KunstlerCast - Suburban Sprawl: A Tragic Comedy (James Howard Kunstler & Duncan Crary)

Meryl Nass is an internal medicine physician and was the first person in the world to prove that an epidemic (anthrax in Rhodesia) was due to biological warfare, in 1992. She has given 6 Congressional testimonies regarding anthrax, biological warfare, Gulf War syndrome and vaccine safety, and has consulted for the Cuban Ministry of Health, the World Bank and the Director of National Intelligence.  

Since the COVID pandemic began, she has written detailed articles regarding the suppression of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin for treatment of Covid, the coverup of COVID's lab origin, and how the WHO's proposed pandemic treaty and amendments will lead to more pandemics.  She is an advisor to Children's Health Defense.

Her medical license was suspended in January 2022 for providing early COVID treatment and spreading alleged vaccine misinformation.  She has been writing and speaking on all things COVID, and is now focused on the BioSecurity Agenda of the W.H.O. and its goal to wrest sovereignty from individual nations under the guise of pandemic preparedness.

Dr. Michael Rectenwald is the author of twelve books, including The Great Reset and the Struggle for Liberty: Unraveling the Global Agenda (Jan. 2023), Thought Criminal (Dec. 2020); Beyond Woke (May 2020); Google Archipelago: The Digital Gulag and the Simulation of Freedom (Sept. 2019); Springtime for Snowflakes: “Social Justice” and Its Postmodern Parentage (an academic’s memoir, 2018)

A former Marxist, Professor Rectenwald is a champion of liberty and opposes all forms of totalitarianism and political authoritarianism, including socialism-communism, “social justice,” fascism, political correctness, and “woke” ideology. In 2016, he was famously subject to a Woke witch-hunt at NYU and, after a long struggle, left the University.

He writes for many journals, newspapers and websites and does guest spots on political TV shows, including Tucker Carlson, Glenn Beck, Laura Ingraham, Larry Elder.

Follow him on Twitter @GreatResetProf. And his website: Michael@MichaelRectenwald.com

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

James Howard Kunstler muses on the suburban family living arrangement--past, present, future. Points of discussion include: adult kids living at home, caring for seniors, living in closer proximity to family members.

The Reverend Michael Dowd is a bestselling eco-theologian, TEDx speaker, and pro-science, pro-future advocate whose work has been featured in The New York Times, LA Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Newsweek, Discover, and on television throughout the United States and Canada. His book, Thank God for Evolution, was endorsed by 6 Nobel Prize-winning scientists, noted skeptics, and religious leaders across the spectrum. Michael and his science writer, and evolutionary educator wife, Connie Barlow, have spoken to some 3,000 groups throughout North America since April 2002. His blogs and lectures are available at Michaeldowd.org and Postdoom.com.

James Howard Kunstler shares his thoughts on the Occupy movement sweeping America. It's going to be a dark and difficult time ahead for the U.S. and JHK thinks we may be heading into a period of mischief this spring. But he has a lot of faith in the younger generation because they're not cynical and they truly want to live in a country they're capable of caring about.

Author Andrew Blechman discusses his book Leisureville, a tragicomic report on The Villages, America's largest planned retirement community. In this version of suburbia, everyone drives golf carts, no one works and children aren't allowed. Sponsor: PostPeakLiving.com

The KunstlerCast celebrates its 200th episode with listener suggested clips of favorite moments from the past four years. Duncan reads a special essay about meeting JHK at the shopping mall before retrieving some retired audio from the archive.

Jim's finally found himself a new home, and it's right on the edge of the place that inspired the fictional town of Union Grove in his World Made By Hand novels. Duncan brings listeners along for the scenic drive from Troy up to Washington County, before the two tour his new village and meet some of the locals.

“Christopher Cornelius” is the nom de guerre of a black American international humanitarian aid worker who has put years of service in some of the world’s most dangerous places: Pakistan, Afghanistan, West Africa, Kenya, the Balkens, Cambodia, Sudan,and others. We have that “conversation about race” that the US race commentary pundits have been promising for years — but never actually ventured to have. We could have covered even more territory, but as it is, this is a long interview for this podcast. Christopher Cornelius continues to work in dangerous lands overseas and is concealing his identity to protect himself and his wife. We spoke over Skype from his current perch in East Timor.

April 1 Special: The story of the Stones, by Samuel Beckett, featuring JHK.

The new KunstlerCast  music is called “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the new recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

David Collum is the Betty R. Miller Professor of Chemistry at Cornell University. He is the intellectual utility infielder of internet commentary, covering all the bases: culture, politics, finance, science, and technology, with often surprising views on the the predicaments of our time. Here we attempt to make sense of the fast-moving corona virus story and the increasingly weird and troubling second-order events spinning off of it into the global economy and politics.
Dave tweets at @DavidBCollum

Geert Vanden Bossche is a globally renowned virologist working in Belgium. He predicts a “hyper-acute crisis” of Covid-19 illness among highly-vaccinated populations emerging shortly across the world. He argues that scientists and politicians have turned a natural viral pandemic into a crisis of disastrous immune escape. The author's arguments are compelling and indicate that Nature will correct this mistake, but at a substantial cost to human lives in highly-vaccinated countries. He is the author of The inescapable Immune Escape Pandemic. Dr. Vanden Bossche’s papers and talks can be found at the Website Voice for Science and Solidarity dot org.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

James Howard Kunstler shares his observations of Seattle based on his recent trip to that city. He believes that the Queen Anne Hill neighborhood gives one an idea of what the best of American urbanism can be, inspite of some clunky housing types. Though downtown is active and fairly pleasant, JHK has ominous feelings about the future of its many glass apartment towers. Kunstler also describes the Capitol Hill neighborhood, University District, Pike Place Market and Pioneer Square. He talks about riding the bus and the lessons we can learn from the lame monorail. Seattle is also home to the ubiquitous coffee chain Starbucks, which has many downsides to it, but which has also introduced some culture to certain places that had previously lacked any sort of "third place."

Author James Howard Kunstler reads "The Futility of Party Politics in The Long Emergency" from Chapter 5 of his nonfiction book "Too Much Magic" (Altantic Monthly Press, 2012: pp 85 - 86).

JHK updates listeners on his recent health issues. Duncan gets listeners caught up on recent tech issues.

Helena Norberg-Hodge, linguist, author, filmmaker and pioneer of the new economy movement, is the founder and director of Local Futures, and the convenor of World Localization Day and the Planet Local Summit. She is author of the inspirational classic Ancient Futures, and Local is Our Future and producer of the award-winning documentary The Economics of Happiness, of Planet Local and Closer to Home. She is the founder of the International Alliance for Localisation, and a cofounder of the International Forum on Globalization and the Global Ecovillage Network. She lives in England and in Australia

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

 The New Revenant Society is the website and blog of the two Christophers —Christopher M and Christopher S, two off-the-grid homesteaders who are founding a tea plantation in rural Virginia. They invite correspondence by US Mail at 44 Kingston Dr. #159 Daleville VA 24083.

    Christopher M is an author and former counterintelligence analyst living in the Appalachian mountains. After high school, he joined the Army Intelligence Corps and deployed to Afghanistan in 2013. His time in the military drove him to want to understand cultures, leading to his completing a bachelor's in sociology and an MBA in strategic management. When he isn't writing, he enjoys reading, cooking, drawing, researching, and spending time with his cats, chickens, and ducks. His new book, The Psychology of Collapsing, will be published in paperback and e-book on December 16, 2022. If you have a Kindle, you can pre-order the e-book now!

   Christopher S’s  dedication to horticulture and sustainable living propelled him to earn a  B.S. in Environmental Sustainability. His passion for nature and sustainable living came together once he discovered Permaculture and its design ethic. Since then, he has worked on several tiny house builds, designed permaculture properties, and currently resides on an 11-acre property in Appalachia, cultivating tea (and other garden projects). Being off-grid has been a challenging experience to break into, but one that aligns with his values and purpose in life. He writes diligently about adapting to a life beyond fossil fuels and building sustainable communities.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

Art Berman is an independent oil geologist and industry analyst. We go pretty deep into the recent alarming price crash of crude oil, the vagaries and destiny of the shale oil business, and the implications for the American economy. Art is based in Houston.

He publishes his own blog at: https://www.artberman.com/blog/

The theme music for the podcast is the Two Rivers Waltz by Larry Unger.

Brent Bednarik is a former Army Officer with two deployments in Afghanistan. After that he worked at one of the Big Four accounting firms in Manhattan, and is currently an entrepreneur in the tech start up space. Brent and I have been corresponding about what I like to call the new religion of Wokesterism, which has emanated from the university campuses and is finding a beach-head in corporate life. Brent is interested in what he considers a consciousness shift happening in western societies, and speaks to business owners and c-suite executives about these impending changes and the challenges they’ll face.

#275 Arthur E. Berman is a petroleum geologist with 37 years of oil and gas industry experience. He is an expert on U.S. shale plays and is currently consulting for several E&P companies and capital groups in the energy sector. Berman has published more than 100 articles on oil and gas plays and trends. He has been interviewed about oil and gas topics on CBS, CNBC, CNN, CBC, Platt’s Energy Week, BNN, Bloomberg, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone and The New York Times. He worked 20 years for Amoco (now BP) and 17 years as consulting geologist. He has an M.S. (Geology) from the Colorado School of Mines and a B.A. (History) from Amherst College. 

His website is artberman.com

#234 -- JHK jaws with George Mobus, systems scientist from the University of Washington, Tacoma. George is a member of the Biophysical Economics group -- not you mother's economists, shall we say. I'm pretty much on-board with their reality-based discipline, however listeners will probably notice that George is a bit more doomerish than I am usually labeled as. What I like about the Biophysical Econ gang is that they pay attention to the importance of the energy side of the equation. George is smart and a real nice guy.

JHK Gets a new microphone and chats with J.D. Dickey author of “Empire of Mud — the Secret History of Washington, DC. For decades during the 19th century, the city was a national disgrace. Unfilled swamps, filthy canals, and rutted horse trails littered its landscape. Political bosses hired hooligans and thugs to conduct the nation's affairs. Legendary madams entertained clients from all stations of society and politicians of every party. The police served and protected with the aid of bribes and protection money. Beneath pestilential air, the city’s muddy roads led to a stumpy, half-finished obelisk to Washington here, a domeless Capitol Building there. Lining the streets stood boarding houses, tanneries, and slums.

#263 — Cultural historian, social critic and author Morris Berman yaks with JHK about his new book, Neurotic Beauty: An Outsider Looks at Japan, and a lot of other topics around the crisis of Modernity. Berman’s books include the trilogy: The Twilight of American Culture, Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of Empire, and Why America Failed: The Roots of Imperial Decline.

#312 John Michael Greer, an old friend of the podcast, blogs at his Ecosophia Website, and is the author of a score of books ranging from the social and political commentary of The Wealth of Nature and Not the Future We Ordered, to a large body of science fiction and fantasy.

Author James Howard Kunstler reads "A Systematic Misunderstanding of Reality" the coda of his nonfiction book "Too Much Magic" (Altantic Monthly Press, 2012: pp 241-243).

JHK chats with tugboat fleet owner Rob Goldman about the revival and future of shipping on America's inland waterways. Rob's company, NYS Marine Highway runs tugboats that push cargo barges through the Erie Canal system and the Great Lakes, as well as along the Atlantic Coast. Rob graduated from Rensslaer Polytechnic as an Architect, got into the pleasure boat marina business, and eventually started his shipping company. It's not your great-great-grandfather's Erie Canal anymore.

