Crazy Town
126 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 21 hours ago -With equal parts humor and in-depth analysis, Asher, Rob, and Jason safeguard their sanity while probing crazy-making topics like climate change, overshoot, runaway capitalism, and why we’re all deluding ourselves.
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Episodes
Escaping Globalism: Rebuilding the Local Economy One Pig Thyroid at a Time
April 24, 2024 09:00 - 1 hour - 46.9 MBFrom the top of a skyscraper in Dubai, Jason, Rob, and Asher chug margaritas made from the purest Greenland glacier ice as they cover the "merits" of globalism. International trade brings so many things, like murder hornets, piles of plastic tchotchkes, and deadly supply chain disruptions. The opposite of globalism is localism -- learn how to build a secure local economy that can keep Asher alive, hopefully at least through the end of the season. Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spic...
Escaping Technologyism: Dreams of AI Sheep and the Deadliest Word in Film History
April 17, 2024 09:00 - 1 hour - 45.9 MBModern humans have a Stockholm Syndrome relationship to technology, which has kidnapped us while convincing us it has our best interests in mind. But when one looks back at the history of plastics or the current frenzy around AI, it isn't hard to see the insanity of doubling down on new technology to save us from previous technology. Find out what a person or society can actually do to develop a healthy, non-abusive relationship with technology, aside from joining an Amish community or going...
Escaping Speedism: How to Slow Down and Enjoy the Collapse
April 10, 2024 09:00 - 1 hour - 47.6 MBConsult your inner tortoise to find novel ways of slowing down and living the good life. In a world haunted by just-in-time delivery, hyperactive business, accelerating environmental calamities, and metric tons of stress, Jason, Rob, and Asher work at a fast and furious pace to savor the moments, because there aren't many left. Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language. Sources/Links/Notes: Top 10 most unrealistic car crashes in movies Clip from the movie The Blues Brothers ...
Escaping Urbanism: Green Acres, Climate Migration, and the End of the Megacity
April 03, 2024 09:00 - 1 hour - 54.1 MBDid a whimsical 1960s TV sitcom presage climate migration and a reversal of urban growth? We're not calling for a Godzilla-esque teardown of cities, but climate change is forcing a serious urban rethink. Jason, Rob, and Asher offer visions of better infrastructure, policies, and culture that you can embrace, even if your home is in the city. Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language. Sources/Links/Notes: Wikipedia page for Paul Henning, creative force behind the spate of 1960...
Escaping Consumerism: Why Crocheted Codpieces Are the Perfect Antidote to Fast Fashion
March 27, 2024 09:00 - 1 hour - 43.6 MBIf American consumers ever come up for air under the pile of crap in their storage units, they find themselves face to face with a materialistic hellscape of megastores, McMansions, endless fleets of delivery trucks, and evil hordes of targeted ads. But help is on the way. Jason, Rob, and Asher present ideas for shaping up a world beyond consumerism. Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language. Sources/Links/Notes: The original (and both catchy and annoying) Toys “R” Us theme s...
Escaping Industrialism: How to Avoid Pancakes on a Stick and Other "Miracles" of the Industrial Age
March 20, 2024 09:00 - 57 minutes - 39.5 MBJason, Rob, and Asher take a tour of New Caledonia, California's Central Valley, Bhutan, and Cuba to uncover the ins and outs of industrialism, especially as it has been applied to agriculture. Along the way they riff on how the hell we can escape from an -ism that completely engulfs us. Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language. Sources/Links/Notes: Tom Murphy “does the math” on declining wild mammal mass. Understanding the primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary secto...
Escape Routes: Let's Get the F**k out of Crazy Town
March 13, 2024 09:00 - 51 minutes - 35.1 MBEscape Routes! That's the theme of the sixth season of Crazy Town. We're exploring how to escape industrialism, consumerism, globalism, capitalism, and all the other -isms that are causing a polycrisis of environmental and social breakdown. Most of all, Jason, Rob, and Asher are looking to maintain their sense of humor while escaping fatalism and finding meaningful ways to avoid collapse. Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language. Sources/Links/Notes: Wikipedia article on Chi...
Crazy Town Season 6 Trailer
March 06, 2024 22:00 - 1 minute - 952 KBJoin us on March 13, 2024 for the launch of our sixth season, in which Jason, Rob, and Asher explore escape routes from industrialism, capitalism, consumerism, and a bunch of other "-isms" that are causing the polycrisis of environmental and social breakdown. Support the show
Bonus: Grief and Making Connections with LaUra Schmidt
February 15, 2024 10:00 - 47 minutes - 32.9 MBLaUra Schmidt visits Crazy Town to discuss her work with the Good Grief Network and her book, How to Live in a Chaotic Climate: 10 Steps to Reconnect with Ourselves, Our Communities, and Our Planet. Along the way, she shares wisdom and insights on courage, taking meaningful action, terror management theory, and practices for processing the strong emotions that accompany facing climate change and other aspects of the polycrisis. Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language. Source...
Bonus: New Year's Dissolutions
January 17, 2024 10:00 - 34 minutes - 23.6 MBAsher, Jason, and Rob reflect on 2023 – a year filled to the brim with Crazy Townisms like the COP climate conference being held in Dubai, an anti-aging nutbag who parasitizes his own son, and the hijinks of the world’s dumbest billionaires. After a few predictions (all with money-back guarantees), they turn to some personal resolutions that might even help you cope with what’s coming in 2024. Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language. References: 183 regional and local confl...
Bonus: Vanilla Andreessen, Pygmy Marmosets, and Hi-Tech Delusions
December 13, 2023 10:00 - 1 hour - 43.4 MBThe most vomit-inducing document of 2023 has to be the "Techno-Optimist Manifesto," written (oh so obviously) by a billionaire Silicon Valley venture capitalist. Join Jason, Rob, and Asher if you feel like sharing in some outrage and learning about a WAY better manifesto that just so happens to focus on the world's smallest monkeys. Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language. References: Marc Andreessen's horrifying "Techno-Optimist Manifesto" Peer-reviewed paper featuring J...
Bonus: Bundyville and Stories that Need to Be Told with Leah Sottile
November 15, 2023 10:00 - 57 minutes - 39.3 MBInvestigative journalist Leah Sottile writes articles teeming with insights, and she produces and hosts podcasts filled with ah-ha moments. Rob tries not to sound like too much of a fanboy as he interviews Leah about political extremism, environmentalism, and the craft of storytelling during the Great Unraveling. Resources: Leah's website Leah's Substack page, titled "The Truth Does not Change According to Our Ability to Stomach It" Article in The High Country News "The 90-foot sentinel ...
Bonus Riff: Infinite, Unlimited, Forever - Water in the Desert
October 19, 2023 09:00 - 31 minutes - 21.7 MBJust how much has the extractivist growth mindset come to dominate Phoenix and other cities in the desert Southwest of the United States? Prepare to turn your indignation meter up to 11 as Jason, Rob, and Asher consider desalination, pipelines, and the folly of pursuing infinite growth in a dry climate. Support the show
Bonus: Holding the Fire - Indigenous Voices on the Great Unraveling
October 16, 2023 19:00 - 25 minutes - 17.3 MBWe are pleased to share the new podcast from Post Carbon Institute, Holding the Fire. Award-winning journalist and author Dahr Jamail hosts in-depth interviews with leaders from around the world to uncover Indigenous ways of reckoning with environmental and societal breakdown. Support the show
Bonus: Going Wild with Rae Wynn-Grant
September 20, 2023 09:00 - 50 minutes - 35 MBWildlife ecologist and communicator extraordinaire Rae Wynn-Grant visits Crazy Town to talk human-wildlife interactions, the social side of environmentalism, diversity and equity in the sciences, and ideas for young people (don't worry if you're older—the ideas apply to you, too). Rae is the host of the PBS Nature podcast "Going Wild" and will soon be appearing as the cohost of Wild Kingdom, a reboot of the ultra-classic tv nature show. Listen to the end of the episode to catch Rae’s thought...
Bonus: Bagdhad Bob Visits Climate Town
August 30, 2023 09:00 - 40 minutes - 27.8 MBWhat do Saddam Hussein’s information minister and the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board have in common? Hint: it starts with a “d,” ends with “enial,” and isn’t just a river in Egypt. A new and virulent strain of climate denial could be called “doomer shaming.” Instead of acknowledging how logical it is to be distressed about the state of the climate (and the pitiful worldwide political response), delusional boosters of the status quo would rather belittle people who worry about rising t...
