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PODCAST

The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens

The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens explores money, energy, economy, and the environment with world experts and leaders to understand how everything fits together, and where we go from here.

science earth sciences

All Episodes

22:06

The Influence of Psychopaths: Why Humanity Is Better...

The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens ·

2025/09/26

In this week’s Frankly, Nate reflects on intraspecies predation (ours) and the impact psychopathic actors have on the mean and median of human behavior – in the past all the way up to our modern society. Human evolution was shaped by both cooperative, pro-social behavior and a competitive, predatory approach for survival – resulting in a balanced distribution for most of humanity’s existence. But, as agriculture, surplus, and other factors propelled more hierarchical social structure, aggregate

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02:15:58

The Past and Future of Societal Collapse: Why...

The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens ·

2025/09/24

For many people today, the idea of societal collapse is unimaginable. Yet history shows that well-established civilizations have fallen again and again – often for similar reasons. In fact, the same forces that build empires can also culminate in their downfall. How can understanding these historical patterns help us prepare for similar existential risks we may already be facing today? In this episode, Nate is joined by existential risk researcher Luke Kemp to explore the intricate history of

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16:55

What I Learned This Week: Gold Holdings, Political...

The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens ·

2025/09/12

In this week’s Frankly, in a continuation of his ‘What I Learned This Week’ series, Nate updates viewers on things he learned in the past week, and the implications for our sociocultural trajectory. This edition focuses on recent financial and political headlines – global gold holdings, shifting geopolitical energy deals, and new U.S. Department of Energy reports – and explains their relevance to our biophysical reality and broader geopolitical landscape. Through this exercise, Nate invites podcast

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02:01:45

Why We Need Forests: Their Vital Role in Climate...

The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens ·

2025/09/10

To best understand this episode, please watch this ~2 minute video on the biotic pump. It’s widely known that Earth’s forests provide home to countless numbers of species, act as a vast sink for carbon, and provide much of the food, materials, and clean water on which our societies rely. But emerging science shows us that forests may play another critical role: making rain. This theory, called the biotic pump theory, hypothesizes that instead of being passive recipients of rain, forests may

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01:20:53

Where Will Humanity Move When the World Gets Too Hot?...

The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens ·

2025/08/27

In the next 25 years, the International Organization for Migration estimates that one billion people will be displaced from their homes due to climate-related events. From island nations underwater to inland areas too hot and extreme to sustain life, the individuals and communities in these areas will need somewhere new to live. Where will these people go, and how will this mass migration add further pressure to the stability of nations and the world? In this episode, Nate is joined by

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06:59

Ducks and Blueberries: A Reflection on Price, Cost...

The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens ·

2025/08/15

In this week’s Frankly, Nate shares an excerpt from his daily life that mirrors a larger observation on the human predicament. A grocery shopping trip turns into a reflection on value vs cost, and how consumption in our society is driven by the perception of value that’s presented to us. What is the difference in value that our minds create between a $5 container of blueberries, and a $1 container? What is the difference between price, cost and value? What things in our lives do we treat as

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01:04:26

The Forgotten Skills of Dying and Grieving Well: How...

The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens ·

2025/08/13

In Western culture, topics surrounding death and dying are often considered taboo and are generally avoided in everyday conversations. But this reluctance to fully acknowledge and integrate death as a natural part of the human experience has rendered us less able to cope with the end of life and less prepared to show up for ourselves and the people around us as we inevitably navigate loss. But what if a more skillful engagement with death and grief could actually offer us a more mindful approach to

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01:39:48

Nothing Can Stop This Train: Our Financial...

The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens ·

2025/07/30

Money, debt, and finance shape the lives of everyone globally, including through the policies and actions of national central banks – yet even those who are well-versed in these subjects often miss the full scope of these intricate relationships. For the average person, headlines about mounting government debt and surging interest rates often feel like a confusing and concerning trend. What can we learn from historical cycles, global energy dynamics, and the differing fiscal strategies of nations

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42:06

Earth Day 2025: Towards Collective Wisdom and Restraint

The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens ·

2025/07/25

In this Earth Day presentation, recorded earlier this year, Nate offers nine broad paths for individuals to cultivate resilience in an increasingly uncertain and unstable period of human history. From the intellectual & ecological to the spiritual & psychological, these ideas might be considered waypoints for navigating the human predicament, and - in aggregate - help build 'scout teams' of humans working on the upcoming cultural transition away from infinite material expansion. How do we slow down

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01:39:34

The Packaging Revolution: Industry’s Responsibility &...

The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens ·

2025/07/23

Packaging is an unavoidable feature of modern life. It’s so embedded in our products and systems that even the most environmentally-minded consumers struggle to avoid it entirely. Yet packaging accounts for nearly half of all plastic waste, contributing to widespread ecological harm and growing threats to human health – highlighting the urgent need for an overhaul of packaging materials and industry practices. So how are some industry leaders reimagining materials, systems, and supply chains in ways

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01:35:16

The Myths Shaping Our Economies: The Disconnect...

