Last Born In The Wilderness

Let us gaze into the void at the heart of this country. What happened on January 6th was neither the beginning, nor the endpoint, of the fascist trajectory this nation has been lurching headlong toward. It was a flashpoint. The events that led to this explosion of violence did not happen in a vacuum. Donald Trump’s rise to the highest political office in the land was neither an anomaly nor an accident. Decades of neoliberal decay, widespread white anxiety, and the inherent spiritual rot at the core of this settler-colonial project has almost guaranteed the growth of a virulent fascism in our time of mounting crises. This compilation of ten interviews, conducted over the past two years, is an attempt to track the various forces that led to the MAGA riot at the Capitol. Weaving together interviews that track the decline of the U.S. empire, the ramping up of the sadistic treatment and dehumanization of undocumented immigrants along the border, the metaphysical landscape of the “post-modern” age we reside in, and liberal democracy’s historic failure to counter the fascist creep, this audio compilation attempts to make sense of the dangerous moment we find ourselves in, and where this trend ultimately leads. // Timeline + sources: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/300-5 // Download: https://bit.ly/LBW300-5 // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Everything changed after the 3rd Precinct fell. In 2020, a pandemic began to course its way through the collective body, and the dead began to pile up. Tens of millions of U.S. citizens lost their jobs, and the capitalist system shuttered. As it turns out, these are the perfect conditions for revolt. On May 25th, George Floyd was murdered by a white police officer in the streets of Minneapolis. Everyone saw the video, and it was undeniable. We witnessed something as old as this country itself play out, again. Riots broke out, but this time, the righteous rage persisted and spread. Each of these nine interviews, interwoven with commentary, documents this time of expansive unrest and stochastic terror. // Timeline and sources: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/300-4 // Download: https://bit.ly/LBW300-4 / Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

May we live in interesting times. The fertile grounds that bred a novel, deadly coronavirus and the misinformation that accompanied its spread is our subject. Over the last year-and-a-half since COVID spilled over, and more specifically, when our collective reaction to it began to reshape every aspect of our lives, I conducted numerous interviews to make sense of this thing. Disruptions in the very fragile (and simultaneously resilient) global economic system, mass death, overburdened healthcare workers, the widespread proliferation of conspiracy theories, fascistic outbursts, mutual aid networks, and the uncomfortable questions that arise, characterize this audio narrative I’ve cobbled together for your listening pleasure. // Timeline + sources: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/300-3 // Download: https://bit.ly/LBW300-3 // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Let's proceed to part two. From December 2019 to February 2020, I was in Brazil. Without full comprehension, I (we) stood on the edge of a pandemic. The global scope of the crisis had yet to be fully felt and realized. Before "normal" ended. Before lockdowns, mask burnings, social isolation, uprising—I was in Brazil, with its complexities, beauties, intensities, realities. My time there left its mark on me, and is still felt to this day a year plus since—having informed almost every aspect of my life and work. It is certainly not lost on me that I had these experiences on the cusp of this pandemic. The importance of the work done there needed to be represented in this long episode; this is my attempt at doing so. In collaboration with Brazilian political theorist and journalist Mirna Wabi-Sabi, five interviews were conducted during my time there: two radical organizers (one an infamous political prisoner) of the More Love, Less Capital (Mais Amor, Menos Capital) event; a scholar, historian, and daughter of the African diasporic spiritual tradition Candomblé; a renowned photojournalist and activist documenting Indigenous resistance; a linguist and anthropologist conducting field work in Amazonia, working to preserve the dying languages of Indigenous communities. The section contains reflections on the calamitous realities of Brazil: the uprisings of 2013 and the state of the Left under neofascist Bolsonaro; the Western gaze on the Global South; the spiritual-social-political resistance of the African Diaspora; artistic representation of Indigenous struggle under Capital and the State; the subtle complexities of cultural genocide in Amazonia. // Timeline + sources: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/300-2 // Download: https://bit.ly/LBW300-2 // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Bear with me on this. I wanted to do something different, original, for this episode, this milestone of 300. As you will hear in my introduction, I will be releasing seven parts for this, covering numerous themes that I've explored over the past 100 episodes of Last Born In The Wilderness. This first part is quite substantial, in and of itself. Weaving together fifteen carefully selected interviews, I present a narrative that conveys one of the most persistent themes of my work: ecological catastrophe, climatological disruption, near-term extinction, ruptures in the life-destroying industrial model, and humanity’s capacity to reclaim our regenerative role—in spite of the outcome. // Timeline + sources: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/300-1 // Download: https://bit.ly/LBW300-1 // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Ian MacKenzie — visionary filmmaker, storyteller, and host of The Mythic Masculine podcast — returns to discuss manhood, mythology, and emerging masculinities in the wake of calamity.  This conversation runs deep. Ian and I attempt to navigate the complexities and shadows of men's work in our time of emerging inquiries and contemplation about gender identity and expression. We wholeheartedly acknowledge that as necessary as those discussions around these subjects are, as vital as they may be, we must ask: Where do men fit in this? Ian and I are both what can be described as cisgendered and fairly heteronormative in our relationship styles — situated on a spectrum that has, traditionally, benefited folks such as ourselves in very concrete and obvious ways. That reality is not contested by either of us. But, as we expand upon in this discussion, the patterns of behavior and the beliefs that accompany men through their lives extremely limit them in their relationships — both with others and with themselves — and in their development through the various stages of adulthood. The patterns of domination, manipulation, and violence that characterize so much of how men engage with those around them stem from deep wounds that must be looked at and addressed. Ian and I delve into these subjects honestly, and I ask Ian to express what he has learned on his path exploring these subjects with his work in film and The Mythic Masculine podcast. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/ian-mackenzie-3 // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Acausal heathen poet and author Ramon Elani joins me to discuss his new book, Wyrd Against the Modern World, published through Night Forest Press. This audio interview is actually a reading of a written interview I conducted with him, originally published at the Gods&Radicals Press supporter-only blog Another World. // Episode notes + transcript: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/ramon-elani-2 // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Liz Oliva Fernández, Cuban journalist and lead protagonist of The War on Cuba documentary series, joins me to discuss her work with Belly of the Beast Cuba, a Havana-based media project made up of Cubans and foreigners that highlights the daily lives and experiences of the Cuban people from the ground level. // Episode notes + transcript: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/liz-oliva-fernandez // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

World-renowned environmental and reproductive epidemiologist Dr. Shanna Swan joins me to discuss her groundbreaking research identifying the causes and rate of rapid decline of fertility in the Western world, documented in her new book Count Down: How Our Modern World Is Threatening Sperm Counts, Altering Male and Female Reproductive Development, and Imperiling the Future of the Human Race. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/shanna-swan // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Anthropologist, experimental archaeologist, and historian Peter Michael Bauer joins me to discuss several major subjects of his work, including rewilding, collapse, and humanity's place within these frameworks. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/peter-michael-bauer // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast