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Ben Rawlence talks to Nicola Cutcher

Think Like a Forest: Letters from a Father

Hay Festival 2026, 

How do we raise children in a climate emergency? If you’ve ever wondered what kind of future we’re facing and how to parent for it, this event offers some clarity and hope.

Ben Rawlence – who is founder and director of Black Mountains College, an institution dedicated to preparing people for the changes to come – has for many years written letters to his growing daughters, trying to understand what it means to bring a child into a world facing ecological breakdown. Talking to nature journalist Nicola Cutcher about these letters, published as Think Like a Forest, he discusses how to live with the central contradiction of our age: raising children within a system that threatens all life.