How to Reconnect to Earth (with Author Richard Powers)

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso

Higher Ground

Tv & Film, Film Interviews, Society & Culture

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 17 October 2021

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week we have a soulful (and long overdue) conversation around climate change and the restorative power of nature with Pulitzer-prize winning author Richard Powers. We begin by defining the thematic through-line between The Overstory and Bewilderment (5:06), the eco trauma articulated in each text (9:10), how we may redefine hope in 2021 (16:08), and what the pandemic may teach us about the looming climate crisis (26:18). Powers also details the ecological shortcomings of capitalism (29:00), our myopic interpretation (and fear of) death (30:56). On the back-half, we unpack why he writes (33:48), the need for “productive solitude” (40:40), and the singular way he writes analytical and emotional characters (44:42). To close– a fitting scene from one of Powers’ earlier works, Plowing the Dark (50:30), in which an older man enters an used bookstore, unable to find the book intended. And in the absence of that book, Richard Powers will continue to do so (52:50). On the back-half, we unpack why he writes (33:48), the need for “productive solitude” (40:40), and the singular way he writes analytical and emotional characters (44:42). To close– a fitting scene from one of Powers’ earlier works, Plowing the Dark (50:30), in which an older man enters an used bookstore, unable to find the book intended. And in the absence of that book, Richard Powers will continue to do so (52:50).

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Pushkin. This is talk easy. I'm Sam Forgo so welcome to the show. Today I am joined by author Richard Powers.
0:47.0	Powers won the Pulitzer Prize in 2019 for his novel The Overstory, a stunning multi-generational epic that centers on
0:56.7	the mysterious lives of trees. If that sounds like something you may not read. You're not alone. Former President Obama
1:05.3	recently said of the book, it's not something I would have immediately thought of,
1:09.5	but a friend gave it to me and and I started reading it, and it changed how I thought about the earth,
1:16.8	how I see things. The writing of Richard Powers has that singular quality,
1:22.4	to change how you see the world around you and in turn your
1:27.8	place in it.
1:29.4	His latest book called Bewilderment has a similar effect. It's set around a widowed father, Theo Byrne, and his
1:37.2	nine-year-old son, Robin. Theo is an astrobiologist. Robin is a precocious preteen on the spectrum.
1:46.0	The child is also deeply empathetic, curious, and concerned about our looming environmental crisis.
1:53.7	At the heart of the book is a love story between father and son,
1:58.0	but also a love letter to nature.
2:01.3	As such, the book poses a clear but difficult to answer question. How can
2:07.1	we tell our children the truth about this beautiful and paroled planet?
2:11.8	It's a question I've often wondered about and was grateful
2:16.1	to pose to powers in this conversation. We also unpack the similarities between
2:22.0	the character of Robin and activist Greta Thunberg
2:26.6	and the superpower of their neurodivergence, their autism.
2:31.5	When it comes to the topics of climate change, the cost of capitalism, there are
2:35.0	a few as a the cost of capitalism, the restorative power of the outdoors.
2:38.0	There are few as profound and insightful as Richard Powers.
	...

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