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Show notes
All ideas have a history, no matter how inevitable and well-entrenched they may seem to us today. The later Enlightenment was a heady time when people were exploring new conceptions of nature, humanity, and the self. Andrea Wulf is a writer of narrative histories, examining the origins of ideas through the lives of the people who explored them. In this episode we discuss three of her books: The">https://andreawulf.com/2015/01/15/about-the-invention-of-nature/">_The Invention of Nature_, about Alexander von Humboldt and environmentalism; Magnificent">https://andreawulf.com/2022/01/05/about-magnificent-rebels/">_Magnificent Rebels_, about the Jena circle of Romantics including Goethe, Schiller, Schlegel, and others; and most recently The">https://andreawulf.com/2025/11/19/about-the-traveller/">_The Traveller_, about George Forster, an early naturalist, ethnographer, and champion of human equality. ">https://schema.org/ImageObject"> Blog post with transcript: [">https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026/06/08/356-andrea-wulf-on-enlightenment-nature-romanticism-and-modernity/">]( ) _Support Mindscape on [https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll"]( Patreon._ Andrea Wulf was born in India, raised in Germany, and studied design history at the Royal College of Art, London. She is the author of seven books. She is a Miller Scholar at the Santa Fe Institute and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. The Invention of Nature won multiple prizes, including the Royal Society science book prize and the LA Times book prize. - [Web">https://andreawulf.com/">Web]( https://www.amazon.com/stores/Andrea-Wulf/author/B001HOE9U0?ccs\_id=d24d6e84-c228-44fb-90df-a4c95d0ece22">]( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea\_Wulf">Wikipedia