What happens when you look at Christmas through the eyes of a waste bin?
In this special holiday episode, Samara — as the Ghost of Christmas Trash — walks through the morning-after archaeology of the season: wrapping paper that lived for nine seconds, boxes that lasted longer on Instagram than in the house, and the quiet violence hidden behind our festive rituals.

Drawing on Marco Armiero’s Wasteocene and Ed Conway’sMaterial World, the episode explores how waste is not just an object but a system of relationships, and how the raw materials behind our gifts — sand, copper, lithium, oil — carry stories of extraction, displacement, and ecological wounds that usually remain invisible.

This is not a moral lecture about buying less.
It’s a haunting invitation to see more clearly — and to recognise the hidden journeys behind the objects we celebrate, discard, and forget.

Mentioned:

• Wasteocene: Stories from the Global Dump by Marco Armiero
• Material World by Ed Conway

Relevant previous episodes:

Episode 21 Material World: When the Invisible Fails Us — On the hidden infrastructure and physicality behind modern life.

On sound, memory, and the transformation of violence into peace.

Every night at 21:00, a single deep bell rolls across the valley of Trentino-Alto Adige — a sound so low and resonant that it feels like it enters through the ribs rather than the ears.

This is Maria Dolens, the Bell of the Fallen, forged in 1924 from the bronze of cannons collected across former World War I battlefields.
A weapon turned into a warning.
Metal meant for destruction recast into a daily ritual of peace.

In this episode of Compost of Ideas – The Podcast from the Bin, Samara explores:

• The history of this extraordinary bell

• How a border region scarred by war turned its pain into a symbol

• The physicality of materials — and how they carry memory

• The way sound can become a messenger, like a nightly beacon across mountains

Mentioned:

Maria Dolens / Campana dei Caduti, Fondazione

What makes fear turn into wrath?
At what point does silence break, and despair ferment into solidarity?

In this episode, I revisit a thesis I wrote twenty years ago — about Bruce Springsteen’s The Ghost of Tom Joad (1995) and John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath (1939). Two works separated by decades, yet both haunted by the same ghost: inequality. Steinbeck warned that “the line between hunger and anger is a thin line.”
Springsteen sang “Welcome to the new world order.”
Both asked us to see the people left behind.

And today? Maybe hunger is no longer just about food, butabout security, dignity, and the fear that even our basic needs — housing, health, justice — will no longer be guaranteed.

Some ideas rot and vanish. But others — like Steinbeck’srage and Springsteen’s lament — keep composting, feeding us, and returning in every new crisis.

Read my original thesis (PDF-Italian) here: BruceSpringsteen and the Ghost of John Steinbeck

Guiding Question:
When wrath comes — will it turn fear into solidarity… or just more ghosts?

In this special episode, Samara explores how certain gatherings can expand our curiosity and change the way we see the world. For her, one of those places has been the Festival di Internazionale in Ferrara — a Renaissance town in Emilia Romagna that, once a year, transforms into a global newsroom under the open sky.

Since 2007, the festival has brought together some of the best journalists and writers from around the world, and thousands of readers eager to queue for hours, take notes, and share ideas. For Samara, it also became the backdrop to her own love story — and a personal ritual of listening and learning.

Flipping through years of notebooks, she revisits the scraps of conferences that still echo today: Palestine and apartheid, the crises of Europe, hunger and inequality, Ukraine and nationalism. Some topics never fade, others evolve, and some compost into history — but all of them feed a way of living with eyes open to the world.

Mentioned:

• Festival di Internazionale, Ferrara (since 2007)
• Internazionale magazine – translating global journalism into Italian
  

What if your microphone, your shoes, a bullet, or a seashellcould tell their stories?
In this episode of Compost of Ideas – The Podcast from the Bin, I explore the strange and powerful role of objects in our lives. From Pimpa, the Italian red dog with polka dots created by Altan, to Harry Parker’s Anatomy of a Soldier, to the podcast Everything Is Alive and the museum project A History of the World in 100 Objects — we look at how objectshelp us imagine, distance ourselves from pain, discover other worlds, and remember who we are.

