Explorez tous les épisodes de Crazy Town
| Date | Titre | Durée | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 09 Mar 2022 | The Taming of the Slough: Humanity's History of Trying to Control Water | 00:48:00 | |
People have a long history of trying to control water, like when the Roman emperor Plumpus Crackus built the Cloaca Maxima (only one of those names is made up) to transfer sewage into the Tiber River. From irrigating fields to building canals to damming waterways to bringing water into our buildings, we've engineered more and more complex ways to tame water. And in so doing, we've changed the environment, both aquatic and terrestrial, and we've changed the course of human history. What we do with water matters even more in the era of global warming. Can we learn to treat this most precious of resources in a way that achieves sustainability? Beware of severe pun overshoot in this episode. | |||
| 18 Feb 2022 | Season 4 Announcement | 00:02:26 | |
Season 4 of Crazy Town starts March 9, 2022. Climate change, collapse, sarcasm, and silliness are still on the menu, but we've got a new through-line for the season: watershed moments in history that have have ricocheted through time to push humanity into overshoot. Catch up with Jason, Rob, and Asher as they explain why they're so excited about the new season of Crazy Town. | |||
| 28 Mar 2019 | My Car Is Bigger than Yours: Consumerist Dreams and Environmental Nightmares | 00:44:43 | |
If you jam on the brakes for just a minute and take a look at cars and car culture, you just might find something stinky (maybe even as stinky as the black plume of diesel exhaust emanating from that souped-up pickup truck you’re stuck behind). Yes, there are some upsides to cars and driving, but those are overshadowed by the unbelievable downsides. Do you know how many deaths -- of people and animals -- can be attributed to the automobile? How about cars’ contribution to total greenhouse gas emissions? Have you ever thought deeply about how car culture can diminish the quality of ordinary life experiences? Luckily, there’s a straightforward (albeit not as straight and forward as the typical section of interstate highway) way to improve how we get ourselves from place to place. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website. | |||
| 25 Feb 2022 | Bonus: Climate Sabotage with Tim DeChristopher | 00:41:11 | |
Tim DeChristopher gained international attention (and a 21-month prison sentence) for sabotaging an auction of oil and gas leases on public lands back in 2008, and has supported nonviolent direct climate actions ever since. He joins Asher in Crazy Town to talk about a different kind of sabotage — the destruction of property and infrastructure that are fueling the climate crisis. Tim and Asher discuss why sabotage has not been a tactic of the climate movement to date, why some activists like Andreas Malm are now championing it, and why the climate community needs to reckon with the likelihood that climate sabotage — and possibly even violence — is inevitable. | |||
| 16 Mar 2022 | A Day at the Zoo Is No Walk in the Park: Overexploitation of Animals and Nature | 00:55:53 | |
Michael Jackson had a private zoo with elephants, lions, tigers, orangutans, and more. Michael Vick bankrolled and organized a dog fighting ring. But you don’t have to be named “Michael” to have an exploitative relationship with animals. Going back thousands of years, humans have exhibited a sordid history of abusing animals (and by extension, nature and the environment) often just for the purpose of showing off. The types and depths of exploitation have changed over time, and now we’re at a crossroads where we need to learn how to be part of the ecosystem, rather than trying to dominate it. Join Asher, Rob, and Jason as they sort through some terrible human behavior, suggest encouraging ways to change our views and habits regarding our fellow Earthlings, and try to figure out what the hell “estimativa” is (hint: it’s not a new wonder drug or a strain of cannabis). Warning: animal cruelty is discussed at length. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website. | |||
| 04 Apr 2019 | Solar Freakin' Roadways: How Technological Optimism Undermines Sustainability | 00:49:44 | |
We’re GOING to make the transition to renewable sources of energy. There is no scenario outside the dark mind of Dick Cheney where we continue to use depleting and polluting fossil fuels over the long run to power society. So how exactly are we going to make the transition? In this episode, Jason, Rob, and Asher talk about some of the magical “solutions” that are being peddled out on the streets of Crazy Town (solar roadways, anyone?!?) and why we’re so quick to jump at technological fixes that ignore math, physics, and ecology. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website. | |||
| 23 Mar 2022 | Bonus: Patriarchy and the Cultural Roots of the Climate Crisis with Amy Westervelt | 00:33:46 | |
Investigative journalist and podcaster Amy Westervelt talks with Asher about the cultural roots of the climate crisis. Their wide-ranging conversation covers many stop-and-make-you-think ideas about sustainability, racial and gender equality, economic systems, the social contract, and philosophy over a long sweep of history. Stick around for the conclusion in which Amy considers the mismatch between the need for immediate action on climate change versus the slower-moving cultural and behavioral shifts that can propel such change. | |||
| 30 Mar 2022 | Injustice for All: The Invention of Racism to Justify a Putrid Power Hierarchy | 00:57:17 | |
When greedy power-trippers perpetrate unspeakable acts of exploitation, they often rationalize their loathsome acts after the fact. Such is the case with the Atlantic slave trade. European kidnappers of African people used racism to justify slavery and enforce a shameful system of forced labor and a disgraceful social hierarchy. Learn how the ideas of 15th-century Europe have reverberated through the centuries and catch up on some of the hopeful antiracist things happening to overcome the tragic legacies of racism and slavery. Special guest appearances by Lord and Lady Douchebag and the Six Million Dollar Man. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website. | |||
| 11 Apr 2019 | Zombies, Magic Rocks, Collapse, and Other Fun Sustainability Stories | 00:38:07 | |
Apocalypse is upon us, at least in movies, television shows, books, and even podcasts. Teen characters in youth literature are more likely to solve their differences by bow-hunting one another rather than hugging it out in the school hallways. In this episode, Asher, Rob, and Jason search for reasons why the movie theater is so obsessed with Armageddon and the political theater offers empty promises of infinite progress, when the reality is likely to be somewhere in the messy middle. For listeners interested in culinary topics, this is your chance to explore cannibalism-lite cuisine. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website. | |||
| 06 Apr 2022 | A Load of Papal Bull: Greenlighting Colonization and the Mindset of Extraction | 00:49:12 | |
In 1493 the most corrupt (and orgy-throwing) pope of all time gave the nod of approval for wealth-seeking Europeans to trample the rest of the world. As seafaring colonizers divvied up the world and justified their actions using the Doctrine of Discovery, the era of land-grabbing imperialism led to outrageous exploitation of Indigenous peoples and ecosystems. Learn why the main ingredients in the recipe for souffle in Noumea are colonization, extraction, and globalization. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website. | |||
| 13 Apr 2022 | Bonus: The Legal Legacy of Colonization with Sherri Mitchell | 00:33:55 | |
Indigenous rights lawyer, leader, and author Sherri Mitchell describes how the Christian Doctrines of Discovery made their way from 15th-century European religious leaders into the U.S. legal system. She elaborates on how the U.S. government justified centuries of colonization and dispossession of Indigenous lands, with implications for social justice and environmental health. And Sherri offers important ideas for decolonizing the mind and healing the gaping wound that runs right through the middle of the U.S. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website. | |||
| 18 Apr 2019 | Deer Sinew and Beetle Biscuits: Raising Kids in the Age of Climate Chaos | 00:46:00 | |
What do we want our children to do in the waning days of the fossil fuel frenzy and the early days of climate chaos? Being a good parent is hard enough under the best of circumstances, but it’s really difficult to know how much we should expose our kids to the realities of environmental meltdown and social injustice. In this episode Asher, Rob, and Jason explore what we could be teaching kids these days and debate which is the more valuable skill: being comfortable eating beetles or understanding how to deal with difficult people. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website. | |||
| 20 Apr 2022 | Lord of the Swans: The Tragedy of the Enclosure of the Commons | 00:52:42 | |
The “tragedy of the commons” is an idea that has so thoroughly seeped into culture and law that it seems normal for people and corporations to own land, water, and even whole ecosystems. But there’s a BIG problem: the “tragedy” part of it has been debunked – it really should be the triumph of the commons. Learn the origin story of privatization and explore the true meaning of commons and how to manage them for sustainability and equity. Also check out our suggestions for championing the commons (beyond Robin Hood’s strategy of stabbing the aristocracy). For episode notes and more information, please visit our website. | |||
| 25 Apr 2019 | Mosquito-Flavored Popcorn: When Climate Scientists and Economists Go off the Rails | 00:47:47 | |
Did you know that we can lose half our food supply and it won’t matter? That’s because agriculture is only 3% of GDP, so there’s no need to worry about the effects of climate change on farming. Or so says the latest genius to win the Nobel Prize in economics. This “logic” is pretty darn disturbing on its own, but what happens when such muddled thinking comes to infest climate models? Besides causing Jason, Asher, and Rob to lose their minds (and their cool), it can lead to unrealistic optimism surrounding the Green New Deal and other worthwhile policies for dealing with climate change. Well, maybe we can use cryptocurrencies to purchase information about food for our virtual bellies when we run into problems on the farm. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website. | |||
| 27 Apr 2022 | The Bright Side Through Rose-Tinted Glasses: How Positive Thinking Undermines Sustainability | 01:03:55 | |
Welcome to the seductive, but regrettable world of unquestioned positive thinking, where faith healers, BS slingers, pseudoscientists, and get-rich-quick schemers all peddle the same basic message: think positively, and it’ll all work out. The problem: there’s no room for critical thinking and no call to do the hard work of finding real responses to climate change, injustice, biodiversity loss, and planetary overshoot. Sure, a rosy outlook can be useful in some situations, but it’s no way to address our collective sustainability crisis. On the plus side, some of the gurus out there say some really funny stuff. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website. | |||
| 04 May 2022 | Colonizing the Sky: The Untold Environmental Toll of Skyscrapers | 01:02:57 | |
Skyscrapers have sprouted like mushrooms in our urban landscapes. But in an environmentally depleted, energy-pinched era, we need to take a closer look at the downsides of movin' on up to the sky. We especially need to pay attention to embodied energy and all the features required to keep skyscrapers standing: uninterrupted supplies of electricity, reliable water treatment systems, functional waste removal, and mechanized transport. It’s time to question the quixotic quest to build ever higher, consider alternatives for sustainable landscapes, and take precautions to prevent tragic instances of accidental self defenestration. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website. | |||
| 11 May 2022 | It’s the End of the World’s Fair as We Know It: Why Technology Won’t Save Us | 00:45:04 | |
Back in the day, the World's Fair was a global showcase of innovation and a peerless cultural event where visitors envisioned a neon future filled with technological wonders. These international expos featured miracle inventions and opportunities to explore new ideas, but also on display were useless gizmos, silly stunts (who's ready for a game of topless donkey ping pong?), and some of the most unattractive towers people have ever built. Worse yet, a dismal thread of racism runs through the history of fairs, and in recent times, faux sustainability has become a recurring theme. Explore the diminishing marginal returns of both World's Fairs and technology in general, and consider what's next as dreams of a high-tech utopia go the way of the animatronic dinosaurs. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website. | |||
| 18 May 2022 | The Stopwatch of Doom: How the Cult of Productivity Torpedoes Sustainability and Equity | 00:53:53 | |
Welcome 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 can listen to this episode as efficiently as possible! For episode notes and more information, please visit our website. | |||
| 25 May 2022 | Hippos in the Bayou: Human Hubris and the Ecological Mayhem of Introduced Species | 00:52:45 | |
What 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 colossal carnage. Perhaps you should think twice (first time in systems, second time critically) before accepting membership into the Society for the Acclimatization of Animals, Birds, Fishes, Insects and Vegetables. | |||
| 02 May 2019 | They'll Think of Somethingisms: Is Technology Really the Answer to Overshoot? | 00:37:50 | |
