Last Born In The Wilderness

Author and scholar Dr. Mohamed Abdou returns to the podcast, one year after October 7, 2023.

Our discussion flows across various subjects: Al-Aqsa Flood and the US-Israel genocide of Palestinians in Gaza; Islam and the crusading Euro-American imperial project; anti-colonial struggle as resistance, decolonization as "creating the world of many belows"; and Abdou's participation in the Palestine solidarity encampment at Columbia University, where he was targeted, threatened, and slandered by Zionists in the university administration, United States Congress, and by prominent media figures.

// Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/mohamed-abdou-2

// Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness

// Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Author and scholar Dr. Mohamed Abdou returns to the podcast, one year after October 7, 2023.

// Support the work and listen to the full interview: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness

Meteorologist Jeff Masters joins me in this interview to discuss the damage wrought by Hurricane Helene in the southeastern United States, as he has written extensively about for the Yale Climate Connections blog, Eye on the Storm, and to contextualize this year's hurricane season within the larger trends of human-caused climate change.

// Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/jeff-masters

// Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness

// Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Meteorologist Jeff Masters joins me in this interview to discuss the damage wrought by Hurricane Helene in the southeastern United States, as he has written extensively about for the Yale Climate Connections blog, Eye on the Storm.

// Support the work and listen to the full interview: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness

Epidemiologist and writer Abby Cartus returns to continue our discussion about the so-called successes and failures of public health, particularly as it relates to the ongoing pandemic.

In this interview, I asked Abby to clarify the kinds of data that are collected—mainly from wastewater sites—and how that data is modeled and presented at this phase of the pandemic. How does this impose limitations on our view of the current rates of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the US population? After establishing what can be understood, and not understood, from wastewater data, I asked Abby to raise her critique of how this data is being modeled and presented by the Pandemic Mitigation Collaborative, a popular and well regarded resource often cited by covid cautious and public health advocacy individuals and groups, and what this indicates about not only where we are at this phase of the pandemic, but how data and statistics are underlaid by ideological assumptions that deserve examination.

// Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/abby-cartus

// Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness

// Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Epidemiologist and writer Abby Cartus joins me in this interview to explore a fascinating set of questions: What does it mean for public health to fail? What does it mean for it to succeed?

Within the context of the ongoing pandemic, we often hear, or ourselves may make, the refrain that "public health has failed us." This may be true, but it's quite a bit more than failure we must address. Public health is more, possibly less, but certainly different, than it purports and narrativizes itself to be. The rapid shifts in social relations with the onset of the pandemic almost five years ago, and with other looming, percolating crises gathering on the horizons, wondering about not only how public health could seemingly fail, but theoretically succeed, is a fundamentally generative discussion.

// Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/abby-cartus

// Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness

// Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Epidemiologist and writer Abby Cartus joins me in this interview to explore a fascinating set of questions: What does it mean for public health to fail? What does it mean for it to succeed?

// Support the work and listen to the full interview: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness

Award-winning journalist, author, and activist Barrett Brown returns to the podcast to discuss his much anticipated new book, My Glorious Defeats: Hacktivist, Narcissist, Anonymous: A Memoir.

Brown provides updates on the subjects explored in our first interview in 2022, which fleshed out the complex web of media outlets, personalities, hackers, and intelligence community assets connected directly or indirectly with far-right Silicon Valley billionaire, Peter Thiel. I asked Brown how his bid for asylum in the UK has played out, and why he really isn’t worried about being deported or extradited to the United States, despite his current status in the country. And among other themes I wanted to focus on from his memoir, Brown discusses his experience in the United States federal prison system, and the hard truths he learned there about the declining American imperial project.

// Content warning: Throughout this discussion, especially in the later half, there is mention of child sexual abuse and trafficking. It is discussed as part of the larger point Barrett makes about conspiracism and covert intelligence entities and tactics.

// Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/barrett-brown-2

// Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness

// Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Award-winning journalist, author, and activist Barrett Brown returns to the podcast to discuss his much anticipated new book, My Glorious Defeats: Hacktivist, Narcissist, Anonymous: A Memoir.

// Support the work and listen to the full interview: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness

Writer and agitator Vicky Osterweil returns to the podcast to discuss some of the themes raised in her essay, Feeling Good Doesn't Require the Democrats, published for her newsletter. The piece tackles the very vibes-based election cycle in the US, as Vice President Kamala Harris takes up the Democratic Party ticket to face up against Donald Trump this November. Vicky deftly navigates the affect-shift this change in the nominee, from current president Joe Biden to Harris, has had, both in its desired effect, and what is lost in riding this wave of "positive vibes only" while looking away from the realities that demand our fuller attention. In short, Vicky imparts this bit of wisdom that will remain relevant as we continue to move swiftly though our crises-laden times: don't give them the gift of our joy.

// Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/vicky-osterweil-2

// Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness

// Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast