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Crazy Town

Post Carbon Institute

146 episodes

1 day ago

As Trump’s tariffs kick in, the Republican party is suddenly spouting anti-consumerist rhetoric that would make the Lorax smile. Should we cheer on this accidental experiment in economic shrinkage, or will this ham-fisted set of trade policies cause a backlash against the proponents of degrowth? As political confusion reigns, we offer eco-localism as the no-regrets way to build community resilience in the face of unprecedented ineptitude that probably won’t go away anytime soon. Originally re...

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Natural Sciences,

All content for Crazy Town is the property of Post Carbon Institute and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.

As Trump’s tariffs kick in, the Republican party is suddenly spouting anti-consumerist rhetoric that would make the Lorax smile. Should we cheer on this accidental experiment in economic shrinkage, or will this ham-fisted set of trade policies cause a backlash against the proponents of degrowth? As political confusion reigns, we offer eco-localism as the no-regrets way to build community resilience in the face of unprecedented ineptitude that probably won’t go away anytime soon. Originally re...

Show more...

Natural Sciences,

Episodes (20/146)

Crazy Town

Will Trump's Tariffs Fuel or Foil the Degrowth Movement?

As Trump’s tariffs kick in, the Republican party is suddenly spouting anti-consumerist rhetoric that would make the Lorax smile. Should we cheer on this accidental experiment in economic shrinkage, or will this ham-fisted set of trade policies cause a backlash against the proponents of degrowth? As political confusion reigns, we offer eco-localism as the no-regrets way to build community resilience in the face of unprecedented ineptitude that probably won’t go away anytime soon. Originally re...

1 week ago

47 minutes

Crazy Town

Blinded by the Light - Facing Reality with Renewable Energy

Solar panels and other modern energy technologies can be really useful, but the belief that we can technologize our way to a bigger and better society powered by clean energy is tragically flawed. Asher, Rob, and Jason dig into the up-and-down story of the Ivanpah concentrated solar power plant, review the Harry Potteresque thinking behind complex, centralized power plants, and expose the truth of the energy transition. After they finish making fun of concentrated solar/golf course/outlet mal...

3 weeks ago

56 minutes

Crazy Town

Who Can Fix the Housing Crisis - NYT Pundits, German Shepherds, or Bilbo Baggins?

Jason, Rob, and Asher are taking out a huge, unaffordable mortgage on the housing crisis. What’s behind the shortage in housing? Why is it that no one, except canine Tik Tok influencers with billion-dollar bank accounts, can afford to own a home? While mainstream pundits press for an energy-blind buildout of desert sprawl and gleaming towers of glass and steel, we propose a surprising change of course inspired by little people with hairy feet. Originally recorded on 5/21/25. Warning: This pod...

1 month ago

51 minutes

Crazy Town

Bunkers, Bazookas, and Bespoke Moats: How to Be Safe in an Unsafe World

Send us a text The world has gone bunking mad. The bespoke security industry is burying bunkers stocked with arsenals of automatic rifles and surrounded by flaming moats. Is there a better way to prepare for the polycrisis, the zombie apocalypse, or whatever hard times are on the horizon? Jason, Rob, and Asher have some fun at the expense of the bunker builders before examining the positive aspects of peasanthood and stressing the need to build community. Originally recorded on 5/5/25. Warnin...

1 month ago

42 minutes

Crazy Town

It Was Never Your Democracy Anyway: Thomas Linzey on Rethinking the Constitution

Send us a text Democracy and environmental protection have two things in common: (1) they’re both supposed to be enshrined in the laws of the United States and (2) they’re both under severe attack right now. Asher speaks with Thomas Linzey of the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights to uncover how the source code of the U.S. Constitution and the body of environmental laws that follow it are actually designed to allow corporations to override the will of the people. After pinpointing...

2 months ago

51 minutes

Crazy Town

Going #2: The Dueling Rules of Nature That Every Good Earthling Needs to Know

Send us a text Happy Earth Day! There are two concepts that every person should understand to be a better Earthling: entropy and self-organization. It seems like a paradox, but systems on Earth are simultaneously breaking down into disorder and arranging themselves into complex superorganisms. Everything on Earth (well, really in the whole universe) is subject to the second law of thermodynamics, which means it all dies and decays. But with access to steady flows of energy, organisms, ecosyst...

2 months ago

50 minutes

Crazy Town

Even AI Chatbots Hate Us: The Rise of the New Luddites, with Brian Merchant

Send us a text Who knew that the breakthrough moment of AI sentience would come from interacting with an annoying neo-Luddite? After failing to raise a single dollar for PCI’s newest initiative — the $350 billion Transdisciplinary Institute for Phalse Prophet Studies and Education (TIPPSE) — Jason, Rob, and Asher devise the only profitable pitch for raising capital: using AI technology to cure the loneliness that technology itself causes. The only problem is that AI chatbots won’t talk ...

3 months ago

1 hour 9 minutes

Crazy Town

A Temporary Techno Stunt: Tom Murphy on Falling out of Love with Modernity

Send us a text Recovering technology booster Tom Murphy visits Crazy Town to discuss his journey from shooting lasers at the moon, to trying to "solve" the energy predicament, to falling out of love with modernity itself. Asher, Jason, Rob, and Tom discuss the roots and short-lived nature of modernity, which has not only shaped the world we inhabit but conquered our very imaginations. They reminisce about aspects of hi-tech society that have already fallen away in its hubristic march towards ...

3 months ago

54 minutes

Crazy Town

Eating the Future: The NY Times Goes Full Ecomodernist on Food and Farming

Send us a text How will we feed people living in the megacities of the 21st century, especially while confronting climate chaos and the depletion of fossil fuels and fossil water? According to the mainstream media: ecomodernism! Massive deployment of technology on factory farms and an extreme ramp-up of industrialization will save the day – right? RIGHT?!? If you read the New York Times, you might think that supermarket shelves will forever overflow with 3D-printed fish sticks, mylar bags ful...

4 months ago

47 minutes

Crazy Town

Bargaining With Collapse: A Superabundance of Lab Grown Meat and Dryer Balls

Send us a text Do you contemplate topics like climate change, biodiversity loss, and the risk of civilizational collapse? If so, then you probably understand something about bargaining – a psychological defense mechanism that’s one of the five stages of grief. With just a wee bit of embarrassment, Asher, Jason, and Rob reveal damning episodes of bargaining from their personal histories (involving green consumerism and cult-like devotion to technology). Having admitted their sins, they discuss...

5 months ago

37 minutes

Crazy Town

The House Is Quite Literally on Fire: Peter Kalmus on the Climate Emergency Hitting Home

Send us a text Peter Kalmus, climate scientist and returning friend of Crazy Town, used to live in Altadena, California, where one of the disastrous Los Angeles wildfires struck on January 7th. Having learned that his former house had burned, Peter penned an emotional article for the New York Times about his family's decision to leave LA two years prior, out of safety concerns about frequent heat waves, drought, and just the sort of tragic conflagration that has reduced parts of LA to ashes. ...

5 months ago

53 minutes

Crazy Town

The Frequent Flyer Tree: Losing the Last Bit of Sense in the Climate Emergency

Send us a textIn the world of college sports, money talks and the volleyball team walks, er, flies 33,000 miles to play games. The NCAA, like almost everyone else, is playing games with Mother Nature. What do we expect student-athletes to gain from ignoring the climate emergency (not to mention putting their health at risk)? Who cares, as long as we can wring a few more dollars out of the TV deals -- am I right?!? Jason, Rob, and Asher propose a new plan for college sports and for taking the ...

6 months ago

30 minutes

Crazy Town

Shotgunning Hedwig: The Dilemma of Invasives and the Bizarre Decision to Slaughter Barred Owls

Send us a textThe US Fish and Wildlife Service decided to "manage" barred owls by shooting half a million of them over the next three decades. Jason, Rob, and Asher (along with the postal workers at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry) are upset about this plan for addressing the predicament of invasive species. Surely there's a finer tool than a double-barreled shotgun for conserving ecosystems and protecting the species that inhabit them.Warning: This podcast occasionally uses sp...

6 months ago

33 minutes

Crazy Town

Breaking News: Crazy Town Joins the Newly Formed Department of Entropy

Send us a textRob, Jason, and Asher talk about joining the new Trump Administration, at least until Elon Musk eradicates it. They explore the implications of Trump 2.0 through three reality-bending lenses – shifting baselines, entropy, and the upside of down – and three ways of responding: resistance, resilience, and regeneration. They decided they couldn’t stomach a fourth R – respect.We’ve added something new to this and future episodes: VIDEO! If you’d like to feel even more like you’re in...

7 months ago

45 minutes

Crazy Town

Bonus: Human Nature Odyssey

Send us a textSometimes you just wanna hear from someone else. In this bonus episode, Alex Leff enters Crazy Town to introduce his podcast, Human Nature Odyssey. Before playing the first episode of the podcast, Jason, Rob, and Asher find lots of laughs with Alex as they contemplate environmental destruction, gorilla suits, the fate of civilization, tandem bike rides, imaginary games, and how to make a podcast. If you need a little more encouragement to check out Human Nature Odyssey, our frie...

11 months ago

40 minutes

Crazy Town

Escaping Escapism: What a Bizarre Rodent Ritual Can Teach Us About Navigating a World We Can't Really Escape

Send us a textAfter a full season of trying to escape more than a dozen evil -isms (fun things like capitalism, industrialism, extremism, and otherism), Rob, Jason, and Asher come to one conclusion: there is no true escape -- at least not for those of us who want to help their communities collapse and re-emerge gracefully. Join the boys as they explore what the cult classic Groundhog Day has to teach us about navigating the endlessly insane world of modernity and reflect on key lessons and ac...

1 year ago

1 hour 6 minutes

Crazy Town

Escaping Otherism: Why Dr. Seuss Could Never Find a Rhyme for Genocide

Send us a textThe drive to belong to an in-group and the tendency to observe differences in others are core parts of the human condition. But differentiating can (and often does) turn deadly when it morphs into othering. Jason, Rob, and Asher try not to other one another as they explore the roots and consequences of othering, and the ins and outs of belonging as a key organizing principle of society.Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.Sources/Links/Notes:Wes Tank rapping&nb...

1 year ago

1 hour 18 minutes

Crazy Town

Escaping Extremism: Slap Fighting Our Way to a More Civil Society

Send us a textThe forces of media, technology, and even the wiring of our own brains seem aligned to draw people toward extremism. But never fear: Asher, Jason, and Rob unpack why we're so susceptible to wackadoodle viewpoints and offer ways to tamp down extremist thinking and behavior in ourselves, our communities, and across society. Along the way, they tour the worlds of extreme sports, extreme politics, and extreme yogurt. They even question their own decidedly non-mainstream views on the...

1 year ago

1 hour 6 minutes

Crazy Town

Escaping Humanocentrism: Why a Slime Mold Will Be President in 2028

Send us a textThe myth of human dominion and exceptionalism is as old as the Bible and as unquestioned as gravity, at least in "modern" society. Rob, Asher, and Jason explore the ways that humanocentrism has come to dominate the planet and our minds, while pointing to ancient and newly emerging ways that the more-than-human world is respected and protected, even the dung beetle.Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.Sources/Links/Notes:Eileen Crist defines (and critiques) anth...

1 year ago

1 hour 10 minutes

Crazy Town

Escaping Individualism: Why Rickey Don't Like It When Rickey Feels Lonely

Send us a textThe epidemic of loneliness isn't just a product of technology or even capitalism -- it has its roots in the same fertile ground as the founding of the United States. And it may just be the most important "ism" of all to escape as we enter the Great Unraveling of social and environmental systems.Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.Sources/Links/Notes:Definition of individualism from the American Psychological AssociationArticle in Opumo magazine - "Super single...

1 year ago

1 hour 11 minutes