Podcast
Season 3: Planetary Diplomacy
Latest Episodes
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S3E5: Earth Systems Science with Sonia Seneviratne
July 29, 2026If planetary diplomacy is to work, we can't represent the planet's interests until we understand how the planet actually works. From different disciplines we have come to understand that Earth is a single, interconnected system rather than a collection of separate parts. This understanding has given rise to a new field: Earth systems science. In this last episode, we sat down with Sonia Seneviratne, Professor of Land-Climate Dynamics at ETH Zurich and a member of the IPCC, to explore Earth systems science. Her research focuses on climate extremes, land-atmosphere interactions, and feedback loops that amplify heatwaves, droughts, and other climate impacts. In the conversation, we discuss how vegetation and soils influence climate, the role of feedback loops and tipping points, the risks facing ecosystems like the Amazon rainforest, and why, despite remaining uncertainties, we already know enough to act. We also explore what a more balanced Earth system could look like—and pathways that could help us get there.
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S3E4: From Human Rights to Rights of Nature with Tyler Giannini
July 13, 2026Lawyers, scholars, and policy makers are increasingly coming to recognize the right to a healthy environment as an essential human right – but is that enough to protect the environment itself? Can we protect nature by protecting humans' rights to nature, or do we need a new, eco-centric approach? To explore these topics, we talked to Tyler Giannini, a human rights lawyer, co-founder of EarthRights International, and the director of the Human Rights Entrepreneurship Clinic at Harvard Law School. In the conversation, we dig into the enforcement of rights, the intersection of court cases and social movements, the idea of guardianship and legal standing for nature, and how the law is evolving in response to planetary-scale crises.
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S3E3: Humanities for the More-than-Human with Federico Luisetti and Sophie Gosselin
June 24, 2026In the previous episode, we explored how questioning anthropocentrism could help us better understand not just other species, but humanity itself. But what if we broadened our perspective beyond the biological? What would it mean to recognize the agency, rights, and personhood of rivers, mountains, and entire ecosystems? To explore these ideas, we turn to the field of environmental humanities. We sat down with Federico Luisetti, professor at University of St. Gallen and co-organizer of the Swiss-based interdisciplinary research network , and Sophie Gosselin, a philosopher who teaches at EHESS in Paris and has collaborated with Unruly Natures in Switzerland and beyond. Our wide-ranging conversation explores the field of environmental humanities and its relation to the natural sciences, as well as their work on non-human agency, legal and political representation for rivers, and more.
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S3E2: Beyond Human Exceptionalism with Christine Webb
June 3, 2026As humans, we tend to see ourselves at the top of a natural hierarchy — the most intelligent and successful species on Earth. What if that conviction isn't just wrong, but also dangerous? In this episode of our season on planetary diplomacy, we sat down with Christine Webb, a primatologist and Associate Professor at New York University, to help us rethink humanity’s place in the web of life. Christine is the author of The Arrogant Ape: The Myth of Human Exceptionalism and Why it Matters, a scientist’s plea for more humility toward the more-than-human world and an argument for how de-centering humanity could help us better understand not just other species, but ourselves. In this conversation, we dig into the stubborn myth of human superiority — what it is, why it persists, and what it might take to finally leave it behind.
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S3E1: Defining the Planetary with Jonathan Blake
May 27, 2026What do we mean when we talk about the planetary? Why not just use familiar terms like global or international? For the first episode of our new season on planetary diplomacy, we sat down with Jonathan Blake, Associate Director of Programs at the Berggruen Institute, to define our terms. Jonathan is the co-author, with Nils Gilman, of Children of a Modest Star: Planetary Thinking for an Age of Crises, a provocative re-imagining of our institutions in the face of supranational challenges like climate change, pollution, global pandemics and more. In this conversation, we explore how planetary thinking can offer a useful perspective on the intertwined natural, social, and technological systems that shape life on earth, and how it can inform governance from the local to the global scale.
Previous Seasons
Season 2: Built Environment
How can we push forward sustainability in construction to reinvent our relationship with our built environment in less carbon intensive ways? And how can we build urban infrastructure to promote innovation and the free flow of new ideas? To answer these questions, we speak with a noted Swiss architect working on sustainability in construction, and with the author of a recent book on Kendall Square, a biotech innovation hub in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
- Episode 1: The Foundations of Sustainable Construction with Marc Angélil
- Episode 2: The Most Innovative Square Mile on Earth with Bob Buderi
Season 1: Science & Society
We face unprecedented global challenges, with no clear path to solving them. What role can science play, and how do we forge trust between experts, the public, and policymakers? Tectonic, a new podcast from Swissnex in Boston, brings in leading thinkers to tackle these fundamental questions at the intersection of science and society.
- Episode 1: Rebuilding Trust in Institutions with Ethan Zuckerman
- Episode 2: Making Science Work for Policy and the Public with Noelle Selin
- Episode 3: Renewing Our Governance Systems with Anne-Marie Slaughter
- Episode 4: Is the Future of Meat in the Lab? with Benjamin Wurgaft
- Episode 5: Democratizing Innovation in Cities with Katie Stebbins