Tales of Two Planets

John Freeman, formerly the editor of GRANTA, welcomes listeners to a collection of curated short works on climate change and economic inequality. The work tours a global economic divide that shows the poorest being hit hardest by climate change. Among Freeman's stops: Sierra Leone, where Bahni Turpin narrates with amusement and admiration as an escaped chimpanzee gains hero status; Bangkok, where Deepti Gupta describes the picturesque real estate pitches that entice well-to-do residents to live above the pollution; and Burundi, where Dominick Hoffman brings a personal note to Gael Faye's recollections of the Hutu-Tutsi war. Fiction is included, such as Sayaka Murata's "Survival," a vision of a future Japan that classifies residents by their likelihood of long life spans, narrated in a melancholy tone by Kim Mai Guest. J.A.S. � AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine