TIMOTHY MORTON: My favourite hobby is making sure people don’t feel like dying

Wild with Sarah Wilson

British philosopher and environmentalist Timothy Morton is regarded as the most powerful figure in the contemporary art world. Tim - who goes by the pronoun “they" - has worked with Bjork, Jeff Bridges, Pharrell Williams, NASA and on Steve Coogan's series The Trip. They've also written more than 250 essays on ecology, Mary Shelley, gastronomy, Talking Heads, Heidegger and… concrete. They've also published 17 books; the latest is Hyposubjects: on becoming human. Me, I read Tim's work as a pleasurable brain sport and I draw on some of their ideas in my book ‘This One Wild and Precious Life', but Tim is also a deeply generous and compassionate human with an intimate understanding of why we struggle to solve the climate crisis and face our demise. We share our sadness around all this in this chat.
All of Tim's ideas are wild, so instead of focusing on one wild idea, I fired a bunch of questions, rapid fire.
My friends, be prepared for some genre-traversing calisthenics.
BTW I confess I struggled terribly with remembering Tim's correct pronoun in parts of the podcast. No disrespect is intended…change to language patterns can take time!
More info on Timothy Morton and purchase Hyposubjects: on becoming human: ecologywithoutnature.blogspot.com
Read Pessimism of the Intellect Optimism of the Will: www.centreforoptimism.com/Pessimism-of-the-Intellect-Optimism-of-the-Will
The George Carlin skit referred to:www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W33HRc1A6c
I write about Timothy in my book 'This One Wild and Precious Life' available:
www.sarahwilson.com/books
Favourite Wild with Sarah Wilson on the LiSTNR app here
Find out more about Sarah Wilson: www.sarahwilson.com

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