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Kim Stanley Robinson is one of the great living science fiction writers and one of the most astute observers of how planets look, feel and work. His Mars Trilogy imagined what it might be like for humans to settle on the red planet. His best-selling novel \u201cThe Ministry for the Future\u201d is a masterful effort at envisioning what might happen to Earth in a future of unchecked climate change. Robinson has a rare command of both science and human nature, and his writing crystallizes how the two must work together if we are to rescue our collective planetary future from possible ruin.\n\nIn his 2022 book, a rare turn to nonfiction called \u201cThe High Sierra: A Love Story,\u201d Robinson trains his attention on the planet we inhabit in the here and now, particularly on one of his favorite places on Earth: the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California and Nevada. The new book is part memoir, part guidebook, part meditation on how time, space and even politics take shape in a wondrous geological landscape.\n\nIn this conversation, recorded in July 2022, we discuss why Robinson decided to start writing outdoors, what it was like to experience the Sierras on psychedelics in his youth, what \u201cactor-network theory\u201d is and how it helps us understand our relationship to the planet and to our own bodies, why we should think of climate change more like we do plane crashes, what hiking backpacks say about American consumerism, how we should change our relationship to technology in order to be happier, why the politics of wanting are so confusing yet important, why Robinson is so excited about ideas like a wage ratio and rewilding schemes, how the \u201cstructure of feeling\u201d around climate has changed, why Robinson is feeling more hopeful about Earth\u2019s future these days and more.\n\nWe\u2019ll be back with new episodes next week.\n\nMentioned:\n\n\u201cThe Most Important Book I\u2019ve Read This Year\u201d by Vox Conversations\n\n\u201cYour Kids Are Not Doomed\u201d by Ezra Klein\n\n\u201cDesign for the Real World\u201d by Victor Papanek\n\n\u201cThomas Piketty\u2019s Case for \u2018Participatory Socialism\u2019\u201d by The Ezra Klein Show\n\nBook Recommendations:\n\nA Brief History of Equality by Thomas Piketty\n\nThe Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow\n\nThe Echo Maker by Richard Powers\n\nThoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.\n\nYou can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of \u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\u201d at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.\n\nThis episode of \u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\u201d is produced by Annie Galvin and Rog\xe9 Karma; fact-checking by Michelle Harris, Mary Marge Locker and Kate Sinclair; original music by Isaac Jones; mixing by Isaac Jones and Sonia Herrero; audience strategy by Shannon Busta. Executive produced by Irene Noguchi. Special thanks to Kristin Lin and Kristina Samulewski.