Dustbowl Diatribes

Spencer, Laurie and Emily delve into the history of Spencer's attempt to form a collective of friends in Kansas City, and why it failed. The aim was to pool resources and labor, live better and influence the growing and food scene. The lessons learned are generally applicable and hopefully useful to anyone who is interested in cooperating with others in a quasi-communal setting or getting involved...

In this Dustbowl Diatribes episode, Spencer, Laurie and Emily have a frank discussion with a small businesswoman with rental properties in Kansas City, MO. Reminiscent of our discussion with Dan Krull on the loss of community gardening space due to development in the city, which makes the city less human and livable, Mary Farmer talks about how a big developer in her area is making it hard for her...

Spencer and Laurie interview Dan Krull about the closure of an innercity agricultural initiative. We discuss the ins and outs of the project, some reasons why it “failed”, and the limits (or lack thereof) of education as a means of improving society. Please fill out this form to be put on the email list for future Maurin ... Read more

This time we interview Suan Sonna—host of Intellectual Catholicism—to talk about the relationship between the Church and State, Aristo-Thomism and natural law. Please fill out this form to be put on the email list for future Maurin Academy seminars, short series, and other events. Support us on Patreon! Dustbowl Diatribes podcast can be found on iTunes, Google ... Read more

Spencer and Laurie interview an Anonymous Pastor, discussing the state of his/her denomination. Please fill out this form to be put on the email list for future Maurin Academy seminars, short series and other events. Support us on Patreon! Dustbowl Diatribes podcast can be found on iTunes, Google Podcasts, and Audible. Spotify thought we were a music ... Read more

Please fill out this form to be put on the email list for future Maurin Academy seminars, short series and other events.

Please fill out this form to be put on the email list for future Maurin Academy seminars, short series and other events: https://pmaurin.org/newsletter/ Support us on Patreon!

Please sign up for our free newsletter here. Dr. Larry Chapp of the popular blog Gaudium et Spes joins Spencer and Laurie for a discussion about ressourcement theology, the inspiration for the international Catholic journal Communio. Dr. Chapp cares for a Catholic Worker farm and, through his blog and numerous YouTube videos, brings his own version of Peter Maurin's "agronomic university" to a lar...

Laurie and Spencer interview retired Lutheran Pastor Tom Mundahl. Mundahl has made action the center of his ministry, including leading a venture into Catholic Worker hospitality in a Campus student group. We discuss why it is difficult for pastors to move beyond the comfort zones of their parishioners to lead them into new ways of living and interacting with others. We discuss the obstacle of Chr...

Laurie and Spencer spend some time unpacking the significance of their latest interview with "the last Marxist," Chris Cutrone. Cutrone is one of our favorite Marxist theorists, and talking to him is always thought provoking. Some of the highlights that make this interview different are his ideas on the state of higher education in the US, Cutrone's views on Christianity and church, and his discus...

Spencer and Laurie interview "the last Marxist", Christ Cutrone about his experience with Catholic Worker-style Christians, the limits of the left, and what is to be done.

Spencer and Laurie finish their discussion of Season 1 of Dustbowl Diatribes, including a detour into how different Christian theologies can land you in very different places on the environment and the care of other humans.

Spencer and Laurie recap the first half of Season 1 of Dustbowl Diatribes, with a focus on our intention and purpose in introducing themes like taking advantage of "the spoils of Egypt," and concepts like metabolic rifts and the abstract domination of capital, as well as interviews that helped us understand why it's so hard to break away from that domination.

Launching from the last Dustbowl Diatribes podcast in which we interviewed Nik Gaffron about his experiences resisting fracking in Pennsylvania, Spencer and I talk to Nik about why such resistance almost always fails. Why do liberal strategies to getting something good accomplished meet with ruin? We first need to learn the answer to that question, and really have it sink in, before we can hope to...

Our guest is Nik Gaffron talks to us about his personal experience fighting fracking on public lands in Pennsylvania. We learn a lot about the fracking process as well as the politics and economics, especially how it impacts people who live near a fracking operation. Why do public officials so easily consent to these large-scale industrial operations in or close to residential areas? Why is it so...

Spencer Hess and Laurie Johnson follow up with military historian and Maurin Academy partner Bryant Macfarlane to discuss 1. the most likely worst-case scenario regarding our environmental and political future, and 2. the most likely best-case scenario we hope will happen instead. Buckle your seatbelts.

History Ph. D. candidate Bryant Macfarlane joins Spencer Hess and Laurie Johnson for a discussion of the conditions that made for the 1930's Dustbowl and continue to operate today to deplete soil fertility and instigate climate change. Hannah Holleman's book, Dustbowls of Empire is the subject of the first part of our conversation. Macfarlane later explains how Latin Common Law was practiced in th...

Spencer Hess interviews Jakob Hanschu on the subject of metabolic rifts (what they are, and their implications for the environment we all depend upon for life) and the abstract domination of capital (the forces that largely control our lives but are not clearly perceived because they constitute our perceived reality). These are difficult concepts because of their abstract nature, but if we do not...

Spencer Hess and Laurie Johnson talk about the "Spoils of Egypt" concept from Christian theology, how it has operated in the past, and what is keeping people from using it now. In the past, Christian theologians have often "plundered" secular theology for its riches, taking what was useful and true in light of Christian revelation, and leaving what was not. Today, much philosophy is left un-plunde...

In this first episode of Dustbowl Diatribes, Spencer Hess and Laurie Johnson explain why they chose "Dustbowl Diatribes" as the title of this podcast, why Spencer made the trailer the way he did, and introduce themselves. Along the way, they bring up some issues this podcast will get into -- climate change and how we're all unable to act effectively to cope with it, what Christian responsibility a...

Spencer Hess and I (Laurie Johnson) are getting ready to launch our new podcast, Dustbowl Diatribes, with a discussion of the US Dustbowl in the 1930's in all its ramifications. But this isn't a history podcast. The dustbowl symbolizes a slow moving disaster--environmental, economic, spiritual, political--which is materializing even now. We will be getting at this topic at first through an examina...