You Ain’t Gonna Live Forever: The Dos and Don’ts of Legacy Building

You Ain’t Gonna Live Forever: The Dos and Don’ts of Legacy Building

Author: Post Carbon Institute March 11, 2026 Duration: 40:40
Crazy Town
ScienceEarthNaturalNature

Immortality projects represent an often irrational, and sometimes even unconscious, way to tamp down anxiety about death. There are some shocking examples of people, especially those with lots and lots of money, who try to leave some sort of mark in a futile attempt to keep from facing death. 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. Originally recorded on February 6, 2026.

Sources/Links/Notes:

  1. Adam McCay, The Big Short, 2015 film
  2. Henry VIII
  3. Gabriella Angeleti, “Two men sentenced to prison time for vandalising Nevada petroglyphs,” The Art Newspaper, November 10, 2022
  4. Owen Clarke, “A Utah Woman Must Pay $15,000 in Fines for Vandalizing Ancient Petroglyphs,” Outside Magazine, November 20, 2025
  5. Lehman’s Catalog
  6. John Prine, “Paradise” 1971 song
  7. X post on Brian Johnson’s erections, February 11, 2024
  8. Epic of Gilgamesh
  9. Tompkins Conservancy and Patagonia National Park
  10. Instituto Terra
  11. Eric Grundhauser, “Visit a Beard That Killed Its Owner,” Atlas Obscura, January 26, 2018
  12. Raoul Wallenberg

Related episode(s) of Crazy Town:

  1. Crazy Town Classics “Terror Management Theory”
  2. Episode 51, “A Load of Papal Bull: Greenlighting Colonization and the Mindset of Extraction”
  3. Episode 54, “Colonizing the Sky: The Untold Environmental Toll of Skyscrapers”
  4. Episode 92, “Escaping Otherism: Why Dr. Seuss Could Never Find a Rhyme for Genocide”


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

Official website RSS
instagramyoutubepatreonmedium
Crazy Town
Podcast Episodes
Colonizing the Sky: The Untold Environmental Toll of Skyscrapers [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:02:58
Skyscrapers have sprouted like mushrooms in our urban landscapes. But in an environmentally depleted, energy-pinched era, we need to take a closer look at the downsides of movin' on up to the sky. We especially need to p…
Lord of the Swans: The Tragedy of the Enclosure of the Commons [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:42
The “tragedy of the commons” is an idea that has so thoroughly seeped into culture and law that it seems normal for people and corporations to own land, water, and even whole ecosystems. But there’s a BIG problem: the “t…
Bonus: The Legal Legacy of Colonization with Sherri Mitchell [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 33:55
Indigenous rights lawyer, leader, and author Sherri Mitchell describes how the Christian Doctrines of Discovery made their way from 15th-century European religious leaders into the U.S. legal system. She elaborates on ho…

«1...678910