Last Born In The Wilderness

Author and former climate journalist Dahr Jamail returns to the podcast to discuss the 20th anniversary of the invasion and occupation of Iraq by United States-led coalition forces. Jamail began his journalistic career as an unembedded journalist documenting the war from the ground beginning in 2003, highlighting the countless war crimes committed by the occupying forces against the civilians of Iraq, superbly documented in his first book on the subject, 'Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq’ published in 2007 by Haymarket Books. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/dahr-jamail-6 // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Social critic and activist Alley Valkyrie returns to the podcast to discuss the recent wave of strikes and civil disrupt in France. As someone who has spent most of their life within the borders of the United States and a current resident of Rennes, France, Alley provides a well-rounded description of events that have led to one of the largest strikes and protests in recent memory in the nation. Anglophone media rarely provides accurate insight into the protests in French society. Regarding the nationwide labor strikes and confrontational protests in major French metropolitan areas over the past several weeks, US media in particular simplifies the demands of those participating in them, resorting to common stereotypes and tropes of the lazy French and the robust social welfare system that spoil them. The reforms neoliberal president Emmanuel Macron forces through the legislature that strip hard-earned gains of the citizens of France are minimized, whether subtly or overtly. Having lived in Rennes for the be

Clark from the Atlanta Community Press Collective joins me to discuss the Stop Cop City movement, also known as the Defend the Atlanta Forest (or Defend Weelaunee Forest) movement in Atlanta, Georgia. Clark is not a representative of the movement, but through his coverage, speaks clearly to the concerns raised by activists and forest occupiers of the construction of Atlanta Public Safety Training Center (Cop City). Clark is part of the Atlanta Community Press Collective (ACPC), an abolitionist, not-for-profit media collective. ACPC’s goal is to make the day-to-day workings of local government accessible to the public and to provide an independent voice in a local media landscape increasingly dominated by corporate interests. Episode Notes: - Read the transcript: https://lastborninthewilderness.substack.com/p/stop-cop-city-clark-atlanta-community - Learn more about the movement and how to support: https://defendtheatlantaforest.org

 - Follow and support the Atlanta Community Press Collective: https://atl

Writer John Halstead returns to the podcast to discuss his widely read article, 'Jumping the Gap: Where Green Transphobia Leads,' published at A Beautiful Resistance. John Halstead’s article uses the ideological trajectory of Paul Kingnorth, co-founder of the Dark Mountain Project and a fierce critic of “Big Green environmentalism,” to examine trans-exclusionary politics and rhetoric in certain leftist ecoactivist movements and spaces. John has remarked Kingsnorth was an “intellectual idol” of his, helping him form many of his own ideas about humanity’s severed relationship with the earth, with poignant ruminations on the roots of anthropogenic climate change, the dead end of techno-optimism, and industrial civilization’s inevitable collapse. But, as Halstead began to more closely examine Kingnorth’s writings since the onset of the pandemic in 2020, he, like many others who admired his perspective, was disturbed by his “benevolent green nationalism,” defense of the British monarchy, and openly derisive chara

Evolutionary epidemiologist and author Rob Wallace returns to the podcast to discuss his new collection, 'The Fault in Our SARS: COVID-19 in the Biden Era,' published through Monthly Review. This discussion is long, but certainly worth a listen. Entering year four of the pandemic, Rob Wallace has diligently, and extensively, written two books worth of essays on the various facets of the SARS-2 outbreak, many of which are examined in this interview. Rob skewers the Biden administration’s political, institutional, and rhetorical approach to the BSL-3 [Biosafety Level 3] pathogen’s burn through the population, picking apart the scientism, employed by both the political elite and their media lackeys to rationalize and normalize the mass death and disability of millions. Rob Wallace is an agroecologist, economic geographer and evolutionary epidemiologist at the Agroecology and Rural Economics Research Corps in St Paul. He is the author of 'Big Farms Make Big Flu'; 'Dead Epidemiologists: On the Origins of COVID-

Investigative journalist and author Justin Mikulka joins me to discuss the recent train derailment in East Palestine, bomb trains, and the devastating consequences the lack of regulation of the railroad industry is having on the environment and human communities across North America. Justin Mikulka is a research fellow at New Consensus working on investigating the best solutions and policies to facilitate the energy transition. Prior to joining New Consensus in October 2021, Justin reported for DeSmog, where he began in 2014. Justin has a degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Cornell University, and is the author of ‘Bomb Trains: How Industry Greed and Regulatory Failure Put the Public at Risk’ (2019). Episode Notes: - Learn more about and follow Justin’s work: https://justinmikulka.com / https://twitter.com/justinmikulka - Purchase a copy of ‘Bomb Trains’: https://a.co/d/ilbYKuu - The articles cited in the introduction are “‘This is absurd’: Train cars that derailed in Ohio were labeled non

Animist artist, practitioner, and facilitator Dare Carrasquillo (formerly Sohei) returns to the podcast to discuss death practice, collectivism as the politics of wholeness, trauma and the story of the self, and the proto-human matrifocal coalition and the ritual of no. Dare Carrasquillo’s work dances with the integration of animist/indigenous lifeways with liberatory anti-oppression principles and nondual somatics, which can be pithily summed up as Death Practice. They are based in Chinook Lands aka Portland, OR, USA. Episode Notes: - Subscribe to The Night Garden: https://thenightgarden.substack.com - Learn more about Animist Arts and support Dare and Larissa Kaul’s work: https://www.animistarts.art / https://www.patreon.com/animistarts - Music produced by Epik The Dawn: https://epikbeats.net WEBSITE: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness DONATE: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast / https://venmo.com/LastBornPodcast BOOK LIST: https://bo

Journalist Brian Mier, co-editor at Brasil Wire and correspondent for teleSUR English, returns to the podcast to discuss the recent chaos in Brazil, days after the inauguration of popular center-left President Lula da Silva. In previous interviews I've conducted with Brian Mier, I asked him to detail the complex circumstances in Brazil giving rise to far-right politician Jair Bolsonaro and his victory in the 2018 presidential election. Mier's analysis detailed the well-documented consequences of the so-called anti-corruption scandal that led to the ousting of center-left president Dilma Rousseff in 2016, the imprisonment of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva soon after (as well as his eventual release), and finally, the US government's complicity through all of it.  When the time came late last year for Bolsonaro to run for a second term, Lula stepped in as a contender, and won. Leading up to the vote, Bolsonaro and various far-right actors, many of which are linked to Trump in the US, attempted to

Author and journalist Shane Burley returns to the podcast to discuss the anthology ‘No Pasaran: Antifascist Dispatches from a World in Crisis,’ published this fall through AK Press. Burley is the editor and a contributor to this collection. In catching up since our last interview, I ask Shane to clarify where the far-right stands in a "post-Trump" context. What inroads have far-right, and explicitly fascist, ideologues made in political discourse and policy in the United States over the past two years? How coherent is the far-right agenda and who are their targets? What are the paths to power? And most importantly, how can various subcultural spaces, as well as rural and urban communities, each build effective resistances to this threat? ‘No Pasaran,’ with its broad collection of voices, provides some of the most comprehensive answers to these questions. Shane Burley is the author of ‘Why We Fight’ and ‘Fascism Today.’ His work has been featured in places such as NBC News, Al Jazeera, The Baffler, Jewish Cu

Author Travis Linnemann joins me to discuss his recently released book 'The Horror of Police,' published by University of Minnesota Press. A good amount of ink has been spilt on the subject of policing — its historical origins; the oppressive and repressive role police play in the day-to-day lives of various marginalized communities; how “copaganda” shapes our collective perceptions of police and police work; and the numerous radical, reformist, and reactionary movements that have risen up against, or in defense of, police across the United States and the world. While Travis Linnemann examines these various subjects and perspectives in 'The Horror of Police,' he does so by delving into the ontological framework police operate within in by “drawing on the language and texts of horror fiction,” philosophy, and police procedurals in film and television. The abject stark horror police invoke, particularly when one recognizes that they are not the “monster fighters” they claim to be, but in fact monsters themsel