Bonus: Choose Your Own Adventure in the Great Unraveling
August 09, 2023 09:00 - 51 minutes - 35.5 MBAfter hearing a story of woe on the streets of Portland, Oregon, Jason, Rob, and Asher cover the four critical ways of cultivating personal resilience to navigate the Great Unraveling. The report we reference several times is Welcome to the Great Unraveling: Navigating the Polycrisis of Environmental and Social Breakdown. Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language. Support the show
The Surest Paths to a Hard Collapse: The Delusional Doctrines of the Phalse Prophethood (Season Wrap-up)
June 21, 2023 09:00 - 1 hour - 58.4 MBAsher, Rob, and Jason explore the lessons and dangers of the brotherhood of Phalse Prophets and consider better ways to achieve a sustainable and equitable society. Along the way, they examine how to start a cult, turn the insufferability index on themselves, respond to listener feedback, and repeatedly mispronounce amygdala. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation. Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language. For an entertaining deep dive into the t...
The Elon Musk Episode about Elon Musk Brought to You by Elon Musk
June 14, 2023 09:00 - 1 hour - 47.9 MBMeet Elon Musk, the Muskian mogul who Elon Musks his way to the pinnacle of Muskitude. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation. Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language. For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the definitive peer-reviewed taxonomic analysis from our very own Jason Bradford, PhD. Sources/Links/Notes: Prepare to be wowed by the Musk Foundation website. Luc Olinga, "Errol Musk, Elon's D...
How to Fast-Track Collapse: Manipulating the Masses While Massaging Megalomaniacs
June 07, 2023 09:00 - 55 minutes - 38.1 MBMeet Steve Bannon, the Molotov mixologist who wants to light the world on fire. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation. Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language. For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the definitive peer-reviewed taxonomic analysis from our very own Jason Bradford, PhD. Sources/Links/Notes: Video: Mutual Aid in the Great Unraveling, Part 1 with Daniel P Aldrich, Amira Odeh, and Rich...
How to Lose Friends and Demoralize People: The Science (sic!) of Near-Term Extinction
May 31, 2023 09:00 - 54 minutes - 37.4 MBMeet Guy McPherson, the extinction enthusiast who undermines legitimate climate concerns by predicting we’re all going to die yesterday. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation. Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language. For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the definitive peer-reviewed taxonomic analysis from our very own Jason Bradford, PhD. Sources/Links/Notes: Guy McPherson, "Near-Term Extinction...
Prepping for the Apocalypse: Elites' Foolish Fantasies for Surviving a Collapse of Their Own Creation
May 24, 2023 09:00 - 1 hour - 41.9 MBMeet Barrett Moore, the bunker-building bullshit artist who helps capitalists survive the apocalypse with beans, bullets, and bravado. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation. Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language. For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the definitive peer-reviewed taxonomic analysis from our very own Jason Bradford, PhD. Sources/Links/Notes: History of the Kelly Butte Civil Defen...
Announcement: 2023 Crazy Town Hall
May 18, 2023 09:00 - 1 minute - 1.32 MBHow would you like to hang out with Asher, Rob, and Jason (well, virtually anyway)? Your chance is coming up at the fourth annual Crazy Town Hall. The town hall is our most fun event of the year, where you can ask questions, play games, get insider information on the podcast, and share plenty of laughs. It’s a special online event for the most dedicated Crazy Townies out there, and it’s coming up on June 6, 2023, from 10 to 11:15 AM U.S. Pacific time. To get an invitation, make a donation o...
How Longtermism Became the Most Dangerous Philosophy You’ve Never Heard of
May 17, 2023 09:00 - 1 hour - 43.6 MBMeet William MacAskill, the puerile professor who helps crypto capitalists justify sociopathy today for a universe of transhuman colonization tomorrow. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation. Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language. For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the definitive peer-reviewed taxonomic analysis from our very own Jason Bradford, PhD. Sources/Links/Notes: Andrew Anthony, "Will...
Sucking CO2 and Electrifying Everything: The Climate Movement's Desperate Dependence on Tenuous Technologies
May 10, 2023 09:00 - 1 hour - 56.7 MBMeet Mark Jacobson and David Keith, the leading techno-fixologists who overpromise overhyped “solutions” to the climate conundrum. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation. Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language. For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the definitive peer-reviewed taxonomic analysis from our very own Jason Bradford, PhD. Sources/Links/Notes: The Solutions Project Carbon Engineering ...
How Ecomodernists Hijacked the Environmental Movement: Technotopian Bullshit and a Raging Case of God Complex.
May 03, 2023 09:00 - 1 hour - 42.7 MBMeet Stewart Brand and his band of merry dematerialists, the Silicon Valley salesmen who undermined environmentalism with planet-saving fantasies that reek of technofetishism. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation. Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language. For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the definitive peer-reviewed taxonomic analysis from our very own Jason Bradford, PhD. Sources/Links/Notes...
Kinder, Gentler Colonialism: Bungling Billionaires and Their Arrogant Adventures in "Saving the World"
April 26, 2023 09:00 - 1 hour - 45.5 MBMeet Bill Gates, the philandering philanthropist who attempts to remake the world's operating system in his own image. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation. Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language. For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the definitive peer-reviewed taxonomic analysis from our very own Jason Bradford, PhD. Sources/Links/Notes: Bill Gates, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, 2021. Al...
Hot, Flat, and Totally Phucking Wrong: The Perilous Platitudes of a Pulitzer-Prize-Winning Propagandist
April 19, 2023 09:00 - 1 hour - 51.6 MBMeet Tom Friedman, the mustachioed metaphor maven who thinks we can have our cake and listen to it too. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation. Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language. For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the definitive peer-reviewed taxonomic analysis from our very own Jason Bradford, PhD. Sources/Links/Notes: Thomas Friedman, "Foreign Affairs Big Mac I," The New York Times, Dec...
How Boomer Politicians Found a Third Way to Phuck Over the Working Class
April 12, 2023 09:00 - 1 hour - 48.4 MBMeet Bill Clinton, who converted the Democratic Party into slightly less loathsome neoliberals. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation. For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the definitive peer-reviewed taxonomic analysis from our very own Jason Bradford, PhD. Sources/Links/Notes: Lily Geismer wrote an outstanding and comprehensive book, published in 2022, on Clinton and the legacy of neoliberal policies called L...
How to Become the Winningest Winner Who Wins: The Twisted Logic of the World’s Greatest CEO
April 05, 2023 09:00 - 1 hour - 43.3 MBMeet Jack Welch, celebrated wrecker of real jobs and leading light of Wall Street wankers. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation. For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the definitive peer-reviewed taxonomic analysis from our very own Jason Bradford, PhD. Sources/Links/Notes: David Gelles, The Man Who Broke Capitalism: How Jack Welch Gutted the Heartland and Crushed the Soul of America—and How to Undo His Legacy ...
How to Have Sex with Yourself: The Bizarre Cult of the Singularity
March 29, 2023 09:00 - 1 hour - 46 MBMeet Ray Kurzweil, who combines Moore’s Law with nanobots in a faux recipe to cheat death. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation. For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the definitive peer-reviewed taxonomic analysis from our very own Jason Bradford, PhD. Sources/Links/Notes: Ray Kurzweil's 2005 book checks in at 672 pages -- it's called The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. Kurzweil's sequel f...
Why the Polycrisis Is a Statistical Anomaly: The Willful Delusions of the World’s Leading Pseudointellectual
March 22, 2023 09:00 - 54 minutes - 37.5 MBMeet Steven Pinker whose denial of limits increases the likelihood of his worst fear: the end of the Enlightenment. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation. For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the definitive peer-reviewed taxonomic analysis from our very own Jason Bradford, PhD. Sources/Links/Notes: David Marchese, "Steven Pinker Thinks Your Sense of Imminent Doom Is Wrong" in The New York Times Magazine (2021)....
What the Phuck Is a Phalse Prophet?
March 15, 2023 07:00 - 30 minutes - 21.1 MBMeet the unelected leaders of Crazy Town, who keep our collective heads in the sand while the planet burns. Please share this episode to your friends and start a conversation. For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the definitive peer-reviewed taxonomic analysis from our very own Jason Bradford, PhD. Sources/Links/Notes: "Bundyville: The Remnant" -- long-form article and podcast by Leah Sottile. Five topic categories of the Phalse Prophets se...
Bonus: Drawing Insights with Stuart McMillen
February 22, 2023 10:00 - 41 minutes - 28.5 MBStuart McMillen is a systems thinker disguised as a cartoonist. His long-form comics condense important academic topics into understandable and entertaining works of art. Stuart tackles topics in the fields of ecology, economics, psychology, and sociology. With original drawings, thought-provoking narration, and expertly paced storytelling, he introduces readers to critical ideas that are often under-reported and underappreciated, including energy slaves, property rights, peak oil, and the w...
Bonus: An Inconvenient Apocalypse with Bob Jensen
January 11, 2023 10:00 - 1 hour - 59.6 MBBob Jensen has written a book with Wes Jackson titled An Inconvenient Apocalypse: Environmental Collapse, Climate Crisis, and the Fate of Humanity. With a title like that, Jason and Bob have lots of heavy ground to cover, including overshoot, the limits to growth, and the cascading environmental and social crises of our times. They conclude that there are no easy answers or silver-bullet solutions, but by focusing on sustainable size of the human population, appropriate scale of social organ...
Bonus: Human Rights and Multispecies Justice with Danielle Celermajer
December 14, 2022 10:00 - 48 minutes - 33.6 MBAsher is joined in Crazy Town by Danielle Celermajer, author and professor at University of Sydney, for a far-ranging conversation about human rights and the more-than-human world. Dany shares how her personal relationship with the Shoah (Holocaust) set her on a path of human rights work and impacted her experience of the devastating Black Summer Fires that swept through Australia in 2019-2020. They discuss her journey towards scholarship and activism for the more-than-human world, the inter...
Bonus: A Climate Scientist Goes to Jail with Peter Kalmus
November 09, 2022 10:00 - 45 minutes - 31.3 MBClimate scientist and activist Peter Kalmus returns to Crazy Town, but this time with a green badge of courage. Earlier this year, he locked himself to the entrance of the JP Morgan Chase building in downtown Los Angeles to protest their ongoing investment in the fossil fuel industry. As you would expect, he was arrested for his troubles. It was an experience he describes (paradoxically) as "scary as f**k," but also opening and wonderful. In this wide-ranging interview, Rob and Peter cover c...
Bonus: Tech Bros on Acid with Douglas Rushkoff
November 02, 2022 09:00 - 47 minutes - 32.6 MBDouglas Rushkoff revisits Crazy Town, where he and Asher discuss why so many billionaires, academic institutions, and "serious" people are drawn to longtermism - the view that our top priority should be ensuring that humanity can spread its wings throughout the physical and virtual universe. What's the suffering of a few billion people in the here and now, when there's quadrillions, no quintillions, of potential future people to worry about? Sure, the climate crisis is bad. But is it really ...
Bonus: Angry Birds and Hairbrained Humans with Mary Roach
October 12, 2022 09:00 - 47 minutes - 32.8 MBIn her latest book "Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law," Mary Roach approaches the topic of human-wildlife conflict with entertaining stories, scientific insight, and a healthy dose of wit and humor. There are plenty of animal stories in this episode, from marauding mountain lions to bothersome bears, from macaques who are jerks to gulls who are dicks, and of course that most meddlesome of all species – the human being. The phrase "going out clubbing" takes on a decidedly macabre meaning when ...
Announcement: Power Podcast with Richard Heinberg
September 22, 2022 09:00 - 2 minutes - 1.9 MBPlease check out our newest podcast, Power: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival featuring Richard Heinberg. How have humans become powerful enough to disrupt the world's climate, trigger the sixth mass extinction, and cause serious harm to the biosphere? And with all the abilities and technologies we've accrued, why do we so often oppress instead of uplift one another? Join us as we explore the hidden driver behind the converging crises of the 21st century. It all comes down to power - o...
Bonus: Boys and Oil with Taylor Brorby
September 14, 2022 09:00 - 47 minutes - 32.5 MBTaylor Brorby has written one hell of a memoir. It covers many critical topics that come up in Crazy Town, from fracking to civil disobedience to that most inept of policies: aiming for infinite economic growth on a finite planet. Taylor shares both thought-provoking ideas (e.g., the intimidating width of prairies versus the intimidating height of mountains) and lessons learned from growing up gay within the construct of an extractive economy. Two "bonus" topics in this episode: writing and ...
Bonus: The Stench of Neoliberalism with Noam Chomsky
August 10, 2022 09:00 - 44 minutes - 30.6 MBAs a follow-up to Episode 61 of the Crazy Town podcast, Noam Chomsky, the well-known linguist, author, and social critic, joins Asher Miller in Crazy Town to discuss the failures and dominance of neoliberalism -- which Chomsky describes as "class war" -- since delivery of the Powell Memo 50 years ago. Chomsky responds to George Monbiot's critique of the political center and left for not, in Monbiot's view, developing viable alternatives to neoliberalism. Disagreeing with Monbiot's (and admit...
