Human Nature Odyssey explores the myths, systems, and stories shaping our unraveling world.
Blending history, mythology, philosophy, ecology, and cinematic audio storytelling, the show uses the past to better understand the present — and the possible futures we're creating.
You are living the latest chapter in a 10,000-year human story. Join documentary filmmaker and storyteller Alex Leff on a cinematic audio journey through civilization, collapse, meaning, and myth, in search of clearer ways to experience the incredible, terrifying, and ridiculous world we inhabit.
A narrative audio documentary for anyone asking how we got here — and what comes next.
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20 - Joanna Macy & The Great Turning — with Jess Serrante
Season 3 · Episode 20
Thursday, March 5, 2026 • Duration 58:21
How do we live through wild times?
Legendary scholar, activist, and systems thinker Joanna Macy named the moment we are living through the Great Unraveling—a time when our ecological, political, economic, and social systems destabilize to the point of no return. And yet, she also insisted that we stand on the threshold of a Great Turning: a profound transition toward a more just and sustainable world.
Before Joanna's death in 2025, climate activist Jess Serrante recorded a series of intimate and insightful conversations with her. In this episode, Alex sits down with Jess, weaving in clips from those recordings to explore the questions Joanna devoted her life to asking: How do we live with meaning as civilization unravels? How do we turn toward the grief of this moment—and transform it into action? And how do intergenerational relationships help us become elders for the future - when wisdom is needed most?
If you'd like to support Human Nature Odyssey, please subscribe wherever you listen, leave a review, and join us on Patreon for exclusive audio extras, writings, and notes.
19 - Modern Myths: Flat Earth, Space Colonization, and the Stories We Tell to Escape Reality
Season 3 · Episode 19
Thursday, January 22, 2026 • Duration 01:00:00
At first glance, believing the earth is flat and dreams of colonizing Mars couldn't seem further apart. But both are built on the same story — that reality can be escaped if we just think big enough.
This episode looks at two beliefs that seem opposite — flat earth and space colonization — and asks what they reveal about our urge to escape reality rather than reckon with it. One is the belief that humans could, and should, live in space: that we're destined to leave our planet behind and colonize the stars. The other is the belief that we're not on a planet at all—that the Earth is actually… flat. While one is held by fringe figures and the other by some of the most powerful men on the planet, both rest on the premise that humans are exceptional, unbound by limits, or somehow separate from the earth.
To explore these modern myths, we're joined by two guests: astrophysicist Tom Murphy and documentary filmmaker Daniel J. Clark, whose film Behind the Curve follows prominent figures in the fringe—but growing—flat Earth movement. Together, we'll examine the stories we tell ourselves about the world we inhabit, how we determine what's real or possible, and what kind of world these stories create.
If you'd like to support Human Nature Odyssey, please subscribe wherever you listen, leave a review, and join us on Patreon for exclusive audio extras, writings, and notes.
For full episode transcripts, essays, and additional context, visit:
Sex at Dawn, Civilized to Death, and Tangentially Speaking with Christopher Ryan
Season 2 · Episode 8
Thursday, August 28, 2025 • Duration 01:12:16
Christopher Ryan joins the odyssey to discuss human nature - shouldn't be surprising - it's in the name! What's universal, what's cultural, and what's personal? Can we really change the culture we live in? And are some societies better suited to human well-being than others?
Christopher Ryan is the New York Times bestselling author of Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means for Modern Relationships as well as the book Civilized to Death: The Price of Progress. He also hosts the long-running podcast, Tangentially Speaking," which has been downloaded over 30 million times.
If you'd like to support Human Nature Odyssey, please subscribe wherever you listen, leave a review, and join us on Patreon for exclusive audio extras, writings, and notes.
14 - The King Is Dead, Now What? The 250-Year Struggle for Democracy (Part 3)
Season 2 · Episode 7
Thursday, July 24, 2025 • Duration 01:02:30
Breaking news: The Soviet Union has collapsed! The Berlin Wall has crumbled! Communism has fallen! Capitalism wins! USA! USA!
But wait… what's this? Russia has been overtaken by oligarchs and an authoritarian dictator. Oh no… Well, at least that could never happen in the United States. Right?
This is the climactic Part Three of our three-part series on the history of the left/right political spectrum.
After the youth protests of the 1960s failed to topple governments, left-wing radicalism shifted its focus—from revolution to championing social equality through pop culture. But as culture wars raged, neoliberalism—liberalism and capitalism's love child—conquered the globe, fueling deregulation, rising corporate power, and deepening economic divides that hollowed out democracy itself.
