Crazy Town
Post Carbon Institute
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.
Episodes
Mentioned books
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
Apr 26, 2023 • 1h 6min
Kinder, Gentler Colonialism: Bungling Billionaires and Their Arrogant Adventures in "Saving the World"
Meet Bill Gates, the philandering philanthropist who attempts to remake the world's operating system in his own image. 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:Bill Gates, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, 2021.Alan Guebert, "Given What We Don't Know, Why Do We Act Like We Do Know?," Food and Farm File, September 25, 2022.Gates Foundation, "Bill and Melinda Gates Pledge $10 Billion in Call for Decade of Vaccines," January 2010.Bill Gates TED Talk, "The next outbreak? We're not ready," 2015.Erin Banco, Ashleigh Furlong, and Lennart Pfahler, "How Bill Gates and partners used their clout to control the global Covid response — with little oversight," Politico, September 14, 2022.Anand Giridharadas, Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World, October 1, 2019.Timothy A. Wise "Failing Africa’s Farmers: An Impact Assessment of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa," Tufts University, July 2020.Anmar Frangoul, "Bill Gates on why he'll carry on using private jets and campaigning on climate change," CNBC, February 7, 2023.Alnoor Ladha and Lynn Murphy, Post Capitalist Philanthropy: Healing Wealth In The Time Of Collapse, October 17, 2022.Support the show
Apr 19, 2023 • 1h 15min
Hot, Flat, and Totally Phucking Wrong: The Perilous Platitudes of a Pulitzer-Prize-Winning Propagandist
Meet Tom Friedman, the mustachioed metaphor maven who thinks we can have our cake and listen to it too. 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:Thomas Friedman, "Foreign Affairs Big Mac I," The New York Times, December 8, 1996.Matt Taibbi's critique of Hot, Flat, and Crowded -- "Flathead" Strauss Media, November 21, 2014.Jason Hickel et al., "Imperialist appropriation in the world economy: Drain from the global South through unequal exchange, 1990–2015," Global Environmental Change, March 2022.Thomas Friedman, "The Earth Is Full," The New York Times, June 7, 2011.Thomas Friedman, "Something's Happening Here," The New York Times, October 11, 2011.Thomas Friedman, "Want to Save the Earth? We Need a Lot More Elon Musks.," The New York Times, November 16, 2021.Thomas Friedman, "How We Broke the World," The New York Times, May 30, 2020.Belen Fernandez, The Imperial Messenger: Thomas Friedman at Work, November 1, 2011.Here's the archive of Global Citizen columns by Donella Meadows.Ian Parker, "The Bright Side: The relentless optimism of Thomas Friedman," The New Yorker, November 2, 2008.Thomas Friedman, The Lexus and the Olive Tree, 1999.Thomas Friedman The World Is Flat, YouTube video of Yale University Lecture, 2009.Garrett Graff, "Thomas Friedman is On Top of the World," Washingtonian Magazine, July 1, 2006. Support the show
Apr 12, 2023 • 1h 10min
How Boomer Politicians Found a Third Way to Phuck Over the Working Class
Meet Bill Clinton, who converted the Democratic Party into slightly less loathsome neoliberals. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation.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:Lily Geismer wrote an outstanding and comprehensive book, published in 2022, on Clinton and the legacy of neoliberal policies called Left Behind: The Democrats’ Failed Attempt to Solve Inequality.Lily Geismer, "How the Third Way Made Neoliberal Politics Seem Inevitable," The Nation, December 13, 2022.Alex Parnee, “The Disastrous Legacy of the New Democrats,” The New Republic, May 16, 2022.Michael Pierce, “How Bill Clinton Remade the Democratic Party by Abandoning Unions” The Labor and Working-Class History Association, November 23, 2016.Support the show
Apr 5, 2023 • 1h 3min
How to Become the Winningest Winner Who Wins: The Twisted Logic of the World’s Greatest CEO
