Death in The Garden

On this episode of “Death in The Garden,” we share our interview with Frédéric Leroy, professor of food science and biotechnology at the University of Brussels, President of the Belgian Association of Meat Science and Technology, President of Belgian Society for Food Microbiology, Administrator of ALEPH2020, and member of the Belgian Nutrition Society and Global Food Justice Alliance. We discuss the intersections between the campaigns to demonize meat-eating, the corporatization of the food system, the proliferation of chronic disease, biased nutritional science, global deficiencies and malnutrition, and animal-rights groups. We also touch on the biological indicators which prove meat-eating is natural, and we talk about how animal have been systematically obscured from perception and cordoned to industrial methods, and how that separation has been integral to animal rights abuses. We discuss the connection between The Great Reset, the World Economic Forum, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the UN, and the transformation to factory produced foods, as well as the expansion of “protected areas” under plans like 30x30 or “Half-Earth.” We talk about what models of scientific analysis should be implemented in the future to understand the complexity of human nutrition science with more rigor, as well as the need for certain regulations to end animal cruelty and regenerate land.Check out the ALEPH2020 website for more information, and refer to this image when we start discussing “pre-domestic, domestic, and post domestic” livestock relationships.Come and join us at the Ancestral Health Symposium in Los Angeles at UCLA, August 18-20! Use coupon code DITG10 at check-out to get 10% off your tickets.Please, if you enjoy the podcast and want to support the film, consider joining our Patreon community or subscribing to our Substack. If you can’t support financially, a rating, review, or share of the podcast goes a long way!Editing: Jake Marquez 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 speak to Anders Oskal, the Secretary General of the Association of World Reindeer Herders and the Executive Director of the International Centre for Reindeer Husbandry in Guovdageaidnu/ Kautokeino, Norway. Anders speaks to us about Sámi culture, explaining the way of his people, the agreement they have made with the reindeer, the importance of their indigenous knowledge in the Arctic landscape, and how the "best available knowledges" must be combined if we ever have a hope of adapting to climate change in our ecosystems. We speak about the encroachments on Sámi lands from industrial development, wind farming and mining, and discuss the unique speed of climate change in the Arctic and these encroachments are making it even more difficult for their people to adapt to the variability in climate, not to mention destroying their ancestral lands. To learn more about how industry is impacting reindeer herding and Sámi culture, check out these articles below: - Føsen Case- Oyfjellet wind plant- Gallok minePlease, if you enjoy the podcast and want to support the film, consider joining our Patreon community or subscribing to our Substack. If you can’t support financially, a rating, review, or share of the podcast goes a long way!Editing: Jake Marquez 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 interview with former CEO of Survival International, Stephen Corry. We have been interested in Survival International for a while, as many of you know, but we became particularly interested in speaking with Stephen when he started posting on Twitter about how problematic so much of the vegan agenda was, particularly conflating all livestock husbandry with factory farming. When he wrote this fantastic article, we were so excited to see that someone else was seeing the through-lines between the vegan narrative, conservation, and also the green energy climate change narratives. We discuss at length the manufacturing of these narratives, how they service elites, and how people everywhere will suffer if we continue to let the conversation about climate change be co-opted and controlled by the most powerful people in the world. We discuss Greta Thunberg, the common rhetoric around hopelessness, the racist and genocidal application of conservation, how colonialism never ended, and the problem of believing there is one right way to live. Please subscribe to our Substack to get writing accompaniments to this podcast and more, as well as a deep dive into our thoughts at the moment delivered right to your email. Check out our Patreon and become a patron for as little as $1 per month. Editing: Jake MarquezMusic: "Buildings & Mountains" by The Republic Tigers 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 an interview we recorded over the summer and never released. It turns out that it was the perfect moment for us to revisit this wonderful conversation we had with Tyson Yunkaporta, member of the Apalech Clan, author of Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World and lecturer of Indigenous Knowledges at Deakin University. We talk about  how civilization is defined by the exportation of entropy through open loop systems, the financialization of climate action, the relationship of being, dying, and being reintegrated into a landscape, the similarities between communism and capitalism, the inherent unsustainability of the way we’re all living our lives, the 1000 year clean-up and the actual plight of the millennial/gen-z generations, the emergent cultures of transition, and the importance of finding humor and laughter in these perilous times. We hope this conversation lifts your spirits as it has lifted ours. While sobering, the honesty and humor of this conversation is so refreshing and generative – just what we all need right now!Please, if you enjoy the podcast and want to support the film, consider joining our Patreon community or subscribing to our Substack. If you can’t support financially, a rating, review, or share of the podcast goes a long way!Editing: Jake MarquezMusic: "If I Ever Leave This World Alive" by Flogging Molly  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 ourselves about some of our experiences traveling in Europe and our reflections thus far. We talk about the disillusionment of the fantasies about this continent, share some personal experiences we’ve had, things we’ve learned, and revelations we’ve come to. We break down some ideas we’ve had around the factory farming of all life on Earth, phantom carrying capacity, industrialization and derangement of the web of life, and how important it is to change our view of climate change from something nebulous and global to specific and local, such as focusing on how microclimates are impacted by human activity. As always, we try to advocate for people actively engaging in their ecology and express the perspective that until we look around us and see just how damaged and interconnected the world is, we’ll never actually accurately assess the problems we face. Check out our most recent Substack for supplemental footage and writing for this podcast.  