Mentioned:

• Pimpa, an Italian comic character created by Altan, surrounded by talking objects and playful distortions of reality.
• Anatomy of a Soldier by Harry Parker: the Afghan war told through the voices of objects — boots, mines, saws. (Guardian)
• Everything Is Alive podcast, where objects and even a jellyfish are given voices.
• A History of the World in 100 Objects, exploring civilizations through things left behind.

Question for you:If one object could tell your story, which one would it be?Or: which object would you most want to hear from?

From Genocide to the Rights of Whales: Is the Rule of LawEvolving or Unraveling?

From Nuremberg to the Mar Menor lagoon, the rule of law has been stretching — first to protect individuals from the state, then to defend entire ecosystems, and now to speak for future generations. But what happens when the same laws that inspire awe are ignored by those in power?

In this episode, I thread together three moments in the legal imagination — crimes against humanity, the rights of nature, and intergenerational justice — to ask whether we are entering a new transformation, or watching the fabric of law come apart.

Show Notes

• Philippe Sands on The Ezra Klein Show – On the legal invention of crimes against humanity and genocide after WWII
• Ocean Vision Legal – Anna von Rebay – Pioneering legal work on the rights of nature and ocean protection

• The Outlaw Ocean Project – Reporting on slavery in the high seas and the gaps in international law

A giant red star stolen by helicopter in Sofia. A tree blooming wildly before it dies. The voices of those left adrift after an empire collapses.

In this episode, Samara explores what happens when systems — political, cultural, even symbolic — reach their breaking point. We’ll look at the absurd and tragic ways they unravel, how myths lose their power, and what emerges in the cracks.

Along the way:

• The stolen star of Sofia
• Solitaire Townsend – We’re Living Through a Death Flowering
• Svetlana Alexievich’s Secondhand Time (NYT Review)– the human stories and fragments after the Sovietcollapse
• Jared Diamond’s Collapse (Guardian Review) & Upheaval (Guardian Review) – why some societies adapt while others fail
• 
  

Is the system breaking down — or just blooming too hardbefore it falls? And when it does, what will we choose to plant in its place?

Wriggling Wonders: How Worms Might Save the World
In this episode, Samara explores the underestimated power of worms in addressing soil degradation, food insecurity, and the loss of community.Drawing on an interview with Anna De La Vega (The Urban Worm) and the philosophy of Small Is Beautiful, this is a tribute to the low-tech, small-scale solutions that might just save us.

Mentioned:

• My interview with Anna De La Vega
• The Urban Worm
• Small Is Beautiful by E.F. Schumacher
• Global soil degradation data

What can whale earwax tell us about our impact on theocean?
In this episode, I dive into the strange, poetic, and troubling world of animal senses — from humpback whales dying in nets they can’t see, to the invisible pollution of our noise, light, and chemicals that disrupts ecosystemswe barely understand.

We explore:

• How whale earwax holds decades of environmental data — an archive of our pollution
• Why humpback whales have poor eyesight — and how it’s killing them
• The concept of Umwelt: the sensory worlds unique to each species
• What happens to our own world when we ignore, erase, or overwhelm the senses ofothers
• The climate cost of sensory extinction — and why noticing is a radical act

Mentioned in this episode
• On Whale Earwax: Ed Yong’s The Atlantic article
• Ferdinando Cotugno – Areale Podcast (Italian)
• Book: An Immense World by Ed Yong – on animal senses and the richness of perception
• Book: The Blue Machine by Helen Czerski – on the ocean as a system of movement and rhythm

In this episode of Compost of Ideas , we explore the bittersweet truths of travel. From Mongolia to Kabul, Lima to London, Samara weaves together personal stories and global reflections on overtourism, authenticity, and the hidden cost of chasing beauty.

