Podcast Summary: The Interview – Rebecca Solnit Says the Left's Next Hero Is Already Here
The New York Times | March 7, 2026 | Host: David Marchese | Guest: Rebecca Solnit

Episode Overview

This episode features a wide-ranging conversation between David Marchese and acclaimed writer and activist Rebecca Solnit about her new book The Beginning Comes After the End. The discussion explores Solnit’s philosophy of hope and progress amid contemporary social and political turbulence, the perils of cultural amnesia, the role of narrative in activism, and why the next “hero” of the left may not be an individual but a collective. The dialogue also tackles climate change, the effectiveness (and limits) of storytelling, generational change, and personal evolution. Solnit’s optimism and insistence on complexity and collective power offer listeners a counterweight to despair and cynicism.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Context for Solnit’s Latest Book

• The Beginning Comes After the End is positioned as a thematic sequel to Solnit’s classic, Hope in the Dark, offering a hopeful philosophy of change grounded in memory, interconnection, feminism, ecological care, and political equality.
• Solnit is “keenly aware of the massive challenges we're all facing, but it provides a stabilizing counterweight to the feeling that the world has spun dangerously off kilter.” (David Marchese, 00:32)

2. Cultural Amnesia vs. Memory and Hope

• Solnit criticizes “a kind of cultural amnesia” where people only see recent setbacks and overlook long-term progress in civil rights, feminism, environmentalism, and Indigenous resurgence (03:29).
• Quote:
  “Despair and amnesia go hand in hand, and so do hope and memory, I think, in many cases.” — Rebecca Solnit (03:29)

3. Broader Perspectives on Change and Backlash

• Short-term thinking leads to pessimism and doomerism.

• The current backlash from the right is, paradoxically, evidence of progressive success:
  “They're basically telling us we're incredibly successful, which is the good news. The bad news is they hate it and they want to change it all back.” — Rebecca Solnit (04:56)

• Examples contrast US setbacks with global progress (e.g., Roe v. Wade v. abortion rights in Argentina, Mexico, Ireland, Spain).

4. Is Progressive Change Inevitable?

• Nothing is inevitable, everything is "evitable." The future is created in the present.
• Quote:
  “Recognizing that the future does not exist really dismantles a lot of defeatism, despair, doomerism, cynicism, which often pretend to know what the future can and can't be as a way of pretending to a power they don't really have while abandoning the power we really do have, which is to make a future that doesn't exist yet in the present.” — Rebecca Solnit (07:30)

5. Tradition, Social Conservatism, and Stability

• Marchese asks about the value in non-illusory traditions for social stability (08:37).
• Solnit: Not all traditions are reactionary—old stories of equality, including matriarchal and hunter-gatherer societies, can anchor future progress (09:38).

6. Why Fear and Negativity Dominate Narratives

• We are drawn to “the fire more than the calm.”
• Most stories are about things going wrong; narrative logic and human caution steer us toward danger.
• Solnit points to incremental change stories—the energy revolution, for example—that are overlooked because they are “nerdy, technical, and incremental” (11:00).

7. Climate Action: Complexity, Hope, and Frustration

• Marchese voices “cold comfort” in renewable energy progress given ongoing fossil fuel reliance and missed targets (12:35).
• Solnit stresses that obstacles are political, not technological:
  “The wonder and horror for climate is that the great majority of people on Earth support climate action... The obstacles are not technological... they're political. And a minority of vested interests... are what's holding us back.” (13:16)
• “You can be thrilled by all the things that are happening and horrified by all the things that should be happening, but aren't... Of course we're going to lose a lot. We've already lost a lot. But we don't have to lose everything.” — Rebecca Solnit (13:16)

8. On Tactics Against Trumpism and the Dangers of Politeness

• Marchese asks if calling Trumpists fascist/racist has been counterproductive (16:16).
• Solnit rejects the “politeness” critique:
  “They are racist, they are authoritarian... tiptoeing around it protects them and not the targets of the hatred and discrimination. I just get so tired of the idea that progressives have gone too far in asserting that like every human being deserves human rights...” (17:17)
• Polarization brings clarity; being bold and truthful is necessary.

