Donna Haraway on Cyborgs, “Oddkin” & Resisting the Monoculture of the Mind [full uncut conversation]

Synopsis:  A leading voice in feminist philosophy, Donna Haraway joins Laura for an incisive discussion on challenging patriarchal norms and cultivating a more inclusive understanding of humanity, one that prioritizes accountability and empathy in an increasingly complex world.

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Description: “Thinking requires action and passion,” says feminist philosopher and scholar, Donna Haraway in this unique conversation. In her 1985 essay “A Cyborg Manifesto” and 2003 work, “The Companion Species Manifesto”, Haraway challenged patriarchal, capitalist, binary, species-ist ways of looking at the world. It’s no surprise that people are looking to her work again now. Generative thinking, she tells Laura, requires “taking the risk to try a new pattern; to invent something that may very well fall apart in your collective hands but leaves threads to be picked up again.” In this episode, Haraway and Flanders sit down for an expansive conversation about what it means to be human in an age of AI and resisting what she calls authoritarian “mono-thought.” Plus, a commentary from Laura on staying in the present and “staying with the trouble.”

“An individual is embedded deeply in worlds with other people, with other organisms, with living and non-living parts of the world. To be a self is to come to a thicker appreciation and accountability for the way we're embedded in the world and act in the world. That's what I mean by being a proper self.” - Donna Haraway

Guest:  Donna Haraway, Distinguished Professor Emerita, University of California Santa Cruz, History of Consciousness Department; Author, A Cyborg Manifesto, When Species Meet, Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene

Watch the episode released on YouTube; PBS World Channel 11:30am ET Sundays and on over 300 public stations across the country (check your listings, or search here via zipcode). Listen: Episode airing on community radio (check here to see if your station airs the show) & available as a podcast January 21st, 2026.

Full Episode Notes are located HERE.

Full Conversation Release: While our weekly shows are edited to time for broadcast on Public TV and community radio, we offer to our members and podcast subscribers the full uncut conversation. 

Music Credit:  'Thrum of Soil' by Bluedot Sessions, 'Steppin' by Podington Bear, and original sound design by Jeannie Hopper

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RESOURCES:

*Recommended book:

“The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness” by Donna Haraway: *Get the book

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Related Articles and Resources:

•  Donna Haraway:  Story Telling for Earthly Survival by Fabrizo Terranova - Watch

•  Making Oddkin:  Story Telling for Earthly Survival lecture at Yale - Watch

•  You Are Cyborg by Hair Kunzru, February 1, 1997, WIRED

•  Donna Haraway, Erasmus laureate 2025 at the Next Nature Museum, November 21, 2025, by Next Nature

•  Rethinking Humanity with Donna Haraway:  A Cyborg Manifesto for the AI Age, August 18, 2025, Philosop