Topic: Nature

[ Episode #46 // Recovering Environmentalists ]

Success for the environmental movement has meant many of its members adopted mainstream values in attempts to sustain the unsustainable. Is sustainability a farce when associated with a way of life that is out of touch with reality? Global droughts, weather catastrophes and heatwaves are demonstrating the rapidly increasing impact of atmospheric greenhouse gases. With decades of inaction on climate change, are we all climate denialists? Could there be an environmental movement that works to exit the collapsing global system?

In Extraenvironmentalist #46 we speak first with Paul Kingsnorth on why he's withdrawn from the mainstream environmental movement and its discussions of sustainability. Paul tells us about developing the Dark Mountain Project to help us tell creative stories that embody the new narrative evolving from the end of industrial society. Then, Michael M'Gonigle [55m] joins us to talk about the importance of creating an exit-environmentalism that allows us to leave a global system which is falling apart. Michael describes why liberal environmentalism is no longer useful in creating laws to protect our environment in the extended version of an interview that originally aired on Radio Ecoshock. Finally, John Michael Greer [1h 56m] takes root in a new recurring and irregular segment to talk about denial and his take on the environmental movement. All that and more as our latest episode proves there aren't limits to growth for XE podcast episode runtimes.


// Music (in order of appearance)
GRiZ - The Future is Now via Fist in the Air
Adele - Rolling in the Deep (Blackbird Blackbird Rework) via Sound Is Style
Jeremy Fisher - Built to Last via Ride the Tempo
Elle Goulding - Hanging On (Syvable & PRFFTT Bootleg) via Earmilk
Marvin Gaye - Real Thing (Pillow Talk Rework) via Ecosalon
Stevie Wonder - Superstition (Monolith Remix) via The Music Ninja

// Extended Clips (in order of appearance)
[1st Break] - 28'27"
Shaking Spain - Expect Violence
Marc Faber - Markets to Crash in 12 Months
Euro-Doomsday Scenario
How close are we to a new great depression

[2nd Break] - 83'27"
Record Drought Has Cascading Consequences
Heat Wave
Americans Scramble to Safety
George Will: "It's Just Summer, Get Over It"

[End]
Alan Watts - Man in Nature

// Production Credits
Production Assistance by Kevin via Sustainable Guidance Youtube Channel

(more…)

[ Episode #35 // Ecology + Alcohol ]

You can easily enjoy a beer without knowing about the thousands of years alcohol has modified the senses of our species. We'll go out to a bar to participate in a ritual to help us deal with the tasks of a work day, yet what if a tree does the same? Should alcohol be recognized for its ability change our consciousness in a sacred way? Are other species using the same substances we do in modifying their ability to perceive signals?

In Extraenvironmentalist #35 we speak with Stephen Harrod Buhner about his thoughts on the role of alcohol on humans and nature based around his book, Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers. We ask Stephen about the ecological role of humanity in the environment. Are Homo Sapiens like bees that serve a role much bigger than we'll ever understand? Our conversation covers the ways ancient people experienced the world and alternative approaches to brewing beer. Once your hear Stephen explain the chemistry of plants, you'll never think about that tree outside your window in the same way again.


 

// Music (in order of appearance)
Labyrinth Ear - Walk on the Moon (Arthur Russel Rework) via The Fader
Mansions on the Moon - Athens via Iceland Music Maffia
Kishi Bashi - Bright Whites viaConsequence of Sound
Polica - Lay Your Cards Out via Life+Times
Parov Stelar - Catgroove via IndieShuffle

// Extended Clips (in order of appearance)
Alan Watts - Roots of the Ecological Crisis
Bill Rees - The Dangerous Disconnection Between Economics and Ecology
The History of Alcohol
Terence McKenna: On Alcohol, Caffeine, Culture and Extraenvironmentalism

(more…)

[ Episode #18 // The Wealth of Nature ]

Our economic systems are beginning to expose the first intimations of how drastically they've been failing us. Is this breakdown happening because our economics are reflecting the state of our ecosystems? Generations of economists have adhered with religious fervor to tenets of growth and free market dynamics that have detached from reality so drastically these beliefs have become superstitions that now drive our currencies to the brink of collapse. How can a naturally centered mindset re-focus our economic ideals?

In Extraenvironmentalist #18 we speak with John Michael Greer about his latest book, The Wealth of Nature: Economics as if Survival Mattered. John blogs prolifically at The Archdruid Report and has written several additional spectacular books on the precarious predicaments of industrial society like, The Long Descent and The Ecotechnic Future. As Grand Archdruid of the Ancient Order of Druids in America John's naturally focused mind shines an illuminating viewpoint on the fallacies of modern economics and how our physical reality can create a sustainable economic system. We discuss why people typically embrace denial when first encountering his ideas, the role his druid practice has had in revealing many fallacies of commonly held viewpoints about industrial society, the role of politics in the collapse of industrial civilization and what a day in the life of a druid looks like.

 

 

// Music (in order of appearance)
Balam Acab - Oh Why via The Music Ninja
Channel Cairo - Elephant Room via Earplugs Not Included
Graffiti 6 - Free via Youtube
John Denver - Country Roads (Pretty Lights Remix) via Sunset in the Rear View

(more…)