Doomer Optimism

Ashley and Evan discuss global supply chains and suggest a synthesis between globalism and localism.

Chris, Shaun, and Jason record a follow up conversation to an earlier one between Shaun and Jason (found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yni0F-3VVxo&t=1174s ) talking about the intersections of Chris’s vision of a Small Farm Future and Shaun’s of Lean Logic, and particularly the cultural and spiritual dimensions of collapse and regeneration, as well as the more near term conflicting urban/rural class politics involved

Braxton sits down with Ashley and Roland to discuss localism, agriculture, community, and that controversial new country music singer Oliver Anthony!

James, Keturah, Andy, and Donald talk about America and literature and American literature, its limits and possibilities.

Chuck and Saundra Lewis operate Sheraton Park Farms – a 70-acre regenerative farming operation nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountain of Wilkes County, NC. Starting from a single chicken tractor with 25 broiler chickens in 2018, Chuck and Saundra have grown their operation to raising meat birds, egg layers, turkeys, pigs, and cows – and earning a respectable income. In this fast-paced conversation, Josh and Chuck discuss economic, practical, and psychological barriers to getting more people involved in diverse, decentralized, small-scale regenerative ag, along with tools, tips, tricks, and ideas for overcoming those barriers. They talk about Chuck’s philosophy for utilizing social media and YouTube to promote an authentic experience for Sheraton Park’s customer to know their food and their farmers. They highlight challenges, weaknesses, and pitfalls, and lessons learned for bootstrapping a small farm operation and cultivating a customer base willing to pay a premium for healthy, local, clean meat from ethically raised animals. Sheraton Park Farms YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@SheratonParkFarms/featured

David Caley and Medical Nemesis join Donald to talk about Ivan Illich.Medical Nemesis wonders why Ivan Illich’s book Medical Nemesis has not taken hold in any part of our culture and how to make practical use of this knowledge. @‌Medical_Nemesis / https://medicalnemesis.substack.comDavid Cayley is a Toronto-based Canadian writer and broadcaster, who is known for documenting the philosophy of prominent thinkers of the 20th century - Ivan Illich, Northrop Frye, George Grant, and Rene Girard. His biography of Ivan Illich is available from Penn State University Press: https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-08812-9.html

In this episode, Jason and Patrick Heizer speak to Kristina Bostick about the Montgomery County Agricultural Reserve. Directly northwest of Washington DC, Montgomery County is Maryland's most populated county, with well over one million residents. In 1980, the Montgomery County Council made one of the most significant land-use decisions in US history by creating the Agricultural Reserve. Heralded as one of the best examples of land conservation policies in the country, the Agricultural Reserve encompasses 93,000 contiguous acres – almost a third of the country’s land. Today, the Reserve comprises hundreds of working farms that produce a variety of products plus trails and parks for public use. Moreover, it provides habitat for wildlife, helps the region meet its clean water commitments to the Chesapeake Bay, hosts educational field trips for schools and is a hub of agritourism, and much more, all within 30 minutes of Washington, DC. Kristina Bostick is Senior Conservation Associate at the Montgomery Countryside Alliance (https://www.mocoalliance.org/). She grew up in Montgomery County (hiking Sugarloaf every year on her birthday) and has returned after a number of years in North Carolina where she earned her Masters in Public Administration and worked on numerous environmental issues, including stormwater mitigation and greening local governments. Kristina values all the ways the Ag Reserve benefits the Chesapeake Bay region but nothing beats the excitement of a weekly CSA box or the first peaches of summer, all grown right here! Patrick Heizer is a simple guy. He is a husband and a father who is a research & development biomedical engineer at AstraZeneca and a permaculture farmer in Frederick County, Maryland. He writes The Counterpoint substack and can be found on Twitter @PatrickHeizer (https://twitter.com/PatrickHeizer). Montgomery Countryside Alliance is a small (but mighty!) nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection of Montgomery County's 40-year commitment to thriving farms - the Agricultural Reserve. The Reserve is a unique zoning framework that has prioritized growth near transit and keeping small family farms on the landscape near a busy metro area. MCA's Programs include: Land Link - Matching new and expanding farmers with landowners offering long-term leases in Montgomery County (http://www.mocolandlink.org/) Re-Leaf the Reserve - MCA's program in partnership with Park and Planning's Tree Montgomery to re-forest stream buffers with forest conservation easements (https://www.mocoalliance.org/releaf.html) Join us for the Ride for the Reserve Bike Tour on 9/24/23 (https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ride-for-the-ag-reserve-bike-tour-and-festival-tickets-676420862007?aff=oddtdtcreator) Our Linktree: https://linktr.ee/mocoalliance Other resources I shared: Land For Good (Land Purchase and Lease Resources) (https://landforgood.org/) Future Harvest Farmer Training (https://futureharvest.org/programs/beginner-farmer-training-program/) ECO City Incubator/Training (https://www.ecoffshoots.org/) Pro Publica Interactive Climate Changes Map of US (https://projects.propublica.org/climate-migration/)

