Best Post Carbon Institute Podcasts (2023)

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Crazy Town

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Bonus: Going Wild with Rae Wynn-Grant 50:50

8d ago50:50

50:50

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…

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Crazy Town

1
Bonus: Bagdhad Bob Visits Climate Town 40:23

30d ago40:23

40:23

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 c…

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Crazy Town

1
Bonus: Choose Your Own Adventure in the Great Unraveling 51:37

2M ago51:37

51:37

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 occa…

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Crazy Town

1
The Surest Paths to a Hard Collapse: The Delusional Doctrines of the Phalse Prophethood (Season Wrap-up) 1:24:54

3M ago1:24:54

1:24:54

Asher, Rob, and Jason explore the lessons and dangers of the brotherhood of Phalse Prophets and consider better ways to achieve a sustainable and equitable society. Along the way, they examine how to start a cult, turn the insufferability index on themselves, respond to listener feedback, and repeatedly mispronounce amygdala. Please share this epis…

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Crazy Town

1
The Elon Musk Episode about Elon Musk Brought to You by Elon Musk 1:09:44

4M ago1:09:44

1:09:44

Meet Elon Musk, the Muskian mogul who Elon Musks his way to the pinnacle of Muskitude. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation. Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language. For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the definitive peer-reviewed taxonomic analysis from …

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Crazy Town

1
How to Fast-Track Collapse: Manipulating the Masses While Massaging Megalomaniacs 55:20

4M ago55:20

55:20

Meet Steve Bannon, the Molotov mixologist who wants to light the world on fire. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation. Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language. For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the definitive peer-reviewed taxonomic analysis from our ver…

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Crazy Town

1
How to Lose Friends and Demoralize People: The Science (sic!) of Near-Term Extinction 54:21

4M ago54:21

54:21

Meet Guy McPherson, the extinction enthusiast who undermines legitimate climate concerns by predicting we’re all going to die yesterday. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation. Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language. For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the…

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Crazy Town

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Prepping for the Apocalypse: Elites' Foolish Fantasies for Surviving a Collapse of Their Own Creation 1:00:52

4M ago1:00:52

1:00:52

Meet Barrett Moore, the bunker-building bullshit artist who helps capitalists survive the apocalypse with beans, bullets, and bravado. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation. Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language. For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the d…

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Crazy Town

1
Announcement: 2023 Crazy Town Hall 1:50

4M ago1:50

1:50

How would you like to hang out with Asher, Rob, and Jason (well, virtually anyway)? Your chance is coming up at the fourth annual Crazy Town Hall. The town hall is our most fun event of the year, where you can ask questions, play games, get insider information on the podcast, and share plenty of laughs. It’s a special online event for the most dedi…

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Crazy Town

1
How Longtermism Became the Most Dangerous Philosophy You’ve Never Heard of 1:03:25

5M ago1:03:25

1:03:25

Meet William MacAskill, the puerile professor who helps crypto capitalists justify sociopathy today for a universe of transhuman colonization tomorrow. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation. Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language. For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prop…

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Crazy Town

1
Sucking CO2 and Electrifying Everything: The Climate Movement's Desperate Dependence on Tenuous Technologies 1:22:33

5M ago1:22:33

1:22:33

Meet Mark Jacobson and David Keith, the leading techno-fixologists who overpromise overhyped “solutions” to the climate conundrum. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation. Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language. For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the defin…

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Crazy Town

1
How Ecomodernists Hijacked the Environmental Movement: Technotopian Bullshit and a Raging Case of God Complex. 1:02:03

5M ago1:02:03

1:02:03

Meet Stewart Brand and his band of merry dematerialists, the Silicon Valley salesmen who undermined environmentalism with planet-saving fantasies that reek of technofetishism. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation. Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language. For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of …

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Crazy Town

1
Kinder, Gentler Colonialism: Bungling Billionaires and Their Arrogant Adventures in "Saving the World" 1:06:15

5M ago1:06:15

1:06:15

Meet Bill Gates, the philandering philanthropist who attempts to remake the world's operating system in his own image. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation. Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language. For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the definitive peer-r…

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Crazy Town

1
Hot, Flat, and Totally Phucking Wrong: The Perilous Platitudes of a Pulitzer-Prize-Winning Propagandist 1:15:05

5M ago1:15:05

1:15:05

Meet Tom Friedman, the mustachioed metaphor maven who thinks we can have our cake and listen to it too. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation. Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language. For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the definitive peer-reviewed taxonom…

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Crazy Town

1
How Boomer Politicians Found a Third Way to Phuck Over the Working Class 1:10:25

6M ago1:10:25

1:10:25

Meet Bill Clinton, who converted the Democratic Party into slightly less loathsome neoliberals. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation. For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the definitive peer-reviewed taxonomic analysis from our very own Jason Bradford, PhD. Sources/Links…

