KunstlerCast - Conversations: Converging Catastrophes of the 21st Century

 JHK chats with Douglas Kelbaugh of the University of Michigan School of Architecture about Dubai, where JHK recently made a brief sojourn. Doug Kelbaugh was dean of the UMich architecture faculty for ten years. After that, he worked for two years for the Dubai-based Limitless Corporation, which did large scale development projects all over the world, including the Emirate of Dubai itself. Doug li...

Alice Friedemann insists she is not an academic, but publishes on a wide variety of contemporary scientific issues bearing on the fate of industrial civilization. She subscribes to a scenario that she calls the "fast crash." She worked for 25 years as a systems architect and engineer in the corporate world, or "Dilbert-Land" as she calls it, before dropping out to write full time. Her science and...

JHK’s conversation with KMO of the C-Realm Podcast. KMO, who goes by that tag for his public persona, is one of the best interviewers in the podcast world. I’ve been listening to him for years, and have been on his podcast more than once, so it’s a treat to have him on mine. KMO is moving beyond the particulars of the collapse of industrial civilization to questions of what’s next under the circum...

JHK yaks with independent energy analyst and author Chris Nelder about the fine points of making an energy transition (or not) from the current economy into whatever the next one is. Chris is more sanguine about the alt energy future than JHK is, but we have a respectful and lively discussion of the issue from two sides. Chris Nelder is the author of "Profit From the Peak" and "Investing in Renewa...

JHK and Charles Hugh Smith, author and blogger at OfTwoMinds.com, yak about the Deep State, our favorite new word for what used be be known as the Establishment. We also touch on Charles's theory that the Deep State will be willing to "throw Wall Street under the bus" to save itself, if it felt threatened. This is JHK's return to the podcast after several months off finishing the third instalklmen...

    #249 -- JHK chats with Steve Ludlum of the Economic-Undertow.com blog about the contemporary economy as a waste engine. We venture into dark and distant corners of the economic story, including population overshoot, the potential for social disorder, and the role of gold and silver as currencies. The KunstlerCast music is “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali...

It's harvest time. The frost is on the pumpkin. JHK visits the Farmers Market in Cambridge, NY, and chats with the farmers (and sundry other interesting people) about the ag scene in Washington County and the fate of small town America. By the way, the magnificent old Cambridge Hotel right next to the Farmer's Market is for sale, if any listeners want to run a place of lodging in a lovely corner o...

#247 -- Celebrating the 20thth anniversary of the publication of The Geography of Nowhere (and release for the first time of an E-book edition), JHK yaks with New Urbanist Andres Duany about the campaign to create more walkable communities and places worth caring about. Duany came to the USA as a child from Cuba in the late 1950s. He got his architecture degrees from Princeton and Yale. He formed...

JHK interviews Eric Zency, author of The Other Road to Serfdom and the Path to Sustainable Development. He is deeply knowledgable about the issues that the KunstlerCast is concerned with: the problems of an 'infinite growth' economy, the relationship between energy and money, and the fate of the planet. Eric teaches at the University of Vermont and Washington University in St. Louis. The KunstlerC...

JHK chats with tugboat fleet owner Rob Goldman about the revival and future of shipping on America's inland waterways. Rob's company, NYS Marine Highway runs tugboats that push cargo barges through the Erie Canal system and the Great Lakes, as well as along the Atlantic Coast. Rob graduated from Rensslaer Polytechnic as an Architect, got into the pleasure boat marina business, and eventually start...

JHK interviews Michael Klare, author or The Race For What's Left: The Global Scramble for the World's Last Resources . Michael is also the author of Resource Wars , and Blood and Oil . He runs the Department of Peace and Security Studies at Hampshire College, a program that also serves the Five Colleges organization which includes, Smith, Mt Holyoke, U. Mass, and Amherst. The KunstlerCast music is...

#243 -- Summer Break Special -- JHK and his friend Richie drop in on the Washington County (NY) fair for an extravaganza of cows, oxen, weird fried food, scary rides, and chats with farmers, tractor collectors, teenagers, and other civilians.  The KunstlerCast music is “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

#242 --JHK talks with John Norquist, director of the Congress for the New Urbanism and four-term mayor of Milwaukee Wisconsin, about the state of the American city, the future of the Great Lakes Region, and the difficulty in overcoming decades of bad choices concerning how we inhabit the landscape of our country. The KunstlerCast music is “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the recording Waiting to Fly by...

#240 -- JHK yaks with Richard Heinberg about his new book, Snake Oil: How Fracking's False Promises of Plenty Imperils Our Future . Richard is also the author of the great peak oil primer, The Party's Over , and many other books about the converging dilemma's of our time, including Peak Everything and The End of Growth . He's a founder and senior fellow of the Post Carbon Institute. The KunstlerCa...

# 240 -- JHK interviews David Orr, the Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Science and Politics at Oberlin College, in Oberlin, Ohio. David is the author of Down to the Wire: Confronting Climate Collapse (Oxford Press, 2009) and many other books. He articulates the multiple predicaments of our time in clear, plain terms, and he runs the Oberlin Project, an exemplary effort for the...

#239-- JHK shoots the breeze with Charlie Hall, distinguished professor emeritus at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse, NY -- just retired last month and founder of the Association for Biophysical Economics. We yak about reality-based economics and the relationship of energy to money. The new KunstlerCast music is called “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the new recording...

# 238 -- JHK yaks solo this week following another surgical adventure -- neck bones this time -- with spotlight on the George Zimmerman verdict, the rumors of Larry Summers as next Federal Reserve Chair, $106 oil, Elliot Spitzer re-entering politics, and the questioning the dumb ideas of "urban issues" professor Ed Glaeser of Harvard. Back next week with a guest.   The new KunstlerCast music is ca...

JHK talks with Brian Czech, founder of The Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy and author of the new book Supply Shock: Economic Growth at the Crossroads and the Steady State Economy, published by the New Society Press.   The new KunstlerCast music is called “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the new recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

#236 -- JHK talks with Severine von Tscharner Fleming, 30, a next ten agricultural activist, founder of Greenhorns and the National Young Farmers' Coalition. She also works with the Farm Hack organization, the Family Farm Coalition and is editor of the New Farmers' Almanac published by Greenhorns. She's a very accomplished person with a lot to say about the alternative farming scene -- that is, al...

#235 -- JHK talks with Texas petroleum geologist Jeffrey Brown about the global oil export-import scene, the shale oil situation, and the public's misunderstanding of oil realities. Jeff originated the model for understanding the decline of global oil exports and what it means for us, the importers on the other side of that trade. And what it means is that our total oil supply in the USA is much m...

#234 -- JHK jaws with George Mobus, systems scientist from the University of Washington, Tacoma. George is a member of the Biophysical Economics group -- not you mother's economists, shall we say. I'm pretty much on-board with their reality-based discipline, however listeners will probably notice that George is a bit more doomerish than I am usually labeled as. What I like about the Biophysical Ec...

#233 -- JHK chats with Jim Quinn, author of The Burning Platform dot com. Jim Quinn spent most of his career as a financial executive in the corporate world and now works on the business side of a major university (name of it omitted at JQ's request). He's a keen observer of the financial scene and the way it expresses itself in the decay of everyday life.     The new KunstlerCast music is called...

New Urbanism Special. JHK chats with Andres Duany, a founding board member of the Congress for the New Urbanism about a new book (with a chapter by JHK) taking on the frauds and fakers at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and their so-called Landscape Urbanism program -- since they never tire of attacking the New Urbanists. Also on board is Emily Talen, co-editor of the new book and professor...

JHK in conversation with Tad Patzek, chair of the Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering Department at the University of Texas. I'm twanging on the oil subject because the level of wishful thinking in the USA is shockingly high and we would benefit from facing reality and preparing for new arrangements in the ordering of everyday life. The new KunstlerCast music is called “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from...

#230 -- JHK chats with Charles Hugh Smith of the blog Of Two Minds.com. Charles is also the author of many books, most lately "Why Things Are Falling Apart -- And What We Can Do About It."  Charles describes it: "…That things are falling apart--that is obvious. But why are they falling apart? The reasons are complex and global. Our economy and society have structural problems that cannot be solved...