Last Born In The Wilderness

Eric Draitser, independent political analyst and host of CounterPunch Radio, joins me to discuss the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We recorded this discussion March 3rd 2022 — exactly seven days into this ongoing conflict. Eric has been publishing very concise, clear, and measured analysis of the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian military almost daily since it began — mostly through 15-20 minute videos published publicly, and through his Patreon page for his supporters. He applies a principled anti-imperialist, anti-war, and leftist approach to his detailed summaries of this situation as it unfolds — pointing to the roles that both Russian leadership (primarily Russian President Vladimir Putin) and the United States and its NATO partners in Europe have played in the escalation of this conflict. What are the short-term, and long-term, aims of Russia in this invasion? What is the historical context this war sits within? What are the ideological components to this? And most importantly, who ultimately suffers f

Lily Kay Ross, sexual violence researcher and Arts and Gender Editor at Psymposia, joins me to discuss her research and insights into the dark underbelly of psychedelic therapy — a subject expertly explored in Power Trip, a New York Magazine investigative podcast series she is the co-creator and producer of. As psychedelics become less stigmatized in the West and popularized as tools for trauma therapy and vehicles for spiritual enlightenment, Lily Kay Ross has been documenting something far more complex and nefarious under the surface of the optimistic image of the "psychedelic renaissance": sexual misconduct and abuse; pervasive ethical malfeasance. As she documents in Power Trip, there are numerous documented cases of so-called shamans and psychedelic guides taking advantage of their clients, violating bodily autonomy, and gaslighting victims into accepting abuse as "part of the healing journey." This issue has been raised numerous times over the years, and Lily has observed, and personally experienced,

Andy Ciccone and Elliott Evans, hosts of The Poor Prole's Almanac, join me to discuss a variety of subjects relating to the broad subject of collapse. We expound on what the "death wobbles" of the fragmenting, and declining, society we live within means for present and near future survival. How do we prepare for what is happening? How do we orient ourselves beyond the hyper-individualist notion of "prepping" for the apocalypse, as is often conceived of in US culture? The Poor Prole's Almanac is a podcast that provides a leftist perspective on prepping, foraging, homesteading, weapons, community-building, and global warming during late-stage capitalism. Episode Notes: - Subscribe to The Poor Prole’s Almanac: https://thepoorprolesalamanac.podbean.com / - Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PoorProlesAlmanac - Links to everything else: https://linktr.ee/PoorProles - Andy mentions Earthbound, a “cooperative channel designed to be a resource of skill-sharing and strengthen community-wide autonomy”:

Pagan author and poet Christopher Scott Thompson joins me to discuss the intersections between animism and anarchism as defined in his essays, and books, published through Gods & Radicals Press, including Pagan Anarchism, and most recently, The Book of Onei (an antinomian dream grimoire), and If In Ruins We Must Live (a collection of mystic poetry). Christopher Scott Thompson is an anarchist, martial arts instructor, and devotee of Brighid and Macha. Episode Notes: - Read Christopher’s work at Gods & Radicals Press: https://abeautifulresistance.org - Learn more about and purchase Pagan Anarchism, The Book of One, and If In Ruins We Must Live: https://bit.ly/3KEUcaA / https://bit.ly/3KxD9HL / https://bit.ly/3GQSaC2 - His personal blog: https://noctiviganti.wordpress.com - The music featured is by Waxie: https://waxiemusiclibrary.com WEBSITE: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness DONATE: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast / https://venmo.c

[Intro: 7:46] Award-winning journalist, policy researcher, author, and historian Paul Street joins me to discuss the highly controversial and divisive Kyle Rittenhouse case and subsequent acquittal. Along with providing a substantive exploration of the broad sociopolitical context of this trial, we also touch on the case of the modern day lynching of Ahmaud Arbery and the recent conviction of the men that murdered him in Georgia, the concerted legislative push in Republican dominated states across the U.S. to impose harsher voter restrictions and roll back reproductive rights on the national level, and what these trends mean for the upcoming elections of 2022 and 2024, and electoral politics as a whole. In this interview, Paul Street and I don’t so much as dwell on the gruesome, and often tedious, details of the trial of Rittenhouse (such as whether the act of shooting three protestors could be justified as self-defense or not), but rather the broader context these events fit within. Specifically, how the v

