Last Born In The Wilderness

[Intro: 11:02] David Lundgren, tribal attorney and author, joins me to discuss his new book ‘Massacre Rocks: A Campaign of Deception.’  Through years of research, Dave has uncovered "inconsistencies in historical accounts of emigrant massacres along the Oregon Trail that did not reflect official governmental records," most notably in the case of a massacre of white emigrants allegedly committed by a small band of Shoshonis, on the site now designated as Massacre Rocks State Park located just west of American Falls, Idaho. These inconsistencies have revealed, as in the case of this particular massacre, that many of these acts of mass murder along the Oregon Trail were committed by Mormon settlers in the region. With this reality in mind, Dave and I discuss how this mass propaganda campaign to distort the history of this region has manifested in the white settler culture in southern Idaho. “The book was completed just before the Pocatello School District voted to end the use of the “Indians” mascot at Pocat

[Intro: 12:32] Melissa Troutman and Joshua Pribanic, co-directors of the documentary ‘Invisible Hand,’ join me to discuss the Rights of Nature movement beautifully documented in their film. I ask them to define the philosophy and legal framework communities across the US (and the world) are implementing to battle against corporate-led environmental destruction in their localities. “Rights of Nature are the beginning of a new legal paradigm in western culture. The idea argues that nature holds inalienable rights, and that vital parts of Nature — a river or watershed or ecosystem — shall be granted personhood in the court of law and be provided with legal standing to defend itself.” (http://bit.ly/37BPMA3) Granting legal rights to natural entities and systems — in which we are inextricably connected to — is one of several tactics that can be employed to forge a path toward protecting the natural world from environmentally destructive corporate practices in communities across the world. Melissa A. Troutman

[Intro: 10:02 | Outro: 39:18] Marjorie Cohn, professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and former president of the National Lawyers Guild, discusses President Trump and his legal team's ongoing attempt to perform an "electoral coup" since the presidential election last month. She describes, in detail, the legal challenges Trump's team have made in the last several weeks, as well as the likelihood of their success in undermining the result of the election in states across the United States. After that, we discuss the recent assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, Iran's top nuclear scientist, on November 27th. As she writes in a recent article in TruthOut:  “Although the Israeli government has not claimed credit for the illegal killing, there is little doubt of its culpability. Trump implicitly praised the assassination, retweeting a comment by Israeli journalist and intelligence expert Yossi Melman that the killing was a “major psychological and professional blow” to Iran. This was an “implicit app

[Intro: 8:17] Jared Yates Sexton, political commentator and author of 'American Rule: How A Nation Conquered The World But Failed Its People,' returns to the podcast to discuss the state of the Trump Administration and “Trumpism” post-election, with former Vice President Joe Biden winning the presidential election last month, and Trump still refusing to concede. What does politics look like and feel like in our post-modern era? Jared and I begin this discussion with that thought, that question, in mind. In the United States, we are about a month out since millions of citizens cast their votes in the presidential election, a contest between incumbent President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. Biden, having now decisively won in both the popular vote and Electoral College, presently awaits to be inaugurated President in January. While this may be objectively true, President Trump has refused to concede and admit defeat, instead doubling down and reinforcing claims that the electoral process

In this interview, I speak with Amy Lou, a registered nurse currently working in the ICU at the local hospital in Twin Falls, Idaho. Amy has been attending to patients suffering from COVID-19 for several months. She describes the impact this pandemic is having on healthcare workers' ability to provide an adequate level of care as infection rates in Idaho continue to spike, with insights into the heavy emotional/psychological toll imposed isolation has on patients and their loved ones as they battle the dire symptoms of the virus. A segment of this interview was featured in episode #277 of Last Born In The Wilderness “On The Frontline: COVID Crisis In Southern Idaho w/ Registered Nurses Of The Magic Valley.” Listen to the episode: https://bit.ly/LBWnurses WEBSITE: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com BOOK: http://bit.ly/ORBITgr PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness DONATE: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast DROP ME A LINE: Call (208) 918-2837 or http://bit.ly/LBWfiledrop EVERYTH

