Worse than 2008?
Several commentators have remarked that the United States’ war on Iran carries echoes of 2008. A potential financial crash this year could actually be much worse.
Editor’s picks
ECLIPSE: Living in the Shadow of Injustice
The eclipse, then, is an invitation. Not a warning or a demand, but a quiet reminder that clarity is possible. Justice has not abandoned us. We stepped out of alignment with it, and we can step back. The shadow will stay as long as we remain in it, but it will fade the moment we stop standing in it.
Chokepoint
The 24-mile-wide Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, through which roughly 20 percent of world oil shipments pass, is an obvious pinch point for a vital industrial resource. But it also serves as an apt metaphor for the brittle global supply chains upon which the entire economy depends.
Crazy Town: Episode 120. You Ain’t Gonna Live Forever: The Dos and Don’ts of Legacy Building
In this episode, we run a special fantasy-football style draft to take a look at immortality projects, some horrendous, but some with positive effects.
The Future of Forests
Human communities have benefitted immensely from trees, but tree communities (i.e., forests) haven’t always fared so well in the bargain. What can we do differently to ensure a forested future?
Human Nature Odyssey: Episode 20: Joanna Macy & The Great Turning — with Jess Serrante
Legendary activist Joanna Macy called this moment the Great Unraveling—a time when our ecological, political, economic, and social systems crumble. And yet, she also insisted that we stand on the threshold of a Great Turning: a profound transition toward a more just and sustainable world.
The Empire Crumbles Part II: Creative Dissidence and Mutual Aid
Currently, global breakdown is being accelerated primarily by an ongoing and worsening political calamity in the United States. In this article, we’ll go to the frontlines of conflict in Minneapolis to see how people are responding to a violent—even deadly—government-imposed crisis.
Crazy Town: Episode 119. Getting Real about Resiliency with Emily Schoerning
Dr. Emily Schoerning and her nonprofit, American Resiliency, translate the latest and most urgent climate science into useful information for communities across the United States. Jason and Emily discuss the potential collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), the merits of mitigation versus adaptation, and how to take meaningful action in your own community.
When Infrastructure Falls Apart, Living Systems Take Over
Resilience under prolonged crisis is not built through heroic acts or perfect systems. It grows from networks, from biological processes allowed to heal, from appropriate technologies, from communities that remain open rather than retreat inward.
The Empire Crumbles: Part I—The Big Picture
Don’t cower in front of your screen. Get out and join with others in projects to make your town stronger and more socially and environmentally sustainable.
Crazy Town: Episode 118. Choose your AI Adventure: Immiseration or Extinction
Jason and Asher replace Rob with a much more humane and humble co-host, Elon Musk, to explore the feasibility of harnessing the entire sun to power AI superintelligence. We come away perplexed that not much of the excellent reporting on the environmental, energy, and financial risks of the AI boom address the googleplex-sized elephant in the room – that both AI success and failure lead to immiseration.
Human Nature Odyssey: Episode 19: Modern Myths – Flat Earth, Space Colonization, and the Stories We Tell to Escape Reality
This episode explores two powerful beliefs. One is the belief that humans could, and should, live in space: that we’re destined to leave our planet behind and colonize the stars. The other is the belief that we’re not on a planet at all—that the Earth is actually… flat.
