Amitav Ghosh and Luke Kemp on learning from collapsed empires
Show notes
From the fall of Rome to the climate crisis unfolding right now, history shows up a common pattern for how empires rise and fall. And two important factors are humans’ relationship with the natural world, as well as the unequal distribution of power and wealth. What can the wreckage of past civilisations teach us about avoiding our own?
This event was recorded live at the 2026 Sydney Writers’ Festival at Carriageworks.
Listen to Big Ideas – Why civilisations vanish
Speakers
Amitav Ghosh Indian-born novelist, essayist, and public intellectual
Author of The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis and Wild Fictions
Luke KempResearch Affiliate, Centre for the Study of Existential Ris, University of CambridgeAuthor of Goliath’s Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse
Clare Wright (host)Professor of History and Professor of Public Engagement, La Trobe University and award-winning author