Crazy Town

Post Carbon Institute
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Nov 5, 2025 • 51min

Searching for the Golden Toad with Kyle and Trevor Ritland

Frog and Toad Are Friends, at least according to a venerable children’s book. And so are Jason (Crazy Town’s resident biology nerd) and conservationist brothers, Kyle and Trevor Ritland, authors of The Golden Toad: An Ecological Mystery and the Search for a Lost Species. The three eco-explorers connect over wondrous habitats and critters in Costa Rica's cloud forest and swap stories that cover Lazarus species, global pandemics, self-taught naturalists, birding, and even pregnancy tests. Spliced into the nostalgia and stories are reflections on how to cope in a world where biodiversity is declining and how to regain the connections that modernity has severed between humanity and wild nature. Originally recorded on 10/9/25.Sources/Links/Notes:Kyle and Trevor Ritland, The Golden Toad: An Ecological Mystery and the Search for a Lost Species, Diversion Books, 2025.Adventure Term, Kyle and Trevor's nonprofit experiential learning initiativeRelated episode(s) of Crazy Town:Episode 40, "Nature Detachment and Ecocide, or… the Story of the Marauding Mountain Lion"Episode 49, "A Day at the Zoo Is No Walk in the Park: Humanity’s Overexploitation of Animals and Nature"
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Oct 22, 2025 • 57min

Unsung Heroes: Sustainability Gurus Who Influenced the Crazy Town Worldview

Some key understandings in Crazy Town: the Earth is finite; the economy cannot grow forever; people can harm ecosystems and cause global warming; physics, chemistry, and biology are real; inequality hurts everyone; healthy humans need community, and it’s more fun to laugh than to cry. But where did principles like these originate? In this episode, Jason, Asher, and Rob use the format of a fantasy football draft to pick the pundits who most influenced their thinking on sustainability, resilience, community, science, economics, and politics. Like starry-eyed fanboys (but hopefully a bit more articulate) they gush over their heroes and tell behind-the-scenes stories about how they came to be influenced. And they ask listeners to share their top picks for influencers (in the best sense of the term). Originally recorded on 9/29/25. Visit Crazy Town on the web.
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Oct 8, 2025 • 45min

Burned by Billionaires, with Chuck Collins

Billionaires. They should be objects of scorn rather than envy. While they ride around in their super-yachts and private jets, producing the climate-damaging pollution of entire nations, they’re doing things to extract even more wealth, harm your health, diminish democracy, and rig the whole system in their favor. How did this happen? Why do we tolerate it? How can we stop the billionaires? And can we get a hold of our own super-yacht for Crazy Town pleasure cruises? Chuck Collins returns to Crazy Town to offer insights from his new book, Burned by Billionaires: How Concentrated Wealth and Power Are Ruining Our Lives and Planet. Originally recorded on 10/3/25.Sources/Links/Notes:Chuck Collins, Burned by Billionaires: How Concentrated Wealth and Power Are Ruining Our Lives and Planet, The New Press, October 2025.Chuck Collins, Born on Third Base: A One Percenter Makes the Case for Tackling Inequality, Bringing Wealth Home, and Committing to the Common Good, Chelsea Green Publishing, September 2016.Chuck Collins, The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions, Polity, January 2022.Related episode(s) of Crazy Town:Episode 10, "Tackling Inequality, One Pair of Lederhosen at a Time"Episode 43, "Overproduction of Elites and Political Upheaval, or... the Story of Rich People Doing Stupid Things"
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Sep 24, 2025 • 59min

Crazy Town Classics - Maximum Power and Scarcity, or... the Story of the Birdbrained Backhoe on the Beach

The “maximum power principle” may sound like the doctrine of an evil supervillain, but it actually applies to all living creatures. The principle states that biological systems organize to increase power whenever constraints allow. Given the way humans adhere to this principle, especially by overexploiting fossil fuels, we often do behave like supervillains, wielding power in wildly irresponsible ways and triggering climate change, biodiversity loss, and other aspects of our sustainability predicament. Sometimes it seems like we’re using a backhoe to dig our own grave. Fortunately, once you understand efficiency and its different flavors, you can see opportunities to optimize power rather than maximize it. While considering the outlook for humanity, the Crazy Townies ponder a weird question: are we smarter than reindeer? Richard Heinberg, author of Power: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival, joins the team to share his research on how people can optimize power. Originally recorded on May 6, 2021.Sources/Links/Notes:Richard Heinberg’s book is Power: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival.John DeLong’s definition of the maximum power principle is that biological systems organize to increase power whenever the system constraints allow.DeLong also wrote: “The maximum power principle predicts the outcomes of two-species competition experiments“.Statistics on the Bagger 293 bucket-wheel excavatorDams powered airplane and ship building in the Pacific Northwest (Bonneville and Grand Coulee Dams).The cross-Atlantic sailing voyage of Greta ThunbergShort comic with the story of reindeer on St. Matthew IslandEpisode of the Radiolab podcast with a wild story about mTORSupport the show
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Sep 10, 2025 • 36min

Et Tu, Bhutan? Cryptocurrency and Late-Stage Capitalism

Explore Bhutan's radical departure from traditional capitalism with its Gross National Happiness philosophy. Discover how Bhutan's embrace of Bitcoin reveals the pitfalls of techno-capitalism. The hosts debate the environmental costs of crypto mining and reflect on the irony of consumerism. They then search for positive global examples, like Nunavut's Inuit self-governance and Wales' well-being legislation. Ultimately, the discussion highlights the importance of prioritizing well-being over profit in our economic systems.
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Aug 27, 2025 • 1h 3min

Artifacts of Collapse: Touring the Crazy Town Museum

In this episode we travel in time to the year 2125, to visit the Crazy Town museum, which showcases today’s world of wanton consumption and profligate waste. How will humans in 2125 – if there are any of us left – judge the things everyone sees as normal today? Jason, Rob, and Asher take turns serving as expert curators of this future museum, nominating items that best encapsulate how foolish and environmentally ruinous our priorities are. At the end we call on you, dear listener, to share what you would include in the museum.Originally recorded on 7/11/25. Visit Crazy Town on the web.(Spoiler Alert) View Artifacts in the Museum:Sportscar hopping from skyscraper to skyscraper (from the movie Furious 7)"Ronnie Fieg Has Mastered The Art Of Collecting" in Haute MagazineEcho PB-9010T backpack leaf blowerSoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, CaliforniaRonald Reagan’s 1985 inaugural addressBarbie Pool Party PlaysetThe world's biggest landfill in Las Vegas, NevadaThe world's largest cruise ship, Royal Caribbean Icon of the SeasJimmy Dean blueberry pancakes and sausage on a stickSupport the show
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Aug 13, 2025 • 1h 27min

Crazy Town Classics - Net Energy and Sustainability, or… the Story of the Overstuffed Strongman

All of humanity’s feats, whether a record-setting deadlift by the world’s strongest man or the construction of a gleaming city by a technologically advanced economy, originate from a single hidden source: positive net energy. Having surplus energy in the form of thirteen pounds of food per day enables a very big man, Hafthor Bjornsson, to lift very big objects. Similarly, having surplus energy in the form of fossil fuel enables very big societies to build and trade very big piles of stuff. Maybe Hafthor has a rock-solid plan for keeping his dinner plate well stocked, but no society seems ready to have a mature conversation about how our sprawling cities and nations will manage as net energy declines. Calling our conversation “mature” might be a stretch, but at least we’re willing to address climate change, sustainability, and the rest of the net energy conundrum head on. Alice Friedemann, author of Life after Fossil Fuels, joins the conversation. Originally recorded on April 10, 2021.Support the show
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Jul 30, 2025 • 53min

Just One Word: Microplastics, with Matt Simon

Put on your best polyester pants, grab a bunch of gleaming mylar balloons, and crack open a case of bottled water. In today's episode, we're entering the plastic world of plastic pollution in all its glorious plasticity. We're on the hunt for microplastics – and we won’t have to go very far, as they're present everywhere – in the soil, in the water, in the air, and in our bodies. We'll be looking for systemic solutions and talking with Matt Simon, author of the book A Poison Like No Other. Originally recorded on 7/10/25. Visit Crazy Town on the web.Sources/Links/Notes:Matt Simon, A Poison Like No Other: How Microplastics Corrupted Our Planet and Our Bodies, Island Press, October 27, 2022.Katie Okamoto, "Microplastics Are Everywhere. Here’s How to Avoid Eating Them." New York Times, April 21, 2025.Ocean Cleanup (large organization with a popular, but frustrating, ecomodernist approach to plastic pollution).Jen Fela, "Global Plastics Treaty Delayed, but Not Defeated," Earth Island Journal, December 11, 2024.Related episode(s) of Crazy Town:Episode 84, "Escaping Technologyism"Support the show
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Jul 16, 2025 • 57min

