Last Born In The Wilderness

This is episode 100 of the podcast. Incredible. I read a letter from a listener and responded to it. I express how grateful I am for the support I've received for this project, and I reiterate the purpose and what I aim for with Last Born In The Wilderness. For this episode, I go solo. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/100 // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Peter McCoy is the founder of Radical Mycology, a nonprofit grassroots organization that engages in wide and varied methods (from organizing events and workshops and producing media content) to educate and actively demonstrate the vast potential fungi has in the fields of nutrition, waste disposal, medicine, food production, and water treatment, just to name a few. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/peter-mccoy // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Conjurer, egoist-communist, political theorist, and gonzo journalist Dr. Bones joins me for this episode. This conversation touches on some themes brought up in his most recent piece, New Year’s Day—a striking essay on the surreal quality of the time we all live in. Our discussion covers our thoughts on the legalization of cannabis in parts of the US and the pushback against it under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, as well as an overview of the writings of 19th-century anarchist political theorist Max Stirner and what egoism looks like in practice. Bones then touches on the experience of living in Florida and the Deep South as a working-class egoist-communist and the difficulties that come with that. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/dr-bones // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast [ EP 97 / REC 01.07.2018 / REL 01.14.2018 / RMST 04.03.2026 ]

In this episode, Professor Paul Ehrlich and I discuss the very severe loss of biodiversity on this planet in recent decades, human civilization and its detrimental impact on animal and insect populations, abrupt climate change, the toxification of the environment, and the looming specter of nuclear war. Also, we discuss the psychological blind-spots in the individual and collective human psyche that allows for this massive level of destruction to take place without much attention and meaningful change to ensure our collective survival. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/paul-ehrlich // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Samra Culum is Student Development Coordinator at the College of Southern Idaho (CSI), and a refugee. Samra, as a child, fled with her family from war-torn Bosnia, and through the CSI Refugee Resettlement Program, settled in Twin Falls, Idaho with her family. In this episode, Samra discusses what her and her family experienced in her community in Bosnia as underlying tensions and divisions broke out into war and ethnic cleansing, and what the process of escaping and eventually resettling in the United States was like. Samra then goes over her feelings and thoughts about the recent surge of anti-refugee sentiment that has emerged in the Twin Falls area surrounding the CSI Refugee Resettlement Program in recent years, and how difficult, painful, and important it is to revisit traumatic memories and experiences and process them in a meaningful way. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/samra-culum // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: h

Carne Ross is a former British diplomat, Middle East and WMD expert, who resigned in 2004 after giving what was then secret information to a British inquiry into the Iraq War. Carne became acutely aware that the information being presented to the public leading up to the Iraq War was misleading and false. After he left his position as a diplomat, he founded the world's first non-profit diplomatic advisory group, Independent Diplomat, which advises democratic countries and movements around the world. This year, Carne was featured in the documentary Accidental Anarchist, a film that follows Carne's path from British diplomat to an advocate for Anarchism. This film follows Carne's journey to find and eventually witness anarchist principles in action during the Occupy movement, the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s in Catalonia, and contemporarily by the Kurds in Rojava. Rojava is a region in northern Syria, and during the chaotic Syrian civil war, was able to begin practicing anarchism effectively while simu

Riccardo Manzotti is the author of The Spread Mind: Why Consciousness and the World Are One. Riccardo teaches Psychology of Perception at IULM University, Milan (Italy), and has specialized in AI, artificial vision, perception, and the philosophy and science of consciousness. This discussion deals with a few different subjects brought up in Riccardo's work, namely what the "Spread Mind" hypothesis is and its underlying premise of what the "mind" really is, and how scientific exploration into the brain and neurological functioning will not lead to any answers regarding where our conscious experience comes from. Riccardo's new book, The Spread Mind, delves deeply into this fascinating subject and radically shifts our understanding of consciousness and points to another way to frame our understanding of this subject. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/riccardo-manzotti // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/last

