Doomer Optimism

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),

John Klar is an attorney, regenerative farmer, and author living in Vermont. He has just published the book “Small Farm Republic” (Chelsea Green). This book gallops through major themes describing the economic, environmental, political, and social unsustainability of industrial ag, and issues a passion-inflected call for a return to the land and small-to-mid-scale regenerative farming practices. Along the way John acknowledges his influences and sources of inspiration through well-chosen quotes from luminaries including Wendell Berry, Joel Salatin, Chris Smaje, Aldo Leopold, and EF Schumacher. Klar’s writing penetrates complex issues of climate change, soil erosion, biodiversity loss, water overuse and pollution, reliance on fossil fuels and toxic agrichemicals, animal welfare, and human health. While many of these topics are stock-in-trade for those identified as progressives or on the political left, Klar makes a compelling case why self-identified conservatives must care about these challenges and take action. Ultimately his arguments transcend superficial left/right, liberal/conservative distinctions and point the way towards a common ground that humans can come together on to heal our communities, our economy, and the ecosphere. In this jaunting conversation, Klar and Kearns talk about Klar’s Vermont farming experiences where he and his wife Jackie have currently or previously raised sheep cows, goats, and draft horses; developed a goat milk and cheese small business; fought for on-farm slaughter rights with VT state regulators; and raised children in an empowering and healthy environment. John’s writings on farming, politics, and culture can be found at or accessed through his Substack site: johnklar.substack.com

In this episode, Jason speaks with D. Mason (@dkpmason) about his life growing up in ghettos, trailer parks, and the woods in Alabama and Appalachia, learning to live off the land and becoming the Dirt Mage, getting a felony for growing and trading weed and mushrooms which many venture capitalists are now getting rich on, anarcho-communism, community empowering technology, the pitfalls of both the dissident Right and techno-modern Left, localism and cultural tensions, the importance and limits of difficult conversations, and much more

Matthew Loftus and Medical Nemesis join occasional first-time host Donald to talk about medicine and 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.com Matthew Loftus @‌matthew_loftus lives in Kenya with his family, where he teaches and practices Family Medicine. You can learn more about his work and writing at https://matthewandmaggie.org/write

Ashley and Jason interview Jim Rutt, co-founder of Game B, a complexity-informed social movement aimed at creating systems change towards an intelligent and cooperative society. They discuss the evolution of Game B, the theory of change, current efforts to develop viable ‘proto-B’ communities, overlaps with Doomer Optimism, and much more Jim Rutt is the former CEO of Network Solutions. The New York Times once referred to him as “the Internet’s bad boy” due to his reputation for creative mischief. He sold Network Solutions at the peak of the Dot Com boom and then went into scientific research. Jim has been affiliated with the Santa Fe Institute since 2002, serving as Chairman from 2009 thru 2012. A few of his other projects are summarized in his mini-bio at https://www.santafe.edu/people/profile/jim-rutt.

A rollicking conversation with Chris Mott of "Woke Imperium" fame. We checked in on geopolitics and ideology and how these have influenced current events and crazy trends in journalism, academia, gov't, NGOs, and the PMC in general. One fulcrum of the conversation was how the DC pride celebration has evolved over recent years to be dominated by the military-industrial-complex (Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, the CIA, McKinsey, the Pentagon, etc. all doing big floats and extravagant productions attesting to their woke cred), and how all this reflects the consummation of the marriage of progressive culture war social justice politics with neconservatism, and the seamless interplay between supposedly humanitarian intervention and militarism in the Establishments monomaniacal neoliberal messianism.

Break-It-Down Austin – Food waste hauling, composting & creative resource recovery Jeff Paine and Josh Kearns Jeff Paine is co-founder and co-owner with his wife Mel MacFarlane of the Austin, TX based Break-It-Down. http://breakitdownaustin.com Formed in 2009 out of the couples’ rented duplex to provide a yoga studio, a coffee shop, and a juice bar with a way to steer their compostable waste away from the landfill and into something ecologically friendly, Break-It-Down has grown into business serving around 800 clients in the greater Austin area, and as far south as San Antonio and as far north as Waco. In this conversation, Jeff and Josh sketch the history of Break-It-Down, the challenges they have faced, the successes they’ve attained, the quirks, the headaches, the lessons learned, and the creativity that goes into their innovative R&D processes for figuring out better things to do with food waste than entombing it in a landfill. In their schema, composting is the lowest rung on the resource recovery ladder. Their current food waste upcycling repertoire includes high-end dog food and treats [theconsciouspet.life], and nutrient rich bonemeal fertilizer for gardeners and landscapers. In this wide-ranging convo Jeff and Josh (@hillbillynarnia) talk about the advantages and disadvantages of an academic path in life compared with on-the-job-training earned from developing a small business. And they talk about how this affects Jeff and Mel’s philosophy as parents, in particular how it informs their non-traditional approach to schooling for their two sons.