End of Year Reflections: Four Years of The Great Simplification
In this week’s episode, Nate reflects on four years(!) of the podcast by answering listener-submitted questions, which cover a broad range of topics related to The Great Simplification.
A New Oilsands Pipeline? What Politicians Won’t Admit
Instead of floating grandiose export pipeline projects as solutions to a rising tide of problems, the Canadian government might want to change course.
Tools for growing the commons
The true strength lies in the careful combination of these tools into multi-layered, living systems—creating the conditions not just for protection, but for long-term flourishing.
Afro-Descendant Communities Offer a Living Blueprint for Amazon Conservation
Lands managed by Afro-descendant peoples in the Amazon experience dramatically lower deforestation and house some of the planet’s richest ecosystems—showing how centuries-old stewardship can guide global conservation.
Winter Solstice 2025
The day after the solstice we gain a few more minutes of sunlight. Every new year, every season, every cycle, every brand new twenty four hours is a new beginning. Seize the day.
Ditching Dualism #4: Going Mental
What are the central arguments for mind—or associated consciousness—as a phenomenon unto its own, not “reducible” to mind-numbingly complex material interactions (just reducible to a label of “mind,” apparently; simpler!). What is it, in fact, that we do with our brains, and how much of it depends on matter (i.e., physiology)?
The Hands That Harvest: Resilience and Change in Ghana’s Cocoa Belt
Janet, Racheal, and Joyce illustrate how knowledge, community support, and financial literacy can transform lives. They are building houses, saving money, improving their families’ health, and educating their children.
A call to makers, hackers, designers, engineers and artists
Ray Bradbury once wrote that “It’s part of the nature of man to start with romance and build to a reality.” Few things can build romance like the coming together of tech, art and storytelling in the way I’ve loosely sketched out above. You in?
The path through an uncertain future – Rebuild community by reclaiming the commons
We don’t have any certainty about the future, but we can be certain the way to address anything that is coming is through community. And the natural place to start, the one that is most available, is the communities where we live. We must build the future in place.
Fear of spending (and those darn electricity costs!)
It’s worrying about the electric bill with all those lights on. It’s having a light strand die and not wanting to spend money to replace it. A lot of money… It’s maybe even a bit of disengagement with this holiday season. Why bother making a fuss over it…
When Young People and Farmers are Guardians of Soil Health
In the territory of Vojvodina, Serbia, farmers and young people are stepping up to care for the soil. “Guardians of Soil Health” is a citizen science project that teaches participants how to monitor key indicators of soil health, such as organic matter decomposition, pH value, moisture, structure, texture, and microbial activity.
Sunk Cost and the Superorganism
In this week’s episode, Nate unpacks the pervasive behavioral pull of sunk cost as a force shaping our material reality, identities, and collective expectations about the future.
