Crazy Town

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.

Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.

Sources/Links/Notes:

• Kevin Roose’s article in the New York Times “A QAnon ‘Digital Soldier’ Marches On, Undeterred by Theory’s Unraveling”Definition of extremism from the Anti-Defamation League
• Concepts of “malignant bonding” and “scarcity mind” in the article “Widening the ‘We’” by Colin Greer and Eric Laursen
• Zeynep Tufecki’s 2018 article in the New York Times “YouTube, the Great Radicalizer”
• Kari Paul’s 2021 article in the Guardian “‘It let white supremacists organize’: the toxic legacy of Facebook’s Groups”
• Peter D. Kvam et al., “Rational inference strategies and the genesis of polarization and extremism,” Nature, May 5, 2022.
• Statistics on rising levels of hate crime in the United States
• Statistics on domestic terrorism in the United States
• Statistics on antisemitism around the world
• Crazy Town episode 78, which includes the six questions Megan Phelps-Roper developed to challenge her entrenched beliefs.
• Rapoport’s Rules for constructive criticism
• Post Carbon Institute’s Deep Dive on Building Emotional Resilience
• Diane Benscoter’s nonprofit, Antidote.ngo, which runs recovery groups for people caught up in disinformation.
• Thought reform consultation
• Crazy Town episode 89 on escaping individualism, in which we discussed mutual aid networks
• Lawsuit to allow social media users to control their algorithms
• Ranked choice voting

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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.

Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.

Sources/Links/Notes:

• Eileen Crist defines (and critiques) anthropocentrism.
• Global biomass of wild mammals
• Global human-made mass exceeds all living biomass.
• Decline of pollinators
• Decline of flying insect biomass
• Daniel Quinn’s book Ishmael
• Human Nature Odyssey podcast with Alex Leff
• Tom Murphy’s journey of understanding the pitfalls of human exceptionalism
• Two-thirds of the world’s longest rivers have been dammed.
• Declining wild bird populations in North America
• Ed Yong’s book An Immense World
• Yellowstone to Yukon conservation initiative
• Restor
• Douglas Tallamy’s book Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard
• Story of mining permit revocation in Panama
• Timeline of expansion of the rights of nature that was compiled by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund
• Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights
• Stop Ecocide International
• Crazy Town episode with Danielle Celermajer on multispecies justice
• Robin Wall-Kimmerer’s book Braiding Sweetgrass
• Prominence of nature in the Tuvan language
• Holding the Fire episode with Anne Poelina
• Quote by Kenneth Brink of the Karuk Tribe
• Quote by Sammy Gensaw III of the Yurok Tribe

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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.

Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.

Sources/Links/Notes:

• Definition of individualism from the American Psychological Association
• Article in Opumo magazine - "Super singles: 10 coolest one seater cars"
• U.S. Surgeon General's 2023 report: Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation
• BBC Loneliness Experiment
• Robert Putnam's classic book - Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community
• Country comparison tool for exploring Hofstede's Individualism Index
• Part 1 of Post Carbon Institute's webinar on mutual aid; Part 2
• Donna M. Butts and Shannon E. Jarrott, "The Power of Proximity: Co-Locating Childcare and Eldercare Programs," Stanford Social Innovation Review, April 2021
• Pets for the Elderly
• Dean Spade's book - Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next)
• History of the free breakfast movement of the Black Panther Party
• Teju Ravilochan, "The Blackfoot Wisdom that Inspired Maslow's Hierarchy"
• City of Knoxville program guide: Neighborhood Emergency Preparedness Plan

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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.

Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.

Sources/Links/Notes:

• "A Dark History of the World's Smallest Island Nation" tells the tale of Nauru.
• S.J. Gale, "Lies and misdemeanours: Nauru, phosphate and global geopolitics," The Extractive Industries and Society, vol 6, July 2019.
• FAQs of the Metals Company
• Eric Lipton's New York Times article about imperialistic mining of the Pacific Ocean floor.
• Mining Watch Canada questions the claims of the Metals Company.
• Elham Shabahat's article in Hakai Magazine, "Why Nauru Is Pushing the World Toward Deep-Sea Mining" 
• Definition of imperialism from the Cornell Law School
• J.A. Hobson's book Imperialism: A Study
• Jason Hickel et al., "Imperialist appropriation in the world economy: Drain from the global South through unequal exchange, 1990-2015," Global Environmental Change, vol 73, March 2022.
• Critique of lithium extraction in the Atacama Desert
• Indigenous people's response to lithium mining in Nevada
• How the Sami people are protesting Sweden's "green transformation"
• Episode 3 of the Holding the Fire podcast, featuring Sami leader Aslak Holmberg
• Cobus van Staden on "Green Energy's Dirty Secret: Its Hunger for African Resources"
• Jim Robbins in Yale Environment 360 on "How Returning Lands to Native Tribes Is Helping Protect Nature"
• "Indigenous Land Return Announcement by Sogorea Te’ Land Trust and Movement Generation!" -- article by Ines Ixierda
• "New Zealands's Maori fought for reparations -- and won"

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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.

Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.

Sources/Links/Notes:

• Wikipedia page “Nike and the University of Oregon”
• Joshua Hunt book: University of Nike: How Corporate Cash Bought American Higher Education.
• Erik Olin Wright, How to Be an Anticapitalist in the Twenty-First Century, Verso 2019.
• Thomas Piketty, Capital in the Twenty First Century, Harvard University Press 2014.
• Robert Heilbroner, The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers.
• Jeffrey Sachs, “Twentieth-Century Political Economy: A Brief History of Global Capitalism,” Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Vol. 15, No. 4.
• Summary of End Hedge Fund Control of American Homes Act
• David Bollier, The Commoner’s Catalog for Changemaking
• Lobbying to defeat bills that prohibit private prisons
• More lobbying in support of private prisons
• Incredible drug price increase after hedge fund manager acquires it
• Annual report of Weaver Street Market
• Donnie Maclurcan's explanation of not-for-profit enterprises
• Ranking of the world's happiest countries
• Boston Ujima Project
• Alfie Kohn,  No Contest: The Case Against Competition, Houghton Mifflin, 1992.
• B Corps and B Lab
• Definition of the solidarity economy from the New Economy Coalition

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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.

Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.

Sources/Links/Notes:

• Timeline of Sarah Winchester's story
• Timeline of the largest passenger boats
• Parks and Rec clip on soda sizes
• Kaitlin Smith, "More Than Monsters: The Deeper Significance of Wendigo Stories"
• Winona LaDuke discusses Wendigo economics in a Yes! Magazine online conversation.
• Hannah and Kevin Salwen, The Power of Half: One Family's Decision to Stop Taking and Start Giving Back
• CBS news story about a family giving away half their income
• SparkToro, an unusual tech company that doesn't believe bigger is better
• Report: Resilient Biocultural Heritage Landscapes for Sustainable Mountain Development, which contains information about Peru's Potato Park
• Krystyna Swiderska, "Here's why Indigenous economics is the key to saving nature"
• Al Bartlett lecturing on exponential growth

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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.

Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.

Sources/Links/Notes:

• Guardian article about shipping Greenland glacier ice to Dubai
• Wired article that tells the story of the Ever Given and all the supply chain problems that ensued
• The Observatory of Economic Complexity compiles statistics on global economic activity with interesting graphics, including this profile of China's trade.
• Michael Carolan's book Cheaponomics: The High Cost of Low Prices, and his follow-up book The Real Cost of Cheap Food
• Vasilis Kostakis's article on cosmolocalism
• Vicki Robin's book Blessing the Hands that Feed Us
• Website for Fibershed
• Molly Scott Cato's book The Bioregional Economy: Land, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

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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."

Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.

Sources/Links/Notes:

• Moriah McDonald reports on the big underestimates of Greenland ice loss in Inside Climate News.
• Typical article about how AI can solve climate change
• Another such article about the "magic" of AI
• And another -- sheesh (no wonder Jason was so upset)!
• Report on the future of petrochemicals from the International Energy Agency
• Kelly Oakes of the BBC asks, "What would happen if we stopped using plastic?"
• Website of The Ocean Cleanup
• Low Tech Magazine
• Low Technology Institute's 10-Mile Building Challenge
• Sulan Chen writes for UNDP, "A global treaty to end plastic pollution is in sight."
• BBC reporting on the EU's efforts to regulate AI

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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.

Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.

Sources/Links/Notes:

• Top 10 most unrealistic car crashes in movies
• Clip from the movie The Blues Brothers
• Clip from the movie Speed
• Clip from the movie Live Free or Die Hard
• Clip from the movie Furious 7
• Definition  of high frequency trading
• Graphical representation of the Great Acceleration
• Interview with Hartmut Rosa
• Bart Zantvoort's article about Harmut Rosa's work
• Article about social acceleration by Bettina Hollstein and Hartmut Rosa in the Journal of Business Ethics
• Podcast episode about shrinking attention spans (episode 225 of Speaking of Psychology)
• Article about technology and perception of time by Fiona MacDonald in ScienceAlert

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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.

Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.

Sources/Links/Notes:

• Wikipedia page for Paul Henning, creative force behind the spate of 1960s rural sitcoms.
• The Rural Climate Dialogues: A Community-Driven Roadmap for Climate Action in Rural Minnesota is a report by Tara Ritter with good summary statistics on the rural U.S.
• “Total and urban population” in UNCTAD Handbook of Statistics 2023.
• United Nations prediction about urban migration.
• “Out-of-Towners Head to ‘Climate-Proof Duluth,’” article by Debra Kamin in the New York Times.
• “Indonesia Is Moving its Capital to a Futuristic, Green City,” article by Katherine McLaughlin in Architectural Digest.
• Anthropogenic mass – the weight of everything humanity has built, statistics from the World Economic Forum..
• Analysis of transportation-related energy consumption and urban density, published in “U.S. Cities Factsheet” from the University of Michigan Center for Sustainable Systems.
• The 15-Minute City
• Retrosuburbia: The Downshifter’s Guide to a Resilient Future, book by David Holmgren.
• Global Ecovillage Network
• Daily Acts
• StoveTeam International
• One Planet Council

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