21 Oct 2025

Feature: How society defined our past, and will shape

From Afternoons, 3:10 pm on 21 October 2025

History shows that civilizations succeed in many different ways, but they tend to fail in strikingly similar ones.  Again and again, societies rise, overextend themselves, and ultimately unravel says Dr Luke Kemp. He’s a research affiliate at the Center for Study of Existential Risk at Darwin College at the University of Cambridge. He argues that societal collapse has not only defined our past but will shape our future. He lays out the urgent lessons our perilous century must learn before it’s too late. It’s called Goliath’s Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse. 

Photo of Dr Luke Kemp

Photo: Dr Luke Kemp