I study how to get by on a planet where people experience interrelated socio-ecological crises beyond one’s location—but I have little answers how to do it myself. There are many studies of academic work, ecological crisis, and one’s agency in either of these—but often they are treated separately. This chapter is an attempt to bring these burning themes together with autoethnography and makes sense of the contemporary practice of being an academic in the era of socio-ecological crisis. When knowing of multiple crises as an academic, how and why to do research as an engaged scholar in hyper-individualistic and competitive research environments? What kinds of possibilities for collective action are there for engaged scholars within or in the outskirts of academia? This chapter draws from practice theorising, tempered radicalism, engaged scholarship, and the role of academics impacting contemporary phenomena. In order to make visible options beyond only playing the game within academia or leaving academia altogether, I explore existing engaged scholarship stemming from my networks.