About
A foreboding sense of climate chaos, societal breakdown, and economic and ecological “doom” is now widespread. Acknowledging our predicament and working through the stages of grief takes one only to the midpoint: acceptance. What lies beyond? Michael Dowd (with occasional co-hosts) invites 75 guests to share their personal journeys along this trajectory and especially the gifts they have found on the other side.
‘Post-doom’ means living, loving, and relating honorably with awareness that…
What shifts in perception, understanding, relating, and identity become possible when we walk through a post-doom doorway?
How do priorities, lifeways, and outer-world involvements shift and clarify on the other side?
And how can such changes call forth genuine equanimity, even joy?
Michael Dowd and Connie Barlow are itinerant evolutionary educators and deep sustainability / deep adaptation advocates. They have spoken to nearly 3,000 religious and secular groups throughout North America over the past twenty years. These include Roman Catholic, Protestant, Unitarian Universalist, Evangelical, New Thought, and Jewish congregations, as well as humanist, skeptic, and freethinker groups. Educational institutions range from grade school (Connie’s evolutionary curricula for kids) to high school and university classes and colloquia. They have also been keynote speakers at summer camps, clergy retreats, and denominational gatherings. Their 2020-2021 itinerary can be found here and a full list of their 2002-2019 speaking engagements can be found here. Together, they serve on the Board of Advisors of the Religious Naturalist Association and in 2016 were honored as “Religious Humanists of the Year” by the Unitarian Universalist Association.
Michael Dowd
Michael Dowd is a bestselling religious naturalist “geologian” and TEDx speaker whose work has been featured in The New York Times, LA Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Newsweek, Discover, and on television throughout the U.S. and Canada. His book, Thank God for Evolution, was endorsed by six Nobel Laureates and other science luminaries, including noted skeptics, and by religious leaders across the spectrum. In 2009, Michael delivered “Evolution and the Global Integrity Crisis” at both Caltech and the United Nations. He has also delivered two TEDx talks (2012 and 2014), and conducted two previous online conversation series: “The Advent of Evolutionary Christianity” and “The Future Is Calling Us to Greatness”. His message — now mostly delivered via Zoom — centers on accountability to the future and how to stay sane, sober, and inspired to engage in local “Love-in-Action” in the midst of these increasingly challenging and chaotic times of biospheric and civilizational collapse.
Rev. Dowd considers his two-part “Collapse in a Nutshell: Understanding Our Predicament”, and three-part “Beyond Hope and Fear: Clarity, Compassion, Courageous Love-in-Action” videos (here) and related live presentations to be the most accurate, up-to-date representations of his work. Prior to breaking through his own denial regarding abrupt climate change, in 2012, his message largely centered around (A) the epic of evolution, (B) a meaningful, scientific view of death, and (C) the practical benefits of evolutionary psychology and brain science.
“Less than two years after our climate awakening in 2012, I hosted a conversation series titled The Future Is Calling Us to Greatness. That title would, however, have been impossible for me to use after our encounter early in 2015 with William Catton’s classic 1980 book, Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change. Since then, my guest sermons and longer programs (the main way I earn a living as an itinerant eco-theologian) have been decidedly more sobering and less human-centered. “Post-doom” for me includes favoring language less anthropocentric than “doom”.”
Connie Barlow
Connie Barlow is a science writer, evolutionary educator, and professional audio, video, and text editor. Her 2001 book, The Ghosts of Evolution (Basic Books), was Amazon.com‘s top-recommended science book for several months. Her previous books, Green Space, Green Time: The Way of Science (Copernicus Books), Evolution Extended: Biological Debates on the Meaning of Life (MIT Press), and From Gaia to Selfish Genes: Selected Writings in the Life Sciences (MIT Press), all explore the nexus of science, meaning, and inspiration. Now mostly retired from speaking, Connie is a leader in the rapidly emerging field of assisted migration (See her “Climate, Trees, and Legacy” video blog.)
The best place to sample Connie’s trajectory from climate activism into post-doom being and action is an 85-minute audio of Connie as guest in Terry Patten’s conversational podcast series, State of Emergence. The title of this conversation, recorded October 2020 is “The Death of Dreams — and Becoming a Good Ancestor.”
Ivey Cone
Ivey Cone is a media producer and consultant with over thirty years of experience in all facets of video production, including live performances, show hosting, independent video journalism, and documentary production. Her video fortes are hand-held location shooting, concept development, crew management, and editing.
Her endeavors include producing and hosting Fuki Café, a show discussing the challenges of our times, shot in various locations across the Pacific Northwest, and Xnotes: Field Notes From Extinction, as well as media contributions to Nature Bats Last, Speaking Truth to Power, and Co-Producer of Extinction Radio. Her current work includes producing Deep Green Videos, editing for the Institute for Sacred Activism, and editing for Post Doom Conversations.
