Best Joel Kovacs Podcasts (2025)

Dr Vanessa Andreotti (Indigenous Knowledge advocate; author) is a Brazilian academic who has developed a radical thesis for how to move through the multi-crises we face. In her book Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity's Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism she draws on Indigenous wisdoms and entanglement theory to steer humanity through…

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Advent | Part 2 48:35

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6M ago48:35

48:35

By Joel Kovacs

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MARTHA BECK: Only the most nourishing chat I’ve had about anxiety ever 1:12:15

6M ago1:12:15

1:12:15

Dr. Martha Beck (author; “best-known life coach in America”) is about to release a book on anxiety. The international best-selling author – who holds three Harvard degrees in social science and was described by Oprah as “one of the smartest women I know” – specialises in helping people find meaning and integrity in their lives. In this episode, Sar…

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Advent | Part 1 | Brice Mitchell 39:01

6M ago39:01

39:01

By Brice Mitchell

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INDY JOHAR: The starkest collapse prognosis I’ve heard 1:18:10

6M ago1:18:10

1:18:10

Indy Johar (founder of Dark Matter Labs, systems designer) re-imagines and redesigns systems for a changed world. The architect and Professor of Planetary Civics at Melbourne’s RMIT and the University of Sheffield has worked with and advised organisations worldwide. Including the Scottish Government, the Mayor of London and WikiHouse, solving compl…

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Hilarious | Part 3 53:45

6M ago53:45

53:45

By Joel Kovacs

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LYNDSEY STONEBRIDGE: How would Hannah Arendt explain Trump? 1:01:01

7M ago1:01:01

1:01:01

Lyndsey Stonebridge (Humans rights academic, Hannah Arendt biographer) was worried about the banality of evil she was observing in the world and so dug down into the work of controversial philosopher and political theorist Hannah Arendt for insights. Her new book, We Are Free to Change the World: Hannah Arendt’s Lessons in Love and Disobedience is …

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Hilarious | Part 2 46:41

7M ago46:41

46:41

By Joel Kovacs

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LUKE KEMP: Will our global civilisation go the way of the Roman Empire? 1:14:07

7M ago1:14:07

1:14:07

Luke Kemp (historical collapse expert; associate at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk) has studied past civilisations and mapped out a picture of how long they tend to last before they collapse, what tends to tip them and what (if anything) can be done to stall their demise. Luke works alongside Lord Martin Rees and Yuval Noah Harari, is…

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Hilarious | Part 1 50:32

7M ago50:32

50:32

By Joel Kovacs

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AMA: A post on how I write a book about collapse on Substack 28:30

7M ago28:30

28:30

Recently, I’ve been getting a lot of “Ask Me Anything” questions about the minutiae of writing about - and having to live through - collapse. I try to cover most of these kinds of questions as we work through the book Serialisation process, but a few get left behind. And so this week’s Wild episode covers these off. You are welcome to join the 55,0…

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RIP | Part 3 50:26

7M ago50:26

50:26

By Joel Kovacs

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JOEL PEARSON: Do we have free will? Is anything our fault? 57:55

7M ago57:55

57:55

Prof. Joel Pearson (Neuroscientist; AI and cognition scientist) returns to Wild, this time to discuss whether free will is an illusion. In our last chat (about intuition) the subject was raised and Joel promised to come back to discuss it further, particularly in the context of AI, algorithms, the rise of totalitarianism and our agency in systems c…

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RIP | Part 2 41:06

7M ago41:06

41:06

By Joel Kovacs

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CHRISTIANA FIGUERES: On “stubborn optimism” 1:05:26

8M ago1:05:26

1:05:26

Christiana Figueres (the woman behind the Paris Agreement) is possibly the best-known official in the global climate change movement. The former Costa Rican diplomat and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (2010-2016), managed to bring together 195 nations to sign the historical 2015 agreement that set t…

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RIP | Part 1 42:48

8M ago42:48

42:48

By Joel Kovacs

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ELIZABETH OLDFIELD X ME: How to be Fully Alive in a collapsing world 1:12:03

8M ago1:12:03

1:12:03

In this SPECIAL EPISODE British coach, author and broadcaster Elizabeth Oldfield and I sit down in her London intentional community home and interview EACH OTHER on…what is sacred (and how we access it), acedia ( the moral loneliness we feel in turbulent times), how we sit in the grief and despair of things, losing friends to the cause, how to be o…

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The Love You Had At First 47:03

8M ago47:03

47:03

By John McCambridge

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BONUS EP: Nika Kovač the activist from the Slovenian gondola 24:04

8M ago24:04

24:04

I do these bonus episodes occasionally whereby I interview someone I serendipitously met on my adventures and who I wrote about in my books AND who struck a chord with readers. I track them down to see where they are now, and there is ALWAYS the most amazing follow-up story. This time, Nika Kovač, a controversial Slovenian activist and Obama schola…

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The Shame Game | Part 3 47:53

8M ago47:53

47:53

By Joel Kovacs

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The Shame Game | Part 2 41:02

8M ago41:02

41:02

By Joel Kovacs

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IAIN MCGILCHRIST: Our “wretchedness” is a left-brain issue 1:16:24

8M ago1:16:24

1:16:24

Dr Iain McGilchrist (neuroscientist, psychiatrist, polymath, author of The Master and His Emissary) devised a thesis that sets out how the two sides of our brains can affect the way we both interact and create the world. The left hemisphere is a narrow, extractive, problem-solving “machine” that divides and conquers things, fails to see our part in…

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The Shame Game | Part 1 49:24

9M ago49:24

49:24

By Joel Kovacs

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COREY BRADSHAW: Are humans going extinct? (And how soon?) 1:17:30

9M ago1:17:30

1:17:30

Professor Corey Bradshaw (global ecologist; author) has spent a career studying species populations and biodiversity loss and has the starkest of messages for humanity: we are in our own mass extinction event. Debate rages as to whether humans have an overpopulation problem or are in a fertility collapse, and which is more likely to take us down. T…