[Intro: 8:34] Rob Wallace — evolutionary epidemiologist, agroecologist, and author of ‘Dead Epidemiologists: On the Origins of COVID-19’ — joins me to discuss the complex interplay between the increase of infectious pathogens globally, the role of epidemiology within the neoliberal capitalist project, agribusiness and ecological destruction, and Empire at the end of the "cycle of accumulation" in late stage capitalism. We reference his large body of work, but in particular two of his most recent Patreon pieces, ‘A Spray of Split Seconds’ and ‘Vic Berger's American Public Health.’ Zootonic pathogen spillover into human populations is on the upward trend. The high-speed evisceration of the last remaining intact biodiverse regions on the planet, in conjunction with agribusiness’s rapacious exploitation of biological life, meets the conditions for highly contagious viruses to evolve and leap from animal to human hosts more successfully and frequently. Regarding this epidemiological reality, Rob Wallace is an ar

[Intro: 12:12] Michael Beyea Reagan, historian and activist, joins me to discuss his book ‘Intersectional Class Struggle: Theory and Practice,’ an "innovative study [that] explores the relevance of class as a theoretical category in our world today, arguing that leading traditions of class analysis have missed major elements of what class is and how it operates." In our time of increasing wealth disparity and widespread socioeconomic precarity for the working class (dubbed the "Second Gilded Age"), how can intersectionality, as a theoretical framework and practice, help us more deeply understand and appreciate the liberatory struggles of racial, economic, and feminist movements? Reagan, through his excellent historical documentation in ‘Intersectional Class Struggle,’ has provided a more nuanced, and richer, view of class consciousness that does not fit into crude boxes.  "Using a historical lens, it studies the experiences of working class peoples, from migrant farm workers in California’s central valley,

[Intro: 8:43] Mark Freeman, narrative psychologist and Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Society at the College of the Holy Cross, discusses his book 'Do I Look at You with Love?: Reimagining the Story of Dementia' — documenting the final twelve years of his mother’s life of cognitive decline with dementia. This interview explores the complex reality of the narratives of the self, memory, the “tragic promise” of dementia, relationship, and the final acts of care one can provide for a dying loved one. “'Do I Look at You with Love?' were the words uttered by Mark Freeman’s mother when she learned, once again, that he was her son. This book explores the experience of dementia as it transpired during the course of the final twelve years of her life, from the time of her diagnosis until her death in 2016 at age 93. As a longtime student of memory, identity, and narrative, as well as the son of a woman with dementia, he had a remarkable opportunity to try to understand and tell her story. Much of the story is

[Intro: 12:50] Rune Hjarnø Rasmussen, historian of religion and founder of the Nordic Animism project, returns to the podcast to discuss animism and the Raven totem flag project he, and others, have created to define and symbolize humanity's role in the climate disrupted present we find ourselves in. Through years of in-depth research into the history and contemporary practice of animist religious/spiritual traditions the world over, Rune has unique insight into the nature of the numerous crises the world finds itself in presently. In our first discussion on this podcast, he framed the global climate crisis through the myth of Ragnarök, famously depicted in the Old Norse poem Völuspá. In this interview, I ask him to help us understand, though a mythic lens, the roots of the widespread proliferation of conspiracist thinking (endemic within the United States) in our “post-truth” era. How has modernity produced this crisis of meaning in the Western world today? What value can animism provide, not only in ident

[Intro: 11:43] Writer, poet, and essayist Sophie Strand joins me to discuss the "emergency of storytelling" in our climate disrupted present and future, and the subjects she explores in her upcoming book releases, 'The Madonna Secret,' and 'The Flowering Wand: Lunar Kings, Lichenized Lovers, Transpecies Magicians, and Rhizomatic Harpists Heal the Masculine.' Sophie and I entered this conversation a bit fuzzy, a little stunned. We acknowledge this from the get go. We were processing devastating news that morning: Hurricane Ida crashed and dragged itself from south to north across the East Coast, overwhelming the infrastructure, shutting down the grid and flooding cities. We discuss how climatologically, ecologically, we can feel how things have shifted tremendously — in the Northwest where I live, and in Hudson Valley where Sophie lives. While, personally, I tend to explore this broad subject on this podcast, Sophie writes about it. In her essay 'Storytelling is an Emergency: An Ecological Reading of Scheher

Journalist Shane Burley joins me to discuss his newest book, 'Why We Fight: Essays on Fascism, Resistance, and Surviving the Apocalypse,' published through AK Press. Smoke choked cities. Supply chain disruptions. Pandemic. Riots. Fascist violence. The calamitous events of 2020 sent shock waves through the social fabric of the United States. There is the pervasive sense that we've crossed a threshold, one that cannot be walked back or reversed. In 'Why We Fight,' Burley navigates this territory of the here and now, providing deep insights into the conditions that gave rise to some of the most dramatic developments of the past several years. In this interview, I ask Burley to provide updates into the evolution of fascist politics during this time, and what antifascist resistance to the far right looks like, and must adapt to, in a time of apocalyptic rupture. Shane Burley is a writer and filmmaker based in Portland, Oregon. His essays, criticism and journalism has been featured in places like Jacobin, Al J

[Intro: 12:43] Journalist, activist, and author Eric Laursen joins me to discuss his recent book ‘The Operating System: An Anarchist Theory of the Modern State,’ published through AK Press. Anarchism presents a unique challenge to State power. Since it emerged as a coherent political and social movement in the 18th and 19th centuries, anarchists of various stripes and creeds have pointed to the illegitimate power the State holds, and the role it has played in the dominance of Capital in forming and shaping the trajectory of human societies up to the present day. What would a contemporary critique and theory of the State look like through an anarchist lens? The State, like so much since the dawn of the 21st century, has had to adapt itself to the crises of the times we live in, from climate disruption, economic expansion and contraction, and the Covid-19 pandemic. We can then ask: has the State been up to the task? Or, instead, has it only further exasperated the conditions we live within? How can anarchism

[Intro: 9:24] Ecologist and prolific author Carl Safina joins me to discuss his work with the more-than-human (animal) world, particularly his writings about the cultures and emotional lives of various animal communities, beautifully documented in two of his most recent books, 'Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel' and 'Becoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace.' Human beings, or to be more specific, human beings within modern industrial cultures, tend to believe that Homo sapiens are the only species on Earth that are cultural. As Safina has documented in his work, this is simply not the case. Numerous species have culture, including, but not limited to, various primates, birds, and whales. What we can learn about the evolutionary function of culture from these animal communities, including the role the perception and appreciation of beauty, plays in the evolutionary process? At the very end of this interview, I ask Safina to discuss his appreciation of Herman

[Intro: 6:52] Critically acclaimed author Melissa Febos joins me to discuss her most recent collection of essays, ‘Girlhood’ — "a gripping set of stories about the forces that shape girls and the adults they become." I first became aware of Melissa and her book Girlhood from an essay she published in The New York Times Magazine titled ‘I Spent My Life Consenting to Touch I Didn’t Want,’ adapted from an essay published in the then-to-be-released ‘Girlhood’. Her personal reflections on the concept of "empty consent" from her experiences attending a cuddle party (pre-pandemic), compelled me to contact her to discuss the complex issues she deftly navigates through that essay. After reading Girlhood, I recognized the significance of her masterful writing and exploration of her own childhood and development into womanhood. We discuss, within the 47-minute interview, a few of the significant insights I drew out of my reading, including the gradients of consent and trauma, and the role men can, and must, play in up

Oh goodness, finally, it’s done. It took too long to produce — a month or so longer than I intended to put this all together. I became exhausted, weary of hearing my own voice, editing hours of audio, listening and trimming and organizing and reorganizing and recording my wandering commentary, cutting and slicing and trimming, exporting, finding mistakes, fixing and then re-exporting, uploading chunky hi-quality audio files, writing provocative titles and descriptions, editing eye-catching designs — all about the end of things. Death, love, grief, anger, plagues and human resistance to systemic violence, denial-isms — the void at the heart of it. It’s all enough to make one take a long nap, and believe me, I took plenty. This long, seven part series (something I half-seriously call an episode) is a labor of love. With each part, I was able to pull at the threads of this work over the previous 100 episodes; each major theme I’ve explored through dozens of interviews coalesced into seven hours-long audio comp