#230 -- JHK chats with Charles Hugh Smith of the blog Of Two Minds.com. Charles is also the author of many books, most lately "Why Things Are Falling Apart -- And What We Can Do About It." 

Charles describes it:

"…That things are falling apart--that is obvious. But why are they falling apart? The reasons are complex and global. Our economy and society have structural problems that cannot be solved by adding debt to debt. We are becoming poorer, not just from financial over-reach, but from fundamental forces that are not easy to identify or understand."

David Collum is the Betty R. Miller Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Cornell University. His technical expertise is in organic chemistry, but he has gained recognition for assorted podcasts and annual surveys focusing on politics and economics. Some of this latter content can be found at http://collum.chem.cornell.edu/dbc6/DBC_rogue.html

David W. Orr is Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics and senior adviser to the president of Oberlin College. He is a founding editor of the journal Solutions, and serves as the executive director of the Oberlin Project, a collaborative effort of the city of Oberlin, Oberlin College, and private and institutional partners to improve the resilience, prosperity, and sustainability of Oberlin.

Orr is the author of seven books, including Down to the Wire: Confronting Climate Collapse (Oxford, 2009) and coeditor of three others. He has authored nearly 200 articles, reviews, book chapters, and professional publications.

In the past 25 years, he has served as a board member or advisor to eight foundations and on the boards of many organizations, including the Rocky Mountain Institute and the Aldo Leopold Foundation. Currently he is a trustee of the Bioneers, the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, and the Worldwatch Institute.

He has been awarded seven honorary degrees and a dozen other awards including a Lyndhurst Prize, a National Achievement Award from the National Wildlife Federation, and a Visionary Leadership Award from Second Nature. Orr is a frequent lecturer at colleges and universities throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia.

While at Oberlin, he spearheaded the effort to design, fund, and build the Adam Joseph Lewis Center, which was named by an AIA panel in 2010 as “the most important green building of the past 30 years,” and as “one of 30 milestone buildings of the twentieth century” by the U.S. Department of Energy.

A conversation with Gail Tverberg of OurFiniteWorld.com. Gail Tverberg is an analyst who has been researching the connection between oil limits and the economy for nearly 10 years.  She writes a widely-followed blog called Our Finite World. Her background is as an actuary, working as a consultant to insurance companies. She also has a foot in the academic world, where she has lectured and written academic articles. Gail was in China in March-April of this year lecturing at China University of Petroleum in Beijing and is scheduled to return next spring, to teach another class.

JHK speaks with Rob Williams, co-author "Most Likely to Secede: What the Vermont Independence Movement Can Teach Us about Reclaiming Community and Creating a Human Scale Vision for the 21st Century." 

Duncan and Jim update listeners on the future of the KunstlerCast now that Duncan is stepping back his role.

In this mini episode, Leisureville author Andrew Blechman talks with Jim and Duncan about pigeons, the fascinating subject of his other book Pigeons.

Doug Hill is a journalist and independent scholar who has studied the history and philosophy of technology for more than twenty-five years. His work has appeared in numerous national publications, including the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Atlantic, Salon and Esquire. He is coauthor of the bestseller Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live and lives in Pasadena, California.

On today's episode JHK discusses a recent poll by the National Realtors Association which found that while many Americans claim they want to be able to walk to stores, restaurants and other urban amenities, they prefer to live in single family detached homes above all else. This seems to be a contradiction, but the arrangement could be possible through New Urbanist planning. Sponsor: http://cnu19.org

Jeffrey A. Tucker is Founder and President of the Brownstone Institute and the author of many thousands of articles in the scholarly and popular press and ten books in 5 languages, most recently Liberty or Lockdown. He is also a columnist at Forbes, founder of the Atlanta Bitcoin Embassy, and Senior Distinguished Fellow of the Austrian Economics Center in Vienna, Austria. He is the editor of The Best of Mises [economist Ludwig von Mises]. He speaks widely on topics of economics, technology, social philosophy, and culture.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

JHK and Duncan get caught up on listener calls. Question topics include: Phoenix vs. Georgia; repealing the gas tax, The Long Descent, Landscape Urbanism and why aren't there any African-American characters in Jim's World Made By Hand novels? One listener also shares a bizarre and raunchy conspiracy theory.

#242 --JHK talks with John Norquist, director of the Congress for the New Urbanism and four-term mayor of Milwaukee Wisconsin, about the state of the American city, the future of the Great Lakes Region, and the difficulty in overcoming decades of bad choices concerning how we inhabit the landscape of our country.

The KunstlerCast music is “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

Independent researcher Steve St. Angelo started to invest in precious metals in 2002.  Later on in 2008, he began researching areas of the gold and silver market that, curiously, the majority of the precious metal analyst community have left unexplored. These areas include how energy and the falling EROI – Energy Returned On Invested – stand to impact the mining industry, precious metals, paper assets, and the overall economy. His website with frequent postings is: https://srsroccoreport.com.

In recent years there has been a growing debate between New Urbanism and Landscape Urbanism, a theory that argues the landscape, rather than architecture, is more capable of organizing the city and enhancing the urban experience. In this episode, JHK reacts to recent remarks by Harvard Prof. Charles Waldheim at the Congress for the New Urbanism on Landscape Urbanism. In particular, Kunstler will respond to Waldheim’s claims that New Urbanism places too much emphasis on neoclassicism while not paying enough attention to environmental concerns of the 21st century.

Author James Howard Kunstler reads Chapter Thirty-Eight from his post-oil novel, The Witch of Hebron (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2010). Music: "Sweet Rosey Cheeks," performed by Ed Lowman & John Kirk, recorded specially for the World Made By Hand series.

Author James Howard Kunstler reads " Social Relations and the Dilemmas of Difference" from Chapter 9 of his nonfiction book "Too Much Magic" (Altantic Monthly Press, 2012: pp 216-221).

David Rogers Webb is the author of The Great Taking, which is about the insidious plan by central banks and international financial regulatory institutions to crash the unsustainable system and seize whatever assets the crash doesn’t vaporize — meaning, your savings, your wealth, and your supposedly freely-owned chattels. Much of this mischief was accomplished by surreptitious changes to the Uniform Commercial code and other rules for the transference of property. It’s a spooky story.

David is a former investment banker and hedge fund manager. He’s produced his book as a free giveaway in pdf form which you can get here.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

Derrick Jensen is an author, teacher, activist, and small farmer. He is the author of more than twenty-five books, including A Language Older Than Words, The Culture of Make Believe, and Endgame. He was named “the Poet Philosopher of the Ecological Movement” by Democracy Now! and one of Utne Reader's “50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World.” He is the co-author of the new book Bright Green Lies: How the Environmental Movement Lost Its Way and What We Can Do About It.  He lives in  Northern California

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

JHK and Duncan celebrate the Fourth of July by touring Uncle Sam's neighborhood. They stroll down Second Street in Troy NY, admiring the 19th century architecture along the way. Destinations include: Russell Sage College, the county court house and one of only two privately owned and maintained residential green squares in New York state (the other is the famous Gramercy Park in Manhattan). They speak to some workers laying a stone street by hand, and explore the alley in an exclusive neighborhood.

JHK shares his observations of Boulder, Colorado and Minneapolis, Minnesota--two cities that do not live up to their reputation for entirely different reasons.

JHK and Duncan speak to a group of NextGen New Urbanists during the Congress for the New Urbanism held in West Palm Beach, Fla. this May 9-12. NextGen New Urbanists are young professionals participating in the New Urbanist movement. Jim asks the group to tell him what they're up to and what's next for New Urbanism. After a quick history of the NextGen movement, topics include: Resettle America, the Braddock PA Initiative, Tactical New Urbanism, Growing Culture and more.

James Howard Kunstler shares his thoughts on the experience of moving through the landscape and built environment on foot, rather than by car. Sponsor: http://www.CNU20.jpg

Mattias Desmet is a professor of clinical psychology and Educational Sciences at the Ghent University, Belgium and a practicing psychotherapist. He is the author ofThe Psychology of Totalitarianism (Chelsea Green Publishing). Since he introduced the concept of “mass formation psychosis” into the arena of public discourse some months ago, his ideas have been discussed widely, especially in relation to the bizarre politics of Covid-19. He is also the author of over one hundred peer-reviewed academic papers and recipient of many prizes in his professional field.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

"Eugyppius” is a former academic who blogs about the pandemic aftermath and the pathological politics of modern Germany. He recently returned from observing the farmer protest in Berlin.

Eugyppius spent much of his life abroad and over a decade in American universities as a grad student and a teacher. He writes in English on Substack. He is very careful about revealing more of his identity given the extreme censorship and cancellation action in his country these days. You can find him at Eugyppius.com.      

 Richard Heinberg published his excellent and influential book, The Party’s Over, the same year as The Long Emergency and we met many times since then on the conference circuit. Richard is Senior Fellow of the Post Carbon Institute. He’s the author of 13 award-winning books, including six on the subject of fossil fuel depletion. He has written for Nature, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, and The Christian Science Monitor among other publications, and has delivered hundreds of lectures on energy and climate issues to audiences around the world. You may be interested in his latest essay at the Post Carbon Inst website: There's No App for That: Technology and Morality in the Age of Climate Change, Overpopulation, and Biodiversity Loss. His latest books are: Our Renewable Future (with David Fridley) Afterburn: Society Beyond Fossil Fuels.

I’m doing another lap with Dr. David E Martin who is among a select group of international thought-leaders investigating the origins of the Covid-19 Pandemic and in particular the relationships between US public health officials, the pharmaceutical companies, and a number of shadfdowy organizations behind the development of the hugely profitable vaccines, which have a poor record of safety and viability.

     David is the Founder and Chairman of M·CAM Inc., the international leader in innovation finance, trade, and intangible asset finance. He’s been among a select band of international thought-leaders investigating the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, in particular the relationships between US public health officials, the pharmaceutical companies, and a number of shadowy organizations behind the development of hugely profitable vaccines with a poor record of safety and viability.

    He is the developer of the first innovation-based quantitative index of public equities and is the Managing Partner of the Purple Bridge Funds. Dr. Martin has founded several for-profit and non-profit companies and organizations and serves of several boards. He was the founding CEO of Mosaic Technologies Inc., a company that developed and commercialized advanced computational linguistics technologies, dynamic data compression and encryption technologies, electrical field transmission technology, medical diagnostics, and stealth/anechoic technology. 

     He was a founding member of Japan’s Institute for Interface Science & Technology. He founded and served as Executive Director of the Charlottesville Venture Group. He has served as a board member for the Research Institute for Small and Emerging Business (Washington D.C.), the Academy for Augmenting Grassroots Technological Innovations (India), the IST (Japan) the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce (Virginia), and the Charlottesville Industrial Development Agency (Virginia). Actively engaged in global ethical economic development, Dr. Martin’s work includes financial engineering and investment, public speaking, writing and providing financial advisory services to the majority of countries in the world. 

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

JHK’s conversation with the excellent John Michael Greer, author and blogger about where we are now on the arc of collapse and what the mood of the culture is. Greer’s many books include The Long Descent, Green Wizardry, After Oil, The Wealth of Nature, and Not the Future We Ordered. His newest, Star’s Reach, is a novel set 400 years ahead in America’s neo-medieval future. He blogs weekly at TheArchdruidReport.Blogspot.com.

The KunstlerCast music is “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

Hayes Martin is President of MarketExtremes. com., which  provides quantitative analysis of stock market psychology, and specifically of extremes of crowd behavior. He has a selective clientele of high net-worth individuals and money managers.   For more information, interested individuals can go to his website: marketextremes.com, or call him at 718-598-5034.

This show is sponsored by the McAlvany ICA wealth management team.

With 45 years in petroleum geology, Art Berman describes himself as an energy realist who integrates energy, the economy, the environment, and human behavior into his view of the industry and society. He routinely gives keynote addresses for energy conferences, boards of directors and professional societies. Berman has published more than 100 articles on energy and the effect on earth systems including climate. He has more than 40,000 followers on Twitter (@aeberman12) and dozens of free posts on his website artberman.com.

     This chat was more contentious than I figured on going into it, but that’s okay. I don’t like to filibuster my podcast guests. Let’s just say there were a few times when we disagreed about some things. Listeners can take what they will from that.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unge

#223 -- JHK raps with Dmitry Orlov, author of "Reinventing Collapse" and the forthcoming new book, "The Five Stages of Collapse." We delve into some heretofore unpublicized details of Mr. Orlov's personal history as a young emigre from the old Soviet Union in the 1970s, and his journeys back to Russia (both Soviet and post-Soviet) since then.

#267  Conversation with Jasun Horsley of the Liminalist podcast and the Auticulture.com blog. A self-described high-functioning Asberger personality, Jason explores the margins of culture. A liminal condition is one of transition, sometimes turbulent, and we explore this in relation to politics and culture of the day — everything from corn-pone Nazis to sexual transgression. This is another effort to reach out a bit beyond my usual community of financial observers and energy commentators.

    Godfree Roberts is the author of Why China Leads The World: Talent at the Top, Data in the Middle, Democracy at the Bottom.
    Godfree Roberts contacted me and suggested I interview him about his book. I thought, ‘okay, why not.’

     Well, I’ve never offered up an evaluation of a guest at the outset of the podcast, but I must tell you, I came to the conclusion as the conversation went on, that Mr. Roberts might be a troll, since he sounded increasingly like a paid publicist for the CCP.  I may be wrong about that. But, for instance, his insistence that Mao’s cultural revolution of the 1960s was a mere education campaign and didn’t hurt anybody seemed like utter nonsense to me.

You decide for yourselves.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

Bill Holter writes and is partnered with Jim Sinclair at the newly formed Holter/Sinclair collaboration. Prior, he wrote for Miles Franklin from 2012-15. Bill worked as a retail stockbroker for 23 years, including 12 as a branch manager at A.G. Edwards. He left Wall Street in late 2006 to avoid potential liabilities related to management of paper assets as he foresaw the Great Financial crisis coming. In retirement he and his family moved to Costa Rica where he lived until 2011 when he moved back to the United States. He was a well-known contributor to the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA) commentaries from 2007-present.

    Bill has retained a working relationship with Miles Franklin and can help with any of your precious metals needs including transacting, shipping, storage and even safe deposit boxes in non bank vault facilities.  Feel free to contact him with any of your questions or needs.

    He can be reached via email at bholter@hotmail.com

    It’s a pleasure to welcome back Piero San Giorgio who came on the podcast some time ago to talk about his previous excellent book Survive the Economic Collapse, a Practical Guide. 
     Today I’m catching up with Piero on Skype at his home in Switzerland to talk about his new book, Women on the Verge of A Societal Breakdown — Preserving Hard-won Victories During an Age of Uncertainty. The book's published by the Club Orlov Press — and yes, that’s our chum Dmitry Orlov, author many splendid books on the subject of how we’re going to greet the future. You can find it on Amazon. 
    Yeah, i can hear some of you muttering — the effrontery! Two dudes talking about women! Well, There’s no against it, at least not yet, and we’re gonna give it a shot. Let us know if you think it was a fair discussion. 

JHK hunkers down with John Michael Greer of the Archdruid Report  -- http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com -- to chat about politics, economy, the condition of American culture, and the state of the nation. Jim parses Obama's State of the Union Address. 

Steve Murray is Chief Information Security Officer of a large medical company.  He was a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army commanding a Cyber Defense Battalion, providing offensive and defensive cyber operations for the United States Pacific Command and US Army Pacific Forces, the National Security Agency, and other military offices.

He was deployed to Iraq in Operation Enduring Freedom, where he was awarded the Bronze Star. 

Currently LTC Murray publishes a Situation Report three times a week to address the information war being waged across the planet.   You can find him on:

Rumble:   https://rumble.com/c/LTCStevenMurray

Telegram:  https://t.me/LTC_Steven_Murray

Spotify:   https://open.spotify.com/show/3aa72bxUiyXgt9OSNJBnlk?si=c0b3ebabbc7a4977

Apple Podcasts:   LTC Steven Murray

Amazon Music:   LTC Steven Murray

It’s a pleasure to welcome back Jasun Horsley, who presides over the blog Auticulture and The Liminalist podcast. Jasun is a UK ex-pat now living in rural British Columbia, Canada. He describes himself as a “high-functioning Aspergian” and his work often takes readers and listeners to the further outposts of culture where neuroscience and the occult shake hands with politics and show biz. Jasun is a hard-working professional intellectual who brings an original worldview to the events of the day. We recorded two podcasts in this session: the one in which I interview him for my podcast and one in which he interviews me for his podcast, the Liminalist (click here).

