Doomer Optimism

A discussion of Chris' forthcoming book Saying No to a Farm-Free Future “Everyone in the food business needs to read this book. . . . [A] lively and superbly written polemic.”—Joel Salatin, co-founder of Polyface Farm A defense of agroecological, small-scale farming and a robust critique of an industrialized future. One of the few voices to challenge The Guardian‘s George Monbiot on the future of food and farming (and the restoration of nature) is academic, farmer and author of A Small Farm Future Chris Smaje. In Saying NO to a Farm-Free Future, Smaje presents his defense of small-scale farming and a robust critique of Monbiot’s vision for an urban and industrialized future.Responding to Monbiot’s portrayal of an urban, high-energy, industrially manufactured food future as the answer to our current crises, and its unchallenged acceptance within the environmental discourse, Smaje was compelled to challenge Monbiot’s evidence and conclusions. At the same time, Smaje presents his powerful counterargument – a low-carbon agrarian localism that puts power in the hands of local communities, not high-tech corporates.In the ongoing fight for our food future, this book will help you to understand the difference between a congenial, ecological living and a dystopian, factory-centered existence. A must-read! “Chris Smaje has laid down an indictment – as unremitting as it is undeniable – that cuts through the jargon-filled, techno-worshipping agricultural futurists who promise silver-bullet fixes for having your cake and eating it too. This brilliant and compelling book is at once hopeful and persuasive about the future of food.”—Dan Barber, chef at Blue Hill and author of The Third Plate Saying NO to a Farm-Free Future: The Case For an Ecological Food System and Against Manufactured Foods ‌https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/saying-no-to-a-farm-free-future/

Ashley speaks with Kate Parsons and Adam Mayfield about their wilderness survival skills school, the role of art in society, and mindfulness in practice. A wild ride! ‌ PRIMAL U designs and implements one-of-a-kind courses with experts in wilderness first aid, leadership, survival techniques, sustainability and mindfulness training. Primal U’s mission is to train individuals holistically, providing a space to learn and grow in an outdoor setting. Our new Primal U Artist Lecture Series showcases the practices of artists and creatives working in and with the natural world. Primal U is the brainchild of Rob Mullins, Kate Parsons, and Adam Mayfield. Parsons is an artist, educator, and co-founder of the virtual reality studio FLOAT. An Assistant Professor of Digital Arts at Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA and Instructor at Art Center College of Design, Parsons is a Montana-native who knows that country life and self-sufficiency still runs in her blood. Mayfield, who is from Los Angeles, is a mindfulness specialist, an actor (Ford vs. Ferrari, All My Children) and professional survival instructor. He is a longtime alum of Boulder Outdoor Survival School, where he taught traditional living skills to folks from all walks of life, from corporate executives and military personnel to artists and political activists. Adam is also a mentor for Inward Bound Mindfulness Education, a nonprofit organization that holds both traditional and outdoor excursion retreats across the US, Canada, and the UK, teaching mindfulness to teenagers and adults. Mullins, who hails from Ohio, is a homesteader, life & leadership coach, outdoor enthusiast, ultra-marathoner, and former executive at a Forbes 107 company. As a pharmacist, Rob has a lifetime of helping others and has had tremendous results coaching and mentoring leaders for career success. In addition he holds ACC accreditation from the International Coach Federation, is an Authorized Partner for Everything DiSC and is a registered Maine Outdoor Recreation and Hunting Guide. The three met when Parsons attended one of the wilderness training camps taught by Mullins and Mayfield at Thomas Coyne Survival Schools—one of the top survival schools worldwide. Since then, they have banded together to create a unique, hybrid curriculum: A combination of straightforward survival skills, wilderness first aid training, permaculture, mindfulness techniques and leadership coaching. ‌ Primal U Montana First Session: June 16, 17, 18 Second Session: June 23, 24, 25

Ashley speaks with Christopher Lasch’s biographer, Eric Miller, about all things Lasch, localism, and his forthcoming book on Wendell Berry. ‌ Eric Miller is professor of history and the humanities at Geneva College, in Beaver Falls, PA, where he directs the college’s honors program. He is the author of Hope in a Scattering Time: A Life of Christopher Lasch (2010) and Glimpses of Another Land: Political Hopes, Spiritual Longing (2012), and co-editor of Confessing History: Explorations in Christian Faith and the Historian’s Vocation (2010). He was the project director of a grant that assembled a team of international scholars to study Brazilian evangelicalism. Their book, Brazilian Evangelicalism in the Twenty-First Century: An Inside and Outside Look, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2019. Eric’s essays have appeared in a range of publications, including Commonweal, Front Porch Republic, and Christianity Today. He is the editor of the online journal of opinion Current. You can find his essays for Current here.

Don and Ashley chat with Steve Mouzon about all things New Urbanism, Wrath of Gnon, and the right approach to the 15 minute city. Steve Mouzon is an architect, urbanist, author, blogger, and photographer based in Tuscaloosa. He co-founded the Urban Guild, which was instrumental in the creation of the Katrina Cottages initiative. The Guild is the nexus of Project:SmartDwelling, which works to redefine the house to be much smaller and more sustainable. Steve speaks regularly across the US and abroad on sustainability issues. He blogs here on Original Green Stories, Useful Stuff, and We Do This Because... He also posts to the Original Green Twitter stream.

