22 Nov 2025

In which we look at more things that happened

Submitted by Kimon

Despite the earlier post's list of lists, there was still a lot of catching up to do with all things KSR. Here is a list of interviews that were not covered previously, and as you will see they span the whole range from 2025 all the way to... the 1990s!

Oxford Ministry for the Future

The Hertford College Oxford Ministry for the Future organized another event where KSR participated in earlier this year, Art, Nature and Science: Imagining other worlds.

On 28 April 2025, OMF hosted global cultural icon Brian Eno and environmental novelists and storytellers Kim Stanley Robinson, Laline Paull and JM Ledgard at the Sheldonian Theatre. We were treated to the premiere of ‘Life Wants to Live’: a braided reading underscored by original music composed by Brian Eno for this occasion. The performance stimulated interdisciplinary academic discussions about the biodiversity crisis and its solutions, with anthropologist Nayanika Mathur (of Crooked Cats), ecological economist Dr Nicola Ranger and political scientist Thomas Hale (of Long Problems).

The recording of both the reading + music part and the discussion part can be found on YouTube. Here it is for your enjoyment:

In the "Life Wants to Live" reading + music part, KSR read from The High Sierra, 2312 and The Ministry for the Future.

Another spoken word + music collaboration event between KSR and Brian Eno is planned for 2026 in Oxford: "A History of Utopia". So there's this to be excited about!

 

Past interviews: The post-Ministry era

Interviews from the prolific period following the publication of Ministry for the Future. Choronologically, and highlighting some of them:

  • 2021/Feb Reversing Climate Change podcast (YouTube, Pocket Casts)
  • 2021/Dec Resources for the Future podcast (YouTube)
  • 2021/Nov KSR & Ken MacLeod in conversation (YouTube), a part of that conversation was used in the larger Cli-Mates: Climate Futures Conversations from Scotland by ASU & Shoreline of Infininty (YouTube)

  • 2022/Sep Laura Flanders podcast (Pocket Casts, YouTube)
  • 2023/Oct Create Tomorrow, The WGSN Podcast (Pocket Casts, YouTube)
  • 2023 interview for Fantastinet during Utopiales in France (YouTube) + the resulting text article in French
  • 2023 lecture and discussion at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, an institution referenced in many KSR novels (YouTube)
  • 2023 interview on live TV for Euronews Romania, with live English-Romanian translation! (YouTube) The Mars trilogy and MftF have been translated to Romanian.
  • 2023/Nov lecture and discussion at the University of Amsterdam's Room for Discussion (YouTube)
  • 2023/Dec Omega webinar (YouTube)
  • 2023 KSQD radio interview (YouTube)
  • 2024/Feb Your Undivided Attention podcast (YouTube)
  • 2024/Feb Energy vs Climate podcast (YouTube)
  • 2024/Feb My Climate Journey podcast (YouTube)
  • 2024/Apr online interview for Maynooth University (YouTube)
  • 2024/Apr online conversation for Plebity (YouTube)
  • 2024/Apr lecture for UC Santa Barbara students (YouTube, Libsyn), part of the English course Climate Crisis 101 taught by Ken Hiltner
  • 2024/? iinterview for the 2024 inaugural event of the Centre for Future Generations (YouTube), featured as "The future, accelerated"
  • 2024/Oct for City Arts & Lectures, Richard Powers in conversation with KSR -- a great conversation well worth your time! Click on this photo of Powers for a direct download.

