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Are we on the verge of societal collapse? We tend to worry about the big explosive stuff like nuclear war, asteroids, and solar flares when we consider end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it scenarios. The reality is that most "fallen" civilizations gradually decline over many decades with a banality that can barely register. 

We often remember the decline of civilizations as the fault of poor leaders or natural disasters but it's more like death from a thousand cuts from conditions like inequality, corruption, and political dysfunction. That's (partly) what happened to the Roman Empire. 

And most civilizations don't "collapse." They adapt and transform and take their culture with them. The Maya civilization is the archetype of a “collapsed” civilization, ingrained through popular and scholarly literature. That's not really what happened and millions of Maya descendants are alive to talk about it. 

Today, we talk about societal collapse and whether we'll know if we're in it.  

GUESTS:
Martin Rees is the Astronomer Royal and a member of the House of Lords.  He’s the co-founder of the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge. His latest book is On the Future: Prospects for Humanity. 
Patrick Wyman is the host of the “Tides of History,” and the former host of “The Fall of Rome,” podcasts. His book, The Verge, will be published in 2021. 
Patricia McAnany is a Maya archaeologist and the Keenan eminent professor of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the co-editor with Norman Yoffe, of Questioning Collapse: Human Resilience, Ecological Vulnerability, and the Aftermath of Empire

Are we on the verge of societal collapse? We tend to worry about the big explosive stuff like nuclear war, asteroids, and solar flares when we consider end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it scenarios. The reality is that most "fallen" civilizations gradually decline over many decades with a banality that can barely register.&nbsp;
We often remember the decline of civilizations as the fault of poor leaders or natural disasters but it's more like death from a thousand cuts from conditions like inequality, corruption, and political dysfunction. That's (partly) what happened to the&nbsp;<a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/4uxl02KkkbvH8kYxWtKs8b">Roman Empire</a>.&nbsp;
And most civilizations don't "collapse." They adapt and transform and take their culture with them. The Maya civilization is the archetype of a &ldquo;collapsed&rdquo; civilization, ingrained through&nbsp;<a href="https://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2007/02/apocalypto.html#:~:text=Mel%20Gibson's%20latest%20film%2C%20Apocalypto,to%20the%20central%20Mayan%20city.">popular</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/02/new-clues-about-how-and-why-the-maya-culture-collapsed/">scholarly literature.</a>&nbsp;That's not really what happened and millions of Maya descendants are alive to talk about it.&nbsp;
Today, we talk about societal collapse and whether we'll know if we're in it.&nbsp;&nbsp;
GUESTS:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.martinrees.uk/">Martin Rees&nbsp;</a>is the Astronomer Royal and a member of the House of Lords.&nbsp; He&rsquo;s the co-founder of the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge. His latest book is&nbsp;On the Future: Prospects for Humanity.&nbsp;</li>
<li>Patrick Wyman&nbsp;is the host of the &ldquo;<a href="https://wondery.com/shows/tides-of-history/">Tides of History</a>,&rdquo; and the former host of &ldquo;<a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/4uxl02KkkbvH8kYxWtKs8b">The Fall of Rome</a>,&rdquo; podcasts. His book,&nbsp;The Verge, will be published in 2021.&nbsp;</li>
<li>Patricia McAnany&nbsp;is a Maya archaeologist and the Keenan eminent&nbsp;<a href="https://anthropology.unc.edu/person/patricia-a-mcanany/">professor</a>&nbsp;of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the co-editor with Norman Yoffe, of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Questioning-Collapse-Resilience-Ecological-Vulnerability/dp/0521733669">Questioning Collapse</a>: Human Resilience, Ecological Vulnerability, and the Aftermath of Empire</li>
</ul>

The Colin McEnroe Show is public radio’s most eclectic, eccentric weekday program. The best way to understand us is through the subjects we tackle: Neanderthals, tambourines, handshakes, the Iliad, snacks, ringtones, punk rock, Occam’s razor, Rasputin, houseflies, zippers. Are you sensing a pattern? If so, you should probably be in treatment. On Fridays, we try to stop thinking about what kind of ringtones Neanderthals would want to have and convene a panel called The Nose for an informal roundtable about the week in culture.

<a href="https://www.ctpublic.org/show/the-colin-mcenroe-show/about">The Colin McEnroe Show</a> is public radio’s most eclectic, eccentric weekday program. The best way to understand us is through the subjects we tackle: Neanderthals, tambourines, handshakes, the Iliad, snacks, ringtones, punk rock, Occam’s razor, Rasputin, houseflies, zippers. Are you sensing a pattern? If so, you should probably be in treatment. On Fridays, we try to stop thinking about what kind of ringtones Neanderthals would want to have and convene a panel called <a href="https://www.ctpublic.org/tags/the-nose">The Nose</a> for an informal roundtable about the week in culture.

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