Last Born In The Wilderness

Meteorologist and geoscientist Nicholas Humphrey joined me to detail the record-breaking flood in the Midwest United States this season, its impacts on the agricultural center of the country, and how this event is directly tied to the dramatic global changes associated with abrupt climate disruption. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/nicholas-humphrey // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Lawyer, grief therapist, and community builder Holly Truhlar joined me to discuss their provocatively titled essay, Mainstream Psychology Can Go Fuck Itself. They address the ways mainstream psychology, as it is currently practiced today, largely lacks the framework, language, and tools to adequately counsel those coming into the growing awareness that the systems we are embedded within are leading to societal collapse, ecological disintegration, and abrupt climate disruption on the global scale. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/holly-truhlar // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

I speak with heathen writer and poet Ramon Elani, a frequent contributor at Gods & Radicals. In exploring his unique perspective on how to address the converging social, spiritual, and ecological crises on this planet, we examine three essays published for Gods & Radicals, which include Land, Home, and the Gods; World’s End; and Our Rage Against The Modern World, co-written with Gods & Radicals co-founder Rhyd Wildermuth. "Let the home and the idea of the home become a pillar of strength. Let the home become a site of defiance, a bold denial of industrial society. Let the home be made into a bulwark against the modern world." — Land, Home, and the Gods // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/ramon-elani // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

In this collaborative interview with RS, we speak with Yoav Litvin, doctor of psychology, photographer, and writer. His work focuses on the roots of Zionism, trauma, and the policies and actions of the State of Israel and such influential organizations as AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee), "a lobbying group that advocates pro-Israel policies to the Congress and Executive Branch of the United States." // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/yoav-litvin // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Truthout senior editor and lead columnist William Rivers Pitt joined me for this episode. We discussed the federal investigation by former FBI Director Robert Mueller into Donald Trump’s alleged collusion with Russian foreign agents during the 2016 presidential election—an investigation that lasted for most of Trump's time as US president. Without buying into the media spectacle that has clouded lucid analysis into the implications of this investigation, Pitt provides perspective into what we can expect now that the investigation has officially concluded—the findings of which have not yet been publicly released, it must be noted. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/william-rivers-pitt // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Kevin Tucker joined me to discuss his book The Cull of Personality: Ayahuasca, Colonialism and the Death of a Healer. The book takes a deep dive into the reality of the ayahuasca eco-tourism industry and places it within the centuries-long history of colonialism and resource extraction in Amazonia, in particular Peru, where much of the narrative of this book is centered. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/kevin-tucker // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Author, journalist, and political researcher Shane Burley returns to the podcast. We discuss the recent mass shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, in which an Australian white supremacist targeted Muslim worshipers at two separate mosques, murdering 50 people—the largest mass shooting in the nation’s history. We place this event within Burley’s larger analysis of far-right ideology and insurgency, which has been thoroughly examined in Shane’s journalism on the subject, as well as in previous interviews I have had with him. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/shane-burley-3 // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

I speak with sociologist Milton Bennett, director of the Intercultural Development Research Institute and the creator of the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity, also known as the Bennett Scale. What is a cult in the literal sense, and what is culting? As can be observed in the hardcore base of support for leaders such as Donald Trump and other examples Bennett is very familiar with, like the Rajneeshee cult in Oregon in the 1980s explored in the Netflix documentary Wild Wild Country, culting is a very specific form of indoctrination, often with a central figure that is actively—consciously or unconsciously—building an unquestioning base of followers. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/milton-bennett // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Lecturer, activist, and author Bayo Akomolafe returns to the podcast. We pick up where we left off over one year ago and get into some of the major cruxes of his work, including radically reshaping the understandable, but often unexamined, sense of urgency we feel in a time of accelerating change and collapse as we fully enter into the Anthropocene, "the human epoch." // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/bayo-akomolafe-2 // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Economist and cryptocurrency/blockchain specialist Alex de Vries joined me to discuss his research into the energy-consumptive cryptocurrency Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency in the world at the present moment. I asked de Vries to elaborate on how Bitcoin and blockchain work—particularly Bitcoin “mining” and transactions—his research into the disturbing amounts of energy required to keep Bitcoin functioning and growing, Bitcoin's growing environmental footprint, and what these trends mean for the future for Bitcoin and decentralized cryptocurrencies more generally. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/alex-de-vries // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast