Crazy Town

The epidemic of loneliness isn't just a product of technology or even capitalism -- it has its roots in the same fertile ground as the founding of the United States. And it may just be the most important "ism" of all to escape as we enter the Great Unraveling of social and environmental systems.Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.Sources/Links/Notes:Definition of individualism from the American Psychological AssociationArticle in Opumo magazine - "Super singles: 10 coolest one seater cars"U.S. Surgeon General's 2023 report: Our Epidemic of Loneliness and IsolationBBC Loneliness ExperimentRobert Putnam's classic book - Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American CommunityCountry comparison tool for exploring Hofstede's Individualism IndexPart 1 of Post Carbon Institute's webinar on mutual aid; Part 2Donna M. Butts and Shannon E. Jarrott, "The Power of Proximity: Co-Locating Childcare and Eldercare Programs," Stanford Social Innovation Review, April 2021Pets for the ElderlyDean Spade's book - Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next)History of the free breakfast movement of the Black Panther PartyTeju Ravilochan, "The Blackfoot Wisdom that Inspired Maslow's Hierarchy"City of Knoxville program guide: Neighborhood Emergency Preparedness PlanSupport the show

Perhaps no community has undergone more versions of imperialism than the tiny island nation of Nauru, which has morphed from being "Pleasant Island" to the mined-out home of offshore banks, discarded refugees, and deep sea mining interests. Jason, Rob, and Asher take a bad trip to wrap their heads around Nauru, the topic of "psychedelic imperialism," and imperialism's new frontier - the clean energy transition.Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.Sources/Links/Notes:"A Dark History of the World's Smallest Island Nation" tells the tale of Nauru.S.J. Gale, "Lies and misdemeanours: Nauru, phosphate and global geopolitics," The Extractive Industries and Society, vol 6, July 2019.FAQs of the Metals CompanyEric Lipton's New York Times article about imperialistic mining of the Pacific Ocean floor.Mining Watch Canada questions the claims of the Metals Company.Elham Shabahat's article in Hakai Magazine, "Why Nauru Is Pushing the World Toward Deep-Sea Mining" Definition of imperialism from the Cornell Law SchoolJ.A. Hobson's book Imperialism: A StudyJason Hickel et al., "Imperialist appropriation in the world economy: Drain from the global South through unequal exchange, 1990-2015," Global Environmental Change, vol 73, March 2022.Critique of lithium extraction in the Atacama DesertIndigenous people's response to lithium mining in NevadaHow the Sami people are protesting Sweden's "green transformation"Episode 3 of the Holding the Fire podcast, featuring Sami leader Aslak HolmbergCobus van Staden on "Green Energy's Dirty Secret: Its Hunger for African Resources"Jim Robbins in Yale Environment 360 on "How Returning Lands to Native Tribes Is Helping Protect Nature""Indigenous Land Return Announcement by Sogorea Te’ Land Trust and Movement Generation!" -- article by Ines Ixierda"New Zealands's Maori fought for reparations -- and won"Support the show

Capitalism ruins SO many things, from key sectors like college sports all the way down to novelties like people's health and the environment. Jason, Rob, and Asher rely on their keen insight and otherworldly investigative talents to somehow unearth a few flaws of capitalism. But rather than wallow in the world of profiteering and privatization, they explore the solidarity economy and other alternatives to the "greed is good" way of running things.Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.Sources/Links/Notes:Wikipedia page “Nike and the University of Oregon”Joshua Hunt book: University of Nike: How Corporate Cash Bought American Higher Education.Erik Olin Wright, How to Be an Anticapitalist in the Twenty-First Century, Verso 2019.Thomas Piketty, Capital in the Twenty First Century, Harvard University Press 2014.Robert Heilbroner, The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers.Jeffrey Sachs, “Twentieth-Century Political Economy: A Brief History of Global Capitalism,” Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Vol. 15, No. 4.Summary of End Hedge Fund Control of American Homes ActDavid Bollier, The Commoner’s Catalog for ChangemakingLobbying to defeat bills that prohibit private prisonsMore lobbying in support of private prisonsIncredible drug price increase after hedge fund manager acquires itAnnual report of Weaver Street MarketDonnie Maclurcan's explanation of not-for-profit enterprisesRanking of the world's happiest countriesBoston Ujima ProjectAlfie Kohn,  No Contest: The Case Against Competition, Houghton Mifflin, 1992.B Corps and B LabDefinition of the solidarity economy from the New Economy CoalitionSupport the show

Grow or die. It's the governing principle of companies, investment portfolios, national economies, and even philanthropic foundations. Oh, and cancer. Asher, Jason, and Rob lay bare the stats on everything from human population, energy consumption, global GDP, greenhouse gas emissions, and the size of cars and cruise ships, before concluding that the global economy should be named after the Wendigo from Algonquian folklore. They turn to the natural world for examples of self-regulation, along with promising new economic frameworks and on-the-ground models, for how to end Wendigo economics before it ends us.Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.Sources/Links/Notes:Timeline of Sarah Winchester's storyTimeline of the largest passenger boatsParks and Rec clip on soda sizesKaitlin Smith, "More Than Monsters: The Deeper Significance of Wendigo Stories"Winona LaDuke discusses Wendigo economics in a Yes! Magazine online conversation.Hannah and Kevin Salwen, The Power of Half: One Family's Decision to Stop Taking and Start Giving BackCBS news story about a family giving away half their incomeSparkToro, an unusual tech company that doesn't believe bigger is betterReport: Resilient Biocultural Heritage Landscapes for Sustainable Mountain Development, which contains information about Peru's Potato ParkKrystyna Swiderska, "Here's why Indigenous economics is the key to saving nature"Al Bartlett lecturing on exponential growthSupport the show

From the top of a skyscraper in Dubai, Jason, Rob, and Asher chug margaritas made from the purest Greenland glacier ice as they cover the "merits" of globalism. International trade brings so many things, like murder hornets, piles of plastic tchotchkes, and deadly supply chain disruptions. The opposite of globalism is localism -- learn how to build a secure local economy that can keep Asher alive, hopefully at least through the end of the season.Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.Sources/Links/Notes:Guardian article about shipping Greenland glacier ice to DubaiWired article that tells the story of the Ever Given and all the supply chain problems that ensuedThe Observatory of Economic Complexity compiles statistics on global economic activity with interesting graphics, including this profile of China's trade.Michael Carolan's book Cheaponomics: The High Cost of Low Prices, and his follow-up book The Real Cost of Cheap FoodVasilis Kostakis's article on cosmolocalismVicki Robin's book Blessing the Hands that Feed UsWebsite for FibershedMolly Scott Cato's book The Bioregional Economy: Land, Liberty, and the Pursuit of HappinessSupport the show

Modern humans have a Stockholm Syndrome relationship to technology, which has kidnapped us while convincing us it has our best interests in mind. But when one looks back at the history of plastics or the current frenzy around AI, it isn't hard to see the insanity of doubling down on new technology to save us from previous technology. Find out what a person or society can actually do to develop a healthy, non-abusive relationship with technology, aside from joining an Amish community or going "full Kaczynski."Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.Sources/Links/Notes:Moriah McDonald reports on the big underestimates of Greenland ice loss in Inside Climate News.Typical article about how AI can solve climate changeAnother such article about the "magic" of AIAnd another -- sheesh (no wonder Jason was so upset)!Report on the future of petrochemicals from the International Energy AgencyKelly Oakes of the BBC asks, "What would happen if we stopped using plastic?"Website of The Ocean CleanupLow Tech MagazineLow Technology Institute's 10-Mile Building ChallengeSulan Chen writes for UNDP, "A global treaty to end plastic pollution is in sight."BBC reporting on the EU's efforts to regulate AISupport the show

Consult your inner tortoise to find novel ways of slowing down and living the good life. In a world haunted by just-in-time delivery, hyperactive business, accelerating environmental calamities, and metric tons of stress, Jason, Rob, and Asher work at a fast and furious pace to savor the moments, because there aren't many left.Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.Sources/Links/Notes:Top 10 most unrealistic car crashes in moviesClip from the movie The Blues BrothersClip from the movie SpeedClip from the movie Live Free or Die HardClip from the movie Furious 7Definition  of high frequency tradingGraphical representation of the Great AccelerationInterview with Hartmut RosaBart Zantvoort's article about Harmut Rosa's workArticle about social acceleration by Bettina Hollstein and Hartmut Rosa in the Journal of Business EthicsPodcast episode about shrinking attention spans (episode 225 of Speaking of Psychology)Article about technology and perception of time by Fiona MacDonald in ScienceAlertSupport the show

Did a whimsical 1960s TV sitcom presage climate migration and a reversal of urban growth? We're not calling for a Godzilla-esque teardown of cities, but climate change is forcing a serious urban rethink. Jason, Rob, and Asher offer visions of better infrastructure, policies, and culture that you can embrace, even if your home is in the city.Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.Sources/Links/Notes:Wikipedia page for Paul Henning, creative force behind the spate of 1960s rural sitcoms.The Rural Climate Dialogues: A Community-Driven Roadmap for Climate Action in Rural Minnesota is a report by Tara Ritter with good summary statistics on the rural U.S.“Total and urban population” in UNCTAD Handbook of Statistics 2023.United Nations prediction about urban migration.“Out-of-Towners Head to ‘Climate-Proof Duluth,’” article by Debra Kamin in the New York Times.“Indonesia Is Moving its Capital to a Futuristic, Green City,” article by Katherine McLaughlin in Architectural Digest.Anthropogenic mass – the weight of everything humanity has built, statistics from the World Economic Forum..Analysis of transportation-related energy consumption and urban density, published in “U.S. Cities Factsheet” from the University of Michigan Center for Sustainable Systems.The 15-Minute CityRetrosuburbia: The Downshifter’s Guide to a Resilient Future, book by David Holmgren.Global Ecovillage NetworkDaily ActsStoveTeam InternationalOne Planet CouncilSupport the show

If American consumers ever come up for air under the pile of crap in their storage units, they find themselves face to face with a materialistic hellscape of megastores, McMansions, endless fleets of delivery trucks, and evil hordes of targeted ads. But help is on the way. Jason, Rob, and Asher present ideas for shaping up a world beyond consumerism.Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.Sources/Links/Notes:The original (and both catchy and annoying) Toys “R” Us theme songThe melancholy remake of the theme song for a bankrupt Toys “R” Us, performed by Chase HolfelderU.S. Material Use FactsheetUnited Nations statistics on material footprintSelf storage industry trendsThe environmental costs of fast fashionStory by Beth Porter, “What Really Happens to Unwanted Clothes?”Forbes list of billionairesGeorge Carlin’s classic comedic bit about “stuff”Sandra Goldmark’s book Fixation: How to Have Stuff without Breaking the PlanetSupport the show

Jason, Rob, and Asher take a tour of New Caledonia, California's Central Valley, Bhutan, and Cuba to uncover the ins and outs of industrialism, especially as it has been applied to agriculture. Along the way they riff on how the hell we can escape from an -ism that completely engulfs us.Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.Sources/Links/Notes:Tom Murphy “does the math” on declining wild mammal mass.Understanding the primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary sectors of the economy.USDA graphic and statistics on the scale of family farms.Our World in Data: “Farm Size and Productivity”.Video clip from Jon Stewart on The Daily Show.Hossain, S., Jami, A.T. (2023). “Opportunities and Challenges in Sustainable Development and Governance in South Asia: Case Study of Bhutan.” In: Wu, HH., Liu, WY., Huang, M.C. (eds) Moving Toward Net-Zero Carbon Society. Springer Climate.Arch Ritter, “Can Cuba Recover from its De-Industrialization?”.Julia Wright, “The Little-Studied Success Story of Post-Crisis Food Security in Cuba: Does Lack of International Interest Signify Lack of Political Will?” International Journal of Cuban Studies, vol. 4, no. 2, 2012, pp. 130–53.Support the show