In this interview, I speak with Sami Ruggles, a registered nurse working in the COVID Unit at the local hospital here in Twin Falls, Idaho. Sami describes the impact the coronavirus pandemic is having on healthcare workers' ability to provide adequate care for patients suffering from the virus, as well as the role comorbidities in the general population has played in the severity of the public health crisis in this area.  A segment of this interview was featured in episode #277 of Last Born In The Wilderness “On The Frontline: COVID Crisis In Southern Idaho w/ Registered Nurses Of The Magic Valley.” Listen to the episode: https://bit.ly/LBWnurses WEBSITE: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com BOOK: http://bit.ly/ORBITgr PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness DONATE: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast DROP ME A LINE: Call (208) 918-2837 or http://bit.ly/LBWfiledrop EVERYTHING ELSE: https://linktr.ee/patterns.of.behavior

In this interview, I speak with Jennifer Gardner, a registered nurse living and working in Twin Falls, Idaho. Jennifer Gardner has a background in obstetrical nursing, and currently works in Perianesthesia in Southern Idaho. She has just completed her Master’s degree as a Family Nurse practitioner. I’ve known Jennifer for several years now, and asked her if she would be willing to discuss the impact the COVID-19 pandemic is having on healthcare workers in this area, including their ability to perform their jobs under current conditions. Idaho, like so many other states in the nation, is currently experiencing a dramatic rise in COVID-19 cases as we enter into the winter months, outpacing the initial surge of cases earlier this year. A segment of this interview was featured in episode #277 of Last Born In The Wilderness “On The Frontline: COVID Crisis In Southern Idaho w/ Registered Nurses Of The Magic Valley.” Listen to the episode: https://bit.ly/LBWnurses WEBSITE: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com

[J. Gardner: 11:24 | S. Ruggles: 31:18 | A. Lou: 50:34] In this episode, I speak with Jennifer Gardner, Sami Ruggles, and Amy Lou — registered nurses working locally in Southern Idaho. This episode is a compilation of segments of each of those interviews, with the full interviews to be released alongside this episode as well. Over the past few weeks, I conducted these interviews to provide a more direct, personal, and on-the-ground perspective of how the dramatic surge of novel coronavirus hospitalizations is impacting local healthcare workers and the medical system at large. Idaho, like so many other states in the United States, is currently experiencing a dramatic rise in COVID-19 cases as we enter into the winter months, dramatically outpacing the initial surge of cases earlier this year. What is happening here in Twin Falls County is reflective of what's happening in rural areas all over the United States. Jennifer Gardner has a background in obstetrical nursing, and currently works in perianesthesia

[Intro: 10:54] In this episode, I speak with Cultural Somatics practitioner and teacher Tada Hozumi. This discussion, in many ways, builds upon my previous interview with animist counselor Dare Sohei, a colleague of Tada's, in exploring and articulating the Cultural Somatic framework that encapsulates their approach in addressing systemic oppression, colonized bodies, dance, ancestral trauma, and call-out culture. To further define Tada's work and the Cultural Somatics framework, they state on their website that: 1. Cultures are in fact bodies, or rather ‘cultural somas’, that emerge from networks of relationships. Cultural somas are intangible in nature yet can function similarly to our own body that has a delicate nervous system. This fractal relationship between individual and cultural somas shows us that all somas, large and small, are meant to be in co-healing with each other. 2. The above-mentioned cultural somas are also fields in which all intangible ‘beings’, ones our elder cultures referred to as

[Intro: 7:44] In this episode, I speak with animist counselor and artist Dare Sohei.  In the very beginning of this discussion, I ask Dare what the animism in animist counseling is. As they state on their website and elaborate on further in this interview: "Animism, briefly, is the felt sense that all matter, all bodies are inhabited with spirit, including non-corporeal bodies such as ancestors, beliefs and ideas, that exert influence on our bodies, actions and cultures. All of our ancient ancestors were animists, even though that term is more modern." From there, Dare tells me how recognizing of our inherent relationships — whether they are secure or insecure attachments to our bodies, the land, ancestors, more-than-human life, and cultural somas (such as "white supremacy," and this thing we call "The United States of America") — can allow us to address the fundamental disconnection that is producing the crises we find ourselves in presently. This discussion gets a bit emotional for me towards the latter

