Last Born In The Wilderness

In this episode, I speak with social critic, activist, writer, and textile artist Alley Valkyrie, co-founder of Gods & Radicals and author of, Of Monsters and Miso, “a bilingual book of delicious miso sauce recipes.” Waves of protests have swept nations around the globe, with robust examples mass resistance in such places as Hong Kong (http://bit.ly/2Q2LtF8), Chile, and France, just to name a few. (http://bit.ly/2SFi8lX) Organized resistance against the neoliberal economic polices imposed by governments globally, and the authoritarian responses from these states towards their respective populations, has not only demonstrated the spirit of the times we are in, but just as importantly, what the nature of resistance looks like in our time of compounding crises. Among these numerous examples of civil unrest, there is one glaring exception: the United States. As Alley explains in this episode, there are numerous historical, cultural, and sociological reasons as to why US citizens continue to believe that the electoral process, petition signing, and the ongoing impeachment proceedings against President Trump in the House and Senate will lead to the changes needed to adequately respond to the massive systemic injustices Americans experience in their economic and social lives daily. Faith in these bureaucratic processes are certainly not enough, and in fact, works to deter the kinds of direct actions required to actually force the hands of the political elite to do anything besides steal from and undermine the majority of the population in their ability to live lives of dignity, good health, and social welfare. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/alley-valkyrie-2 // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

In this episode, I speak with Oliver Belcher, Assistant Professor in Human Geography at Durham University and co-author of, Hidden carbon costs of the “everywhere war”: Logistics, geopolitical ecology, and the carbon boot‐print of the US military, with Patrick Bigger, Ben Neimark, Cara Kennelly. A summary of their research was published at The Conversation, US military is a bigger polluter than as many as 140 countries – shrinking this war machine is a must. This discussion is about the often obscured impacts the United States’ global military presence has on the planetary climate system at large. Oliver and his colleagues’ research points to the fact “[g]reenhouse gas emission accounting usually focuses on how much energy and fuel civilians use. But recent work, including our own, shows that the US military is one of the largest polluters in history, consuming more liquid fuels and emitting more climate-changing gases than most medium-sized countries. If the US military were a country, its fuel usage alone would make it the 47th largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, sitting between Peru and Portugal.” We discuss why this reality is often overlooked in climate and environmental studies, and how the Military-Industrial-Complex is one of the largest purveyors of environmental and climate change in the world today. When it comes to international efforts to mitigate climate change, the overbearing effects of the maintenance and expansion of the United States Empire is the “elephant in the room” in addressing the global climate crisis. What’s also examined in this research is the awareness the US military has of its own impact on the climate system, as the “US military has long understood that it isn’t immune from the potential consequences of climate change – recognising it as a “threat multiplier” that can exacerbate other risks.” Despite this, the “American military’s climate policy remains contradictory. There have been attempts to "green" aspects of its operations by increasing renewable electricity generation on bases, but it remains the single largest institutional consumer of hydrocarbons in the world. It has also locked itself into hydrocarbon-based weapons systems for years to come, by depending on existing aircraft and warships for open-ended operations.” (http://bit.ly/396LbnZ) // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/oliver-belcher // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

In this episode, I speak with Hong Kong citizen, bilingual stand-up comedian, and activist Vivek Mahbubani. Vivek provides a much-needed ground-level view of the historic and ongoing uprising in Hong Kong these past six months. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/vivek-mahbubani // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

In this episode, I speak with Mirna Wabi-Sabi. She is a political theorist, writer, and editor at Gods & Radicals. Mirna and I begin this discussion by laying out the nature of our upcoming collaborative work together, as I’ll be traveling to southern Brazil for two months, beginning December 8th. In explaining how our work overlaps in crucial ways, we remark on the absurdity of contemporary politics in both Brazil and the United States, and how the often narrow focus of climate justice activism in the Global North often limits our approach to addressing the roots of the ecological crisis more specifically, and the legacy of colonialism more generally. From there, we move into an examination of the themes presented in Mirna’s article, The History of Displacement of Non-White Women in Villa Mimosa: Mapping the roots of Brazil’s most notorious red light district from the Byzantine Empire and WW1,, which addresses the long and complex history of slavery and sex work in Europe and how this is tied to the varied forms of displacement of marginalized populations up the present moment. This examination also includes the work of historian Clare Makepeace and her research into WWI, heterosexuality, and the role sex work played in the expression of male heteronormativity up to the present moment. Mirna examines how this dynamic is felt today in the displacement of women, with a particular focus on Rio’s red light district Villa Mimosa. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/mirna-wabi-sabi-2 // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Elliot Robinson, a listener of the podcast that works in land restoration in New Orleans, dropped me a line regarding my episode with social anthropologist Dr. Khalil Avi, featured in episode 220 (http://bit.ly/LBWavi). He posed a great question regarding how to deal with a particular "invasive species" in his work, the Chinese Tallow Tree. I sent the audio of Elliot's call to Avi, and he contacted permaculture designer, teacher, and homesteader Tao Orion, author of, Beyond the War on Invasive Species, to provide her expertise in answering Elliot's question. We decided the best course of action was to set up a group call, so Elliot could more adequately pose his questions to Tao and Avi, with myself serving as a facilitator of the discussion. This nearly 40-minute conversation was featured at the end of episode 222 with Dark Mountain co-founder Dougald Hine (http://bit.ly/LBWhine). // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

