The Ethics of Now with Lewis Akenji

Join the Kenan Institute for Ethics and host Adriane Lentz-Smith for a conversation with Lewis Akenji on reorienting the economy to fight climate change and promote human wellbeing. Whether pushing environments to new extremes, fracturing local economies, or heightening social tensions, climate change is impacting us all — but the way we talk about it is not leading us towards solutions. Lewis Akenji says we tend to focus on consumerist lifestyles rather than the economic structures that drive these behaviors in the first place — and the kind of society we want to build instead. Join Akenji to explore how we can regain our agency around climate change by acting as collectives instead of individuals, and how, as communities and governments, we can address the interlinked crises of climate change and economic insecurity in ways that promote human wellbeing. Additional biographical information: Lewis Akenji is a political economist with an interest in institutions, policies, and the allocation of scarce resources towards competing societal objectives within ecological limits. He is Executive Director of the Berlin-based think tank Hot or Cool Institute, and co-chair of the Club of Rome Taskforce on Materials and Consumption. He is currently Executive-in-Residence at the Duke Initiative for Science & Society.

Last updated October 29, 2026