BlomCast

For this episode, I am delighted to welcome the distinguished philosopher Michael Sandel, whose Harvard course on moral philosophy has been followed by millions of people online. Michael’s book The T…

The idea that humans can dominate nature and rule over it has popped up quite recently in human history and has come to sweep the planet, and to change and degrade its natural systems. But where does…

What part do our collective stories play in historical turning points? Can new narratives change a culture, a society, a political structure, or do narratives react to changes to explain them afterwa…

a conversation with Andrea Wulf

Sometimes the world is reinvented and turned upside down not in a glittering metropolis, but in the provinces. This was the case in Jena, a tiny German town, at the end…

Do we need a New Enlightenment to cut through a new obscurantism? Or is the Enlightenment part of a bad past of racism, slavery, and exploitation? In many ways, the ideas of the Enlightenment are tar…

Since Icarus flew too close to the sun, the common story of humans and their machines tells of hopes, fears and ambitions. From Leonardo to industrialisation, the First World War and the nuclear thre…

Seit Ikarus zu nahe an der Sonne flog, spricht die gemeinsame Geschichte von Menschen und Maschinen von Ängsten und Hoffnungen, von menschlichem Ehrgeiz. Von Leonardos Entwürfen über die Industrialis…

When the Roman empire was at its zenith it was the largest empire ever seen, an unchallengeable power with mighty legions, an efficient administration, unparalleled economic power and a glittering me…

Around 1450, the greatest empires and the greatest markets of the world were China, India and the Ottoman empire, while also cultures like the Khmer in Cambodia and the Aztecs in Mesoamerica projecte…

Um 1450 waren die größten und zivilisiertesten Mächte und Märkte in China und Indien, das osmanische Reich, auch Kulturen wie die Khmer in Kambodscha und die Azteken in Mittelamerika projizierten Mac…

Long before the bible, humans imagined that they could subjugate nature, and even death itself. With Christianity, this interesting illusion was spread throughout the globe. But where did it come fro…

Lange vor der Bibel entstand die Idee, Menschen könnten die Natur unterwerfen. Mit dem Christentum wurde sie über den ganzen Globus verbreitet. Aber wo kam sie her und was bedeutet sie verbunden mit …

History has always been the story of the human past. With the advent of climate science and historical research into climate patterns, a new kind of history has become possible looking at societies a…

Geschichte war immer die Untersuchung der Vergangenheit von Menschen. Mit neuen Forschungsmethoden der Klimawissenschaften sind aber ganz neue Zugänge möglich geworden: Die Geschichte menschlicher Ge…

Enlightened utopias tried to create turning points in history, but the republics of virtue they imagined never materialized. What is it with Enlightened utopias that condemns them to fail?

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Aufgeklärte Utopien wollten Wendepunkte schaffen, um die Geschichte zum Guten zu wenden und zu überwinden. Aber die Tugendrepubliken, die sie wollten, wurden nie Wirklichkeit? Warum müssen aufgeklärt…

Antwort: Grünes Wachstum — die Lösung der Klimakatastrophe?

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As nature changed during the Little Ice Age, so did the societies depending on it. Trial and error created successful adaptations as societies learned to cope with colder climates, leading to societi…

Als die Natur sich während der Kleinen Eiszeit veränderte, mussten die Gesellschaften, die von ihr abhingen, sich anpassen. Dies schuf Gesellschaften, die unseren ähneln: urbanisiert, angewiesen auf …

With its long, bitter winters, rainy summers and ruined harvests, the Little Ice Age put European societies under severe pressure during the 16th and 17th centuries. Successful strategies of coping w…