Death in The Garden

On this episode of “Death in The Garden”, we are sharing a reading of our recent Substack piece entitled The Terrible and the Tantalizing: Grappling with AI, Machine Learning, and the Future of Art, where we discuss the emergence of AI “art” and the ramifications it is having for artists. In this essay, we discuss what art is and isn’t, and whether or not we’re comfortable with the definition being subsumed by “machines and the unaccountable corporations at their helms.” We talk about Luddism, and how AI “art” threatens to render artists redundant, just as factories rendered the Luddites, artisanal weavers, redundant, and how we ought to reclaim that oft misunderstood and maligned title. We talk about shifting baseline syndrome, and how, as a culture, we’ve gotten used to the cheapened version of everything; from food, to furniture, to art itself. In the end, we talk about the grief for all that the machine takes from us, and call for all of us to stand up for what we still have left: human creativity, and human-made art. Links to things mentioned in the essay:* Steven Zapata Video Essay entitled The End of Art: An Argument Against Image AIs * “Echoes” by Pink Floyd AI generated music video* Destino by Salvador Dali and Walt Disney* The Yes Men Fix the World* Marques Brownlee Video entitled The Truth about AI Getting “Creative”Support the project by joining our Patreon or consider becoming a paid subscriber on Substack. Thank you so much for your attention!Editing: Jake Marquez and Maren MorganMusic: “Echoes” by Pink Floyd This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deathinthegarden.substack.com/subscribe

On this episode of “Death in The Garden,” we talked with pastoralist advocate, ethnoveterinarian, and author Ilse Köhler-Rollefson about her new book, Hoofprints on the Land. We absolutely loved Ilse’s book, and were honored to discuss it in detail with her. We talked about sedentarization being used as a tool of colonial control, the importance of decolonized animal science, the brutality of factory farming, and the fallacy of eliminating livestock as a means to rewild. We discuss field slaughtering and the importance of connecting with death. We talk about 30x30 and how fortress conservation harms human-coupled ecosystems by severing the relationships between pastoralist and indigenous peoples from nature. We talk about how both sides of the livestock debate (plant-based and industrial animal ag proponents) both have a tendency to reduce animals into input-output machines, measuring their value based on efficiency and their ability to convert nutrients into food— comparing that with the reverence and respect pastoralists have for their herds as members of a mutually beneficial co-creative team. Overall, we discussed how pastoralism is the way of the future, and how important it is to protect and learn from those who steward lifeway that is under threat around the world.You can purchase a copy of Hoofprints on the Land here. Please buy her book, and give Ilse a follow on Twitter. Support Ilse’s NGO, Lokhit Pashu-Palak Sansthan here and check out the League for Pastoral Peoples here.If you would like to financially support DITG, please consider signing up for a paid subscription to Substack or joining our Patreon. If that isn’t in your budget, a share/review/or a comment goes a long way, as well! Editing: Jake MarquezMusic: “Go Do” by Jónsi This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deathinthegarden.substack.com/subscribe

On this episode of “Death in The Garden”, we share our film interview with Stephen Corry, former CEO of Survival International, indigenous rights activist, and author of Tribal Peoples: For Tomorrow’s World. On this episode we discuss how land theft, assimilation, and sedentarization are threatening indigenous cultures worldwide in the name of homogenizing culture under a Western colonial paradigm. We talk about how dangerous this is, and how important it is for there to be diversity of cultures and lifeways in the world. We talk about the goodness in human nature, and how shame-based propaganda that makes us hate humanity is a useful diversion which makes us more susceptible to accepting false solutions, such as industrial veganism, 30x30 proposals, and electric vehicles. Stephen dispels the Myth of Pristine Wilderness and how it’s been used to promote conservation and “protected areas” as a panacea to climate change, as well as questioning why the internet and military industrial complex are somehow immune to scrutiny within the topic of climate change. We break down the problems of individualism, consumerism, and the overall crisis of identity occurring in the West. We discuss the fragilities of the homogenized, anti-local ideology that has arisen from settler civilization, and talk about how the real solutions will be local, context specific, and grounded in relationship.Please give Stephen a follow on Twitter, and follow Survival International on Instagram and Twitter as well. Read Stephen’s piece, A Deluge of Things: Von Humbolt, Da Vinci, and The Confounding of Nature and Scapegoats and Holy Cows: Climate Activism and Livestock.Support the project - Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/deathinthegardenEditing: Jake MarquezMusic: “Give Us the Wind” by Future Islands This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deathinthegarden.substack.com/subscribe

On this episode of “Death in The Garden,” we’re sharing our interview with our friend, fellow podcast host, up-and-coming author, educator, and farmer/gardener, Derrick Weston. Derrick is the co-host of the Food and Faith Podcast alongside Anna Woofenden, and the pair’s book The Just Kitchen: Invitations to Sustainability, Cooking, Connection, and Celebration will be available soon! We had the pleasure of doing this interview at Rockrose City Farm, a beautiful community garden space in Baltimore, where Derrick stewards plots with volunteers and other community members, cultivating food that is donated to food pantries. In this conversation, we discuss food accessibility, and the long history of food apartheid in this country, and how food is related to all of the social justice issues we face as a species. We discuss Christianity and how his faith and understanding of Jesus’ teachings informs how he understands his place in the world as a steward. We discuss the long shadow of slavery, and how racism, dispossession from land, and the systemic narrativizing which separates people from culture is not a thing of the past. We talk about how reconnecting with the land through food is an avenue of of liberation from these deeply engrained systems of oppression. We also discuss the importance of regenerative agriculture being more than a “program”— it needs to have an incredibly strong ethic at it’s foundation which honors the indigenous wisdom traditions it comes from in order to not be subsumed by the same capitalistic structures that created the problem in the first place. Above all, we talk about how the problems we face today, whether it’s consumerism, disconnection, or dislocation, all stem from severed relationships: between each other, and all of Creation. Our crisis of meaning is a crisis of belonging. Circumambulating that idea, we name the relationships that need to be repaired, and discuss visions for the future.You can find Derrick on Instagram and Twitter, and if you’d like to listen to us on his podcast (among many other brilliant conversations), check out the Food and Faith Podcast! Editing: Jake Marquez and Maren MorganMusic: “Holocene” by Bon Iver This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deathinthegarden.substack.com/subscribe

This episode is a little something different. On this episode of the podcast, we’re sharing a reading of Maren’s recent Substack piece entitled The Legacy of the '“Men Who Pulled Bread From Air” which breaks down the legacy of the Haber-Bosch process, The Green Revolution, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution in food systems. The piece discusses the states of emergency that bred these periods of innovation, as well as the ramifications that have befallen the planet due to them. Trying to understand where we come from as well as where we are going, Maren gives a history lesson and poses some important questions. Are we going down the right path? Should we continue down the road of high-tech, hyper-industrial agriculture? What sort of food system is aligned with living on Earth sustainably forever? Understanding where we come from is an important first step on figuring out where to go. The industrial food system is only 100 years old. Is it our fate to be tethered to it forever? Are there viable alternatives to turn to? Do we need to continue down a path of control, uniformity, and chemicals? We hope you enjoy this reading, and please, if you haven’t, subscribe to our Substack. Consider becoming a paid subscriber so we are more able to produce essays and researched content like this in the future. Or if you’d prefer, consider joining our Patreon community. We just created a new tier for $3 a month, which is less than a cup of coffee and helps cover some of Patreon’s fees! Editing: Jake MarquezMusic: “Reckoner” by Radiohead This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deathinthegarden.substack.com/subscribe

On this episode, we talk to our friend and previous podcast guest Daniel Griffith, a farmer, father, author, poet, and food systems visionary. We wanted to talk to Daniel again to share his experience applying for the USDA’s Climate-Smart Commodity Program grant, and ultimately being denied. We discuss the problems of titanic multinational agribusiness corporations that were granted funding, and we talk about the importance of grass-roots small-scale organizations defining regenerative agriculture in local contexts. We talk about how the solutions to our agricultural woes will not come from the top — that small, human-scale farms hold the key to a healthy food system. We discuss the problems of carbon fundamentalism in our understanding of food system transformation, the precarities of our current system, and the importance of self-determination, diversity, equity, and locality moving foreword. Additionally, we talk about the problems that small-scale farmers face and how the system sets them up for failure. We also discuss Commons Provisions, a step in Daniel’s greater vision towards a food system where people can access hyper-local meats from small-scale regenerative farmers without over-extending the land and the farmers themselves.Pre-order Daniel’s new book, Dark Cloud Country, and support the Kickstarter Campaign to publish it by clicking here, and buy his book Wild Like Flowers. Follow Daniel on Instagram here and his farm here.Editing: Jake MarquezMusic: “Broken Together” by Sofa Surfers ft. Mani Obeya This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deathinthegarden.substack.com/subscribe

On this episode of “Death in The Garden,” we share our in-person film interview with writer Paul Kingsnorth, creator of the Abbey of Misrule and author of many acclaimed books, such as Alexandria, Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist, and Savage Gods. In this interview we discuss broadly the Machine, a metaphor for the mechanized, atomizing, and ruthlessly extractive society we live in today and how it impacts us spiritually, psychologically, and physically. We discuss the process of unseating the sacred from the “throne” at the center of our societies, and how we’ve supplanted it with technology, reason, and above all, money. We dissect some of the oft forgotten aspects of colonization which were intrinsically tied to industrialism, exploring how colonialism of the enclosure of lands preceded the enclosure of the means of production but being forged from the same story, and how this same story continues today. We discuss at length the story of the Garden of Eden and what we can learn from its metaphors. And finally, we talk about the unlikelihood of turning this ship around, but the importance of recognizing the story of the Machine is a lie, and perhaps only thereafter, we can start living a different way.If you enjoy this podcast, please share it widely. Additionally, give us a follow on Substack to engage with our written work, and if you’d like to support our film project financially, please consider a paid subscription or joining our Patreon.Editing: Jake MarquezOutro music: “The Goose and The Common” by The Quiggs This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deathinthegarden.substack.com/subscribe