[Intro: 8:46] In this episode, I speak with Dr. Ira Leifer, founder and CEO of Bubbleology Research International Inc, and researcher who specializes in bubble-related oceanographic processes, satellite remote sensing, and air pollution. Dr. Leifer explains how methane release, particularly from fossil fuel extraction and other industrial practices, has been a major contributor to rapid global temperature rise over the past decade and a half. He asserts that focusing so heavily on reducing CO2 emissions, while certainly the most consistent driver of anthropogenic climate change in the long term, has been something of a strategic mistake by climate activists and policymakers in nations across the planet. Not because it's not worth addressing, but because it ignores the most dramatic contributor to rapid climate disruption in the near term, methane. Also, of note and increasing relevance, is the increase of methane release in the Arctic region and its inevitable impact on the climate system. As Dahr Jamail

[Intro: 12:07] In this episode, I speak with prolific writer and historian Gary Lachman, author of numerous books on the evolution of consciousness, popular culture, and the history of the occult. Most recently, his works include ‘The Return of Holy Russia: Apocalyptic History, Mystical Awakening, and the Struggle for the Soul of the World’ and ‘Dark Star Rising: Magick and Power in the Age of Trump,’ both of which are the subject of this interview. In ‘Dark Star Rising,’ Gary Lachman delves into the occultic and esoteric influences that inform contemporary politics and power in the post-modern age, with a particular focus on the rise of Donald Trump in the United States and Vladimir Putin in post-Soviet Russia, as well as those who stand in the shadows of these figures, exerting their influence through subtle and not-so-subtle means. When the German philosopher Frederick Nietzsche proclaimed, in the 19th century, that “God is dead,” he was anticipating the approach of an “age of nihilism” that would define

[Intro: 7:20] In this episode, I speak with political activists and commentators Shemon and Arturo, authors of several articles published at Ill Will Editions, including ‘Theses on the George Floyd Rebellion,’ ‘The Rise of Black Counter-Insurgency,’ and ‘The Return of John Brown: White Race-Traitors in the 2020 Uprising.’ Since late May of this year, cities across the United States have been rocked by numerous riots and demonstrations in response to the highly publicized police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. What makes this national movement unique, particularly in comparison to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, is not only the scope of these uprisings, but also the mass participation of the white proletariat. While still remaining a BIPOC-led movement, countless white people have engaged in militant anti-racism direct action in the streets, openly breaking with the social and institutional construct of whiteness that “continues to be the glue that holds bourgeois society together in the U.S.”

[Intro: 8:02] In this episode, I speak with writer, arborist, and professional horticulturist Max Paschall. We discuss his essay ‘The Lost Forest Gardens of Europe,’ published at the Shelterwood Forest Farm website. In addressing the ever-increasing, ongoing impacts anthropogenic climate change is having on food production and land management, for those of us that descend from European colonizers in North America, what can we learn from the past? What relationship did our ancestors have with the lands they were indigenous to, and how did they adapt to rapid climatological and ecological shifts throughout the millennia? In Max's fascinating and illuminating essay ‘The Lost Forest Gardens of Europe,’ the answers to these questions come more into focus.   “Whereas modern industrial agriculture is descended from a distinctly imperialist Roman plantation system based on slave labor, systems like coltura promiscua [mixed cultivation] are the direct descendants of the indigenous forest gardens of pre-agricultural

[Intro: 8:06] In this episode, I speak with Alexander Reid Ross, author of 'Against the Fascist Creep', and Shane Burley, author of 'Fascism Today: What It Is and How to End It.' We discuss several important topics, including the historic ongoing wave of protests and uprisings across the United States since May this year, as well as the disturbing uptick of incidences of far-right vigilantism since then. We also examine one of the flash points in these struggles — Portland, Oregon — where Shane and Alexander are based. With protests persisting over 100 days at this point, Portland has been a beacon of resistance to police brutality and repression, with anti-racist protestors contending with intermittent violent intimidation from far-right groups, as well the recent intrusions from federal officers from various divisions of the Department of Homeland Security, loyal to President Trump. I ask Shane to explain the conditions journalists covering the protests are working under, highlighting numerous examples o

[Intro: 10:35 | Outro: 1:27:30] In this episode, I speak with writer, translator, and activist John Washington. We discuss his book ‘The Dispossessed: A Story of Asylum at the US-Mexican Border and Beyond,’ published by Verso Books. At the center of ‘The Dispossessed’ is the story of Arnovis, a Salvadorian man seeking asylum in the United States. As John weaves together the harrowing story of this man as he attempts  to cross numerous borders and countless obstacles on his journey northward, John expands his narrative to include the deeper history and purpose of asylum, the modern bureaucratic framework potential asylees must contend with, and the details and consequences of the uniquely cruel immigration policies enacted by numerous presidential administrations (and most recently, the Trump Administration and their family separation policy). As much as “asylum seekers are expected to unveil themselves, to recount their histories, and to exhibit their wounds," the same cannot be said of those that are in a

[Intro: 7:30] In this episode, Kollibri terre Sonnenblume and I speak with Dr. Riane Eisler — social systems scientist, cultural historian, and attorney. She is the author of numerous books, including most famously ‘The Chalice and The Blade: Our History, Our Future,’ and most recently ‘Nurturing Our Humanity: How Domination and Partnership Shape Our Brains, Lives, and Future,’ co-authored with anthropologist Douglas Fry. Kollibri is the host of the Voices For Nature & Peace podcast, and this interview will be released on both of our respective programs. Partnership and domination — paradigms that stand at either end of what humanity has been capable of producing in societies and cultures throughout human history. Dr. Eisler's decades of groundbreaking research into the roots of each of these paradigms has lifted the veil of what human beings are truly capable of — expanding our view of what "human nature" really is — by drawing on numerous sources of research from anthropology, archeology, psychology, and

[Intro: 8:18] In this episode, I speak with writer and editor Vicky Osterweil, author of ‘In Defense of Looting: A Riotous History of Uncivil Action’ published through Bold Type Books. In her book ‘In Defense of Looting,’ Vicky discusses the history of looting — the mass act of publicly and directly seizing goods — and the vital role this act of wealth distribution has played (and continues to play) in movements toward addressing injustices of and abolishing the state, white supremacy, and capitalism. "From slave revolts to labor strikes to the modern-day movements for climate change, Black lives, and police abolition, Osterweil makes a convincing case for rioting and looting as weapons that bludgeon the status quo while uplifting the poor and marginalized." In our discussion, I ask her to dispense with, point by point, the various arguments that are made against looting and rioting. These arguments include that looters: - “are outside agitators" - “are destroying their own neighborhoods"  - "are not prot

[Intro: 11:24] In this episode, I speak with Derek Beres, Matthew Remski, and Julian Walker, hosts of the Conspirituality podcast. In continuing my exploration into QAnon and the widespread proliferation of and cult-like adherence to conspiracy theory thinking in the United States, I felt it was time to have this discussion with the hosts of this timely, well crafted, and increasingly needed podcast project. Conspirituality uncovers the intricate dynamics at play in the merging of the Health and Wellness community and its online influencers with this far right conspiracy theory — including the cult dynamics at play in its popularity and spread, the role social media plays in disseminating these ideas, and what the popularity of these ideas means for political action and discourse in our time of rising authoritarianism and right wing populism. “As the alt-right and New Age horseshoe toward each other in a blur of disinformation, well-intentioned discourse and honest debate are being smothered. Charismatic i

[Intro: 11:36] In this episode I speak with Margaret Killjoy — anarchist author, musician, and crafter. In the wake of the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests and uprisings since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, "anarchists" have been in the news. Whether it's President Trump calling for the arrest of "radical-left anarchists" and "Antifa," or Democratic presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden stating that “arsonists and anarchists should be prosecuted,” there is a long history of anarchists being scapegoated by the political elite in times of civil unrest. I ask Margaret to provide some historical context to these statements by Trump and Biden, pointing to the Russian Revolution in 1917 and the Haymarket Affair of 1886 in the United States, and the role anarchists played in each of these respective events. From there, we move into discussing a recent essay published on her website ‘Art and the Void,’ in which she explores creativity and artistic exploration, using the