One day on a Greek island, and your view of the universe will change forever. Ask acclaimed author and evolutionary philosopher Brian Thomas Swimme about our role as humans in this awe-inspiring universe, and his insights will light up the night skies. 

As our host, co-writer, and fellow traveler, he shares his infectious curiosity about life's biggest questions. Using his skills as a masterful storyteller, Swimme connects such big picture issues as the birth of the cosmos 14 billion years ago, to the emergence of the first cell, as well as to our current impact on Earth's evolutionary dynamics. Through his engaging and thoughtful observations, audiences everywhere will discover the profound role we play in this intricate web of life. From the “great flaring forth” to the epic impact humans have on the planet today, this film is designed to inspire a new and closer relationship with Earth in a period of growing environmental and social crisis.

Mary Evelyn TUCKER & John GRIM

Executive Producers

Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim are affiliated faculty with the Yale Center for Environmental Justice at the Yale School of the Environment. They direct the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology, which arose from ten conferences they organized at Harvard's Center for the Study of World Religions. They are series editors of the Harvard volumes from the conferences on Religion and Ecology. 

Tucker specializes in East Asian religions, especially Confucianism. Grim specializes in indigenous traditions, especially Native American religions. 

Grim and Tucker have written a number of books including Ecology and Religion (Island Press, 2014) and edited the Routledge Handbook of Religion and Ecology (2017). They are editors for the series on Ecology and Justice from Orbis Books. They have created six online courses in “Religions and Ecology: Restoring the Earth Community.”

They were students of Thomas Berry and collaborated over several decades to edit his books. They also wrote Thomas Berry: A Biography with Andrew Angyal (Columbia, 2019). 

Until 2020, following in Berry’s footsteps, Grim served as president of the American Teilhard Association and Tucker as Vice President for over three decades.

CHEN Xia

Participant

Professor and Doctoral Supervisor in Institute of Philosophy at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Distinguished Professor of University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Editorial Director of Philosophical Trends and Yearbook of Chinese Philosophy, member of the 13th National Committee of the CPPCC, member of the 5th Economic and Social Council of China, member of the 13th National Committee on Ethnic and Religious Affairs of the CPPCC, legal person and vice president of the International Federation of Yi Studies. Her research areas include Taoism and Taoist culture, Chinese philosophy, and religious studies. She is the author of A Study of Taoist Advice to Good, Introduction to Taoist Philosophy, Taoist Body View - An Ecological Perspective, and has published more than 100 Chinese and English papers and translations.

WANG Binbin

Moderator

Binbin Wang is a well-respected climate actionist and social scientist in China and  Yale’s 2023 World Fellow. She is now the Associate Research Professor of Institute of Carbon Neutrality at Peking University and sitting in the core leadership team of the Institute. As a stubborn optimist, Dr. Wang has tracked the UNFCCC process since 2009 as a trusted witness, passionate advocate, creative expert, and multi-talented actionist. She brings extensive experience and cross-cut expertise on global climate governance and climate policy, strategic communication and multi-stakeholder cooperation working across media, NGO, UN, academia and private sectors. Her monograph about China’s green transition was published by Springer Nature and nominated as Springer’s China New Development Awards in 2022. As the well-known influencer and super connecter, she is now accelerating bottom-up actions and joint efforts from China to the world for the global net-zero transition.

ational Relations at PKU

 College of Urban and Environmental Sciences at PKU