On this episode of “Death in The Garden,” we spoke to conservationist Dr. Aby Sène, professor of Parks and Conservation Area Management at Clemson University, where she researches the intersection between rural development and conservation, race and nature, nature-based tourism, and protected area governance in both the US and in Africa. In this episode, we discuss the colonialism, capitalism, and white supremacy that scaffolds much of the conservation movement, and the societal forces that perpetuate it. We talk about the history of conservation and its relationship to eugenics, as well as the elite powers that currently uphold extractive industries in the so-called “conservation” areas they own and manage, as well as the ways that extractive industries are being permitted to off-set their ecological damage by supporting fortress conservation. Ultimately, we dive into the broader conditions that have made this sort of land-grabbing and social/cultural/spiritual/physical dispossession possible, discussing how the results and human rights violations on the ground are a symptom of a larger system, one which has forced people off their land and into a wage economy which does not benefit them. We discuss how the ultimate goal of conservation should be a world where conservation isn’t necessary at all, and finally, we discuss how these same forces are dispossessing Black farmers in the United States. Give Aby a follow on Twitter, and read her articles below for more information about the current state of conservation as she sees it:Land Grabs and Conservation PropagandaWestern Nonprofits are Trampling Over Africans’ Rights and LandThis is part one of a two-part conversation with Aby, so stay tuned for our film interview with her! This is huge, nuanced topic, but Aby’s passion should inspire us all. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deathinthegarden.substack.com/subscribe

On this episode of “Death in The Garden,” we spoke with farmer, butcher, and brilliant fellow podcaster, Kate Kavanaugh. Kate is the founder of Western Daughters Butcher Shoppe, located in Denver, CO, creator of the amazing podcast called “Ground Work” which discusses and circumambulates three interconnected themes: mind, body, and soil, as well as a farmer based in New York. The way Kate sees the world is illuminating and refreshing, and we had an instant connection after our first conversation. This episode is one of many we hope to share with Kate.This episode travels into pretty controversial territory, where we openly discuss our thoughts about abortion, sex, and death and the role that these taboos play in our lives. We discuss what it means to be “resourced” enough to bear or raise children, the importance of choice, and how language informs (or misinforms) our understanding of these deeply challenging topics that pervade this current moment. We deep dive into what undergirds the debate between pro-life and pro-choice, which is fundamentally based around our conceptions of life and death. Where does life begin? When is death not a death, or life not a life? What are we avoiding when we ask these questions rather than sitting with the uncomfortable reality that death is part of life? We also discuss life and death in the context of a farm, we talk about the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, how engaging with death can help us understand our place in the cosmos, and so much more. Find Kate on Instagram and listen to her fantastic podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.Editing: Jake MarquezOutro music: “Blinding” by Florence + The Machine This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deathinthegarden.substack.com/subscribe

On this episode of “Death in The Garden,” we talked to our brilliant, long-time friend of the podcast, Isabel Ramirez. Isabel is a board certified health coach specializing in chronic conditions (she is auto-immune and paleo certified), an expert forager, inspiring mother, and all around amazing person. We discussed the importance of inclusivity into wellness and regenerative agriculture spaces, the problems of financialization in the health and wellness world, the way an ancestrally appropriate diet and lifestyle can help manage chronic health conditions, the incapability of industrial civilization with the biological needs of our bodies, and how overwhelming it can be to attain health in modern times. We talk about the problems associated with healthcare being about “symptom control” rather than root cause treatments. Isabel breaks down the transition into modernity and how that has severed us from vital processes that help us maintain our health, including community, belonging, and access to healthy, in-season, biodiverse foods. We discuss how capitalism has motivated the homogenization and destruction of food through monocropping and chemically intensive practices.Isabel has a vast wealth of information, and we hope you enjoy this conversation. Follow her on Instagram, and be sure to come see her present at the Ancestral Health Symposium, August 18-20 at UCLA in Los Angeles, CA! It will be amazing, and we’ll be there too. Use our code DITG10 at check-out to get 10% off of your tickets. Apply for the BIPOC scholarship here. If you are enjoying the podcast, please leave us a 5 star rating and review. If you would like to support the project financially, consider joining our Patreon community or paying for a subscription to our Substack, where we’re sharing writing, videos, and other media to flesh out what “Death in The Garden” is all about. Editing: Jake MarquezOutro Music: “Sol” by Tunacola This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deathinthegarden.substack.com/subscribe