Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
While replanting habitat — including both milkweed and the nectar plants that adult butterflies need — will likely not by itself save the monarch, it’s a critical piece of the puzzle and something nearly everyone can do.
For centuries, the gifts of nature have been thoughtfully nurtured according to seasonal rhythms, and foods now deemed “wild” have been cultivated with the same devotion as a cherished garden. This truth challenges the prevailing notion of untouched wilderness, revealing instead a landscape shaped by generations of mindful stewardship.
Women and Indigenous communities have long been at the forefront of these movements, resisting corporate exploitation while advancing alternative economic and governance models that challenge dominant paradigms of development.
How new information changes theories.
In today’s discussion, Nate is joined by Peter Strack, a French researcher and author, to explore the concept of 2000-Watt Societies—innovative models that aim to balance reduced energy consumption with the well-being of the people who live there.
Now, what does this have to do with linking a life to place and to season? What do ethics have to do with ritual? How does a seasonal round of celebration put limits on our behavior? And are those limits what we need?
This is what it feels and sounds like to be embedded within an intact Indigenous culture. It is alive, vibrant, and strong. The very existence of the Samburu pastoralists comes from and exists with the land, and the land is happy with it.
Celebrity investor Kevin “Mr. Wonderful” O’Leary recently hyped the $70 billion AI data center proposal to be powered by “200 trillion cubic feet of sweet natural gas.” Less than two months after O’Leary launched what he called “Canada’s biggest-ever real estate deal” and “the world’s largest AI data centre industrial park,” the wheels appear to be falling off on several fronts.
Every neighborhood, every community, regardless of the race, ethnicity, or national origin of its residents, deserves to have this kind of access to credit that doesn’t depend solely on credit scores or personal wealth.
The tectonic truth is that Donald Trump and Elon Musk could stop their chainsaw rampage through the federal government, foreign alliances, and the US Constitution immediately, and it would take years to undo the cumulative damage they’ve already wrought to democracy, the federal government, and the reputation of the US as a reliable ally.
However destructive and threatening to all Life, modernity is a brief flash, perhaps best ignored by those who intend to stay for the long haul. Ride it out.
Now that liberal democracy is under siege and a restoration of previous systems is likely impossible, I hope the book may also help expand people’s imaginations of what is possible.