  • 2024/Oct an interview and profile for the Boston University Arts & Sciences Magazine
  • 2024/Nov lecture for Cool Davis: "What to Expect on Climate in 2025" (YouTube)

 

Past interviews: things we missed

Then there are the interviews that fell through the cracks as I was covering this period on the website and were not featured here, or recordings of past events that have surfaced at a later date. Again, chronologically:

  • 2009 KSR article on IEEE Spectrum: "My 10 Favorite Mars Novels", from 1897 to 1988!
  • 2011 intervew by Rudy Rucker for his podcast (YouTube)
  • 2015/Jul NPR's Capital Public Radio Insight for Aurora (link)
  • 2016 panel organized by the University of North Dakota: "Other Worlds", recording available
  • 2016 short quote in praise of NPR's Science Friday in the Mondavi Center Program Book Sept-Oct 2016 (archive link)
  • 2016/Apr NPR's Capital Public Radio Insight for the short story "Oral Argument", including a reading of the story by Blair Leatherwood (link)
  • 2016 interview for Neue Zürcher Zeitung, on the occasion of KSR's visit to Zurich (in German, paywall): "Willkommen im Kanton Mars" ("Welcome to the Canton of Mars")
  • 2016 interview for Utopia 2016, (in German): "Weltraumforschung ist eine Erdwissenschaft" ("Space research is an Earth science")
  • 2017 interview for ActuSF around Galileo's Dream (in French) (link)
  • 2017 panel with KSR interviewed by Ian Watson at CCCB in Barcelona (YouTube)
  • 2015/Apr recording of an event at the Sanford Consortium by The San Diego Union-Tribune (link) (sadly the video is no longer available?)
  • 2017/Dec KSR was one of the authors interviewed for this article in Nature: "Science fiction when the future is now": "3D glasses on reality"
  • 2018/Mar text interview for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (in Germany, paywall): "Wenn die Städte unter Wasser stehen" ("When cities are under water")
  • 2018/Mar text interview for Truthout
  • 2018/Jul audio interview for Areology, a part of the Ologies podcast series (KSR in part 2 from minute 27; includes transcript)
  • 2018/Jul text interview for The Huffington Post
  • 2018/Dec excerpts from a text interview for Locus Magazine (entire interview in the December 2018 issue): "The Good Anthropocene"
  • 2019/Oct text interview for The Brooklyn Rail, available in print in the fall 2019 issue "River Rail Colby": "Imagining a Flooded Planet"
  • 2019/Nov a piece written by KSR for The Institute for Anarchist Studies (in fact, an extract of "Mythmakers and Lawbreakers", a 2009 collection by AK Press): "Anarchism's Possibilities"
  • 2020/Apr audio interview for Recall This Book + an edited text version of the interview for Public Books: "The Realism of Our Times"
  • 202/Jun audio interview for Mendelspod
  • 202/Jul text interview for Dr. Fred Nadis's Cabinet of Curiosities: "Hold the Starships -- an Interview with Kim Stanley Robinson on Mars Settlement, Socialists in Space, Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Immortality, and the Purpose of Science Fiction"
  • 2020/Aug audio interview for WNYC Studios' On The Media: "Apocalypse Now"
  • 2020/Sep online conversation for Cloughjordan Ecovillage (also on YouTube): "The Future That Awaits Us"
  • 2020/Dec text interview for Poli-K in Greek, on the occasion of the release of a Greek translation of The Lucky Strike.

 

Past interviews: the deep past

But wait, that's not all! Here are some findings from when the Mars trilogy was new -- actually, still on-going!

  • 1993/Dec text interview originally for the magazine Vector #176, now available online courtesy of the intervewer Kev McVeigh, on Performative Utterance!
  • 1995/Jun interview for SBS, on the Australian television, on the occasion of KSR's visit to the Australian National Science Fiction Convention (YouTube) -- Red Mars is discussed!

  • 1997 video interview with KSR alongside David Brin, Mark Adler and Robert Zubrin for Sightings (S5E13), on the section "Mars: The Next Step" (YouTube, Mars section starts on minute 38)!
  • Locus Mag posted an audio clip from a 1997 interview with KSR as part of their Patreon crowdfunding for digitalizing older content. This had formed the basis of a 1997 article (excerpt).

 

I think that's enough for now. But we will be back soon to report on KSR's visit to the climate COP30 in Brazil!