Stuff mentioned in the show:Artifishal by Josh “Bones” Murphy — fantastic film about salmon and what is getting in the way of their ability to thrive.DamNation by Ben Knight and Travis Rummel — another wonderful film about dams and how destructive they are.ALEPH — incredible archive of information about the industry of demonizing meat.Bilge dumping — short film depicting the little-known ecocidal process of bilge dumping from cargo ships. Editing: Jake MarquezMusic: “2+2=5” by Radiohead Disclaimer: As is the nature of human conversation, there are many things in this podcast that are not going to be 100% accurate. The nature of reality also dictates that there is always going to be nuance that is left out. We hope you enjoy this podcast and the information we’ve ascertained nonetheless! 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 talk to author and journalist, Richard Manning after reading his book Against the Grain: How Agriculture Has Highjacked Civilization, which discusses "catastrophic" agriculture's spread throughout history, its pattern of colonialism, and how it is a prerequisite for our civilization. We talk about the problems of agriculture broadly, including processed foods, CAFO meat farming, and the squandering of America's grasslands for biofuels, hunting, degrowth through regenerative food systems, the rewilding of the self, and the problems of carbon fundamentalism. Please, if you enjoy the podcast and want to support the film, consider joining our Patreon community or subscribing to our Substack. If you can’t support financially, a rating, review, or share of the podcast goes a long way!Editing: Parker Burningham Outro music: "The Defeat" by Ben Howard 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,” Jake and Maren interview Wild Quetzal — a digital creator on Instagram, as well as a graphic designer for conscious companies. Quetzal is doing incredible work online, sharing knowledge and wisdom about the history of civilization and encouraging people to undomesticate themselves through reconnecting with our role in the ecology. Food, of course, is foundational to all of life, therefore all ecologies. This conversation covered so many topics: veganism, death, resilience, food sovereignty, technology, indigeneity, and so much more. This conversation goes deep into in to the substrata of what it means to be a human being in the age of collapse of all that is familiar: we talk about the dire position we are in as a species and how our best chance at surviving in the future is coming back into relationship with our wildness.Be sure to give Quetzal a follow on Instagram: he’s using this modality better than anyone we know, and we really love his work.Please, if you enjoy the podcast and want to support the film, consider joining our Patreon community or subscribing to our Substack. If you can’t support financially, a rating, review, or share of the podcast goes a long way!Editing: Jake MarquezMusic: “Here for a Moment” by Gone Gone Beyond, The Human Experience, & MGP 21 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 interview with our friend Daniel Griffith, steward of Timshel Wildland, a Savory Hub doing the most incredible work we've ever seen, and author of Wild Like Flowers. We had the pleasure of going to his “farm” in Virginia in April of 2021 to film an incredibly enriching calf-donation that Daniel orchestrated, which you can watch here. Our minds were blown the entire time by the depth of thoughtfulness of the regeneration efforts on the wildland, which we’ll show in much more detail in the film. For now, please enjoy this interview where we talk about resilience, abundance, letting go of control, and seeing ourselves within ecosystems, rather than viewing ourselves as above them.For more information about Daniel, check out his Instagram. For more information about the wildland itself, check out their Instagram and website. Please, if you enjoy the podcast and want to support the film, consider joining our Patreon community or subscribing to our Substack. If you can’t support financially, a rating, review, or share of the podcast goes a long way! Editing: Parker Burningham and Jake MarquezMusic: “Nothing, Nothing” by Kim Churchill  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 talk with filmmaker Julia Barnes and writer/filmmaker Joshua Clinton about their campaign against proposed deep sea mining (DSM) of poly metallic nodules which contain rare earth minerals that can be used in electric vehicles and other “renewable” technologies. You can find more information at their website, Deep Sea Defenders. This podcast is meant to function as an amendment to podcast #12, where we interviewed Dr. Gregory Stone, who is a proponent of DSM. We discuss the destruction of the oceans that will arise from this industrial practice, and the backwardness of destroying the oceans to protect it.Check out this short film Julia made which describes the process as well as Joshua's Counterpunch article. In addition to speaking about deep sea mining, we discuss Joshua’s upcoming first film project where he is exposing and protesting the proposed wind farm in Aberdeenshire which will threaten one of the last remaining habitats of the Scottish wildcat, an ancient cat and the last of the wild felids in Britain. In opposition to Vattenfall, the Swedish energy company, Joshua will be interviewing leaders from the organization “Wildcat Haven.” Here’s a quote from his Instagram post with more information: “The film will cover the plight of the Scottish Wildcat, the effect of habitat destruction & biodiversity loss on ecosystems, and the collusion between Vattenfall and various Scottish governmental bodies to greenwash the project & ensure that it goes ahead.”We also discuss filmmaking and the processes of making a film about a topic that is deeply unpopular: rejecting the so-called solutions to climate change, as Julia did in her film Bright Green Lies based on the book by Derrick Jensen, Lierre Keith, and Max Wilbert.We talk about greenwashing, discussions about carbon fundamentalism, how environmentalism has been perverted, technological escalation, what it’s like to be a young environmentalist, and so much more. Please subscribe to our Substack to get writing accompaniments to this podcast and more, as well as a deep dive into our thoughts at the moment delivered right to your email. Check out our Patreon and become a patron for as little as $1 per month. Editing: Jake MarquezMusic: “Bluebell, Cockleshell, 123” by King Creosote 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

Sheldon Solomon, experimental social psychologist and co-author of The Worm at the Core, examines how mortality awareness shapes culture. He critiques the myth of inevitable progress and links death denial to ecological harm. Conversations touch on pandemic effects, re-enchantment with nature, new rituals, humility, and practical ways to shift values toward sustainability and awe.