Last Born In The Wilderness

Dr. Aby Sène joins me to discuss fortress conservationism and the 30x30 plan, a proposal by Western conservation agencies and their corporate and state allies "to double the coverage of protected areas around the world by setting aside 30 percent of terrestrial cover for conservation by 2030." On the surface, the 30x30 proposal (the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework) to protect biodiversity and wildlife seems like a promising step in halting deforestation, unfettered resource extraction, and poaching of endangered wildlife across Africa, but as Dr. Sène eloquently describes in her work, this plan is but a continuation of the colonialist dynamics that have existed between the Global North and the Global South for centuries. These conservation efforts, aptly termed "fortress conservation,” is in reality part of a “colossal land grab," displacing indigenous communities from their lands and depriving them of traditional sources of sustenance and place-based cultural practices. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/aby-sene // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Michael Truscello joins me to discuss his book Infrastructural Brutalism: Art and the Necropolitics of Infrastructure, in which he “looks at the industrial infrastructure not as an invisible system of connectivity and mobility that keeps capitalism humming in the background but as a manufactured miasma of despair, toxicity, and death. Truscello terms this “infrastructural brutalism”—a formulation that not only alludes to the historical nexus of infrastructure and the concrete aesthetic of Brutalist architecture but also describes the ecological, political, and psychological brutality of industrial infrastructures.” What is infrastructure? How does it shape our lives, direct our movements, and inform our worldviews? And, furthermore, what is the nature of the systems that produce the kinds of infrastructure we live our lives within and through? As Michael Truscello identifies in his book 'Infrastructural Brutalism,' there is a brutal logic that underlies the infrastructure projects of the 20th and 21st centuries. Especially in a time of mass extinction and accelerated climate catastrophe, the very fact that the largest infrastructure project in human history, the Belt and Road Initiative, is currently underway in China speaks to the suicidal urge inherent within the imperatives of the global capitalist order. Despite the present and accelerating collapse of the biosphere, nation states and their corporate beneficiaries are racing to pave more roads, lay down more rail lines and pipelines, construct more power plants, airports, and seaports, and consequentially, decimate more ecosystems in the pursuit of technological and geopolitical dominance. Truscello walks us through this predicament, as well as what a multiplicitous response to these crises may contain. And finally, he discusses his fascinating study of various art forms that grapple with the hollow promises and lived brutalities of industrial infrastructure. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/michael-truscello // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Artist, writer, and death worker Rachael Rice joins me to discuss death practice, entitlement, and honesty in our time of collapse and extinction. This is an honest conversation, between friends. Both Rachael and I have very different lived experiences, but we align in several significant ways, especially when it comes to interpreting and navigating an extraordinarily messy time. The felt sense and scope of loss in the midst of the ongoing pandemic is shared between us. We bear witness to the wide-spread denial and full-faced First World entitlement — the “return to normal” and “I’ve-got-mine-ism” of it all, from top to bottom. It is a lot to bear. And yet, we acknowledge the time we are living through may be remembered as the good ol’ days in the years and decades to come. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/rachael-rice // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Michael Laufer of the Four Thieves Vinegar Collective returns to the podcast to reiterate the aims of the group, and update us on the collective's recent and soon to be launched projects.  As a founding member of this project, Dr. Laufer's objective has been to communicate the philosophical and material objectives of the organization, which has been described as "an anarchist biohacking group." Since its founding in 2015, the collective has worked to provide the information needed to produce DIY pharmaceutical drugs safely and equitably, particularly for a population, like those that live within the borders of the United States, that do not have easy and affordable access to them. This is especially relevant when we discuss, in this interview, the recent Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe and Casey, leaving a sizable portion of the US population without access to pregnancy terminating procedures and abortifacient drugs. Dr. Laufer and the collective's response to this has been to provide, in an open and accessible manner, information on how to potentially attain and prepare the materials needed to have a safe DIY abortion, regardless of what a wholly illegitimate political and legal system may prohibit or discourage. But, this is only one facet of the broader conversation Dr. Laufer and I have in this episode. The absolute inaccessibility of the healthcare system for most US Americans is a violation of one of the most fundamental indicators of a healthy, equal, and stable society, which is access to care. Four Thieves Vinegar Collective is a response to that, giving us an inspiring alternative to the for-profit healthcare system that is impoverishing us more and more every day.  // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/michael-laufer-2 // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Meteorologist and geoscientist Nicholas Humphrey returns to the podcast, sharing his insights into the various catastrophic, record-breaking heatwaves and weather events currently playing out in numerous regions across the planet. He explains how the complex dynamics of anthropogenic climate disruption is quickening the pace of these events, and in turn, how ill adapted and ill prepared we are in addressing the realities of this predicament. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/nicholas-humphrey-3 // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Renowned climate scientist and "ice maverick" Dr. Jason Box joins me to discuss the specific and broad implications of anthropogenic climate disruption. He cites nearly three decades worth of on-the-ground documentation of the impacts human industrial activity is having on the rapidly thawing Greenland ice sheet, written about extensively in his independently published book Faster Than Forecast: The Story Ice Tells Us About Climate Change. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/jason-box // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Darcia Narvaez and Four Arrows join me to discuss their recently published book ‘Restoring the Kinship Worldview: Indigenous Voices Introduce 28 Precepts for Rebalancing Life on Planet Earth,’ a work that contains "selected speeches from Indigenous leaders around the world—necessary wisdom for our times, nourishment for our collective, and a path away from extinction toward a sustainable, interconnected future." As I comment in the beginning of this discussion, reading this book has been a necessary balm to the various subjects I've explored on the podcast of late. This work has reminded me that our civilization's capacity for mass violence, systemic oppression, exploitation, and the destruction of life-systems of the earth is not representative of human nature, nor the human condition, as a whole. The dominant worldview that pervades all facets of modern, industrial human life is the outcome of centuries, if not millennia, of bad habits and intergenerational trauma. The kinship worldview, highlighted in this book and in this interview, has been a defining feature of indigenous cultures the world over, for "ninety-nine percent of human history," as Professor Narvaez states in her work. The question of how to return to this way of knowing and being, and how to apply it in light of the most pressing crises dominating our time, is of utmost importance. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/narvaez-arrows // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Journalist Arun Gupta returns to the podcast to discuss the "very corporeal ideology" of fascism, the so-called "Great Replacement Theory”, the recent mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, and how each of these subjects tie into the broader sociopolitical project of the far right in the United States. The ideological and conspiratorial framework of the “Great Replacement Theory” has motivated numerous individuals to commit racist mass violence over the years, with one of the most prominent examples being the recent massacre in Buffalo, New York by an 18-year-old white man on May 14th. It also, as Gupta lucidly articulates in this interview, informs the underlying white grievance politics and goals of the conservative right in the United States, informing the rhetoric of the most popular political commentators in the country, namely Fox News star pundit Tucker Carlson. With the stated aims and motivations laid bare in the manifesto of the mass shooter in Buffalo, and Carlson mainstreaming these ideas in more digestible and politically friendly terms to millions of regular viewers, fascism is alive and well in the United States. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/arun-gupta-2 // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Atmospheric scientist Tim Garrett joins me to discuss, among other things, collapse. Contained within this hour-long interview, we cover the thermodynamics of civilizational growth and inevitable decline, the irrationality of dominant economic theory, Jevons Paradox, and his fascinating and wondrous study of clouds and snowflakes. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/tim-garrett // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Author, teacher, and editor Max Haiven joins me to discuss his book ‘Palm Oil: The Grease of Empire,’ published through Pluto Books. As Silvia Federici states, this book "powerfully demonstrates how, by following the history of a key commodity, we can reconstruct the logic of imperial capitalism: its destruction of land and bodies, its drive to constantly reduce the means of our reproduction, its relentless production of oppressive regimes." In this discussion, Haiven details the contours of such subjects as commodity fetishism and human sacrifice, as well as points to the straight line that shoots through the heinous histories of chattel slavery and Western imperialism to the formation of the modern global capitalist order, by focusing on one primary and ubiquitous product we all, throughout the course of lives, have consumed countless times and in countless ways: palm oil. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/max-haiven // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast