This week when we give thanks, let me say how grateful I am to have these conversations about a world that just might work and that folks take the time to listen, learn, and share. CHUCK COLLINS says a lot of people tell him, “…nothing a billionaire does harms my life.” In response, he wrote BURNED BY BILLIONAIRES: How Concentrated Wealth and Power Are Ruining Our Lives and Planet. Collins directs the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, co-edits Inequality.org and its weekly newsletter, and writes the column, Oligarch Watch at The Nation Magazine.You can learn more at inequality.org and at ChuckCollinsWrites.com

Collins, Chuck-2025-Transcript

With family gatherings upcoming over the holidays and emergence of AI everywhere we look, here’s my 2011 episode with Sherry Turkle, Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT, about her book ALONE TOGETHER Why We Expect More from Technology, Less from Each Other. At that point, Sherry had already been studying the relationships between people and technology for decades, and ALONE TOGETHER signaled a bit of a departure for her. She even called it “a book of repentance.” It was one of the first books to warn about what was being threatened or lost in our headlong rush to 24/7 engagement with screens.

I’m not an environmentalist, but rather someone who works to move society toward a healthy relationship with the rest of nature. The notion that we are separate makes no sense to me. So I was drawn to this week’s guest, MELANIE CHALLENGER, who writes on the relationship of humans to the living world. She does field research - including in the Arctic and Antarctica, is an award-winning poet, has written librettos for classical choral pieces, has an opera in the works, and is Vice-President of UK’s RSPCA. Her books include HOW TO BE ANIMAL: What It Means to Be Human. You can learn more at melaniechallenger.com