The audiobook isn’t edited well. For example, in the middle of the Bill McKibben chapter, after an interview concludes, a podcast intro starts with no explanation. The content of the podcast itself doesn’t play, just the intros and outros, mentioning how it’s “ad-free,” etc.

This made me think about how, in an earlier chapter that mentions AI, the author says that AI transcription was used for the interviews. So they probably used AI to edit the audiobook. That would explain the errors.

Which brings me to my next gripe: the AI worship. It’s touted as a useful tool multiple times in the book, and not just in the interview with AI tech company founder Mustafa Suleyman (yikes).

The amount of AI technocrat capitalist bootlicking in this book really took me aback. I didn’t expect it, given the author’s personal introduction and educational background.

Not only does the AI entrepreneur glorify AI and all its “efficiency improvement,” but he says that technological solutions like carbon capture are being vilified. Um, for good reason! Because carbon capture technology doesn’t work.

I was glad to at least hear Ayana Johnson push back a little, saying that from her perspective as a scientist, ecosystems were underappreciated rather than tech.

But still, once it was clear that there was going to be so much neoliberal capitalist rhetoric and that the entire book was unedited chunks of mixed up podcasts, I was done. Dnf at 30%

Oh another thing - the person from the art world had a really weird take. The interviewee from MOMA, Paola Antonelli, says that we need “less legislation and more morals.” Ha! Incredibly naive. That’s not how humans operate. ???!!