In Conversation with Rob Wolf on the
New Books Network Podcast
January 15, 2021
The Ministry for the Future is a sweeping novel about climate change and how people in the near future start to slow, stop, and reverse it.
The story opens with a devastating heat wave that kills thousands in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. From there, Kim Stanley Robinson pulls back to show us the world’s reaction, taking readers from the eponymous Ministry for the Future (which advocates for new laws and policies, like carbon quantitative easing) to scientists in Antarctica, where glaciologists pump out water from under glaciers to slow their slide into the ocean.
Pete Saloutos
January 12, 2021
The UCLA Division of Humanities has partnered with the Los Angeles–based Berggruen Institute to launch “Possible Worlds,” a new lecture series that invites some of today’s most imaginative intellectual leaders and creators to deliver talks on the future of humanity.
The series will kick off Feb. 18, 2021, with a lecture by Harvard classicist and political theorist
Danielle Allen, followed by presentations by architect
Alejandro Aravena (spring 2021), author
Kim Stanley Robinson (fall 2021), and innovation and sustainability expert
Darja Isaksson (spring 2022). The cross-disciplinary lectures will highlight innovative ideas and offer unique insights about our transforming world.
The first collaborative project between UCLA and the Berggruen Institute, “Possible Worlds” furthers both institutions’ goal of fostering a culture of innovation in philosophy and governance, both in Southern California and throughout the world.