Crazy Town
Post Carbon Institute: Sustainability, Climate, Collapse, and Dark Humor
Recent Episodes
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
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
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
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
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