Last Born In The Wilderness

I speak with Dr. Joe Tafur—family physician, Shipibo-trained shaman, integrative medicine activist, and the author of The Fellowship of the River: A Medical Doctor's Exploration into Traditional Amazonian Plant Medicine. We discuss Dr. Tafur’s years of work integrating Western medical knowledge and practice with traditional Amazonian plant medicine, in particular the administering of the psychedelic brew ayahuasca and other plant medicines, under the traditional practice of Shipibo shamanism. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/joe-tafur // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Writer, documentarian, and lecturer Douglas Rushkoff joins me for this episode. Douglas has authored numerous best-selling books, and the yet-to-be-released Team Human. His lifetime of work has focused primarily on human autonomy in the digital age.  We start this episode by discussing Douglas Rushkoff’s widely shared article, published on Medium and picked up by CNBC, Survival of the Richest: The wealthy are plotting to leave us behind. In the article, Douglas describes a situation in which he was invited to a private meeting with several ultra-wealthy men to field their questions regarding technological trends in cryptocurrency, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence, as well as their deep-seated concerns regarding “The Event”—a catch-all euphemism for the portending threat of abrupt climate change, nuclear war, social unrest, and economic collapse looming on the horizon of our collective future. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/douglas-rushkoff // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

I speak with Dr. Lise Eliot, Professor of Neuroscience at The Chicago Medical School of Rosalind Franklin University, and the author of Pink Brain, Blue Brain: How Small Differences Grow into Troublesome Gaps and What We Can Do About It.  In this interview, I tried to get to the root of what informs gender identity and its relationship to our biology, specifically regarding our neurology and brain development. The questions we explore in this episode include: What significant neurological differences exist between a “male” and “female” brain, especially at the time of birth? If differences exist, what role do these differences play in the development of individual traits—traits that may be categorized culturally as either “female” or “male” in nature?  How much is the development of an individual's gender identity associated with cultural, rather than biological, factors? // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/lise-eliot // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

In this episode, I speak with Steven Cohen—former executive director of Columbia University's Earth Institute, a professor in the practice of public affairs at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs, and the author of The Sustainable City. Dr. Cohen provides an overview of the broader trends in sustainable technological development, especially regarding the ongoing urbanization of human life. As the United Nations has reported, “Today, 54 per cent of the world’s population lives in urban areas, a proportion that is expected to increase to 66 per cent by 2050.” Dr. Cohen provides an overview of these technological trends regarding their application in city planning within major urban areas around the world. He details the increasing efficiency of battery storage, the evolution of solar and wind power, and the rise and growing prominence of the electric automobile, and ties these evolving technologies to the ongoing development and planning of “sustainable cities.” Toward the end of the interview, Steven provides a nuanced perspective on the ongoing policy decisions by the Trump Administration, under the former Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Scott Pruitt, to deregulate environmental protections enforced by the EPA, and how these decisions will ultimately play out into the near future. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/steven-cohen // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

I speak with Stephen Jenkinson, founder and lead instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School and the author of numerous books, including Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul, and most recently, Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble.  In this interview, we discuss how the dominant culture of North America, as Stephen frames it, is awash in aged people, but bereft of elders in the truest sense of the word. Stephen “argues that elderhood is a function rather than an identity—it is not a position earned simply by the number of years on the planet or the title ‘parent’ or ‘grandparent.’” Why is it that the dominant culture of North America has been unable to produce the conditions necessary for elderhood to flourish, especially in this time of trouble we find ourselves in? Stephen discusses what the historical and cultural conditions have been that has led to this unexplored and unexamined crisis, and points to what elderhood in our time of great crisis—ecological, spiritual, political, and otherwise—would possibly look like, framing it within the profound realization that elderhood can only flourish when the appetite exists for it. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/stephen-jenkinson // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Cynthia Jones and I speak with Liyah Babayan—local entrepreneur, business owner, activist, and Armenian refugee.  In this conversation, Liyah goes over her life story, framing it within the cultural/historical/political framework of her home country of Azerbaijan, where she had spent much of her early childhood before fleeing with her family from severe persecution and genocide. In the late 1980s and into the early 1990s, a pogrom was enacted against ethnic Armenians in the capital city of Baku, Liyah’s place of birth, as well as in surrounding areas, resulting in the expulsion and mass murder of thousands of Armenians. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/liyah-babayan-2 // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

This episode contains two interviews. The first is with Shane Burley—filmmaker, journalist, and author of Fascism Today: What It Is and How To End It. The second is with RS—journalist and radio host for the Progressive Radio Network. Each of these interviews focus on the dynamics and recent developments within the Abolish ICE movement, and specifically the OccupyICE encampments that have sprung up recently around ICE offices throughout the US, the largest and most prominent being in Portland, Oregon. The formation of these encampments are in response to the increasingly Gestapo-like policies and tactics currently being employed by the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, in particular the agency’s active role in the detainment of immigrants crossing the southern US border seeking asylum. Much of the anger, and subsequent action, in recent weeks has been in response to the Trump Administration’s policy of separating immigrant families and imprisoning them in privately owned detention facilities along the US border. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/burley-rs // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Anglo-Scandinavian philosopher of mind Peter Sjöstedt-H joins me to discuss psychedelics, panpsychism, and philosophy. Peter and I discuss the resurgence of interest in psychedelics in popular culture regarding the profound therapeutic value these substances can provide for individuals suffering from trauma and addiction. The therapeutic value of these substances is only the "tip of the iceberg" when it comes to the value these substances hold for humanity’s philosophical exploration into the nature of the mind and the mind's relationship with reality. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/peter-sjostedt-h // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

I speak with Joel Wainwright, professor at Ohio State University, and co-author of Climate Leviathan: A Political Theory of Our Planetary Future. Professor Wainwright and co-author Geoff Mann examine a question often overlooked within the broader discussion about global climate change and our planetary future: how will our political and economic institutions respond to global climate change?  // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/joel-wainwright // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Tom Aiello, founder and lead instructor at the Snake River BASE Academy, returns to the podcast. Tom has travelled all around the world pursuing his passion of BASE jumping, and in this episode he shares his rich depth of experience and knowledge, as well as some truly fascinating and engrossing stories well worth listening to. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/tom-aiello-2 // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast