Last Born In The Wilderness

[Intro: 8:06 | Outro: 1:04:00] Indigenous archeologist Dr. Paulette Steeves (Cree-Métis) joins me to discuss 'The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere' (University of Nebraska Press), “a reclaimed history of the deep past of Indigenous people in North and South America during the Paleolithic." There are myths we are told growing up — be it via schooling, popular media, or elsewhere — that people have lived in the Western Hemisphere for only 10-12,000 years, at most. This is the Clovis First theory. In archeology in particular, this framework, that the peopling of the North and South American continents could only have occurred that recently, is treated as dogma. In comparison to the astounding discoveries made by archeologists on other continents — pushing back human and protohominid migration, settlement, and cultural development hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years into the past — why is it that this story has persisted in this field for so long? This is especially troubling when o

Independent political analyst and CounterPunch Radio host Eric Draitser returns to the podcast to provide an update on the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. The last we spoke about this subject was March 2nd, seven days into the invasion. Eight months into this war, I ask Eric: Where do the Russians and Ukrainians stand in this blatant war of aggression by Putin? Who stands to gain from prolonging this conflict? What are Russia and NATO's endgame? For all the calls for an end to the conflict through negotiation, what, in fact, could or would that even look like? As the war drags on, we look on in horror as this neocolonialist, revanchist invasion grinds more human bodies on the fields of battle. Russia, to meet the imperialist vision laid out before the world, conscript thousands of men to continue the war. Many more flee the country to escape such a dire fate. While Ukraine is reduced to rubble, Russian society is flung into numerous, cascading crises — both material and existential in scope. Geopolitica

Death Panel co-host and disability justice advocate Beatrice Adler-Bolton returns to the podcast to discuss their new book 'Health Communism: A Surplus Manifesto,' co-authored with Artie Vierkant and published through Verso Books. 'Health Communism' “offers an overview of life and death under capitalism and argues for a new global left politics aimed at severing the ties between capital and one of its primary tools: health.” Throughout this 90 minute interview, Beatrice and I build on our last discussion in March (during which we discussed the “sociological production of the end of the pandemic”), incorporating concepts outlined in 'Health Communism.' Key among those are defining the “surplus” class or population(s), in which, under the economic valuation of life under capitalism, whole populations are relegated to a regime of “extractive abandonment” — “the process by which these populations are made profitable to capital”, and a “means by which the state constructs “health” culturally, politically, and ins

Dr. Mohamed Abdou joins me to discuss 'Islam and Anarchism: Relationships and Resonances,' published this year by Pluto Press. What are the relationships and resonances between anarchism and Islam? Anarchism, through its Western manifestation, claims "no gods, no masters" as fundamental to anti-authoritarianism, both in theory and practice. Through that lens, what "relationships and resonances" then exist between anarchism and a religious and spiritual system such as Islam? And, ultimately, what can self-identified anarchists in predominately non-Muslim majority Western nations, and practitioners of Islam the world-over, learn from one another? Piercing through Orientalist, Islamophobic stereotypes of the "Muslim" in the Western imaginary, even in spaces that claim to be opposed to such shallow, two-dimensional characterizations, is crucial in forging solidarities against the common enemies of liberation and social justice: heteropatriarchy, authoritarianism, fascism, capitalism, colonialism. In reading 'Is

Anarchist writer and activist Peter Gelderloos returns to the podcast to discuss ecological revolution from below, beautifully documented in his book 'The Solutions are Already Here: Strategies for Ecological Revolution from Below,' published this year by Pluto Press. Nothing short of revolution is required to address the global ecological crisis. The technocratic solutions presented to us by various capitalist nation-states are less than sufficient in mitigating the most dire consequences of biospheric collapse and runaway climate change. In fact, more than just merely insufficient, these top-down so-called “solutions” reimpose the dominant socioeconomic and political order producing the crisis to begin with. As Gelderloos describes and points to 'The Solutions are Already Here,' numerous land-based movements around the world are rising to the occasion — actively protecting territories from extractive capitalist enterprises, reclaiming what has been taken and exploited for industry, and building resilient a

Dr. Aby Sène joins me to discuss fortress conservationism and the 30x30 plan, a proposal by Western conservation agencies and their corporate and state allies "to double the coverage of protected areas around the world by setting aside 30 percent of terrestrial cover for conservation by 2030." On the surface, the 30x30 proposal (the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework) to protect biodiversity and wildlife seems like a promising step in halting deforestation, unfettered resource extraction, and poaching of endangered wildlife across Africa, but as Dr. Sène eloquently describes in her work, this plan is but a continuation of the colonialist dynamics that have existed between the Global North and the Global South for centuries. These conservation efforts, aptly termed "fortress conservation,” is in reality part of a “colossal land grab," displacing indigenous communities from their lands and depriving them of traditional sources of sustenance and place-based cultural practices. There are many threads to fo

Michael Truscello joins me to discuss his book 'Infrastructural Brutalism: Art and the Necropolitics of Infrastructure,' in which he “looks at the industrial infrastructure not as an invisible system of connectivity and mobility that keeps capitalism humming in the background but as a manufactured miasma of despair, toxicity, and death. Truscello terms this “infrastructural brutalism”—a formulation that not only alludes to the historical nexus of infrastructure and the concrete aesthetic of Brutalist architecture but also describes the ecological, political, and psychological brutality of industrial infrastructures.” What is infrastructure? How does it shape our lives, direct our movements, and inform our worldviews? And, furthermore, what is the nature of the systems that produce the kinds of infrastructure we live our lives within and through? As Michael Truscello identifies in his book 'Infrastructural Brutalism,' there is a brutal logic that underlies the infrastructure projects of the 20th and 21st cent

Artist, writer, and death worker Rachael Rice joins me to discuss death practice, entitlement, and honesty in our time of collapse and extinction. This is an honest conversation, between friends. Both Rachael and I have very different lived experiences, but we align in several significant ways, especially when it comes to interpreting and navigating an extraordinarily messy time. The felt sense and scope of loss in the midst of the ongoing pandemic is shared between us. We bear witness to the wide-spread denial and full-faced First World entitlement — the “return to normal” and “I’ve-got-mine-ism” of it all, from top to bottom. It is a lot to bear. And yet, we acknowledge the time we are living through may be remembered as the good ol’ days in the years and decades to come. It should be remembered, or learned, that pandemics are ecological. So are the droughts, heatwaves, wildfires, and floods that are so common at this time. The pace of change is dizzying, and not letting up. How does an industrialized soc

Michael Laufer of the Four Thieves Vinegar Collective returns to the podcast to reiterate the aims of the group, and update us on the collective's recent and soon to be launched projects.  As a founding member of this project, Dr. Laufer's objective has been to communicate the philosophical and material objectives of the organization, which has been described as "an anarchist biohacking group." Since its founding in 2015, the collective has worked to provide the information needed to produce DIY pharmaceutical drugs safely and equitably, particularly for a population, like those that live within the borders of the United States, that do not have easy and affordable access to them. This is especially relevant when we discuss, in this interview, the recent Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe and Casey, leaving a sizable portion of the US population without access to pregnancy terminating procedures and abortifacient drugs. Dr. Laufer and the collective's response to this has been to provide, in an open and

Meteorologist and geoscientist Nicholas Humphrey returns to the podcast, sharing his insights into the various catastrophic, record-breaking heatwaves and weather events currently playing out in numerous regions across the planet. He explains how the complex dynamics of anthropogenic climate disruption is quickening the pace of these events, and in turn, how ill adapted and ill prepared we are in addressing the realities of this predicament. Nicholas Humphrey is a meteorologist and geoscientist, with the focus on extreme weather events and their connection to our destabilizing climate. Nick’s goal is to communicate, in an interdisciplinary fashion, the serious risks from climate tipping points, extreme weather events, and ecological collapse. He graduated with a BS in Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus in societal impacts of extreme weather from South Dakota State University in 2013, and earned a MS in Geosciences - Applied Meteorology from Mississippi State University in 2016. He is a second year PhD st

Renowned climate scientist and "ice maverick" Dr. Jason Box joins me to discuss the specific and broad implications of anthropogenic climate disruption. He cites nearly three decades worth of on-the-ground documentation of the impacts human industrial activity is having on the rapidly thawing Greenland ice sheet, written about extensively in his independently published book ‘Faster Than Forecast: The Story Ice Tells Us About Climate Change.’ Jason Box is a professor in Glaciology and Climate at the Geologic Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS). Since 1994, he has made 30 expeditions to Greenland to install and maintain measurement networks on Greenland ice. He is a lead author for Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP) and a contributing author to the most recent three Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment reports. He is an outspoken advocate for climate change risk management, including having joined panels to evaluate climate altering technologies. Jason specializes in sate

Darcia Narvaez and Four Arrows join me to discuss their recently published book ‘Restoring the Kinship Worldview: Indigenous Voices Introduce 28 Precepts for Rebalancing Life on Planet Earth,’ a work that contains "selected speeches from Indigenous leaders around the world—necessary wisdom for our times, nourishment for our collective, and a path away from extinction toward a sustainable, interconnected future." As I comment in the beginning of this discussion, reading this book has been a necessary balm to the various subjects I've explored on the podcast of late. This work has reminded me that our civilization's capacity for mass violence, systemic oppression, exploitation, and the destruction of life-systems of the earth is not representative of human nature, nor the human condition, as a whole. The dominant worldview that pervades all facets of modern, industrial human life is the outcome of centuries, if not millennia, of bad habits and intergenerational trauma. The kinship worldview, highlighted in thi

Journalist Arun Gupta returns to the podcast to discuss the "very corporeal ideology" of fascism, the so-called "Great Replacement Theory,” the recent mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, and how each of these subjects tie into the broader sociopolitical project of the far right in the United States. The ideological and conspiratorial framework of the “Great Replacement Theory” has motivated numerous individuals to commit racist mass violence over the years, with one of the most prominent examples being the recent massacre in Buffalo, New York by an 18-year-old white man on May 14th. It also, as Gupta lucidly articulates in this interview, informs the underlying white grievance politics and goals of the conservative right in the United States, informing the rhetoric of the most popular political commentators in the country, namely Fox News star pundit Tucker Carlson. With the stated aims and motivations laid bare in the manifesto of the mass shooter in Buffalo, and Carlson mainstreaming these ideas in more di

Atmospheric scientist Tim Garrett joins me to discuss, among other things, collapse. Contained within this hour-long interview, we cover the thermodynamics of civilizational growth and inevitable decline, the irrationality of dominant economic theory, Jevons Paradox, and his fascinating and wondrous study of clouds and snowflakes. Tim Garrett is Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Utah, and his research mostly focuses on the complex interplay between aerosols, clouds, precipitation, radiation and climate. Episode Notes: - Learn more about Tim’s work and follow him on Twitter: https://www.inscc.utah.edu/~tgarrett / https://twitter.com/nephologue - Song featured is “Bells Buzzes and Bows for Breen” by Scott Farkas. Used with permission: https://youtu.be/NU92uyOU9-w WEBSITE: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness DONATE: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast / https://venmo.com/LastBornPodcast BOOK LIST: https://bookshop.org/sho

Author, teacher, and editor Max Haiven joins me to discuss his book ‘Palm Oil: The Grease of Empire,’ published through Pluto Books. As Silvia Federici states, this book "powerfully demonstrates how, by following the history of a key commodity, we can reconstruct the logic of imperial capitalism: its destruction of land and bodies, its drive to constantly reduce the means of our reproduction, its relentless production of oppressive regimes." In this discussion, Haiven details the contours of such subjects as commodity fetishism and human sacrifice, as well as points to the straight line that shoots through the heinous histories of chattel slavery and Western imperialism to the formation of the modern global capitalist order, by focusing on one primary and ubiquitous product we all, throughout the course of lives, have consumed countless times and in countless ways: palm oil. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/max-haiven // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborni

Activist, analyst, and author Brynn Tannehill joins me to discuss the recent leak of the Supreme Court's drafted majority opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade and Casey. Having extensively documented the factors leading to the fascist turn the United States is taking in her book ‘American Fascism: How the GOP Is Subverting Democracy’ and elsewhere, Tannehill predicted a conservative stacked Supreme Court would, in due time, overturn several sweeping decisions the Court has made over the decades, including: the expansion and protection of reproductive rights, same-sex marriage, interracial marriage, and more. As the Republican Party openly moves into fascist territory and the Democratic Party fecklessly concedes to the GOP's sweeping agenda, whatever rights and protections that have been granted by the federal government for marginalized groups will be effectively rescinded. Overturning Roe v. Wade is just the beginning. A far-right autocracy is on the horizon. Brynn Tannehill is a leading trans activist and essa

Political theorist, anti-capitalist activist, and translator Sabu Kohso joins me to discuss his book ‘Radiation and Revolution,’ a text that "uses the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster to illuminate the relationship between nuclear power, capitalism, and the nation-state." This interview was recorded in the Gray Coast Guildhall in Quilcene, WA, for the Communal Life & Planetary Relations at the End of This World event, held on March 12, 2022. In ‘Radiation and Revolution,’ Sabu Kohso argues that “nuclear power is not a mere source of energy—it has become the organizing principle of the global order and the most effective way to simultaneously accumulate profit and govern the populace.” The 2011 Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear disaster and its effects live with us today. “The year 2011 was,” as he writes in his article ‘Radiation, Pandemic, Insurrection’ published in The New Inquiry, “the beginning of the present: an age of endless disasters and struggles against ruling powers under the catastrophic conditions thereb

Award-winning investigative journalist, media critic, and activist Barrett Brown joins me to discuss Silicon Valley billionaire and venture capitalist Peter Thiel. He describes the complex web of media outlets and personalities, hackers, and intelligence community assets connected directly or indirectly with Thiel — a powerful, enormously well-resourced figure aiming to undermine the last remnants of democracy and the open society. Barrett Brown is a writer and activist. His work has appeared in Vanity Fair, The Guardian, The Intercept, Huffington Post, New York Press, Skeptic, The Daily Beast, Al Jazeera, and other outlets. In 2009, he founded Project PM, a “distributed think tank” later repurposed to oversee a crowdsourced investigation into private intelligence contractors and little-known surveillance/disinformation methodologies. In 2011 and 2012, he worked with Anonymous on campaigns involving the Tunisian revolution, state misconduct, and other issues. In 2012, Brown was arrested and later sentenced t

Charlie Angus, MP for the riding of Timmins-James Bay in Ontario, Canada, joins me to discuss his new book ‘Cobalt: Cradle of the Demon Metals, Birth of a Mining Superpower,’ published through House of Anansi Press. He shines a light on how the fascinating, and disturbing, history of a small mining town in Ontario, aptly named Cobalt, is tied up in the genocidal, and ecocidal, history of the nation-state of Canada, and its outsized role in the global mining industry today. What does a small town in northern Ontario have to with Canada's rise to becoming the world's reigning mining superpower? How is cobalt, this "demonic" metal, tied to some of the most horrific crimes of settler-colonialism and financial, extractive capitalism in the modern era? “The tale of the early-twentieth-century mining rush at Cobalt has been told as a settler's adventure, but Indigenous people had already been trading in metals from the region for two thousand years. And the events that happened here — the theft of Indigenous land

Beatrice Adler-Bolton, disability justice advocate and co-host of the Death Panel podcast, joins me to discuss the sociological production of the "end of the pandemic," and what that means for the "surplus" populations made most vulnerable by the economic demands of capital. She is the author of the upcoming book ‘Health Communism: A Surplus Manifesto,’ co-authored with Artie Vierkant, which "argues for a new global left politics aimed at severing the ties between capital and health." As the hosts of the Death Panel podcast have documented, discussed, and warned, the declarations made by the political and economic elites that we have entered into a "post-Covid" reality — where any and all public health measures meant to mitigate the spread of the virus are effectively lifted, and deemed unnecessary moving forward — is but a sociological construct, not based in epidemiological reality and sound public health policy. We have entered into the "let it rip" phase of the pandemic, it seems. What does this means fo