James Howard Kunstler and Duncan Crary record a podcast before a live student audience at Union College, in Schenectady, N.Y. As part of a Humanities Super Seminar on liberal arts and activism, the students read The KunstlerCast book. During the podcast Jim and Duncan riff on college architecture and the Union campus before opening up the discussion to questions from the class. Topics include: the value of a liberal arts education in The Long Emergency, monocultures concentrating poverty in the built environment, the prospects for restoring passenger rail in North America and more. Along the way Jim also delivers a call to millennial students to renounce their student loans. Sponsor: "The Heirloom," by Richard Davies.

Raul Meijer runs The Automatic Earth Website. He puts out the Debt Rattle news aggregator there every day, and posts his own frequent commentaries on a broad range of current events, especially on subjects of finance and economy. He’s based in Europe,  dividing his time between Athens and the Netherlands. He lived in Canada for many years.

James Howard Kunstler discusses Portland, Oregon, an American city that did a lot of things right. Topics include: the urban growth boundary, architecture, transit and political attitudes.

#235 -- JHK talks with Texas petroleum geologist Jeffrey Brown about the global oil export-import scene, the shale oil situation, and the public's misunderstanding of oil realities. Jeff originated the model for understanding the decline of global oil exports and what it means for us, the importers on the other side of that trade. And what it means is that our total oil supply in the USA is much more fragile than the public imagines.

 The new KunstlerCast music is called “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the new recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

JHK gives a walking tour of the grounds of the Kunstler Compound in Washington County, NY and updates listeners on his progress in planting his own edible garden and orchard.

JHK’s conversation with KMO of the C-Realm Podcast. KMO, who goes by that tag for his public persona, is one of the best interviewers in the podcast world. I’ve been listening to him for years, and have been on his podcast more than once, so it’s a treat to have him on mine. KMO is moving beyond the particulars of the collapse of industrial civilization to questions of what’s next under the circumstances.

The KunstlerCast music is “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

#255 – JHK yaks with Lynn Vannucci of Water Street Press (www.Waterstreetpressbooks.com) about the new model of book publishing in the digital age. Lynn has published four short-form novellas by JHK the past several years. Aspiring writers may be interested to discover that there is more of a market out there for you than the old mainstream New York publishing houses — most of which are now owned by gigantic conglomerates. Writing remains a tough racket, but there are new ways to find an audience.

The KunstlerCast music is “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

JHK gives an update on the bursting housing bubble and the fate of car dependency in America. This episode includes a short interview with Sharon Feigon, CEO of I-Go Car Sharing, and Sonya Newenhouse, president of Community Car, two professionals in the car sharing industry. Sponsor: Bjorn Bergman who reminds listeners to eat local this summer! 651-276-8875

     Neil Howe is a renowned author and speaker on economic, demographic, and social change in America. He is the nation’s leading authority on social generations—who they are, what motivates them, and how they will shape America’s future. Howe is the originator of the term “Millennial Generation” and has written over a dozen books on generations and generational research, a field of research he single-handedly invented. His landmark 1997 book The Fourth Turning (co-authored with the late William Strauss), has become an indispensable lens for viewing world political history.
     Howe is also a recognized authority on global aging, long-term fiscal policy, and migration. He served as Senior Policy Advisor to Blackstone Group and has testified on entitlement reform many times before Congress. 
     Howe is currently the Managing Director of Demography at Hedgeye Risk Management and a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where he helps lead the Global Aging Initiative.

John Droz, Jr. received undergraduate degrees in Physics and Mathematics from Boston College, and a graduate degree in Physics from Syracuse University. He subsequently worked for GE (Aerospace Electronics), Mohawk Data Sciences, and Monolithic Memories (Cupertino, CA). After retiring at 34, he phased into pursuing a variety of community interests. This led to a 40 year commitment as an environmental advocate. He lives in New York’s Adirondack Mountains.

John has has written and published over a hundred articles on energy policy matters, been a guest speaker on dozens of radio and TV shows, nationwide, and has spoken to numerous organizations on energy and environmental issues.
In late 2020 John was asked if he would put together a team of independent experts to analyze election data. He agreed to do that and as of this writing they have generated ten major reports. Find them at Election-Integrity.info.
The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

Duncan asks JHK what he would say to the American people of 1946 if he had the means to travel back in time. What would Kunstler tell them about the suburban dream as promised to them? Would they listen?

New Urbanism Special. JHK chats with Andres Duany, a founding board member of the Congress for the New Urbanism about a new book (with a chapter by JHK) taking on the frauds and fakers at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and their so-called Landscape Urbanism program -- since they never tire of attacking the New Urbanists. Also on board is Emily Talen, co-editor of the new book and professor of Geography, Urban Design, and Sustainability at Arizona State University.

    The new KunstlerCast music is called “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the new recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

 Chris Martenson, PhD (Duke), MBA (Cornell) is an economic researcher and futurist specializing in energy and resource depletion, and founder of PeakProsperity.com.  As one of the early econobloggers who forecasted the housing market collapse and stock market correction years in advance, Chris rose to prominence with the launch of his seminal video seminar: The Crash Course which has also been published in book form (Wiley, March 2011).  The Crash Course is a popular and extremely well-regarded distillation of the interconnected forces in the Economy, Energy and the Environment (the “Three Es” as Chris calls them) that are shaping the future — one that will be defined by increasing challenges to growth as we have known it.

Chris and Evie now live on a 180-acre rural property in western MA and love being close to nature’s bounty and beauty.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

Today I’m yakking with Kate Wagner, the antic voice behind the marvelous website Welcome to MacMansion Hell, a humorous and opinionated blog that aims to educate the general public about architecture, design, and urbanism by making examples of America’s most despised architectural style. She is currently a master’s student in Acoustics as part of a joint venture program between Johns Hopkins University and Peabody Conservatory. Merry Christmas everybody!

James Howard Kunstler talks about his literary influences, including H.L. Mencken, Tom Wolfe and Samuel Beckett. He also explains the role of the social critic and how he separates his critic persona from his own personality. Lastly he muses on what he might like his legacy to be. This conversation, all about writing, is background information for a forthcoming KunstlerCast book.