Ian MacKenzie is an award-winning filmmaker and media activist, and co-director of the film "Amplify Her," a documentary that follows the powerful and emerging female producers in the electronic music scene. For most of my life, I've contemplated the roles that were bestowed upon us as individuals, as brothers and sisters, as men and as women, as sons and daughters, and collectively as a species on this planet. I wanted to explore the questions surrounding masculinity, while recognizing that the territory surrounding gender and more specifically gender identity requires a nuanced approach, and I wanted to tread lightly and purposefully when discussing this subject. I sought out Ian MacKenzie to have this conversation with me because I had become familiar with his work regarding gender and the sacred roles of men and women can embody, and I have come to recognize that the work he is doing is entirely necessary in this time of great calamity and confusion. More than ever, people are discussing gender ident

Bayo Akomolafe is a researcher, lecturer and author, born and raised in Nigeria. He is an international speaker, poet and activist for a radical paradigm shift in consciousness and current ways of living. Bayo is globally recognized for his poetic, unconventional, counterintuitive, and indigenous take on global crisis, civic action and social change. Bayo discusses some of the themes raised in his essay, Homo Icarus: The Depreciating Value of Whiteness and the Place of Healing. The essay attempts to discuss a few difficult topics, triggered, in part, by the events in Charlottesville during the Unite The Right rally this year, which highlighted some of the more vile and racist elements of American culture. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/bayo-akomolafe // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Alex S. Vitale is Professor of Sociology at Brooklyn College and author of The End Of Policing. In this discussion, Alex describes the current state of policing in the US, and provides a historical and sociological context as to why policing functions as it currently does. Alex describes the policies that have led to the current problems many segments of the American population have with police and the tactics police employ. From the War on Drugs to the War on Terror, Alex describes how the political class operates on a very flawed view of human nature, and how that has inevitably led to policies and the horrendous experiences many have had with police. Putting this all in context allows us to address the underlying issues with policing as a whole, and work to change the way social issues are dealt with within our communities. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/alex-vitale // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me

Tom Aiello is the founder, owner, and lead instructor of the Snake River BASE Academy, based in Twin Falls, Idaho. Twin Falls is nestled up against the Snake River Canyon, and spanning the canyon is the Perrine Bridge. Due to lack of legal restrictions and its location, the Perrine Bridge is an optimal fixed structure for BASE jumping, attracting countless people from all over the world to this small city in Southern Idaho. "BASE" is an acronym that stands for four categories of fixed objects from which one can jump: building, antenna, span, and Earth (cliff). Tom is the first in the world to provide a detailed and rigorous multi-level educational course for those that wish to get into BASE jumping and learn more than just the basics. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/tom-aiello // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

John Perkins is the best-selling author of several books, including the well-known Confessions of an Economic Hitman, and as his follow-up book, The New Confessions of an Economic Hitman, released last year. John spent the 1970s working for the strategic-consulting firm Chas. T. Main as Chief Economist, where he and his staff advised the World Bank, United Nations, IMF, U.S. Treasury Department, Fortune 500 corporations, as well as countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. In this episode, we discuss his role in the paradigm of economic exploitation termed globalization, and as his insight into the political and economic turmoil currently being experienced in South and Central American nations, and more specifically in Venezuela. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/john-perkins // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Sean McFate is an author, novelist, and expert in foreign policy and national security strategy. His career began in the U.S. Army in the 82nd Airborne Division, and later became a private military contractor in Africa for Dyncorp, where he "dealt with warlords, raised small armies, worked with armed groups in the Sahara, transacted arms deals in Eastern Europe, and helped prevent an impending genocide in the Great Lakes region." Sean is deeply critical of the ongoing privatization of military operations by the U.S. government, as well as Erik Prince, former president and founder of Blackwater, and his proposals to dramatically privatize military operations in Afghanistan. These types of grandiose plans Prince proposed to the Trump Administration have not been implemented, but there is still much to be concerned with regarding the rise of mercenary armies and how they fit into the ever-changing face of war in the 21st century. Sean McFate goes over this and much more in this episode. // Episode notes: https

Just like David O'Hara's book Downstream, this episode is about so much more than fly-fishing. David imbues the conversation with great knowledge and wisdom, and speaking with him was a great pleasure in and of itself. The topics touched in this episode are broad: fishing the rivers of Appalachia; empathizing with other creatures; studying and observing reef ecology in Belize; enduring and recovering from a major head injury; the wonder of it all. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/david-ohara // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Jerry Brown is the co-author of The Psychedelic Gospels: The Secret History of Hallucinogens in Christianity. Jerry, as well as his wife and co-author Julie Brown, began their journey into the psychedelic history of early Christianity after noticing telling depictions of psychedelic mushrooms on display in the frescoes and architecture of the many chapels and cathedrals that exist across Europe. Jerry tells the story of how he and his wife Julie first made this baffling discovery, and also explains as to why it has not been documented and researched until very recently. We examine the possible role psychedelics would have played in the early centuries of Christianity, and more broadly, the origins of religion itself, as well as how our own personal experiences have led us toward having an open-minded exploration of this subject. What does it mean for there to be these depictions of psychedelic mushroom in early Christian art? How does this subject and research fit into the broader "psychedelic renaissance"?

Dr. Kevin Trenberth is a Distinguished Senior Scientist in the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. In this interview, Dr. Trenberth explains the effect anthropogenic climate change is having on our weather systems, regarding the catastrophic record-breaking flooding in Houston this month, as well as the Category 5 Hurricane Irma that wrecked havoc on Florida and the Florida Keys. This summer, tens of millions of people across Asia have been displaced due to massive flooding, and practically the entire Pacific Northwest of North America has been on fire. Regarding the flooding in Houston, what has been the response from the Trump Administration? What actions have been taken to adapt to the rapidly changing climate system, resulting in more extreme weather? We get into this and more. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/kevin-trenberth // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/la

Spencer Sunshine is a researcher, journalist, activist, and political consultant regarding far-right movements. We discuss the recent events in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a collection of various loosely affiliated white nationalist groups, along with elements of the so-called "Alt-Right," attempted to produce a cohesive platform to unite under. Spencer was on the ground in Charlottesville, and he elaborates on what took place during the Unite The Right rally, as well as it's counter-protest, which he was a part of. Spencer puts the events in Charlottesville and its fallout in context, elaborating on the points brought up in his recent piece, Has the "Alt-Right" Met Its Gettysburg? published in Truthout. Spencer also goes over the much maligned and misunderstood antifa, or antifascist movement, and provides much needed context on what the movement really is and does as a movement. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/spencer-sunshine // Sustain + support: https://www.pa

Stuart Pimm is Doris Duke Professor of Conservation Ecology at Duke University, and is a world leader in the study of present day extinctions and what can be done to prevent them. His research covers the reasons why species become extinct, how fast they do so, the global patterns of habitat loss and species extinction, and the management consequences of this research. His commitment to the interface between science and policy has led to his testimony to both House and Senate Committees on the re-authorization of the Endangered Species Act. He has worked and taught in Africa for nearly 20 years on elephants, and most recently lions through National Geographic’s Big Cats Initiative, but always on topics that relate to the conservation of wildlife and the ecosystems on which they depend. Other research areas include the Everglades of Florida and the tropical forests in South America, especially the Atlantic Coast forest of Brazil and the northern Andes—two of the world's "hotspots" for threatened species. //

Rhyd Wildermuth is co-founder and managing editor of Gods&Radicals, a nonprofit pagan anticapitalist publication. Rhyd identifies as a pagan and an anarchist, and as we go over in this episode, those are not mutually exclusive terms. Rhyd gives a description as to why Paganism, in the Americanized sense, has lost touch with its radical anticapitalist roots, and through his work and writings, Rhyd is attempting to provide a much-needed reinterpretation of what it means to be Pagan in these tumultuous, crisis-laden times. Rhyd left America behind to spend his remaining days in Europe, where he currently resides. We discuss his expatriation, the recent events in Charlottesville and its fallout, and how anarchists and anti-capitalists of all stripes and creeds have work to do preparing and adapting to the accelerating collapse of capitalism and the American Empire. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/rhyd-wildermuth // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewi

In this episode, I speak with Jeremy Lent, author of The Pattering Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity's Search for Meaning, and founder and president of the Liology Institute. The premise of The Patterning Instinct is that culture shapes values, and that values shape history. Through this exploration, Jeremy examined various cultures and societies and determined the underlying premises of their cultural stories and metaphors, and how that informs how the collective patterns meaning onto the world and their place within it. We discuss the ways, through our understanding of humanity's pattering instinct, how our culture and society can begin to adopt more holistic understandings and relationships with our fellow human beings and life on this planet. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/jeremy-lent // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast