Everything Is Connected (No, Seriously)

Important, Not Important

How did our planet come to life? Is it alive? And where are we as part of that?

Those are today's big questions and my guest is Ferris Jabr.

His new book, Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life, is one of the most compelling, beautiful, timely, and important reads I've ever got to underline throughout.

Ferris is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and Scientific American. He has also written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper's, National Geographic, Wired, Outside, Lapham's Quarterly, McSweeney's, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, among other wonderful publications.

I've been on a bit of a bender lately. I'm getting older. I've got kids that are getting older quickly. Work continues. Everything keeps changing and staying the same. I'm trying to contextualize for myself, for this work, for you all, and for my kids, time and place and presence and relationships.

How much time do we each have here? Do we as a species have here? Who do we spend it with? How do we spend it? How precious is it to each of us? Does it become more so, less so? How should we use our time and experience, and how can we help?

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INI Book Club:

• The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler
• Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club

Links:

• Read Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life
• Read more of Ferris' work and follow him on social media

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• Produced by Willow Beck
• Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com

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