Fraying Food System May Be Our Next Crisis
If you’re already overwhelmed with news of the pandemic and are coping with depression, read no further. However, if you’re a crisis responder by inclination or profession, you might start thinking food. Experts who study what makes societies sustainable...
Mayor McCheese & Modern Medicine: the Good & Bad of High Energy Modernity (Episode 23 of Crazy Town)
Asher Miller Jason Bradford Rob Dietz
In this episode, Rob, Asher, and Jason ask themselves, “If High Energy Modernity is on the way out, what will we miss most, and what will we be glad to see go?” And they ponder appropriate technology and whether...
Earth Day 50, Under Lockdown
April 22 was supposed to be a day of global celebration and protest. Fifty years ago, up to ten percent of Americans participated in thousands of local events on the first Earth Day. That mass action, which would have...
How Much is a Barrel of Oil Worth?
If you were an oil futures trader wanting to unload a May 1 contract on Monday, April 20, a barrel of oil was worth $-37. That’s right, traders were, in effect, willing to pay someone—anyone—to take ownership of a...
Please Don’t Read this Blog. Do Something Else Instead.
I haven’t yet written a comprehensive, illuminating blog about these Days of the Coronavirus, partly because many other people far wiser than me are already doing it far better than I would, but also because I am still trying...
COVID-19 and the Death of Market Fundamentalism
On top of the countless human tragedies, there will be many long-lasting social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Perhaps none will be more profound though, than the death of free market fundamentalism and the return of the...
Foreclosing on the Frackers: Coronavirus and the Future of Energy (Episode 21 of Crazy Town)
Asher Miller Jason Bradford Rob Dietz
In the last episode Asher, Rob, and Jason discussed the danger of political denial and delusion limiting how well we respond to the climate crisis. This week we address the risk that another “d”--distraction--will keep us from recognizing the...
Pandemic Response Requires Post-Growth Economic Thinking
Amid a horrific human tragedy of sickness and death, much of it taking place in hospitals staffed by brave but overworked and under-equipped doctors and nurses, we are all learning once again what it feels like when economic growth...
Delusion to the Left, Denial to the Right (Episode 20 of Crazy Town)
Asher Miller Jason Bradford Rob Dietz
In this episode, Asher, Rob, and Jason examine how both ends of the political spectrum are getting it wrong, and propose how we can start a new conversation. And it doesn’t even have to involve your family disease...
The Earth Is Telling Us We Must Rethink Our Growth Society
Surely it is within our collective imagination to socially construct a system of globally networked but self-reliant national economies that better serve the needs of a smaller human family. The ultimate goal of economic planning everywhere must now turn...