The threats of overshoot and climate chaos loom larger by the day, but it’s all going to work out just fine. At least that’s what you hear from starry-eyed techno-optimists, hemp enthusiasts, and the output of ultra-hypothetical computer models. The silver bullet could come from outer space (e.g., mining asteroids or colonizing other worlds), it could come from the sky (turning air into carbon-sequestering rocks), or it could come from beneath our feet (building infrastructure out of hemp). Maybe we should stop grasping at these (carbon nanotube) straws, and look for alternatives to the politically expedient worship of technology? Warning: we employ some math to get at the answer. Get out your abacus. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website. | |||
| 01 Jun 2022 | Highway to Hell: How Road Infrastructure Traps Us in an Unsustainable Nightmare | 01:03:25 | |
Don'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 about how to get from point A to point B and provision ourselves without relying on 18-wheelers and endless miles of asphalt. So get your motor runnin' and head out on the highway for an adventure in transforming the transportation system. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website. | |||
| 08 Jun 2022 | Throwing Superman through a Cigarette Truck: The Insidious Manipulation of Advertising | 00:57:18 | |
Are 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, leaving us on the brink of a climate meltdown. But not to worry, we’ve seen plenty of ads for products to ease your anxiety about the environment or any existential threat you might encounter. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website. | |||
| 15 Jun 2022 | Chillin' and Killin': How Air Conditioning Has Altered Human Behavior and the Environment | 01:07:32 | |
For 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 they turn up the heat on air conditioning and contemplate how to stay cool in the days of heat waves, heat domes, and global heating. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website. | |||
| 22 Jun 2022 | Greed over Need: Why Neoliberalism Sucks and How It Sabotages Community | 01:13:58 | |
Free 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 from the upper crust. Concerned about government overreach? Just hand over operations to Halliburton, Philip Morris, and all the other "trustworthy" corporations. Sheesh! It's time for something entirely different to replace neoliberalism – maybe "paleoprogressivism?" Calling all wordsmiths! For episode notes and more information, please visit our website. | |||
| 29 Jun 2022 | Buying and Dying: How Online Shopping Grew from a Small Weed Deal into a Global Environmental and Societal Disaster | 00:59:51 | |
Talk 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 for Rob to get his plastic packaging to the ocean so it can choke the most marine mammals? Get online, order a must-have product (perhaps that pair of fentanyl-laced blue jeans you've been eyeing), and take part in the end times of capitalism. Or consider canceling that Amazon Prime account, shutting off the computer for a spell, and getting busy prioritizing community over consumption. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website. | |||
| 06 Jul 2022 | Skyrocketing Population and Carbon Dioxide: Watershed Moments Wrap-up | 01:03:36 | |
The 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 misplaced faith in technology. But we also share some uncommon themes: a prom night that should be featured in a Stephen King novel, a tale of boy meets spider monkey, and finding history in one’s own backyard. Plus we’ve got some takeaway lessons, like this gem: the more money you lose and the more exhausted you are at the end of the day, the more you know you’re winning. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website. | |||
| 09 May 2019 | Tackling Inequality in the Economy, One Pair of Lederhosen at a Time | 00:49:32 | |
Chuck Collins joins Asher, Rob, and Jason in Crazy Town to describe his startling journey from undercover trust fund kid to tireless campaigner for economic equality. Together they examine why Richie Rich, Donald Trump, Scrooge McDuck, and Jeff Bezos keep getting richer (hint: it might have something to do with the rigged economic system). And they discuss what it means to address inequality on a finite planet. Is FDR’s New Deal still the best playbook? For episode notes and more information, please visit our website. | |||
| 10 Aug 2022 | Bonus: The Stench of Neoliberalism with Noam Chomsky | 00:44:28 | |
As 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 admittedly Post Carbon Institute's own) views about the limits of Keynesian "green growth" economic policies, Chomsky discusses proposals developed by places like the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) that he believes would meet the needs of the poor and working classes while tackling the climate crisis. Noam's emphasis on community power, going back to his childhood experiences, strongly resonates with "Do the Opposite" themes explored in Season 4 of Crazy Town. | |||
| 16 May 2019 | My Dinner Is Stuck in Traffic: Fossil Fuels and the Food Transition | 00:37:46 | |
You know what drives Jason really crazy about auto traffic? No, it’s not the 42 hours per year that the average commuter wastes stuck in it or even the global warming pollution spewed, it’s the 3 BILLION (with a B people!) gallons of fuel that are wasted instead of helping with the transition of our food system. In this episode, Rob, Asher, and Jason talk about why fossil fuels are so embedded in our food system and how changes in the way we grow food might change where all of us live. This episode is designed especially for people who like to eat food and hope to continue doing so. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website. | |||
| 14 Sep 2022 | Bonus: Boys and Oil with Taylor Brorby | 00:47:15 | |
Taylor 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 wrestling! But don't worry, the "Macho Man" Randy Savage impersonations remain mercifully brief. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website. | |||
| 22 Sep 2022 | Announcement: Power Podcast with Richard Heinberg | 00:02:41 | |
Please 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 - our pursuit of it, overuse of it, and abuse of it. Learn how different forms of power arose, what they mean for us today, and why giving up power just might save us. | |||
| 12 Oct 2022 | Bonus: Angry Birds and Hairbrained Humans with Mary Roach | 00:47:41 | |
In 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 the context is U.S. military attempts to control albatrosses living their lives near an air base. And find out if a scenario seemingly cribbed from an unaired "Breaking Bad" script portends the collapse of civilization. Hiding amidst all the stories and fun are big implications for ecosystems, biodiversity conservation, and human society. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website. | |||
| 02 Nov 2022 | Bonus: Tech Bros on Acid with Douglas Rushkoff | 00:47:27 | |
Douglas 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 an existential threat? Douglas explains why, when you take a tech bro to drink Ayahuasca in the Amazon, he still comes back a tech bro. And why, when you hear buzzwords like longtermism, effective altruism, and transhumanism, all you need to ask is: Does it perpetuate capitalism? Asher and Douglas riff on why longtermism is denialism – denial of death, denial of the body, and denial of responsibility – and why the antithesis is living in the here and now, with our neighbors. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website. | |||
| 09 Nov 2022 | Bonus: A Climate Scientist Goes to Jail with Peter Kalmus | 00:45:31 | |
Climate 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 civil disobedience, climate denial, activism, ego management, and coping strategies for anxiety about climate disaster and collapse. It makes you wonder why we can't arrest the executives at JP Morgan Chase, ExxonMobil, and all the other truly radical corporations that appear to be on an ecocidal mission from hell! For more information, please visit our website. | |||
| 23 May 2019 | Helicopters and Kick the Can: Money in the Real World of Energy and the Environment | 00:46:50 | |
Have you ever wondered how dolphins feel about quantitative easing? OK, probably not, but it is important to consider the effects that money and monetary policy have on the real world of energy, society, and the environment. Nate Hagens joins Asher, Rob, and Jason to discuss said dolphins, a never-ending Grateful Dead concert, and the prospects of two mature solar panels giving birth to a little bitty baby solar panel. Oh, and Nate also offers coherent comments on how money works, how our economic system is likely to perform in the coming years, and how individuals can respond appropriately to humanity’s overshoot predicament (spoiler alert: it doesn’t involve stockpiling guns, gold, and beans). For episode notes and more information, please visit our website. | |||
| 14 Dec 2022 | Bonus: Human Rights and Multispecies Justice with Danielle Celermajer | 00:48:54 | |
Asher 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 intersection of human rights and multispecies justice, and the way that individuals and groups of people have stepped up to care for the billions of non-human lives impacted by the fires and floods that have ravaged Australia in recent years. Finally, Dany shares ideas for how listeners can (re)connect with the more-than-human world. For more information, please visit our website. | |||
| 11 Jan 2023 | Bonus: An Inconvenient Apocalypse with Bob Jensen | 01:26:46 | |
Bob 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 organization, optimal scope of human competence for managing high-energy modernity, and required speed of taking action to avoid catastrophe, they home in on some strategic responses to the crises. | |||
| 30 May 2019 | Band-Aid Town and the Psychology of Climate Change | 00:44:01 | |
Pop quiz! A friend of yours has just had an unfortunate chainsaw accident and cut a femoral artery: do you (a) make a tourniquet with your t-shirt, or (b) stick a Band-Aid on the wound? If you picked (b), congratulations! You've followed the instruction manual for humanity’s pathetic response to climate change. In this final episode of season 1, Asher, Rob, and Jason consider the psychology behind both inaction and effective action in these times of crisis. And for the very practical-minded, they also cover when to prescribe tobacco poultices and whiskey shots -- good fun for the whole family. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website. | |||
| 15 Mar 2023 | What the Phuck Is a Phalse Prophet? | 00:30:40 | |
Meet 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.
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| 22 Feb 2023 | Bonus: Drawing Insights with Stuart McMillen | 00:41:24 | |
Stuart 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 war on drugs. Go behind the scenes with Stuart to learn how he crafts his comics, from his philosophy to the nitty gritty of how he makes a living. And be sure to explore his work at stuartmcmillen.com. | |||
| 22 Mar 2023 | Why the Polycrisis Is a Statistical Anomaly: The Willful Delusions of the World’s Leading Pseudointellectual | 00:54:34 | |
Meet 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.
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| 29 Mar 2023 | How to Have Sex with Yourself: The Bizarre Cult of the Singularity | 01:06:51 | |
Meet 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.
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| 05 Apr 2023 | How to Become the Winningest Winner Who Wins: The Twisted Logic of the World’s Greatest CEO | 01:02:58 | |
Meet 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.
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| 12 Apr 2023 | How Boomer Politicians Found a Third Way to Phuck Over the Working Class | 01:10:25 | |
Meet Bill Clinton, who converted the Democratic Party into slightly less loathsome neoliberals. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation.
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| 19 Apr 2023 | Hot, Flat, and Totally Phucking Wrong: The Perilous Platitudes of a Pulitzer-Prize-Winning Propagandist | 01:15:05 | |
Meet 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.
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| 26 Apr 2023 | Kinder, Gentler Colonialism: Bungling Billionaires and Their Arrogant Adventures in "Saving the World" | 01:06:15 | |
Meet 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.
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| 03 May 2023 | How Ecomodernists Hijacked the Environmental Movement: Technotopian Bullshit and a Raging Case of God Complex. | 01:02:03 | |
Meet 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.
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| 10 May 2023 | Sucking CO2 and Electrifying Everything: The Climate Movement's Desperate Dependence on Tenuous Technologies | 01:22:33 | |
Meet 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.
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| 18 May 2023 | Announcement: 2023 Crazy Town Hall | 00:01:50 | |
How 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 of any size. Go to https://www.postcarbon.org/supportcrazytown/. When you make a donation, we’ll email you an exclusive link to join the Crazy Town Hall. If you're already a donor, we'll be sure to send you the invitation as well. If we get enough donations, maybe we can hire some decent hosts! Join us at the town hall on June 6th, 2023. Again to get your invitation, go to https://www.postcarbon.org/supportcrazytown/. | |||
| 17 May 2023 | How Longtermism Became the Most Dangerous Philosophy You’ve Never Heard of | 01:03:25 | |
Meet 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.
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| 24 May 2023 | Prepping for the Apocalypse: Elites' Foolish Fantasies for Surviving a Collapse of Their Own Creation | 01:00:52 | |
Meet 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.
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| 31 May 2023 | How to Lose Friends and Demoralize People: The Science (sic!) of Near-Term Extinction | 00:54:21 | |
Meet 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.
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| 07 Jun 2023 | How to Fast-Track Collapse: Manipulating the Masses While Massaging Megalomaniacs | 00:55:20 | |
Meet Steve Bannon, the Molotov mixologist who wants to light the world on fire. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation.
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| 14 Jun 2023 | The Elon Musk Episode about Elon Musk Brought to You by Elon Musk | 01:09:44 | |
Meet 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.
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| 21 Jun 2023 | The Surest Paths to a Hard Collapse: The Delusional Doctrines of the Phalse Prophethood (Season Wrap-up) | 01:24:54 | |
Asher, 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. | |||
| 09 Aug 2023 | Bonus: Choose Your Own Adventure in the Great Unraveling | 00:51:37 | |
After 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. | |||
| 30 Aug 2023 | Bonus: Bagdhad Bob Visits Climate Town | 00:40:23 | |
What 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 temperatures, wildfires, super-storms, and ecosystem breakdown. Jason, Rob, Asher, and Melody consider how to manage climate anxiety and use it in service of caring for planet Earth.
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| 20 Sep 2023 | Bonus: Going Wild with Rae Wynn-Grant | 00:50:50 | |
Wildlife 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 thoughts on the most important stories people need to hear (and tell) to make a transition to sustainable and just society. Notes and Resources:
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| 16 Oct 2023 | Bonus: Holding the Fire - Indigenous Voices on the Great Unraveling | 00:25:10 | |
We 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. | |||
| 19 Oct 2023 | Bonus Riff: Infinite, Unlimited, Forever - Water in the Desert | 00:31:30 | |
Just 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. | |||
| 15 Nov 2023 | Bonus: Bundyville and Stories that Need to Be Told with Leah Sottile | 00:57:04 | |
Investigative 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.
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| 13 Dec 2023 | Bonus: Vanilla Andreessen, Pygmy Marmosets, and Hi-Tech Delusions | 01:03:03 | |
The 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.
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| 17 Jan 2024 | Bonus: New Year's Dissolutions | 00:34:15 | |
Asher, 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.
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| 13 Mar 2024 | Escape Routes: Let's Get the F**k out of Crazy Town | 00:51:02 | |
Escape 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:
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| 15 Feb 2024 | Bonus: Grief and Making Connections with LaUra Schmidt | 00:47:49 | |
LaUra 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.
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| 06 Mar 2024 | Crazy Town Season 6 Trailer | 00:01:16 | |
Join 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. | |||
| 20 Mar 2024 | Escaping Industrialism: How to Avoid Pancakes on a Stick and Other "Miracles" of the Industrial Age | 00:57:29 | |
Jason, 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. Sources/Links/Notes:
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| 27 Mar 2024 | Escaping Consumerism: Why Crocheted Codpieces Are the Perfect Antidote to Fast Fashion | 01:03:27 | |
If 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. Sources/Links/Notes:
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| 03 Apr 2024 | Escaping Urbanism: Green Acres, Climate Migration, and the End of the Megacity | 01:18:43 | |
Did 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. Sources/Links/Notes:
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| 10 Apr 2024 | Escaping Speedism: How to Slow Down and Enjoy the Collapse | 01:09:13 | |
Consult 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. Sources/Links/Notes:
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| 17 Apr 2024 | Escaping Technologyism: Dreams of AI Sheep and the Deadliest Word in Film History | 01:06:47 | |
Modern 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 "full Kaczynski." Sources/Links/Notes:
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| 24 Apr 2024 | Escaping Globalism: Rebuilding the Local Economy One Pig Thyroid at a Time | 01:08:09 | |
From 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. Sources/Links/Notes:
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| 01 May 2024 | Escaping Growthism: Wendigo Economics, Mystery Houses, and Becoming the Bear | 01:03:22 | |
Grow or die. It's the governing principle of companies, investment portfolios, national economies, and even philanthropic foundations. Oh, and cancer. Asher, Jason, and Rob lay bare the stats on everything from human population, energy consumption, global GDP, greenhouse gas emissions, and the size of cars and cruise ships, before concluding that the global economy should be named after the Wendigo from Algonquian folklore. They turn to the natural world for examples of self-regulation, along with promising new economic frameworks and on-the-ground models, for how to end Wendigo economics before it ends us. Sources/Links/Notes:
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| 08 May 2024 | Escaping Capitalism: How to Replace the "Logic" of Psychopaths, Pharma Bros, and Private Prisons | 01:10:54 | |
Capitalism ruins SO many things, from key sectors like college sports all the way down to novelties like people's health and the environment. Jason, Rob, and Asher rely on their keen insight and otherworldly investigative talents to somehow unearth a few flaws of capitalism. But rather than wallow in the world of profiteering and privatization, they explore the solidarity economy and other alternatives to the "greed is good" way of running things. Sources/Links/Notes:
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| 15 May 2024 | Escaping Imperialism: Where Does Darth Vader Get His Lithium? | 01:12:54 | |
Perhaps no community has undergone more versions of imperialism than the tiny island nation of Nauru, which has morphed from being "Pleasant Island" to the mined-out home of offshore banks, discarded refugees, and deep sea mining interests. Jason, Rob, and Asher take a bad trip to wrap their heads around Nauru, the topic of "psychedelic imperialism," and imperialism's new frontier - the clean energy transition.
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| 22 May 2024 | Escaping Individualism: Why Rickey Don't Like It When Rickey Feels Lonely | 01:11:22 | |
The epidemic of loneliness isn't just a product of technology or even capitalism -- it has its roots in the same fertile ground as the founding of the United States. And it may just be the most important "ism" of all to escape as we enter the Great Unraveling of social and environmental systems.
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| 29 May 2024 | Escaping Humanocentrism: Why a Slime Mold Will Be President in 2028 | 01:10:15 | |
The myth of human dominion and exceptionalism is as old as the Bible and as unquestioned as gravity, at least in "modern" society. Rob, Asher, and Jason explore the ways that humanocentrism has come to dominate the planet and our minds, while pointing to ancient and newly emerging ways that the more-than-human world is respected and protected, even the dung beetle.
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| 05 Jun 2024 | Escaping Extremism: Slap Fighting Our Way to a More Civil Society | 01:06:33 | |
The forces of media, technology, and even the wiring of our own brains seem aligned to draw people toward extremism. But never fear: Asher, Jason, and Rob unpack why we're so susceptible to wackadoodle viewpoints and offer ways to tamp down extremist thinking and behavior in ourselves, our communities, and across society. Along the way, they tour the worlds of extreme sports, extreme politics, and extreme yogurt. They even question their own decidedly non-mainstream views on the environment and the economy.
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| 12 Jun 2024 | Escaping Otherism: Why Dr. Seuss Could Never Find a Rhyme for Genocide | 01:18:34 | |
The drive to belong to an in-group and the tendency to observe differences in others are core parts of the human condition. But differentiating can (and often does) turn deadly when it morphs into othering. Jason, Rob, and Asher try not to other one another as they explore the roots and consequences of othering, and the ins and outs of belonging as a key organizing principle of society. Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language. Sources/Links/Notes:
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| 19 Jun 2024 | Escaping Escapism: What a Bizarre Rodent Ritual Can Teach Us About Navigating a World We Can't Really Escape | 01:06:03 | |
After a full season of trying to escape more than a dozen evil -isms (fun things like capitalism, industrialism, extremism, and otherism), Rob, Jason, and Asher come to one conclusion: there is no true escape -- at least not for those of us who want to help their communities collapse and re-emerge gracefully. Join the boys as they explore what the cult classic Groundhog Day has to teach us about navigating the endlessly insane world of modernity and reflect on key lessons and actionable steps we can all take to navigate the Great Unraveling of environmental and social systems. Sources/Links/Notes:
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| 31 Jul 2024 | Bonus: Human Nature Odyssey | 00:40:11 | |
Sometimes you just wanna hear from someone else. In this bonus episode, Alex Leff enters Crazy Town to introduce his podcast, Human Nature Odyssey. Before playing the first episode of the podcast, Jason, Rob, and Asher find lots of laughs with Alex as they contemplate environmental destruction, gorilla suits, the fate of civilization, tandem bike rides, imaginary games, and how to make a podcast. If you need a little more encouragement to check out Human Nature Odyssey, our friend Tom Murphy (author of the Do the Math blog) gives it his highest recommendation. Sources/Links/Notes:
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| 27 Nov 2024 | Breaking News: Crazy Town Joins the Newly Formed Department of Entropy | 00:45:08 | |
Rob, Jason, and Asher talk about joining the new Trump Administration, at least until Elon Musk eradicates it. They explore the implications of Trump 2.0 through three reality-bending lenses – shifting baselines, entropy, and the upside of down – and three ways of responding: resistance, resilience, and regeneration. They decided they couldn’t stomach a fourth R – respect. We’ve added something new to this and future episodes: VIDEO! If you’d like to feel even more like you’re in the room with the Crazy Town gang, please check out the video and let us know what you think. Sources/Links/Notes:
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| 18 Dec 2024 | Shotgunning Hedwig: The Dilemma of Invasives and the Bizarre Decision to Slaughter Barred Owls | 00:33:36 | |
The US Fish and Wildlife Service decided to "manage" barred owls by shooting half a million of them over the next three decades. Jason, Rob, and Asher (along with the postal workers at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry) are upset about this plan for addressing the predicament of invasive species. Surely there's a finer tool than a double-barreled shotgun for conserving ecosystems and protecting the species that inhabit them. Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language. Sources/Links/Notes:
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| 15 Jan 2025 | The Frequent Flyer Tree: Losing the Last Bit of Sense in the Climate Emergency | 00:30:28 | |
In the world of college sports, money talks and the volleyball team walks, er, flies 33,000 miles to play games. The NCAA, like almost everyone else, is playing games with Mother Nature. What do we expect student-athletes to gain from ignoring the climate emergency (not to mention putting their health at risk)? Who cares, as long as we can wring a few more dollars out of the TV deals -- am I right?!? Jason, Rob, and Asher propose a new plan for college sports and for taking the climate emergency seriously. Sources/Links/Notes:
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| 03 Feb 2025 | The House Is Quite Literally on Fire: Peter Kalmus on the Climate Emergency Hitting Home | 00:53:48 | |
Peter Kalmus, climate scientist and returning friend of Crazy Town, used to live in Altadena, California, where one of the disastrous Los Angeles wildfires struck on January 7th. Having learned that his former house had burned, Peter penned an emotional article for the New York Times about his family's decision to leave LA two years prior, out of safety concerns about frequent heat waves, drought, and just the sort of tragic conflagration that has reduced parts of LA to ashes. Get Peter's take on this historic wildfire, what nature is trying to teach us, and how to think about unnatural disasters now and in the future. Note: this interview was recorded on January 24, 2025. Sources/Links/Notes:
FeedSpot ranked Crazy Town as the #1 environmental economics podcast. | |||
| 13 Feb 2025 | Bargaining With Collapse: A Superabundance of Lab Grown Meat and Dryer Balls | 00:37:32 | |