In this episode Jason talks with Farahn Morgan about growing up in Appalachia, moving to DC and going to college, moving back home near her family and community, and her work in news, journalism, and how she frames it: storytelling. They dig into the nature of ‘expertise’, culture, folk traditions and how they are exploited, making a living in the modern political economy and the difficulties of doing that while still preserving traditional lifeways, the blessing and curse of the coal industry, the current story she’s working on looking into wildcrafting and how it connects to the Cherokee side of her ancestry, deaths of despair, the importance of choosing to build a home and connect to place despite the currents working against it, the importance of learning from elders, her views on the Foxfire series, book recommendations for understanding Appalachia, and much more. *Note, there is a bonus section at the end where the formal conversation wrapped up but they accidentally didn’t stop recording the more informal discussion, which they both decided to leave in Bio: Farahn is a writer living and working at home in Appalachia. After spending nearly a decade in politics and media in Washington, D.C., she returned to Southwest Virginia and Eastern Kentucky to be close to her family, understand their history and traditions more intimately, and re-establish her connection to the land and herself. She is still learning. Read her words at http://LongRoadHome.substack.com, County Highway, RealClearBooks & Culture, The Washington Examiner, and WrongSpeak.

Shaun and Jason have a conversation about some of the major themes and projects that Shaun has been developing in collaboration with others, including Dark Optimism, Lean Logic, and Surviving the Future. They discuss biophysical collapse, the prefiguration of what comes after, what the trajectories of George Monbiot and Paul Kingsnorth indicate about the larger society, how Doomer Optimism follows in the footsteps and shares an affinity with Dark Optimism but with an American sensibility, and much more Shaun’s Bio: Shaun quit his job in 2005 to explore full-time the beliefs and 'myths’ charting society's course towards collapse. And, in particular, how we might - individually or collectively - change direction before we end up where we are headed. He collaborated closely with the late David Fleming, later bringing his award-winning 'Lean Logic' and 'Surviving the Future' to posthumous publication, and now leads Sterling College's online program ‘Surviving the Future: Conversations for Our Time’, grounded in the books. He co-founded Transition Town Kingston and in 2009 authored the Transition movement’s second book, before becoming chair of the Ecological Land Co-operative and, later, one of Extinction Rebellion's first arrestees. Meanwhile, he puts the theory into practice as one of six custodians of Ireland's legendary free pub and land-based community 'The Happy Pig'. Website: http://darkoptimism.org The Happy Pig: http://mstdn.social/@DarkOptimism/109410285273214948… ‘Surviving the Future: Conversations for Our Time’ online programs and community through Vermont's Sterling College: http://ce.sterlingcollege.edu/surviving-the-future… Books: http://darkoptimism.org/books Free access to Lean Logic in full: http://leanlogic.online Shaun’s personal mailing list: http://flemingpolicycentre.org.uk/newsletter/

In this episode Jason speaks with Alex Corren (@arcorren ) about his organization ReCommon (@ReCommon_Land) which aims to address the logistics and financing around land access and tenure for regenerative stewardship, in particular catalyzing the creation of a network of bioregionally embedded regenerative land trusts. They also touch on the shared vision of ‘networked bioregionalism’ as the most viable and hopeful path for the future Bio: Alex is an impact entrepreneur, regenerative systems architect, and permaculture designer living in the mountains of Colorado. He has experience in various fields of ecology, science, and technology with a focus on systemic solutions to the converging crises of our time. Alex is the Executive Director and co-founder of ReCommon, a nonprofit building tool for regenerative community land tenure. In particular, ReCommon is building a platform to support a globally distributed network of resilient bioregional communities and landscape regeneration. Website: https://www.recommon.land/ Personal Twitter: https://twitter.com/arcorren ReCommon Twitter: https://twitter.com/ReCommon_Land  (just changed from our old handle @‌RegenCLT … might have mentioned the old one in the podcast recording),