The Substance of Sustainability Podcast

Levien van Zon on sustainability, complexity and storytelling.
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The Substance of Sustainability Podcast

The stories we tell ourselves and each other about sustainability are usually oversimplified. Most tend to revolve around either technical solutions, or around a kind of modern romanticism. The Substance of Sustainability is a personal research project that looks at what would be needed for human societies to be truly sustainable. What can we learn from complex natural systems in this regard? And which alternative stories can we tell about sustainability, that may actually help rather than hinder us? lvzon.substack.com

Episodes

  1. 10/04/2024

    Hairballs & Loops

    This is the narrated version of the article "Hairballs & Loops - Why understanding the real world is important (but not easy)". It is the third article in a series, in which I look for better stories on sustainability. Here we continue on the subject of complexity. We look at how we understand the world in terms of cause-and-effect-stories. Causal loops or "feedbacks" can make complex systems harder to understand, but also more robust and more effective. The problem is that we easily get lost in the details of complex systems, while not all details matter. You can read the accompanying article on https://lvzon.substack.com and on https://sustainsubstance.org/hairballs-and-loops.html This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lvzon.substack.com

    24 min

  2. 06/21/2024

    Entwined

    This is the narrated version of the article "Entwined: Matters of Complexity". It is the second article in a series, in which I look for better stories on sustainability. Here we examine the subject of complex systems, and what complexity means for scientific understanding, predictability and the possibilities of control. Since the 17th century, our thinking has been increasingly influenced by the concept of "the machine". Machines are built to be optimised and controlled. But it turns out that most of our world is very unlike a machine. You can read the accompanying article on https://lvzon.substack.com and on https://sustainsubstance.org/entwined.html This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lvzon.substack.com

    25 min

  3. 05/08/2024

    Beyond Optimists and Pessimists

    This is a narrated version of the article "Beyond Optimists and Pessimists", which was published on https://lvzon.substack.com and on https://sustainsubstance.org This is the first article in a series, in which I look for better stories on sustainability. In this introduction, I talk about stories as models of the world. The current stories we tell ourselves and each other about sustainability are usually oversimplified. Most tend to revolve around either technical solutions, or around a kind of modern romanticism. Yet others focus on a fatalistic or urgent sense of impeding doom. I think that we can do better than having to choose between technological optimism or environmental pessimism. You can read the accompanying article on Substack and on https://sustainsubstance.org/beyond-optimists-and-pessimists.html This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lvzon.substack.com

    28 min
  • 3 Episodes

About

The stories we tell ourselves and each other about sustainability are usually oversimplified. Most tend to revolve around either technical solutions, or around a kind of modern romanticism. The Substance of Sustainability is a personal research project that looks at what would be needed for human societies to be truly sustainable. What can we learn from complex natural systems in this regard? And which alternative stories can we tell about sustainability, that may actually help rather than hinder us? lvzon.substack.com

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