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Crazy Town

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How to Become the Winningest Winner Who Wins: The Twisted Logic of the World’s Greatest CEO 1:02:58

6M ago1:02:58

1:02:58

Meet Jack Welch, celebrated wrecker of real jobs and leading light of Wall Street wankers. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation. For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the definitive peer-reviewed taxonomic analysis from our very own Jason Bradford, PhD. Sources/Links/Note…

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Crazy Town

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How to Have Sex with Yourself: The Bizarre Cult of the Singularity 1:06:51

6M ago1:06:51

1:06:51

Meet Ray Kurzweil, who combines Moore’s Law with nanobots in a faux recipe to cheat death. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation. For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the definitive peer-reviewed taxonomic analysis from our very own Jason Bradford, PhD. Sources/Links/Note…

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Crazy Town

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Why the Polycrisis Is a Statistical Anomaly: The Willful Delusions of the World’s Leading Pseudointellectual 54:34

6M ago54:34

54:34

Meet Steven Pinker whose denial of limits increases the likelihood of his worst fear: the end of the Enlightenment. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation. For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the definitive peer-reviewed taxonomic analysis from our very own Jason Bradford…

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Crazy Town

1
What the Phuck Is a Phalse Prophet? 30:40

7M ago30:40

30:40

Meet the unelected leaders of Crazy Town, who keep our collective heads in the sand while the planet burns. Please share this episode to your friends and start a conversation. For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the definitive peer-reviewed taxonomic analysis from our very own Jason Bradford, PhD. Sou…

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Crazy Town

1
Bonus: Drawing Insights with Stuart McMillen 41:24

7M ago41:24

41:24

Stuart McMillen is a systems thinker disguised as a cartoonist. His long-form comics condense important academic topics into understandable and entertaining works of art. Stuart tackles topics in the fields of ecology, economics, psychology, and sociology. With original drawings, thought-provoking narration, and expertly paced storytelling, he intr…

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Power: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival

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How to Navigate Power with Wisdom 21:08

8M ago21:08

21:08

First wisdom, then action. Richard Heinberg shares insights from his deep dive into the nature of power and power relationships. He addresses the three main "power tools": money, weapons, and communication technologies with humble and thoughtful advice on how to approach them. You’ll have the chance to contemplate how you might live your most authe…

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Crazy Town

1
Bonus: An Inconvenient Apocalypse with Bob Jensen 1:26:46

9M ago1:26:46

1:26:46

Bob Jensen has written a book with Wes Jackson titled An Inconvenient Apocalypse: Environmental Collapse, Climate Crisis, and the Fate of Humanity. With a title like that, Jason and Bob have lots of heavy ground to cover, including overshoot, the limits to growth, and the cascading environmental and social crises of our times. They conclude that th…

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Crazy Town

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Bonus: Human Rights and Multispecies Justice with Danielle Celermajer 48:54

10M ago48:54

48:54

Asher is joined in Crazy Town by Danielle Celermajer, author and professor at University of Sydney, for a far-ranging conversation about human rights and the more-than-human world. Dany shares how her personal relationship with the Shoah (Holocaust) set her on a path of human rights work and impacted her experience of the devastating Black Summer F…

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Crazy Town

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Bonus: A Climate Scientist Goes to Jail with Peter Kalmus 45:31

11M ago45:31

45:31

Climate scientist and activist Peter Kalmus returns to Crazy Town, but this time with a green badge of courage. Earlier this year, he locked himself to the entrance of the JP Morgan Chase building in downtown Los Angeles to protest their ongoing investment in the fossil fuel industry. As you would expect, he was arrested for his troubles. It was an…

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Power: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival

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Powered Down and Better Off 1:01:10

11M ago1:01:10

1:01:10

Learn how humanity can exercise collective self-restraint to navigate the social and environmental crises of the 21st century. The world is in overshoot. There are too many people consuming too much stuff, and we're facing climate change, biodiversity loss, and immense social inequality. We're currently on a pathway to collapse, but the future does…

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Crazy Town

1
Bonus: Tech Bros on Acid with Douglas Rushkoff 47:27

11M ago47:27

47:27

Douglas Rushkoff revisits Crazy Town, where he and Asher discuss why so many billionaires, academic institutions, and "serious" people are drawn to longtermism - the view that our top priority should be ensuring that humanity can spread its wings throughout the physical and virtual universe. What's the suffering of a few billion people in the here …

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Power: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival

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Optimal Power 54:25

11M ago54:25

54:25

Overpopulation, overconsumption, and overexploitation of Earth's resources go way beyond the realm of simple problems with straightforward solutions. Instead, they are dilemmas that require tradeoffs and difficult decisions. To guide such decisions, energy and sustainability expert Richard Heinberg explores big ideas such as the adaptive cycle, res…

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Power: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival

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Overpowered: The Days of Climate Chaos 55:05

11M ago55:05

55:05

As exploitation of fossil fuels powered exponential growth in population and consumption, humanity began running into problems. Serious problems. The existential kind, like the potential for runaway global warming and the onset of the sixth mass extinction. For many problems, a solution exists, but what happens when a selected solution actually gen…

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Power: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival

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Fossil Fuels Changed Everything 1:01:12

12M ago1:01:12

1:01:12

Over the 19th and 20th centuries physical power, social power, and economies grew explosively. The main cause was humanity’s exploitation of fossil fuels. Sources of oil, coal, and natural gas – a vast underground storehouse of ancient sunlight – provided an almost magical and seemingly unlimited supply of energy to grow more food, provision more p…

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Crazy Town

1
Bonus: Angry Birds and Hairbrained Humans with Mary Roach 47:41

12M ago47:41

47:41

In her latest book "Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law," Mary Roach approaches the topic of human-wildlife conflict with entertaining stories, scientific insight, and a healthy dose of wit and humor. There are plenty of animal stories in this episode, from marauding mountain lions to bothersome bears, from macaques who are jerks to gulls who are dick…

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Power: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival

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The Rise of Social Inequality 51:12

12M ago51:12

51:12

Richard Heinberg, renowned energy and sustainability expert, explores the development of social power – simply defined as the ability to get other people to do something. Whether through money, violence, writing, or other means, humans have devised interesting ways of exerting influence over one another. One major downside, with implications for th…

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Power: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival

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Fire, Tools, and Language 44:38

12M ago44:38

44:38

Join renowned energy and sustainability expert, Richard Heinberg, as he describes the flow of power in hunter-gatherer communities of the Pleistocene. As people learned to wield fire, deploy an array of tools, and coordinate actions through increasingly descriptive language, they became more capable of concentrating power. This development produced…

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Power: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival

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Power in Nature 51:19

1y ago51:19

51:19

To understand humanity's relationship with energy and power, and to get a handle on why we're experiencing a polycrisis of climate change, social inequality, and loss of biodiversity, you have to go back to the beginning – all the way back to the origins of life on Earth. Explore how power functions in nature, including predator/prey relationships,…

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Crazy Town

1
Announcement: Power Podcast with Richard Heinberg 2:41

1y ago2:41

2:41

Please check out our newest podcast, Power: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival featuring Richard Heinberg. How have humans become powerful enough to disrupt the world's climate, trigger the sixth mass extinction, and cause serious harm to the biosphere? And with all the abilities and technologies we've accrued, why do we so often oppress inste…

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Power: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival

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Introduction to Power 41:25

1y ago41:25

41:25

Climate change, biodiversity loss, resource depletion, poverty, and inequality are all symptoms of one overarching problem: the way we humans accumulate and use power. If we want to address this problem and reduce the chances of a chaotic collapse of society, we will have to confront our overuse and abuse of power. But first we'll need to define po…

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Power: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival

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Trailer for Power: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival 1:58

1y ago1:58

1:58

How have humans become powerful enough to disrupt the world's climate, trigger the sixth mass extinction, and cause serious harm to the biosphere? And with all the abilities and technologies we've accrued, why do we so often oppress instead of uplift one another? Join us as we explore the hidden driver behind the converging crises of the 21st centu…

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Crazy Town

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Bonus: Boys and Oil with Taylor Brorby 47:15

1y ago47:15

47:15

Taylor Brorby has written one hell of a memoir. It covers many critical topics that come up in Crazy Town, from fracking to civil disobedience to that most inept of policies: aiming for infinite economic growth on a finite planet. Taylor shares both thought-provoking ideas (e.g., the intimidating width of prairies versus the intimidating height of …

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Crazy Town

1
Bonus: The Stench of Neoliberalism with Noam Chomsky 44:28

1y ago44:28

44:28

As a follow-up to Episode 61 of the Crazy Town podcast, Noam Chomsky, the well-known linguist, author, and social critic, joins Asher Miller in Crazy Town to discuss the failures and dominance of neoliberalism -- which Chomsky describes as "class war" -- since delivery of the Powell Memo 50 years ago. Chomsky responds to George Monbiot's critique o…

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Crazy Town

1
Skyrocketing Population and Carbon Dioxide: Watershed Moments Wrap-up 1:03:36

1y ago1:03:36

1:03:36

The astute listener will recognize the trends in population and greenhouse gas emissions over the course of our chronologically arranged episodes on watershed moments in history. Describing these trends in one word: growth. In two words: massive growth! And in three words: What the WTF? In recapping the season and considering what we learned, we hi…

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Crazy Town

1
Buying and Dying: How Online Shopping Grew from a Small Weed Deal into a Global Environmental and Societal Disaster 59:51

1+ y ago59:51

59:51

Talk about cascading consequences: when a few nerds wanted to get high and orchestrated a small exchange of cannabis, they kicked off the age of ecommerce. Now that online shopping and the technology supporting it have ramped up commercialization and supercharged consumerism, we're facing existential crises. Exactly what nefarious internet innovati…

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Crazy Town

1
Greed over Need: Why Neoliberalism Sucks and How It Sabotages Community 1:13:58

1+ y ago1:13:58

1:13:58

Free trade, private property, and limited government – these policies might seem well-intentioned and even benign. But when a couple of colluding, power-tripping, wealthy blockheads packaged them into a political system that would become known as neoliberalism, it was like putting capitalist exploitation on steroids. Pollution and other environment…

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Crazy Town

1
Chillin' and Killin': How Air Conditioning Has Altered Human Behavior and the Environment 1:07:32

1+ y ago1:07:32

1:07:32

For such tame technology, air conditioning really packs a punch when it comes to enabling environmental obscenities, indefensible infrastructure, and shortsighted settlement patterns. In the story of how A/C came to underpin human overshoot, you couldn't make up a better bad guy. Perhaps the most Batmanesque villain we've encountered would make a g…

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Crazy Town

1
Throwing Superman through a Cigarette Truck: The Insidious Manipulation of Advertising 57:18

1+ y ago57:18

57:18

Are shameless product placements keeping you from enjoying your movie-viewing experience? Have you ever felt assaulted by pop-up ads and sidebars while trying to read something on the internet? These are some of the less insidious advertising techniques deployed to manipulate you into buying stuff you never knew you needed. Take a tour through the …

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Crazy Town

1
Highway to Hell: How Road Infrastructure Traps Us in an Unsustainable Nightmare 1:03:25

1+ y ago1:03:25

1:03:25

Don't you wish we could power daily life on road rage, frustration, and righteous indignation? If that were possible, the U.S. highway system would be the best investment of all time. As it stands, the unintended consequences (e.g., pollution, habitat fragmentation, discrimination, town wrecking, dependency on unsustainable infrastructure, and the …

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Crazy Town

1
Hippos in the Bayou: Human Hubris and the Ecological Mayhem of Introduced Species 52:45

1+ y ago52:45

52:45

What kind of thinking leads to the unleashing of exotic species on unsuspecting ecosystems? Hint: it's certainly not systems thinking or critical thinking – in fact, thinking may not be involved at all! Learn about three charter members of the Weirdo Hall of Fame who wanted you to eat tasty McHippo bacon burgers for breakfast. Influenced by the ill…

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Crazy Town

1
The Stopwatch of Doom: How the Cult of Productivity Torpedoes Sustainability and Equity 53:53

1+ y ago53:53

53:53

Welcome to the dehumanizing world of scientific management, where business gurus and middle managers view workers as resources, and where a cult-like devotion to productivity has invaded almost all facets of daily life. From fairy tales about strapping steel workers who put CrossFit champions to shame, to the plight of Amazon warehouse workers who …

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Crazy Town

1
It’s the End of the World’s Fair as We Know It: Why Technology Won’t Save Us 45:04

1+ y ago45:04

45:04

Back in the day, the World's Fair was a global showcase of innovation and a peerless cultural event where visitors envisioned a neon future filled with technological wonders. These international expos featured miracle inventions and opportunities to explore new ideas, but also on display were useless gizmos, silly stunts (who's ready for a game of …

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Crazy Town

1
Colonizing the Sky: The Untold Environmental Toll of Skyscrapers 1:02:57

1+ y ago1:02:57

1:02:57

Skyscrapers have sprouted like mushrooms in our urban landscapes. But in an environmentally depleted, energy-pinched era, we need to take a closer look at the downsides of movin' on up to the sky. We especially need to pay attention to embodied energy and all the features required to keep skyscrapers standing: uninterrupted supplies of electricity,…

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Crazy Town

1
The Bright Side Through Rose-Tinted Glasses: How Positive Thinking Undermines Sustainability 1:03:55

1+ y ago1:03:55

1:03:55

Welcome to the seductive, but regrettable world of unquestioned positive thinking, where faith healers, BS slingers, pseudoscientists, and get-rich-quick schemers all peddle the same basic message: think positively, and it’ll all work out. The problem: there’s no room for critical thinking and no call to do the hard work of finding real responses t…

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Crazy Town

1
Lord of the Swans: The Tragedy of the Enclosure of the Commons 52:42

1+ y ago52:42

52:42

The “tragedy of the commons” is an idea that has so thoroughly seeped into culture and law that it seems normal for people and corporations to own land, water, and even whole ecosystems. But there’s a BIG problem: the “tragedy” part of it has been debunked – it really should be the triumph of the commons. Learn the origin story of privatization and…

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