150 episodes

Sarah Wilson chats wild ideas for a fired up life.
The multi-New York Times bestselling author, activist, minimalist and former news journalist who founded the global phenomenon ‘I Quit Sugar’ travelled the world for 10 years (living out of one bag) to explore the freshest ways to live fully…and to save this one wild and precious life we have together.
She riffs with philosophers, creatives, poets, scientists (and at least one nun!) on the Big Questions that haunt us. What goes through the mind of a prisoner on death row? How does Sia invent her art? Will we die from climate change and can our rage save us? Is being Australian a mental health crisis? Join Sarah as she wrestles a path to the answers…

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Wild with Sarah Wilson Sarah Wilson

    • Society & Culture
    • 4.8 • 55 Ratings

Sarah Wilson chats wild ideas for a fired up life.
The multi-New York Times bestselling author, activist, minimalist and former news journalist who founded the global phenomenon ‘I Quit Sugar’ travelled the world for 10 years (living out of one bag) to explore the freshest ways to live fully…and to save this one wild and precious life we have together.
She riffs with philosophers, creatives, poets, scientists (and at least one nun!) on the Big Questions that haunt us. What goes through the mind of a prisoner on death row? How does Sia invent her art? Will we die from climate change and can our rage save us? Is being Australian a mental health crisis? Join Sarah as she wrestles a path to the answers…

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    PETER FRANKOPAN: How climate collapsed civilisations (and will it ours?)

    PETER FRANKOPAN: How climate collapsed civilisations (and will it ours?)

    Peter Frankopan (Silk Roads author, Oxford historian) has just written a mega-history book called The Earth Transformed that reframes human history not via various major battles and legendary leaders but through a climate lens. Floods, droughts and, invariably, a volcano or two, dictated the fall of the Roman Empire, the fate of Cleopatra, the rise of gossip and beer halls, slavery and the different flavours of religion that exist around the world.
    I was keen to talk to Peter to find out what we might be able to learn from the past about adapting and surviving climate upheavals, what the factors that saw climate destroy some civilisations and not others and what it means to live in an era where climate calamities are global in scale, as are all the fundamental aspects of society – trade, finance, disease routes, warfare capabilities. Oh, and at the end we talk about what is entailed in writing a book that’s more than 600-pages!
    This conversation feeds into previous episodes about limits to growth with the Club of Rome’s Gaya Harrington and collapse theories with Meg Wheatley.
    SHOW NOTES
    The Earth Transformed: An Untold History is available hereRead more about Peter via his website and you can connect with him on Twitter/X
    If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page
    For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!
    Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life
    Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8


    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    • 53 min
    AMA with a Palestinian peace broker: What should we be doing to help, not hinder, the crisis? Does posting on social media do ANYTHING?

    AMA with a Palestinian peace broker: What should we be doing to help, not hinder, the crisis? Does posting on social media do ANYTHING?

    Today’s question has come in from many of you over recent weeks. It’s an important one to ask as we grapple with the horror in the Middle East and our sense of powerlessness, as leaders around the world seem immobilised by geopolitical interests. I’ve invited Palestinian peace broker Aziz Abu Sarah to help answer it. Aziz is one of the world's most powerful and connected peacebuilders. He’s a National Geographic Explorer and Ted Fellow. He has founded and led countless global conflict resolution organisations and helped broker peace deals in more than 60 nations, including Syria and Afghanistan.
    I put it to him: Is there a role that those of us outside the region can play that will actually help, not hinder, the ultimate cause – peace and the cessation of the bloodshed and humanitarian disaster? What is the right thing to do on social media? What should we post and not post? Do protests, boycotts, and petitions work at this point? And is peace possible any time soon? I learned a lot more than I expected to from this chat – some of Aziz’s answers are very very confronting. Strap in for this one, dear friends. It’s big and hard. It’s also longer than my normal AMAs (and forgive me for the sound quality - I don’t quite have the budget yet for a producer for these Friday episodes!).
    I encourage you to head over to my Substack for additional content, including:
    Where Aziz will join the comments thread and happily answer additional questions there.I will share the credible peace organisations, influencers and journalists that he recommends we support.I will also share some other useful links that explain points raised in our conversation, including the Israeli bias in media.
    SHOW NOTES
    You can listen to our previous conversation hereHere’s Aziz’s website, social media and his book, Crossing Boundaries: A Traveler's Guide to World Peace
    If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page
    For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!
    Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life
    Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    • 58 min
    KELLY WEINERSMITH: Why settling Mars is a really dumb idea

