Last Born In The Wilderness

May we live in interesting times. The fertile grounds that bred a novel, deadly coronavirus and the misinformation that accompanied its spread is our subject. Over the last year-and-a-half since COVID spilled over, and more specifically, when our collective reaction to it began to reshape every aspect of our lives, I conducted numerous interviews to make sense of this thing. Disruptions in the ver...

Let's proceed to part two. From December 2019 to February 2020, I was in Brazil. Without full comprehension, I (we) stood on the edge of a pandemic. The global scope of the crisis had yet to be fully felt and realized. Before "normal" ended. Before lockdowns, mask burnings, social isolation, uprising—I was in Brazil, with its complexities, beauties, intensities, realities. My time there left its m...

Bear with me on this. I wanted to do something different, original, for this episode, this milestone of 300. As you will hear in my introduction, I will be releasing seven parts for this, covering numerous themes that I've explored over the past 100 episodes of Last Born In The Wilderness. This first part is quite substantial, in and of itself. Weaving together fifteen carefully selected interview...

Ian MacKenzie — visionary filmmaker, storyteller, and host of The Mythic Masculine podcast — returns to discuss manhood, mythology, and emerging masculinities in the wake of calamity.  This conversation runs deep. Ian and I attempt to navigate the complexities and shadows of men's work in our time of emerging inquiries and contemplation about gender identity and expression. We wholeheartedly ackno...

Acausal heathen poet and author Ramon Elani joins me to discuss his new book, Wyrd Against the Modern World, published through Night Forest Press. This audio interview is actually a reading of a written interview I conducted with him, originally published at the Gods&Radicals Press supporter-only blog Another World. // Episode notes + transcript: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/ra...

Liz Oliva Fernández, Cuban journalist and lead protagonist of The War on Cuba documentary series, joins me to discuss her work with Belly of the Beast Cuba, a Havana-based media project made up of Cubans and foreigners that highlights the daily lives and experiences of the Cuban people from the ground level. // Episode notes + transcript: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/liz-oliva-...

World-renowned environmental and reproductive epidemiologist Dr. Shanna Swan joins me to discuss her groundbreaking research identifying the causes and rate of rapid decline of fertility in the Western world, documented in her new book Count Down: How Our Modern World Is Threatening Sperm Counts, Altering Male and Female Reproductive Development, and Imperiling the Future of the Human Race. // Epi...

Anthropologist, experimental archaeologist, and historian Peter Michael Bauer joins me to discuss several major subjects of his work, including rewilding, collapse, and humanity's place within these frameworks. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/peter-michael-bauer // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me...

Roy Scranton, bestselling author of We're Doomed. Now What? and Learning to Die in the Anthropocene, joins me to discuss his recent op-ed in the New York Times, I’ve Said Goodbye to ‘Normal.’ You Should, Too. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/roy-scranton // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastborn...

Brian Mier, co-editor at Brasil Wire and correspondent at teleSUR English, returns to the podcast to detail some of the most prominent and pressing issues facing Brazil today, much of which was documented in the recently released Redfish documentary Dismantling Brazil: Bolsonaro's Neoliberal Agenda, which he co-produced. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/brian-mier...

Emma Kathryn, author of Reclaiming Ourselves from Gods&Radicals Press, joins me to discuss her writings exploring the practical steps we all can take to reclaim basic skill sets, such as foraging, cooking, folk medicine, and witchcraft. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/emma-kathryn // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: ht...

Kristen Ghodsee, professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, joins me to discuss her work and lived experience researching the collapse of the Soviet Union and state socialism in Eastern Europe, the immediate and long-term impacts this event had on those that previously lived under those regimes, and how the rapid privatization and the imposition of capitalism...

Richard Heinberg, Senior Fellow-in-Residence of the Post Carbon Institute, returns to the podcast to discuss the massive power outages several regions of the United States, in particular Texas, have experienced over several weeks in February, leaving millions of people without electric power and potable water. He explains the increasingly precarious situation we find ourselves in as fossil fuel en...

Stephen Jenkinson, author of Die Wise and Come of Age, returns to the podcast to discuss what he and musical collaborator Gregory Hoskins have been up to since their Nights of Grief and Mystery global tour was cancelled when coronavirus lockdowns began last year. Released in November, they put together two albums, DARK ROAD and ROUGH GODS. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/...

Political strategist and organizer Akin Olla joins me to discuss the history of the FBI’s assault on left-wing activists over the decades and the absolute necessity for organizers to have operational security in today’s political climate as Big Tech companies “depoliticize” their platforms in the wake of the Capitol siege last month. We address several of his recent articles published at The Guard...

David Nickles—Managing Editor of Psymposia, underground researcher, and harm reduction advocate—joins me to discuss the ongoing commodification, medicalization, and corporatization of psychedelics and the intersections between the far right, conspirituality, and psychedelia. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/david-nickles // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.c...

Award-winning writer, poet, and scholar Frank B. Wilderson III joins me to discuss his book ‘Afropessimism,’ a "seminal work on the philosophy of Blackness" that, through a combination of profound personal reflection and meta-critical theory, peers deeply into the heart of the Black experience in the world today. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/frank-wilderson //...

Professor Alex Vitale, sociologist and author of The End of Policing, joins me to discuss the Capitol siege on January 6th, the role the Capitol police played in the event, and the deeply political reasons the police were under-resourced, under-staffed, and completely overwhelmed in the face of the mob. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/alex-vitale-2 // Sustain + s...

Journalist, activist, and researcher of far right movements, Spencer Sunshine returns to the podcast to discuss the MAGA siege on the Capitol on January 6th, what led up to it, and what to expect from the far right as we transition into Joe Biden’s presidency. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/spencer-sunshine-3 // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastbor...

Joe Brewer—change strategist, complexity researcher, and cognitive scientist—returns to the podcast to update us on the regenerative land restoration work he and his family have been engaged in since we spoke early last year. This discussion includes themes elaborated on in his new book The Design Pathway published on the Earth Regenerators website, as well as what it means to be "future indigenou...

Duncan Tarr, prison abolitionist and researcher for Perilous: A Chronicle of Prisoner Unrest Across the US and Canada, joins me to discuss their recent report on the wave of strikes, rebellions, and general acts of civil disobedience—organized by detainees in prisons, jails and ICE detention centers—that have occurred since the coronavirus pandemic began early last year. // Episode notes: https://...

David Lundgren, tribal attorney and author, joins me to discuss his new book, Massacre Rocks: A Campaign of Deception. Through years of research, Dave has uncovered "inconsistencies in historical accounts of emigrant massacres along the Oregon Trail that did not reflect official governmental records," most notably in the case of a massacre of white emigrants allegedly committed by a small band of...

Melissa Troutman and Joshua Pribanic, co-directors of the documentary Invisible Hand, join me to discuss the Rights of Nature movement beautifully documented in their film. I ask them to define the philosophy and legal framework communities across the US (and the world) are implementing to battle against corporate-led environmental destruction in their localities. // Episode notes: https://www.las...

Marjorie Cohn, professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and former president of the National Lawyers Guild, discusses President Trump and his legal team's ongoing attempt to perform an "electoral coup" since the presidential election last month. She describes, in detail, the legal challenges Trump's team have made in the last several weeks, as well as the likelihood of their success in...

Jared Yates Sexton, political commentator and author of American Rule: How A Nation Conquered The World But Failed Its People, returns to the podcast to discuss the state of the Trump Administration and “Trumpism” post-election, with former Vice President Joe Biden winning the presidential election last month, and Trump still refusing to concede. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderne...