Host of the Wild With Sarah Wilson podcast, award-winning Australian journalist Wilson sees the world in a state of collapse, exacerbated by inequality and polarization. Once a stalwart climate activist, she has become disillusioned by practices to reverse global warming, and she admits to feeling hopeless. Assuming that her feelings are shared by others, she offers a “kaleidoscope of ideas” to respond to an overarching question: “When hope is gone, might there be something else—something more useful and nourishing—that a despairing humanity can cleave to?” Drawing on more than 200 interviewees (they appear on her podcast)—“energy futurists, economists, philosophers, climate scientists, effective altruists, demographers, spiritualists, and at least two nuns”—she finds insights that console her. When we let go of hope, she writes, “truth emerges as a far more solid and enlivening thing to peg a life to.” She has no faith in what she calls “efforting,” instead seeing the benefit of human connection: “small intentions and interventions,” such as “moments of intentional collaboration, cooperation, and communication.” Living with uncertainty does not mean living with despair but requires looking away from “chaos-making,” a tactic designed to undermine cohesiveness. “Bear witness to what’s going on, be engaged, and don’t allow for overwhelm,” she writes. “Do less, buy less, grab less, meddle less, strategize less.” Small moves, “powered by fierce love” may generate “unexpected turns and mysterious transformation.” Her tone is conversational and confiding; she includes wide margins and blank spaces for readers to write down their feelings, and her prescriptions focus not on doing but on being: finding a way “to live a meaningful, human life with agency amid what is going on.”