A listener asks what other ways average folks can combat sprawl without becoming a professional urban planner. JHK shares the story of his personal choice in 1970s to leave the big city and consciously live in a small American town with a livable urban fabric.

David Collum, an old friend of this podcast, is the Betty R. Miller Professor of Chemistry at Cornell University... but he may be better known these days as a wicked funny commentator on the financial scene. He writes an annual end-of-year wrap-up and forecast, which I interrupted him working on when I hauled him over to Skype to yak about the current situation. There’s some weird Skype background noise a couple of places in the recording -- like the Exorcist working over a couple of demons-from-hell in an elevator shaft. It doesn’t last more than a minute or two, so hang in there. There are apparently strange forces in the Skype-o-verse.

 In this bonus episode, James Howard Kunstler reunites with former KunstlerCast host/producer Duncan Crary for a behind-the-scenes discussion of JHK’s personal connection to the wildly popular S-Town podcast, a This American Life spinoff program. Back around 2010-2013, John B. McLemore, the tragic figure at the center of the series began an email correspondence with JHK. John B was a real person, referred to by various people in the series as “brilliant,” “a genius,” “a real character,” and he was for sure. He was also a fan of Jim’s books, and, after getting his phone number off his website, took to calling him on the phone. The two probably had a dozen long phone conversations. It is well-known now that he called his home of Woodstock, Alabama, “Shit-town.” He regaled JHK with many a sordid tale of the home-folk, and even of himself. To Jim, the place sounded like “Hieronymus Bosch meets Dogpatch.” Since John B seemed so unhappy under his mask of hilarity and mirth, Jim tried to encourage him to think about moving. He always had an excuse for not doing that, but clearly John B and the neighbors he disdained, fought with, looked for love with, had a synergistic thing going. They needed each other to play out their never-ending crazy scripts of cracker mischief, vengeance, and failure. After a while, John B went dark. Jim thought JB had just gotten tired of advising him to move. As it turns out, what happened to John would become the subject of an audio documentary that has broken all the records in podcasting and stirred up a bit of controversy. Because so many of the concepts McLemore espouses in the series are inspired by JHK’s blogs and writings (sometimes John uses Jim’s exact phraseology), Duncan suggests the early KunstlerCast years are a bit like a “prequel” to S-Town. (Note: You can listen to all the previous episodes on the KunstlerCast feed for free, and you can purchase a book of based transcripts from the first five years.) 

Also known as Steve From Virginia, this week’s guest has a unique take on the nexus of energy, capital, and the destiny of industrial civilization. Steve writes: “The credit regime is falling apart under the weight of its own costs, not just in Europe. Government issue money ends a monopoly over a vital private good so that it becomes a public good, in this way the power of the banks to run our affairs is reduced. As a necessary component of this effort, the establishment must hold the financiers accountable for their crimes and negligence. The present conditions and schemes cannot be endured any longer. If the establishment refuses to act the citizens will take matters into their own hands, there will be revolutions.”

--From http://www.economic-undertow.com

"The Long Emergency vs. NYC's Resurgency: A Debate about the Future of Cities" featuring Transportation Alternatives Executive Director Paul Steely White and author James Howard Kunstler. Jeff Olson of Alta Planning & Design moderates before an audience at Skidmore College. Oranized by Kim Marsella of the Skidmore Environmental Studies Department.

#236 -- JHK talks with Severine von Tscharner Fleming, 30, a next ten agricultural activist, founder of Greenhorns and the National Young Farmers' Coalition. She also works with the Farm Hack organization, the Family Farm Coalition and is editor of the New Farmers' Almanac published by Greenhorns. She's a very accomplished person with a lot to say about the alternative farming scene -- that is, alternative to Big Agri-Biz. 

  The new KunstlerCast music is called “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the new recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

JHK takes questions from the students in a college English class who have just completed reading "World Made By Hand," a post-peak oil novel. These highly intelligent questions range in topic from the role of religion, violence, and narrative strategy of Wold Made By Hand. Jim also reveals his true feelings about George Lucas and his thoughts about making revisions to novels. Note: This episode contains cursewords.

JHK and Duncan look at two new McDonald's projects in their home towns and touch upon some universal issues with regards to these types of developments appearing throughout North America. Using the comments on a local newspaper blog, they gague how members of the community are reacting and forming a public consensus. While some people in Troy are advocating for a heightened design, others are "violently complacent" about the standard issue Mickey D's as delivered to automobile strips around the world. Meanwhile, in Saratoga Springs, a developer did create a different take on the Golden Arches. But was the end product better?

Independent researcher Steve St. Angelo started to invest in precious metals in 2002.  Later on in 2008, he began researching areas of the gold and silver market that, curiously, the majority of the precious metal analyst community have left unexplored. These areas include how energy and the falling EROI – Energy Returned On Invested – stand to impact the mining industry, precious metals, paper assets, and the overall economy. His website with frequent postings is: https://srsroccoreport.com.

Dmitry Orlov is back to talk about his new book, “Shrinking the Technosphere,” which can be ordered at his website: cluborlov.com. Dmitry is the author previously of “Reinventing Collapse,” “Communities That Abide.” “The Five Stages of Collapse,” and several books of essays. The video trailer for his new book can be viewed by clicking THIS. Dmitry is a leading voice in the effort to think clearly about the predicament of our time.

David Blittersdorf’s passion for renewable energy and earth-friendly technology started early. He built his first wind turbine at age 14 to light up the small shack where he boiled sap into maple syrup. After he got his driver's license in 1973, the year of the OPEC oil embargo, he vowed to help the U.S. transition away from dependence on fossil fuels. In 1982, after getting his engineering degree at the University of Vermont, he founded NRG Systems—one of the nation's most successful wind-energy companies. Twenty-two years later, he founded All Earth Renewables a leading player in Vermont’s wind and solar scene. David is involved in all aspects of All Earth Renewables' day-to-day operations. He also makes frequent public-speaking engagements and serves on the board of many energy-focused institutions at the national and state levels.

Ray Jason blogs as the Sea Gypsy Philosopher. He has lived on his sailboat, the Aventura, for nearly thirty years, lately off the coast of Central America. Before that, Ray worked as a street performer, juggling in San Francisco. He’s crossed the Pacific solo from California to Hawaii many times, and is the author of Tales of a Sea Gypsy and, of course The Sea Gypsy Philosopher. I enjoyed discussing the technicalities of life on a boat with him. I hope you find this a charming relief from the political calamities and anxieties of the day, as much as I did — and perhaps an inspiration to find a rewarding journey in life away from the humdrum annoyances of the landlubber way.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

 Lucas A. Klein, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist who has been in private practice for 14 years. He has been a criminal and civil forensic psychologist, and now runs Real Clear Podcast  He grew up in upstate NY not far from Jim, moved to the west coast, and now spends an inordinate amount of time trying to understand why humanity is so irrational. You can find his show here: https://www.realclearpodcast.com

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

#317 Rob Gourdie is Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics at Virginia Tech. He is also Director of the Center for Heart and Reparative Medicine Research at the same university. He writes under the pen name of Tom Therramus. In his “day job,” he works on the repeating waves of electrical signals that drive the heart beat. Over the last decade he has developed an interest in another repeating pattern - waves of price volatility in oil - that he speculates are a Peak Oil-related phenomenon. His writings as Tom Therramus on oil market instability, and its impacts on economics, politics and climate change, have been posted at OilPrice.net, Greentechmedia.com, Resilience.com, RealClearEnergy.org, Nouriel Roubini's Economonitor.com, and EuanMearns.com Energy Matters. His LinkedIn page (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-therramus-602b3721/)  lists his SKILLS as including “Asperger's", "Mild Numeracy", "Vague Literacy” and "Being Kiwi”.

This episode’s featured interview is with transportation expert and urbanist Taras Grescoe, author of Straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile. Taras writes: “In the 20th century, our greatest cities were almost ruined by the automobile. Only a global revolution in transportation can bring them back from the brink.” He consults on these matters and reports from cities around world from, Paris, to Moscow, Shanghai, Tokyo, Bogota, Vancouver, Phoenix. Taras Grescoe lives in Montreal. It’s a pleasure to welcome him to the podcast.

This episode also features a mini-yak with my old podcast sidekick Duncan Crary. Duncan has been working tirelessly, and making great strides, in promoting an urban Renaissance in the small upstate city of Troy, N.Y., where he lives. This March 30 & 31, 2017 he will be offering a New Urbanist-themed two-day class on “The Art of Small City PR & Spectacle,” at a school in Manhattan. For more information, visit his website: DuncanCrary.com

Dr. David E. Martin is the Founder and Chairman of M·CAM Inc., the international leader in innovation finance, trade, and intangible asset finance. He is the developer of the first innovation-based quantitative index of public equities and is the Managing Partner of the Purple Bridge Funds.  He is the creator of the world’s first quantitative public equity index – the CNBC IQ100 powered by M·CAM.  Actively engaged in global ethical economic development, Dr. Martin’s work includes financial engineering and investment, public speaking, writing and providing financial advisory services to the majority of countries in the world. 

He is on social media as DavidMartinWorld.
His own podcasts cane found at www.ActivateHumanity.com

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

The 2010 U.S. Census figures have led to a newly empowered suburban electorate. But the figures also indicate that several major U.S. cities are increasing in population at their cores. JHK offers some analysis. Sponsor: The Congress for the New Urbanism CNU 19, http://cnu19.org

Charles Marohn is the Founder and President of Strong Towns (Strongtowns.org), a non-profit advocacy organization focused on the financial predicament local governments find themselves in as a result of America's suburban experiment. Chuck has a Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Minnesota's Institute of Technology and a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute. Chuck and Jim are active members of the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU.org) dedicated to improving the human habitat America.

James Howard Kunstler reads the first chapter of his post-oil novel The Witch of Hebron (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2010). Music: "McCully's Waltz," performed by Ed Lowman & John Kirk, recorded specially for the World Made By Hand series.

David McAlvany is CEO Of McAlvany Financial Services, which includes wealth management and precious metals advisors for retail investors. David’s own excellent podcast, the McAlvany Weekly Commentary comes out Tuesdays and is available at Apple Podcasts. Full disclosure, David’s company is a sponsor of this podcast. And fuller disclosure, I invited him on because he offers some of the clearest views of financial doings to be found on the Internet. His company website is https://mcalvany.com.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

Jasun Horsley is an English cultural critic, metapsychologist, conspiracy researcher, and podcaster, and the author of several books, including Seen and Not Seen, Prisoner of Infinity, and the upcoming The Vice of Kings: How Socialism, Occultism, and the Sexual Revolution Engineered a Culture of Abuse. To earn a living, he currently runs a thrift store in Canada with his wife. This is the link to Jasun’s excellent podcast, The Liminalist. Here is the link to his Auticulture Blog.  And here is a link to Jasun’s fascinating essay series on the sexual confusions and hysterias of our time: The Age of Advanced Incoherence: Identity Politics & Identity Crisis, which is at the center of today’s conversion.

#321 — Charles Hugh Smith writes the popular Of Two Minds blog (at https://www.oftwominds.com/blog.html) and is the author of many books, most recently Will You Be Richer or Poorer; Profit, Power, and A.I. in a Traumatized World.) He lives in the world capital of Wokesterdom: Berkeley, California.