Why Civilizations Collapse

In this episode, Professor Diamond talks to Stephen Barber, strategic advisor to the Pictet Group and Chair of the Prix Pictet, to explain his award-winning trilogy of books applying the insights of science to the lessons of our past: Guns Germs and Steel, Collapse, and his recent concluding volume: Upheaval.

Appearing in this episode

Jared Diamond is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the seminal million copy-bestseller Guns, Germs, and Steel, which was named one of Time magazine’s best non- fiction books of all time, Collapse, a No. 1 international bestseller, and The World Until Yesterday, among other books. A professor of geography at UCLA and noted polymath, Diamond’s work has been influential in the fields of anthropology, biology, ornithology, ecology and history, among others.

Stephen Barber is an adviser to the Pictet Group and was head of Pictet Group Communications Pictet. He is the Chairman of Prix Pictet, the leading global photographic prize, with the subject of sustainability. He is currently writing a book on the history and culture of Pictet. Among other philanthropic activities, he is a managing trustee of the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation.

Rosario Lebrija Rassvetaieff is Group New Media and Sponsoring Manager at the Pictet Group, where she hosts and produces the podcasts ‘Found in Conversation’ and ‘Prix Pictet: A lens on sustainability’. Born and raised in Mexico City, she holds a combined honours BA in Literature and International Relations (First Class) from the University of Southampton and an MSc in Communication and Media Studies (Distinction) from the London School of Economics. For more information, watch her TEDx talk ’The Future of the Image: Discover the Sublime’. 

References

• Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
• Jared Diamond, Collapse
• Jared Diamond, Upheaval
• History, Aztec Capital Falls to Hernan Cortes
• Britannica, ‘Battle of Tenochtitlan’
• History Cruch, ‘Tenochtitlan’
• Science Magazine, ‘Why did Greenland’s Viking’s disappear?’