Just three decades after the Cold War, the old adversaries—Russia and the U.S.—found themselves on eerily parallel paths, ushering in a new era of oligarchy and a return to right-wing rule—like the one the French Revolution fought against all those years ago.
Join us as we trace how the world drifted from dreams of liberation to authoritarian control—and how a new generation began planting the seeds of liberty and equality once again.
If you'd like to support Human Nature Odyssey, please subscribe wherever you listen, leave a review, and join us on Patreon for exclusive audio extras, writings, and notes.
13 - The King Is Dead, Now What? The 250-Year Struggle for Democracy (Part 2)
Season 2 · Episode 6
Thursday, June 26, 2025 • Duration 53:38
In the The King Is Dead, Now What? we're exploring the history of the left / right political spectrum and the 250 year struggle for democracy.
In Part 1 we started telling the story that began with the French Revolution of 1789, when those in favor of monarchy sat on the right wing of the national assembly room and those in favor of revolution sat on the left wing.
In the wake of the 1848 revolutions, the struggle between left and right gave rise to three major political ideologies—conservatism, liberalism, and radicalism—each offering a distinct vision for society. These competing forces would ignite a global struggle for power.
In this episode, we trace the ongoing clash between these ideologies, imagining them as bickering gods, each vying for control of the human realm. From the Russian Revolution and the collapse of monarchies after World War I to the rise of fascism, the global conflict of World War II, the Cold War standoff between the U.S. and Soviet Union, and the global youth protests of 1968, we explore how these powerful ideas collided, evolved, and continue to shape the struggle for power, equality, and freedom.
If you'd like to support Human Nature Odyssey, please subscribe wherever you listen, leave a review, and join us on Patreon for exclusive audio extras, writings, and notes.
Narewska, Elli. "Tsar Nicholas II Abdicates." March 3, 2017.
12 - The King Is Dead, Now What? The 250-Year Struggle for Democracy (Part 1)
Season 2 · Episode 5
Thursday, May 22, 2025 • Duration 50:16
How many people are happy with the way society is headed? There seems to be a general consensus - maybe the one thing we all agree on - that things are not right.
But our different opinions on what's wrong and what directions could be better too often fall on either side of a left vs right political spectrum.
Where did we get this idea of a left wing and a right wing anyway? How is it in a world of such diversity of languages and traditions and religions there's just two freakin' wings? What are we, a bird?
Well, it all started… during the French Revolution. And if we want to expand our map and chart a better direction, that's where our story needs to begin.
In this episode, we journey back to the French Revolution, where revolutionaries and monarchists first split into left and right wings—and the world has never been the same. Out of the chaos emerged ideals of liberty, the terror in the streets, and a fierce battle of ideas that spread across Europe, sparking revolutions from Sicily to Poland. The 1848 uprisings shook monarchies to their core, as liberals, conservatives, and radicals fought over society's future. Most of the revolutions were crushed—but none left the world unchanged.
Join us for a deep dive into political ideologies, French accents, guillotines, and the struggle for democracy.
If you'd like to support Human Nature Odyssey, please subscribe wherever you listen, leave a review, and join us on Patreon for exclusive audio extras, writings, and notes.
What will happen to our scientific knowledge if civilization collapses? Will astrophysics survive a future stone age?
In this episode, we rest from our journey to talk with astrophysicist Tom Murphy, who's been on an odyssey of his own—moving from academia to a growing concern about the collapse of civilization, to an ever expanding appreciation of the cosmos.
Together we'll gaze at the grandeur of the stars and marvel at the complexity of one of our oldest cousins: the amoeba. If you're seeking a moment to marvel at the interconnectedness of life on Earth and the universe its interwoven with, this is the episode for you.
Tom Murphy is an Emeritus Professor of Physics and Astronomy/Astrophysics at the University of California, San Diego. After a career studying colliding galaxies and testing General Relativity using lasers to the moon, Murphy retired early to shift focus onto Planetary Limits and the intrinsic incompatibility between modernity and ecological longevity. Creator of a textbook on energy, the Do the Math blog, and the Metastatic Modernity video series, his main plea is that you bypass these resources and read the book Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn.
Join us on Patreon and get exclusive access to audio extras, writings, and notes.
If you'd like to support Human Nature Odyssey, please subscribe wherever you listen, leave a review, and join us on Patreon for exclusive audio extras, writings, and notes.
For full episode transcripts, essays, and additional context, visit:
11 - Capitalism & Monopoly: Why The Best Board Games Make The Worst Reality
Season 2 · Episode 3
Tuesday, November 26, 2024 • Duration 46:18
Looking for a game to play over the holidays? Why not try the real world global economy? Too late, you're already playing it!
Have you ever noticed how the most popular board games just so happen to reflect core components of our civilization? Settlers of Catan involves the extraction of raw materials. Risk is the imperialism and war between nations. Monopoly demonstrates the pitfalls of capitalism.
Now in the real world, I rarely celebrate resource extraction, imperialism, or capitalism. But the board game versions are so much fun. Maybe that's why we're all playing it at a global level. As horrible as the side effects of these things are, enough people are having so much fun playing.
And not just those winning. Sure, winning is awesome. But don't count out how much fun it is to be down just enough to think if you keep trying you can get back in it. Your competitiveness takes over and you can't put the game down.
And then for even more people, they have no choice in the matter, they have to play, even though there's no hope for winning, they're just trying to survive and stay in the game.
At this point, most of the world has been roped into this game of conquering, exploitation, and finance. We're so convinced this is just normal life, most people don't even think they're playing a game. But unlike most board games, it doesn't come with an instruction manual. That is… until now.
In this episode, we use sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein's seminal text, World-Systems Analysis, as our instruction manual to the game of colonization and exploitation. We explore how dominant countries rise and fall, the dance between capitalism and the state, and the unexpected truth about what real power looks like.
Join us for a deep dive into empires, markets, mafias, and everyone's favorite Monopoly piece: the thimble. Macro-economics has never been this entertaining and fun for the whole family.
If you'd like to support Human Nature Odyssey, please subscribe wherever you listen, leave a review, and join us on for exclusive audio extras, writings, and notes.
10 - Against Leviathan: An Anarchist Fairytale of the Origin of Civilization
Season 2 · Episode 2
Thursday, October 24, 2024 • Duration 41:36
Gather around the campfire for a ghost story about the most destructive monster in history: civilization itself.
In this episode, we delve into the countercultural writings of Fredy Perlman, whose strange 1983 book "Against His-Story, Against-Leviathan"—riddled with grammatical errors and misspellings—blends myth and history to explore the nature of power, subjugation, and the struggle between the rulers and the ruled.
Our journey takes us back to ancient Sumer, where egalitarian hunter-gatherer communities transformed into peasants and slaves bound by a mysterious force even the rulers couldn't control.
We trace the rise of the first Lugals, the original kings of Mesopotamia, from Urukagina of Lagash, whose reforms sowed the seeds of his downfall, to Sargon of Akkad, who conquered all of Sumer only to become part of the Leviathan's vast machinery.
Together, we'll explore how power and control first took root in the world's earliest cities—and how those ancient systems still shape our world today.
This is a spooky episode. The hair on the back of your neck might stand up. But we can stay seated and relax. It is just a story after all. A fairytale, as Fredy would call it.
If you'd like to support Human Nature Odyssey, please subscribe wherever you listen, leave a review, and join us on Patreon for exclusive audio extras, writings, and notes.
9 - Out of Society and Into the Wild: The Legend of Christopher McCandless
Season 2 · Episode 1
Thursday, September 19, 2024 • Duration 45:52
In the spring of 1992, twenty-four-year-old Christopher McCandless left society behind, hitchhiking 3,000 miles into the Alaskan wilderness.
Two years earlier, Chris had donated his entire life savings to Oxfam, burned his social security card, and headed west seeking life on his own terms - without telling a soul, particularly his parents.
In this episode, we delve into Into the Wild's larger cultural implications, exploring the conflict between self and society, community and solitude. Philosophers like Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, and John Locke will weigh in. As well as George Carlin and Malcolm and the Middle.
We'll investigate the concept of "wilderness" - how Euro-American settlers viewed it versus their Native American counterparts.
And for those of us who dream of escaping the troubles of society, we'll explore McCandless as an inspiration and cautionary tale.
If you'd like to support Human Nature Odyssey, please subscribe wherever you listen, leave a review, and join us on Patreon for exclusive audio extras, writings, and notes.
Vanhan ajan sota, taistelu, miekkailu / Ancient, old time battle, combat, horses snorting and galloping, men shouting and barking, fencing, swords clanging, mix by YleArkisto -- https://freesound.org/s/258207/ -- License: Attribution 4.0
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