Choice Conversations

Once again Mandy Henk joins me on the show and once again I am talking about my guilty pleasure, discussing Occupy Wall Street. I was knee deep into the Tea Party activism, even with it's many flaws, but this time I'm head over heels for Occupy Wall Street, even with it's many flaws. Mandy has Occupied Wall Street (via Zuccotti Park) on three seperate visits. Having been someone who has seen the movement grow into now what may very well be a revolution, I thought she would be a great guest to discuss the issue. Mandy illustrates the daily goings-on and what the feel of the crowd is. We discuss the logistics of going to the bathroom as well as describing the soap-boxing that goes on.

Nathan Martin joins me to discuss why he is supportive of Occupy Wall Street yet he thinks their focus should squarely be on the ownership of wh gets to control the production and distribution of this country's monetary unit.

100 episodes. That is alot of episodes. Part 1 of 2 is The Great Big 'I Don't Know' and Part 2 is What Can Be Wrong About Resiliency This is a two hour conversation split over two episodes, unedited, uncensored, and thoroughly entertaining. It was a return to our roots of having roundtable discussions about anything we damn well feel like talking about. It is what I like to call the Zen of Two Beers of Steve... Enjoy... Steve

Protesting the XL Pipeline with Mandy Henk

Oh, how I love doing the podcast! I have missed it over the summer but the tradeoff is that I get to spend almost every free minute with the kids and working in the garden; learning and shaping my knowledge for another fruitful year. I believe that everything that I spend my precious little free time must be used towards creating something of value. You might be asking how watching Mad Men episodes fit within that 'creating value' mantra. Well, I watch those episodes sitting beside my wife and afterwards we analyze the episodes and discuss the traits that each character possesses and what drives them. Those conversations are helpful ways in connecting with my wife on a different level from our careers, finances, or the children. Everyone can have afford themselves a little fun, you just have to know to use that entertainment to better yourself and your relationships. In this episode I drink a cup of coffee and tear into the microphone for 40 minutes. I follow that stream of consiouscness that is SO Two-Beersy

I know, I know, the world is goig to hell in a handbasket at the moment... the market volatility is frightening! But what are we are going to do about it? What is the best advice that anyone can give you right now? In this discussion, which was taped on the eve of the market collapse (and then it's eventual snap back up), I talk with Charles Hugh Smith on his new book The Unconventional Guide to Investing in Troubled Times (available now on Amazon in Kindle format). CHS explains the effects that globalization and centralization of power has had on our global economy and how he thinks the pendulum is going to be swinging in the other direction... and soon. Maybe not this week kinda soon, but within this next decade kinda soon. So how do you prepare for that? CHS gives probably the best advice one can give during these uncertain times, invest in yourself. Sounds easy right? But what does it mean to invest in yourself and what must you consider when you make such a bold move. There are consequences to investing

This is the second part of my listener conversations. This time my guest is Tim Flood of El Paso, TX. Tim is a long time listener of Two Beers With Steve and fellow Chris Martenson Forum contributor. In this episode we focus in on how a regular Joe Six Pack has taken preparations in his own life to preparre for an uncertain future. We discuss gardening, investing, food storage, water filtering and home brewing.

After a long break, I was able to catch up with Nelson Lebo. After a long monologue introduction by yours truly we launch into a discussion about building raised the beds the fast, cheap, and easy way. Hidden in this episode are a boatload of helpful hints on backyard gardening and homesteading. Enjoy the episode, I leave for vacation tomorrow and hopefully I will get back on the horse again and knock out a few great episodes so that I can get to that coveted 100th episode. I think we will have a roundtable discussion with the guys that we first started with... I may also pester my wife to join us. Who knows... Steve

In the next couple of episodes I will be talking to members of the 2BwS audience as we approach the 100th episode of the show. I am always interested by the level of honesty and intelligence of the people that listen to this show. A few times a week I receive emails from listeners where they detail their life, it always fascinates me. it reminds me that my show goes out into the internet cyberspace but yet lands into the Ipods, MP3 players, computer speakers of real people, who seem to think along the same lines as me. In this episode I speak with sculptor Bill Hopen of Hopen Studios. Please check out his website for images of his work. I was blown away by the quality of his works, if I had known the scale of his works I would've spent more time discussing his body of work. Guess we'll have to talk to him again... I also speak with Chris Stefanick in this episode, an IT manager from Durham, NC. Chris is a long time listener who I met up for lunch one day while I was in NC. Not so great food but the conversat