Today Jason is joined on the podcast by Daniel Schmachtenberger, a social philosopher whose central focus is civilization design and who is also a founding member of The Consilience Project, and Gregory Landua, the founder of Regen Network. What is “high nature,” and what is its relation to high-tech? Can both co-exist? Gregory, Daniel and Jason discuss how to apply tools of coordination and technology in a way that regenerates the planet rather than depletes it, the urgency to create local resilience, and the importance of improved coordination around carbon credits. Follow Daniel's work at civilizationemerging.com

Ashley and Dougald co-host Adam Greenfield to talk about his idea of LifeHouses as featured here https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/news/from-churches-to-lifehouses. Previously a rock critic, a bike messenger, a free-clinic medic and a sergeant in the US Army, Adam Greenfield has spent the past quarter-century thinking and working at the intersection of technology, design and politics with everyday life. Before founding his own practice, Urbanscale, in 2010, he worked as lead information architect for Razorfish in Tokyo and head of design direction for service and user interface design at Nokia headquarters outside Helsinki. Selected in 2013 as Senior Urban Fellow at the LSE Cities centre of the London School of Economics, he has taught in New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program and the Urban Design program of the Bartlett, University College London. His books include Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing, Urban Computing and Its Discontents, and the bestsellers Against the Smart City and Radical Technologies: The Design of Everyday Life. His next book is Beyond Hope: Collective Power and Mutual Care in the Long Emergency, coming next year from Verso. You can sign up for his irregular dispatches from London at http://tinyletter.com/speedbird , or connect with him on Mastodon at http://social.coop/@adamgreenfield Dougald Hine is a social thinker, writer, speaker and the co-founder of the Dark Mountain Project and a school called HOME. His latest book is At Work in the Ruins (2023) and he publishes new essays on his Substack, Writing Home. atworkintheruins | Instagram | Linktree His substack can be found at: Writing Home | Dougald Hine | Substack

Donald and Ashley interview Clare Coffey about her trio of articles at The New Atlantis: https://www.thenewatlantis.com/collections/phoneless-carless-friendless Clare Coffey is a writer living in Moscow, Idaho.

Alex Priou is Teaching Assistant Professor in the Herbst Program at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is the author of Becoming Socrates: Political Philosophy in Plato’s Parmenides from University of Rochester Press, as well as a number of articles and essays on the history of political philosophy. He has two books forthcoming this year, Defending Socrates: Political Philosophy Before the Tribunal of Science from Mercer University Press and Musings on Plato’s Symposium from Political Animal Press. And he is a cohost of the New Thinkery podcast: https://thenewthinkery.com/

Today Nate interviews Jacob Wolki from Wolki farms in Australia and is joined later in the episode by Geoff Long of Long Story Farms in South Carolina. They talk pasture agriculture, creative farm marketing strategies, homeschooling, and the relaxation benefits of luxuriating barefoot with cows in the shade. Nathan Gates is a licensed psychotherapist and co-host of Altered States of Context, a podcast about psychedelics, science and psychotherapy. In addition, he serves as president of the board for the Illinois Psychedelic Society and is a board advisor for Entheo Il, a group dedicated to the successful passage of Illinois HB1, the Compassionate Use and Research of Entheogens act. He also practices regenerative ranching and writes from his family's farm in rural west-central Illinois. He is a frequent guest and guest host for the Doomer Optimism podcast, a collective podcast dedicated to promotive creative and humane ways to engage with our social and environmental problems with creativity, hope, and good stewardship. Jacob Wolki, a passionate farmer based in Albury, NSW, is on a mission to change the modern-day dinner table. He's working hard to ensure more families have access to healthy, nutrient-dense, flavour-packed protein – because your family’s health is important. All animals on Wolki regenerative farm are raised on pasture, free from cages and chemicals. Jacob's not only creating superior quality produce, he's improving our landscape for generations to come. Jacob's mission takes a community effort, which is why he's spreading his message far and wide - so we can all eat better without it costing animal welfare or our environment. Geoffrey Long of Long Story Farms Long Story Farms is a family run farm in Newberry, South Carolina. Our story started with the pain of cancer taking loved ones. We felt food was part of the problem. That coupled with a dream of self sufficient living took us from a small backyard garden with 6 chickens to a farmstead that is growing into a true farm enterprise. Long Story Farms’ motto “with prudence and thanksgiving” encapsulates our goal to heal the earth through sustainable agriculture and to honor the lives of the animals we raise. Through eating close to the earth we believe we can heal our bodies while building community and creating a healthier relationship with food. Geoffrey works during the day as a finance guy but farms on the weekends, assisted by his wife and capable children who all still live on the farm. He is passionate about food, building and fixing things and loves to read when he has time.

Episode description: First time host Donald talks to Rita Koganzon about the politics and history of homeschooling and education in America. Rita Koganzon is assistant professor of political science at the University of Houston. Her research focuses on the themes of education, childhood, authority, and the family in historical and contemporary political thought. Her first book, Liberal States, Authoritarian Families: Childhood and Education in Early Modern Thought, examines the justifications for authority over children from Jean Bodin to Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Her writing has been published in the Hedgehog Review, National Affairs, The Point, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. ⁠https://thepointmag.com/examined-life/reasonable-education/⁠