The Shape of the World
Hosted by Jill Riddell, The Shape of the World is a podcast about cities, nature and people. The Shape of the World shines a light on how we and other living things thrive and co-exist. We speak with scientists, artists, planners and philosophers about the shape of the world now and how it might be made better.
- Update frequency
- every 12 days
- Average duration
- 27 minutes
- Episodes
- 75
- Years Active
- 2018 - 2025
Episode 27: The World Is Not Static
Dr. Caitlin Rankin’s research shows that a long-held theory about why an ancient civilization passed out of existence was wrong. Cahokia Mounds in southwestern Illinois was the site of the larg…
Episode 26: Bees Understand the Concept of Zero
Dr. Scarlett Howard’s research on cognition of honeybees got a lot of media attention when in 2018, she published a paper that showed bees can understand the concept of zero. How Scarlett came …
Episode 25: Think Beyond the Possible
Tony Hiss’s new book, “Rescuing the Planet: Protecting Half the Land to Heal the Earth,” lays out both the urgency for and possibility of protecting 50 percent of the Earth’s land by 2050. This…
Episode 25: Think Beyond the Possible
“Protecting biodiversity is a scramble, still a daunting task, but it looks like something that’s within our reach. I find that extraordinarily hopeful and encouraging.”
Tony Hiss, Author
Tony Hiss’…
Episode 24: Humans Need Nature
“I’ve always thought about not only humans but also the other living things around us as part of our realm, one that we can work with and relate to… Many animals live in social societies,…
Episode 24: Humans Need Nature
Architect Jeanne Gang has an explicit intention to make the human built environment as kind as possible for birds, nature, wildlife and the Earth’s atmosphere. Jeanne’s breakthrough moment was …
EPISODE 23: Cutting Through the Noise On Climate: How to Do Something That Matters, Do It Consistently, and Then Move On with Your Life
“It’s impossible for everybody to have an off-the-grid, zero emission existence. We are all going to go about our lives and create emissions. What we say at Tradewater, what we encourage …
EPISODE 23: Cutting Through the Noise On Climate: How to Do Something That Matters, Do It Consistently, and Then Move On with Your Life
Climate change is scary. The magnitude of the problem makes it hard for people to commit to direct action to solve it, hoping instead (reasonably but perhaps impractically) that government will…
Episode 22: The Grace of Going Unseen
“We live in a time and culture that value display and are largely indifferent to the virtues of passing unnoticed. It is time for all of us to reconsider the beauty, elegance and imagination that …
Episode 22: The Grace of Going Unseen
Akiko Busch is well-known for her writing on design and culture. Her essays continue to touch on those subjects although increasingly, it incorporates—or directly addresses—the natural world. H…
Episode 21: The Coat & the Goat
“American cities in the 19th century were ecologically diverse places, invariably made up of a multitude of domesticated, semidomesticated, and undomesticated species.”
Andrew Robichaud is Assistant…
Episode 21: The Coat & the Goat
Andrew Robichaud explores the peculiar coexistence of people and farm animals in America’s cities. In the 1800s, it wasn’t unusual for men wearing top hats and formal attire to stride down tony…
Episode 20: The Weirdest Way
“Sexual reproduction is sort of an evolutionary mystery.”
Dr. Katy Greenwald is Associate Professor of Biology at Eastern Michigan University and studies conservation genetics of reptiles and amph…
Episode 20: The Weirdest Way
Dr. Katy Greenwald has a longstanding interest in puzzling out the success and persistence of North America’s “gene thieves,” the unisexual (all female) Ambystoma salamanders. These salamanders…
Episode 19: Different Kinds of Aliveness
“Drawing is a great way to focus, to really force you to look closely at something. For me, drawing was a way of studying birds, a method. The art and the science are inextricably linked.”
David All…
Episode 19: Different Kinds of Aliveness
David Sibley started drawing birds at age five and never stopped. Having an ornithologist father and being around his father’s friends, all of whom were also interested in birds, made birdwatch…
EPISODE 18: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Change the World
“Thinking like a geologist is about expanding our time frame, not seeing ourselves as the center of the cosmos, learning patience, understanding what lasts and what doesn’t.”
Dr. Marcia Bjornerud is…
EPISODE 18: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Change the World
Structural geologist Marcia Bjornerud was raised by free-thinking parents who instilled in her a love of books and nature. She’s published many professional papers (read mainly by experts in th…
EPISODE 17: How To Stay Safe From Coronavirus In The Outdoors
Even though the coronavirus pandemic is keeping 226 million Americans and one third of the world sheltering in place, stepping out for fresh air is still allowed. But what’s safe? How far apart do…
EPISODE 17: How To Stay Safe From Coronavirus In The Outdoors
Even though the coronavirus pandemic is keeping 226 million Americans and one third of the world sheltering in place, stepping out for fresh air is still allowed. But what’s safe? How far apart…