Do you contemplate topics like climate change, biodiversity loss, and the risk of civilizational collapse? If so, then you probably understand something about bargaining – a psychological defense mechanism that’s one of the five stages of grief. With just a wee bit of embarrassment, Asher, Jason, and Rob reveal damning episodes of bargaining from their personal histories (involving green consumerism and cult-like devotion to technology). Having admitted their sins, they discuss the allure of false solutions to our environmental predicaments and how even veteran environmental journalists can be susceptible to it. Stay to the end for thoughts on how to avoid getting hoodwinked by the horde of ecomodernist tech bros who continuously shove unworkable "solutions" down our throats. Originally recorded on January 16, 2025. Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language. Sources/Links/Notes:
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| 05 Mar 2025 | Eating the Future: The NY Times Goes Full Ecomodernist on Food and Farming | 00:47:00 | |
How will we feed people living in the megacities of the 21st century, especially while confronting climate chaos and the depletion of fossil fuels and fossil water? According to the mainstream media: ecomodernism! Massive deployment of technology on factory farms and an extreme ramp-up of industrialization will save the day – right? RIGHT?!? If you read the New York Times, you might think that supermarket shelves will forever overflow with 3D-printed fish sticks, mylar bags full of genetically modified cheesy poofs, and faux corn dogs that ooze out of laboratory vats. Jason, Rob, and Asher question the wisdom of doubling down on industrialization in food and farming. It’s no surprise they recommend paying attention to nature and ecological limits. Stick around for ideas you can use in your community to support a healthy, regenerative food system (and keep on eating). Originally recorded on 1/21/25. Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language. Sources/Links/Notes:
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| 19 Mar 2025 | A Temporary Techno Stunt: Tom Murphy on Falling out of Love with Modernity | 00:54:21 | |
Recovering technology booster Tom Murphy visits Crazy Town to discuss his journey from shooting lasers at the moon, to trying to "solve" the energy predicament, to falling out of love with modernity itself. Asher, Jason, Rob, and Tom discuss the roots and short-lived nature of modernity, which has not only shaped the world we inhabit but conquered our very imaginations. They reminisce about aspects of hi-tech society that have already fallen away in its hubristic march towards mastering (or should we say undermining?) nature. They close by contemplating what it means to detach from humanocentric delusions of grandeur and make peace with living with one foot in and one foot out of the modern world. Originally recorded on 3/4/25. Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language. Sources/Links/Notes:
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| 02 Apr 2025 | Even AI Chatbots Hate Us: The Rise of the New Luddites, with Brian Merchant | 01:09:46 | |
Who knew that the breakthrough moment of AI sentience would come from interacting with an annoying neo-Luddite? After failing to raise a single dollar for PCI’s newest initiative — the $350 billion Transdisciplinary Institute for Phalse Prophet Studies and Education (TIPPSE) — Jason, Rob, and Asher devise the only profitable pitch for raising capital: using AI technology to cure the loneliness that technology itself causes. The only problem is that AI chatbots won’t talk to us, as evidenced by Asher’s experience of being blocked by an AI “friend.” So Asher turns to the flesh-and-blood author of Blood in the Machine, Brian Merchant, to discuss the rise of the neo-Luddite movement — the only people who might be able to stand your humble Crazy Town hosts. Brian Merchant is a writer, reporter, and author. He is currently reporter in residence at the AI Now Institute and publishes his own newsletter, Blood in the Machine, which has the same title as his 2023 book. Previously, Brian was the technology columnist at the Los Angeles Times and a senior editor at Motherboard. Originally recorded on 1/3/25 (warm-up conversation) and 3/24/25 (interview with Brian). Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language. Sources/Links/Notes:
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| 20 Apr 2025 | Going #2: The Dueling Rules of Nature That Every Good Earthling Needs to Know | 00:50:31 | |
Happy Earth Day! There are two concepts that every person should understand to be a better Earthling: entropy and self-organization. It seems like a paradox, but systems on Earth are simultaneously breaking down into disorder and arranging themselves into complex superorganisms. Everything on Earth (well, really in the whole universe) is subject to the second law of thermodynamics, which means it all dies and decays. But with access to steady flows of energy, organisms, ecosystems, and human societies can hold back the death and decay for a spell. After dropping the kids off at the pool, Asher, Rob, and Jason cover the interplay of entropy and self-organization and contemplate how to manage the inevitability of entropy with elegance (beyond morphing into a lizard person). Originally recorded on 4/8/25. Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language. Sources/Links/Notes:
Other Crazy Town episodes you might like: | |||
| 12 Mar 2020 | The Adventures of Bill and Lou: the Obscene Politics of Climate Change and Overshoot | 00:37:32 | |
It’s easy to picture a group of social justice and environmental activists gathering in a circle. But these days, instead of holding hands and singing songs, they’re loading weapons and taking aim. Ahhhhh, the carnage! Why are progressives so eager to join a circular firing squad? Maybe this isn’t our best bet for solving climate change and the other wicked problems of the 21st century. Wouldn’t it be smarter to jettison the holier-than-thou act and find ways to collaborate? Asher, Rob, and Jason uncover lessons from the misadventures of an oxen team, a $10 million lawsuit, and an avalanche of emails about thorium, hemp, and overpopulation. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website and sign up for the newsletter. | |||
| 19 Mar 2020 | The Long and Shart of Extreme Travel as Climate Chaos Reigns | 00:34:44 | |
Coronavirus has put the kibosh on frivolous travel for the moment, but we might want to do some reflecting before returning to business as usual. Prior to the outbreak, you were constantly told to put on your traveling shoes, cue up some good music for a journey (no, not the band Journey), and pack your bags. As long as costs stay down, we can fly to any destination for any purpose. Is your third cousin’s niece performing in a school play in Omaha? Wanna see the Great Barrier Reef before climate change bleaches it into oblivion? Do you feel like crashing the party at an away game where your favorite pro sports team is playing? No problem. Hop aboard a jumbo jet, and, like Dr. Seuss, people cheer, “Oh the places you’ll go!” That’s the story of extreme travel in Crazy Town. But maybe this is the perfect time to start a new conversation about travel and begin aligning our actions with our values. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website and be sure to sign up for our newsletter. | |||
