Last Born In The Wilderness

In this episode, I speak with Jennifer Gardner, Sami Ruggles, and Amy Lou — registered nurses working locally in Southern Idaho. This episode is a compilation of segments of each of those interviews, with the full interviews to be released alongside this episode as well. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/registered-nurses // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

In this episode, I speak with Cultural Somatics practitioner and teacher Tada Hozumi. This discussion, in many ways, builds upon my previous interview with animist counselor Dare Sohei, a colleague of Tada's, in exploring and articulating the Cultural Somatic framework that encapsulates their approach in addressing systemic oppression, colonized bodies, dance, ancestral trauma, and call-out culture. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/tada-hozumi // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

In this episode, I speak with animist counselor and artist Dare Sohei.  In the very beginning of this discussion, I asked Dare what the animism in animist counseling is. From there, Dare tells me how the recognition of our inherent relationships—whether they are secure or insecure attachments to our bodies, the land, ancestors, more-than-human life, and cultural somas (such as "white supremacy," and this thing we call "The United States of America")—can allow us to address the fundamental disconnection that is producing the crises we find ourselves in presently. This discussion gets a bit emotional for me towards the latter half, as we really dig into the deeper elements of this work, discussing trauma, death, relationship with our bodies, and ultimately, where we stand in this time of trouble. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/dare-sohei // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

In this episode, I speak with Dr. Ira Leifer, founder and CEO of Bubbleology Research International Inc, and researcher who specializes in bubble-related oceanographic processes, satellite remote sensing, and air pollution. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/ira-leifer // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

In this episode, I speak with prolific writer and historian Gary Lachman, author of numerous books on the evolution of consciousness, popular culture, and the history of the occult. Most recently, his works include The Return of Holy Russia: Apocalyptic History, Mystical Awakening, and the Struggle for the Soul of the World, and Dark Star Rising: Magick and Power in the Age of Trump, both of which are the subject of this interview. / Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/gary-lachman // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

In this episode, I speak with political activists and commentators Shemon and Arturo, authors of several articles published at Ill Will Editions, including Theses on the George Floyd Rebellion, The Rise of Black Counter-Insurgency, and The Return of John Brown: White Race-Traitors in the 2020 Uprising. Since late May of this year, cities across the United States have been rocked by numerous riots and demonstrations in response to the highly publicized police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. What makes this national movement unique, particularly in comparison to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, is not only the scope of these uprisings, but also the mass participation of the white proletariat. While still remaining a BIPOC-led movement, countless white people have engaged in militant anti-racism direct action in the streets, openly breaking with the social and institutional construct of whiteness that “continues to be the glue that holds bourgeois society together in the U.S.” Shemon and Arturo examine the conditions that have led to this historic moment of unrest in this country, and draw on several historical comparisons of class solidarity that have extended across racial lines. We also address the “Black counter-insurgency” that has emerged in the weeks and months since the initial uprisings in May, as addressed in Shemon’s article The Rise of Black Counter-Insurgency. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/shemon-arturo // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

In this episode, I speak with writer, arborist, and professional horticulturist Max Paschall. We discuss his essay The Lost Forest Gardens of Europe, published at the Shelterwood Forest Farm website. In addressing the ever-increasing, ongoing impacts anthropogenic climate change is having on food production and land management, for those of us that descend from European colonizers in North America, what can we learn from the past? What relationship did our ancestors have with the lands they were indigenous to, and how did they adapt to rapid climatological and ecological shifts throughout the millennia? In Max's fascinating and illuminating essay The Lost Forest Gardens of Europe, the answers to these questions come more into focus. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/max-paschall // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

In this episode, I speak with Alexander Reid Ross, author of Against the Fascist Creep, and Shane Burley, author of Fascism Today: What It Is and How to End It. We discuss several important topics, including the historic ongoing wave of protests and uprisings across the United States since May this year, as well as the disturbing uptick of incidences of far-right vigilantism since then. We also examine one of the flash points in these struggles—Portland, Oregon—where Shane and Alexander are based. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/ross-burley-2 // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

In this episode, I speak with writer, translator, and activist John Washington. We discuss his book, The Dispossessed: A Story of Asylum at the US-Mexican Border and Beyond, published by Verso Books. At the center of The Dispossessed is the story of Arnovis, a Salvadorian man seeking asylum in the United States. As John weaves together the harrowing story of this man as he attempts to cross numerous borders and countless obstacles on his journey northward, John expands his narrative to include the deeper history and purpose of asylum, the modern bureaucratic framework potential asylees must contend with, and the details and consequences of the uniquely cruel immigration policies enacted by numerous presidential administrations (and most recently, the Trump Administration and their family separation policy). As much as “asylum seekers are expected to unveil themselves, to recount their histories, and to exhibit their wounds," the same cannot be said of those that are in a position to provide asylum. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/john-washington // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

In this episode, Kollibri terre Sonnenblume and I speak with Dr. Riane Eisler—social systems scientist, cultural historian, and attorney. She is the author of numerous books, including most famously The Chalice and The Blade: Our History, Our Future, and most recently Nurturing Our Humanity: How Domination and Partnership Shape Our Brains, Lives, and Future, co-authored with anthropologist Douglas Fry. Kollibri is the host of the Voices For Nature & Peace podcast, and this interview will be released on both of our respective programs. Partnership and domination—paradigms that stand at either end of what humanity has been capable of producing in societies and cultures throughout human history. Dr. Eisler's decades of groundbreaking research into the roots of each of these paradigms has lifted the veil of what human beings are truly capable of—expanding our view of what "human nature" really is—by drawing on numerous sources of research from anthropology, archeology, psychology, and more. As she elaborates in this interview, dominator societies are "trauma factories" that reproduce trauma intergenerationally, and that these dynamics play out within the bounds of the "left vs. right" sociopolitical paradigm we operate within. To truly allow a partnership paradigm to gain prominence again, we must address the root causes that allow dominator systems to maintain their hold, which includes examining the relationship between genders as well as the earliest stages of childhood development. / Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/riane-eisler // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast