Doomer Optimism

In this episode Jason speaks with Alex Corren (@arcorren ) about his organization ReCommon (@ReCommon_Land) which aims to address the logistics and financing around land access and tenure for regenerative stewardship, in particular catalyzing the creation of a network of bioregionally embedded regenerative land trusts. They also touch on the shared vision of ‘networked bioregionalism’ as the most...

John Klar is an attorney, regenerative farmer, and author living in Vermont. He has just published the book “ Small Farm Republic ” (Chelsea Green). This book gallops through major themes describing the economic, environmental, political, and social unsustainability of industrial ag, and issues a passion-inflected call for a return to the land and small-to-mid-scale regenerative farming practices....

In this episode, Jason speaks with D. Mason (@dkpmason) about his life growing up in ghettos, trailer parks, and the woods in Alabama and Appalachia, learning to live off the land and becoming the Dirt Mage, getting a felony for growing and trading weed and mushrooms which many venture capitalists are now getting rich on, anarcho-communism, community empowering technology, the pitfalls of both the...

Matthew Loftus and Medical Nemesis join occasional first-time host Donald to talk about medicine and Ivan Illich. Medical Nemesis wonders why Ivan Illich’s book Medical Nemesis has not taken hold in any part of our culture and how to make practical use of this knowledge. @‌Medical_Nemesis / https://medicalnemesis.substack.com Matthew Loftus @‌matthew_loftus lives in Kenya with his family, where he...

Ashley and Jason interview Jim Rutt, co-founder of Game B, a complexity-informed social movement aimed at creating systems change towards an intelligent and cooperative society. They discuss the evolution of Game B, the theory of change, current efforts to develop viable ‘proto-B’ communities, overlaps with Doomer Optimism, and much more Jim Rutt is the former CEO of Network Solutions. The New Yor...

A rollicking conversation with Chris Mott of "Woke Imperium" fame. We checked in on geopolitics and ideology and how these have influenced current events and crazy trends in journalism, academia, gov't, NGOs, and the PMC in general. One fulcrum of the conversation was how the DC pride celebration has evolved over recent years to be dominated by the military-industrial-complex (Raythe...

Break-It-Down Austin – Food waste hauling, composting & creative resource recovery Jeff Paine and Josh Kearns Jeff Paine is co-founder and co-owner with his wife Mel MacFarlane of the Austin, TX based Break-It-Down. http://breakitdownaustin.com Formed in 2009 out of the couples’ rented duplex to provide a yoga studio, a coffee shop, and a juice bar with a way to steer their compostable waste a...

Jason speaks with Seneca Scott (@SenecaSpeaks21 ) about his life and work leading up to and including the founding of Neighbors Together Oakland, which focuses on community safety, localized agricultural systems, thriving local businesses, and accessible housing. They also discuss building ‘parallel systems that will remain resilient as our current one’s collapse’, and how this relates to local po...

Ashley and Nate discuss the concept of Left Conservatism in a wide ranging conversation about what is sacred, the market, the state, and the process of developing politics and relationships.

Donald and Keturah discuss Orthodoxy and noise with Alana Nickels. Alana "Nickels" Solomon is a former train kid and future Matushka, writer of "Hobo Nickels", painter of icons, and wife of Deacon Mark Solomon, who currently attends St. Tikhon's Orthodox Seminary in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Buy and subscribe to her zine: http://alananickels.bigcartel.com Learn more: http:...

Ashley speaks with Bill Rees, the inventor of the ecological footprint, and John Mulrow about the false promises of the green energy "transition," degrowth, and whether or not social change happens by design or by disaster. Quick Bio: John Mulrow is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Environmental and Ecological Engineering at Purdue University. His research focuses on how environmental i...

A discussion of Chris' forthcoming book Saying No to a Farm-Free Future “Everyone in the food business needs to read this book. . . . [A] lively and superbly written polemic.”—Joel Salatin, co-founder of Polyface Farm A defense of agroecological, small-scale farming and a robust critique of an industrialized future. One of the few voices to challenge The Guardian‘s George Monbiot on the future...

Ashley speaks with Kate Parsons and Adam Mayfield about their wilderness survival skills school, the role of art in society, and mindfulness in practice. A wild ride! ‌ PRIMAL U designs and implements one-of-a-kind courses with experts in wilderness first aid, leadership, survival techniques, sustainability and mindfulness training. Primal U’s mission is to train individuals holistically, providin...

Ashley speaks with Christopher Lasch’s biographer, Eric Miller, about all things Lasch, localism, and his forthcoming book on Wendell Berry. ‌ Eric Miller is professor of history and the humanities at Geneva College, in Beaver Falls, PA, where he directs the college’s honors program. He is the author of  Hope in a Scattering Time: A Life of Christopher Lasch  (2010) and  Glimpses of Another Land:...

Don and Ashley chat with Steve Mouzon about all things New Urbanism, Wrath of Gnon, and the right approach to the 15 minute city. Steve Mouzon is an architect, urbanist, author, blogger, and photographer based in Tuscaloosa. He co-founded the Urban Guild , which was instrumental in the creation of the Katrina Cottages initiative . The Guild is the nexus of Project:SmartDwelling, which works to red...

Today Jason is joined on the podcast by Daniel Schmachtenberger, a social philosopher whose central focus is civilization design and who is also a founding member of The Consilience Project, and Gregory Landua, the founder of Regen Network. What is “high nature,” and what is its relation to high-tech? Can both co-exist? Gregory, Daniel and Jason discuss how to apply tools of coordination and techn...

Ashley and Dougald co-host Adam Greenfield to talk about his idea of LifeHouses as featured here https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/news/from-churches-to-lifehouses . Previously a rock critic, a bike messenger, a free-clinic medic and a sergeant in the US Army, Adam Greenfield has spent the past quarter-century thinking and working at the intersection of technology, design and politics with everyday...

Donald and Ashley interview Clare Coffey about her trio of articles at The New Atlantis: https://www.thenewatlantis.com/collections/phoneless-carless-friendless Clare Coffey is a writer living in Moscow, Idaho.

Alex Priou is Teaching Assistant Professor in the Herbst Program at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is the author of Becoming Socrates: Political Philosophy in Plato’s Parmenides from University of Rochester Press, as well as a number of articles and essays on the history of political philosophy. He has two books forthcoming this year, Defending Socrates: Political Philosophy Before the Tri...

Today Nate interviews Jacob Wolki from Wolki farms in Australia and is joined later in the episode by Geoff Long of Long Story Farms in South Carolina. They talk pasture agriculture, creative farm marketing strategies, homeschooling, and the relaxation benefits of luxuriating barefoot with cows in the shade. Nathan Gates is a licensed psychotherapist and co-host of Altered States of Context, a pod...

Episode description: First time host Donald talks to Rita Koganzon about the politics and history of homeschooling and education in America. Rita Koganzon is assistant professor of political science at the University of Houston. Her research focuses on the themes of education, childhood, authority, and the family in historical and contemporary political thought. Her first book, Liberal States, Aut...

On this episoode of Doomer Optimism, Tres has a sit down with Julia Dakin, Founder of Going to Seed about Landrace, her environmental journey, and why seed diversity is so important. Julia Dakin is a farmer and seed activist in Mendocino County, California. She has been involved in agriculture for most of her life, and has devoted the past few years to growing market crops and teaching the benefit...

Joseph Lofthouse and Julia Dakin joins returning guests/co-hosts Shane Simonsen and Simon Gooder. The gang talk plant breeding, landrace style. They dig into hybrids, genetic crosses, wild analogues and fun things like grexes. Joseph and Shane tell everyone how to get started with home-scale plant breeding, and how optimistic they are about the future of food. Joseph Lofthouse is a sixth-generatio...

Ashley speaks with John and Evan, a Catholic and a Lutheran, about the recent resurgence in interest in religion, and how to embrace faith like a normal person. John Dios (@RealJohnDios) works, lives and worships in rural Eastern Connecticut. In his spare time he produces the Cathedral in the Pines Radio Hour. https://m.soundcloud.com/cathedralpines Evan (@pythonrocksnake) was born in West Africa,...

Keturah Lamb lives the American Dream and fears no establishment. She is 4th generation without a social security number or birth certificate. In her early twenties she found the balance of honoring her family heritage while not letting it hold her back from her visions, and learned the legal loopholes for getting a passport and banking account. She travels (often barefoot) to share about her succ...