In this episode, I speak with Dark Mountain Project co-founder and writer Dougald Hine. We discuss his new writing series Notes From Underground, published weekly at Bella Caledonia, that explores "the deep context of the new climate movements that have surfaced since mid-2018." In this discussion, we explore this uncharted territory that we have collectively entered into, to which Dougald has rightfully defined as “some kind of initiatory process.” What does it mean, in a time of compounding and accelerating crises (climatologically, ecologically, socially), to undergo a process of initiatory rites? For those of us that are cognizant of the general spirit of the times we are in, what can we do to provide the resources, spaces, and structures to further grapple with the “dark material we were carrying all along?” Dougald and I explore this territory in this episode. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/dougald-hine // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

In this episode, I speak with Stephen Pyne, environmental historian and author of Fire: A Brief History. In this discussion with Stephen, I ask him to elaborate on humanity's long, deep, and complex relationship with fire. He explains how this relationship has informed everything from how our bodies have evolved to the impact this has had on our global environment up to the present moment. As Stephen has framed it, we have entered into an age of fire, which he has dubbed the Pyrocene (instead of Anthropocene); just as the Earth has passed through numerous ice ages, the industrialization of our relationship with fire (such as our use of fossil fuels and the internal combustion engine) has warmed the planet to such a degree as to completely disfigure and disrupt the planetary climate system, leading to a phase shift so large as to be barely grasped or comprehended at all. Fire and its crucial role in this shift must be not only examined in a scientific sense, but contextualized within a broader historical scope, which Stephen has provided for many years. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/stephen-pyne // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

In this episode, I speak with Social Anthropologist Dr. Khalil Avi, author of the article, Don’t Kill The Messenger!: Invasive Species and Halting Biodiversity Loss, published at Gods & Radicals. Avi addresses some of the underlying (colonialist, nationalist, and provincial) assumptions that surround the efforts to halt biodiversity loss in our age of abrupt climate change and environmental catastrophe. He challenges our notions of what it really means to halt biodiversity loss, in particular when it comes to the widespread practice of eliminating so-called invasive species in their respective environments as a means of addressing this crisis. As global climate disruption forces biological life to rapidly adapt to the changing environment, our efforts to halt biodiversity loss should include abandoning our unexamined and deeply held assumptions of what our responses to the environmental crisis should be. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/khalil-avi // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

I speak with renowned political dissident, linguist, and author Noam Chomsky. In this brief discussion, I ask Professor Chomsky to examine the current state and trajectory of the United States empire within the scope of recent history, fitting the recent “withdrawal” of the US military presence in Northeast Syria, under Kurdish governance, as an indication of what the US geopolitical influence in the region currently is. Secondly, we discuss the responsibility of journalists, especially in this time, to challenge state power and stand for those willing to risk everything to expose the crimes of the state and its corporate allies. To highlight this, we focus on the current situation of WikiLeaks founder and editor Julian Assange, currently imprisoned in the high-security Belmarsh Prison in London. // Episode notes + transcript: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/noam-chomsky // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

In this episode, I speak with Samantha Zipporah, reproductive justice activist and author of Mapping The Yoniverse, a “sex and body positive, gender inclusive and affirming, physical and energy anatomy coloring book,” illustrated by Casandra Johns. This interview with Samantha is about reclaiming what has been lost. When it comes to our bodily autonomy and knowledge of our health, sexual or otherwise, we have, through a combination of historical and administrative processes, delegated that responsibility to the medical industry and to the state and the legislature. Samantha, in her years of work as a sex educator, doula, and activist, has worked diligently to demonstrate, for women and persons assigned female at birth, the numerous ways in which sovereignty can be attained over such bodily functions as menstruation, ovulation, miscarriage, abortion, full-term pregnancy, and childbirth. We all have these traditions of knowledge and wisdom in our lineages, even it has been obscured and seemingly lost on the path to modernity. Samantha’s work is about reclaiming that knowledge and providing the spaces for it to be practiced, and as I state in this episode, this kind of work we need to do in this time, now more than ever before. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/samantha-zipporah // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast