386: Why Do We Labor in Carbon Removal?

Content Warning: this episode discusses suicide in literature, specifically Judas Iscariot from the Gospel and Javert from Les Misérables.

Why do this work? You could be doing so many different things. What calls you to it, and what (or who?!) is doing the calling?

In today's monologue show, host Ross Kenyon reflects upon the nature of vocation, aesthetics, and what it means to labor at something as hard as carbon dioxide removal, climate tech, and so many things adjacent.

After a first attempt years ago at J. R. R. Tolkien's short story, "Leaf by Niggle," Ross listened to a podcast about it that had been sitting on his phone for years. After revisiting the short story, he was again reminded that art often finds you when the time is ripe.

"Leaf by Niggle" is a deceptively deep story, which is unsurprising given how strongly Tolkien disliked allegory, and how mythologically dense Lord of the Rings is. In fact, Lord of the Rings has so much symbolic power that many parts of it defy an easy mapping to theology or mythology.

This show dives into some of what Ross has learned now that he's in the middle of my career about what kinds of work to do, how to accept unexpected work with grace, and why creativity might be so much weirder than we usually imagine.

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Vocative case

"Leaf by Niggle" by J. R. R. Tolkien

J. R. R. Tolkien