Matthew Burgess is an assistant professor of environmental studies, the director of the Center for Social and Environmental Futures, and a fellow of the Cooperative Institute for Research and Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. Burgess' research focuses on economic growth futures and their impacts on the environment and society; mathematical modeling of human-environment systems; and political polarization of environmental issues. He also does outreach focused on reducing political polarization in higher education and society as a faculty fellow of the Bruce D. Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization, co-chair of CU Boulder's Heterodox Academy Campus Community, and a faculty fellow for higher education and democracy through the Office for Outreach and Engagement. Burgess hosts the Benson Center's Free Mind podcast, where he interviews politically diverse guests about issues in Western history, politics, philosophy, literature and current events.