About the author

Fabian Scheidler studied history and philosophy at the Free University of Berlin and theatre directing at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts. He works and lives in Berlin as a writer for print media, television, theatre and opera. In 2009 he co-founded the independent newscast Kontext TV, which has since produced over 100 broadcasts on global justice issues. He also publishes in journals, including Le Monde diplomatique, Berliner Zeitung, Taz. Die Tageszeitung, Frankfurter Rundschau, Wiener Zeitung, the Swiss weekly WOZ, Jacobin, The Progressive, Common Dreams, ZNet, Radio France, Reporterre, Les Terrestres and “Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik” (edited by Saskia Sassen, Jürgen Habermas et al). For the global justice network Attac he edited the fake edition of the German weekly Die Zeit in 2009, which generated nationwide attention. For this work he received the Otto Brenner Media Award for Critical Journalism. In 2010 he served as the project coordinator for the Attac Tribunal on Banks at the Volksbühne in Berlin. As a dramaturge and playwright he worked for the renowned Grips Theater in Berlin for several years. In 2013, his opera “Death of a Banker” (music: Andreas Kersting) was premiered at the Gerhart Hauptmann Theater in Görlitz (Germany).

In 2015, Fabian Scheidler’s book “The End of the Megamachine. A Brief History of a Failing Civilization” was published in German. The book was translated into Dutch (Lemniscaat 2018), English (Zero Books 2020), French (Le Seuil 2020), Turkish (Aram Yayınevi 2023) and Italian (Castelvecchi 2024). Chinese, Spanish, Italian and Turkish editions are in preparation. In 2017, “Chaos. Das neue Zeitalter der Revolutionen” (“Chaos. The New Age of Revolutions”) followed. In 2019, he co-edited “Der Kampf um globale Gerechtigkeit” (“The Struggle for Global Justice”), conversations with Noam Chomsky, Amy Goodman, Immanuel Wallersein, Vandana Shiva et al. Since 2015, Fabian Scheidler has been on extensive lecture tours in Europe. He also works as a visual artist, with numerous exhibitions of his “photosyntheses“. A selection of images from the series “Displaced Places” is incorporated in his 2019 collection of essays “Die volle und die leere Welt” (“The Full and the Empty World”). In spring 2021, his book “The Stuff We Are Made of. Rethinking Nature and Society” was  published in German by the Piper publishing house. In the same year, he released his essay “The Mental Field. Theatre Essentials” (Alexander Verlag Berlin).

Fabian Scheidler has given more than 300 lectures and talks at home and abroad, in German, English and French. Hosts include the Club of Rome, INSEAD Fontainebleau, Ars Electronica Linz, Paris School of Economics, Literaturhaus Berlin, Klassik-Stiftung Weimar, Université de Toulouse, ETH Zurich, Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität München, Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz Berlin, Brainwash-Festival Amsterdam, Heinrich Böll Foundation, Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and many more.

As an interview partner, Fabian Scheidler is a regular guest in various media, including Radio France Culture,  BBC World Service,  Deutschlandradio, WDR, SWR, Bayerischer Rundfunk, ORF, Arte, 3Sat, RTL, RAI, ZEIT Online, Frankfurter Rundschau, Taz, Wiener Zeitung, Nouvel Observateur and Libération.