| 26 Mar 2020 | The 10,000-Mile Cod, Insane Global Trade, and the Path to a Resilient Local Economy | 00:39:07 | |
What do Scottish cod, rubber duckies, rock phosphate, and shipping containers have in common? They all ride the oceans in really big boats as part of the insanity of today’s global trade. Trade seems like it should be a simple thing. I give you something, you give me something else in return, and we’re both better off. But our capitalism-on-steroids society has converted the simple into a Rube Goldberg machine of criss-crossing cargo ships, vulnerable supply chains, and just-in-time delivery, all so we can save some bucks while exploiting workers and habitats around the world. We’ve gone batshit crazy! Seriously, check out the history of trade in bat guano. With coronavirus prompting a slowdown in global trade, it’s all the more critical to find a different way forward. Thankfully, Asher, Rob, and Jason have a few ideas about how to have fun while building a resilient local economy. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website and sign up for our newsletter. | |||
| 28 Mar 2020 | Announcement: Keeping up with Coronavirus | 00:01:30 | |
Asher explains the changes to Crazy Town's schedule as we try to keep up with new developments during the coronavirus pandemic. | |||
| 30 Mar 2020 | Our Naked Emperors Catch Coronavirus: How to Think about Collapse with Nafeez Ahmed | 01:11:55 | |
Asher goes for a deep dive in his interview with investigative journalist Nafeez Ahmed about how the novel coronavirus is rippling through the systems that make up modern society. To set the stage, they cover some heady territory, including Thomas Homer-Dixon’s “synchronous failure,” Joseph Tainter’s analysis of collapse and the diminishing marginal returns of complexity, C.S. Holling’s “adaptive cycle,” and Naomi Klein’s “shock doctrine.” With these frameworks of systems thinking in mind, they explore how we can make progress toward re-envisioning a prosocial, equitable, and environmentally sound society. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website and sign up for our newsletter. | |||
| 02 Apr 2020 | Coronavirus and the Three Bears: the Right-Sized Crisis for a Transition to Sustainability? | 00:42:14 | |
First of all, f*ck this virus. We don't want anyone to experience pain and suffering from coronavirus, but maybe there's a lesson to learn. In fact, even a simple story like Goldilocks and the Three Bears may have something valuable to teach us. Here at Crazy Town headquarters, we've been calling for pretty drastic changes to the economy to make it fair, resilient, and sustainable. But changes don't materialize just because you want them--usually you need a crisis to get people thinking and acting differently. And when it comes to crisis, size matters: too big (think asteroids and nuclear missiles) and all of civilization is at risk, too small and nothing happens. Is there such a thing as a "just right" Goldilocks crisis? Grab a bowl and spoon and pull up a chair (not too hard and not too soft) as we talk porridge and pandemic. Bonus: join Asher, Rob, and Jason in Quarantine Corner, where you’ll appreciate the lighter side of social distancing. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website and sign up for our newsletter. | |||
| 06 Apr 2020 | I Can't Drive 35: the Politics of Rationing and its Potential to Shift the Economy | 00:35:52 | |
If you ask a hundred people what they want to do about climate change or other crises in the age of overshoot, approximately zero of them will enthusiastically call for rationing. But is rationing all that bad? If your grocery store is out of toilet paper thanks to pandemic-induced hoarding, maybe not so much. And considering our dangerous dependence on fossil fuels, maybe it's time to up the ante and establish a rationing program for oil and other sources of energy. Drop the hoarding mentality, break out your coupon book, and engage your sense of fairness as Crazy Town explores the rationale behind rationing. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website and be sure to sign up for our newsletter. | |||
| 09 Apr 2020 | Delusion to the Left, Denial to the Right, and the Environmental Reality Caught in the Middle | 00:33:00 | |
How much of a stretch is it to compare autoimmune disease to the politics of climate change? Let's just say your hosts at Crazy Town were able to do it without any need for medical intervention. In this episode, Asher, Rob, and Jason examine how both ends of the political spectrum are getting it wrong and propose how you can start a new conversation. And it doesn't even have to involve your family disease history! Bonus: if you stay to the very end of the episode, you'll hear a "solution" to the toilet paper hoarding madness of 2020. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website and sign up for our newsletter. | |||
| 16 Apr 2020 | Foreclosing on the Frackers: Coronavirus and the Future of Energy | 00:54:37 | |
In the last episode Asher, Rob, and Jason discussed the danger of political denial and delusion limiting how well we respond to the climate crisis. This week we address the risk that another "d"--distraction--will keep us from recognizing the huge threats and opportunities the pandemic presents for our energy future. The lads also take a few minutes to pat themselves on the back (virtually, of course) for how much recent episodes, though recorded before the %@#*$^ virus hit, apply to our new pandemic reality, before exploring some absurdities of social distancing in Quarantine Corner. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website and sign up for our newsletter. | |||
| 20 Apr 2020 | An Ecofascist and a Social Justice Warrior Walk into a Bar: Extremist Politics and Censorship | 00:27:21 | |
We've seen a frightening rise in recent years of violence and violent rhetoric by so-called ecofascists, who use environmental and resource limits arguments to justify hateful views around immigration and population. But does that mean those of us who are concerned about ecological limits should keep our mouths shut? Rob, Jason, and Asher explore why squelching discussions about limits might actually backfire and fuel ecofascist views instead, while wrestling with some of the skeletons in the environmental movement's closet. Speaking of skeletons, wait until you hear our "theories" about Rachel Carson and Aldo Leopold. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website and sign up for our newsletter. | |||
