Crazy Town
With equal parts humor and in-depth analysis, Asher, Rob, and Jason safeguard their sanity while probing crazy-making topics like climate change, overshoot, runaway capitalism, and why we’re all deluding ourselves. Each fortnightly episode helps you understand the “Great Unraveling” of our environmental and social systems and describes how we can make the transition to a sustainable and equitable world. If you’re someone who questions the trajectory of society and struggles to understand why most people would rather eat nachos on the deck of the “SS Denial” than face reality, you’ll find community and plenty of laughs in Crazy Town.Brought to you by https://www.resilience.org/ and the unconventional minds at Post Carbon Institute, a nonprofit think tank that builds awareness of the polycrisis and prescribes community resilience-building as the most appropriate response.Your hosts:Asher Miller - Nonprofit executive director by day, apocalypse comedian by night. Feels most at home exploring insanity-inducing topics while trying not to spill coffee on his keyboard as he convulses over the latest ecomodernist fantasy. In danger of losing his mind every time he encounters someone using a gas-powered blower to move leaves from one spot to another.Rob Dietz - Jack-of-all-trades environmental scientist, conservation biologist, and ecological economist with a penchant for relating planetary overshoot to the catalog of movie scenes that play on a continuous loop in his colonized brain. Known for inserting random ecological facts into casual conversation, often in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s voice. His friends call him “pessimistically hilarious.”Jason Bradford - Activist farmer and former encyclopedia salesman with a PhD in plant ecology who gets genuinely excited discussing soil microbes and societal collapse in the same breath. Morally opposed to doomsday prepping, but predisposed toward sharing everything he keeps in his bunker, er root cellar, including potatoes, wine, and a 47-month supply of scientific esoterica and embarrassing anecdotes.These guys are the Three Stooges of sustainability podcasting, although they tend toward scientific analysis, righteous outrage, and self-deprecation rather than beating each other up with hand tools. How can they have this much fun while contemplating collapse and navigating the Great Unraveling?Heartfelt thanks to the team at Post Carbon Institute, our volunteers, and all our fellow Crazy Townies out there who help bring this podcast to life.
Latest episodes
Aug 9, 2023 • 52min
Bonus: Choose Your Own Adventure in the Great Unraveling
After hearing a story of woe on the streets of Portland, Oregon, Jason, Rob, and Asher cover the four critical ways of cultivating personal resilience to navigate the Great Unraveling. The report we reference several times is Welcome to the Great Unraveling: Navigating the Polycrisis of Environmental and Social Breakdown.Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.Support the show
Jun 21, 2023 • 1h 25min
The Surest Paths to a Hard Collapse: The Delusional Doctrines of the Phalse Prophethood (Season Wrap-up)
Asher, Rob, and Jason explore the lessons and dangers of the brotherhood of Phalse Prophets and consider better ways to achieve a sustainable and equitable society. Along the way, they examine how to start a cult, turn the insufferability index on themselves, respond to listener feedback, and repeatedly mispronounce amygdala. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation.Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the definitive peer-reviewed taxonomic analysis from our very own Jason Bradford, PhD. Support the show
Jun 14, 2023 • 1h 10min
The Elon Musk Episode about Elon Musk Brought to You by Elon Musk
Meet Elon Musk, the Muskian mogul who Elon Musks his way to the pinnacle of Muskitude. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation.Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the definitive peer-reviewed taxonomic analysis from our very own Jason Bradford, PhD. Sources/Links/Notes:Prepare to be wowed by the Musk Foundation website.Luc Olinga, "Errol Musk, Elon's Dad, Prompts a New Controversy," TheStreet (2022).Musk's attack on Jane GoodallCade Metz and Neal E. Boudette, "Inside Tesla as Elon Musk Pushed an Unflinching Vision for Self-Driving Cars," The New York Times (2021).Andrew J. Hawkins and Umar Shakir, "Elon Musk unveils a new Master Plan, a path to sustainable energy future, but no new cars," The Verge (2023).Adam Kovacs and Adam Westbrook, "Elon Musk Has Some bad Ideas for Mass Transit. We Have Solutions," The New York Times (2022).Adam Something, "Elon Musk’s Loop is a Bizarrely Stupid Idea," YouTube (2021).Ted Mann and Julie Bykowicz, "Elon Musk’s Boring Company Ghosts Cities Across America," The Wall Street Journal (2022).Nikki McCann Ramirez, "Paul Pelosi Conspiracy Theory Trends on Twitter After Elon Musk Pushes It," Rolling Stone (2022).Ted McCormick, "The billionaire space race reflects a colonial mindset that fails to imagine a different world," The Conversation (2021).Marina Koren, "The War in Ukraine is Testing the Myth of Elon Musk," The Atlantic (2022).Radhika Viswanathan, "Elon Musk’s plan to bring a mini-submarine to rescue the Thai boys," Vox (2018).A podcast episode from Backpacker that describes the amazing Thai cave rescueZoe Schiffer and Casey Newton, "Yes, Elon Musk created a special system for showing you all his tweets first," Platformer (2023)Emile P. Torres, "How Elon Musk sees the future: His bizarre sci-fi vision should concern us all," Salon, July 17, 2022.Support the show
Jun 7, 2023 • 55min
How to Fast-Track Collapse: Manipulating the Masses While Massaging Megalomaniacs
Meet Steve Bannon, the Molotov mixologist who wants to light the world on fire. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation.Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the definitive peer-reviewed taxonomic analysis from our very own Jason Bradford, PhD. Sources/Links/Notes:Video: Mutual Aid in the Great Unraveling, Part 1 with Daniel P Aldrich, Amira Odeh, and Richard Heinberg, Post Carbon Institute, November 2022.Video: Mutual Aid in the Great Unraveling, Part 2 with Dean Spade, Joanna Swan, and Aliza Tuttle, Post Carbon Institute, November 2022.Dean Spade, "Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next)," Verso Books, October 2020."Democracy Rising" essay series on deliberative democracyGlobal Tapestry of AlternativesEliana Johnson and Eli Stokols, "What Steve Bannon Wants You to Read," Politico, February 7, 2017.Lisa Marshall, "Inside Steve Bannon's 'War for Eternity'," CU Boulder Today, April 22, 2020.Joshua Green, "Inside the Secret, Strange Origins of Steve Bannon’s Nationalist Fantasia," Vanity Fair, July 17, 2017.David Breitenbeck, "A Brief Summary of Traditionalism," The Imaginative Conservative, March 21, 2019.Generation Zero, Bannon's poorly reviewed documentaryGuo Wengui's video for his song, "Take Down the CCP," -- the third best comedy yacht video of all time.Douglas Rushkoff, "How to Avoid Becoming a Fascist: Why I turned down an appearance on Steve Bannon's podcast," Medium, October 21, 2021.Olivia Goldhill, "The neo-fascist philosophy that underpins both the alt-right and Silicon Valley technophiles," Quartz, June 18, 2017.Philip Rucker and Robert Costa, "Bannon vows a daily fight for ‘deconstruction of the administrative state’," The Washington Post, February 23, 2017.Support the show
May 31, 2023 • 54min
How to Lose Friends and Demoralize People: The Science (sic!) of Near-Term Extinction
Meet Guy McPherson, the extinction enthusiast who undermines legitimate climate concerns by predicting we’re all going to die yesterday. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation.Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the definitive peer-reviewed taxonomic analysis from our very own Jason Bradford, PhD. Sources/Links/Notes:Guy McPherson, "Near-Term Extinction blog post," Nature Bats Last (last updated 2016).Scott Johnson, "How Guy McPherson gets it wrong," Fractal Planet, 2014.Michael Tobis, "McPherson’s Evidence That Doom Doom Doom," Planet 3.0, 2014.Nathan Curry, "Humanity Is Getting Verrrrrrry Close to Extinction," Vice, 2013.BizNewsTV, "'Humans will be extinct by 2026' - 'doom and gloom prophet' Prof McPherson on abrupt climate change," January 19, 2023.Shannon Osaka, "Why climate 'doomers' are replacing climate 'deniers',” Washington Post, March 24, 2023.Jerome Roos, "We Don’t Know What Will Happen Next," New York Times, April 18, 2023.List of McPherson predictionsSupport the show
May 24, 2023 • 1h 1min
Prepping for the Apocalypse: Elites' Foolish Fantasies for Surviving a Collapse of Their Own Creation
Meet Barrett Moore, the bunker-building bullshit artist who helps capitalists survive the apocalypse with beans, bullets, and bravado. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation.Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the definitive peer-reviewed taxonomic analysis from our very own Jason Bradford, PhD. Sources/Links/Notes:History of the Kelly Butte Civil Defense CenterArticle on Kelly Butte in the Atlas ObscuraA Day Called X -- video of a dramatized atomic evacuation of Portland, OregonDonald Fagen's "New Frontier"Sam Biddle, "The Rise and Fall of the Ultimate Doomsday Prepper," The Intercept, July 5, 2021."Three Robots: Exit Strategies" -- episode 1 of season 3 of the Netflix series Love, Death & Robots.National Geographic produced the popular video series Doomsday Preppers.Molly Redden, "The American Elite Are Planning Their Escape — And It Starts With Paying For Passports," Huffington Post, March 19, 2023.John Ramey, "New statistics on modern prepper demographics from FEMA and Cornell," theprepared.com August 4, 2021.Bradley Garrett, "Living with bunker builders: doomsday prepping in the age of coronavirus,"The Conversation, May 14, 2020.Interview about Bradley Garrett's study of preppingJ. Oliver Conroy, "We mocked preppers and survivalists – until the pandemic hit," The Guardian, April 30, 2020.Walter Karp, "When Bunkers Last in the Backyard Bloom-d," American Heritage, February/March 1980.Red Cross’s Preparedness ChecklistFEMA’s 12 Ways to PrepareTom Prugh, "Democracy Rising 1 Introduction: Idiots R Us," Resilience, October 27, 2021.Jana Reiss, "For today’s Latter-day Saints, it’s food storage light," The Salt Lake Tribune, January 27, 2023.Support the show
May 18, 2023 • 2min
Announcement: 2023 Crazy Town Hall
How would you like to hang out with Asher, Rob, and Jason (well, virtually anyway)? Your chance is coming up at the fourth annual Crazy Town Hall. The town hall is our most fun event of the year, where you can ask questions, play games, get insider information on the podcast, and share plenty of laughs. It’s a special online event for the most dedicated Crazy Townies out there, and it’s coming up on June 6, 2023, from 10 to 11:15 AM U.S. Pacific time.To get an invitation, make a donation of any size. Go to https://www.postcarbon.org/supportcrazytown/. When you make a donation, we’ll email you an exclusive link to join the Crazy Town Hall. If you're already a donor, we'll be sure to send you the invitation as well. If we get enough donations, maybe we can hire some decent hosts! Join us at the town hall on June 6th, 2023. Again to get your invitation, go to https://www.postcarbon.org/supportcrazytown/.Support the show
May 17, 2023 • 1h 3min
How Longtermism Became the Most Dangerous Philosophy You’ve Never Heard of
Meet William MacAskill, the puerile professor who helps crypto capitalists justify sociopathy today for a universe of transhuman colonization tomorrow. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation.Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the definitive peer-reviewed taxonomic analysis from our very own Jason Bradford, PhD. Sources/Links/Notes:Andrew Anthony, "William MacAskill: 'There are 80 trillion people yet to come. They need us to start protecting them'," The Guardian, August 21, 2022.Guiding Principles of the Centre for Effective AltruismPeter Singer, "Famine, Affluence and Morality," givingwhatwecan.org.Sarah Pessin, "Political Spiral Logics," sarahpessin.com.Eliezer Yudkowsky, "Pausing AI Developments Isn't Enough. We Need to Shut it All Down," Time, March 29, 2023.Emile Torres explains the acronym TESCREAL in a Twitter thread.Benjamin Todd and William MacAskill, "Is it ever OK to take a harmful job in order to do more good? An in-depth analysis," 80,000 Hours, March 26, 2023.William MacAskill, "The Case for Longtermism," The New York Times, August 5, 2022.Emile P. Torres, "Understanding “longertermism”: Why this suddenly influential philosophy is so toxic," Salon, August 20, 2022.Nick Bostrom, "Existential Risks," Journal of Evolution and Technology (2002).Nick Bostrom, "Astronomical Waste: The Opportunity Cost of Delayed Technological Development," Utilitas (2003).Emile P. Torres, "How Elon Musk sees the future: His bizarre sci-fi visions should concern us all," Salon, July 17, 2022.Support the show
May 10, 2023 • 1h 23min
Sucking CO2 and Electrifying Everything: The Climate Movement's Desperate Dependence on Tenuous Technologies
Meet Mark Jacobson and David Keith, the leading techno-fixologists who overpromise overhyped “solutions” to the climate conundrum. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation.Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the definitive peer-reviewed taxonomic analysis from our very own Jason Bradford, PhD. Sources/Links/Notes:The Solutions ProjectCarbon EngineeringDavid W. Keith et al., "A Process for Capturing CO2 from the Atmosphere," Joule, August 15, 2018.Christopher T. M. Clack et al., "Evaluation of a proposal for reliable low-cost grid power with 100% wind, water, and solar," PNAS, June 19, 2017.Natanael Bolson, P. Prieto, and T. Patzek, "Capacity factors for electrical power generation from renewable and nonrenewable sources," PNAS, December 20, 2022.Simon Michaux's websiteRichard Heinberg, "Can Civilization Survive? These Studies Might Tell Us," Resilience, December 19, 2022.Average household electricity consumptionDavid Fridley and Richard Heinberg, "Can Climate Change Be Stopped by Turning Air Into Gasoline?," Renewable Energy World, June 19, 2018.Mark Jacobson on Late Night with David LettermanJames R. Martin, "Energy Transition & the Luxury Economy," Resilience, October 31, 2022.Yamina Saheb, Kai Kuhnhenn, and Juliane Schumacher, "It’s a Very Western Vision of the World," Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung.Mark Z. Jacobson et al., "Low-cost solutions to global warming, air pollution, and energy insecurity for 145 countries," Energy & Environmental Science (2022).Nicole Jewell, "Leading Stanford climate scientist builds incredible net zero home, complete with Tesla Powerwall," In Habitat (2017).Raymond Pierrehumbert, "The trouble with geoengineers 'hacking the planet'," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (2017).Support the show
May 3, 2023 • 1h 2min
How Ecomodernists Hijacked the Environmental Movement: Technotopian Bullshit and a Raging Case of God Complex.
Meet Stewart Brand and his band of merry dematerialists, the Silicon Valley salesmen who undermined environmentalism with planet-saving fantasies that reek of technofetishism. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation.Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the definitive peer-reviewed taxonomic analysis from our very own Jason Bradford, PhD. Sources/Links/Notes:John Markoff, Whole Earth: The Many Lives of Stewart Brand, 2022.Anna Wiener, "The Complicated Legacy of Stewart Brand’s 'Whole Earth Catalog'," The New Yorker, November 16, 2018.Wolf Tivy and Matt Ellison, "'Life Goes On' With Stewart Brand," Palladium, September 14, 2022."Ecomodernist Manifesto"Timothee Parrique, "A response to Paul Krugman: Growth is not as green as you might think," Resilience, February 28, 2023.Low-Tech MagazineThe Long Now FoundationRevive & RestoreSupport the show