Finally, we have reached the end—in more ways than one. This long series has been a labor of love. It took too long to produce, but ultimately, preparing and releasing each of these parts has been a gratifying, and even cathartic, experience. This last part, fittingly, is a meditation on endings, transitions, the death of things. And, most importantly, love—the love that accompanies all of it. We are meeting a time of many endings. The overly-complex systems that govern modern human life are meeting their inevitable demise. Centuries of human industrial activity has thrown the living systems of the Earth into disarray, and mass extinction ensues. The global climate is beyond repair, with enough heat baked into the system to guarantee several degrees of warming over the next several decades and centuries—a fact that cannot be contested. The question of human extinction is less a matter of "if" but more a matter of "when." If what is happening is happening, how, then, shall we live? This part seven is not m

We are haunted beings. Unintegrated traumas, like ghosts, possess us, poison us — until they don’t. Colonization, rupturous, severs the body from its relations, from ancestors and earth. It flattens the diversity of human experience, relying on the multifaceted dynamics of intergenerational trauma to replicate itself, in perpetuity. Like ghosts, these traumas haunt us, hijack us. The line between the abuser and the abused is blurred, trauma compounds, cutting in all directions. Decolonization is an ongoing counter-process to this. Naming these ghostly bodies, making them visible, speaking to them, opens up revolutionary space for healing, reforging relation to all beings, corporeal and non-corporeal alike. This compilation of eleven interviews pulls on the threads of these subjects, navigating the contours of developmental psychology, ancestral trauma, whiteness, depression and shame, gender and masculinity. // Timeline + sources: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/300-6 // Download: https

Let us gaze into the void at the heart of this country. What happened on January 6th was neither the beginning, nor the endpoint, of the fascist trajectory this nation has been lurching headlong toward. It was a flashpoint. The events that led to this explosion of violence did not happen in a vacuum. Donald Trump’s rise to the highest political office in the land was neither an anomaly nor an accident. Decades of neoliberal decay, widespread white anxiety, and the inherent spiritual rot at the core of this settler-colonial project has almost guaranteed the growth of a virulent fascism in our time of mounting crises. This compilation of ten interviews, conducted over the past two years, is an attempt to track the various forces that led to the MAGA riot at the Capitol. Weaving together interviews that track the decline of the U.S. empire, the ramping up of the sadistic treatment and dehumanization of undocumented immigrants along the border, the metaphysical landscape of the “post-modern” age we reside in,

Everything changed after the 3rd Precinct fell. In 2020, a pandemic began to course its way through the collective body, and the dead began to pile up. Tens of millions of U.S. citizens lost their jobs, and the capitalist system shuttered. As it turns out, these are the perfect conditions for revolt. On May 25th, George Floyd was murdered by a white police officer in the streets of Minneapolis. Everyone saw the video, and it was undeniable. We witnessed something as old as this country itself play out, again. Riots broke out, but this time, the righteous rage persisted and spread. Each of these nine interviews, interwoven with commentary, documents this time of expansive unrest and stochastic terror. Timeline and sources: www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/300-4 Download: https://bit.ly/LBW300-4 Featuring: - Silvia Federici - Gerald Horne - Chris Hedges - Mike Africa Jr. - Shane Burley - Shemon & Arturo - Vicky Osterweil - Arun Gupta - Frank B. Wilderson III WEBSITE: https://www.lastborninthewild

May we live in interesting times. The fertile grounds that bred a novel, deadly coronavirus and the misinformation that accompanied its spread is our subject. Over the last year-and-a-half since COVID spilled over, and more specifically, when our collective reaction to it began to reshape every aspect of our lives, I conducted numerous interviews to make sense of this thing. Disruptions in the very fragile (and simultaneously resilient) global economic system, mass death, overburdened healthcare workers, the widespread proliferation of conspiracy theories, fascistic outbursts, mutual aid networks, and the uncomfortable questions that arise, characterize this audio narrative I’ve cobbled together for your listening pleasure. Timeline and sources: www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/300-3 Featuring: - John Feffer - Alley Valkyrie - Jared Yates Sexton - Derek Beres - Matthew Remski - Julian Walker - Amy Lou - Shane Burley - Duncan Tarr - Ja Reyalidad - Joe Brewer - Bayo Akomolafe WEBSITE: https://w