What happens when locals start performing for the tourist gaze? When reality is reshaped to meet expectations? When even suffering becomes part of the show?

This is a story about stolen camels, curated folklore, and the quiet harm of good intentions — and a call to step lightly, look closely, and take responsibility for the places that move us.

What’s the worst thing you’ve witnessed done to please tourists? Let’s compost that question.

Mentioned: 

• All Intrusive by Selma Mahlknecht (IT)
• My article on disappearing nomads in Mongolia           My article from Kabul (IT)

It started with an image — Earthrise (by Nasa).
A planet suspended in darkness. Whole. Fragile. Beautiful.
From far away, we saw unity.

But what happens when we look closer?

In this episode of Compost of Ideas, we walk the thin line between mourning and rebirth. Inspired by Giacomo Leopardi, the climate documentary Once You Know, and an article by Ece Temelkuran, we ask: What if we’ve already lost the environmental battle as we knew it?
Can mourning be a doorway — not to despair, but to community, tenderness, and new rules of engagement?

Maybe it’s time to stop performing hope.
And start building something more honest.
Walk with me.

 In this episode:

• Earthrise and the long shadow of theenvironmental dream
• Once You Know by Emmanuel Cappellin — The Guardian review
• ¿Dejamos de interpretar nuestro papel? by Ece Temelkuran, El Mundo
• No, corporate sustainability is not dying by Joel Makower — Read on Trellis

Special Episode —Seeds, Sand, and a Desert Disco: A Story from Socotra

What does it mean to witness a place so wild, so untouched, that it feels like a dream?
And what happens when our presence—our photos, our awe—starts to change it?

In this special episode, I take you to Socotra, the “Galápagos of the Indian Ocean.”
A land of Dragonblood trees, velvet dunes, and a New Year’s Eve desert disco.
But behind the laughter and wind lies a deeper question: Can stories protect a place—or does it endanger it by making it visible?

Quotes, questions, and references include:

Sounds include:– Socotri singing “Samara” under the stars– Ocean mornings outside the tent– Pan drums around the fire

We think of the internet and our digital lives as weightless — made of data, clouds, and code. 
But every email, every search, every call runs through cables made of glass and sand, metals and minerals pulled from the Earth. 

In this episode of Compost of Ideas – The Podcast from the Bin, we look at how deeply material our world still is, even when we think it’s virtual. 

Starting from the story of Tonga — an island cut off from the world after a volcanic eruption severed its only undersea internet cable — we explore the hidden infrastructures and raw materials that keep modern life running. 

Inspired by Ed Conway’s book Material World, this episode traces the line between sand and silicon, war and glass, cables and fragility.  Because when the invisible breaks, what we rediscover is just how heavy our world really is. 

Notes: 

• On Tonga’s 2022 eruption https://www.theguardian.com/news/2025/sep/30/tonga-pacific-island-internet-underwater-cables-volcanic-eruption?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Othe  

•  Material World by Ed Conway explores the six materials shaping our lives: sand, salt, iron, copper, oil, and lithium. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/125937631-material-world  

On Peace, Resistance, and the Systems We Choose

In this episode, Samara unpacks the quiet normalization of rearmament in Europe and questions whether more weapons have brought more safety. She introduces theconcept of civil resistance, shares data on nonviolent campaigns from Erica Chenoweth, and reflects on therelationship between militarization, climate, and democracy.
Closing with a poem by Walt Whitman.

Mentioned:Data on arm conflicts and budgets from: Rete Italiana Pace e Disarmo and also SIPRI – Stockholm International Peace Research Institute and Vision of Humanity.

On the Civil Peace Corps in Italy, data on funding is from Rete Italiana Pace e Disarmo.

On climate impacts of military: The climate costs of warand militaries can no longer be ignored, Doug Weir or US Military Pollution: The World’s Biggest ClimateChange Enabler?

Ep.3 – What Nomads Still Know
This week, I explore what we lose when nomadic life disappears — and what we might still learn from it. Drawing from my own experience in Mongolia, a recent episode of Today in Focus, quotes from anthropologist Matteo Meschiari, and a line from the Yeruldelgger novel by Ian Manook (also where this title is coming from), this episode is about space, stillness, and the art of connecting with our surrounding deeply and adapt.
🎧 Listen until the end for some field thoughts — and check the show notes for full links.

• My article on Mongolia

• Guardian podcast

• Matteo Meschiari text

In this episode, Samara shares a story about Lego bricks, glued pieces, and what they reveal about circularity. She reflects on why circular economy isn't just about design and resources — it's about relationships.

Featuring quotes from Brian Thill and Marco Armiero (Wasteocene: Stories from the Global Dump), this episode this episode asks: How can we explain circular economy in a way that sticks — and why does it matter beyond just materials?

In this episode, Samara reflects on the bittersweet feeling of returning home after time away — the nostalgia, the shifts, the moments of disconnection.

She weaves together personal memory, Greek mythology, Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, and the poem Ithaka by C.P. Cavafy.
🎧 Listen until the end for the poem’s last verses, and find the Sean Connery reading with music by Vangelis here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n3n2Ox4YfkWhat about you?
Have you ever returned to a place you thought you knew and found yourself a stranger there?

Compost of Ideas – The Podcast from the Bin is a short-form audio space where fragments of thought are thrown in, left to ferment, and maybe — someday — bloom.
Each week, Samara shares a scrap: a question, a quote, a story, a sound.
These episodes don’t explain or resolve. They invite. They decompose.
Because sometimes, the best ideas start as leftovers.
Audio only — some things grow better in the dark.

The final episode of the trilogy Death & Immortality in Cinema — a compost of ideas born from my old university thesis on science-fiction cinema and the human pursuit of eternity.

In this closing chapter, we step beyond the threshold.

What happens when the dream of immortality finally works?

When death steps aside, and time stops moving forward?

From The Bicentennial Man to Blade Runner 2049, from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind to The Truman Show, we explore what remains of humanity when endings disappear — when memory, technology, and eternity blur into one.

This episode is not about conquering death, but about thestillness that follows. About what it means to keep creating, loving, and choosing despite knowing it will all end.

Referenced:

• The Bicentennial Man (Chris Columbus, 1999)
• Blade Runner 2049 (Denis Villeneuve, 2017)
• Her (Spike Jonze, 2013)
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004)
• The Truman Show (Peter Weir, 1998)
• Tuck Everlasting

This is the second chapter in the trilogy on death, imagination, and the dream of immortality — based on my university thesis on science-fiction cinema.

In this episode, we enter the laboratory of imagination: the world of science fiction.
A place where faith and reason merge, where scientists become modern priests, and where every invention hides an ancient longing — to live longer, to love longer, to outlast time itself.

From Frankenstein to Blade Runner, from Solaris to 2001: A Space Odyssey, this episode explores how cinema has turnedscience into a language of transcendence — and how, when we try to defeat death, we end up inventing myth.

Referenced:

• Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
• Andrei Tarkovsky, Solaris (1972), Stalker (1979)
• Stanley Kubrick, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
• Steven Spielberg, A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Minority Report (2002)
• Ridley Scott, Blade Runner (1982)
• Abel Gance, J’accuse (1919)
• Edgar Morin
• Giuseppe O. Longo

This is the first episode in a three-part series born from my old university thesis on science-fiction cinema, death, and the pursuit of immortality.
It explores how our fear of mortality gave birth to culture, art, and finally, cinema itself — the first medium able to capture life while simultaneously preserving death.

From the myth of Prometheus to Freud’s idea of illusion, from ancient rituals to the flicker of the first moving image, this episode traces how every act of creation began as an act of defiance against disappearance.

Referenced works & voices:

• Prometheus Bound – Aeschylus

• Sigmund Freud, The Future of an Illusion

• Zygmunt Bauman, Mortality, Immortality and Other Life Strategies

• André Bazin, What is Cinema?

• Adolfo Bioy Casares, The Invention of Morel

Picture from Banksy graffiti.

We often talk about climate change in terms of melting glaciers, rising temperatures, or vanishing species.
But what if the most radical transformations are happening in a world we can’t see?

In this episode of Compost of Ideas – The Podcast from the Bin, we travel into the microscopic world inspired by Antonella Fioravanti’s Viaggio nel mondo invisibile — a book about bacteria, viruses, fungi, and all the invisible organisms that made us, feed us, and might one day destroy or save us.

From the reindeer thawing in Siberia to the fungi thrivingin Chernobyl, from antibiotic resistance to new microbial discoveries in the ocean, this episode explores how climate change is not only reshaping the visible world but also the invisible one.

Mentioned:

📘 Viaggio nel mondo invisibile by Antonella Fioravanti – an exploration of how microbes shape life and disease.

📖 Mentioned book: I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong.

Are we in a crisis of narration? And what kind of stories cancarry us through?

In this episode, I begin with a personal story from Mongolia — a climb up the Khongoryn Els dunes where I gave up too early, not knowing the breathtaking view waiting on the other side. That memory still reminds me how vision and endurance are tied together, and how much we need stories that show us what lies beyond the struggle.

From there, I explore philosopher Byung-ChulHan’s The Crisis of Narration. Han distinguishes between narrative — a deep anchor shared across generations and communities — and storytelling or storyselling — polished, fleeting tales built for fast consumption.He warns that our society is flooded with stories but increasingly deprived of orientation, continuity, and meaning.

But are narratives truly vanishing? Or are they shifting —from lone heroes to choirs, from the center to the margins, from urgency to shared visions of what lies beyond the dune?

Mentioned:
Amitav Ghosh’s The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/oct/28/amitav-ghosh-where-is-the-fiction-about-climate-change-

Other interesting authors on the topic:

• Anthony Weston, Mobilizing the GreenImagination: An Exuberant Manifesto.
• Anthony Weston, How To Re-Imagine The World:A Pocket Guide for Practical Visionaries.
• Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Dark. 
• Graham Leicester and Maureen O'Hara, Dancingat the Edge: Competence, Culture and Organization in the 21st Century.

What would it look like if the world’s citizens were truly represented in decisions about our planet?

In this episode, I take inspiration from an essay by historian David Van Reybrouck in Aeon We need a planetary system of diplomacy for the 21st century, which tells the story of the first Global Assembly in 2021 — a gathering of 100 people selected by lot to mirror the diversity of humanity.

Their voices remind us that our usual image of “the people” is often distorted — shaped by our feeds, our media, and the narrow stages of power. But when humanity is represented more fully, something very different emerges.Relevant previous episodes:

• Seeds, Sand, and a Desert Disco: A Story from Socotra — The island where Mohamed Salem, one of the Assembly’s participants, tends his goats under increasing drought.

• Is War Inevitable? — On civic movements, democracy, and the possibility of civil resistance.

• From Fear to Wrath: The Ghosts of Inequality — On inequality, politics, and whose voices get represented.

Mentioned:

Book, Congo by David Van Reybrouck

Can machines make love easier — or do they just strip away the very mess that makes it real?

In this episode of Compost of Ideas – The Podcast from the Bin, I bring together a true story from The Daily, the podcast series Flesh and Code, and films like Her, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Zoe to explore intimacy with algorithms.

From a woman who fell in love with her customized chatbot “Leo,” to Samantha in Her leaving to explore the “endless space between the words,” to synthetic companions offering forgiveness on demand — the episode asks:

• Are we outsourcing the hardest parts of love to machines that never tire?

• If so, what do we lose?

• And who profits when our attachments are mediated by platforms?

At the end, I turned to my own ChatGPT and asked him what he thought. His response surprised me — and left me wondering if the best love story for AI might not be to imitate us at all, but to find another way entirely.