University of Wisconsin–Madison

I Want a Better Catastrophe: A Night of Stand-up Tragedy

This event has passed.

Arts + Literature Laboratory 111 S. Livingston Street, Suite 100

This event was presented in collaboration with the Arts + Literature Laboratory, COWS, the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, and the Office of Sustainability at UW-Madison.

A man looks off to his right into the distance. His short gray hair is brushed back from his face. He wears a blue waterproof down jacket over a gray hoodie, dark blue button-down shirt, and black t-shirt. In the background, a red brick wall can be seen.

Andrew Boyd is an author, humorist, and climate activist. His new book, I Want a Better Catastrophe: Navigating the Climate Crisis with Grief, Hope and Gallows Humor is forthcoming from New Society Press in February 2023. He is currently CEO (Chief Existential Officer) of the Climate Clock, a global campaign he co-founded that melds art, science, technology, and grassroots organizing to get the world to #ActInTime. Boyd also co-created the grief-storytelling ritual the Climate Ribbon and led the 2000s-era satirical campaign “Billionaires for Bush.” His previous books include Beautiful Trouble (OR Books, 2012); Daily Afflictions (WW Norton, 2002), and Life’s Little Deconstruction Book (WW Norton, 1998). Unable to come up with his own lifelong ambition, he’s been cribbing from Milan Kundera: “to unite the utmost seriousness of question with the utmost lightness of form.”