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 night of “stand-up tragedy”, Andrew Boyd invites us to come together and — aided by gallows humor and some unusual prompts — reflect on some of the biggest questions that face humanity, through an interactive, multimedia reading from his new book, I Want a Better Catastrophe. In it, he engages eight leading climate thinkers on a key question: “Is this really the end of the world? and if so, now what?” Boyd steers readers through their climate angst as he walks his own. From storm-battered coastlines to pipeline blockades and “hopelessness workshops,” he maps out our existential options, and tackles familiar dilemmas: “Should I bring kids into such a world?” “Can I lose hope when others can’t afford to?” and “Why the fuck am I recycling?” He finds answers that will surprise, inspire, and maybe even make you laugh. Drawing on wisdom traditions Eastern, Western, and Indigenous, Boyd crafts an insightful and irreverent guide for achieving a “better catastrophe.”