Award-winning journalist Boyce Upholt joins me to discuss his article 'Will the Next Pandemic Start With Chickens?' published at The New Republic. Boyce begins his report, as well as this interview, by describing the troubling conditions in chicken facilities in Butler Country, Nebraska, and, by extension, across the industrialized world. This past spring, a highly deadly and contagious strain of avian influenza swept through bird and other animal populations. Considering the conditions described in his piece, there is a very real possibility of a spillover event occurring in the near future, leading to an influenza pandemic in the human population. Broadly, this discussion, while examining the real threat highly consolidated industrialized food production is having on human and more-than-human beings, explores the so-called First World's relationship with food, food production, and the ecologies we are inextricably tied to. Boyce Upholt is an award-winning freelance writer focused on the way we use and im

[Intro: 8:06 | Outro: 1:04:00] Indigenous archeologist Dr. Paulette Steeves (Cree-Métis) joins me to discuss 'The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere' (University of Nebraska Press), “a reclaimed history of the deep past of Indigenous people in North and South America during the Paleolithic." There are myths we are told growing up — be it via schooling, popular media, or elsewhere — that people have lived in the Western Hemisphere for only 10-12,000 years, at most. This is the Clovis First theory. In archeology in particular, this framework, that the peopling of the North and South American continents could only have occurred that recently, is treated as dogma. In comparison to the astounding discoveries made by archeologists on other continents — pushing back human and protohominid migration, settlement, and cultural development hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years into the past — why is it that this story has persisted in this field for so long? This is especially troubling when o

Independent political analyst and CounterPunch Radio host Eric Draitser returns to the podcast to provide an update on the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. The last we spoke about this subject was March 2nd, seven days into the invasion. Eight months into this war, I ask Eric: Where do the Russians and Ukrainians stand in this blatant war of aggression by Putin? Who stands to gain from prolonging this conflict? What are Russia and NATO's endgame? For all the calls for an end to the conflict through negotiation, what, in fact, could or would that even look like? As the war drags on, we look on in horror as this neocolonialist, revanchist invasion grinds more human bodies on the fields of battle. Russia, to meet the imperialist vision laid out before the world, conscript thousands of men to continue the war. Many more flee the country to escape such a dire fate. While Ukraine is reduced to rubble, Russian society is flung into numerous, cascading crises — both material and existential in scope. Geopolitica

Death Panel co-host and disability justice advocate Beatrice Adler-Bolton returns to the podcast to discuss their new book 'Health Communism: A Surplus Manifesto,' co-authored with Artie Vierkant and published through Verso Books. 'Health Communism' “offers an overview of life and death under capitalism and argues for a new global left politics aimed at severing the ties between capital and one of its primary tools: health.” Throughout this 90 minute interview, Beatrice and I build on our last discussion in March (during which we discussed the “sociological production of the end of the pandemic”), incorporating concepts outlined in 'Health Communism.' Key among those are defining the “surplus” class or population(s), in which, under the economic valuation of life under capitalism, whole populations are relegated to a regime of “extractive abandonment” — “the process by which these populations are made profitable to capital”, and a “means by which the state constructs “health” culturally, politically, and ins

Dr. Mohamed Abdou joins me to discuss 'Islam and Anarchism: Relationships and Resonances,' published this year by Pluto Press. What are the relationships and resonances between anarchism and Islam? Anarchism, through its Western manifestation, claims "no gods, no masters" as fundamental to anti-authoritarianism, both in theory and practice. Through that lens, what "relationships and resonances" then exist between anarchism and a religious and spiritual system such as Islam? And, ultimately, what can self-identified anarchists in predominately non-Muslim majority Western nations, and practitioners of Islam the world-over, learn from one another? Piercing through Orientalist, Islamophobic stereotypes of the "Muslim" in the Western imaginary, even in spaces that claim to be opposed to such shallow, two-dimensional characterizations, is crucial in forging solidarities against the common enemies of liberation and social justice: heteropatriarchy, authoritarianism, fascism, capitalism, colonialism. In reading 'Is