Meet Jack Welch, celebrated wrecker of real jobs and leading light of Wall Street wankers. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation.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:David Gelles, The Man Who Broke Capitalism: How Jack Welch Gutted the Heartland and Crushed the Soul of America—and How to Undo His Legacy (2022).David Gelles, "How Jack Welch’s Reign at G.E. Gave Us Elon Musk’s Twitter Feed," New York Times (2022).Malcolm Gladwell, "Was Jack Welch the Greatest C.E.O. of His Day--Or the Worst?," The New Yorker (2022).Geoff Colvin, "The Ultimate Manager," Fortune (1999).Matthew J. Belvedere, "Jack Welch says Obama’s ‘wacky’ climate-change agenda hurts the US economy," CNBC (2016)."Jack Welch Fast Facts," CNN (2020).Scott Tong, "This is how shareholders got to be first in line for profits," Business Insider (2016).James B. Stewart, "Did the Jack Welch Model Sow Seeds of G.E.’s Decline?," New York Times (2017). Jack & Suzy Welch Winning (2005).Geoff Gloeckler, "Jack Welch Launches Online MBA," Bloomberg Businessweek (2009).Della Bradshaw, "Jack Welch on the executive MBA he created in his own image," Financial Times (2014).Jack Welch Management Institute .Oxfam "Top 1% grab twice as much new wealth as everyone else combined".Economic Policy Institute “CEO pay has skyrocketed". Support the show
Mar 29, 2023 • 1h 7min
How to Have Sex with Yourself: The Bizarre Cult of the Singularity
Meet Ray Kurzweil, who combines Moore’s Law with nanobots in a faux recipe to cheat death. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation.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:Ray Kurzweil's 2005 book checks in at 672 pages -- it's called The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology.Kurzweil's sequel from 2022 is called The Singularity Is Nearer.Brian O'Keefe, "The smartest (or the nuttiest) futurist on Earth," Fortune, May 2, 2007.David Hochman, "Reinvent Yourself," Playboy, April 19, 2016.Episode of Doug Henning's World of Magic, 1980.Society for CryobiologySingularity UniversitySarah Begley, "The Future of Food: Experts Predict How Our Plates Will Change," Time, October 9, 2014.Alan Thompson, "Dr Ray Kurzweil: 2022-2023 Updates," LifeArchitect.aiEric Brende wrote a book that counteracts some of Kurzweil's absurdities. It's called Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology.The Simplicity Collective is a good organization for exploring voluntary simplicity.Support the show
Mar 22, 2023 • 55min
Why the Polycrisis Is a Statistical Anomaly: The Willful Delusions of the World’s Leading Pseudointellectual
Meet Steven Pinker whose denial of limits increases the likelihood of his worst fear: the end of the Enlightenment. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation.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:David Marchese, "Steven Pinker Thinks Your Sense of Imminent Doom Is Wrong" in The New York Times Magazine (2021).The Work that Reconnects NetworkGood Grief NetworkThree relevant past episodes of Crazy Town are episode 39 on the myth of progress, episode 35 on self-domestication, and episode 34 on terror management theory."Steven Pinker: The Mind Reader" in The Guardian (1999).Robert Wright, "The 2004 Time 100" in Time Magazine (2004).Nick Gillespie, "Steven Pinker Loves the Enlightenment" in Reason Magazine (2018).David A. Bell, "Waiting for Steven Pinker’s enlightenment" in The Nation (2018).Emile Torres, "Steven Pinker’s fake enlightenment" in Salon (2019).Robert Epstein, "Book Review: The Better Angels of Our Nature" in Scientific American (2011).Tyler Cowen, "Steven Pinker on Language, Reason, and the Future of Violence," Mercatus Center (2016).Mike Freiheit and Lyta Gold, "Comic: Steven Pinker--Certified Grief Counselor" in Current Affairs 2018). George Monbiot, "Contrary to Reason" in The Guardian (2018).Alex Blasdel, "Pinker's progress: the celebrity scientist at the centre of the culture wars" in The Guardian (2021).Support the show