Skyrocketing Population and Carbon Dioxide: Watershed Moments Wrap-up
July 06, 2022 09:00 - 1 hour - 43.7 MBThe astute listener will recognize the trends in population and greenhouse gas emissions over the course of our chronologically arranged episodes on watershed moments in history. Describing these trends in one word: growth. In two words: massive growth! And in three words: What the WTF? In recapping the season and considering what we learned, we hit on some common themes in Crazy Town: cognitive bias, energy literacy (really, illiteracy), human supremacy, disconnection from nature, and mispl...
Buying and Dying: How Online Shopping Grew from a Small Weed Deal into a Global Environmental and Societal Disaster
June 29, 2022 09:00 - 59 minutes - 41.2 MBTalk about cascading consequences: when a few nerds wanted to get high and orchestrated a small exchange of cannabis, they kicked off the age of ecommerce. Now that online shopping and the technology supporting it have ramped up commercialization and supercharged consumerism, we're facing existential crises. Exactly what nefarious internet innovation might lead Jason to unbox a trebuchet? Why would Asher consider having an Amazon truck deliver his kid to school? What's the most efficient way...
Greed over Need: Why Neoliberalism Sucks and How It Sabotages Community
June 22, 2022 09:00 - 1 hour - 50.8 MBFree trade, private property, and limited government – these policies might seem well-intentioned and even benign. But when a couple of colluding, power-tripping, wealthy blockheads packaged them into a political system that would become known as neoliberalism, it was like putting capitalist exploitation on steroids. Pollution and other environmental problems? Just a minor cost of doing business. Inequality and lack of opportunities for workers? Just wait for all the surplus to trickle down ...
Chillin' and Killin': How Air Conditioning Has Altered Human Behavior and the Environment
June 15, 2022 09:00 - 1 hour - 46.4 MBFor such tame technology, air conditioning really packs a punch when it comes to enabling environmental obscenities, indefensible infrastructure, and shortsighted settlement patterns. In the story of how A/C came to underpin human overshoot, you couldn't make up a better bad guy. Perhaps the most Batmanesque villain we've encountered would make a good candidate for mayor of Crazy Town (teaser: he's been called "the scientist who almost destroyed the planet"). Join Asher, Rob, and Jason as th...
Throwing Superman through a Cigarette Truck: The Insidious Manipulation of Advertising
June 08, 2022 09:00 - 57 minutes - 39.4 MBAre shameless product placements keeping you from enjoying your movie-viewing experience? Have you ever felt assaulted by pop-up ads and sidebars while trying to read something on the internet? These are some of the less insidious advertising techniques deployed to manipulate you into buying stuff you never knew you needed. Take a tour through the history of advertising, and explore the escalation of mind games and marketing mania that has fueled consumerism and the capitalist conflagration,...
Highway to Hell: How Road Infrastructure Traps Us in an Unsustainable Nightmare
June 01, 2022 09:00 - 1 hour - 43.6 MBDon't you wish we could power daily life on road rage, frustration, and righteous indignation? If that were possible, the U.S. highway system would be the best investment of all time. As it stands, the unintended consequences (e.g., pollution, habitat fragmentation, discrimination, town wrecking, dependency on unsustainable infrastructure, and the uglification of America) reveal how badly highways miss the mark. What a stupendous misallocation of resources! Fortunately we have some ideas abo...
Hippos in the Bayou: Human Hubris and the Ecological Mayhem of Introduced Species
May 25, 2022 09:00 - 52 minutes - 36.3 MBWhat kind of thinking leads to the unleashing of exotic species on unsuspecting ecosystems? Hint: it's certainly not systems thinking or critical thinking – in fact, thinking may not be involved at all! Learn about three charter members of the Weirdo Hall of Fame who wanted you to eat tasty McHippo bacon burgers for breakfast. Influenced by the illusion of control and brainwashed by the industrial mindset, people have recklessly released plants and animals into environments where they cause ...
The Stopwatch of Doom: How the Cult of Productivity Torpedoes Sustainability and Equity
May 18, 2022 09:00 - 53 minutes - 37.1 MBWelcome to the dehumanizing world of scientific management, where business gurus and middle managers view workers as resources, and where a cult-like devotion to productivity has invaded almost all facets of daily life. From fairy tales about strapping steel workers who put CrossFit champions to shame, to the plight of Amazon warehouse workers who can't even get a bathroom break, we've got stories that expose the dark side of the efficiency fetish. Grab your stopwatch and a pee bottle so you...