Human Nature Odyssey
Human Nature Odyssey explores the myths, systems, and stories shaping our unraveling world. Blending history, mythology, philosophy, ecology, and cinematic audio storytelling, the show uses the past to better understand the present — and the possible futures we're creating. You are living the latest chapter in a 10,000-year human story. Join documentary filmmaker and storyteller Alex Leff on a cinematic audio journey through civilization, collapse, meaning, and myth, in search of clearer ways to experience the incredible, terrifying, and ridiculous world we inhabit. A narrative audio documentary for anyone asking how we got here — and what comes next.
Episodes
Today Hajar Tazi joins us on our odyssey. Hajar is a poet, writer, facilitator, and self-described "ecosystem weaver." Our conversation is part of a new five-episode miniseries from Resilience that I'm hosting in collaboration with the Omega Resilience Awards.
It's called In the Rising Tide and it brings together conversations with five people from around the world, exploring the interconnected unfolding...
Okay, it's been fifty years since the sudden collapse of civilization - why isn't everything back up and running already? In the 1949 sci-fi novel Earth Abides, Isherwood Williams tries and tries to teach the next generation about law, economics, and geometry but these dang kids would rather explore the streams that flow over abandoned boulevards and overgrown shopping malls.
In Part 2 of this two-part s...
You ever go on a little trip, to just get away from it all — only to come home and find all of civilization collapsed while you were gone and you might be the last person left on earth?
Well then you could totally relate to George R. Stewart's 1949 science-fiction novel, Earth Abides.
Earth Abides is not your typical post-apocalyptic tale. It challenges some of our core notions on progress, ...
How do we live through wild times?
Legendary scholar, activist, and systems thinker Joanna Macy named the moment we are living through the Great Unraveling—a time when our ecological, political, economic, and social systems destabilize to the point of no return. And yet, she also insisted that we stand on the threshold of a Great Turning: a profound transition toward a more just and sustainable world.
At first glance, believing the earth is flat and dreams of colonizing Mars couldn't seem further apart. But both are built on the same story — that reality can be escaped if we just think big enough.
This episode looks at two beliefs that seem opposite — flat earth and space colonization — and asks what they reveal about our urge to escape reality rather than reckon with it. One is the belief that humans...
This is the first 30 minutes of a longer conversation. The full conversation is available on the Human Nature Odyssey Patreon.
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28 years after the Rage Virus spread across the UK, the British Isles have been completely quarantined from the rest of the world. Zombies roam the forests and countryside while the survivors huntwith bows and arrows and make do in their fortified Read more
Picture the future 100 years from now. What do you imagine? Flying cars? Space colonies? AI talking toasters?
But if we can't sustain an endlessly growing economy - even with a transition to green energy - what does a realistic and positive future look like?
Alex joins the hosts of Crazy Town to imagine life in the 22nd century: walking from our family farms into communal villages, living o...
What does a livable future look like 100 years from now? If we unlocked unlimited green energy, what would we actually do with it? And are our dreams of a renewable-energy utopia sometimes just as delusional as the fossil-fueled drill baby drill mentality?
In this two-part series, Alex is joined by the hosts of Crazy Town—Jason Bradford, Rob Dietz, and Asher Miller—a research biologist, ecological econom...
This is the first 30 minutes of a longer conversation. The full conversation is available on the Human Nature Odyssey Patreon.
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In 1991, a group of artists, inventors, and visionaries set out to live inside a sealed desert enclosure for two years—a bold experiment to see if humans could survive in a self-contained environment. The project made headlines, sparked controversy, and became a cultural sensation. Spacesh...
A horrific zombie apocalypse has ravaged the world—but hardly anyone seems to notice. One lone podcast sets out to interview those navigating this strange new reality: from people attending mindful zombie retreats and binging zombie media, to those stockpiling shotguns and fortifying bunkers, to others disappearing into the woods to build something entirely new.
This is an original script written by Alex Leff.
This is the first 30 minutes of a longer conversation. The full conversation is available on the Human Nature Odyssey Patreon.
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A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, there was an old Republic that, out of fear of a phantom menace, voted to consolidate authoritarian power—unknowingly sealing its own demise. It transformed into an Empire, bent on wielding its weapons of mass d...
What insights can our ancient past shine on our political future?
Were hunter-gatherers the ultimate traditionalists—or proto-communists?
Is it possible hunter-gatherers lived with greater equality and more political freedom than most societies today?
And why do both communism and capitalism, despite being sworn enemies, rest on the same assumption of endless growth?
This is the first 30 minutes of a longer conversation. The full conversation is available on the Human Nature Odyssey Patreon.
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Jake Marquez and Maren Morgan are fellow podcasters, filmmakers, and new friends. Starting today, the three of us are joining forces to create monthly bonus episodes where we'll seek to better understanding this self-destructive civilizational 10,000 year predicament we find ourselves in.
...
Christopher Ryan joins the odyssey to discuss human nature - shouldn't be surprising - it's in the name! What's universal, what's cultural, and what's personal? Can we really change the culture we live in? And are some societies better suited to human well-being than others?
Christopher Ryan is the New York Times bestselling author of Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means for Modern R...
Breaking news: The Soviet Union has collapsed! The Berlin Wall has crumbled! Communism has fallen! Capitalism wins! USA! USA!
But wait… what's this? Russia has been overtaken by oligarchs and an authoritarian dictator. Oh no… Well, at least that could never happen in the United States. Right?
This is the climactic Part Three of our three-part series on the history of the left/right political s...
In the The King Is Dead, Now What? we're exploring the history of the left / right political spectrum and the 250 year struggle for democracy.
In Part 1 we started telling the story that began with the French Revolution of 1789, when those in favor of monarchy sat on the right wing of the national assembly room and those in favor of revolution sat on the left wing.
In the wake of the 1848 ...
How many people are happy with the way society is headed? There seems to be a general consensus - maybe the one thing we all agree on - that things are not right.
But our different opinions on what's wrong and what directions could be better too often fall on either side of a left vs right political spectrum.
Where did we get this idea of a left wing and a right wing anyway? How is it in a wo...
What will happen to our scientific knowledge if civilization collapses? Will astrophysics survive a future stone age?
In this episode, we rest from our journey to talk with astrophysicist Tom Murphy, who's been on an odyssey of his own—moving from academia to a growing concern about the collapse of civilization, to an ever expanding appreciation of the cosmos.
Together we'll gaze at the gra...
Looking for a game to play over the holidays? Why not try the real world global economy? Too late, you're already playing it!
Have you ever noticed how the most popular board games just so happen to reflect core components of our civilization? Settlers of Catan involves the extraction of raw materials. Risk is the imperialism and war between nations. Monopoly de...
Gather around the campfire for a ghost story about the most destructive monster in history: civilization itself.
In this episode, we delve into the countercultural writings of Fredy Perlman, whose strange 1983 book "Against His-Story, Against-Leviathan"—riddled with grammatical errors and misspellings—blends myth and history to explore the nature of power, subj...
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