Anarchist writer and activist Peter Gelderloos returns to the podcast to discuss ecological revolution from below, beautifully documented in his book 'The Solutions are Already Here: Strategies for Ecological Revolution from Below,' published this year by Pluto Press. Nothing short of revolution is required to address the global ecological crisis. The technocratic solutions presented to us by various capitalist nation-states are less than sufficient in mitigating the most dire consequences of biospheric collapse and runaway climate change. In fact, more than just merely insufficient, these top-down so-called “solutions” reimpose the dominant socioeconomic and political order producing the crisis to begin with. As Gelderloos describes and points to 'The Solutions are Already Here,' numerous land-based movements around the world are rising to the occasion — actively protecting territories from extractive capitalist enterprises, reclaiming what has been taken and exploited for industry, and building resilient a

Dr. Aby Sène joins me to discuss fortress conservationism and the 30x30 plan, a proposal by Western conservation agencies and their corporate and state allies "to double the coverage of protected areas around the world by setting aside 30 percent of terrestrial cover for conservation by 2030." On the surface, the 30x30 proposal (the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework) to protect biodiversity and wildlife seems like a promising step in halting deforestation, unfettered resource extraction, and poaching of endangered wildlife across Africa, but as Dr. Sène eloquently describes in her work, this plan is but a continuation of the colonialist dynamics that have existed between the Global North and the Global South for centuries. These conservation efforts, aptly termed "fortress conservation,” is in reality part of a “colossal land grab," displacing indigenous communities from their lands and depriving them of traditional sources of sustenance and place-based cultural practices. There are many threads to fo

Michael Truscello joins me to discuss his book 'Infrastructural Brutalism: Art and the Necropolitics of Infrastructure,' in which he “looks at the industrial infrastructure not as an invisible system of connectivity and mobility that keeps capitalism humming in the background but as a manufactured miasma of despair, toxicity, and death. Truscello terms this “infrastructural brutalism”—a formulation that not only alludes to the historical nexus of infrastructure and the concrete aesthetic of Brutalist architecture but also describes the ecological, political, and psychological brutality of industrial infrastructures.” What is infrastructure? How does it shape our lives, direct our movements, and inform our worldviews? And, furthermore, what is the nature of the systems that produce the kinds of infrastructure we live our lives within and through? As Michael Truscello identifies in his book 'Infrastructural Brutalism,' there is a brutal logic that underlies the infrastructure projects of the 20th and 21st cent

Artist, writer, and death worker Rachael Rice joins me to discuss death practice, entitlement, and honesty in our time of collapse and extinction. This is an honest conversation, between friends. Both Rachael and I have very different lived experiences, but we align in several significant ways, especially when it comes to interpreting and navigating an extraordinarily messy time. The felt sense and scope of loss in the midst of the ongoing pandemic is shared between us. We bear witness to the wide-spread denial and full-faced First World entitlement — the “return to normal” and “I’ve-got-mine-ism” of it all, from top to bottom. It is a lot to bear. And yet, we acknowledge the time we are living through may be remembered as the good ol’ days in the years and decades to come. It should be remembered, or learned, that pandemics are ecological. So are the droughts, heatwaves, wildfires, and floods that are so common at this time. The pace of change is dizzying, and not letting up. How does an industrialized soc

Michael Laufer of the Four Thieves Vinegar Collective returns to the podcast to reiterate the aims of the group, and update us on the collective's recent and soon to be launched projects.  As a founding member of this project, Dr. Laufer's objective has been to communicate the philosophical and material objectives of the organization, which has been described as "an anarchist biohacking group." Since its founding in 2015, the collective has worked to provide the information needed to produce DIY pharmaceutical drugs safely and equitably, particularly for a population, like those that live within the borders of the United States, that do not have easy and affordable access to them. This is especially relevant when we discuss, in this interview, the recent Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe and Casey, leaving a sizable portion of the US population without access to pregnancy terminating procedures and abortifacient drugs. Dr. Laufer and the collective's response to this has been to provide, in an open and