Once Upon a Tomorrow: Keynote

Keynote Talk at Crafting the Long Tomorrow: New Conversations & Productive Catalysts Across Science and Humanities Boundaries as the Global Emergency Worsens

One planet. Nearly eight billion humans — each one with their own story that they tell and retell themselves and everyone around them. No one is exempt. But what can we can learn from stepping out of our own narratives to enter other people’s stories? Award-winning science journalist Meera Subramanian has been chasing these stories, finding them among farmers rooted in north India, wind turbine technicians looking out over west Texas, and flyfishermen on the banks of the Wise River in Montana. She’s sought out strangers to hear their perspectives about inhabiting this singular earth at this pivotal time, as all of humanity settles into the new epoch of the Anthropocene. How do the ever-more advanced findings from academia, from brain science to climate science, inform the lives of people far from its reaches? And how do those stories serve their storytellers? She’ll share what she’s found in the field and also challenge the audience to broaden their own horizons by stepping into the space of discomfort and engaging in the radical act of listening. In this time of polarization, hearing those stories is more important than ever.