Escaping Urbanism: Green Acres, Climate Migration, and the End of the Megacity

Escaping Urbanism: Green Acres, Climate Migration, and the End of the Megacity

Author: Post Carbon Institute April 3, 2024 Duration: 1:18:44
Did a whimsical 1960s TV sitcom presage climate migration and a reversal of urban growth? We're not calling for a Godzilla-esque teardown of cities, but climate change is forcing a serious urban rethink. Jason, Rob, and Asher offer visions of better infrastructure, policies, and culture that you can embrace, even if your home is in the city. Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language. Sources/Links/Notes: Wikipedia page for Paul Henning, creative force behind the spate of 1960s r...

Trying to make sense of a world that often feels like it's lost the plot? That's the space where Crazy Town lives. Hosted by Asher, Rob, and Jason from the Post Carbon Institute, this fortnightly conversation navigates the disorienting headlines and deeper systemic crises-from climate chaos and ecological overshoot to the relentless engine of runaway capitalism-with a necessary blend of sharp analysis and dark humor. They’re not just diagnosing the "Great Unraveling" of our social and environmental fabric; they’re actively exploring what a transition to a genuinely sustainable and equitable society could look like, all while trying to keep their own wits about them. This podcast is for anyone who looks at the status quo and senses the profound delusions holding it together, offering listeners a mix of grounded understanding and candid discussion that’s as engaging as it is urgent. Tune in for conversations that are both a reality check and a search for a viable path forward.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Crazy Town
Podcast Episodes
Worried about the Future? Join the Club [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:54
There’s the book club, the Rotary Club, the Mickey Mouse Club, and the club sandwich. Whatever your preference, you might want to think about joining a club. Social clubs, fraternal orders, and the like have had a storie…
Searching for the Golden Toad with Kyle and Trevor Ritland [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:11
Frog and Toad Are Friends, at least according to a venerable children’s book. And so are Jason (Crazy Town’s resident biology nerd) and conservationist brothers, Kyle and Trevor Ritland, authors of The Golden Toad: An Ec…
Burned by Billionaires, with Chuck Collins [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:46
Billionaires. They should be objects of scorn rather than envy. While they ride around in their super-yachts and private jets, producing the climate-damaging pollution of entire nations, they’re doing things to extract e…
Et Tu, Bhutan? Cryptocurrency and Late-Stage Capitalism [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 36:08
Maximize profits, exploit nature, hoard money, and, like Buzz Lightyear, grow the economy to infinity and beyond! That’s the modern economic playbook. But for decades, one renegade country has taken a contrarian stance t…
Artifacts of Collapse: Touring the Crazy Town Museum [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:02:51
In this episode we travel in time to the year 2125, to visit the Crazy Town museum, which showcases today’s world of wanton consumption and profligate waste. How will humans in 2125 – if there are any of us left – judge…
Just One Word: Microplastics, with Matt Simon [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 53:17
Put on your best polyester pants, grab a bunch of gleaming mylar balloons, and crack open a case of bottled water. In today's episode, we're entering the plastic world of plastic pollution in all its glorious plasticity.…