, and Power, University of Toronto media scholar Hanna E. Morris argues that whether they realize it or not, some climate journalists, obsessed with preserving a self-determined “moderate center,” are deploying some of the same tropes and reinforcing some of the same narratives as the extreme right. Even as they see themselves defending democracy and confronting the climate crisis, these media elites might be contributing to a prize sought by both the MAGA right and the fossil fuel industry: Preventing the emergence of a hopeful, democratic, and class-defying movement against climate change. Earlier this month, Morris spoke with Drilled about the who gets to choose which climate solutions are “right” and which ones are “wrong,” what the media’s divergent treatment of the Green New Deal and the Inflation Reduction Act reveals about its entrenched biases, and why a sense of fatalism and inevitability seems to pervade so much mainstream climate coverage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome back to drilled. I'm Amy Westervelt. We've got a new recurring series for you.
0:19.1	It's called Drilling Deep in which we interview different book authors about their books,
0:26.1	the research behind those books, and what they mean for dealing with the climate crisis today.
0:31.1	In today's episode, Adam Lowenstein interviews Hannah E. Morris from the University of Toronto
0:37.4	about her new book,
0:39.1	Apocalyptic Authoritarianism, Climate Crisis, Media, and Power.
0:43.8	In it, Morris looks at the intersecting forces of nostalgia for a supposed golden age of the
0:50.4	past, fear of sharing power with women and people of color, apparent contempt for
0:56.3	ordinary people, and the determination to resurrect the myth of American exceptionalism,
1:02.7	all alongside an apocalyptic conviction, giddiness even, that civilization and the planet
1:08.6	are inevitably doomed. These bleak convictions unite many far-right politicians and their techno-libertarian backers.
1:15.9	But has this powerful coalition found an unexpected ally in the mainstream media?
1:21.7	Morris argues that whether they realize it or not,
1:23.7	some climate journalists obsessed with preserving a self-determined, moderate center
1:28.4	are deploying some of the same tropes and reinforcing some of the same narratives as the extreme
1:33.8	right. Hello, abundance bros. Earlier this month, Morris spoke with Adam about who gets to
1:40.4	choose which climate solutions are right and which ones are wrong, what the media's
1:45.6	divergent treatment of the Green New Deal and the Inflation Reduction Act reveals about its
1:50.1	entrenched biases and why a sense of fatalism and inevitability seems to pervade so much
1:57.0	mainstream climate coverage. That conversation is coming up after this quick break.
2:06.1	This episode is brought to you by Raban.
2:08.9	Be victorious with Invictus.
	...

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