130. Nathaniel Rich with Claire Vaye Watkins: What Does It Mean to Live in a Post-Natural World?

<p data-aura-rendered-by="3791:116749;a"><strong>We live at a time in which scientists race to reanimate extinct beasts, our most essential ecosystems require monumental engineering projects to survive, chicken breasts grow in test tubes, and multinational corporations conspire to poison the blood of every living creature.</strong> No rock, leaf, or cubic foot of air on Earth has escaped humanity’s clumsy signature. The old distinctions—between natural and artificial, dystopia and utopia, science fiction and science fact—have blurred, losing all meaning. So author Nathaniel Rich argues in his book <em>Second Nature: Scenes from a World Remade</em>.</p> <p data-aura-rendered-by="3791:116749;a">With intimate stories from ordinary people making desperate efforts to preserve their humanity in a world that seems increasingly alien, <a href= "https://townhallseattle.org/event/nathaniel-rich-with-claire-vaye-watkins-livestream/"> Rich joined us</a> to share from this deeply reported book. In conversation with fellow author Claire Vaye Watkins, he presented a beautifully told exploration of our post-natural world, one that helps us understand our place in a reality that resembles nothing human beings have known. Together, they wondered what it means to live in an era of terrible ecological responsibility. The question is no longer, <em>How do we return to the world that we’ve lost?</em>, they express, but rather <em>What world do we want to create in its place?</em></p> <p data-aura-rendered-by="3791:116749;a"><strong>Nathaniel Rich</strong> is the author of <em>Losing Earth: A Recent History</em> and the novels <em>King Zeno, Odds Against Tomorrow</em>, and <em>The Mayor’s Tongue</em>. He is a writer at large for <em>The New York Times</em> <em>Magazine</em> and a regular contributor to <em>The Atlantic, Harper’s</em>, and <em>The New York Review of Books</em>.</p> <p data-aura-rendered-by="3791:116749;a"><strong>Claire Vaye Watkins </strong>is the author of the novel <em>Gold Fame Citrus</em>and the short story collect