9. Virality and Limits of ‘Men Explain Things to Me’

• Original anecdote overshadowed deeper points about how “women die all the time of not being believed.” (19:22)
• Quote:
  “It also should be a horrifying anecdote about how deeply not listened to women are... the enormity of the situation really got underestimated when everybody enjoyed telling that opening anecdote.” — Rebecca Solnit (19:22)

10. The Power — and Limits — of Storytelling

• Marchese raises whether storytelling alone is enough (21:53).
• Solnit: Stories are essential but not magical fixes; they can be destructive as well as liberatory.
  “The idea that stories are these magical devices that will do all our work for us is itself a bad story. But the story is often only the beginning...” (23:08)

11. Green Transitions, Market Skepticism, and Nuance

• Marchese clarifies his skepticism isn’t nihilism but skepticism that “the market will solve or help solve the climate crisis” (27:03).
• Solnit defends nuance: “You really have to hold both that there's still a lot to hope for and there's a lot to mourn and those things can exist at the same time... You can be kind of heartbroken and exhilarated about climate at the same time and show up and keep doing the work...” (28:07)

12. The Myth of the Lone Hero – Why the Next Hero is Collective

• Marchese asks why the left lacks a singular, charismatic Trump-foil (29:04).
• Solnit: “The next Buddha will be the Sangha... maybe the community is the next hero.” (29:50)
• Most important change is “collective.” The “wine moms” and “nice ladies” are essential engines of resistance, even if unglamorous (29:50).
• “Maybe changing the world is more like caregiving than it is like war, but too many people still expect it to look like war.” — Rebecca Solnit (29:50)

13. Critique of Left-wing Circular Firing Squad

• Solnit notes the disheartening pattern of the left preemptively tearing down its own leaders (Gore, Clinton, Biden, Harris, Newsom):
  “At the moment when, you know, like the job is to defeat the other guy, you know, we defeat ourselves when that's what happens.” (32:27)

14. Personal Change and Social Change – Generational Reflection

• Solnit discusses how her own values and perceptions have changed by revisiting the past, e.g., her response to Purple Rain and changing standards around gender and abuse (33:48).

• Quote:
  “I have changed so much, and my change isn't really separate from the social change in so many ways. We've all been re-educated... or educated around so many things.” — Rebecca Solnit (33:48)

• On evaluating art by problematic figures: We need to balance context, era, and changing values (35:53).

15. The Weight and Promise of Decision-Making

• Marchese quotes Solnit’s memoir about envying those with “so many decisions ahead” (37:14).
• Solnit reflects on the simultaneously burdensome and thrilling accumulation of choices and how youth is weighted with irrevocable, foundational decisions (37:47).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Despair and amnesia go hand in hand, and so do hope and memory, I think, in many cases.” — Rebecca Solnit (03:29)
• “They're basically telling us we're incredibly successful, which is the good news. The bad news is they hate it and they want to change it all back.” — Rebecca Solnit (04:56)
• “Recognizing that the future does not exist really dismantles a lot of defeatism, despair, doomerism, cynicism...” — Rebecca Solnit (07:30)
• “You can be thrilled by all the things that are happening and horrified by all the things that should be happening, but aren't... we don't have to lose everything.” — Rebecca Solnit (13:16)
• “Polarization is good. That's when you have clarity. Sometimes people have to pick sides.” — Rebecca Solnit, paraphrasing George Lakey (17:17)
• “But the story is often only the beginning. When you change the story, that doesn't fix everything, but it's often is the beginning of changing everything else.” — Rebecca Solnit (23:08)
• “Maybe changing the world is more like caregiving than it is like war, but too many people still expect it to look like war.” — Rebecca Solnit (29:50)
• “At the moment when, you know, like the job is to defeat the other guy... we defeat ourselves when that's what happens.” — Rebecca Solnit (32:27)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:32 — Introduction and Solnit’s writing philosophy
• 03:29 — Cultural amnesia and historical perspective
• 04:56 — Interconnectedness of progressive movements and right-wing backlash
• 07:30 — On inevitability vs. possibility of change
• 09:38 — Tradition, stability, and the value of old stories
• 11:00 — The logic of narratives and attention to negativity
• 13:16 — Climate action’s complexities and political obstacles
• 17:17 — Tactics against Trumpism; why naming ills matters
• 19:22 — The virality (and limits) of Men Explain Things to Me
• 23:08 — Storytelling's power and limitations
• 28:07 — Nuance in climate hope and grief
• 29:50 — The case for collective action over the lone hero myth
• 32:27 — The circular firing squad on the left
• 33:48 — Personal change in tandem with societal progress
• 37:14 — The burden/opportunity of choice for young people

Conclusion

Rebecca Solnit’s conversation with David Marchese affirms the power of memory, complexity, and collective action as antidotes to contemporary despair. Her perspectives encourage a more hopeful, nuanced understanding of progress and activism, while warning against the temptations of cultural nostalgia, doomerism, and hyper-individualistic "hero" thinking. The episode stands out for its thoughtful analysis, memorable storytelling, and honest engagement with both personal and societal change.