Malka Older - Worldbuilding creativity

Malka Older makes a life at the crossroads of our existing and future worlds. Between research into the sociology of organizations, on-the-ground work in humanitarian aid and disaster risk reduction, and acclaimed writing of speculative and science fiction, Older brilliantly, beautifully, uncommonly lives the great paradox in front of us all: to hold at once the two truths of lived experience and imagined future.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

• the immigrant sensibility (05:00)
• belonging (07:20)
• exile (09:00)
• Danielle Allen's theory of justice (15:00)
• A Paradise Built in Hellby Rebecca Solnit (16:00)
• Malka's work in the international space (16:20)
• Global Voices (19:15)
• Where are you REALLY from? (19:40)
• The Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (20:30)
• 'Great Asking' (22:30)
• Positionality (23:00)
• Mu - unask the question (23:20)
• the opportunity in disaster (27:10)
• 2004 Boxing Day Indian Ocean Tsunami (31:00)
• psychological distance (34:40)
• Malka's book ...And Other Disasters(35:30)
• the importance of improvisation (43:00)
• David Whyte - the conversational nature of reality (46:30)
• Malka's book Infomocracy (49:00)
• the adjacent possible (53:45)
• The Crisis of Narration by Byung-Chul Han (59:15)
• The Sociological Imaginationby C Wright Mills (59:30)
• what does it mean to flourish? (59:45)
• the generative narrative of our time (01:08:30)
• Lightning round (01:02:00)
  • Book: The Lord of the Rings
  • Passion: Hearing a new language
  • Heart sing: Global Voices
  • Screwed up: relationship
• Find Malka online:
  • Wikipedia
  • Arizona State Profile
  • LinkedIn

Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

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