Much of the ‘science for the Anthropocene’ that we explore on this podcast focuses on the ‘cutting-edge’ of research and new knowledge. But there is another whole side to science that merits our concerted attention: education, or the transmission of hard-earned knowledge and ways of thinking from generation to generation. Our guest in this bumper summer episode, Dr Zachary Stein, has literally written the book on this agenda of ‘Education for the Anthropocene’, and much else besides. Discussing his hugely insightful work, we unpack how a system and vision of education – or a ‘paideia’ – is actually the very core of a flourishing civilisation… and how profoundly and urgently we need to attend to and revive ours; not only in order to meet the unprecedented complex challenges of our time, but also even just to avoid a ratchet in the other direction, towards accelerating civilisational implosion. Join us for a wide-ranging and fascinating conversation in which we explore the centrality of education, the (dark and techno-fetishist) default futures of education continuing along existing trajectories, what the sciences of learning have told us about the stages of learning and how we need to revamp our education systems, the (seemingly counter-cultural) importance of ‘teacherly authority’, the crisis of elite higher education, the ‘growth to goodness’ fallacy and much more.