The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens ·

2025/07/16

Economic theory has come to wield outsized influence over our societal goals, decisions, and policies – often relying on models that claim to optimize how human systems function. Yet the outcomes of our modern economic structures tell a different story: accelerating ecological collapse, widening inequality, declining public health, and increasing social disconnection. What if the foundational principles of mainstream economics are actually built on false assumptions that obscure the realities of our

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34:59

Ask Nate Anything 2025 | Frankly 100

The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens ·

2025/06/27

In today’s Frankly, Nate reads and responds to questions from viewers of the channel, offering reflections on a wide range of topics from current events, balancing fear and action surrounding often existential topics, green technology, and more. By directly addressing these questions, Nate aims to further unpack some of the nuances in the complex and expansive concept of The Great Simplification. The goal of TGS is to build out a comprehensive outlook that connects the dots of energy, human-made

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59:25

The National Security Risks We’re Not Prepared For:...

The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens ·

2025/06/18

National security concerns have been the invisible hand guiding governance throughout recorded history. In the 20th century, it was defined by a country versus country dynamic: whichever nation was the strongest and most strategic was also the safest. But today, our biggest national security threats don’t come from opposing nations – they are “actorless threats” that emerge from the breakdown of the complex systems we all depend on – from the stability of our planetary systems to our intricately

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14:46

Why the World Feels Like It’s Falling Apart: The...

The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens ·

2025/05/30

In a world grappling with converging crises, we often look outward – for new tech, new markets, new distractions. But the deeper issue lies within: our relationship with energy, nature, and each other. What if we step back far enough to see human civilization itself as an organism that is growing without a plan? In this week’s Frankly — adapted from a recent TED talk like presentation (called Ignite) — Nate outlines how humanity is part of a global economic superorganism, driven by abundant energy

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01:05:05

The Fish are Fleeing: How Shifting Marine Ecosystems...

The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens ·

2025/05/28

For all of human history, the oceans and the life within them have remained a stable and fundamental part of Earth as we know it. Yet, for the past few decades, fisheries and scientists alike have observed massive migrations in marine ecosystems unlike anything we’ve ever witnessed. What is driving these unprecedented movements, and how are they rippling out to affect every aspect of life In this conversation, Nate is joined by marine ecologist Malin Pinsky, whose decades of research shed light on

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01:03:14

Restoring Global Ecology: The Great Green Wall and...

The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens ·

2025/05/21

It’s no secret that massive change is needed to restore our planet’s vital ecosystems. Permaculture offers practices to restore local environments by focusing on creating sustainable agricultural systems that mimic patterns found in nature. But how might permaculture initiatives go beyond agriculture to transform some of our largest-scale problems, such as social cohesion, climate stabilization, and even human migration? In this conversation, Nate sits down with permaculture educator Andrew Millison

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15:13

Social Overshoot? Dunbar’s Number, Real...

The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens ·

2025/05/09

With more people on the planet than ever before – with most having constant digital access to one another – there is an abundance of potential relationships available to us. Despite this, there is also an increasing loneliness crisis across global society. What can evolutionary psychology teach us about this lack of meaningful relationships at a time of hyper-connectivity? In this week’s Frankly, Nate reflects on the effects of technology on modern relationships, and how Dunbar’s number infers a

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57:06

Fragile Electric Grids: Did Renewables Cause the...

The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens ·

2025/05/07

Last week, Europe experienced its worst blackout in living memory, which plunged tens of millions of people across Spain and Portugal into darkness for up to 18 hours. Life screeched to a halt, with trains, traffic lights, ATMs, phone connections, and internet access failing. In the aftermath, many important questions have arisen, including: what caused such a widespread grid failure, and how can Europe and other nations prepare for the next time an event like this happens? In today’s episode, Nate

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12:33

Information Burnout: Are We Past Peak Sensemaking? |...

The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens ·

2025/05/02

Each morning, people around the world wake up to more troubling headlines – from power outages in Spain and Portugal to intensifying drone attacks in Ukraine. For some people, diving into the facts and data behind these types of crises provides an increase in knowledge resulting in agency and response. On the other hand, a growing number of people feel overloaded with the constant stream of information about the multitude of threats in our world. How can people on this second arc of sensemaking

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01:11:13

Sobriété vs Poverty: Preparing for a New Cultural...

The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens ·

2025/04/30

As economic, political, and environmental pressures continue to reshape our daily choices, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the era of hyper-consumption that defined the past century is no longer sustainable. Recognizing and adapting to this reality represents one of the most profound cultural shifts of our time – requiring collective reflection and cooperation. But just as importantly, how can we recalibrate our personal expectations today in ways that preserve our sense of agency and

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256 results

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