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.”

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.

For general questions or comments, email us at podcasts[at]mongabay[dot]com.

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

A biotech company in the United States made headlines last month by revealing photos of genetically modified gray wolves, calling them “dire wolves,” a species that hasn’t existed for more than 10,000 years. Colossal Biosciences edited 14 genes among millions of base pairs in gray wolf DNA to arrive at the pups that were shown, leaving millions of genetic differences between these wolves and real dire wolves.

This hasn’t stopped some observers from asserting to the public that “de-extinction” is real. But it’s not, says podcast guest Dieter Hochuli, a professor at the Integrative Ecology Lab at the University of Sydney.

Hochuli explains why ecologists like him say de-extinction isn’t just a misleading term, but a dangerous one that promotes false hope and perverse incentives at the expense of existing conservation efforts that are proven to work.

"The problem with the word de-extinction for many ecologists is that we see extinction [as] being an irreversible event that has finality about it, a bit like death. The idea that you can reverse those sorts of things is anathema, I think, biologically, but also philosophically and ethically," Hochuli says.

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.

Image Credit: Thylacines, female and male in the National Zoo Washington D.C.

Mike DiGirolamo is a host & associate producer for Mongabay based in Sydney. He co-hosts and edits the Mongabay Newscast. Find him on LinkedIn and Bluesky.

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Time codes

(00:00) They aren’t dire wolves

(03:57) Why extinction is final

(04:50) Ecological barriers to ‘de-extinction’

(12:25) Problems with species reintroduction

(20:25) How ‘de-extinction’ can mislead

(25:32) Is conservation a zero-sum game?

(31:58) Can this technology truly aid conservation?

(39:24) Is the marketing hype justified?

Biological oceanographer John Ryan joins Mongabay’s podcast to discuss his team’s multiyear study that examined vocalizations of baleen whales, including blue (Balaenoptera musculus), humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae) and fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus), and how this science is critical for understanding their feeding habits, and thus informing their conservation.

The study found that these whales’ songs rise and fall with their food supply, which provides valuable insights into how changing ocean conditions can affect their health and guide management measures.

“Some of the research we did tracking the movement and ecology of blue whales helped our sanctuary [to] act on this long-term concern about ship strikes, and to join a program that is called Protecting Blue Whales and Blue Skies,” the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) researcher says.

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.

This episode is dedicated to the memory of Mongabay’s East Africa editor, Ochieng’ Ogodo. Read here about his life, legacy and achievements.

Audio credit: Blue and humpback whale calls featured in this episode are courtesy of MBARI and John Ryan.

Image credit: A humpback whale dips back beneath the surface of the ocean. Image courtesy of Cristina Mittermeier/SeaLegacy.

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Timecodes

(00:00) Marine heatwaves and their impact

(06:33) Analyzing whale songs

(12:30) A change in tune

(20:13) Interspecies communication?

(25:16) The reason behind the heat

(27:36) Informing conservation

(36:52) Credits

Two decades ago a group of NGOs came together with the government of Kazakhstan to save the dwindling population of saiga antelope living in the enormous Golden Steppe. Since then, the Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative has successfully rehabilitated the saiga (Saiga tatarica) from a population of roughly 30,000 to nearly 4 million. For this effort, it was awarded the 2024 Earthshot Prize in the “protect & restore nature” category.

Joining the podcast to discuss this achievement is Vera Voronova, executive director of the Association for the Conservation Biodiversity of Kazakhstan, an NGO involved in the initiative.

Voronova details the cultural and technological methods used to bring the saiga back from the brink and to help restore this massive grassland ecosystem.

“When [the] initiative [was] started, the saiga would be always like the flagship and the priority species because we did have this emergency case to recover saiga,” she says. “But the whole … picture of restoring the [steppe] was always behind this, and will be now a long term strategy.”

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.

Image credit: Saiga calf. Photo by Kibatov Arman/ACBK.

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Timecodes

(00:00) Saving the saiga antelope

(07:13) The Golden Steppe is massive

(13:00) Using conservation technology

(17:07) Incorporating local knowledge

(20:56) Wild horses and agriculture

(26:40) Community connection

(29:37) Credits

Media outlets are downsizing newsrooms and the audience for traditional news is in decline, but Mongabay continues to grow thanks to its impact-driven, nonprofit model. Mongabay's director of philanthropy, Dave Martin, joins the podcast this week to explain the philosophy behind Mongabay's fundraising efforts, why the nonprofit model is essential for impact-driven reporting, and how the organization ensures editorial independence.

" Those who fund us and read us, they're really expecting real-world impact and high-quality journalism. So, people are coming back to Mongabay because they're interested in what we're reporting on. There's a really high level of quality that is informing their decisions," he says.

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.

Dave can be reached at dave@mongabay.com or on LinkedIn.

Image Credit: Galapagos tortoise, Ecuador. Photo by Rhett Butler/Mongabay.

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Timecodes

(00:00) Dave’s story

(08:50) Why nonprofit news creates impact

(15:08) Funding and ethical considerations

(23:27) Explaining trust-based philanthropy

(29:10) Reflections on the Los Angeles wildfires

(32:19) Dave’s favorite animals

Renowned author, activist and entrepreneur Paul Hawken joins Mongabay’s podcast to discuss his new book, Carbon: The Book of Life, and argues that the jargon and fear-based terms broadly used by the climate movement alienate the broader public and fail to communicate the nuance and complexity of the larger ecological crises that humans are causing.

Instead, Hawken argues that real change begins in, and is propelled by, communities: "Community is the source of change, and what we have [are] obviously systems that are destroying community everywhere."

The title of Hawken's book, carbon, is also the fourth most abundant element in the universe, and a fundamental building block of life. He argues it is being maligned in a way that distracts from the root causes of ecological destruction in favor of technological solutions that are not viable at scale, or international agreements that prioritize carbon accounting.

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.

Image credit: A photograph of Paul Hawken, environmental activist and author. Image courtesy of Paul Hawken.

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Timestamps

(00:00) Language in the climate movement

(18:10) What is a ‘nounism’?

(23:45) Leadership is ‘listening to all voices’

(33:49) Community drives change

(40:24) Why does carbon get a bad rap?

(50:01) Normalizing the conversation around climate

(54:22) ‘Decentering’ the Global North

(59:19) Humans are not ‘alpha’