Last Born In The Wilderness

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

In this episode, I speak with writer and editor Vicky Osterweil, author of In Defense of Looting: A Riotous History of Uncivil Action, published through Bold Type Books. In her book, Vicky discusses the history of looting—the mass act of publicly and directly seizing goods—and the vital role this act of wealth distribution has played (and continues to play) in movements toward addressing injustices of and abolishing the state, white supremacy, and capitalism. "From slave revolts to labor strikes to the modern-day movements for climate change, Black lives, and police abolition, Osterweil makes a convincing case for rioting and looting as weapons that bludgeon the status quo while uplifting the poor and marginalized." / Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/vicky-osterweil // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

In this episode, I speak with Derek Beres, Matthew Remski, and Julian Walker, hosts of the Conspirituality podcast. In continuing my exploration into QAnon and the widespread proliferation of and cult-like adherence to conspiracy theory thinking in the United States, I felt it was time to have this discussion with the hosts of this timely, well crafted, and increasingly needed podcast project. Conspirituality uncovers the intricate dynamics at play in the merging of the Health and Wellness community and its online influencers with this far right conspiracy theory — including the cult dynamics at play in its popularity and spread, the role social media plays in disseminating these ideas, and what the popularity of these ideas means for political action and discourse in our time of rising authoritarianism and right wing populism. / Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/conspirituality // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

In this episode, I speak with Margaret Killjoy—anarchist author, musician, and crafter. In the wake of the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests and uprisings since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, "anarchists" have been in the news. Whether it's President Trump calling for the arrest of "radical-left anarchists" and "Antifa," or Democratic presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden stating that “arsonists and anarchists should be prosecuted,” there is a long history of anarchists being scapegoated by the political elite in times of civil unrest. I ask Margaret to provide some historical context to these statements by Trump and Biden, pointing to the Russian Revolution in 1917 and the Haymarket Affair of 1886 in the United States, and the role anarchists played in each of these respective events. From there, we move into discussing a recent essay published on her website Art and the Void, in which she explores creativity and artistic exploration, using the metaphor of an "ice floe, floating in an infinite sea" to examine our mutually expressed and shared reality and our contributions to it. / Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/margaret-killjoy // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast