In an engaging lunchtime session in January, the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society (IBES) hosted a conversation featuring Professor Stephen Porder, Brown’s Associate Provost for Sustainability and a founding member of the Possibly podcast. He delved into his new book, which explores how microbes, plants, and people utilized the fundamental building blocks of life to reshape life on Earth. The event was skillfully moderated by ENVS concentrator Janek Schaller ’24 and kicked off IBES' Alumni & Family Network programming.

Short on time? Here are four quotable moments from the talk:

Note: The Q&A portion of the event was removed from the video to safeguard participants' privacy.

On a sustainable future: "By understanding how our predecessors changed the world and how we humans are changing the world, and the common thread between those two things, we could actually use that knowledge to build a more sustainable future."

On societal impacts: "Unlike our world-changing predecessors, whose effects were linked directly to the chemistry of their bodies, our effects are linked to the chemistry of our society, and those we can change."

On career advice for students: "I would say that the most important thing is to find the nexus of what is personally fulfilling and satisfying for you and something where you can make a change.”

On "why Brown?": "The intellectual community here is very broad, rich, and mutually respectful. We all understand that solving today's environmental and societal problems requires thinkers from all different spaces. And IBES brings us together to do that in a way that many places don’t."