The Great Derangement — with Amitav Ghosh and Olive Dempsey

Climate change is a very real issue that we as a society are grappling with. But interestingly enough, climate change denial is particularly strong in the Anglosphere — in English speaking countries. Indian author Amitav Ghosh found the link between movement, the English language, and climate change to be quite interesting, and that is the focus of his book The Great Derangement. This episode features Amitav in conversation with our host Am Johal and special guest host Olive Dempsey from the podcast Big Bright Dark. Amitav Ghosh was in Vancouver for a public talk at SFU as part of their 30th Anniversary of SFU's Vancouver campus, the Indian Summer Festival and SFU Public Square. You can watch an archived version of Amitav's talk on our Knowledge Mobilization A/V Gallery here: https://www.sfu.ca/sfuwoodwards/community-engagement/audio-video-gallery.html You can learn more about Amitav Ghosh and his book The Great Derangement at his website, https://amitavghosh.com. You can learn more about the podcast Big Bright Dark by visiting their website at https://bigbrightdark.org/. Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/25-amitav-ghosh.html Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/25-amitav-ghosh-olive-dempsey.html Bio: Amitav Ghosh is one of the world’s top South Asian literary stars. He was born in Calcutta and grew up in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. He studied in Delhi, Oxford and Alexandria and is the author of The Circle of Reason, The Shadow Lines, In An Antique Land, Dancing in Cambodia, The Calcutta Chromosome, The Glass Palace, The Hungry Tide, and The Ibis Trilogy, consisting of Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke and Flood of Fire. His most recent book, The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable, a work of non-fiction, appeared in 2016. The Great Derangement was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2016 and was given the inaugural Utah Award for the Environmental Humanities in 2018. Ghosh’s most recent novel, Gun Island, is due to be published in 2019., Olive Dempsey co-hosts the podcast Big Bright Dark, which explores the questions we face, the fears that haunt us and the possibilities that rise before us in this time of great human and planetary uncertainty all while exploring how these things might be reasons to create, to be in community, to be honest and vulnerable, to find the bright spots, and become wiser versions of ourselves in the process. Olive Dempsey co-hosts the podcast Big Bright Dark, which explores the questions we face, the fears that haunt us and the possibilities that rise before us in this time of great human and planetary uncertainty all while exploring how these things might be reasons to create, to be in community, to be honest and vulnerable, to find the bright spots, and become wiser versions of ourselves in the process. Cite this episode: Chicago Style Johal, Am. “The Great Derangement — with Amitav Ghosh & Olive Dempsey” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, September 16, 2019. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/25-amitav-ghosh.html