Last Born In The Wilderness

In this episode, I speak with eco-radical and guerrilla ontologist philosopher and writer Julian Langer. In this wide-ranging discussion, we discuss the middle-spaces of social engagement with technology and industrial infrastructure within an eco-pessimist perspective, Julian’s encounters with the climate activist group Extinction Rebellion and the mainstreaming of climate/environmental activism, the “ineffable visceral space” of his encounter with cancer and modern medicine, and maximizing individual freedom within the varying “intensities of capture” of civilized life. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/julian-langer // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

In this episode, I speak with culture activist, teacher, author and ceremonialist Stephen Jenkinson. We discuss his most recent performative project Nights of Grief & Mystery, made in collaboration with “song and dance man” Gregory Hoskins—as documented in the recent short film Lost Nation Road, directed by Ian MacKenzie. After watching Ian MacKenzie’s short documentary film Lost Nation Road, I finally began to understand more fully the real spirit and essence of Stephen Jenkinson and Gregory Hoskins’ exquisite and subversive project Nights of Grief & Mystery. By that, I mean the immersive and ritualized nature of this performative act. To describe this act merely as a storytelling/spoken word and musical performance is to reduce the unifying purpose to its individual components. Nights of Grief & Mystery subverts our notions of what performance is and could be in this time of deep trouble, and as Stephen elaborates in this interview, this act taps into something far older than that of theatrical performance—ritual. Ritual engages with the collective, requiring the participation of all involved, which stands in contrast with proper theatrical performance as we often conceive and experience it, which as Stephen expresses, is a disfigurement of ritual, creating an arbitrary division between the “audience” and the “performers.” In subverting our notions of performance, Stephen and Gregory conjure an experience that alludes to the question: In these times of deepening trouble, how do we conduct ourselves? “These are nights in which love letters to life are written and read aloud. There’s some boldness in them. They have that tone. These nights have the mark of our time upon them, and they’re timely, urgent, alert, steeped in mortal mystery. They’re quixotic. They have swagger. What would you call such a thing? We call them Nights of Grief & Mystery.” // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/stephen-jenkinson-2 // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

In my fourth interview with Truthout staff reporter, climate journalist, and author Dahr Jamail, we discuss some of the most dramatic and recent examples of abrupt climate disruption in recent months, how these accelerating changes are manifesting across human communities and political institutions across the planet, and how these changes are forever altering the natural world as a whole through widespread species displacement, loss, and extinction. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/dahr-jamail-4 // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

In this episode, I speak with visionary documentary filmmaker Ian MacKenzie. We discuss his two most recent projects: Love School—an ongoing film project, made in collaboration with John Wolfstone and Julia Maryanska, that explores the revolutionary research village and healing biotope Tamera in Portugal; Ian's recently released short film Lost Nation Road—which follows culture activist and author Stephen Jenkinson and Canadian musician Gregory Hoskins on their unlikely collaboration with the Nights of Grief and Mystery tour. “In the Oak-dotted countryside of Southern Portugal lies the Tamera Healing Biotope, one of Earth’s most radical social experiments in human futurism.” In this discussion with Ian, we discuss his ongoing collaborative project Love School, a film that delves deeply into the revolutionary work the community of Tamera, which aims to build a nonviolent culture through the integration of eros (life force)—by building communities of trust, transparency, and solidarity between genders, reawakening the power of the village in human communities, and offering a pathway toward a regenerative future for all of humanity and the living world. By addressing the underlying alienation, dysfunction, and trauma inherent in the dominant culture’s conditioning of human relationships (with each other, non-human life, and the land) through over forty years of community experimentation, Tamera provides a stunning example of what is most needed in our time of converging global crises. Ian’s shares his personal experiences of how he came to this healing biotope Tamera, and what motivates his desire to spread the message of this ongoing experiment in human healing and relationship with the rest of the world. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/ian-mackenzie-2 // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

In this interview, I speak with Natalie Minoshka and Ínaru de la Fuente Díaz. Natalie and Ínaru are on-the-ground activists and citizens of Puerto Rico, and have been active participants in the massive protests that have swept the island for several weeks. Natalie and Ínaru provide some background on the demands of these protests, including what incited them, the historic size and turnout of these demonstrations, and what we can expect in the coming weeks. This interview was recorded Tuesday, July 23rd, two days before Governor Ricardo Rosselló resigned. After nearly 900 pages of private chat logs between Governor Ricardo Rosselló and several members of his administration was leaked to the public in July, the people of Puerto Rico have had one demand for Roselló: resign. The leak of these chat logs has revealed to the world and the citizens of Puerto Rico the truly abhorrent attitudes and blatant corruption the Governor and his administration have engaged in. For nearly two weeks, hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans took to the streets across the island, (with one day of the protests reaching 1.25 million participants, well over a quarter of the island’s population) demanding “Ricky Renuncia.” The leaks were "the straw that broke the back of a territory in the midst of its worst fiscal crisis in recent history, with rampant corruption and the sad weight of the more than 4,000 deaths from causes related to Hurricane María — mainly as a result of government negligence. These victims were the objects of the most obscene joke in the whole transcript.” This interview with Natalie and Ínaru was conducted just two days before Governor Roselló’s decision to resign, and this discussion with them gives us a glimpse into the powerful moment of collective strength the people of this island have demonstrated. Along with this, Natalie and Ínaru discuss what we can hope to expect in the future, as this struggle for the people of this island to overcome gross government corruption and incompetence by forcing Roselló to resign is only the beginning. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/minoshka-diaz // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

In this episode, I speak with lawyer and radical environmental activist Will Falk. In this discussion, Will examines the United States legal system, in particular environmental law, and the difficult realities communities around the US continuously face when it comes to protecting natural entities (lakes, rivers, forests, etc.) from ecologically destructive government and corporate projects. As Will elaborates in this interview, the United States legal system is not designed to effectively protect human and non-human communities from ecologically destructive projects. Instead, as Will explains, it exists primarily “to make it near impossible for the citizenry to oppose those projects” through legal means. This assertion can be demonstrated to be true by examining numerous legal cases that have come up in the last several decades in communities around US—perhaps most dramatically by the community of Toledo, Ohio in their efforts to end the proliferation of toxic algae blooms in Lake Erie—the region’s main source of potable water. In response to this environmental crisis, the community organized to have a “Lake Erie Bill of Rights” on the ballot in their local elections. If enacted, the legislation would effectively grant legal rights to a natural entity (Lake Erie), and would work to protect the lake and the residents of Toledo from the destructive impacts of industrial agricultural runoff (which produces toxic algae blooms as a byproduct). As Will explains in detail, this campaign, despite being extremely well organized, well funded, legally and ethically sound, and having gained enough votes in the election, was shut down by the very legal processes that the community of Toledo relied upon for the success of their campaign. This case, unfortunately, is not unique. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/will-falk-2 // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

In this episode, I speak with Tania Li, Ph.D.—Professor of Anthropology at the University of Toronto and the author of Land’s End: Capitalist Relations on an Indigenous Frontier. In our era of globalized neoliberal capitalism, we tend to examine the emergence of capitalist economic and social relations among indigenous communities primarily as a result of overbearing external pressures, e.g. governments, nonprofit organizations, and multinational corporations (often in tandem). It is important, however, to recognize that while this is often the case, this view does not include the ways capitalism can emerge and take hold in far more subtle ways. As documented in Land’s End, from 1990 to 2009 Tania conducted annual ethnographic research in the Lauje highlands of Sulawesi Indonesia, and bore witness to the indigenous population’s rapid adoption of the tree crop cocoa for cultivation, transitioning away from the more communally managed production of food crops, as had been done traditionally in these communities for generations. As Tania explains in this episode, the seemingly banal transformation the highlanders of this region experienced—transitioning from the communal production of food crops to the more privatized production of cocoa—not only produced capitalist relations among the Lauje, but did so with very minimal to non-existent pressures from outside institutions. How did this happen? What can we learn about the nature of capitalism and its emergence from Tania’s profound ethnographic study, and how can we apply this knowledge to more adequately respond to the material conditions that produce these results? Tania and I discuss these questions and much more in this episode. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/tania-li // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

This is a segment of episode #200 of Last Born In The Wilderness “We Live In The Orbit Of Beings Greater Than Us: A Weaving Of Threads.” Listen to the full episode: http://bit.ly/LBW200 / http://bit.ly/LBW200v Episode #200 is something of a highlight reel, featuring numerous segments from previous interviews I’ve conducted and released, with commentary on the underlying themes and threads that tie all this work together. The episode contains segments with Silvia Federici, Dr. Gerald Horne, Shane Burley, Liyah Babayan, Stephen Jenkinson, Dahr Jamail, William Rees, Dezeray Lyn, Peter Gelderloos, Cory Morningstar, Jasper Bernes, Rhyd Wildermuth, Dr. Karla Tait, Ramon Elani, John Halstead, Charles Eisenstein, Joe Brewer, and Bayo Akomolafe. The song featured is “Listening Piece 1” composed by Scott Farkas (used with permission): https://youtu.be/tBvMrqmHMVk WEBSITE: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness DONATE: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast DROP ME A LINE: Call (208) 918-2837 or http://bit.ly/LBWfiledrop EVERYTHING ELSE: https://linktr.ee/patterns.of.behavior

This is episode #200 of Last Born In The Wilderness. This is something of a highlight reel, featuring numerous segments from previous interviews I’ve conducted and released, with commentary on the underlying themes and threads that tie all this work together. This is a beast of an episode (almost four hours in length), so please take your time! This episode features segments of discussions with Silvia Federici, Dr. Gerald Horne, Shane Burley, Liyah Babayan, Stephen Jenkinson, Dahr Jamail, William Rees, Dezeray Lyn, Peter Gelderloos, Cory Morningstar, Jasper Bernes, Rhyd Wildermuth, Dr. Karla Tait, Ramon Elani, John Halstead, Charles Eisenstein, Joe Brewer, and Bayo Akomolafe. // Episode notes + timeline: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/200 // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

I speak with journalist John H. Richardson. Former writer-at-large for Esquire, John is the author of the captivating article Children of Ted: The Unlikely New Generation of Unabomber Acolytes, published December 2018 in New York Magazine. In Children of Ted, Richardson takes a deep dive into the world of Theodore Kaczynski (aka the Unabomber) acolytes and apostates, a journey that documents his interactions with various individuals and groups that have been inspired (or adjacently inspired) by the anti-civilizational writings and philosophy of Kaczynski, and even his multiple deadly acts of terrorism leading up to his arrest by the FBI in 1996. Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/john-richardson // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast