356 | Andrea Wulf on Enlightenment, Nature, Romanticism, and Modernity

<div class="fl-col-group fl-node-1rziuaej8btx fl-col-group-nested"> <div class="fl-col fl-node-4aud6xy8ijfs fl-col-bg-color"> <div class="fl-col-content fl-node-content"> <div class="fl-module fl-module-rich-text fl-node-8qht1kdxfyre"> <div class="fl-module-content fl-node-content"> <div class="fl-rich-text"> <p>All ideas have a history, no matter how inevitable and well-entrenched they may seem to us today. The later Enlightenment was a heady time when people were exploring new conceptions of nature, humanity, and the self. Andrea Wulf is a writer of narrative histories, examining the origins of ideas through the lives of the people who explored them. In this episode we discuss three of her books: <a href="https://andreawulf.com/2015/01/15/about-the-invention-of-nature/"><em>The Invention of Nature</em></a>, about Alexander von Humboldt and environmentalism; <a href="https://andreawulf.com/2022/01/05/about-magnificent-rebels/"><em>Magnificent Rebels</em></a>, about the Jena circle of Romantics including Goethe, Schiller, Schlegel, and others; and most recently <a href="https://andreawulf.com/2025/11/19/about-the-traveller/"><em>The Traveller</em></a>, about George Forster, an early naturalist, ethnographer, and champion of human equality.</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="fl-col fl-node-flx4cua9hj6m fl-col-bg-color fl-col-small"> <div class="fl-col-content fl-node-content"> <div class="fl-module fl-module-image-icon fl-node-6lg02y1viem5"> <div class="fl-module-content fl-node-content"> <div class="uabb-module-content uabb-imgicon-wrap"> <div class="uabb-image uabb-image-crop-square"> <div class="uabb-image-content">Blog post with transcript: <a href="https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026/06/08/356-andrea-wulf-on-enlightenment-nature-romanticism-and-modernity/"> https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026/06/08/356-andrea-wulf-on-enlightenment-nature-romanticism-and-modernity/</a></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="fl-module fl-module-rich-text fl-node-e3lku8r2xsqw"> <div class="fl-module-content fl-node-content"> <div class="fl-rich-text"> </div> </div> </div> <div class="fl-module fl-module-rich-text fl-node-aerhnvt8u9ly"> <div class="fl-module-content fl-node-content"> <div class="fl-rich-text"> <p><em>Support Mindscape on <a href="https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Patreon</a>.</em></p> <p>Andrea Wulf was born in India, raised in Germany, and studied design history at the Royal College of Art, London. She is the author of seven books. She is a Miller Scholar at the Santa Fe Institute and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. The Invention of Nature won multiple prizes, including the Royal Society science book prize and the LA Times book prize.</p> <ul> <li><a href="https://andreawulf.com/">Web site</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/Andrea-Wulf/author/B001HOE9U0?ccs_id=d24d6e84-c228-44fb-90df-a4c95d0ece22"> Amazon author page</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Wulf">Wikipedia</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>