Roughly five years since Kim Stanley Robinson's groundbreaking climate fiction novel, The Ministry for the Future, hit shelves and The New York Times bestseller list, there's little he says he'd change about the book, were it to be published again, he tells Mongabay's podcast.

The utopian novel set in a not-so-distant future depicts how humans address climate change and the biodiversity crisis, toppling oligarchic control of governments and addressing chronic inequality. Robinson explains how the novel works as  ”a kind of cognitive map of the way the world is going now, the way things work and the way things might be bettered. And also a sort of sense of hope or resiliency in the face of the reversals that will inevitably come along the way.“

In this conversation, the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning writer shares reflections on the themes explored in the book and how they apply to the world today. He explains how storytelling can help humans fight a “war of ideas” and speaks about challenging economic inequities with what he calls “postcapitalism.”

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Image Credit: Screenshot of the book cover for ‘The Ministry for the Future’ by Kim Stanley Robinson, published by Orbit. Cover art by Trevillion Images. Cover design by Lauren Panepinto.

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Timecodes

(00:00) What Stan would change about the book today

(07:56) We’re all ‘in a sci-fi novel we’re co-authoring together’

(13:37) Challenging capitalism with ‘post-capitalism’

(19:43) Is ‘Degrowth’ part of the Ministry for the Future?

(23:45) About Frank

(27:24) The inspiration for Mary Murphy

(30:34) The threat of ‘wet bulb’ 35C temps

(36:37) How to fight a ‘war of ideas’

(42:21) You cannot kill the future

(46:26) Before you read the book…

(49:27) Looking to Antarctica

Nearly half of the Republic of Congo’s dense rainforests are protected under the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) framework to receive climate finance payments, but Mongabay Africa staff writer Elodie Toto’s recent investigation revealed the nation has also granted nearly 80 gold mining and exploration permits in areas covered by the project, driving deforestation and negatively impacting local people and wildlife.

As the world scrambles for new sources of gold during these uncertain economic times, she joins the podcast to explain what her Pulitzer Center-supported reporting uncovered:

"It was beyond words, if I may say. I could see people using excavators to uproot trees. I could see them washing the earth and it basically looked [like] a war zone," Toto says on this episode of the podcast.

Toto is also part of Mongabay Africa's team producing a new French-language podcast, Planète Mongabay, and discusses how the program makes environmental news more accessible to audiences who often prefer to get their news via audio or video.

Subscribe to or follow theMongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website.

Cover image: An excavator digs for gold at the Alangong-Bamegod-Inès mining site in the Sangha. According to environmentalist Justin Chekoua, “nothing seems to be done” to preserve biodiversity at the site. Image by Elodie Toto for Mongabay.

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Timecodes

(00:00) Rainforest given over to gold mining

(10:17) Curious connections & justifications

(17:34) The law of the land

(22:03) In plain sight

(25:33) Planète Mongabay

Carlos Mallo Molina has been awarded the 2025 Goldman Environmental Prize for protecting the marine biodiversity of Tenerife, the most populated of the Canary Islands. On this episode of Mongabay's podcast, Molina explains what led him to quit his job as a civil engineer on a road project impacting the Teno-Rasca marine protected area (MPA) and his subsequent campaign to stop the port project it was planned to connect to, which would have impacted the biodiversity of the area.

His successful campaign contributed to the decision of the Canary Islands government to abandon the port plan. Now, Molina and his nonprofit Innoceana are helping set up an environmental education center in its place.

"I was going diving every weekend in my free time, and it was full of sea turtles, it was full of whales, it was full of marine life. And so, I think understanding how my impact was going to destroy [a] marine protected area … I think that was where I had my biggest click in my brain … I need to do something to change what I'm doing, in [a] way that I can protect this ocean," he says.

Image Credit: Pinnacles of Fonsalía, Tenerife, Canary Islands. Photo by Innoceana.

B-roll Credit: Goldman Environmental Prize

Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website.

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Timecodes

(00:00) From engineer to activist

(05:31) The biodiversity of Teno-Rasca

(06:58) Fighting for protection

(12:13) Shutting the port down

(16:29) A future of sustainable tourism?

(21:02) Future projects

(22:19) Carlos’ connection to the ocean