In this episode I talk about how I had my car broken into and the valuable contents inside were stolen. I move frlom talking about the physical possessions to the psychological effects of having been violated. I also expand the discussion into talking about how this is the world into which we may see much more of this type of crime as more and more people become desperate to make ends meet. I read listener emails and make comments based on their thoughts. A listener asks me to talk about the farmers market and I talk at length about how things are going and some of the problems I have had thus far. I expand that discussion into talking about how I am going to start giving speeches about 'intentional communities' (knowing full well that hippies from the early 1970's used that same term to describe their utopian dream-states). This is a very unpolished and raw edition of Two Beers With Steve. I wish that I had a more polished approach to talking about topics at length, but I simply don't have the training and I

After a few weeks away from podcasting I return with Gonzalo Lira for a random conversation where we cover many topics such as Silver, Osama, Homeland Security, Freedom, and Generational Breakdown. You may have already noticed but I disabled comments for my show because I was recieving between 30-40 spams daily. Since few people even used the feature ( I appreciate those that did, and I ready every comment) I felt the feature ended up being a big time waster for me (having to delete all those junky ads). If you want to contact me you can do it directly at twobeerswithsteve at hotmail.com. Enjoy the show as much as I did recording it. I love to engage in conversation like this anfrom time to time as a way to post a great show in very short time period.  

This week I speak with Darcy Menard, host of the podcast Stumbling Homestead. We center our discussion around Darcy's transition from a career minded professional to a sustainable farmer (in training). In our conversation we hit many of the high-points that many people wrestling with the transition often go through; talking with the spouse, relating with friends and peers, dealing with children, etc.. We also discuss home schooling, Excalibur dehydrators, and Berkey Water Purification Systems.

Chris Martenson returns to Two Beers With Steve to talk about his new book, The Crash Course. The new book provides a much needed update to his video series by the same name but also delves deeper into the subject matter and the book includes many more topics not discussed in the video.  Since Chris' website is the first website that I have ever have posted a comment on, I must admit that I am preferential to his audience and to his content. Be that as it may, I think in this interview I was able to steer Chris away from many of the talking points to which I know that he has grown accustomed to talking about. This diversion into topics such as his thoughts on the effect of the growth based paradigm have on our culture and his feelings towards complexity prove to be some of the best moments in the interview. Listen to the podcast, buy the book, pass it on to a friend who is just starting to question r'eality'.

Steve Crower and Erik Townsend come together in a two part episode that looks at the energy industry and how it will come when we have gone beyond Peak Oil.

This week I am joined once again by Gonzalo Lira to discuss his theory of the Lira Principle.

I am joined this week by Paul Wheaton. Paul Wheaton is the host of the largest permaculture website in the world, www.richsoil.com This episode is filled with useful tips from the permacultural front. During the podcast, Paul talked about his lawn care philosophies, permaculture and diatomaceous earth. He gives a quick overview of his articles on ants and aphids, Sepp Holzer, hugelkultur and flea control In addition to the helpful info you will acquire by listening to this podcast, listeners may also be thrilled by the amount of chops-busting and hard-times that Paul and I gave each other. I don't know how that happened, it just seemed natural for both of us to take playful jabs at one another. We actually got along famously... I think. Like most of my guests, Paul is a guest I will have to have back on in the future. I was fascinated by the seminars he hosts that highlight how a permaculturist can make $200,000 by working the land and his/her livestock properly. Amen to that!

Low and behold I run in with one of the worlds most powerful and feared men... and I just wanted to pick him up and squeeze him like a child's teddy bear. He certainly has a media persona that does not match the man himself. In this episode, which is more of a back-and-forth dialogue between Gonzalo Lira and myself, we discuss my chance encounter with the f*ck#ng mayor of Chicago and meander into side topics that add color to the main discussion. To see the pics of Rahm, my wife, and me you can visit the Facebook fan page for Two Beers With Steve.