Last Born In The Wilderness

In this episode, I speak with Aimee Lewis-Reau and LaUra Schmidt, co-founders of the Good Grief Network, an organization that “cultivates individual resilience to metabolize collective grief.” // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/lewis-reau-schmidt // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

In this episode, I speak with Mirna Wabi-Sabi — writer and Co-Editor of Gods & Radicals Press. We discuss the recent presidential election in her home country of Brazil and her recent piece on the subject; voting and the farce of liberal democracy; the destruction of indigenous and quilombist peoples’ lands, culture, and heritage and the ecocide currently underway in the rainforests of Brazil; the ongoing efforts by leftist and indigenous groups to generate dialogue and united action in the face of rising far right populist organizing and violence. Mirna and I address her recent piece in Gods & Radicals ‘‘A Luta Continua’: The Struggle Continues,’ in which she addresses the recent presidential election in Brazil, resulting in the election of far right neofascist candidate Jair Bolsonaro (referred to as “J.B.” or “the dude” in this episode). As an anti-capitalist and an anarchist, Mirna elaborates on her views about voting as expressed in her piece: “People are so stressed that even anarchists are talking ab

I speak with John G. Turner, author and historian of American Religion. We discuss the origins and development of the uniquely American religion The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (or as it is more colloquially referred: the “Mormon Church”), explored in John’s book, Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet, a biography of the Church’s influential second president, and in his more recent book, The Mormon Jesus: A Biography, which covers the Church’s theological underpinnings and place within the tapestry of American Christianity.

In this discussion with award-winning environmental journalist Dahr Jamail, we begin by addressing the recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). I asked Dahr unpack the data and projections regarding anthropogenic climate change presented in the report, with Dahr noting that much of the data it presents excludes much of the more recent and varied data regarding the non-linear, exponential change inherent in abrupt climate disruption as a result of human industrial activity over the past several centuries. The direct implication inherent in the information Dahr presents in his work regarding the global climate crisis points to the very likely inability for the human species to adapt to the rapid change relating to abrupt climate disruption, in great part due to an inability to grow food at scale, wide-spread conflict and resource depletion, catastrophic weather change and dramatic sea-level rise inundating coastal cities, as well as other wide-spread changes relating to abrupt cl

I speak with Spencer Sunshine, researcher, journalist, activist, and political consultant regarding far-right movements. The last time I spoke with Spencer Sunshine was a year ago, soon after the Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville, North Carolina in August 2017, in which we discussed the fallout of that event. In this conversation, we catch up on the development of the far-right over the past year. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/spencer-sunshine-2 // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

I speak with Dr. Helen Caldicott, considered the "single most articulate and passionate advocate of citizen action to remedy the nuclear and environmental crises.” We discuss the fallout of the current situation regarding the nuclear meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in 2011, the myths and lies that surround nuclear power as a sustainable energy source, the danger posed by having nuclear power plants near coastlines and large bodies of water around the world, the current state of the nuclear power industry, as well as other subjects relating to nuclear power and the dangers it poses for life on Earth. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/helen-caldicott // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

In this episode, I speak with Joe Brewer -- complexity researcher, cognitive scientist, and evangelist for the field of culture design. We discuss the social, economic, and ecological collapse we are currently in the midst of as a result of the destructive impacts of human industrial activity and the cultural value systems that uphold these practices. We also discuss Joe's work in designing cultural evolution through "regenerative hubs" -- bioregional centers designed to implement the process of healing and mending humanity's relationship with the living planet and establish a right role within the planet's living systems on the local and global level. In this discussion, Joe lays out what it means to design culture — “to cultivate the capacities to intentionally guide social change using the best combinations of science, technology, organizational management, and artistic expression.”✧ Joe discusses the growing and well established base of knowledge and practices already in place to facilitate the developme

In this episode, I speak with Kate Harris, author of the captivating travel memoir, Lands of Lost Borders: A Journey on the Silk Road. We discuss living off-grid in Atlin, British Columbia, Kate’s complex relationship with Marco Polo and the famed and mythologized explorers from the “Old World,” and her life-expanding decision to traverse the famed Silk Road by bike with her childhood friend. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/kate-harris // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

I speak with anarchist and primitivist writer and philosopher John Zerzan. We discuss his in-depth analysis of the roots of Time as we understand it to be in the modern sense (explored in a collection of essays titled Time & Time Again), the roots of agriculture and the domestication of life, the detrimental impact this transition has had on human health and physical development, the neuroses of mass society (alienation, depression, anxiety, etc.), the wholesale disappearance of community, and the threat technological advancement poses for complex life on the planet. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/john-zerzan // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

In this episode, I speak with pagan writer and activist John Halstead on the themes presented in his excellent and perceptive two-part essay published by Gods&Radicals, entitled ‘“What If It’s Already Too Late?”: Being an Activist in the Anthropocene’ and ‘“Die Early and Often”: Being Attis in the Anthropocene.' In this discussion, John expounds on his experience of coming to terms with the stark truth of our present predicament regarding global climate change, as was presented in his first essay when he asks the question “What if it’s already too late?” We discuss the journey individuals must make when this question appears in their lives, and the various ways we can interpret and process the likely answer to this question. In John’s second essay ‘“Die Early and Often”: Being Attis in the Anthropocene,’ John presents a pagan perspective to the subject of the human-caused ecological crisis unfolding presently, and guides the reader into a mythological understanding of humanity’s role within the grand cycle o

I speak with psychedelic scholar, editor, publisher, and researcher Robert Forte. For over three decades, Robert has collaborated with some of the most influential and well-known figures within the psychedelic movement, including R. Gordon Wasson, Timothy Leary, Stanislav Grof, and Alexander Shulgin, to name a few. James Fadiman, psychedelic researcher and writer, has described Robert as “a major but not well-known hero of the psychedelic movement.” In this discussion, we discuss Robert’s skeptical, but well-grounded, concerns regarding the “psychedelic renaissance” currently underway, in particular as we begin to see a resurgence of public interest (including more positive coverage in the corporate press) of MDMA and other psychedelic compounds, as well as the ongoing legalization (or as Robert states it: the commodification) of cannabis throughout the United States in recent years. Robert is fundamentally concerned with the various forces that aim to control the ways psychedelics and cannabis are perceived

In this episode, I speak with Ian Campbell, community-oriented educator and co-founder of North Texas Progressive Schools (NTxPS). We discuss the fundamental principles of self-directed learning and progressive schooling, the necessity of play in childhood development, and the value of instilling democratic values and collective decision-making through education. We also discuss the potent example of collective decision-making through Ian's research into the radical social revolution in Rojava, a Kurdish-held territory in northern Syria. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/ian-campbell // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

I speak with ecologist and evolutionary biologist Chris Thomas, author of Inheritors of the Earth: How Nature Is Thriving in an Age of Extinction. In this discussion, Chris lays out his understanding of whether we have truly entered into the “Sixth Mass Extinction Event,” and provides his views on whether the current rate of species extinction on this planet lives up to that dire description. Chris also discusses the difficult challenges ecologists and conservationists are currently facing in the effort to preserve species in a radically changing world, and lays out the choices that lay before us when it comes to the difficult task of conserving biodiversity and preventing species loss in the face of anthropogenic climate change and other human-caused crises. We also discuss his view of whether abrupt changes in the global climate system will lead to severe loss of life on this planet, in particular human life, or whether many of the fears regarding this subject are overblown, but rooted in legitimate unders

My guest for this episode is Ben Etherington, author of Literary Primitivism and the long-form essay The New Primitives, published in the Los Angeles Review of Books, the themes of which we discuss in this episode. Ben lays out a nuanced examination of Primitivism — a “mode of aesthetic idealization that either emulates or aspires to recreate ‘primitive’ experience.” // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/ben-etherington // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

I speak with writer Tad Hargrave about his work exploring, unpacking, and addressing the concept and social reality of “whiteness”—more broadly the roots, or lack thereof, of “white culture” as we understand it to be today. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/tad-hargrave // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

I speak with Jeremy Lent, integrator, author of The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity’s Search for Meaning, and the founder of the nonprofit Liology Institute. In this conversation, we start off discussing Jeremy’s excellent critique of cognitive psychologist, linguist, and popular science author Steven Pinker’s recent book, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress. Jeremy initially presented his brilliant critique in his widely shared article, Steven Pinker’s Ideas About Progress Are Fatally Flawed. These Eight Graphs Show Why, which we delve into in this episode. Jeremy unpacks the underlying assumptions implicit in Pinker’s ideas presented in his work, in particular regarding Pinker’s defense (through cherry-picking of data) of the capitalist neoliberal economic order, and more broadly of the “progress narrative” that justifies (or outright ignores) the widespread ecological devastation implicit in the expansion and maintenance of industrial civilization and

In this episode, I speak with Dr. Joe Tafur—Family Physician, Shipibo-trained Shaman, Integrative Medicine activist, and the author of The Fellowship of the River: A Medical Doctor's Exploration into Traditional Amazonian Plant Medicine. We discuss Dr. Tafur’s years of work integrating Western medical knowledge and practice with traditional Amazonian plant medicine, in particular the administering of the psychedelic brew ayahuasca, and other plant medicines, under the traditional practice of Shipibo shamanism. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/joe-tafur // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

I speak with writer, documentarian, and lecturer Douglas Rushkoff. Douglas has authored numerous best-selling books, including Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus: How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity, Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now, Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age, and the yet-to-be released Team Human. Douglas’s lifetime of work has focused primarily on human autonomy in the digital age. We start this episode by discussing Douglas’s widely shared article, published on Medium and picked up by CNBC, Survival of the Richest: The wealthy are plotting to leave us behind. In the article, Douglas describes a situation in which he was invited to a private meeting with several ultra-wealthy men to go over their questions regarding technological trends in cryptocurrency, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence, as well as their deep-seated concerns regarding “The Event”—a reference to the portending threat of abrupt climate change, nuclear war, social unrest, and econom

In this episode, I speak with Lise Eliot, Professor of Neuroscience at The Chicago Medical School of Rosalind Franklin University, and the author of Pink Brain, Blue Brain: How Small Differences Grow into Troublesome Gaps and What We Can Do About It. In this interview, I tried to get to the root of what informs gender identity and its relationship to our biology, specifically regarding human neurology and brain development. The questions we explore in this episode include: What significant neurological differences exist between a “male” and “female” brain, especially at the time of birth? If differences exist, what role do these differences play in the development of individual traits—traits that may be categorized culturally as either “female” or “male” in nature? How much is the development of an individual's gender identity associated with cultural, rather than biological, factors? Along with these subject, we also delve into questions regarding transgender and childhood gender identity. Dr. Eliot's rese

I speak with Steven Cohen, former executive director of Columbia University's Earth Institute and professor in the practice of public affairs at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs, and the author of The Sustainable City. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/steven-cohen // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast