Despite turmoil, we're living in 2nd Renaissance, scholar from Regina says

Finding hope in a time of great upheavalis the theme of a recently published book with a lot of buzz co-authored by an Oxford scholar from Regina, ChrisKutarna.

Age of Discovery: Navigating Risks and Rewards of Our New Renaissance, a top pick by Amazon, was written by Kutarna and Ian Goldin, also from the University of Oxford.

"We wake up on Monday morning and we feel like the world just doesn't make sense any more," Kutarna said, explaining the genesis of the book in an interview with CBC Saskatchewan Morning Edition host Sheila Coles.

Take a step back and just realize that we've been here before and the before is the Renaissance, this age of discovery when Michelangelo and da Vinci and Columbus and Copernicus walked this Earth together.- Author Chris Kutarna

"You just think of the last few years there's this financial crisis, giant social protests and the aftermath of that, the rise of ISIS, the threat of the UK leaving the EU, the rise of Trump, all the anger and the politics he represents, pandemics like Ziki, and Ebola, collapsing commodity prices closer to home ... a lot of reasons to be anxious in the world we live in right now," he said.

"What the book says is, 'Take a deep breath.' Take a step back and just realize that we've been here before and the before is the Renaissance, this age of discovery when Michelangelo and da Vinci and Columbus and Copernicus walked this Earth together."

The book draws parallels between JohannesGutenberg's printing press and MarkZuckerberg's Facebook, between the voyages of discovery and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Out of this comes some optimism for the times we're currently living through, but also a sense that people will have to roll up their sleeves to survive.

"This is the second Renaissance," Kutarna said. "It's the best time to be alive but also the most fragile, the most vulnerable."

Kutarna said he hopes Age of Discovery helps people make sense of the times we live in.