    KELLY WEINERSMITH: Why settling Mars is a really dumb idea

    Dr Kelly Weinersmith (behavioural ecologist and space expert) and her husband Zach have just spent four years researching a subject that perplexes many of us – why all the fuss about moving to Mars? Which begs, can we actually build a human settlement on Mars? And, would we want to?
    They share their findings in their new book A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through? which became an instant New York Times bestseller and Scientific American’s #1 Book for 2023.
    Kelly, an adjunct with Rice University in Texas, joins me to talk through both the broad and the granular implications of what I think amounts to a “destroy and run” attitude to our relationship with Earth. I have a lot of questions, like: What’s with the tech bros and their obsession with living on a dusty, toxic planet? Who would “own” space settlements? Who would control the oxygen? Surely we’re not going to let Elon run rampant with this? And can you actually have sex in space? If you’re after a TL;DR, Kelly concludes: “Space: quite bad”.
    SHOW NOTES
    A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through? is available hereThe Wild episode with Douglas Rushkoff about billionaires and their apocalypse bunkers is here
    If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page
    For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!
    Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life
    Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    • 55 min
    DEVIN MOSS: An atheist death row chaplain on how to die without God

    DEVIN MOSS: An atheist death row chaplain on how to die without God

    Devin Moss (atheist chaplain and humanist) late last year ministered a convicted murderer to his death by execution in the state of Oklahoma. Significantly he provided the prisoner, Phillip Hancock, spiritual counsel for more than a year, and “prayed” with him in the execution room…all without drawing on notions of an afterlife or a forgiving God entity. Which begs, what does spiritual counsel look like without “God” and the promise of hope that comes with It? What can be turned to? What are the practices and consolations that work to provide peace and cosmic perspective in the face of this final terror?
    In this chat, Devin and I talk about humanist approaches to death and, to life more broadly. This is a conversation for everyone (all of us?) grappling with a world facing increased existential threats.
    SHOW NOTES
    You can listen to the Wild episode with Sister Helen Prejean hereHere is the original New York Times article about Devin and Phillip’s relationship
    If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page
    For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!
    Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life
    Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    • 49 min
    AMA: Do we create art in the apocalypse?

    AMA: Do we create art in the apocalypse?

    I’ve been doing a bunch of Substack meetups around Australia over the past few weeks (the Sydney and Northern NSW ones are happening in March and you can register in the Substack post here). And several people in the community have posed some related questions to do with balancing where the world is at with your need for creative freedom, our own mental health, our tendency to run from hard topics and emotions. Yes, we MUST create and make art in these difficult, “liminal” times. I reference Teju Cole and late 19th-century philosophers to make my case.
    I also answer:
    How do you stay sane and be of service? How do I motivate myself out of depression to be of service?
    I share how I’ve been navigating things, lying awake many nights in a row, trying to rise to the challenges inherent in these questions.
    If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page
    For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!
    Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life
    Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    • 18 min
    MAGGIE JACKSON: Why “not knowing” is 2024’s survival superpower

    MAGGIE JACKSON: Why “not knowing” is 2024’s survival superpower

    Maggie Jackson (award-winning author and journalist) has just written a book - Uncertain: The Wisdom and Wonder of Being Unsure – that argues that while humans crave certainty, we actually experience a less anxious, more productive, happier life when we embrace not knowing.
    Maggie is known for her writing on social trends, particularly technology’s impact on humanity. She’s written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times and New Philosopher.  But her latest work draws on a wave of new science that shows how building “uncertainty tolerance” (instead of running from what we don’t know or can’t get an immediate answer or fix for) is an antidote to the dangerous complexity of our times. Maggie and I chat about the wild idea of ocean swimming, using hedge words and actively championing leaders who say, “I don’t know” as ways to save humanity.
    SHOW NOTES
    Uncertain: The Wisdom and Wonder of Being Unsure is available now You can read Maggie's recent New York Times guest essay on uncertainty and resilienceLearn more about Maggie and her work here
    If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page
    For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!
    Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life
    Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    • 1 hr

Customer Reviews

4.8 out of 5
55 Ratings

55 Ratings

Stellatundra ,

Striking and critical topics

Sarah interviews the deep thinkers of our time, pairing courage and curiosity with a pragmatic mind for conversations on our future. Listen.

Fmsjtbtjsisisnsjis ,

Transphobic content

I am appalled by the interviewing and spreading of transphobic content. The trans community is at risk of losing their rights and lives and this kind of content should NEVER be posted by someone who doesn’t have the relevant expertise and life experience and surely not shared without a larger context from a trans affirming lens.

Cam2973 ,

best podcast ever

sarah I can’t thank you enough for the path you are paving. I recommend this podcast to everyone

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