Book Talk: What If We Get It Right? with Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
Tuesday, Oct 28, 2025, 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm
Maxwell Dworkin G115 (Lessin Hall), 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge
The Salata Institute invites you to What If We Get It Right?, a book talk with Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson.
About the book: Sometimes the bravest thing we can do while facing an existential crisis is imagine life on the other side. This is a provocative and joyous collection of clear-eyed essays, 20 vibrant interviews, data, poetry, and art that map an inspiring landscape of solutions and possibilities at the nexus of science, policy, culture, and justice. The book conjures a transformed, replenished, and loving world—and shows us that it is worth the effort, the overhaul, to get there, together.
Author Bio: Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is a marine biologist, policy expert, writer, and teacher working to help create the best possible climate future. She is co-founder of Urban Ocean Lab, a think tank for the future of coastal cities, and is the Roux Distinguished Scholar at Bowdoin College. Ayana authored The New York Times bestseller What If We Get it Right?: Visions of Climate Futures, work that is carried on with her newsletter and podcast of the same name. Previously, she co-edited the bestselling anthology All We Can Save, co-created and co-hosted the Spotify/Gimlet podcast How to Save a Planet, and co-authored the Blue New Deal, a roadmap for including the ocean in climate policy. Ayana earned a BA in environmental science and public policy from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. in marine biology from Scripps Institution of Oceanography. She serves on the board of directors for Patagonia and GreenWave, and on the advisory board of Environmental Voter Project. Above all: Ayana is in love with climate solutions.
Register
About the book: Sometimes the bravest thing we can do while facing an existential crisis is imagine life on the other side. This is a provocative and joyous collection of clear-eyed essays, 20 vibrant interviews, data, poetry, and art that map an inspiring landscape of solutions and possibilities at the nexus of science, policy, culture, and justice. The book conjures a transformed, replenished, and loving world—and shows us that it is worth the effort, the overhaul, to get there, together.
Author Bio: Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is a marine biologist, policy expert, writer, and teacher working to help create the best possible climate future. She is co-founder of Urban Ocean Lab, a think tank for the future of coastal cities, and is the Roux Distinguished Scholar at Bowdoin College. Ayana authored The New York Times bestseller What If We Get it Right?: Visions of Climate Futures, work that is carried on with her newsletter and podcast of the same name. Previously, she co-edited the bestselling anthology All We Can Save, co-created and co-hosted the Spotify/Gimlet podcast How to Save a Planet, and co-authored the Blue New Deal, a roadmap for including the ocean in climate policy. Ayana earned a BA in environmental science and public policy from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. in marine biology from Scripps Institution of Oceanography. She serves on the board of directors for Patagonia and GreenWave, and on the advisory board of Environmental Voter Project. Above all: Ayana is in love with climate solutions.
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