Episode 147: Alan Weisman On His New Book “Hope Dies Last”
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Alan Weisman, Author of “Hope Dies Last” 2025. Photo: © 2022 Beckie Kravetz
With books like the bestselling “The World Without Us,” a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and translated into thirty-four languages, and “Countdown,” winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, environmental journalist Alan Weisman has established himself as one of the most prophetic voices on humanity’s relationship to the Earth.
For his latest, “HOPE DIES LAST: Visionary People Across the World, Fighting to Find Us a Future” (Dutton, April 22, 2025), he returns with a book ten years in the making: a study of what it means to be a human on the front lines of our planet’s existential crisis.
To write this book, Weisman traveled the US and the globe, witnessing climate upheaval and other devastations. From the flooding Marshall Islands to revived wetlands in Iraq; from the Netherlands to Mexico, Bangladesh, and the Korean DMZ; to cities and coastlines in the Americas and beyond, he has encountered the best of humanity battling heat, hunger, rising tides, and imperiled wildlife.
In HOPE DIES LAST, Weisman profiles stubborn, clear-eyed, brave visionaries around the world, determined to find how we can stop burning the past to preserve our chance at a future; stop extinguishing species on which our own depends; power civilization without broiling it; and, without sacrificing more nature, grow as much food by 2050 as in all human history to avoid calamitous famines and torrents of refugees.
Their idea of hope is an action verb—they don’t wait for miracles: they set out to make them. At this unprecedented point in history, as our collective exploits on this planet may lead to our undoing, they refuse to quit.
Show Notes
Hope in the Face of Environmental Challenges: Alan Weisman on Rewilding Earth Podcast
In this insightful episode of the Rewilding Earth Podcast, host Jack Humphrey interviews renowned author Alan Weisman about his latest book, ‘Hope Dies Last,’ released on Earth Day 2025. Weisman, known for his in-depth exploration of environmental crises, shares his perspectives on hope and resilience in the face of ecological challenges. He shares experiences from his travels to a dozen countries where he met with indigenous elders, military personnel, plasma physicists, and other passionate individuals who are finding innovative solutions to existential threats, from climate change to mass extinction. They discuss topics like nitrogen fertilizer pollution, sustainable farming, and preserving natural habitats, offering a mix of realism and optimism. The conversation highlights the critical need for creative solutions and relentless efforts in tackling global environmental issues.
- Introduction and Welcome
- Exploring the Concept of Hope
- Realistic Hope and Human Ingenuity
- Existential Crises Facing Humanity
- Innovative Solutions and Bold Ideas
- Farming the Sea and Sustainable Practices
- The Role of Art and Final Thoughts
Extra Credit
- Grab “Hope Dies Last” here or wherever you like to pick up great books!
- Press release for “Hope Dies Last” (PDF)
Director of Digital Outreach (D.O.D.O.) for The Rewilding Institute
Host and Producer of the Rewilding Earth Podcast
Jack started Rewilding work as Executive Director of Sky Island Alliance in the mid-1990’s, organizing the Sky Island Wildlands Network design, ripping up illegal roads on forest service lands, installing wolf acclimatization pens on Ted Turner’s Ladder Ranch & conducting howling surveys to help make way for the final stage of the Lobo reintroduction program in the Southwest.
Through the years, Jack has worked with Dave Foreman and the Rewilding Gang to further Rewilding initiatives and education.