Crazy Town Classics - Lord of the Swans: The Tragedy of the Enclosure of the Commons

The “tragedy of the commons” is an idea that has so thoroughly seeped into culture and law that it seems normal for people and corporations to own land, water, and even whole ecosystems. But there’s a BIG problem: the “tragedy” part of it has been debunked – it really should be the triumph of the commons. Learn the origin story of privatization and explore the true meaning of commons and how to manage them for sustainability and equity. Also check out our suggestions for championing the commons (beyond Robin Hood’s strategy of stabbing the aristocracy). Originally recorded on 2/10/22.Sources/Links/Notes:The oddity of the queen’s ownership of swansMore about the swansAn Act Concerning Swans (1482)Simon Fairlie wrote the article “A Short History of Enclosure in Britain” in The Land (2009).  Briony McDonagh and Carl Griffin wrote “Occupy! Historical geographies of property, protest and the commons, 1500-1850,” Journal of Historical Geography (2016).Stephen Knight of the University of Melbourne writes about Robin Hood and the Forest Laws.Stephen Quilley & Katharine Zywert wrote the article “Livelihood, Market and State: What Does a Political Economy Predicated on the ‘Individual-in-Group-in-Place’ Actually Look Like?,” Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(15), pages 1-23, July 2019.Munro Fraser and Thomas Mande wrote a report called The Commons in a Wellbeing Economy, a briefing paper published by the Wellbeing Economy Alliance.David Bollier wrote the outstanding and super-readable book The Commoner’s Catalog for Changemaking: Tools for the Transitions Ahead.   On the Commons has been helping to build a commons movement since 2001.  Peter Barnes has written many articles and books about property rights and the commons.“Elinor Ostrom’s 8 rules for managing the commons” based on Derek Wall’s book Elinor Ostrom’s Rules for RadicalsSupport the show
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Jul 2, 2025 • 48min

Will Trump's Tariffs Fuel or Foil the Degrowth Movement?

As Trump’s tariffs kick in, the Republican party is suddenly spouting anti-consumerist rhetoric that would make the Lorax smile. Should we cheer on this accidental experiment in economic shrinkage, or will this ham-fisted set of trade policies cause a backlash against the proponents of degrowth? As political confusion reigns, we offer eco-localism as the no-regrets way to build community resilience in the face of unprecedented ineptitude that probably won’t go away anytime soon. Originally recorded on 6/16/25.Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.Sources/Links/Notes:Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, Abundance, Avid Reader Press, March 2025.UN Alliance For Sustainable Fashion addresses the damage of ‘fast fashion’Kelsey Piper, "Trump’s bizarre new push to make us poorer," Vox, February 7, 2025.Kenneth Pucker, "Lessons From Trump’s Degrowth Experiment," Business of Fashion, May 9, 2025.Kenneth Bradsher, "China’s Chokehold on This Obscure Mineral Threatens the West’s Militaries," New York Times, June 9, 2025.Adam Tooze, "Trump's futurism: Elon's rockets and fewer dolls for "baby girl," Chartbook, May 6, 2025."The End of Fast Fashion?," The Daily, May 15, 2025.Kurt Cobb, "Trade war vise grip: China is squeezing rare earth supply and it’s hurting," Resilience, June 8, 2025."Derek Thompson: Trump's War on Dolls," The Bulwark, May 2, 2025.Richard Heinberg, "How Eco-Localism Differs from Tariff Terrorism," Resilience, April 17, 2025.Related episode(s) of Crazy Town:Episode 86, "Escaping Growthism"Episode 94, “Breaking News: Crazy Town joins the newly formed Department of Entropy”Support the show

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