Ada Palmer on Surviving the End of the World… Again and Again
Ada Palmer is an Author, Futurist, Associate Professor of Modern European History at the University of Chicago and someone who sees the world with an incredibly rare, long lens.
Ada believes we’re not living in a uniquely apocalyptic time—just a normally apocalyptic one.
We're living in a moment we must rise to, work hard on, do well where what we do matters,” she told me. “We have the ability to reduce 100% harm to 70% harm. We have that responsibility.
That line really stuck with us because it’s so easy to feel powerless right now. But Ada’s message is the opposite: we do have agency, and what we do does matter.
She also reminded us that fear isn’t new.
We are not more scared than our predecessors were 50 or 100 years ago. They were just as scared as we are. The stakes were just as high. The rewards of hard work were just as real. The penalties of messing up were just as disastrous.
Ada sees change not in election cycles, but in centuries. We talk about why we need to stop chasing “total wins” and start celebrating the small, meaningful steps forward. Progress is almost always incremental, but that doesn’t make it any less real or important.
From ancient Rome to climate policy, Ada brings in historical parallels that made us see our moment differently. She doesn’t sugarcoat the challenges but she offers something many of us are craving: perspective, hope, and a reminder that we’ve come through hard things before.
The part of our conversation that keeps echoing for us is this:
Every generation has been called to save the world.
They rose to the challenge.
Now, it’s our turn.
Ever wonder what it felt like to live through the fall of Rome or what daily life was really like during the Renaissance? Historian Ada Palmer doesn’t just explain history, she reframes how you see it:
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