The Shape of the World

A Podcast About Cities, Nature and People

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The Warm Glow of Helping (Update)

Posted December 18, 202500:30:21

On the occasions when we humans go out of our way to help another person who is in distress, we are acting out our biological inheritance. And if we...

How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Change the World (Update)

Posted November 20, 202500:34:26

In 2020, we sat down with structural geologist Marcia Bjornerud on the Shape of the World for a conversation that reshaped how we think about...

Is the Earth Alive?

Posted August 21, 202500:21:27

Ferris Jabr

Ferris Jabr, author of Becoming Earth, claims that it is alive: that Earth is a vast interconnected living system and we humans...

Zoned Out: Race, Property, and Ownership in America

Posted July 31, 202500:28:37

Dr. Adrienne Brown reads cities the way professors read novels: carefully, and with lots of attention to what’s written between the lines. Adrienne...

Existential Risk: A User’s Guide 

Posted July 10, 202500:30:40

Daniel Holz studies black holes, gravitational waves, and cosmology, all while also running the Existential...