Doomer Optimism

Ashley and Ingri (@IngriPauline) discuss women’s health, female archetypes, and how to solve the battle of the sexes. Ingri is a women's weightlifting coach from Los Angeles, California. After serving in the Navy, she got her Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology at California State University Northridge. She has coached CrossFit, nutrition, and weightlifting on three continents since 2008. Her e...

During the night of February 1/2, 2021, a military junta deposed the elected government of Burma (Myanmar) and instituted martial law. Protests followed, answered by a violent and swift crackdown by the newly self-installed military dictatorship. They have attacked protestors in the streets, killed innocent bystanders, and wrongfully detained, interrogated, tortured, imprisoned, and killed many in...

Chris and Ashley speak with Dougald about his new book At Work in the Ruins and where it intersects with both the Small Farm Future and Doomer Optimism. Dougald Hine is a social thinker, writer, speaker and the co-founder of the Dark Mountain Project and a school called HOME. His latest book is At Work in the Ruins (2023) and he publishes new essays on his Substack, Writing Home. https://linktr.ee...

Ashley and Donald speak with Jane about her review of the book Home Comforts by Cheryl Mendelson and what being a homemaker means for modern women. ‌ Jane Psmith is a pseudonymous suburban housewife with four kids. She and her husband review books and write about knowledge, culture, and institutions at  thepsmiths.substack.com . Her review of Home Comforts is here:  https://thepsmiths.substack.com...

Flávia Macêdo (@flaviagoma) and Jason have a conversation about her work in Brazil to create a local currency that reflects and reinforces values that aren't reflected in the fiat money system, her interest in collaborative food production and agroforestry, how her work interfaces with larger political structures, her work connecting with and building global support networks of like minded people...

In this episode Jason has a conversation with Dakotah Apostolou, CEO of Cohere Network @coherenetwork about their plans to build a global network of regenerative villages, their innovative and inclusive economic model, how they plan to collaborate with local populations, and much more Twitter thread describing what they are doing: https://twitter.com/coherenetwork/status/1506614056647598086 Bio: &...

Two frequent guest/hosts sit down to try to hash out what the f#@k is going on with all this weird horseshoe politics business. But first they set the stage with a discussion of their beloved western trout and the beautiful places they reside. The chat moved to western ecologies, public lands, and James' book Chosen Country as well as his recent Vanity Fair article on the strange convergence of pr...

-In this episode Jason has a conversation with Chris Jagger (@reggaj) and Viktor Zaunders (@zaunders) about the marketing and distribution (or post-farm) side of local and regenerative food systems. They discuss the various models, including farmer's markets, food hubs, CSAs, and cooperatives, the role of digital technology, and what the major challenges and opportunities are in building regenerat...

Welcome to a Heartland edition of Doomer Optimism. Today Nate goes into the belly of the agribeast with Zach Smith and Jason Mauck. Representing the grain belt from Indiana, Illinois and Iowa, the trio discusses the status quo in big agriculture, making a living from the land, and human scale innovation. A major question is how to scale back the total acreage of farms while increasing production a...

Patrick ( @RizomaAt ) gets the keys to the podcast Ferrari to chat with @hi_frye and @butteryfur , Cozy Twitter power couple and  amateur construction enthusiasts.  The topic is their project of dreaming and scheming up their own tiny house, in which they now dwell. A DIY story that hits close to home, join us as we hear from the builders themselves about this tiny, but by no means small...

Paul, Alex and Ioan talk about searching for an intentional community, how to find the place and the people you can belong to, and community with the land you live on. Paul d'Aoust @helioscomm is a member of an unintentional intentional community, living, eating, making music, and gardening with hiswith his wife, kids, and in-laws on an acreage in western Canada. He is trying, usually falteringly,...

In this episode of Doomer Optimism, Brendan, Jim and Nate discuss the role that narrative and stories play in shaping the way we perceive the world around us and continually recreate the structures and processes that cohere to the narrative that we tell ourselves and each other about the world. We are narrative creatures at our core, and in our present time there are a great many competing stories...

Andrew and Jason have a conversation around topics related anarchism, solar punk, and degrowth Andrew is a writer, artist, and YouTuber based in Trinidad & Tobago. As an ardent anarchist and firm believer in power to the people, Andrew aims to invigorate imaginations and encourage people to create a better world in the shell of the old. Andrew has an excellent youtube channel that can be found...

On this episode of Doomer Optimism, Simon Gooder and Tres Crow interview experimental farmer and science fiction author Shane Simonsen. Shane talks about his farming experiments in his difficult Australian ecosystem, and then dives into the impetus behind his science fiction novella series set in the distant future. About Shane Simonsen About Shane Simonsen Shane is a scientist, documenting his ex...

In this episode Jason speaks with Kimberly (@blkhomesteader) about her path towards gardening and homesteading, the Black homesteading and farming movement, the importance of own production and skill-building, the irony of underutilized land and problems of land access, political advocacy especially at the hyper-local level with HOAs, veganism and small scale livestock production, the hiphopisgree...

Jason hosts an interview with Simon Gooder about his path towards permaculture, homesteading, and the plant database and seed trading platform that he cofounded with Benjamin Knofe called Permapeople.org .  Simon Gooder Nature, gardening, permaculture, doomer optimism, design, regenerative action, community building, homeschooling. Building Permapeople.org in his spare time.

An exploration of evolutionary dynamics and potential futures Matthew Pirkowski experiments at the intersection of software, behavioral / evolutionary psychology, and complex adaptive systems. These interests first took root while observing and modeling the collective behavioral psychology of capuchin monkeys at Yale’s Comparative Cognition Laboratory, with the goal of understanding why–and to wha...

During the night of February 1/2, 2021, a military junta deposed the elected government of Burma (Myanmar) and instituted martial law. Protests followed, answered by a violent and swift crackdown by the newly self-installed military dictatorship. In this episode we hear from "Romeo," a pseudonymous young woman living and working in Yangon since before the 2021 coup. We discuss some of the events l...

Daniel Baryon ( @anarkyoutube ), Glen Ganaway ( @glenganaway ), and Jason Snyder ( @cognazor ) discuss modern day anarchism, how it's informed by complexity science, and how it works as a map for local solutions to a planet wide crisis. ‌ About Daniel Baryon Daniel Baryon is an anarchist theorist and organizer. He co-founded Cooperation Tulsa and is a key member of Scissortail Anarchist Organizati...

On this episode of Doomer Optimism, Twitter favorite Scratchy Johnson ( @scratchyjohnson ) sits down with the localism and applied complexity guru, Joe Norman ( @normonics ). Topics include: history, complexity, the role of the state, and localism. This is a real treat for fans of Joe, Scratchy, and localism. About Scratchy Johnson God, Family, Country. He's on Twitter. He's not hard to find. Abou...

Ioan, Josh, and Rich discuss BridgeSpace Commons, and in particular, the challenges of creating a different kind of community space that can be shared by different groups of people with different goals and values   Josh @pdxregencommons is part of Portland Commons Technology Project, a group building commons infrastructure for people and creatures. A budding economic solidarity bloc between a...

Ashley and Padre discuss homesteading in the deep south, working on rented land, making a small space productive, and the coming localist revolution!   The Homestead Padre @padrehomestead Joseph Smith is the husband of the beautiful and amazing Dr. @MRSpadrehmsted. He is a father who focuses on small space homesteading. Follow his newsletter at http://Padre.substack.com   Buy Smith Homes...

Ashley, Lindsay and Astrid discuss the doom of industrial schooling and the optimism of homeschooling. Lindsay speaks from the perspective of a homeschooling parent, and Astrid as an adult who was a homeschooled student.    Lindsay @Lindsay_Rainey2 is a certified teacher turned home educator and a mom of two. She has over 8 years of experience as a home educator and several more in the c...

A debate between an ecosocialist and a Refi OG on the path towards ecological civilization   Gregory Landua is the Co-founder of Regen Network. He dwells humbly at the intersection of ecology, economics and technology.   The Last Farm is an eco-socialist homesteader focused on the intersection of permaculture, luxurious subsistence, & politics

Discussion about bioregional organizing and the @hylo project.  Guest host @vincefhorn with @cognazor Guests: @clarebear8080 and @gabbymcnabb   Learn more about Hylo and how to onboard your community here: https://hylozoic.gitbook.io/hylo/   Join Hylo and discover groups near you: http://hylo.com   Tom Watson  - Working with Terran Collective, engineering Hylo  - Danc...