Bonus: Bundyville and Stories that Need to Be Told with Leah Sottile

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.

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.

Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.

Sources/Links/Notes:

• LaUra's book, How to Live in a Chaotic Climate: 10 Steps to Reconnect with Ourselves, Our Communities, and Our Planet
• The Good Grief Network's 10 Step Program
• LaUra mentioned Bayo Akomolafe and his work on "questioning our questions."
• Joanna Macy and The Work That Reconnects
• Video of Dr. Andrew Weil's 4-7-8 breathing technique
• David Graeber's book Bullshit Jobs
• Crazy Town episode 34, "Fear of Death and Climate Denial, or... the Story of Wolverine and the Screaming Mole of Doom"
• Fiftieth anniversary book review in the New York Times: Ernest Becker's The Denial of Death
• Ayisha Siddiqa's poem "On Another Panel about Climate, They Ask Me to Sell the Future and All I've Got Is a Love Poem"

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.

Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.

References:

• 183 regional and local conflicts around the world
• Zuckerberg’s tragically misguided Hawaiian bunker
• Anti-aging nutter
• When do we get to use the guns?
• The 10-step program of the Good Grief Network

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.

Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.

References:

• Marc Andreessen's horrifying "Techno-Optimist Manifesto" 
• Peer-reviewed paper featuring Jason's far superior "Dehumanist Manifesto"
• Description of the pygmy marmoset
• The idea of Beth Sawin's Multisolving Institute
• The dark triad -- narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy
• The original paper on the taxonomy of Phalse Prophets
• Article by Richard Heinberg about free will.

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.

Resources:

• Leah's website
• Leah's Substack page, titled "The Truth Does not Change According to Our Ability to Stomach It"
• Article in The High Country News "The 90-foot sentinel of Butte, Montana"
• Bundyville: The Remnant, a must-listen podcast about the patriot movement and right-wing extremism
• Burn Wild, another must-listen podcast about the Earth Liberation Front and left-wing extremism

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.

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.

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:

• Rae’s website
• The podcast: Going Wild with Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant
• Rae discussed how Ayana Elizabeth Johnson influenced her.
• Rae also highlighted the work of Leah Thomas on intersectional environmentalism.
• Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program
• National Geographic HBCU Media Scholarship
• Article about the reboot of the Wild Kingdom television series

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.

Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.
References:

• Video of Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahhaf, aka Baghdad Bob
• Allysia Finley wrote this Wall Street Journal op-ed titled “Climate Change Obsession Is a Real Mental Disorder”
• Nature article dismissed by Finley
• Lancet article dismissed by Finley
• Rebuttal written by PCI Advisor Leslie Davenport and published in the Wall Street Journal
• Rebecca Solnit’s article in The Guardian, “We Can’t Afford to Be Climate Doomers.”
• Survey on climate distress by the Yale Program on Climate Communication
• Gen Dread newsletter on climate distress
• Climate Psychology Alliance
• Good Grief Network

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.

Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.