DO 84 - KMO w/ Steven Morris and Ben Lee

KMO was probably the original doomer podcast host starting in the mid 2000s with his C-Realm Podcast. He interviewed many of the names we recognize now. JMG, James Howard Kunstler, Dmitry Orlov, and others. Listen in as hosts Steven and Ben follow KMO on his journey from Doomer to Optimist and his new podcast Padverb.  

KMO is the host and producer of the C-Realm Podcast, a cartoonist and author of the book ‘Conversations on Collapse.’ His full bio and links are here https://gebb.io/about-kmo-new/ The Padverb podcast with KMO https://en.padverb.com/s/padverb_podcast 

Ben @bennirubber grew up in upstate NY, got a bachelors in psychology from Wells College and works with the developmentally disabled in Auburn, NY. He got into learning about soil health and regenerative agriculture from David Montgomery’s books, a geomorpholigist in the interest of addressing climate change. Read more about the history of colonialism as it relates to ecological “changes in the land” (William Cronon) and indigenous cultures of North America (Shepherd Krech III).  Ben grew heavily interested in peak oil and the collapse of civilization from “overshoot” (William Catton) and found KMO’s C-Realm podcast at about the same time. After Covid settled down and growing nauseous toward any mindset that prescribed controlling the behavior of others, Ben settled into the collapse agnostic mindset but tried to do as much gardening around regular work and family life.  

Steven Morris started his journey into then unnamed realm of Doomer Optimism in 2011 when, during the time of a divorce, he stumbled upon 3 of the many early doomer optimist voices: Chris Martenson's Crash Course, John Michael Greer's blog The Archdruid Report, and KMO's C-Realm podcast. These 3 identified the many issues of decline in the world that he could sense but didn't have words for. At the same time they all provided positive possibilities for the future. Steven considers himself an amateur Renaissance Man and Polymath of sorts with a wide variety of interests including: appropriate use of technology, regenerative systems, explorations in consciousness, alternative (sometimes called complementary) currency systems, computer technology, and complex systems. He has worked on multiple award winning independent films, managed warehouse logistics for a small business, run a college radio station and lead ecstatic dance workshops. He is a trained Host for Nora Bateson's People Need People gatherings and recently completed work as video editor for the Commons Engine on their newly released Currency Design for Social Change master class on Udemy. Steven is committed to supporting people find their way through the rapidly changing chaos, especially those who don’t see themselves as homesteaders.