KunstlerCast - Conversations: Converging Catastrophes of the 21st Century

KunstlerCast 444 — Richard Lyon on The Energy Trap: Why the Renewable Energy Transition Can't Work — And What Can

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 14:48:00 +0000

Richard Lyon is an electrical engineer, petroleum engineer, and energy economist. He spent more than twenty-five years in the oil and gas industry in senior operational management roles in the UK, Norway, Azerbaijan, Congo, and Cameroon. He writes about the gap between energy policy and physical reality at his Substack, State of Britain (richardlyon.substack.com). His book, The Energy Trap: Why the Renewable Energy Transition Can't Work — And What Can, will be published by Swift Press this coming September, 2026, available in the US through Amazon.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast_443 — Attorney Bobbie Anne Cox on the Tribulations of New York State under the Woke Witch Hochul

Thu, 14 May 2026 18:15:00 +0000

Bobbie Anne Cox is a New York-based civil rights attorney with over 25 years of legal experience, formerly with a large international law firm and now principal at Cox Lawyers, PLLC. She has extensive experience suing government entities on behalf of her clients and is best known for winning a lawsuit against New York Governor Kathy Hochul and the NYS Department of Health that struck down the state's "Isolation and Quarantine Procedures" regulation (the infamous Quarantien Camps rule). She also filed a lawsuit against New York State over an amendment to the state constitution, challenging it on both procedural and parental rights grounds. She serves as Director of Stop NY Corruption, an organization focused on redistricting, competitive elections, and civil rights in New York. Ms. Cox is also a Fellow at the Brownstone Institute and writes the "Knowledge is Power" newsletter on Substack.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 442 — Elizabeth Nickson on Globalism and its Dark Mysteries

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 17:39:00 +0000

Elizabeth Nickson is a Canadian journalist, author, and blogger who writes the weekly Welcome to Absurdistan newsletter on Substack, focused on politics, threats to individual liberty, and restoring rural economies. She began her career reporting for Time Magazine before becoming European Bureau Chief of LIFE Magazine and has since written for an extensive roster of publications including Harper's, The Guardian, The Observer, The Independent, The Telegraph, The Sunday Times, and the Toronto Globe and Mail. Her first book was The Monkey Puzzle Tree, an investigation of the CIA's MK-Ultra mind-control program. Herr second was Eco-Fascists: How Radical Environmentalists Are Destroying Our Natural Heritage.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 441 — Heather Mac Donald on the Exhausting Journey back to Normal

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 20:46:00 +0000

Heather Mac Donald is the Thomas W. Smith Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. A New York Times bestselling author, she has written extensively on policing, criminal justice, race relations, higher education, and the pursuit of merit in American institutions. Her influential books include The War on Cops and When Race Trumps Merit.

A non-practicing lawyer with a J.D. from Stanford, she holds a B.A. in English from Yale (summa cum laude) and an M.A. from Cambridge University. Mac Donald is a frequent commentator on Fox News and other outlets, known for her data-driven, fearless analysis of cultural and policy issues.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 440 — Dr. Shane Simonson on Zero Input Agriculture, Taming the Apocalypse, and the Neo-Medieval Future

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 19:47:00 +0000

Dr. Shane Simonsen is an Australian experimental farmer, author, podcaster, and thinker based in the subtropical Sunshine Coast hinterland of Queensland (on around 40 acres among the Glasshouse Mountains). He holds a PhD in biochemistry and previously worked in academia and as a teacher before leaving in his late 20s — disillusioned by institutional structures, the global financial crisis, and concerns over peak oil— to pursue independent work in biology, ecology, and sustainable systems. For the last decade he obsessively developed hardy staple crops for his little mountain village. Australia is uniquely vulnerable to energy system disruptions and totally unprepared for post-industrial agriculture.

Shane blogs weekly at Recombination Nation. His podcast of the same name interviews amateur plant breeders, geopolitical experts and culture innovators.

His non-fiction book Taming the Apocalypse explores a post-industrial future built purely on biological technology

He also wrote a novel under the nom-de-plume Haldane P. Doyle, Our Vitreous Womb, imagining a biotechnological civilization in the distant future.

KunstlerCast 439 — Alex Krainer on Disturbances in the Geopolitical Field

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 14:55:00 +0000

Alex Krainer is a Croatian-born market analyst, author, and former hedge fund manager based in Monaco. Coming of age in socialist Yugoslavia, Krainer's unconventional path took him from serving in Croatia's war of independence to becoming one of the few fund managers to generate positive returns (+27-percent) during the 2008 financial crisis. He founded his own investment management firm in 2007 and later joined Altana Wealth, where he developed systematic portfolio allocation strategies bridging technology and finance. Krainer is the author of Mastering Uncertainty in Commodities Trading"(ranked #1 by Financial-Expert.co.uk), The Grand Deception, and Alex Krainer's Trend Following Bible. A sought-after voice on geopolitics, commodities markets, and global finance, he publishes regular market analysis through TrendCompass and his Substack, offering sharp, unconventional insights shaped by his unique background navigating both socialist regimes and Western financial markets.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 438 — Stephan Sanders-Faes on Europe's Glide Path to Suicide

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 20:43:00 +0000

Stephan Sander-Faes is a professor of history teaching European civilization at the University of Bergen, Norway (faculty profile: https://www4.uib.no/en/find-employees/Stephan.Sander-Faes). His work focuses mainly on post-mediaeval (Central) Europe. He blogs semi-anonymously about European affairs at https://fackel.substack.com/ (click and sign up, it's free). When he's not teaching, he tends to his livestock (follow his sheep at https://bsky.app/profile/ramsesandhisgang.bsky.social).

In whatever spare time he has left, he explores our analogue, pre-internet world cataloging his late grandfather's vintage picture postcard collection, which you may as well check out over at https://espc.substack.com.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 437 — Dr. Drew Miller, Col. USAF (Ret.) on the Touchy Subject of Social / Political / Economic Collapse

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 18:39:00 +0000

Dr Drew Miller, Col USAF (Ret) holds a masters degree and a PhD in Public Policy from Harvard. He had a distinguished career as an intelligence officer serving overseas in Iraq and as a senior executive in the Department of Defense (Now Dept, of War). Today he is CEO of Fortitude Ranch the nation's largest catastrophe survival community and he is also Managing Director of the consulting firm Fortitude Collapse Preparedness. His new book is Preparing to Survive in the Age of Collapse, from Skyhorse Publishing.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 436 — Elizabeth Nickson on the Fall of Canada and Other Sorrows of Western Civ

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 18:35:00 +0000

Elizabeth Nickson is a distinguished veteran of American and Canadian journalism. She was trained as a reporter at the London bureau of Time Magazine and became European Bureau Chief of LIFE Magazine in its last years of monthly publication. She went on to write for Harper's Magazine, the Guardian, the Observer, the Independent, the Sunday Telegraph, the Sunday Times Magazine, the Globe and Mail, and the National Post. Her first book The Monkey Puzzle Tree was an investigation of the CIA MK-ULTRA mind control program. She followed with Eco-Fascists: How Radical Environmentalists Are Destroying Our Natural Heritage, a look at how environmentalism, badly practiced, is destroying the rural economy and rural culture in the U.S. and all over the world. Her next is The Green Book, a collection of her essays on the environmental junta, coming in February 2026. She is a Senior Fellow at the Frontier Center for Public Policy, fcpp.org. Elizabeth Blogs at Welcome to Absurdistan on Substack.

KunstlerCast 435 — JHK yaks about his new book, "Look I'm Gone," with Literary Compadre, Ted Cleary

Mon, 15 Dec 2025 18:55:00 +0000

This one's a little break from the usual — it's me talking to a friend about my new novel, Look, I'm Gone with a particular emphasis on the iconic American author JD Salinger, who has a meaty role as a character in my book, playing himself, kind of a first for Salinger, who passed away in 2010. My friend Ted Cleary is a writer, artist, and musician from New York City. He studied English and history at Columbia University and has taught writing and literature for several decades. He's been a landscape gardener, assistant district attorney, and stroke oar for an American rowing team racing traditional Irish fishing boats in western Ireland. Two energetic novellas, At the End of the World and Song of the Cicada, are available on Amazon, and he has recently launched Substack as tedcleary1.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 434 — Charles Marohn on Strong Towns and the Battle to Reform the Fiasco of Suburban Sprawl

Fri, 28 Nov 2025 20:39:00 +0000

Charles Marohn is the founder and president of Strong Towns. With decades of experience as a land use planner and civil engineer, Marohn is on a mission to help cities and towns become stronger and more prosperous through classic, traditional town planning. He's the bestselling author of Escaping the Housing Trap: The Strong Towns Response to the Housing Crisis. Like your host, JHK, Chuck is a member in good standing of the Congress for the New Urbanism, a national movement to repair and reform the fiasco of Suburban sprawl lanes development.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 433 — Piero San Giorgio Has Just Returned from Russia

Sun, 09 Nov 2025 18:47:00 +0000

Piero San Giorgio is one of Switzerland's best selling authors. After 20 years as an executive in the software business, Piero decided to write essays about the future. His first book Survive —The Economic Collapse was in the top-50 best selling books of 2012 in France and has sold over 200,000 copies, with translations into English, Italian, Russian, Arabic, Romanian, Polish, Turkish etc. and has a foreword by JHKunstler. His other books are , CBRN (How to Survive Nuclear, Radiological, Biological,and Chemical events), and Giuseppe: A Survival Story, a biographical novel about his grandfather's ordeals in WW2.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 432 — Jeffrey Tucker of The Brownstone Institute on his new book, The Spirits of America

Tue, 28 Oct 2025 22:57:00 +0000

Jeffrey Tucker is founder and president of Brownstone Institute, Senior Economics Columnist at Epoch Times, and author of 15 books. His newest book, The Spirits of America, is a reflection on American values – cultivated deep in US history dating back to the founding. The book is meant to inspire us to a restoration of our once-sturdy common culture in this period of great political turbulence. Please take the time to visit the Brownstone Institute's excellent website and its stable of fine writers.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 431 — Thomas Fowler on the Diminishing Returns of Artificial Intelligence

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 14:07:00 +0000

Thomas B. Fowler is the author of five books and over 150 articles and reviews, ranging over philosophy, theology, engineering, physics, and mathematics. He is an expert in analyzing systems and procedures for the U.S government. He says he is "keenly aware of the rapid politicization that has occurred not just in the humanities, but increasingly in the science, technology, and mathematics (STEM) areas, and is devoted to debunking the shoddy reasoning behind many contemporary trends such as the extravagant claims made for Artificial Intelligence." His latest book is Artificial Intelligence: Foundations, Limitations, Benefits and Dangers — and is the subject of this conversation. He is president of the Xavier Zubiri Foundation of North America, and has translated several of the Spanish philosopher's books into English. Currently an independent consultant and Adjunct Professor of Engineering at George Mason University, he has lectured widely in the U.S., South America, and Europe on science and philosophy. His doctorate from George Washington University is in system theory.

KunstlerCast 430 — Charles Hugh Smith, blogger at "Of Two Minds," Talking Finance and The Ultra-Processed Life

Tue, 30 Sep 2025 19:02:00 +0000

Charles Hugh Smith founded his blog Of Two Minds in 2005 after 17 years of free-lance journalism in the San Francisco Bay Area. His 4,600 posts on the economy, society, housing and technology have logged over 150 million page views. He is the author of 9 novels and 20 non-fiction books on socio-economic-political dynamics, including The Mythology of Progress and Ultra-Processed Life. His work can also be found on Substack and Patreon.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 4219 — Matt and Maxim Smith on "The Preparation" — Becoming a Man in Uneasy Times

Sat, 30 Aug 2025 14:40:00 +0000

Matt Smith is an American entrepreneur and economic commentator who relocated to Uruguay in 2021, where he operates a regenerative cattle ranch. He co-hosts the podcast Doug Casey's Take with author and economist Doug Casey, offering analysis on global markets, monetary policy, and geopolitical trends. Matt also publishes the financial newsletter Crisis Investing on Substack. He is also co-author, with his 20 year old son Maxim Smith and Mr. Casey, of the superb new book, The Preparation: How to become Competent, Confident, and Dangerous about making boys into effective autonomous men in these uneasy times.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 428 — Swimming in Deep Waters with Author Jasun Horsley

Fri, 15 Aug 2025 15:19:00 +0000

Jasun Horsley is the author of many books, including Seen & Not Seen, Prisoner of Infinity, 16 Maps of Hell, and Big Mother, which examine how popular culture, politics, occultism, science, and pseudo-spirituality all overlap on a covert, multigenerational social-engineering continuum that includes secret societies, intelligence agencies, and organized crime networks. His own Children of Job podcast can be found on Substack and iTunes. Jasun currently keeps goats and chickens and tends grapes in Galicia, Spain, while reading about Jesus. He describes himself as a lifetime truth-seeker and "hell-mapper" and he does not use AI programs.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 427 — Eugyppius on the Retardation of Europe and "Schoolmarmocracy"

Sat, 26 Jul 2025 12:44:00 +0000

"Eugyppius" is a former academic who blogs about the pandemic aftermath and the pathological politics of modern Germany. He spent much of his life abroad and over a decade in American universities as a grad student and a teacher. He writes in English on Substack. He is very careful about revealing more of his identity given the extreme censorship and cancellation action in his country these days. You can find him at Eugyppius.com.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 426 — John Seaman, Retired DEA Investigator on Prosecuting Conspiracy Cases

Sat, 21 Jun 2025 20:20:00 +0000

John Seaman has corresponded with me over a year proposing a straightforward way to prosecute government officials who, so far, have gotten away with crimes committed in the RussiaGate Hoax and other high-level mischief due to the five-year statute of limitations. John is is a retired Supervisory Federal Agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) with 30 years of experience. His special area of expertise there was as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) in conducting conspiracy investigations for federal prosecutions. He writes the Substack series, The Rule of Law — Corruption and National Security. He's on social media: Twitter handle: @John30113715761 or Truth handle: @johnRuleoflawmatters

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 425 — Mike McCormick on Joe Biden, the Democrats' Interminable Nightmare

Thu, 05 Jun 2025 15:52:00 +0000

Author Mike McCormick was a stenographer with the White House Press Office from 2002 to 2018. His duties included being a world traveler on Air Force One and Air Force Two, even into combat zones. He saw the presidency up close, with Oval Office and West Wing duties 24/7.

His books, available on Amazon, include The Case to Impeach and Imprison Joe Biden, and An Almost Insurmountable Evil.

He is determined to testify under oath about the Joe Biden crimes he witnessed.

His Substack Midnight in the Laptop of Good and Evil led to him being interviewed by congressional investigators looking into the Biden Crime Family.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 424 — Ray Jason Navigating the Shoals of Collapse with the Sea Gypsy Tribe

Mon, 19 May 2025 13:55:00 +0000

Ray Jason has been writing the Sea Gypsy Philosopher blog, for the last twelve years largely touching on politics and social issues. His commentary is filtered through his unusual lived experience of being a longtime ex-pat open water sailor living on his boat, the Aventura.
Ray's greatest contribution to the blogosphere is his Sea Gypsy Tribe concept — his belief that small bands of ocean-dwelling cruisers can both survive and flourish after any type of catastrophe which is the main thrust of our conversation here Ray's personal life path has been quite out of the ordinary. Right after college graduation, he was drafted and ended up in Vietnam on a U.S. Navy ammunition ship.
Post-service malaise steered him away from the so-calleed Real World and he spent the next 20 years as a highly successful San Francisco street performer — juggling, his specialty. When that scene began to deteriorate, he commenced his sea gypsy life and has not lived on land since 1992.

We speak with Ray today aboard his sailboat somewhere in the Banana Latitudes of Central America.

KunstlerCast 423 — Dr. Meryl Nass on the Echoes of Covid and Medicine's Nervous Breakdown

Sat, 03 May 2025 17:14:00 +0000

Meryl Nass is an internal medicine physician and was the first person in the world to prove that an epidemic (anthrax in Rhodesia) was due to biological warfare, in 1992. She has given 6 Congressional testimonies regarding anthrax, biological warfare, Gulf War syndrome and vaccine safety, and has consulted for the Cuban Ministry of Health, the World Bank and the Director of National Intelligence. She blogs at Meryls Chaos Newsletter on Substack

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 422 — Jeffrey Tucker of the Brownstone Institute on The Immortal Despotism of the Covid Police State

Sat, 26 Apr 2025 17:41:00 +0000

Jeffrey Tucker is founder and president of Brownstone Institute and Senior Economics Columnist at Epoch Times. He is the author of 15 books, most recently Life After Lockdowns. Senator Rand Paul says, "In Life after Lockdown, " Jeffrey Tucker paints a picture of the living hell that was the government lockdown and outlines a roadmap for never again allowing such a police state to occur." Please take the time to visit the Brownstone Institute's excellent website and its stable of fine writers

KunstlerCast 421 — Dr. Chris Martenson on Reforming US Public Health under RFK; Tremors in Finance; and the First Hundred Days of Trump

Wed, 02 Apr 2025 17:22:00 +0000

Dr. Chris Martenson, is an economic researcher and futurist specializing in energy and resource depletion, finance and banking, and the science and politics surrounding the Covid-19 affair. Before founding PeakProsperity.com, where he provides analysis, commentary, and actionable advice, Martenson worked as a Vice President at a Fortune 300 company and spent over a decade in corporate finance and strategic consulting. His academic background includes a PhD in neurotoxicology from Duke University and a post-doctoral program in the same field, followed by an MBA in Finance from Cornell University.

KunstlerCast 420 — Tom Luongo of Gold, Goats and Guns, Talkin' Europe, Russia, and America in a Dangerous Year

Sat, 08 Mar 2025 18:55:00 +0000

Tom Luongo is a Former Research Chemist, Amateur Dairy Goat Farmer, Anarcho-Libertarian and Obstreperous Austrian Economist who blogs and podcasts at Gold, Goats and, Guns. His work can also be found on sites like Zerohedge, Lewrockwell.com, Bitcoin Magazine and Newsmax Media. His work focuses on the attempt to connect the false narratives of geopolitics to viable long-term investment theses. He built the house that he lives in and loves hockey, his family, the art of drumming, board games of all kinds, a logically consistent argument, and the beauty of spontaneous order…. not necessarily in that order.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 419 — Celia Farber on Covid Sorcery, the AIDS Fiasco, and Science Gone Wrong

Wed, 26 Feb 2025 00:06:00 +0000

Journalist and blogger Celia Farber started out covering the AIDS crisis in the 1980s as a staff writer for Spin Magazine. She went freelance in 1997 writing for Esquire, Harper's, Rolling Stone, Salon, Observer, and more. Her 2006 article in Harpers exposing the activities of Anthony Fauci at US NIAID was followed by a "career-ending" coordinated attack on her from the medical research establishment. She started her blog, The Truth Barrier, in 2009. It was attacked and taken down in 2020, and she has since relocated it to the Substack platform. Her books are Serious Adverse Events: An Uncensored History of AIDS (2023) and Sacrifice: How the Deadliest Vaccine in History Targeted the Most Vulnerable, With Dr. James Thorp (2025). She served as AIDS historian and researcher for Robert Kennedy, Jr., on his book, The Real Anthony Fauci.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 418 — Peter Golden Explores the Inner Life of John F. Kennedy in a New Novel

Sun, 02 Feb 2025 18:22:00 +0000

Peter Golden is an award-winning journalist, novelist, and historian. His novels include Comeback Love, Wherever There Is Light, Nothing Is Forgotten , and Their Shadows Deep, just published, in which John F. Kennedy is a major character. During the course of his career, Mr. Golden has interviewed Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush; Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger, Alexander Haig, George Shultz, and Lawrence Eagleburger; Israeli Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, and Yitzhak Shamir; and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. He lives with his wife near Albany, New York.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 417 — Charles Hugh Smith, Progress and Anti-progress

Sat, 18 Jan 2025 21:31:00 +0000

Charles Hugh Smith founded his blog Of Two Minds in 2005 after 17 years of free-lance journalism in the San Francisco Bay Area. His 4,500 posts on the economy, society, housing and technology have logged over 150 million page views. He is the author of nine novels and nineteen non-fiction books on socio-economic-political dynamics, including "The Mythology of Progress." His work can also be found on Substack and Patreon. He lives by Winston Churchill's dictum that "Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm."

KunstlerCast_416 — Bill Moyer on Reviving and Restoring the US Railroad System

Sun, 05 Jan 2025 15:30:00 +0000

Bill Moyer calls himself a radical solutionary. He's the author of the book Solutionary Rail, a people powered campaign to electrify US railroads and open corridors for a clean energy future. He also hosts the new podcast Reconnect America and posts essays on Solutionary Rail at Substack. The campaign has evolved into a national effort to put US rail infrastructure back in service of the public interest over Wall Street profit. He lives with his wife and daughter in the woods of Vashon Island, WA in the Salish Sea.

KunstlerKast 415 — Vermont Farmer and Attorney John Klar Fights for Parental Consent

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 21:53:00 +0000

John Klar is a Vermont farmer and Lawyer. He is currently representing the Politella family in an upcoming SCOTUS case concerning their six-year-old son who was vaccinated by his local school officials against the express orders of the boy's parents. John is the author of the forthcoming book, Farm Hard or Starve and of Small Farm Republic: Why Conservatives Must Embrace Local Agriculture, Reject Climate Alarmism, and Lead an Environmental Revival, published by Chelsea Green. John is seventh-generation Vermonter who lives in Brookfield, where he raises grass-fed lamb and beef. He's also waged campaigns for governor and state senate. Supporting Vermont's local farms and local food production was the cornerstone of his political career. These ideas were codified into his 2020 Vermont Farming Manifesto. He writes for American Thinker, The Federalist, Human Events, American Spectator, Mother Earth News and True North Reports. He blogs at https://substack.com/@johnklar

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 414 — Part Two, Elizabeth Nickson: Momentous Changes A'foot

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 20:08:00 +0000

Part Two of my chart with Elizabeth Nickson.

Elizabeth Nickson was trained as a reporter at the London bureau of Time Magazine. She became European Bureau Chief of LIFE magazine in its last years of monthly publication, and during that time, acquired the rights to Nelson Mandela's memoir before he was released from the Robben Island prison. She went on to write for Harper's Magazine, the Guardian, the Observer, the Independent, the Sunday Telegraph, the Sunday Times Magazine, the Telegraph, the Globe and Mail and the National Post. Her first book The Monkey Puzzle Tree was an investigation of the CIA MKULTRA mind control program. Her next book, Eco-Fascists; How Radical Environmentalists Are Destroying Our Natural Heritage, was a look at how environmentalism, badly practiced, is destroying the rural economy and rural culture in the U.S. and all over

KunstlerCast 413 — Journalist Elizabeth Nickson, MK Ultra and other Reindeer Games

Thu, 07 Nov 2024 19:30:00 +0000

KunstlerCast 412 — Mike McCormick, Joe Biden Unauthorized

Tue, 29 Oct 2024 18:12:00 +0000

Mike McCormick was a White House staff stenographer for fifteen years in the George W. Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations. He spent many years assigned to Veep Joe Biden and went on many overseas trips with him. His task was to record conversations between Joe Biden and members of the press to ensure accurate reporting, but he was also present at meetings with global leaders. He's the author of Joe Biden Unauthorized, The Case to Impeach and Imprison Joe Biden, and Fifteen Years A Deplorable: A White House Memoir. He blogs at: Midnight in the Laptop of Good and Evil on Substack.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 411 — Christopher Bystroff and the Coming Population Crash

Wed, 16 Oct 2024 10:03:00 +0000

Christopher Bystroff is a professor of Biology and Computer Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy NY. He runs a laboratory that studies protein structure and design, working towards targetable fluorescent biosensors and a contraceptive vaccine. Chris teaches courses in protein structure, computational modeling of proteins, computational modeling of human population, bioinformatics and genetic engineering. In 2021 he published a paper predicting the near-term downturn of the global human population. Chris has a B.A. from Carleton College and a PhD from University of California San Diego, both degrees in chemistry. He lives in Troy, New York, with his wife Maria. They have two adult children.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

Side-note: my website is still off-line and we are going to rebuild it here on Substack. The blogs and podcasts will continue here, and readers can always reach at: jhkunstler@mac.com

KunstlerCast 410 — Donald Jeffries on American Memory Hole and Other Anomalies of History

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 18:03:00 +0000

Donald Jeffries is the author of many books investigating the strange anomalies of recent American history. The titles include his latest, American Memory Hole, Survival of the Richest, and Crimes and Cover-Ups in American Politics. He has a particular interest in the assassination of president John F. Kennedy. His "I Protest" blog and podcast can be found at donaldjeffries.substack.com.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 409 — Mel K on "Americans Anonymous" — Restoring Power to the People One Citizen at a Time

Thu, 05 Sep 2024 20:04:00 +0000

Mel K is a conservative journalist, filmmaker, and podcaster known for her well-researched, thought-provoking work. With a background in journalism and film from NYU, she has spent over two decades in Hollywood crafting meticulously researched historical dramas for film and television. She launched the Mel K show in 2020, which has become a platform for intellectually rigorous discussions and analysis of pressing issues. Central to Mel K's work is a commitment to intellectual honesty, personal empowerment, and the principles of a free and transparent society. She's the author of the forthcoming book: Americans Anonymous: Restoring Power to the People One Citizen at a Time. Her podcast can be found at: the Mel K Show on Rumble.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 408 — David McAlvany on the Financial Scene as We Enter the Nervous Season

Sun, 25 Aug 2024 15:27:00 +0000

David McAlvany is CEO Of McAlvany Financial Services, which includes wealth management and precious metals advisors for retail investors. David's own excellent podcast, the McAlvany Weekly Commentary comes out Tuesdays and is available at Apple Podcasts. Full disclosure, David's company is a sponsor of this podcast. And fuller disclosure, I invited him on because he offers some of the clearest views of financial doings to be found on the Internet. His company website is https://mcalvany.com.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 407 — Eugyppius on the Political Crises of Europe

Sun, 28 Jul 2024 15:17:00 +0000

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 406 — Reinventing Dmitry Orlov in Russia

Mon, 15 Jul 2024 19:46:00 +0000

Dmitry Orlov is a Russian-American engineer and author of many books on culture and politics. He emigrated to the US with his parents at age 12 and as a young adult sojourned in Russia, where he witnessed the aftermath of the Soviet collapse. He spent many more years back in the USA living on a sailboat in Boston Harbor and later in South Carolina. His books include Reinventing Collapse, which compares the Soviet fall with the prospective crackup of the USA, followed byThe Five Stages of Collapse, and many books of essays. Dmitry moved back to his native Russia in 2016, citing a desire to return to his roots and to live in a country he felt was more stable and aligned with his values. He blogs at Club Orlov.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 405 -- Helena Norberg-Hodge on Relocalizing Economies

Mon, 08 Jul 2024 18:45:00 +0000

Helena Norberg-Hodge, linguist, author, filmmaker and pioneer of the new economy movement, is the founder and director of Local Futures, and the convenor of World Localization Day and the Planet Local Summit. She is author of the inspirational classic Ancient Futures, and Local is Our Future and producer of the award-winning documentary The Economics of Happiness, of Planet Local and Closer to Home. She is the founder of the International Alliance for Localisation, and a cofounder of the International Forum on Globalization and the Global Ecovillage Network. She lives in England and in Australia

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 404 — A General Surgeon Talks about the ruinous Financialization of Medicine

Mon, 17 Jun 2024 19:07:00 +0000

Dr. Sid Rohrscheib is a general surgeon in central Illinois. His career spans the period from the 1990s and he has witnessed thje changes wrought by the financialization of medicine. We have corresponded for a while about the problems in health care and he kindly consented to come on the podcast.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 403 -- Lt. Col Steve Murray and the Chaos Ahead

Tue, 04 Jun 2024 21:19:00 +0000

Steve Murray is Chief Information Security Officer of a large medical company. He was a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army commanding a Cyber Defense Battalion, providing offensive and defensive cyber operations for the United States Pacific Command and US Army Pacific Forces, the National Security Agency, and other military offices.

He was deployed to Iraq in Operation Enduring Freedom, where he was awarded the Bronze Star.

Currently LTC Murray publishes a Situation Report three times a week to address the information war being waged across the planet. You can find him on:

Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/LTCStevenMurray

Telegram: https://t.me/LTC_Steven_Murray

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3aa72bxUiyXgt9OSNJBnlk?si=c0b3ebabbc7a4977

Apple Podcasts: LTC Steven Murray

Amazon Music: LTC Steven Murray

KunstlerCast 402 — Dr Meryl Nass on the W.H.O. Pandemic Treaty, the Covid Fiasco, and the Decline of Health Care

Tue, 21 May 2024 20:48:00 +0000

Since the COVID pandemic began, she has written detailed articles regarding the suppression of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin for treatment of Covid, the coverup of COVID's lab origin, and how the WHO's proposed pandemic treaty and amendments will lead to more pandemics. She is an advisor to Children's Health Defense.

Her medical license was suspended in January 2022 for providing early COVID treatment and spreading alleged vaccine misinformation. She has been writing and speaking on all things COVID, and is now focused on the BioSecurity Agenda of the W.H.O. and its goal to wrest sovereignty from individual nations under the guise of pandemic preparedness.

KunstlerCast 401 — Jeff Rubin and A Map of the New Normal

Fri, 17 May 2024 21:14:00 +0000

Jeff Rubin is a Canadian economist, an expert on trade and energy, and author of the newly released book, A Map of the New Normal. His previous best-selling books are: Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller, The End of Growth, The Carbon Bubble, and The Expendables. His website is jeffrubinssmallerworld.com. On "X" he is @JeffRubin

KunstlerCast 400 — You might Not Know That Mike TerMaat Is Running To Be the Libertarian Candidate for President I in '24

Thu, 02 May 2024 18:38:00 +0000

Mike ter Maat is a candidate for the Libertarian Party presidential nomination. In 2021-22, he campaigned as the Libertarian candidate in the January special Congressional election in Florida's District 20. Mike served as a police officer in Broward County from 2010 through 2021. Mike had a prior career in finance and economics including work with commercial banks, the White House Office of Management and Budget and international & federal agencies. He has a degree in Aeronautical Engineering and an MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and MS and PhD degrees in Economics from The George Washington University. He has one wife, two kids and two stepdaughters, two dogs and one truck. He can be found on social media at:

Twitter: @terMaatMike https://twitter.com/terMaatMike

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mike.termaat.7311/

Instagram: @mike.termaat https://instagram.com/mike.termaat

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@miketermaat53

Websites: www.MiketerMaat.com and www.GoldNewDeal.org

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 399 — Catherine Austin Fitts Versus the Globalist Blob

Sun, 21 Apr 2024 14:50:00 +0000

Catherine Austin Fitts is the president of Solari, Inc., publisher of the Solari Report. Catherine served as managing director of the Wall Street investment bank Dillon, Read & Co. Inc.; as Assistant Secretary of Housing and Federal Housing Commissioner at the Department of Housing and Urban Development in the first Bush Administration; and was the president of Hamilton Securities Group. She blogs for the Solari Report at solari.com.

KunstlerCast 398 — Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche and the Coming Acute Crisis of Covid among the Vaccinated

Sun, 31 Mar 2024 16:50:00 +0000

Geert Vanden Bossche is a globally renowned virologist working in Belgium. He predicts a "hyper-acute crisis" of Covid-19 illness among highly-vaccinated populations emerging shortly across the world. He argues that scientists and politicians have turned a natural viral pandemic into a crisis of disastrous immune escape. The author's arguments are compelling and indicate that Nature will correct this mistake, but at a substantial cost to human lives in highly-vaccinated countries. He is the author of The inescapable Immune Escape Pandemic. Dr. Vanden Bossche's papers and talks can be found at the Website Voice for Science and Solidarity dot org.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 397 -- Matt Bracken, Navy SEAL, Views the Field of Operations

Sun, 17 Mar 2024 17:15:00 +0000

Matt Bracken graduated from Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training class 105 in Coronado California. He served on east coast UDT and SEAL teams, taking a Naval Special Warfare detachment to Beirut in 1983. Mr. Bracken left active duty after Lebanon, upon completion of his obligated military service, but he remained in an active reserve status through the remainder of the 1980s. Since then he has lived in Florida, Virginia, South Carolina, Guam and California. Matt is a self-described freedomista who loves ocean sailing for the pure freedom it permits. He is a constitutionalist who believes in the original intent of the founding fathers of our country. He lives with his family in North Florida and longs for the wide blue ocean.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 396 -- Jasun Horsley Explores the Uncanny Valley with "Big Mother"

Sat, 09 Mar 2024 21:01:00 +0000

Jason Horsley produces the Children of Job Blog and Podcast. He is the author most recently of Big Mother: the Technological Body of Evil, and many other books. He was born in Britain and has lived in Morocco, British Columbia, and now Spain. Jasun's work is an excursion into the uncanny valley of philosophy where good and evil battle on a landscape of linguistics, technology, demonology, crime, transgenderism, liquid modernity, identity politics, the surveillance state, virtual reality, transhumanism, Satanism, medical totalitarianism, and a new world religion of scientism.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast_395 -- Art Berman on the US Oil Scene

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 21:45:00 +0000

With 45 years in petroleum geology, Art Berman describes himself as an energy realist who integrates energy, the economy, the environment, and human behavior into his view of the industry and society. He routinely gives keynote addresses for energy conferences, boards of directors and professional societies. Berman has published more than 100 articles on energy and the effect on earth systems including climate. He has more than 40,000 followers on Twitter (@aeberman12) and dozens of free posts on his website artberman.com.

This chat was more contentious than I figured on going into it, but that's okay. I don't like to filibuster my podcast guests. Let's just say there were a few times when we disagreed about some things. Listeners can take what they will from that.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unge

KunstlerCast 394 -- Tom Luongo on the Federal Reserve versus the World and other Current Events

Sun, 04 Feb 2024 20:17:00 +0000

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast_393 -- Chatting with Jacob Dreizen about the Ukraine Situation

Wed, 31 Jan 2024 17:36:00 +0000

Jacob Dreizin runs the dreizin report.com, a recently-paywalled, "boutique blog for discriminating shoppers of highly objective alt-news and forecasting." An immigrant and army veteran, Jacob has worked in the DC political sphere in high-level BS/spin production; has several graduate degrees, speaks fluent Russian; and likes to say he's the USA's leading (or only) independent expert on the "history and culture of the Ukraine conflict." Jacob also specializes in explaining the influence of economic and ideological interest groups on U.S. politics and policy, and the processes and practices of the U.S. state propaganda apparatus as it relates to foreign policy and military adventures.

KunstlerCast 392 — The Blogger Euygyppius on Trouble in Germany

Fri, 19 Jan 2024 21:10:00 +0000

"Eugyppius" is a former academic who blogs about the pandemic aftermath and the pathological politics of modern Germany. He recently returned from observing the farmer protest in Berlin.

Eugyppius spent much of his life abroad and over a decade in American universities as a grad student and a teacher. He writes in English on Substack. He is very careful about revealing more of his identity given the extreme censorship and cancellation action in his country these days. You can find him at Eugyppius.com.

KunstlerCast 391 -- David Martin, Up Against the Covid-19 Genocide Machine

Sat, 23 Dec 2023 21:09:00 +0000

Dr. David E, Martin returns after delivering tough love about the Covid crime to governments in the UK and continental Europe. David is the Founder and Chairman of M·CAM Inc., the international leader in innovation finance, trade, and intangible asset finance. He's been among a select band of international thought-leaders investigating the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, in particular the relationships between US public health officials, the pharmaceutical companies, and a number of shadowy organizations behind the development of hugely profitable vaccines with a poor record of safety and viability.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 390 — David Rogers Webb and The Great Taking

Sat, 16 Dec 2023 21:16:00 +0000

David Rogers Webb is the author of The Great Taking, which is about the insidious plan by central banks and international financial regulatory institutions to crash the unsustainable system and seize whatever assets the crash doesn't vaporize — meaning, your savings, your wealth, and your supposedly freely-owned chattels. Much of this mischief was accomplished by surreptitious changes to the Uniform Commercial code and other rules for the transference of property. It's a spooky story.

David is a former investment banker and hedge fund manager. He's produced his book as a free giveaway in pdf form which you can get here.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 389 —Yakking with John Michael Greer about the Spiritual Condition of our Floundering Country

Thu, 30 Nov 2023 18:29:00 +0000

John Michael Greer blogs at Ecosophia, subtitle, Toward an Ecological Spirituality. JMG has been an astute observer of Western Civ's arduous economic and cultural descent, and is the author of many books, both novels and non-fiction, including Green Wizardry, After Oil, The Wealth of Nature, and Not the Future We Ordered. Star's Reach, is a novel set 400 years ahead in America's neo-medieval future. The King in Orange, a meditation on the relationship between archetype psychology and the occult as acted out in politics and culture. Things are getting weird in America, wouldn't you agree? Even a bit supernatural. We assess our country's spiritual condition as we turn the corner on a fateful year 2024.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 388 — Naomi Wolf on Medical Freedom and Facing the Beast

Fri, 10 Nov 2023 00:10:00 +0000

Naomi Wolf's new book is the just published Facing the Beast: Courage, Faith, and Resistance in a New Dark Age. Naomi has become a field marshal in the battle for medical freedom, assembling a staff of over three-thousand researchers to analyze the Pfizer drug trial documents that the company wanted to keep secret for the next seventy-five years — but were forced to release under a court order. Naomi's website, The Daily Clout is an excellent source of info on the battle for medical freedom and women's health. Her other recent books include the New York Times bestsellers Vagina, The End of America, and Give Me Liberty, in addition to the landmark bestseller The Beauty Myth. A former Rhodes Scholar, she completed a doctorate in English language and literature from the University of Oxford in 2015, was a research fellow at Barnard College and the University of Oxford, and taught rhetoric at the George Washington University and Victorian studies at Stony Brook University. Wolf lives in the Hudson River Valley.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 387 — Godfree Roberts on China Rising

Fri, 27 Oct 2023 14:31:00 +0000

Godfree Roberts is the author of Why China Leads The World: Talent at the Top, Data in the Middle, Democracy at the Bottom.
Godfree Roberts contacted me and suggested I interview him about his book. I thought, 'okay, why not.'

Well, I've never offered up an evaluation of a guest at the outset of the podcast, but I must tell you, I came to the conclusion as the conversation went on, that Mr. Roberts might be a troll, since he sounded increasingly like a paid publicist for the CCP. I may be wrong about that. But, for instance, his insistence that Mao's cultural revolution of the 1960s was a mere education campaign and didn't hurt anybody seemed like utter nonsense to me.

You decide for yourselves.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 386 -- Chatting with the Substack Blogger "Eugyppius"

Sun, 08 Oct 2023 16:03:00 +0000

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 385 — America's Thought Disorders with Clinical Psychologist Lucas Klein

Fri, 01 Sep 2023 17:54:00 +0000

Lucas A. Klein, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist who has been in private practice for 14 years. He has been a criminal and civil forensic psychologist, and now runs Real Clear Podcast He grew up in upstate NY not far from Jim, moved to the west coast, and now spends an inordinate amount of time trying to understand why humanity is so irrational. You can find his show here: https://www.realclearpodcast.com

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

KunstlerCast 384 — Left-potism, the Vicious Tail of Left Politics, with Daniel Klein

Sat, 19 Aug 2023 12:46:00 +0000

Daniel Klein is professor of economics and JIN Chair at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, where he leads a program on Adam Smith. He is the author of Smithian Morals and Central Notions of Smithian Liberalism. I admired his widely-read 2023 essay "Misinformation Is a Word We Use to Shut You Up," which has been posted by Brownstone Institute, Independent Institute, Zero Hedge, and other websites.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 383 --Truthophobia: How the Boomers Broke Journalism, with Graham Majin

Sat, 12 Aug 2023 00:46:00 +0000

Graham Majin was a broadcast journalist for 20 years, 14 at BBC News. His inside knowledge gives him a unique insight into how journalists think and how news is produced. He teaches journalism at Bournemouth University on the sunny south coast of England. He has written about the concept of Journalistic Truth, about Donald Trump, Russiagate, fake news, misinformation and the history of journalism. Truthophobia: How the Boomers Broke Journalism is his first, full-length book. Find out more at Truthophobia.net

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 382 -- Lt. Col (Ret) Karen Kwiatkowski on American Interventionism

Sat, 22 Jul 2023 13:40:00 +0000

Karen Kwiatkowski grew up in western North Carolina. She was commissioned in the U.S. Air Force in in 1983 and served tours in Alaska, Massachusetts, Spain, Italy and Fort Meade as a communications-electronics officer. She later served in political military analysis at the Pentagon, retiring after 20 years as a Lt Colonel. Since her retirement in 2003, she has spoken out against an interventionist foreign policy and written numerous essays and articles, most of which are available at lewrockwell.com. She has been featured in several documentaries including the award-winning, Why We Fight (2004). She was awarded the Sam Adams Award in 2018 and is a member of the Eisenhower Media Network. She holds advanced degrees from Harvard University, the University of Alaska and a Ph.D. from Catholic University in world politics. She and her husband of 41 years now raise cattle, sheep and horses in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley.

KunstlerCast 381 — Farmsteading in the Heartland with Becca and Jarrod

Fri, 14 Jul 2023 20:08:00 +0000

Becca Dickens and Jarrod Yantis are owners of Regenerative Life Farm, located near Lake Shelbyville in rural, central Illinois. Their outfit is on 19 acres including a half-acre no-till, deep compost market garden and the rest is used for rotational grazing of 300 chickens and cattle. Their motto is "Regenerating ourselves, our soil and our community." They sell eggs and vegetables at farmer's markets and provide education on gardening and Food as Medicine. They believe farmsteading in this way offers them the best hope for a happy life and humanity the best hope for a future. They can be found at https://www.regenerativelifefarm.com

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 380 - Post doom with Eco-theologian Michael Dowd

Sun, 02 Jul 2023 16:30:00 +0000

The Reverend Michael Dowd is a bestselling eco-theologian, TEDx speaker, and pro-science, pro-future advocate whose work has been featured in The New York Times, LA Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Newsweek, Discover, and on television throughout the United States and Canada. His book, Thank God for Evolution, was endorsed by 6 Nobel Prize-winning scientists, noted skeptics, and religious leaders across the spectrum. Michael and his science writer, and evolutionary educator wife, Connie Barlow, have spoken to some 3,000 groups throughout North America since April 2002. His blogs and lectures are available at Michaeldowd.org and Postdoom.com.

KunstlerCast 379 --A Conversion with John Klar, author of Small Farm Republic

Sat, 17 Jun 2023 19:30:00 +0000

John Klar is the author of Small Farm Republic: Why Conservatives Must Embrace Local Agriculture, Reject Climate Alarmism, and Lead an Environmental Revival, just published by Chelsea Green. John is seventh-generation Vermonter who lives in Brookfield, where he raises grass-fed lamb and beef. Before that, he worked as an attorney. He's also staged campaigns for governor and state senate. Supporting Vermont's local farms and local food production was the cornerstone of his political career. These ideas were codified into his 2020 Vermont Farming Manifesto. He wrote a weekly column for the Newport Daily Express for about five years, then began writing for American Thinker, The Federalist, Human Events, American Spectator, Mother Earth News and True North Reports.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 378 — Former Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas on How His State of Vermont Got So Woked Up

Fri, 09 Jun 2023 20:19:00 +0000

James H Douglas served Vermont for more than 35 years as a legislator, Secretary of State, State Treasurer and Governor. He advanced groundbreaking health reforms that have made Vermont a national model. Douglas chaired the National Governors Association and President Obama appointed him co-chair of the Council of Governors. He now teaches at Middlebury College, his alma mater. I called him to talk about the extraordinary contagion of Wokery in his state, and on the college scene in particular. Some of what he had to say was surprising, you'll see.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 377 -- John Michael Greer on Magic and the Reenchantment of Daily Life

Sun, 14 May 2023 14:46:00 +0000

#377 — John Michael Greer blogs at Ecosophia, subtitle, Toward an Ecological Spirituality. JMG has been an astute observer of Western Civ's arduous economic and cultural descent, and is the author of many books, both novels and non-fiction, including Green Wizardry, After Oil, The Wealth of Nature, and Not the Future We Ordered. Star's Reach, is a novel set 400 years ahead in America's neo-medieval future, The King in Orange, a meditation on the relationship between archetype psychology and the occult as acted out in politics and culture. Things are getting weird in America, wouldn't you agree? Even a bit supernatural. To help us navigate through this wilderness of the weird, JMG and I talk about magic and the re-enchantment of daily life in these turbulent times.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 376 — Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Is Running For President

Tue, 02 May 2023 12:33:00 +0000

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr is a candidate for president running for the Democratic Party nomination. He's a long-time environmental lawyer, author of the book The Real Anthony Fauci, which has sold over a million copies — and still hasn't made it to the New York Times bestseller list for some mysterious reason. He's the Founder and chairman of the Children's Health Defense organization. His father, Robert F. Kennedy, Sr,.was Attorney General of the United States and US Senator from New York, and his Uncle, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was elected president of the United States in 1960.

I recorded Bobby on his cell phone and the sound quality isn't the greatest. He'd had a rugged week after announcing his bid to run, and we were lucky to get him on the podcast. Next time, we'll get him on a good mic.

His campaign website is: www.kennedy24.com

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 375 -- Neil Howe on How's the Fourth Turning Going So Far

Mon, 24 Apr 2023 21:28:00 +0000

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 374 -- Michael Rectenwald on Woke Totalitarianism

Tue, 11 Apr 2023 22:04:00 +0000

Dr. Michael Rectenwald is the author of twelve books, including The Great Reset and the Struggle for Liberty: Unraveling the Global Agenda (Jan. 2023), Thought Criminal (Dec. 2020); Beyond Woke (May 2020); Google Archipelago: The Digital Gulag and the Simulation of Freedom (Sept. 2019); Springtime for Snowflakes: "Social Justice" and Its Postmodern Parentage (an academic's memoir, 2018)

A former Marxist, Professor Rectenwald is a champion of liberty and opposes all forms of totalitarianism and political authoritarianism, including socialism-communism, "social justice," fascism, political correctness, and "woke" ideology. In 2016, he was famously subject to a Woke witch-hunt at NYU and, after a long struggle, left the University.

He writes for many journals, newspapers and websites and does guest spots on political TV shows, including Tucker Carlson, Glenn Beck, Laura Ingraham, Larry Elder.

Follow him on Twitter @GreatResetProf. And his website: Michael@MichaelRectenwald.com

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 373 — Jeffrey Tucker of the Brownstone Institute on the Covid Bamboozlement of Donald Trump, and Other Developing Matters

Thu, 23 Mar 2023 21:24:00 +0000

Jeffrey A. Tucker is Founder and President of the Brownstone Institute and the author of many thousands of articles in the scholarly and popular press and ten books in 5 languages, most recently Liberty or Lockdown. He is also a columnist at Forbes, founder of the Atlanta Bitcoin Embassy, and Senior Distinguished Fellow of the Austrian Economics Center in Vienna, Austria. He is the editor of The Best of Mises [economist Ludwig von Mises]. He speaks widely on topics of economics, technology, social philosophy, and culture.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 372 — — A Conversation with Dr. David E. Martin — Prosecuting Covid Crimes

Sun, 12 Mar 2023 19:17:00 +0000

I'm doing another lap with Dr. David E Martin the Founder and Chairman of M·CAM Inc., the international leader in innovation finance, trade, and intangible asset finance. He's been among a select band of international thought-leaders investigating the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, in particular the relationships between US public health officials, the pharmaceutical companies, and a number of shadowy organizations behind the development of hugely profitable vaccines with a poor record of safety and viability.
He was the founding CEO of Mosaic Technologies Inc., a company that developed and commercialized advanced computational linguistics technologies, dynamic data compression and encryption technologies, electrical field transmission technology, medical diagnostics, and stealth/anechoic technology, and launched many other ventures here and overseas.

He's currently working directly with sheriffs and district attorneys to bring criminal cases against the perpetrators of this historic fraud — including negligent homicide, premeditated murder, and reckless endangerment charges against doctors, hospital groups, managed care groups, et cetera, for the deaths of the vaccine-injected and deaths from treatment with the drug remdesivir. He has found 25 sheriffs and DAs willing to take prosecutions forward. Anyone seeking to inquire about adjudicating deaths of family members can go to www.prosecutenow.io.

KunstlerCast 371 -- Dmitry Orlov on Russia, Ukraine, and the Swirl of Events

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 19:09:00 +0000

#371 — Dmitry Orlov, the author of "Reinventing Collapse", moved to the USA as a boy when his dissident parents managed to get out of the Soviet Union. He spent most of his life here, went through school and college, but ventured back to Russia for a while in the 1990s out of curiosity after the fall of the USSR. He returned to the USA where he worked in IT and eventually moved onto a boat in Boston Harbor. He's published many other books, including "The Five Stages of Collapse," "Shrinking the Technosphere," "The Pitfalls of English," and has put out the Club Orlov Blog for more than a decade. I'm a big fan of his writings.

After the Great Financial Fiasco of 2009, Dmitry divided his time between Boston and wintering on his boat in Central America. For several years after he started a family, he sojourned in the waters off Beaufort, South Carolina. Finally, before the Covid Melodrama, he up and resettled in St. Petersburg, Russia, where he is establishing a new phase of his literary career writing in the Russian Language. He continues to blog in English. He is a keen observer of the political and technological scene.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 370 -- Stephan Sander-Faes on Europe's Nervous Winter

Wed, 01 Feb 2023 13:04:00 +0000

Stephan Sanders-Faes is an historian of Central and Eastern Europe at the University of Bergen, Norway. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Graz in 2011 and obtained the Habilitation in Early Modern and Modern History from the University of Zurich in 2018. Before joining the Bergen faculty in 2020, he taught for ten years at the history departments at the Universities of Zurich and Fribourg, as well as held the István Deák Visiting Professorship in East Central European Studies at Columbia University in 2018.

Stephan's research focuses on post-medieval Central and Eastern Europe (c. 1350-1850), with a particular interest in urban-rural relations, administrative, bureaucratic, and constitutional changes ("ABC history"), and state transformation — that is, the emergence, and change over time, of the European national state. He's the author of two books: Urban Elites of Zadar (2013); and Europas Habsburgisches Jahrhundert (2018). His next book will be Lordship and State Transformation: Bohemia and the Habsburg Monarchy from the Thirty Years War to the War of the Spanish Succession, expected in 2022.

He blogs on current events at https://fackel.substack.com. Fakel means "torch" in German.

Currently, Stephan is investigating the diffusion of state authority into the rural periphery of Habsburg Lower Austria from the late eighteenth century to the advent of constitutional rule in 1860s, exploring the role of non-state actors as state-builders, the patterns of transition, and the social factors influencing them.

His other contributions to the field includes consulting for the EU Commission's Research Executive Agency (Marie Curie-Skłodowska fellowships), the Polish National Science Centre (Narodowe Centrum Nauki), and the Swiss National Science Foundation, as well as serving on the international editorial board of Atti (published by the Center for Historical Research in Rovinj/Rovigo, Croatia), and as peer-reviewer for Annales: Histoire, Sciences Sociales, Archivio Veneto, and the Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, among others.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 369 -- A Chat with CJ Hopkins of The Consent Factory Blog

Sat, 21 Jan 2023 18:44:00 +0000

C. J. Hopkins is an award-winning playwright, novelist, and political satirist, and author at The Consent Factory blog. His plays have been produced and have toured at theaters and festivals including Riverside Studios (London), 59E59 Theaters (New York), Traverse Theatre (Edinburgh), Belvoir St. Theatre (Sydney), the Du Maurier World Stage Festival (Toronto), Needtheater (Los Angeles), 7 Stages (Atlanta), the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Adelaide Fringe, Brighton Festival, and the Noorderzon Festival (the Netherlands), among others. His writing awards include the 2002 First of the Scotsman Fringe Firsts, Scotsman Fringe Firsts in 2002 and 2005, and the 2004 Best Play of the Adelaide Fringe. His political satire and commentary has also been published by OffGuardian, ZeroHedge, ColdType, Rubikon, RT.com, CounterPunch, Dissident Voice, and many other publications, and has been widely translated. His dystopian science fiction novel, Zone 23, is published by Snoggsworthy, Swaine & Cormorant.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 368 -- Chatting with David Collum about his Year in Review

Mon, 02 Jan 2023 22:31:00 +0000

David Collum is the Betty R. Miller Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Cornell University. He moonlights as an Internet gadfly offering commentary on culture, politics, finance, and technology, He publishes a massive Year in Review essay every Christmas season and it's available at Chris Martenson's Peak Prosperity Website. It's a humdinger. In this chat, we reference the Christmas battlefield hiatus over in Ukraine — but we recorded this before the Jan 2 missile attack on a Russian barracks in Donbas that killed many Russian soldiers. Hope we don't nuked for that.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 367 -- Chatting with Stephanie Seneff of MIT about Covid-19 and Other Modern Health Issues

Fri, 09 Dec 2022 22:58:00 +0000

Stephanie Seneff is a Senior Research Scientist at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. For over three decades, her research interests have always been at the intersection of biology and computation. She has published over 170 refereed articles on these subjects, In recent years, Dr. Seneff has focused her research interests back towards biology, especially the relationship between vaccines and autism; the harmful effects of the agricultural herbicide glyphosate (sold as "Roundup"); and study of the spike protein associate with the Covid-19-virus and the mRNA vaccines developed for it. She has published several papers on it with Dr. Peter McCullough and others.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 366 -- Conversation with Chris M and Chris S of the New Revenant Society.

Sat, 26 Nov 2022 21:51:00 +0000

The New Revenant Society is the website and blog of the two Christophers —Christopher M and Christopher S, two off-the-grid homesteaders who are founding a tea plantation in rural Virginia. They invite correspondence by US Mail at 44 Kingston Dr. #159 Daleville VA 24083.

Christopher M is an author and former counterintelligence analyst living in the Appalachian mountains. After high school, he joined the Army Intelligence Corps and deployed to Afghanistan in 2013. His time in the military drove him to want to understand cultures, leading to his completing a bachelor's in sociology and an MBA in strategic management. When he isn't writing, he enjoys reading, cooking, drawing, researching, and spending time with his cats, chickens, and ducks. His new book, The Psychology of Collapsing, will be published in paperback and e-book on December 16, 2022. If you have a Kindle, you can pre-order the e-book now!

Christopher S's dedication to horticulture and sustainable living propelled him to earn a B.S. in Environmental Sustainability. His passion for nature and sustainable living came together once he discovered Permaculture and its design ethic. Since then, he has worked on several tiny house builds, designed permaculture properties, and currently resides on an 11-acre property in Appalachia, cultivating tea (and other garden projects). Being off-grid has been a challenging experience to break into, but one that aligns with his values and purpose in life. He writes diligently about adapting to a life beyond fossil fuels and building sustainable communities.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 365 -- A Conversation with David McAlvany

Sun, 06 Nov 2022 16:17:00 +0000

David McAlvany is a thought leader on the global economy and author of The Intentional Legacy, his thoughtful memoir on the power of legacy and what it means to create a meaningful family culture. McAlvany graduated from Biola, served as a wealth manager at Morgan Stanley, and is the second-generation CEO of the McAlvany Financial Group. He has been a featured guest on national television programs, including CNBC, Fox News, Bloomberg, and at financial seminars around the world. David is also the host of the McAlvany Weekly Commentary, one of the longest-running economic and geopolitical podcasts online.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 364 -- The Wild Western Civ Shoot-out with Tom Luongo

Fri, 07 Oct 2022 18:21:00 +0000

Tom Luongo is the voice behind the Gold, Goat's and Guns blog and podcast, often featured on Zero Hedge and other sites. We venture into the dark backwaters and sidetracks of global intrigue as Western Civ goes off the rails and the US midterm election looms ominously weeks ahead. Tom describes himself as a former research scientist, amateur diary-goat farmer, anarchy-libertarian, and obstreperous Austrian economist. He built the house he lives in and he's a lot of fun.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 363 -- Jacob Dreizin of the Dreizin Report

Thu, 22 Sep 2022 12:48:09 +0000

Jacob Dreizen, a new face on the blogging scene, went to Washington as a young man, worked at a prestigious lobbying organization and briefly on Capitol Hill as well as volunteering for a successful Senate campaign. A U.S. Army veteran, Jacob is fluent in Russian and has emerged as a leading independent commentator on the origins of the Russia-Ukraine conflict -- and the U.S. role in the conflict. He has made a number of successful calls on global events, such as predicting fertilizer shortages months before awareness of the dynamic went mainstream, and warning as early as December 2021 that Western sanctions in response to Russia's pending invasion of the Ukraine would boomerang back on the West. He's written for American Thinker and American Greatness, and has been a guest on The Duran, Viva Frei, Jackson Hinckle, and Two Mikes. His own commentary can be found at www.thedreizinreport.com and his Rumble and Odysee channels.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast_362 — Chatting with Rays Jason, The Sea Gypsy Philosopher

Tue, 23 Aug 2022 21:15:16 +0000

Ray Jason blogs as the Sea Gypsy Philosopher. He has lived on his sailboat, the Aventura, for nearly thirty years, lately off the coast of Central America. Before that, Ray worked as a street performer, juggling in San Francisco. He's crossed the Pacific solo from California to Hawaii many times, and is the author of Tales of a Sea Gypsy and, of course The Sea Gypsy Philosopher. I enjoyed discussing the technicalities of life on a boat with him. I hope you find this a charming relief from the political calamities and anxieties of the day, as much as I did — and perhaps an inspiration to find a rewarding journey in life away from the humdrum annoyances of the landlubber way.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 361 -- Yakking with David Collum as the World Turns and Burns

Mon, 01 Aug 2022 20:45:38 +0000

David Collum is the Betty R. Miller Professor of Chemistry at Cornell University. He is the intellectual utility infielder of internet commentary, covering all the bases: culture, politics, finance, and technology, with often surprising views on the the predicaments of our time. Here we attempt to make sense of the fast-moving corona virus story and the increasingly weird and troubling second-order events spinning off of it into the global economy and fractious American politics du jour. His Twitter feed is always edifying.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 359 — Mattias Desmet and Mass Formation Madness

Sun, 19 Jun 2022 14:55:48 +0000

Mattias Desmet is a professor of clinical psychology and Educational Sciences at the Ghent University, Belgium and a practicing psychotherapist. He is the author ofThe Psychology of Totalitarianism (Chelsea Green Publishing). Since he introduced the concept of "mass formation psychosis" into the arena of public discourse some months ago, his ideas have been discussed widely, especially in relation to the bizarre politics of Covid-19. He is also the author of over one hundred peer-reviewed academic papers and recipient of many prizes in his professional field.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 358 -- A Conversation About Ukraine with Larry C. Johnson

Wed, 18 May 2022 22:09:21 +0000

Larry C Johnson is a veteran of the CIA and the State Department's Office of Counter Terrorism. He is the founder and managing partner of BERG Associates, which was established in 1998. Larry provided training to the US Military's Special Operations community for 24 years. He has been vilified by the right and the left, which means he must be doing something right. He blogs at www.Sonar21.com.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 357: Joni McGary on Campus Covid Vaccine Mandates

Tue, 26 Apr 2022 18:18:40 +0000

Joni McGary is the mother of a college junior and the co-founder of NoCollegeMandates.com, a coalition of more than 2500 college stakeholders working to end college Covid-19 vaccine mandates. She's worked in business development in the food, pharmaceutical and biotech industries, and previously owned LuckyGuy Bakery. She lives in Bloomington, Indiana. Her articles on the subject of college mandates have been published at the Daily Clout and the Brownstone Institute. She can be found on Twitter @LadySpaulding11. Joni lives in Bloomington, IN.

Sponsor: https://kunstler.com/vaulted

KunstlerCast 356 -- Tom Luongo Lays It Out

Wed, 23 Mar 2022 19:01:19 +0000

Tom Luongo is the voice behind the Gold, Goat's 'n' Guns blog and podcast, often featured on Zero Hedge and other sites. Tom describes himself as a former research scientist, amateur diary-goat farmer, anarchy-libertarian, and obstreperous Austrian economist. He built the house he lives in and he's a lot of fun. The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 355 -- Nick Corbishley, author of "Scanned."

Thu, 10 Mar 2022 21:09:29 +0000

#355 —Nick Corbishley is the author of Scanned: Why Vaccine Passports, Mandates, Digital IDs Will Mean the End of Privacy and Personal Freedom. He's been an editor at Wolf Richter's Wolf Street website and currently writes for Naked Capitalism on finance, economics, and politics. He lives in Barcelona, Spain.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 354 — Mark Hurst asks: Is Digital Tech Doing Evil

Tue, 08 Feb 2022 20:58:28 +0000

Mark Hurst is an early Web pioneer who has become one of Big Tech's sharpest critics. Hurst's Creative Good newsletter and Techtonic radio show chart the spread of Big Tech into all areas of life and work. His GoodReports.com site lists alternatives to Big Tech platforms. Earlier in his career, Hurst founded the Gel ("Good Experience Live") conference, which debuted projects like Wikipedia and Khan Academy. He is the author of two books about technology: "Bit Literacy" (2007) on information overload, and "Customers Included" (2nd edition, 2015) on building customer-friendly digital products. The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 353

Tue, 11 Jan 2022 22:17:01 +0000

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 352

Sat, 11 Dec 2021 13:37:36 +0000

I'm doing another lap with Dr. David E Martin who is among a select group of international thought-leaders investigating the origins of the Covid-19 Pandemic and in particular the relationships between US public health officials, the pharmaceutical companies, and a number of shadfdowy organizations behind the development of the hugely profitable vaccines, which have a poor record of safety and viability.

David is the Founder and Chairman of M·CAM Inc., the international leader in innovation finance, trade, and intangible asset finance. He's been among a select band of international thought-leaders investigating the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, in particular the relationships between US public health officials, the pharmaceutical companies, and a number of shadowy organizations behind the development of hugely profitable vaccines with a poor record of safety and viability.

He is the developer of the first innovation-based quantitative index of public equities and is the Managing Partner of the Purple Bridge Funds. Dr. Martin has founded several for-profit and non-profit companies and organizations and serves of several boards. He was the founding CEO of Mosaic Technologies Inc., a company that developed and commercialized advanced computational linguistics technologies, dynamic data compression and encryption technologies, electrical field transmission technology, medical diagnostics, and stealth/anechoic technology.

He was a founding member of Japans Institute for Interface Science & Technology. He founded and served as Executive Director of the Charlottesville Venture Group. He has served as a board member for the Research Institute for Small and Emerging Business (Washington D.C.), the Academy for Augmenting Grassroots Technological Innovations (India), the IST (Japan) the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce (Virginia), and the Charlottesville Industrial Development Agency (Virginia). Actively engaged in global ethical economic development, Dr. Martin's work includes financial engineering and investment, public speaking, writing and providing financial advisory services to the majority of countries in the world.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 351

Sat, 13 Nov 2021 14:49:12 +0000

Steve Kirsch is a Silicon Valley philanthropist and founder of the COVID-19 Early Treatment Fund (CETF) – the only organization in the world focused on finding the most promising drugs and treatments that, when given sufficiently early, can reduce hospitalization and death rates.

As a tech entrepreneur, he is the inventor of the optical mouse and one of the first Internet search engines, Infoseek. He started 7 high tech companies, two with billion dollar market caps. He has a BS/MS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT. He blogs regularly at https://stevekirsch.substack.com

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 350

Wed, 13 Oct 2021 13:51:13 +0000

Doug Casey is an American writer, financier, and the founder and chairman of Casey Research. He describes himself as an anarcho-capitalist influenced by the works of novelist Ayn Rand. Casey is an advisor on how to profit from market distortions and periods of economic turmoil. He's lately turned his talents to fiction and his recent novel, Assassins, is the third installment in the Charles Knight series of International thrillers. Doug has lived abroad for many years — visiting over 100 other countries for sheer sport — and currently hangs his hat on a ranch in Uruguay. He blogs at Doug Casey's International Man.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast_349

Tue, 14 Sep 2021 15:36:49 +0000

#349 David Collum is the Betty R. Miller Professor of Chemistry at Cornell University. He is the intellectual utility infielder of internet commentary, covering all the bases: culture, politics, finance, and technology, with often surprising views on the the predicaments of our time. Here we attempt to make sense of the fast-moving corona virus story and the increasingly weird and troubling second-order events spinning off of it into the global economy and fractious American politics du jour.

Dave tweets most entertainingly at @DavidBCollum

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 348

Wed, 18 Aug 2021 20:10:02 +0000

Dmitry Orlov was born in Leningrad, USSR, into an academic family, and emigrated to the US in the mid-1970s. He holds degrees in Computer Engineering and Linguistics, and has worked in a variety of fields, including high-energy physics, Internet commerce, network security and advertising. Starting in 2005, Dmitry has published hundreds of articles, three books and 10 collections of essays focusing on the forthcoming collapse of the United States specifically and Western civilization generally. He has given numerous talks and interviews, and delivered keynote addresses at many conferences. His work is translated into many languages. His latest forays are into the subjects of the abuse and misuse of technology, the various myths, religious and otherwise, around which different societies are organized, and the unfolding civilizational clash between the West and the rest. Dmitry lives in his native St. Petersburg, Russia, with his wife and son. His work can be found at cluborlov.wordpress.com, patreon.com/orlov and subscribestar.com/orlov.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 347

Thu, 22 Jul 2021 20:35:04 +0000

Dr. David E. Martin is the Founder and Chairman of M·CAM Inc., the international leader in innovation finance, trade, and intangible asset finance. He is the developer of the first innovation-based quantitative index of public equities and is the Managing Partner of the Purple Bridge Funds. He is the creator of the world's first quantitative public equity index – the CNBC IQ100 powered by M·CAM. Actively engaged in global ethical economic development, Dr. Martin's work includes financial engineering and investment, public speaking, writing and providing financial advisory services to the majority of countries in the world.

He is on social media as DavidMartinWorld.
His own podcasts cane found at www.ActivateHumanity.com

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast_346

Tue, 06 Jul 2021 20:22:10 +0000

John Droz, Jr. received undergraduate degrees in Physics and Mathematics from Boston College, and a graduate degree in Physics from Syracuse University. He subsequently worked for GE (Aerospace Electronics), Mohawk Data Sciences, and Monolithic Memories (Cupertino, CA). After retiring at 34, he phased into pursuing a variety of community interests. This led to a 40 year commitment as an environmental advocate. He lives in New York's Adirondack Mountains.

John has has written and published over a hundred articles on energy policy matters, been a guest speaker on dozens of radio and TV shows, nationwide, and has spoken to numerous organizations on energy and environmental issues.
In late 2020 John was asked if he would put together a team of independent experts to analyze election data. He agreed to do that and as of this writing they have generated ten major reports. Find them at Election-Integrity.info.
The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 345

Thu, 17 Jun 2021 18:20:54 +0000

Chris Martenson, PhD (Duke), MBA (Cornell) is an economic researcher and futurist specializing in energy and resource depletion, and founder of PeakProsperity.com. As one of the early econobloggers who forecasted the housing market collapse and stock market correction years in advance, Chris rose to prominence with the launch of his seminal video seminar: The Crash Course which has also been published in book form (Wiley, March 2011). The Crash Course is a popular and extremely well-regarded distillation of the interconnected forces in the Economy, Energy and the Environment (the "Three Es" as Chris calls them) that are shaping the future — one that will be defined by increasing challenges to growth as we have known it.

Chris and Evie now live on a 180-acre rural property in western MA and love being close to nature's bounty and beauty.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 344

Wed, 26 May 2021 22:27:20 +0000

Dr Tim Morgan is a leading exponent of the view that the economy is an energy system, not a financial one. This was set out in the report Perfect Storm – when Tim was global head of research at leading international finance firm Tullett Prebon – and in the book Life After Growth.

Since that book was published in 2013, his focus has been on modelling the economy as an energy system. His model – the Surplus Energy Economics Data System (SEEDS) – produces results that differ radically from models which accept the premise that energy and resources play no more than supporting roles in an economy shaped and driven by money.

His research can be found at https://surplusenergyeconomics.wordpress.com/

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 343

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 20:20:35 +0000

The Anonymous high school physics teacher has been corresponding with me for a while and I asked him to come on the podcast. He teaches in New England, and that is all I can reveal of his identity. Of course, we will chat about the current scene in secondary education.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 342

Wed, 24 Mar 2021 15:24:59 +0000

Hobbs Magaret is a regenerative cattle rancher in Central Oregon. Raised on the ranches of the Texas Panhandle and further educated at The University of Oregon, he has experienced two extremes of the contemporary American Experiment. Hobbs, his wife, and his daughter live in Sisters, Oregon, where they use regenerative and fossil fuel averse techniques to rehabilitate degraded ag land and sell beef directly to regional consumers. Visit his website at SistersCattleco.com and checkout his interesting videos at TikTok.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 341

Tue, 23 Feb 2021 15:15:08 +0000

Derrick Jensen is an author, teacher, activist, and small farmer. He is the author of more than twenty-five books, including A Language Older Than Words, The Culture of Make Believe, and Endgame. He was named "the Poet Philosopher of the Ecological Movement" by Democracy Now! and one of Utne Reader's "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World." He is the co-author of the new book Bright Green Lies: How the Environmental Movement Lost Its Way and What We Can Do About It. He lives in Northern California

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 340

Sun, 07 Feb 2021 22:46:04 +0000

John Michael Greer, an old friend of the podcast, blogs at Ecosophia -- subtitle, Toward an Ecological Spirituality. JMG has been an astute observer of the Western world's arduous economic and cultural descent, and is the author of many books, both novels and non-fiction, including Green Wizardry, After Oil, The Wealth of Nature, and Not the Future We Ordered. Star's Reach, is a novel set 400 years ahead in America's neo-medieval future. We chat about his latest book, coming out this spring, The King in Orange, a meditation on the relationship between archetype psychology and the occult as acted out in politics and culture.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 339

Tue, 05 Jan 2021 22:02:47 +0000

Adam Ellwanger is a professor of English at the University of Houston - Downtown, where he teaches rhetoric and writing. In addition to those topics, his varied research interests include popular culture, political philosophy, media studies, and the American Mess writ large. Check out his dangerous new book on the modern politics of identity, entitled Metanoia: Rhetoric, Authenticity, and the Transformation of the Self. You will also like his essay on the Human Events website: Toward a Woke Metaphysics.

Recently, he authored an open letter signed by over 180 professors that outlines forms of non-compliance that signatories will undertake in an effort to resist the current ideological trends on campus. Ellwanger also offers regular commentary at sites like Human Events, New Discourses, American Greatness, Quillette, and more. In his free time, he writes, plays guitar, drinks beer and ruby port, and listens to music. Follow him @DoctorEllwanger on Twitter.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 338

Fri, 11 Dec 2020 20:39:28 +0000

#338 —Andres Duany is a key founder of the New Urbanist movement. His Miami-based firm, DPZ, with wife and partner Lizz Plater-Zyberk, designed the iconic new town, Seaside, Florida, and scores of other excellent projects in the USA and around the world. Andres continues to lead the way in urban design and in these turbulent times, I think you'll appreciate communing with his fierce and humorous intelligence.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

kunstlerCast 337

Fri, 27 Nov 2020 21:49:31 +0000

KunstlerCast 336

Mon, 26 Oct 2020 19:47:46 +0000

Doug Casey is an American writer, financier, and the founder and chairman of Casey Research. He describes himself as an anarcho-capitalist influenced by the works of novelist Ayn Rand. Casey is known as a real estate investor as well as an advisor on how to profit from market distortions and periods of economic turmoil. He's lately turned his talents to fiction and his new book Assassins, is the third installment in the Charles Knight series of International thrillers. He has lived abroad for many years — visiting over 100 other countries for sheer sport — and currently hangs his hat on a ranch in Uruguay. I caught up with him on a brief stopover in Aspen, Colorado, as he prepared to drive the back roads of America to Washington, DC. He blogs at Doug Casey's International Man

KunstlerCast 335

Thu, 08 Oct 2020 20:17:10 +0000

This podcast speaks to a subject I've written about a lot lately — the demographic movement of Americans leaving the big cities for small cities and small towns. New York City alone has lost over 300,000 residents since the onset of the corona virus. John Boone and Hunter Renfro are the young principals at Orchestra Partners, a real estate investment company working to rehab old neighborhoods in Birmingham, Alabama, (pop. 212,000) and elsewhere in the south. Neither of them are trained architects or urban planners, nor are they card-carrying New Urbanists, but they're working very much in that vein and have a lot to say about creating towns and neighborhoods that are worth living in and worth caring about.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 334

Thu, 24 Sep 2020 18:42:32 +0000

Charles A. S. Hall was born in Eastern Massachusetts in 1943, attended Colgate University, then Penn State University for a Masters in Ecology, then a PhD in Systems Ecology under Howard Odum at the University of North Carolina. He was professor at Cornell University, University of Montana and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. He is author, coauthor or editor of 14 books and 300 scientific papers, many in our leading scientific journals. Dr. Hall is noted especially for the concepts of Energy Return on Investment and BioPhysical Economics, both applying the natural sciences to what is traditionally studied with conventional economics. Currently he is retired and lives in Western Montana with his wife and their dog, but is very involved in developing a BioPhysiccsl Economics Institute.

KunstlerCast 333

Mon, 24 Aug 2020 19:03:48 +0000

Dr. Jack Rasmus is the author of the recently published book, 'The Scourge of Neoliberalism: US Policy from Reagan to Trump, Clarity Press, January 1, 2020.

Dr. Rasmus currently teaches economics at St. Marys College in Moraga, California, on subjects of US economic policy, US political change, financial business cycles, history of economic thought, American Labor and unions, and US Economic History. He is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley (BA Economics) and University of Toronto, Canada (MA, Ph.D Political Economy).

Dr. Rasmus is author of several prior books on the USA and global economy, including Alexander Hamilton and the Origins of the Fed, Lexington Books, March 2019; Central Bankers at the End of Their Ropes, Clarity Press, August 2017; Looting Greece: A New Financial Imperialism Emerges, Clarity Press, September 2016; Systemic Fragility in the Global Economy, Clarity Press, January 2016; Epic Recession: Prelude to Global Depression, Pluto Books, 2010; Obama's Economy: Recovery for the Few, Pluto Books, 2012; and The War At Home: The Corporate Offensive From Reagan to George W. Bush, Kyklos Books, 2006.

His stage plays include '1934', 'Fire on Pier 32', and 'Hold the Light'. He blogs regularly at Znet & Counterpunch (USA), Global Research (Canada), and Telesur (Caracas).

Prior to teaching and publishing, Dr. Rasmus was formerly an Economist and strategic market analyst for various global tech & market research companies for twenty years. Before that, for more than a decade, he was a local union president, contract negotiator, strike coordinator, and organizer for various unions, including the National Writers Union/UAW Local 1981, CWA Locals 9455 & 9415, Hotel & Restaurant Local 19, and Service Employees International Union Local 715.

Dr. Rasmus blogs at jackrasmus.com. His website is http://kyklosproductions.com & his twitter handle is @drjackrasmus. He hosts the weekly radio show, Alternative Visions, on the Progressive Radio Network (podcasts available at http://alternativevisions.podbean.com) and may be contacted at: rasmus@kyklos.com, drjackrasmus@gmail.com .

KunstlerCast 232

Thu, 30 Jul 2020 20:10:22 +0000

Dave tweets most entertainingly at @DavidBCollum

KunstlerCast 331

Thu, 09 Jul 2020 20:45:56 +0000

JHK chats with architect and neuroscientist Ann Sussman about our damaged everyday surroundings of buildings, streets, and cities in the USA — and how they got that way.

Ann Sussman, RA, is passionate about understanding the human experience of the built environment. Her book, Cognitive Architecture, Designing for How We Respond to the Built Environment (Routledge, 2015) co-authored with Justin B. Hollander, won the Place Research Award from the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) in 2016. Her new book, Urban Experience & Design: Contemporary Perspectives on Improving the Public Realm, (Routledge 2020) also co-edited with Hollander, is due out in October. It explores the role PTSD — specifically veterans' brain trauma post-WWI — had in creating Modern Architecture. Ann believes new understandings from neuroscience on how the brain works and what humans need to see to be at their best, will transform architecture, including the narrative of how Modern Architecture came to be. Ann recently co-founded the non-profit The Human Architecture + Planning Institute, Inc (theHapi.org) to help people better understand how humans experience buildings. She currently teaches a new course on perception called Architecture & Cognition, at the Boston Architectural College (BAC). She blogs on the biology behind design that delights at GeneticsofDesign.com.

KunstlerCast 330

Tue, 09 Jun 2020 12:22:53 +0000

JHK hunkers down with Simons Chase, a new voice on the financial scene. Mr. Chase is the CIO and owner of independent investment firm, SC Capital Management LLC. He has over 20 years of media, finance and early-stage investing experience on the frontiers of emerging trends. He started his career as a structured finance banker in the oil & gas sector in Russia in the 1990s. His blog, LBS.co, explores trends in investing, economics and society.

KunstlerCast 329

Thu, 14 May 2020 18:55:43 +0000

Art Berman is an independent oil geologist and industry analyst. We go pretty deep into the recent alarming price crash of crude oil, the vagaries and destiny of the shale oil business, and the implications for the American economy. Art is based in Houston.

He publishes his own blog at: https://www.artberman.com/blog/

The theme music for the podcast is the Two Rivers Waltz by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 328

Wed, 29 Apr 2020 20:25:19 +0000

Charles Hugh Smith founded his blog Of Two Minds in 2005 after 17 years of free-lance journalism in the San Francisco Bay Area. Of Two Minds has grown to thousands of posts that have logged tens of millions of page views on his site and many others such as Zero Hedge and Peak Prosperity. He is the author of eight novels and fourteen non-fiction books on socio-economic-political dynamics. He lives by Winston Churchill's dictum that "Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm."

Charles's Blog: OfTwoMinds.com

Charles's Books:

Will You Be Richer or Poorer?: Profit, Power, and AI in a Traumatized World

Pathfinding our Destiny: Preventing the Final Fall of Our Democratic Republic

Money and Work Unchained

KunstlerCast 327

Wed, 25 Mar 2020 19:01:48 +0000

Gail Tverberg is an analyst who has been researching the connection between oil limits and the economy for nearly 10 years. She writes a widely-followed blog called Our Finite World. Her background is as an actuary, working as a consultant to insurance companies. She also has a foot in the academic world, where she has lectured and written academic articles, and taught at the China's University of Petroleum in Beijing.

KunstlerCast 326

Thu, 12 Mar 2020 19:42:05 +0000

David Collum is the Betty R. Miller Professor of Chemistry at Cornell University. He is the intellectual utility infielder of internet commentary, covering all the bases: culture, politics, finance, science, and technology, with often surprising views on the the predicaments of our time. Here we attempt to make sense of the fast-moving corona virus story and the increasingly weird and troubling second-order events spinning off of it into the global economy and politics.
Dave tweets at @DavidBCollum

KunstlerCast 325

Wed, 19 Feb 2020 21:26:55 +0000

Nir Buras is a PhD architect and planner with over 30 years of in-depth experience in strategic planning, architecture, and transportation design, as well as teaching and lecturing. His planning, design and construction experience includes East Side Access at Grand Central Terminal, New York; International Terminal D, Dallas-Fort-Worth; the Washington DC Dulles Metro line; work on the US Capitol and the Senate and House Office Buildings in Washington. Projects he has worked on have been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, local newspapers, and trade magazines. Buras, whose original degree was Architect and Town Planner, has watched first-hand how architecture and urbanism impact each other. After the last decade of applying in practice the classical method that Buras absorbed in his practice, his book, The Art of Classic Planning (Harvard University Press, 2019), shows how we can best face the future by once more building beautiful, balanced, and durable urbanism.

The theme music for the podcast is the Two Rivers Waltz by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast_324

Thu, 30 Jan 2020 19:59:22 +0000

Ben Hunt is the Chief Investment Officer at Second Foundation Partners, a consultant for large institutional investors, and the author of Epsilon Theory, a newsletter and website that examines markets through the lenses of game theory, history and nature. Over 100,000 professional investors and allocators across 200 countries read Epsilon Theory for its fresh perspective and novel insights into market dynamics. In prior positions, Ben has managed a billion dollar hedge fund and served as Chief Strategist for a $13 billion dollar asset manager. He has a Ph.D. from Harvard University, was a tenured Political Science professor, and has co-founded three technology companies. Ben spends lots of time on a family owned farm, which inspires many original ideas on the parallels between human and animal behavior

The new theme music for the podcast is the Two Rivers Waltz by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast_323

Wed, 18 Dec 2019 16:38:19 +0000

Steve Keen is an Australian economist and author. He considers himself a post-Keynesian, criticizing neoclassical economics as inconsistent, unscientific and empirically unsupported. His books include Developing an Economics for the Post-crisis World (2015) and Can We Avoid Another Financial Crisis? (2017). He lives in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

The new theme music for the podcast is the Two Rivers Waltz by Larry Unger.

KunstlerCast 322

Wed, 27 Nov 2019 21:30:31 +0000

Larry Kummer is The editor of the Fabius Maximus website.

FabiusMaximus.com

He has 37 years experience in the finance industry in a variety of roles, retiring as a VP and Senior Portfolio Manager at a global investment bank. He was a Boy Scout volunteer leader for 15 years, running a Troop for 7 years and retiring as Director and VP-Finance of the Mt Diablo-Silverado Council. For 20 years he was an active Republican, working on many campaigns — until the party abandoned its traditional principles. He began writing about geopolitics in 2003

A sampling of important posts from Fabius Maximus:

America isn't falling like the Roman Empire. We're falling like the Roman Republic.
Welcome to ClownWorld, the final meme for America- It is the next phase of the "crazy years", long ago predicted by Robert Heinlein.
A new, dark picture of America's future- our institutions are falling like a line of dominoes.

Larry says, "I've written 140 posts about ways to reform America. They are the least popular posts. We want simple morality tales, to cheer the good people and boo the bad. We flee from talk about responsibility and work like vampires from daylight. None of the risking 'our lives, fortunes, and sacred honor' for us. We see ourselves as customers in a restaurant, whining that the menu isn't good enough for people so awesome."

KunstlerCast 322

Wed, 27 Nov 2019 21:01:18 +0000

Larry Kummer. Are these the Crazy Years in America? Larry is The editor of the Fabius Maximus website.

FabiusMaximus.com

A sampling of important posts from Fabius Maximus:

America isn't falling like the Roman Empire. We're falling like the Roman Republic.

Welcome to ClownWorld, the final meme for America - It is the next phase of the "crazy years", long ago predicted by Robert Heinlein.

A new, dark picture of America's future - our institutions are falling like a line of dominoes.

Larry says, "I've written 140 posts about ways to reform America. They are the least popular posts. We want simple morality tales, to cheer the good people and boo the bad. We flee from talk about responsibility and work like vampires from daylight. None of the risking "our lives, fortunes, and sacred honor" for us. We see ourselves as customers in a restaurant, whining that the menu isn't good enough for people so awesome."

KunstlerCast 321

Thu, 24 Oct 2019 19:14:11 +0000

#321 — Charles Hugh Smith writes the popular Of Two Minds blog (at https://www.oftwominds.com/blog.html) and is the author of many books, most recently Will You Be Richer or Poorer; Profit, Power, and A.I. in a Traumatized World.) He lives in the world capital of Wokesterdom: Berkeley, California.

KunstlerCast 320

Fri, 20 Sep 2019 14:41:32 +0000

David Collum is the Betty R. Miller Professor of Chemistry at Cornell University, an intellectual utility infielder of internet commentary. He covers all the bases: culture, politics, finance, and technology, with often surprising views on the the predicaments of our time. He tweets at @DavidBCollum

KunstlerCast 319

Mon, 12 Aug 2019 21:03:27 +0000

Richard Vague, from Texas originally, is a Philadelphia-based managing partner of the venture capital firm, Gabriel Investments. He's the author of A Brief History of Doom: Two Hundred Years of Financial Crises and The Next Economic Disaster: Why It's Coming and How to Avoid It. He's been in and around the policy world for years and is considering a run for president as a Democrat. He intends to make his decision about that sometime this fall.

KunstllerCast 318

Tue, 16 Jul 2019 12:22:35 +0000

Doug Hill is a journalist and independent scholar who has studied the history and philosophy of technology for more than twenty-five years. His work has appeared in numerous national publications, including the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Atlantic, Salon and Esquire. He is coauthor of the bestseller Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live and lives in Pasadena, California.

KunstlerCast 317

Tue, 18 Jun 2019 16:06:01 +0000

#317 Rob Gourdie is Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics at Virginia Tech. He is also Director of the Center for Heart and Reparative Medicine Research at the same university. He writes under the pen name of Tom Therramus. In his "day job," he works on the repeating waves of electrical signals that drive the heart beat. Over the last decade he has developed an interest in another repeating pattern - waves of price volatility in oil - that he speculates are a Peak Oil-related phenomenon. His writings as Tom Therramus on oil market instability, and its impacts on economics, politics and climate change, have been posted at OilPrice.net, Greentechmedia.com, Resilience.com, RealClearEnergy.org, Nouriel Roubini's Economonitor.com, and EuanMearns.com Energy Matters. His LinkedIn page (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-therramus-602b3721/) lists his SKILLS as including "Asperger's", "Mild Numeracy", "Vague Literacy" and "Being Kiwi".

KunstlerCast 316

Fri, 10 May 2019 20:39:17 +0000

Jason Bradford has been affiliated with Post Carbon Institute since 2004, first as a Fellow and then as a Board Member. After earning his doctorate at Washington University in St Lous, he worked for the Center for Conservation and Sustainable Development at the Missouri Botanical Garden, was a Visiting Scholar at U.C. Davis, and co-founded the Andes Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research Group (ABERG). He bailed out of academia to learn and practice sustainable agriculture, trained at the Ecology Action (aka GrowBiointensive) in Willits, California, and then founded Brookside School Farm. For four years he hosted The Reality Report radio show on KZYX in Mendocino County. In 2009 he moved to Corvallis, Oregon, as one of the founders of Farmland LP, a farmland management fund implementing organic and mixed crop and livestock systems, where he worked until early 2018. He sits on the Economic Development Advisory Board for Corvallis and Benton County, and serves as an advisor for the OregonFlora Project based at Oregon State University. He lives with his family outside of Corvallis on an organic farm.

KunasrlerCast 314

Mon, 15 Apr 2019 21:04:29 +0000

Blake Pagenkopf is the author of The Great Conflation; Why Left Versus Right Isn't Right Versus Wrong, which asserts that a simple spatial model can be used to explain the political misunderstanding that now rages across America. (See the chart below in these show notes.) He is also an architect and construction manager currently renovating mixed-use buildings on small town Main Streets in the Midwest. He lives in the Kansas City metro area.

kunstlerCast 314

Sat, 23 Mar 2019 15:59:21 +0000

#314 David Stockman is the Author of the new book, Peak Trump: the Undrainable Swamp and the Fantasy of Mega. David representing Michigan's Fourth Congressional District for three terms and served as Director of the Office of Management and Budget under Ronald Reagan — the youngest cabinet member in history. He was previously the author of The Great Deformation,a comprehensive history of crony capitalism. His excellent daily blog appears at www.davidstockmanscontracorner.com

KunstlerCast 313

Sat, 23 Feb 2019 14:56:23 +0000

Brent Bednarik is a former Army Officer with two deployments in Afghanistan. After that he worked at one of the Big Four accounting firms in Manhattan, and is currently an entrepreneur in the tech start up space. Brent and I have been corresponding about what I like to call the new religion of Wokesterism, which has emanated from the university campuses and is finding a beach-head in corporate life. Brent is interested in what he considers a consciousness shift happening in western societies, and speaks to business owners and c-suite executives about these impending changes and the challenges they'll face.

KunstlerCast 312

Thu, 17 Jan 2019 16:37:10 +0000

#312 John Michael Greer, an old friend of the podcast, blogs at his Ecosophia Website, and is the author of a score of books ranging from the social and political commentary of The Wealth of Nature and Not the Future We Ordered, to a large body of science fiction and fantasy.

KunstlerCast 311

Wed, 26 Dec 2018 00:00:37 +0000

Bill Holter writes and is partnered with Jim Sinclair at the newly formed Holter/Sinclair collaboration. Prior, he wrote for Miles Franklin from 2012-15. Bill worked as a retail stockbroker for 23 years, including 12 as a branch manager at A.G. Edwards. He left Wall Street in late 2006 to avoid potential liabilities related to management of paper assets as he foresaw the Great Financial crisis coming. In retirement he and his family moved to Costa Rica where he lived until 2011 when he moved back to the United States. He was a well-known contributor to the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA) commentaries from 2007-present.

Bill has retained a working relationship with Miles Franklin and can help with any of your precious metals needs including transacting, shipping, storage and even safe deposit boxes in non bank vault facilities. Feel free to contact him with any of your questions or needs.

He can be reached via email at bholter@hotmail.com

KunstlerCast 310

Tue, 04 Dec 2018 18:03:58 +0000

Shaun Chamberlin is an author, activist and the editor of both Lean Logic and the paperback Surviving the Future: Culture, Carnival and Capital in the Aftermath of the Market Economy. He has been involved with the Transition Network since its inception, cofounding Transition Town Kingston [UK] and authoring the movement's second book, The Transition Timeline. He worked closely with David Fleming until his death. His website is: www.darkoptimism.org On Twitter, he is @DarkOptimism

Dr. David Fleming (1940 – 2010) was a visionary thinker and writer who played significant roles in the genesis of the UK Green Party, the Transition Towns movement, and the New Economics Foundation, as well as chairing the Soil Association. He was also one of the early whistle-blowers on oil depletion and designer of the influential TEQs carbon/energy rationing system. He read Modern History at Trinity College, Oxford, and later earned an MBA and then an MSc and PhD in economics (in 1988). These enabled him to better engage with and confound the mainstream, in support of his true passion and genius: understanding that diverse and mysterious thing "community." Lean Logic: A Dictionary for the Future and How to Survive It was the work of over thirty years. www.flemingpolicycentre.org.uk

David Fleming's posthumous masterpiece of wit, whimsy and rebellion:

Lean Logic: A Dictionary for the Future and How to Survive It

Shaun Chamberlain's concise short version of David Fleming's central ideas:

Surviving the Future: Culture, Carnival and Capital in the Aftermath of the Market Economy

KunstlerCast 309

Tue, 13 Nov 2018 16:38:10 +0000

Raul Meijer runs The Automatic Earth Website. He puts out the Debt Rattle news aggregator there every day, and posts his own frequent commentaries on a broad range of current events, especially on subjects of finance and economy. He's based in Europe, dividing his time between Athens and the Netherlands. He lived in Canada for many years.

KunstlerCast 308

Thu, 11 Oct 2018 17:05:24 +0000

Jasun Horsley is an English cultural critic, metapsychologist, conspiracy researcher, and podcaster, and the author of several books, including Seen and Not Seen, Prisoner of Infinity, and the upcoming The Vice of Kings: How Socialism, Occultism, and the Sexual Revolution Engineered a Culture of Abuse. To earn a living, he currently runs a thrift store in Canada with his wife. This is the link to Jasun's excellent podcast, The Liminalist. Here is the link to his Auticulture Blog. And here is a link to Jasun's fascinating essay series on the sexual confusions and hysterias of our time: The Age of Advanced Incoherence: Identity Politics & Identity Crisis, which is at the center of today's conversion.

KunstlerCast 307

Tue, 18 Sep 2018 18:14:38 +0000

Doug Henwood is an American journalist, economic analyst, and financial trader who writes frequently about economic affairs. He publishes a newsletter, Left Business Observer, that analyzes economics and politics from a left-wing perspective. His own excellent podcast, Behind the News is available at iTunes. He is a contributing editor at The Nation Magazine. He lives in Brooklyn.

KunstlerCast 306

Tue, 14 Aug 2018 17:40:59 +0000

Independent researcher Steve St. Angelo started to invest in precious metals in 2002. Later on in 2008, he began researching areas of the gold and silver market that, curiously, the majority of the precious metal analyst community have left unexplored. These areas include how energy and the falling EROI – Energy Returned On Invested – stand to impact the mining industry, precious metals, paper assets, and the overall economy. His website with frequent postings is: https://srsroccoreport.com.

KunstlerCast 305

Sat, 07 Jul 2018 11:56:17 +0000

Informal Q and A session with questions from listeners with Jim Kunstler, host of The Kunstlercast. I've enjoyed other people's AMA shows around the web so here we go. This is an experiment, of course, and I understand now why I haven't done it before. It's not easy spouting off into a microphone by yourself and remaining coherent. I hope it works for all y'all. I'll be back in the usual format with a guest interview in a couple of weeks. Hope you're having a great summer.

KunstlerCast 304

Tue, 19 Jun 2018 18:58:29 +0000

DOUGLAS FARR (FAIA, F-CNU, LEED-AP) is an architect, urbanist, author, and passionate advocate for sustainable design thinking. Doug is the founding principal and president of Farr Associates, a Chicago-based firm that plans and designs lovable, aspirational buildings and places. Doug co-chaired the development of the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) and has served on the boards of the Congress for the New Urbanism, Bioregional, EcoDistricts, and Elevate Energy. A native Detroiter, he is an architecture graduate of the University of Michigan and Columbia University. Doug wrote Sustainable Urbanism: Urban Design With Nature (November 2007, Wiley) and Sustainable Nation: Urban Design Patterns for the Future (April 2018, Wiley).In 2017, Planetizen readers named him one of "the 100 most influential urbanists of all time."

KunstlerCast 303

Sun, 29 Apr 2018 22:11:57 +0000

Jack Alpert is director of Stanford Knowledge Integration Lab, a Lab which he started in 1978 at Stanford University. In 1992 the Lab left Stanford and became a non profit research foundation. The research focused on how people gather and process information to understand dynamic systems. Over the years the Lab has transitioned its focus to the relationship between human cognition and civilization viability. The current work is on discovering and implementing behavior that "changes our course" and creates a sustainable civilization. His Website is called SKIL. Or just Google Unwinding the Human Predicament.

KunstlerCast 302

Mon, 16 Apr 2018 15:15:12 +0000

Chris Nelder is a Manager in the Mobility practice at the Rocky Mountain Institute in Boulder, Colorado, where he heads the EV-grid Integration team. Chris has written about energy and investing for more than a decade. He is the author two books on energy and investing, as well as more than 200 articles on energy in publications such as Nature, Scientific American, Slate, The Atlantic, Quartz, Financial Times, Greentech Media, SmartPlanet, and the Economist Intelligence Unit. In his spare time, he hosts the Energy Transition Show podcast. He enjoys bantering with other energy geeks on Twitter at @chrisnelder.

KunstlerCast_301

Mon, 19 Mar 2018 22:16:18 +0000

Tom Whipple is a former US Intel analyst who has put out the PeakOilNews for more than a decade. His newsletter is now associated with the PostCarbon institute and can be found at Peak-oil.org. Tom is not a tin-foil hat guy, but we get into a discussion in the heart of the interview about exotic alt. energy matters, including new developments in fusion and cold fusion. I disagree with Tom about the role that electric cars might play in the years ahead, but we didn't have a debate about it per se during this chat, which i believe you'll find very interesting.

KunstlerCast 300

Mon, 19 Feb 2018 21:29:33 +0000

Hayes Martin is President of MarketExtremes. com., which provides quantitative analysis of stock market psychology, and specifically of extremes of crowd behavior. He has a selective clientele of high net-worth individuals and money managers. For more information, interested individuals can go to his website: marketextremes.com, or call him at 718-598-5034.

This show is sponsored by the McAlvany ICA wealth management team.

KunstlerCast 299

Wed, 24 Jan 2018 22:02:34 +0000

Arthur Berman has been an independent oil analyst for 17 years after an earlier 20 years with the Amoco Oil Company. He's a regular commentator at NBC, CNN, CBC, BNN, OilPrice.com, Bloomberg, Platt's, Financial Times, and The New York Times. He is a Director of ASPO-USA (Association for the Study of Peak Oil & Gas USA). He was a Managing Director and frequent contributor at The Oil Drum, and is an associate editor of the AAPG (American Association of Petroleum Geologists) Bulletin. He was past Editor of the Houston Geological Society Bulletin (2004-2005) and past Vice-President of the Society (2008-2009). He has published more than 100 articles on geology, technology, and the petroleum industry during the past 5 years. His blog commentary can be found at http://www.artberman.com/blog/.

KunstlerCast 298

Thu, 04 Jan 2018 19:42:40 +0000

David Blittersdorf's passion for renewable energy and earth-friendly technology started early. He built his first wind turbine at age 14 to light up the small shack where he boiled sap into maple syrup. After he got his driver's license in 1973, the year of the OPEC oil embargo, he vowed to help the U.S. transition away from dependence on fossil fuels. In 1982, after getting his engineering degree at the University of Vermont, he founded NRG Systems—one of the nation's most successful wind-energy companies. Twenty-two years later, he founded All Earth Renewables a leading player in Vermont's wind and solar scene. David is involved in all aspects of All Earth Renewables' day-to-day operations. He also makes frequent public-speaking engagements and serves on the board of many energy-focused institutions at the national and state levels.

KunstlerCast 297

Wed, 29 Nov 2017 19:33:21 +0000

David Collum, an old friend of this podcast, is the Betty R. Miller Professor of Chemistry at Cornell University... but he may be better known these days as a wicked funny commentator on the financial scene. He writes an annual end-of-year wrap-up and forecast, which I interrupted him working on when I hauled him over to Skype to yak about the current situation. There's some weird Skype background noise a couple of places in the recording -- like the Exorcist working over a couple of demons-from-hell in an elevator shaft. It doesn't last more than a minute or two, so hang in there. There are apparently strange forces in the Skype-o-verse.

kunstlerCast 296

Wed, 25 Oct 2017 20:54:37 +0000

Richard Fossey is the author of Student Loan Catastrophe: Postcards from the Rubble, published in September, 2017. He's the Paul Burdin Endowed Professor of Education at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He received his J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law and his doctorate in education policy from Harvard Graduate School of Education. His research concentrates on the student loan crisis; and much of his work is focused on student loans and the federal bankruptcy courts. He is an active blogger on the student loan crisis. His blog sit can be accessed at condemnedtodebt.org

KunstlerCast 295

Wed, 13 Sep 2017 19:43:08 +0000

Neil Howe is a renowned author and speaker on economic, demographic, and social change in America. He is the nation's leading authority on social generations—who they are, what motivates them, and how they will shape America's future. Howe is the originator of the term "Millennial Generation" and has written over a dozen books on generations and generational research, a ﬁeld of research he single-handedly invented. His landmark 1997 book The Fourth Turning (co-authored with the late William Strauss), has become an indispensable lens for viewing world political history.
Howe is also a recognized authority on global aging, long-term ﬁscal policy, and migration. He served as Senior Policy Advisor to Blackstone Group and has testiﬁed on entitlement reform many times before Congress.
Howe is currently the Managing Director of Demography at Hedgeye Risk Management and a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where he helps lead the Global Aging Initiative.

KunstlerCast 294

Wed, 30 Aug 2017 15:48:48 +0000

Richard Heinberg published his excellent and influential book, The Party's Over, the same year as The Long Emergency and we met many times since then on the conference circuit. Richard is Senior Fellow of the Post Carbon Institute. He's the author of 13 award-winning books, including six on the subject of fossil fuel depletion. He has written for Nature, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, and The Christian Science Monitor among other publications, and has delivered hundreds of lectures on energy and climate issues to audiences around the world. You may be interested in his latest essay at the Post Carbon Inst website: There's No App for That: Technology and Morality in the Age of Climate Change, Overpopulation, and Biodiversity Loss. His latest books are: Our Renewable Future (with David Fridley) Afterburn: Society Beyond Fossil Fuels.

KunstlerCast 293

Wed, 16 Aug 2017 15:37:56 +0000

John Michael Greer is a widely read author and blogger whose work focuses on the overlaps between ecology, spirituality, and the future of industrial society. He published the Archdruid Report blog for many years, focusing on many themes that overlapped my own in The Long Emergency and Too Much Magic. He has moved on to a new blog, Ecosophia, which explores spiritual and intellectual repercussions of the collapsing industrial paradigm. This conversation is based on his recent blog, "Hate is the New Sex." He currently lives in East Providence, Rhode Island, with his wife Sara.

KunstlerCast 292

Wed, 31 May 2017 21:54:19 +0000

David W. Orr is Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics and senior adviser to the president of Oberlin College. He is a founding editor of the journal Solutions, and serves as the executive director of the Oberlin Project, a collaborative effort of the city of Oberlin, Oberlin College, and private and institutional partners to improve the resilience, prosperity, and sustainability of Oberlin.

Orr is the author of seven books, including Down to the Wire: Confronting Climate Collapse (Oxford, 2009) and coeditor of three others. He has authored nearly 200 articles, reviews, book chapters, and professional publications.

In the past 25 years, he has served as a board member or advisor to eight foundations and on the boards of many organizations, including the Rocky Mountain Institute and the Aldo Leopold Foundation. Currently he is a trustee of the Bioneers, the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, and the Worldwatch Institute.

He has been awarded seven honorary degrees and a dozen other awards including a Lyndhurst Prize, a National Achievement Award from the National Wildlife Federation, and a Visionary Leadership Award from Second Nature. Orr is a frequent lecturer at colleges and universities throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia.

While at Oberlin, he spearheaded the effort to design, fund, and build the Adam Joseph Lewis Center, which was named by an AIA panel in 2010 as "the most important green building of the past 30 years," and as "one of 30 milestone buildings of the twentieth century" by the U.S. Department of Energy.

KunstlerCast 292

Wed, 31 May 2017 21:54:18 +0000

KunstlerCast Bonus Edition -- S-Town

Wed, 31 May 2017 21:17:16 +0000

In this bonus episode, James Howard Kunstler reunites with former KunstlerCast host/producer Duncan Crary for a behind-the-scenes discussion of JHK's personal connection to the wildly popular S-Town podcast, a This American Life spinoff program. Back around 2010-2013, John B. McLemore, the tragic figure at the center of the series began an email correspondence with JHK. John B was a real person, referred to by various people in the series as "brilliant," "a genius," "a real character," and he was for sure. He was also a fan of Jim's books, and, after getting his phone number off his website, took to calling him on the phone. The two probably had a dozen long phone conversations. It is well-known now that he called his home of Woodstock, Alabama, "Shit-town." He regaled JHK with many a sordid tale of the home-folk, and even of himself. To Jim, the place sounded like "Hieronymus Bosch meets Dogpatch." Since John B seemed so unhappy under his mask of hilarity and mirth, Jim tried to encourage him to think about moving. He always had an excuse for not doing that, but clearly John B and the neighbors he disdained, fought with, looked for love with, had a synergistic thing going. They needed each other to play out their never-ending crazy scripts of cracker mischief, vengeance, and failure. After a while, John B went dark. Jim thought JB had just gotten tired of advising him to move. As it turns out, what happened to John would become the subject of an audio documentary that has broken all the records in podcasting and stirred up a bit of controversy. Because so many of the concepts McLemore espouses in the series are inspired by JHK's blogs and writings (sometimes John uses Jim's exact phraseology), Duncan suggests the early KunstlerCast years are a bit like a "prequel" to S-Town. (Note: You can listen to all the previous episodes on the KunstlerCast feed for free, and you can purchase a book of based transcripts from the first five years.)

KunstlerCast 291

Wed, 03 May 2017 20:07:54 +0000

Our pal and frequent guest, Dave Collum, suggested we have a chat with his pal Tony Greer, an independent global market analyst with 25 years of trading experience in and around Wall Street. He graduated from Cornell University in 1990 and spent the first ten years of his career trading currencies, commodities, and precious metals at UBS and Goldman Sachs. In February of 2000, he left Goldman Sachs to start his own firm, Machine Trading, in the belly of the dotcom bubble. After 2 years and a great experience, Tony segued into a fifteen year career as a top producing equity sales trader at several different broker dealers including Stuart Frankel & Co., Dahlman Rose & Co., and Bank Hapoalim, where Tony ran equity sales and trading. The common denominator across shops, as the equity market evolved and electronic trading became more prevalent, was the subscriber growth of the daily note Tony wrote to his clients. As Tony's subscriber list grew to over 1,000 market professionals he decided to leave the execution business and launch the Morning Navigator, as a subscriber model newsletter. He describes the Morning Navigator, steeped in technical analysis and behavioral finance, as "the morning note you will read first" and he has met with great success thus far. Tony lives in Atlantic Beach, N.Y. with his wife of 17 years, Gerianne, and their 3 children.

KunstlerCast 290

Tue, 18 Apr 2017 14:42:21 +0000

I'll be chatting with Rocky Rawlins who is the man behind The SurvivorLibrary.com, a phenomenal website that contains scans in pdf-file form of hundreds of books on basic technology and the skills for applying them, mostly dating from the late 19th and early 20th century. It's hard to overstate the scope of this vast trove of practical knowledge — everything from bee-keeping to wagon and coach-building. In other words, what you need to meet The Long Emergency. The scientific elegance of these books and monographs is something to behold, the clarity of the language and precision of the instructions is breathtaking. I think you'll like Rocky very much. A straight-up good dude.

KunstlerCast 289 -- David Collum, Fun with Financial Markets

Tue, 28 Mar 2017 23:32:36 +0000

[embed]http://traffic.libsyn.com/kunstlercast/KunstlerCast_289.mp3[/embed] Today I'm yakking with return guest David Collum, the Betty R. Miller Professor of Chemistry at Cornell University, who has become a popular presence on the internet commenting on the financial system and the related predicaments of our time. He's also been involved in the campus culture wars and is not too shy to talk about it. Dave is a live wire and lots of fun. This podcast is sponsored by David McAlvany's excellent firm, ICA, for assistance in adding precious metals to your investment portfolio and advice on managing them. Call 1-800-525-9556. Or go to McAlvany.com/kunstler to request information. Direct download: http://traffic.libsyn.com/kunstlercast/KunstlerCast_289.mp3 Please send questions and comments to jhkunstler@mac.com.

World Made By Hand (Fourth and Final)

Amazon Hardcover | Kindle Autographed Copy Battenkill Books Northshire Books

New Interview with JHK about The Harrows of Spring

Praise for A History of the Future: "Kunstler skewers everything from kitsch to greed, prejudice, bloodshed, and brainwashing in this wily, funny, rip-roaring, and profoundly provocative page- turner, leaving no doubt that the prescriptive yet devilishly satiric A World Made by Hand series will continue." — Booklist

My local indie booksellers… Autographed copies Battenkill Books Northshire Books or Amazon

Also: Published as an E-book for the first time! The 20th Anniversary edition With an entertaining new introduction by the author

Bargain Price $3.99

Amazon Kindle

Support this blog by visiting Jim's Patreon Page!

KunstlerCast 288

Thu, 09 Mar 2017 20:44:33 +0000

This episode's featured interview is with transportation expert and urbanist Taras Grescoe, author of Straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile. Taras writes: "In the 20th century, our greatest cities were almost ruined by the automobile. Only a global revolution in transportation can bring them back from the brink." He consults on these matters and reports from cities around world from, Paris, to Moscow, Shanghai, Tokyo, Bogota, Vancouver, Phoenix. Taras Grescoe lives in Montreal. It's a pleasure to welcome him to the podcast.

This episode also features a mini-yak with my old podcast sidekick Duncan Crary. Duncan has been working tirelessly, and making great strides, in promoting an urban Renaissance in the small upstate city of Troy, N.Y., where he lives. This March 30 & 31, 2017 he will be offering a New Urbanist-themed two-day class on "The Art of Small City PR & Spectacle," at a school in Manhattan. For more information, visit his website: DuncanCrary.com

KunstlerCast 287

Tue, 14 Feb 2017 20:52:04 +0000

It's a pleasure to welcome back Piero San Giorgio who came on the podcast some time ago to talk about his previous excellent book Survive the Economic Collapse, a Practical Guide.
Today I'm catching up with Piero on Skype at his home in Switzerland to talk about his new book, Women on the Verge of A Societal Breakdown — Preserving Hard-won Victories During an Age of Uncertainty. The book's published by the Club Orlov Press — and yes, that's our chum Dmitry Orlov, author many splendid books on the subject of how we're going to greet the future. You can find it on Amazon.
Yeah, i can hear some of you muttering — the effrontery! Two dudes talking about women! Well, There's no against it, at least not yet, and we're gonna give it a shot. Let us know if you think it was a fair discussion.

KunstlerCast 286

Sun, 22 Jan 2017 23:41:30 +0000

It's a pleasure to welcome back Jasun Horsley, who presides over the blog Auticulture and The Liminalist podcast. Jasun is a UK ex-pat now living in rural British Columbia, Canada. He describes himself as a "high-functioning Aspergian" and his work often takes readers and listeners to the further outposts of culture where neuroscience and the occult shake hands with politics and show biz. Jasun is a hard-working professional intellectual who brings an original worldview to the events of the day. We recorded two podcasts in this session: the one in which I interview him for my podcast and one in which he interviews me for his podcast, the Liminalist (click here).

KunstlerCast 285

Tue, 03 Jan 2017 17:52:45 +0000

Today I'm chewing the gristle of finance with Byron King. Byron is a geologist who currently writes a newsletter, in association with economist Jim Rickards, entitled Rickards Gold Speculator with Byron King. It's published by Agora Financial, of Baltimore, www.agorafinancial.com. Over the course of his career, Byron worked in the oil industry, and has had extensive experience with other natural resource sectors. He also served for over 30 years, active and reserve, in the US Navy. He holds degrees from the University of Pittsburgh, Harvard and the US Naval War College.

KunstlerCast 284

Thu, 15 Dec 2016 17:50:07 +0000

Today I'm yakking with Kate Wagner, the antic voice behind the marvelous website Welcome to MacMansion Hell, a humorous and opinionated blog that aims to educate the general public about architecture, design, and urbanism by making examples of America's most despised architectural style. She is currently a master's student in Acoustics as part of a joint venture program between Johns Hopkins University and Peabody Conservatory. Merry Christmas everybody!

KunstlerCast 283

Mon, 21 Nov 2016 15:56:03 +0000

283 Today I'm chatting with David Collum of Cornell University. Dave is Betty R. Miller Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and Chair of Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. He's better known in the blogosphere as a witty and dauntless forecaster of finance and politics, and it's always good to check in with him during times of turmoil

The Jonathan Haidt lecture at Duke, Oct, 2016, referenced in this podcast, "Why Universities Must Choose One Telos: Truth or Social Justice," can be accessed here:

http://heterodoxacademy.org/2016/10/21/one-telos-truth-or-social-justice/

KunstlerCast 282

Fri, 28 Oct 2016 19:59:00 +0000

Dmitry Orlov is back to talk about his new book, "Shrinking the Technosphere," which can be ordered at his website: cluborlov.com. Dmitry is the author previously of "Reinventing Collapse," "Communities That Abide." "The Five Stages of Collapse," and several books of essays. The video trailer for his new book can be viewed by clicking THIS. Dmitry is a leading voice in the effort to think clearly about the predicament of our time.

KunstlerCast 281

Thu, 06 Oct 2016 20:56:14 +0000

KunstlerCast 280

Mon, 29 Aug 2016 15:50:56 +0000

Dmitry Orlov, the author of "Reinventing Collapse" and many other books, has become a publisher lately and, in his capacity as publisher and publicist, Dmitry and I will be chatting about the new book he just brought out,150 Strong; A Pathway to a Different Future by Rob O'Grady. 150 Strong is a valuable handbook for understanding the proper scale to successfully manage human affairs in the political scene of the coming decades, when the economies of everyday life contract to a far more local level than has been the case in late-stage Modernity. Rob O'Grady is an engineer and father of three who has been stirred to action by his reflections on environmental issues and his everyday encounters with the perversity of our current system. Trained in the discipline of "sustainability engineering," he discerned early in his career that to talk of sustainability in the world of business and politics was "to pour from the empty into the void," because the underlying context is subversive of such efforts.

kunstlerCast 279

Tue, 02 Aug 2016 15:03:16 +0000

Kirk Bostrom is the Managing Partner and Chief Portfolio Manager of Strategic Preservation Partners LP, located in Silicon Valley. Kirk began his career as a teenage "runner" on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade and has spent over 30 years in the securities investment realm. He was named repeatedly as one of the top-performing investment advisors in the nation as a member of the Chairman's Club at Citigroup (Nation's Top 1%) and Piper Jaffray's "Baker's Dozen" (Nation's Top 13 Advisors).

Alice J Friedemann

Fri, 01 Jul 2016 16:02:21 +0000

#278 Alice J. Friedemann is the author of "When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the future of transportation." She is also the creator of the excellent website: http://energyskeptic.com/. Ms. Friedemann is perhaps best known for "Peak Soil," edited by David Pimentel at Cornell, Tad Patzek at U.C. Berkeley, and Walter Youngquist (author of "Geodestinies"). She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her interest in oil began at 10 on a family vacation when the car was running on empty in Death Valley and it was 120 F in the shade. After researching Hubbert's Peak in 2000, Alice realized the world couldn't run on empty beer-cans-painted-black solar collectors like the one she'd help build in the 1973 energy crisis, and became a science writer, focusing on Peak Oil and related issues.

Kunstler_Cast 277 Steve Ludlum

Wed, 18 May 2016 15:31:18 +0000

Steve Ludlum is a native mid-westerner who has spent most of his 65 years on the East Coast. Steve is a Pulitzer Prize winning photographer who has also been at various times an amateur naturalist, artist, designer and writer. He currently studies economic issues, resource- and energy depletion, monetary policy and the cause-and-effect relationship with American-style culture. His excellent and original blog, Economic Undertow is at http://www.economic-undertow.com. Don't forget the hyphen! Steve is currently working on a book on macro-economics.

KunstlerCast 276 "Christopher Cornelius"

Wed, 06 Apr 2016 20:36:18 +0000

“Christopher Cornelius” is the nom de guerre of a black American international humanitarian aid worker who has put years of service in some of the world’s most dangerous places: Pakistan, Afghanistan, West Africa, Kenya, the Balkens, Cambodia, Sudan,and others. We have that “conversation about race” that the US race commentary pundits have been promising for years — but never actually ventured to have. We could have covered even more territory, but as it is, this is a long interview for this podcast. Christopher Cornelius continues to work in dangerous lands overseas and is concealing his identity to protect himself and his wife. We spoke over Skype from his current perch in East Timor.

KunstlerCast 275

Fri, 18 Mar 2016 15:15:48 +0000

#275 Arthur E. Berman is a petroleum geologist with 37 years of oil and gas industry experience. He is an expert on U.S. shale plays and is currently consulting for several E&P companies and capital groups in the energy sector. Berman has published more than 100 articles on oil and gas plays and trends. He has been interviewed about oil and gas topics on CBS, CNBC, CNN, CBC, Platt’s Energy Week, BNN, Bloomberg, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone and The New York Times. He worked 20 years for Amoco (now BP) and 17 years as consulting geologist. He has an M.S. (Geology) from the Colorado School of Mines and a B.A. (History) from Amherst College.

His website is artberman.com

KunstlerCast 274

Mon, 15 Feb 2016 21:41:59 +0000

Bill Kauffman is a founder and contributor to the Front Porch Republic website. He’s also the author of Dispatches from the Muckdog Gazette; Ain’t My America; and the recent collection of essays, Poetry night at the Ballpark. He also wrote the screenplay for the 2013 motion picture Copperhead, about community strife on the home front during the Civil War. He’s a supporter and defender of the American small town and its economic interests. Just out of college, he joined the staff of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan and he is deeply acquainted with Inside-the-Beltway culture. He abandoned Washington DC to return to his hometown of Batavia in far, far western New York (near Buffalo) where I chatted with him by phone.

KunstlerCast 273

Sun, 13 Dec 2015 18:10:27 +0000

Charles Marohn is the Founder and President of Strong Towns (Strongtowns.org), a non-profit advocacy organization focused on the financial predicament local governments find themselves in as a result of America's suburban experiment. Chuck has a Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Minnesota's Institute of Technology and a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute. Chuck and Jim are active members of the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU.org) dedicated to improving the human habitat America.

KunstlerCast 272

Sat, 21 Nov 2015 17:42:40 +0000

A Conversation with Chris Martenson and Adam Taggart, authors of Prosper!: How to Prepare for the Future and Create a World Worth Inheriting. Both Chris and Adam were corporate executives who dropped out to pursue more a resilient way of life in a rapidly and increasingly hazardous changing world. Chris Martenson began that phase of his career with the video and later book titled The Crash Course, which undertook to explain the dangers of contemporary banking, finance, and money-creation. Chris and Adam maintain the front and back ends of the PeakProsperity.com website, which features weekly articles and two excellent podcasts on issues pertaining to what I have called The Long Emergency.

KunstlerCast 271

Wed, 04 Nov 2015 16:29:59 +0000

A conversation with Gail Tverberg of OurFiniteWorld.com. Gail Tverberg is an analyst who has been researching the connection between oil limits and the economy for nearly 10 years. She writes a widely-followed blog called Our Finite World. Her background is as an actuary, working as a consultant to insurance companies. She also has a foot in the academic world, where she has lectured and written academic articles. Gail was in China in March-April of this year lecturing at China University of Petroleum in Beijing and is scheduled to return next spring, to teach another class.

KunstlerCast 270 - Dave Collum

Fri, 28 Aug 2015 21:43:04 +0000

David Collum is the Betty R. Miller Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Cornell University. His technical expertise is in organic chemistry, but he has gained recognition for assorted podcasts and annual surveys focusing on politics and economics. Some of this latter content can be found at http://collum.chem.cornell.edu/dbc6/DBC_rogue.html

KunstlerCast 269

Tue, 04 Aug 2015 15:50:20 +0000

Also known as Steve From Virginia, this week’s guest has a unique take on the nexus of energy, capital, and the destiny of industrial civilization. Steve writes: “The credit regime is falling apart under the weight of its own costs, not just in Europe. Government issue money ends a monopoly over a vital private good so that it becomes a public good, in this way the power of the banks to run our affairs is reduced. As a necessary component of this effort, the establishment must hold the financiers accountable for their crimes and negligence. The present conditions and schemes cannot be endured any longer. If the establishment refuses to act the citizens will take matters into their own hands, there will be revolutions.”

--From http://www.economic-undertow.com

KunstlerCast 268

Thu, 02 Jul 2015 13:28:06 +0000

Catherine Ingram is the author of In the Footsteps of Gandhi, Passionate Presence, and A Crack in Everything. Since 1993 she has internationally led public events called Dharma Dialogues as well as retreats focusing on secular ways of inducing more wisdom, service, and well-being in one’s life. She founded and is president of Living Dharma, an educational nonprofit organization and she serves on the boards of The Burma Project (a human rights organization) as well as Global Animal (an animal rights organization).

Kunstlercast 267 - The Liminalist

Sat, 13 Jun 2015 11:56:30 +0000

#267 Conversation with Jasun Horsley of the Liminalist podcast and the Auticulture.com blog. A self-described high-functioning Asberger personality, Jason explores the margins of culture. A liminal condition is one of transition, sometimes turbulent, and we explore this in relation to politics and culture of the day — everything from corn-pone Nazis to sexual transgression. This is another effort to reach out a bit beyond my usual community of financial observers and energy commentators.

KunstlerCast 266 - Yakking with Clark Strand

Wed, 06 May 2015 16:18:04 +0000

#266 Conversation with Clark Strand, author of Waking Up to the Dark - Ancient Wisdom for a Sleepless Age. A former Buddhist monk, Clark Strand poses the question: has electric lighting compromised our humanness, damaged our spirits, and foreclosed our future? Does it represent much of what has gone wrong with modernity. We explore this and other facets of his lyrical and original new book.

KunstlerCast 265 --Yakking With Futurist Eric Garland

Wed, 25 Feb 2015 16:52:14 +0000

#265 — Futurist, Strategic Analyst, podcaster and rock and roll musician Eric Garland, taking with JHK from the troubled heartland city of St. Louis, Mo. Among other things, Eric and I talk about the Big Box shopping model, the contagion of business idiocy in the USA, the causes behind the Ferguson riots of 2014, and the current financial system as a raft of fraud going down a river of no return. His “Competitive Futures” podcast is available free on iTunes. His website is www.competitivefutures.com

KunstlerCast 264 -- JHK Yaks with Allen Crawford

Wed, 04 Feb 2015 16:15:13 +0000

Conversation with an aesthete. Graphic designer, blogger, dandy, and artist Allen Crawford (a.k.a. “Lord Whimsey”) yaks with JHK about the state of male presentation in America, the arc of cultural collapse, art, and Walt Whitman — he is the author of a beautifully illustrated hand-lettered volume of Whitman’s poem “Song of Myself,” published by Tin House Press and available at the usual suspects.

The KunstlerCast music is “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

KunstlerCast 263

Wed, 14 Jan 2015 22:54:35 +0000

#263 — Cultural historian, social critic and author Morris Berman yaks with JHK about his new book, Neurotic Beauty: An Outsider Looks at Japan, and a lot of other topics around the crisis of Modernity. Berman’s books include the trilogy: The Twilight of American Culture, Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of Empire, and Why America Failed: The Roots of Imperial Decline.

KunstlerCast 262

Tue, 23 Dec 2014 00:13:26 +0000

John Michael Greer is a prolific author of novels and non-fiction books about the collapse of industrial civilization. He has a particularly long view of the human adventure and he is always fun to talk to. In this session, we delve into some questions of how technology behaves and where we are going with it in the years ahead.

KunstlerCast 261

Thu, 04 Dec 2014 20:11:58 +0000

Join me and Chris Martenson on a journey through the swamps of financial lingo so we might all develop a clearer notion of all that jargon we hear and read everyday in the chatter-sphere of the Internet. Chris is a PhD biologist who dropped out of the corporate gerbil wheel a few years ago and produced a groundbreaking web seminar called “The Crash Course” which helped a lot of people understand how our banking system actually works. Chris himself does two weekly podcasts on his own website, PeakProsperity.com: the informal “Off The Cuff” show and the long-form “Featured Voices” podcast.

The KunstlerCast music is “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

KunstlerCast 260

Wed, 12 Nov 2014 21:57:17 +0000

#260 — Independent petroleum geologist Arthur Berman says of the shale oil and shale gas scene: “What we’re reading in the newspapers everyday is completely distorted. It couldn’t be more wrong and delusional.” JHK and Art delve into the finer points of the so-called shale oil miracle. Can anybody actually make any money in it? What are the long-term prospects? How are they raising capital to do it? We explore some deep, dark corners of this largely misunderstood phenomenon and its relation to the wishful thinking economy of our time.

The KunstlerCast music is “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

KunstlerCast 259 -- An Empire of Mud

Mon, 27 Oct 2014 20:17:30 +0000

JHK Gets a new microphone and chats with J.D. Dickey author of “Empire of Mud — the Secret History of Washington, DC. For decades during the 19th century, the city was a national disgrace. Unfilled swamps, filthy canals, and rutted horse trails littered its landscape. Political bosses hired hooligans and thugs to conduct the nation's affairs. Legendary madams entertained clients from all stations of society and politicians of every party. The police served and protected with the aid of bribes and protection money. Beneath pestilential air, the city’s muddy roads led to a stumpy, half-finished obelisk to Washington here, a domeless Capitol Building there. Lining the streets stood boarding houses, tanneries, and slums.

KunstlerCast 258 -- Yakking with David Collum

Thu, 18 Sep 2014 18:20:43 +0000

JFK in free-ranging conversation with David Collum, who calls himself “the Paris Hilton of financial commentary.” Dave is also the distinguished Betty R Miller Professor of Chemistry and Chair in the Cornell University Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. He is a savvy cat and fun to talk to about the disorders of contemporary banking and economics.

The KunstlerCast music is “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

KunstlerCast_257 -- Piero SanGiorgio

Wed, 03 Sep 2014 20:19:00 +0000

JFK shoots the breeze with Piero SanGiorgio, author of Survive the Coming Economic Collapse, a practical guide. The book was originally published in France and has now been put out in an English language version by Washington Summit Books. San Giorgio has lived in the USA Africa and other places, but currently makes his home in Switzerland.
The KunstlerCast music is “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

KunstlerCast 256 -- John Michael Greer

Thu, 31 Jul 2014 20:42:15 +0000

JHK’s conversation with the excellent John Michael Greer, author and blogger about where we are now on the arc of collapse and what the mood of the culture is. Greer’s many books include The Long Descent, Green Wizardry, After Oil, The Wealth of Nature, and Not the Future We Ordered. His newest, Star’s Reach, is a novel set 400 years ahead in America’s neo-medieval future. He blogs weekly at TheArchdruidReport.Blogspot.com.

The KunstlerCast music is “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

KunstlerCast 255

Thu, 12 Jun 2014 19:28:07 +0000

#255 – JHK yaks with Lynn Vannucci of Water Street Press (www.Waterstreetpressbooks.com) about the new model of book publishing in the digital age. Lynn has published four short-form novellas by JHK the past several years. Aspiring writers may be interested to discover that there is more of a market out there for you than the old mainstream New York publishing houses — most of which are now owned by gigantic conglomerates. Writing remains a tough racket, but there are new ways to find an audience.

The KunstlerCast music is “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

KunstlerCast 254 -- A Chat About Dubai with Douglas Kelbaugh

Wed, 28 May 2014 18:25:07 +0000

JHK chats with Douglas Kelbaugh of the University of Michigan School of Architecture about Dubai, where JHK recently made a brief sojourn. Doug Kelbaugh was dean of the UMich architecture faculty for ten years. After that, he worked for two years for the Dubai-based Limitless Corporation, which did large scale development projects all over the world, including the Emirate of Dubai itself. Doug lived there those two years and got a firm sense for the flavor of the place. He is also a founding member of the Congress for the New Urbanism.

The KunstlerCast music is “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

KunstlerCast 253

Tue, 13 May 2014 14:09:53 +0000

Alice Friedemann insists she is not an academic, but publishes on a wide variety of contemporary scientific issues bearing on the fate of industrial civilization. She subscribes to a scenario that she calls the "fast crash." She worked for 25 years as a systems architect and engineer in the corporate world, or "Dilbert-Land" as she calls it, before dropping out to write full time. Her science and economic essays can be found at her website: Energyskeptic.com. Alice is also a cookbook writer and blogger at the website Wholegrainalice.com She lives in Berkeley, California.

KunstlerCast 252

Thu, 24 Apr 2014 14:57:09 +0000

JHK’s conversation with KMO of the C-Realm Podcast. KMO, who goes by that tag for his public persona, is one of the best interviewers in the podcast world. I’ve been listening to him for years, and have been on his podcast more than once, so it’s a treat to have him on mine. KMO is moving beyond the particulars of the collapse of industrial civilization to questions of what’s next under the circumstances.

The KunstlerCast music is “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

KunstlerCast 251 -- Yaking About Energy With Chris Nelder

Mon, 31 Mar 2014 20:32:00 +0000

JHK yaks with independent energy analyst and author Chris Nelder about the fine points of making an energy transition (or not) from the current economy into whatever the next one is. Chris is more sanguine about the alt energy future than JHK is, but we have a respectful and lively discussion of the issue from two sides. Chris Nelder is the author of "Profit From the Peak" and "Investing in Renewable Energy." He has worked as a software engineer and technical writer for Microsoft and ran a solar electric installation company before turning full time into the specialized field of energy investment.

KunstlerCast 250

Tue, 11 Mar 2014 19:19:00 +0000

JHK and Charles Hugh Smith, author and blogger at OfTwoMinds.com, yak about the Deep State, our favorite new word for what used be be known as the Establishment. We also touch on Charles's theory that the Deep State will be willing to "throw Wall Street under the bus" to save itself, if it felt threatened. This is JHK's return to the podcast after several months off finishing the third instalklment of the four-part World Made By Hand series. The title of WMBH-3 is A History of the Future. It will be published in September by the Atlantic Monthly Press.

KunstlerCast 249 -- Chatting with Steve Ludlum of Economic-undertow.com

Thu, 03 Oct 2013 13:00:00 +0000

#249 -- JHK chats with Steve Ludlum of the Economic-Undertow.com blog about the contemporary economy as a waste engine. We venture into dark and distant corners of the economic story, including population overshoot, the potential for social disorder, and the role of gold and silver as currencies.

The KunstlerCast music is “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

KunstlerCast 248 -- JHK at the Farmers' Market

Thu, 26 Sep 2013 18:06:53 +0000

It's harvest time. The frost is on the pumpkin. JHK visits the Farmers Market in Cambridge, NY, and chats with the farmers (and sundry other interesting people) about the ag scene in Washington County and the fate of small town America. By the way, the magnificent old Cambridge Hotel right next to the Farmer's Market is for sale, if any listeners want to run a place of lodging in a lovely corner of the country. Restaurant and bar included.

The KunstlerCast music is “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

KunstlerCast 247 -- JHK Yaks with New Urbanist Andres Duany

Thu, 19 Sep 2013 18:10:00 +0000

#247 -- Celebrating the 20thth anniversary of the publication of The Geography of Nowhere (and release for the first time of an E-book edition), JHK yaks with New Urbanist Andres Duany about the campaign to create more walkable communities and places worth caring about. Duany came to the USA as a child from Cuba in the late 1950s. He got his architecture degrees from Princeton and Yale. He formed the firm DPZ in Miami with his wife Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk and together they produced the most iconic projects of the New Urbanism (Seaside, Florida, and many others) as well as leading a movement to reform the suburban fiasco and all its governing regulations.

The KunstlerCast music is “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

KunstlerCast 246 -- JHK interviews Eric Zencey

Thu, 12 Sep 2013 19:43:00 +0000

JHK interviews Eric Zency, author of The Other Road to Serfdom and the Path to Sustainable Development. He is deeply knowledgable about the issues that the KunstlerCast is concerned with: the problems of an 'infinite growth' economy, the relationship between energy and money, and the fate of the planet. Eric teaches at the University of Vermont and Washington University in St. Louis.

The KunstlerCast music is “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

KunstlerCast 245 -- Sailing America's Inland Waterways

Thu, 05 Sep 2013 17:31:54 +0000

JHK chats with tugboat fleet owner Rob Goldman about the revival and future of shipping on America's inland waterways. Rob's company, NYS Marine Highway runs tugboats that push cargo barges through the Erie Canal system and the Great Lakes, as well as along the Atlantic Coast. Rob graduated from Rensslaer Polytechnic as an Architect, got into the pleasure boat marina business, and eventually started his shipping company. It's not your great-great-grandfather's Erie Canal anymore.

KunstlerCast 244 -- JHK Interviews Michael Klare, author of The Race for What's Left

Thu, 29 Aug 2013 19:13:00 +0000

JHK interviews Michael Klare, author or The Race For What's Left: The Global Scramble for the World's Last Resources. Michael is also the author of Resource Wars, and Blood and Oil. He runs the Department of Peace and Security Studies at Hampshire College, a program that also serves the Five Colleges organization which includes, Smith, Mt Holyoke, U. Mass, and Amherst.

The KunstlerCast music is “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

KunstlerCast 243 -- Summer Break Special -- A Trip to the County Fair

Thu, 22 Aug 2013 21:58:22 +0000

#243 -- Summer Break Special -- JHK and his friend Richie drop in on the Washington County (NY) fair for an extravaganza of cows, oxen, weird fried food, scary rides, and chats with farmers, tractor collectors, teenagers, and other civilians.

The KunstlerCast music is “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

KunstlerCast 242 -- JHK Talks with John Norquist of the CNU

Thu, 15 Aug 2013 14:24:00 +0000

#242 --JHK talks with John Norquist, director of the Congress for the New Urbanism and four-term mayor of Milwaukee Wisconsin, about the state of the American city, the future of the Great Lakes Region, and the difficulty in overcoming decades of bad choices concerning how we inhabit the landscape of our country.

The KunstlerCast music is “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

KunstlerCast 241 -- Snake Oil: Richard Heinberg on the Great Shale Snooker

Thu, 08 Aug 2013 16:44:36 +0000

#240 -- JHK yaks with Richard Heinberg about his new book, Snake Oil: How Fracking's False Promises of Plenty Imperils Our Future. Richard is also the author of the great peak oil primer, The Party's Over, and many other books about the converging dilemma's of our time, including Peak Everything and The End of Growth. He's a founder and senior fellow of the Post Carbon Institute.

The KunstlerCast music is called “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

Kunstlercast #240-- Nobody Knows What God Looks Like

Thu, 01 Aug 2013 18:06:48 +0000

# 240 -- JHK interviews David Orr, the Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Science and Politics at Oberlin College, in Oberlin, Ohio. David is the author of Down to the Wire: Confronting Climate Collapse (Oxford Press, 2009) and many other books. He articulates the multiple predicaments of our time in clear, plain terms, and he runs the Oberlin Project, an exemplary effort for the rehabilitation of local economies and the towns at the center of them.

The new KunstlerCast music is called “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the new recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

KunstlerCast # 239 -- Charlie Hall on Reality-Based Economics

Thu, 25 Jul 2013 21:00:44 +0000

#239-- JHK shoots the breeze with Charlie Hall, distinguished professor emeritus at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse, NY -- just retired last month and founder of the Association for Biophysical Economics. We yak about reality-based economics and the relationship of energy to money.

The new KunstlerCast music is called “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the new recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

KunstlerCast 238 -- JHK flying solo this week# 238 -- JHK yaks solo this week following another surgical adventure -- neck bones this time -- with spotlight on the George Zimmerman verdict, the rumors of Larry Summers as next Federal Reserve Chair, $106 o

Thu, 18 Jul 2013 18:35:31 +0000

# 238 -- JHK yaks solo this week following another surgical adventure -- neck bones this time -- with spotlight on the George Zimmerman verdict, the rumors of Larry Summers as next Federal Reserve Chair, $106 oil, Elliot Spitzer re-entering politics, and the questioning the dumb ideas of "urban issues" professor Ed Glaeser of Harvard. Back next week with a guest.

The new KunstlerCast music is called “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the new recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

KunstlerCast#237 -- The Trophic Conundrum. Chatting with Brian Czech about the paradox of economic growth

Thu, 11 Jul 2013 18:46:34 +0000

JHK talks with Brian Czech, founder of The Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy and author of the new book Supply Shock: Economic Growth at the Crossroads and the Steady State Economy, published by the New Society Press.

The new KunstlerCast music is called “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the new recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

KunstlerCast 236 -- Talking with Farming Activist Severine von Tscharner Fleming

Thu, 04 Jul 2013 14:19:55 +0000

#236 -- JHK talks with Severine von Tscharner Fleming, 30, a next ten agricultural activist, founder of Greenhorns and the National Young Farmers' Coalition. She also works with the Farm Hack organization, the Family Farm Coalition and is editor of the New Farmers' Almanac published by Greenhorns. She's a very accomplished person with a lot to say about the alternative farming scene -- that is, alternative to Big Agri-Biz.

The new KunstlerCast music is called “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the new recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

KunstlerCast 235 -- Talking to petroleum geologist Jeffrey Brown

Thu, 27 Jun 2013 15:00:00 +0000

#235 -- JHK talks with Texas petroleum geologist Jeffrey Brown about the global oil export-import scene, the shale oil situation, and the public's misunderstanding of oil realities. Jeff originated the model for understanding the decline of global oil exports and what it means for us, the importers on the other side of that trade. And what it means is that our total oil supply in the USA is much more fragile than the public imagines.

The new KunstlerCast music is called “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the new recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

KunstlerCast 234 -- George Mobus and Biophysical Economics

Thu, 20 Jun 2013 13:34:25 +0000

#234 -- JHK jaws with George Mobus, systems scientist from the University of Washington, Tacoma. George is a member of the Biophysical Economics group -- not you mother's economists, shall we say. I'm pretty much on-board with their reality-based discipline, however listeners will probably notice that George is a bit more doomerish than I am usually labeled as. What I like about the Biophysical Econ gang is that they pay attention to the importance of the energy side of the equation. George is smart and a real nice guy.

KunstlerCast 233 -- A Conversation with Jim Quinn of The Burning Platform blog

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 15:20:04 +0000

#233 -- JHK chats with Jim Quinn, author of The Burning Platform dot com. Jim Quinn spent most of his career as a financial executive in the corporate world and now works on the business side of a major university (name of it omitted at JQ's request). He's a keen observer of the financial scene and the way it expresses itself in the decay of everyday life.

The new KunstlerCast music is called “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the new recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

KunstlerCast 232 -- New Urbanism Special

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 20:19:25 +0000

New Urbanism Special. JHK chats with Andres Duany, a founding board member of the Congress for the New Urbanism about a new book (with a chapter by JHK) taking on the frauds and fakers at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and their so-called Landscape Urbanism program -- since they never tire of attacking the New Urbanists. Also on board is Emily Talen, co-editor of the new book and professor of Geography, Urban Design, and Sustainability at Arizona State University.

The new KunstlerCast music is called “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the new recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

KunstlerCast 231 -- Conversation with Tad Padzek of the University of Texas

Thu, 30 May 2013 19:03:51 +0000

JHK in conversation with Tad Patzek, chair of the Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering Department at the University of Texas. I'm twanging on the oil subject because the level of wishful thinking in the USA is shockingly high and we would benefit from facing reality and preparing for new arrangements in the ordering of everyday life.

The new KunstlerCast music is called “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the new recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

KunstlerCast #230 -- A Conversation with Charles Hugh Smith

Thu, 23 May 2013 14:49:47 +0000

#230 -- JHK chats with Charles Hugh Smith of the blog Of Two Minds.com. Charles is also the author of many books, most lately "Why Things Are Falling Apart -- And What We Can Do About It."

Charles describes it:

"…That things are falling apart--that is obvious. But why are they falling apart? The reasons are complex and global. Our economy and society have structural problems that cannot be solved by adding debt to debt. We are becoming poorer, not just from financial over-reach, but from fundamental forces that are not easy to identify or understand."

KunstlerCast 229 -- Yakking With Dave Collum

Thu, 16 May 2013 15:47:43 +0000

JHK shoots the breeze with David Collum, the Betty R. Miller Professor of Chemistry at Cornell University, who has become a regular and valued presence on the internet commenting on the financial system and the predicaments of our time. Dave is a live wire and lots of fun and he often disagrees with my point of view or corrects me… which is okay, 'cuz I don't pretend to know everything.

The new KunstlerCast music is called “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the new recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

KunstlerCast 228 -- Talking Shale Oil and Gas with Arthur Berman

Thu, 09 May 2013 14:04:06 +0000

JHK talks with geologist and independent oil-and-gas analyst Arthur Berman of Houston Texas -- emphasis on independent. Art brings clarity to the muddle created by industry propaganda planted in the credulous and gullible mainstream media.

KunstlerCast #227

Thu, 02 May 2013 18:57:03 +0000

JHK chats with blogger Steve Ludlum of Economic Undertow dot com -- a favorite recent discovery. We touch on issues of energy, economy, and culture.

The new KunstlerCast music is called “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the new recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

KunstlerCast 226 --Chatting With Hayes Martin

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 17:29:15 +0000

#226 -- JHK chats with strategic quantitative analyst Hayes Martin about what's doing in financial markets and money matters… in what is proving to be a turbulent month. We come from two very different points-of-view in the attempt to make sense of what's going on 'out there.'

The new KunstlerCast music is called “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the new recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

KunstlerCast 225 - The Vermont Sail Freight Project

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 04:30:00 +0000

JHK talks with Erik Andrus of the Vermont Sail Freight Project. They are building a boat dedicated to shipping Vermont farm products to New York City and other markets via Lake Champlain, the Champlain Canal, and the Hudson River. Erik operates the 110 acre Boundbrook Farm as well as Good Companion Bakery in Vergennes Vermont.

The new KunstlerCast music is called “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the new recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

KunstlerCast 224 -- Bill Powers on Shale Oil

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 13:22:21 +0000

# 224 -- JHK chats with independent energy analyst Bill Powers, author of the forthcoming book "Cold, Hungry, and in the Dark" about the American shale gas situation and its implications for how we live, published by New Society Press. I spoke to Bill by phone from his HQ in Chicago. The new KunstlerCast music is called “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the new recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

KunstlerCast 223 - Rapping with Dmitry Orlov

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 21:08:14 +0000

#223 -- JHK raps with Dmitry Orlov, author of "Reinventing Collapse" and the forthcoming new book, "The Five Stages of Collapse." We delve into some heretofore unpublicized details of Mr. Orlov's personal history as a young emigre from the old Soviet Union in the 1970s, and his journeys back to Russia (both Soviet and post-Soviet) since then.

The new KunstlerCast music is called “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the new recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

KunstlerCast 222 - April 1 Special

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 13:14:33 +0000

April 1 Special: The story of the Stones, by Samuel Beckett, featuring JHK.

The new KunstlerCast music is called “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the new recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

KunstlerCast 221 -- Real Abundance

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 18:40:57 +0000

JHK chats with Ben Hewitt writer / farmer of Cabot, Vermont, Author of The Town That Food Saved: How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food and the forthcoming new book, Saved: How I quit worrying about money and became the richest guy in the world.

The new KunstlerCast music is called “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the new recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

KunstlerCast #220: A House Divided

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 01:22:00 +0000

JHK speaks with Rob Williams, co-author "Most Likely to Secede: What the Vermont Independence Movement Can Teach Us about Reclaiming Community and Creating a Human Scale Vision for the 21st Century."

Kunstler Cast 219 - Quant-O-Rama

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 23:15:26 +0000

#219

In his never-ending quest to make sense of the financial scene, JHK chats with his old buddy David Aronson, a predictive analytics and data mining specialist, otherwise known in the financial sector as a "quant." Dave did not verify my own prejudices or validate my hypothesis about the exact nature of the mischief in the dark realm of money, but we had a lively conversation about it.

KunstlerCast 218 - Surveying the Local Ag Scene

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 14:09:41 +0000

Some notes on the local farming scene. JHK chats with Washington County farmer Seth Jacobs and caterer Susie Quillio about the developing local ag scene. I met Seth at the Cambridge bluegrass jam, where he was playing mandolin. I've known Susie for twenty years.

KunstlerCast 217 - The God of Progress is Dead

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 13:16:00 +0000

JHK hunkers down with John Michael Greer of the Archdruid Report -- http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com -- to chat about politics, economy, the condition of American culture, and the state of the nation. Jim parses Obama's State of the Union Address.

KC #216: Chatting with the brave younger generation....

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 16:25:41 +0000

JHK banters with videographer Joe Schiappi, 27, who came to the Kunstler cave to interview JHK for a video about about technology, art, and the future, but also ended up as a guest on the podcast in Jim's quest to suss out the mood of the 20-something generation. Joe has been living in Switzerland, Norway, Australia, and New Zealand since graduating from the University of Wisconsin.

KC #215: JHK is back – Nicole Foss Interview

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 15:55:18 +0000

JHK steps up to resume the KunstlerCast solo without Duncan Crary. I'll do interviews with guests sometimes, and sometimes I will just yak on my own. This week I was fortunate to have Nicole Foss of TheAutomaticEarth.com swing by as an overnight houseguest and we got to sit down at the microphones for a chat. Nicole is a veteran of Canadian government's electrical ministry and has worked in the nuclear energy ministries of the UK and the European Union. She has lectured all over Europe, the USA, Australia and New Zealand in recent years.

The new KunstlerCast theme music is called "Adam and Ali's Waltz" from the new recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AFJ1MXA/ref=dm_sp_alb

KunstlerCast #214: A Small American City

Fri, 28 Dec 2012 19:11:13 +0000

James Howard Kunstler will be resuming the KunstlerCast, solo, in the near future. In the meantime, this is the "pilot" episode for "A Small American City," a new podcast series by former KunstlerCast host Duncan Crary. Jim helped Duncan launch the new series with this special interview.

TROY, N.Y. - For many Americans, "The City" only refers to New York City, or one of the other major metroplexes in the country with populations in the millions. But North America is filled with smaller cities that were once just as lively, if only at a smaller scale. And they may come back to life again as events already underway continue to unfold.

Urban polemicist James Howard Kunstler believes that people will be living a lot differently in the U.S.A. during the coming years. Financial distress and energy scarcity are just two forces that may dictate Americans re-inhabit the centers of our smaller cities. But contrary to prevailing suburban notions of our times, life in an activated urban center - at a smaller scale - is delightful. The more activated these places become, the more desirable it will be to be in them.

Kunstler feels that Troy, N.Y., with its currently population of 50,000, has many characteristics that make it a universal stand-in for every small American city. But he also believes there are aspects that make Troy uniquely poised for a genuine comeback.

For this pilot episode of A Small American City, Kunstler joins host Duncan Crary for a special, introductory conversation about small cities, Troy, N.Y. and the urban fabric. From 2008 to 2012, Crary and Kunstler produced the popular podcast series, The KunstlerCast, a weekly conversation about "the tragic comedy of suburban sprawl." During their run, the two often used Crary's home city of Troy, N.Y. as an informal laboratory to illustrate and observe the urban design, energy and economic issues of the times.

Now, after completing what he considers an "intellectual apprenticeship," Crary will be setting off alone to continue exploring the urban organism. The episode begins with an excerpt from an essay by Crary about his time spent learning from Kunstler and living in Troy, NY. It first appeared in print as the concluding chapter of Crary’s book, The KunstlerCast: Conversations with James Howard Kunstler...the tragic comedy of suburban sprawl, (New Society Publishers, 2011). Visit http://asmallamericancity.com to hear more.

http://asmallamericancity.comVisit

KunstlerCast #213: Duncan Steps Back From the Kast

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 23:18:10 +0000

Duncan and Jim update listeners on the future of the KunstlerCast now that Duncan is stepping back his role.

KunstlerCast #212: Health & Technology Update

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 00:46:51 +0000

JHK updates listeners on his recent health issues. Duncan gets listeners caught up on recent tech issues.

KunstlerCast #211: JHK's Edible Garden

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 21:51:10 +0000

JHK gives a walking tour of the grounds of the Kunstler Compound in Washington County, NY and updates listeners on his progress in planting his own edible garden and orchard.

KunstlerCast TMM: Coda: A Systematic Misunderstanding of Reality

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 23:47:00 +0000

Author James Howard Kunstler reads "A Systematic Misunderstanding of Reality" the coda of his nonfiction book "Too Much Magic" (Altantic Monthly Press, 2012: pp 241-243).

KunstlerCast TMM: The Multicultural Dilemma

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 23:42:00 +0000

Author James Howard Kunstler reads "The Multicultural Dilemma" from Chapter 9 of his nonfiction book "Too Much Magic" (Altantic Monthly Press, 2012: pp 237-239).

KunstlerCast TMM: Social Relations and the Dilemmas of Difference

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 23:38:00 +0000

Author James Howard Kunstler reads " Social Relations and the Dilemmas of Difference" from Chapter 9 of his nonfiction book "Too Much Magic" (Altantic Monthly Press, 2012: pp 216-221).

KunstlerCast TMM: The Futility of Party Politics in The Long Emergency

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 23:33:00 +0000

Author James Howard Kunstler reads "The Futility of Party Politics in The Long Emergency" from Chapter 5 of his nonfiction book "Too Much Magic" (Altantic Monthly Press, 2012: pp 85 - 86).

KunstlerCast TMM: Kingdom Come

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 23:22:00 +0000

Author James Howard Kunstler reads "Kingdom Come," Chapter 1 of his nonfiction book, "Too Much Magic," (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2012: pp. 19 – 22).

KunstlerCast #210: Too Much Magic

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 19:00:00 +0000

JHK discusses his newly published nonfiction book "Too Much Magic: Wishful Thinking, Technology, and the Fate of the Nation." Kunstler considers "Magic" to be an update on his 2005 book "The Long Emergency." He says it was time to issue a reality testing report from reality central.

KunstlerCast #209: The NextGen New Urbanists

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0000

JHK and Duncan speak to a group of NextGen New Urbanists during the Congress for the New Urbanism held in West Palm Beach, Fla. this May 9-12. NextGen New Urbanists are young professionals participating in the New Urbanist movement. Jim asks the group to tell him what they're up to and what's next for New Urbanism. After a quick history of the NextGen movement, topics include: Resettle America, the Braddock PA Initiative, Tactical New Urbanism, Growing Culture and more.

KunstlerCast #208: West Palm Beach Florida

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0000

JHK and Duncan walk through City Center in West Palm Beach, Fla. and comment on the built environment.

KunstlerCast #207: Leon Krier @ CNU 20

Thu, 31 May 2012 23:19:41 +0000

Remarks by Leon Krier, architect, urban theoretician and author Leon Krier at CNU 20, followed by interview between JHK, Duncan Crary and Krier.

KunstlerCast #206: Live Audience Podcast @ CNU

Thu, 24 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000

This episode, featuring a conversation betweek JHK and CNU President and former Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist, was recorded before a live audience at the Congress for the New Urbanism. Norquist and Kunstler answer audience quesions on a variety of topics.

KunstlerCast#205: Prominent New Urbanist Authors

Thu, 17 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler joins other prominent New Urbanist writers on a recent panel at The Congress for The New Urbanism, held in West Palm Beach, Florida this May 9-12, 2012. Featuring: Chuck Bohl, Peter Katz, Philip Langdon, and Charles Marohn.

KunstlerCast #204: Twilight of the Mall Era – REDUX

Thu, 03 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000

This is an edited, re-released version of an episode first recorded in Sept. 2008: For this program James Howard Kunstler and Duncan Crary visit Colonie Center, a 1.3 million square-foot enclosed two-level regional shopping center located in suburban Albany, N.Y. After more than $12 million in renovations to this shopping center's exterior and interior, Jim remains as unimpressed with this place as he was in the 1970s when it was first built. Before entering the mall, Jim describes the heroic suburban 6-lane boulevard of commerce upon which Colonie Center is located. Inside, Jim relaxes in one of the lounge areas provided for shoppers and provides a brief history of enclosed shopping areas. He also discusses the price that Americans have paid for trading in real public places for private commercial spaces. He speaks to the clerks at a "sideways hat store." He also observes the local fauna: land whales.

KunstlerCast #203: Live Audience Podcast - Part 2

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler and Duncan Crary record a podcast before a live student audience at Union College, in Schenectady, N.Y. As part of a Humanities Super Seminar on liberal arts and activism, the students read The KunstlerCast book. In this segment, students ask questions out the future of the Internet, concentrating poverty and wealth in New York City and how individuals can face the enormous issue of rebuilding our human habitat. Sponsor: "The Heirloom," by Richard Davies.

KunstlerCast #202: Live Audience Podcast

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler and Duncan Crary record a podcast before a live student audience at Union College, in Schenectady, N.Y. As part of a Humanities Super Seminar on liberal arts and activism, the students read The KunstlerCast book. During the podcast Jim and Duncan riff on college architecture and the Union campus before opening up the discussion to questions from the class. Topics include: the value of a liberal arts education in The Long Emergency, monocultures concentrating poverty in the built environment, the prospects for restoring passenger rail in North America and more. Along the way Jim also delivers a call to millennial students to renounce their student loans. Sponsor: "The Heirloom," by Richard Davies.

KunstlerCast #201: Listener Mailbag

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0000

JHK fields listeners calls about the healthcare industry and its future in the Long Emergency, the validity of peak oil, cognitive ability to retain information from a computer screen vs. the printed page, and light pollution. Sponsor: "The Heirloom," by Richard Davies: http://theheirloom.blogspot.com.

KunstlerCast #200: Celebrating Four Years of Kasting

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0000

The KunstlerCast celebrates its 200th episode with listener suggested clips of favorite moments from the past four years. Duncan reads a special essay about meeting JHK at the shopping mall before retrieving some retired audio from the archive.

KunstlerCast #199: Communications Wasteland

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0000

JHK and Duncan have a ramble 'n rant episode on the robitification of our communications landscape, that wasteland of overcomplexity and hyperdependence of modern technology. Sponsor: http://theheirloom.blogspot.com/

KunstlerCast #198: Catherine Tumber on Small Cities – Part 2

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0000

JHK and Duncan speak about America's small industrial cities with Catherin Tumber, author of The Promise of America’s Smaller Industrial Cities in a Low-Carbon World. Sponsor: CNU20.org

KunstlerCast #197: Catherine Tumber on Small Cities - Part 1

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 20:37:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler speaks by phone with Catherin Tumber, author of Small, Gritty, and Green: The Promise of America's Smaller Industrial Cities in a Low-Carbon World. Tumber is a journalist and historian and research affiliate in the Community Innovators Lab in MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning.Sponsor: http://cnu20.org

KunstlerCast #196: JHK's Veganism

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0000

JHK talks about his experience being a 97 percent vegan and how the American diet may change in the Long Emergency. Sponsor: http://cnu20.org

KunstlerCast #195: Reading the Landscape

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler shares his thoughts on the experience of moving through the landscape and built environment on foot, rather than by car. Sponsor: http://www.CNU20.jpg

KunstlerCast #194: What Does Urban Really Mean?

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler helps host Duncan Crary define the term "urban," a term that is often misunderstood or confusing to the general American public.Sponsor: http://cnu20.org

KunstlerCast #193: Listener Mail Bag

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000

In this episode, James Howard Kunstler and Duncan Crary go through the KunstlerCast listener mail bag. Topics include: David Brooks's recent 180 on the "wonders" of suburbia, the Zeitgeist movement, the fate of ebooks, home maintenance during The Long Emergency, rural Illinois and other topics. Sponsor: http://CNU20.org

KunstlerCast #192: Arthur E. Berman, Petroleum Geologist

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler speaks by phone with Arthur E. Berman, who is a petroleum geologist and consultant to the energy sector; editorial board member of The Oil Drum; associate editor of the AAPG Bulletin; director of The Association for the Study of Peak Oil. Berman has published more than 100 articles on petroleum geology and technology and has made more than 50 presentations in the last year to professional societies, investment conferences and companies. He speaks to Jim tonight about the history of shale gas "fracking" and a lot of the "magical thinking" surrounding the prospects of America becoming "energy dependent" through fracking.

KunstlerCast 191: Get Used to Being Uncomfortable

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:30:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler comments on the rising rates of pessimism in the U.S. in response to Capital cronyism, the dissapearing American dream, and our own entitled wishful thinking.

KunstlerCast #190: The Trust Horizon

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

JHK discusses the growing mistrust for government in the U.S. and the rise of local trust networks in response. The inspiration for today's show comes from The Automatic Earth blog, http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com

KunstlerCast #189: Irrational Cries to Demolish Infrastructure

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

After a tragic death, citizens in the Albany area are clamoring to tear down an old train bridge slated to become a bike-hike trail. JHK & Duncan examine this story and explain why we must save historic infrastructure like the bridge in question.

KunstlerCast #188: Forecast 2012

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

JHK discusses his forecast for 2012 and shares his New Year's resolution.

KunstlerCast #187: GOP Nominee?

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 20:53:00 +0000

JHK shares his take on the GOP candidates for the 2012 US election.

KunstlerCast #186: John Michael Greer

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000

John Michael Greer, author of The Long Descent, The Wealth of Nature and, most recently, Apocalypse Not, joins JHK and Duncan by phone to speak about 2012 apocalypse scenarios, Green Wizardry, politics and techno narcissism. http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com

KunstlerCast #185: Duncan on Relocalize Vermont

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Duncan appears solo on a radio program called Relocalizing Vermont to talk about The KunstlerCast book and podcast and the influence that James Howard Kunstler has had on him. In this half-hour interview by Carl Etnier asks Duncan about the KunstlerCast came to be, why JHK alwasy seems to rip on Amory Lovins, the Y2K thing, and other topics. A caller from Britain asks about the prospects of re-villaging suburbia.

KunstlerCast #184: Fake Warrior Culture

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler takes three listener calls all regarding different angles of professional sports and warrior culture.

KunstlerCast #183: In World Made By Hand Country

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Jim's finally found himself a new home, and it's right on the edge of the place that inspired the fictional town of Union Grove in his World Made By Hand novels. Duncan brings listeners along for the scenic drive from Troy up to Washington County, before the two tour his new village and meet some of the locals.

KunstlerCast #182: Ken Avidor

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0000

JHK and Duncan speak by phone with artist and self-described muckraker Ken Avidor, who recently illustrated the KunstlerCast book.

KunstlerCast #181: A Collegiate Discussion of World Made By Hand

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0000

JHK takes questions from the students in a college English class who have just completed reading "World Made By Hand," a post-peak oil novel. These highly intelligent questions range in topic from the role of religion, violence, and narrative strategy of Wold Made By Hand. Jim also reveals his true feelings about George Lucas and his thoughts about making revisions to novels. Note: This episode contains cursewords.

KunstlerCast #180: Occupy Everything

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler shares his thoughts on the Occupy movement sweeping America. It's going to be a dark and difficult time ahead for the U.S. and JHK thinks we may be heading into a period of mischief this spring. But he has a lot of faith in the younger generation because they're not cynical and they truly want to live in a country they're capable of caring about.

KunstlerCast #179: The Long Emergency vs. NYC's Resurgency

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0000

"The Long Emergency vs. NYC's Resurgency: A Debate about the Future of Cities" featuring Transportation Alternatives Executive Director Paul Steely White and author James Howard Kunstler. Jeff Olson of Alta Planning & Design moderates before an audience at Skidmore College. Oranized by Kim Marsella of the Skidmore Environmental Studies Department.

KunstlerCast #178: CNU Fireside Chat with JHK

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 00:30:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler and Duncan Crary join Congress for the New Urbanism CEO & President John Norquist for a "fireside chat" about new urbanism, the future of cities and other topics. This is a 25 minute excerpt from a one hour conversation that was original broadcast live over the Internet as part of the CNU membership drive. An archive recording of the full conversation is availble for listening for CNU City Builder members. For information, visit: CNU.org/membership.

KunstlerCast #177: JHK Addresses Preservationists

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Jim and Duncan talk about Historic Preservation on their return drive from the annual conference of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, held in Buffalo this week. This show includes an excerpt from the keynote address Jim gave to kick off the conference. During the talk JHK explained to preservationists that not all buildings are worth saving -- particularly the modernist architectural abortions of the 60s, 70s and 80s.

KunstlerCast #176: Listener Mailbag

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0000

JHK and Duncan get caught up on listener calls. Question topics include: Phoenix vs. Georgia; repealing the gas tax, The Long Descent, Landscape Urbanism and why aren't there any African-American characters in Jim's World Made By Hand novels? One listener also shares a bizarre and raunchy conspiracy theory.

KunstlerCast #175: Despotic Christian Theocrats on the Rise

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0000

There's a crazy Christian cult on the rise in the US and JHK believes Americans needs to watch out. The New Apostolic Reformation is a dangerous movement exerting its influence on the American political sphere during a time when this country is so fraught with problems that we are leaving ourselves vulnerable to being pushed around by crazy people like this, Kunstler says. The group -- which has connections to presidential candidates Rick Perry and Michele Bachman -- not only believes in literal devils but that certain American politicians are afflicted by these demons. More concerning is their belief in dominionism over all aspects of American culture, politics and business. The "apostles" claim to speak directly to God and feel they have a mission to convert all Jews to Christianity. Kunstler sees this group, and others like it, becoming more troublesome as The Long Emergency unfolds. He can imagine that the country may find itself in a new Civil War in the years ahead. During the conversation JHK also describes his experiences reporting on religious cults, his own thoughts on religion as an agnostic, and explains how the story of the New Apostolic Reformation may resemble some of the aspects in his fictional World Made By Hand novels.

KunstlerCast #174: Big Sky Country

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 21:43:20 +0000

After a recent visit to Montana, JHK asks: What is living in a town in Montana all about? He observes that it’s mostly about the scenery outside of town, not the town itself. The streets are too wide, the buildings too low and the public face of the urban fabric is too thoughtless and badly proportioned. Yet many so-called progressives in these places are arguing for more “open space” in their towns. Sustainability is the new buzzword there and elsewhere in America. But what many overlook is that the future of tourism looks pretty grim as more and more people have less money to spend on activities like skiing. There are many sophisticated people running high-tech businesses in places like Butte and Helena, but it remains unclear what the fate of telecommuting and Internet commerce will be, especially now that our national post office is in dire straits.

KunstlerCast #173: Mexico City

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 00:30:00 +0000

Twelve years ago James Howard Kunstler visited Mexico City to write a chapter for his book "The City in Mind." He recently returned there to speak at a conference. In this podcast Jim shares his thoughts on the history, present state and future prospects for this major world city. Note: This episode includes cursewords.

KunstlerCast #172: Jeff Goodell on Climate Change

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 21:06:04 +0000

JHK and Duncan are joined by Jeff Goodell, environmental writer for Rolling Stone magazine and author of "How to Cool the Planet" and "Big Coal." Jeff speaks about global warming and some of the efforts to cool the planet through man-made projects.

KunstlerCast #171: The End of Growth - Part 2

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 00:00:00 +0000

In the conclusion of this one-hour conversation, Richard Heinberg, author of "Peak Everything", "The Party's Over" and the newly published "The End of Growth" joins James Howard Kunstler by phone to talk about peak oil, financial dysfunction, the failures of industrial aggriculture and the coming problems of sububurbia. Heinberg also shares his thoughts on being labeled a "Doomer." Sponsor: http://postcarbon.org

KunstlerCast #170: The End of Growth - Part 1

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 20:36:11 +0000

In part one of this one-hour conversation, Richard Heinberg, author of Peak Everything, The Party's Over and the newly published The End of Growth joins James Howard Kunstler by phone to talk about peak oil, financial dysfunction, political convulsions and generational conflict. Sponsor: PostCarbon.org

KunstlerCast #169: Will TLE Put an End to Spontaneous Behavior?

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 18:27:38 +0000

A listener asks Jim if American’s cherished character trait of spontaneity is bound to car dependency. JHK shares his thoughts on the American National Character and how it may change during The Long Emergency.

KunstlerCast #168: The Downgrading of America

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 18:53:10 +0000

JHK updates us on the recent credit downgrading of America as it relates to the unfolding Long Emergency. At the end of the show we play a song based on The Long Emergency by a podcast listener.

KunstlerCast #167: AUDIO ONLY - Picturing Suburbia

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 19:30:00 +0000

Originally broadcast April, 2008: When James Howard Kunstler isn't railing against suburban sprawl, he's painting it. Vincent van Gogh painted the peasant sleeping by the haystack because he was living in a landscape populated by people. Our landscape is populated by cars. So, as a sur la motif painter of our time, Jim's subjects include cars on the road, gas stations and the industrial ruins of America's manufacturing past. Making this landscape legible on the canvas is a challenge, but it's also dangerous! An angry manager once told Jim that painting the Burger King is not allowed.

KunstlerCast #166: Bicycle Sharing

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 21:22:00 +0000

This week James Howard Kunstler gets a much needed break from podcasting, while Duncan speaks to a representative of B-Cycle, a bicycle sharing company with programs through the U.S. Afterwards, Duncan tours Madison, Wisconsin on bike with a local guide and Matt Dellinger, author of Interstate 69 and blogger for WNYC’s Transportation Nation.

KunstlerCast #165: Landscape Urbanism - Part 2

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 21:13:58 +0000

JHK continues his critique of Charles Waldheim's presentation on Landscape Urbanism, delivered at the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU 19). This episode also includes remarks by New Urbanist leader Andres Duany and a listener quesion from a conferencegoer.

KunstlerCast #164: Landscape Urbanism - Part 1

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 00:37:29 +0000

In recent years there has been a growing debate between New Urbanism and Landscape Urbanism, a theory that argues the landscape, rather than architecture, is more capable of organizing the city and enhancing the urban experience. In this episode, JHK reacts to recent remarks by Harvard Prof. Charles Waldheim at the Congress for the New Urbanism on Landscape Urbanism. In particular, Kunstler will respond to Waldheim’s claims that New Urbanism places too much emphasis on neoclassicism while not paying enough attention to environmental concerns of the 21st century.

KunstlerCast #163: Triumph of the City - Part 2

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 20:24:08 +0000

JHK continues his critique of Ed Glaeser's talk from recent Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU 19) and the ideas presented in his best-selling book Triumph of the City. Sponsor: Orion Magazine.

KunstlerCast #162: Triumph of the City - Part 1

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 20:57:16 +0000

JHK Critiques Ed Glaeser's talk from recent Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU 19) and the ideas presented in his best-selling book Triumph of the City. Sponsor: Orion Magazine.

KunstlerCast #161: Cities of the Future

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 00:30:00 +0000

In a special cross promotion, Andrew Blechman of the Orion Magazine podcast interviews JHK about cities of the future. For the full interview, visit: http://www.orionmagazine.org/cities

KunstlerCast #160: Housing Bubble Update & Car Sharing

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 19:54:00 +0000

JHK gives an update on the bursting housing bubble and the fate of car dependency in America. This episode includes a short interview with Sharon Feigon, CEO of I-Go Car Sharing, and Sonya Newenhouse, president of Community Car, two professionals in the car sharing industry. Sponsor: Bjorn Bergman who reminds listeners to eat local this summer! 651-276-8875

KunstlerCast #159: The Congress For the New Urbanism

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 17:53:22 +0000

In the first of many installments to come, Duncan updates James Howard Kunstler on the recent Congress For the New Urbanism, held June 1-6, 2011 in Madison, Wisc. The Congress for the New Urbanism is a professional association of planners, architects, developers, political leaders and activists who are committed to revitalizing cities and curb the continuation of sprawl. During this show, we hear from: Andres Duany, New Urbanist architec; Ed Glaeser, Harvard economist & author; U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-OR; Paul Soglin, mayor of Madison, Wisc.; Paul Minett, Ridesharing Institute; Will Allen, Wisconsin farmer and founder of Growing Power; Charles Waldheim, Harvard professor and leader of the Landscape Urbanism movement; and Stefanos Polyzoides, New Urbanist architect. JHK reacts to some short sound bites regarding Landscape Urbanism, skyscraper cities and the development of New Urbanism.

KunstlerCast #158: Americans Demand Walkable Neighborhoods...

Thu, 26 May 2011 18:33:00 +0000

On today's episode JHK discusses a recent poll by the National Realtors Association which found that while many Americans claim they want to be able to walk to stores, restaurants and other urban amenities, they prefer to live in single family detached homes above all else. This seems to be a contradiction, but the arrangement could be possible through New Urbanist planning. Sponsor: http://cnu19.org

KunstlerCast #157: When McDonald's Comes to Town

Thu, 19 May 2011 15:47:00 +0000

JHK and Duncan look at two new McDonald's projects in their home towns and touch upon some universal issues with regards to these types of developments appearing throughout North America. Using the comments on a local newspaper blog, they gague how members of the community are reacting and forming a public consensus. While some people in Troy are advocating for a heightened design, others are "violently complacent" about the standard issue Mickey D's as delivered to automobile strips around the world. Meanwhile, in Saratoga Springs, a developer did create a different take on the Golden Arches. But was the end product better?

KunstlerCast #156: Osama & The Middle East

Thu, 12 May 2011 15:00:20 +0000

James Howard Kunstler shares his thoughts about the caputure and destruction of Osama bin Laden and the future of U.S. relations in the Middle East. Sponsor: http://cnu19.org.

KunstlerCast #155: AUDIO ONLY - Taking The Initiative

Thu, 05 May 2011 00:00:00 +0000

JHK & Duncan explore North Central Troy NY with Billie-Jean Greene of the Uptown Initiative. Sponsor: http://cnu19.org

KunstlerCast #154: Q & A with JHK

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 03:17:25 +0000

JHK and Duncan visit The Sanctuary for Independent Media , an old church in North Central Troy NY which has been repurposed as community media space. After a public lecture, JHK takes questions from the audience on a variety of urban planning and energy topics. Sponsor: http://cnu19.org

KunstlerCast #153: 2010 U.S. Census Figures

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 17:10:32 +0000

The 2010 U.S. Census figures have led to a newly empowered suburban electorate. But the figures also indicate that several major U.S. cities are increasing in population at their cores. JHK offers some analysis. Sponsor: The Congress for the New Urbanism CNU 19, http://cnu19.org

KunstlerCast #152: Is Peak Oil a Conspiracy Theory

Thu, 14 Apr 2011 17:57:00 +0000

JHK has said many times that he's allergic to conspiracy theories. Yet his own ideas about peak oil sort of sound like a conspiracy theory since he believes that the U.S. government has a dependency-enabling relationship with the American public regarding our energy consumption habits and reality. JHK concedes that there may be a "soft conspiracy" at play.

KunstlerCast #151: Energy Delusions

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler believes Americans and their leaders are lying to themselves about our current energy predicament. There is a tremendous body of fantasy about how much energy Americans can harvest from shale gas, shale oil, tar sands, running the American truck fleet on natural gas and other forms of alternative fuel for motoring. There is even one fantasy that an endless supply of abiotic oil is located in the earth’s core. Kunstler runs down the list and gives us the score.

KunstlerCast #150: Suburban Sprawl in the Rustbelt

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 20:28:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler reacts to a recent article from Rustwire.com titled "Michigan CEO: Soul-Crushing Sprawl Killing Business." Kunstler believes that the diminishing returns of suburbia are becoming self-evident to people of all walks of life, and this piece of writing is yet another example. He also corrects some of his previous comments about Detroit and the Eminem Chrysler ad. At the end of the program, Duncan plays some music by Michigan-based band Frontier Ruckus from their album "Deadmalls&Nightfalls."

KunstlerCast #149: Debauchery in the Student Ghettos

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 19:43:49 +0000

JHK and Duncan apply an urbanist lens to a recent string of drunken St. Paddy's Parade Day riots in three U.S. cities: Newport, RI, Hoboken, NJ, and Albany, NY. Topics covered in this discussion include: monocultures, transient populations, the ghettoization of the generations, self-regulating social scenes, swarm behavior and social networking technology, Glenn Beck, open container laws in cities and The Broken Windows Theory.

KunstlerCast #148: Disaster in Japan

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 15:58:12 +0000

After the recent earthquake and tsunami, James Howard Kunstler believes that Japan may be propelled into a much different society very quickly -- one that somewhat resemble his World Made By Hand vision. But JHK thinks that using less fossil fuel and dexomplexifying their society might be a good thing for Japan as it may give them a headstart down the road that other complex societies like the U.S. are heading anyway. Sponsor: http://postpeakliving.com

KunstlerCast #147: Pigeons

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 18:33:36 +0000

In this mini episode, Leisureville author Andrew Blechman talks with Jim and Duncan about pigeons, the fascinating subject of his other book Pigeons.

KunstlerCast #146: Geritopia

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 23:42:00 +0000

Author Andrew Blechman discusses his book Leisureville, a tragicomic report on The Villages, America's largest planned retirement community. In this version of suburbia, everyone drives golf carts, no one works and children aren't allowed. Sponsor: PostPeakLiving.com

KunstlerCast #145: Listener Mailbag

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 18:13:00 +0000

JHK and Duncan get caught up on questions from listener callers. Topics include post-petroleum education, the homogenization of America, Vancouver and light pollution. Sponsor: http://www.postpeakliving.com

KunstlerCast #144: American Jitney

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 22:38:37 +0000

JHK discusses "slugging" and couch surfing and other casual self-organizing transportation and lodging systems that are emerging under new terms of existence in a less affluent USA.

KunstlerCast #143: Imported From Detroit?

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 22:27:00 +0000

JHK reacts to the Chrysler Superbowl commercial featuring rapper Eminem, titled "Imported From Detroit." This leads to a discussion of American insecurities and our unending need for pep rallies.

KunstlerCast #142: Forecast 2011

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 23:24:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler speaks about his annual forecast for 2011. Although there are a lot of people out there cheerleading for a "recovery," JHK believes it's time for a reset. He foresees food shortages, financial strain and political troubles ahead.

KunstlerCast #141: Interstate 69 with Matt Dellinger

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 00:09:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler is joined in the studio by author Matt Dellinger to discuss his new book, INTERSTATE 69. Also known as "The NAFTA Highway," I-69 is a proposed 1,400-mile mega-highway linking Canada to Mexico via the American heartland. This special one-hour conversation covers the economic development schemes, history, culture, conspiracy theories and colorful characters behind the story of what might be the last great American highway. Matt Dellinger has written for The New Yorker, the Atlantic, the Oxford American, the Wall Street Journal magazine, and the The New York Times. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, and blogs for public radio's TransportationNation.org. His website is http://www.mattdellinger.com/

KunstlerCast #140: Violent Rhetoric

Thu, 13 Jan 2011 21:36:47 +0000

JHK reacts to the tragic shooting in Arizona. He reflects on gun ownership debate in the U.S. and his own conflicting thoughts about owning a gun himself. He discusses the power of violent rhetoric in our public discourse and evalutes his own use of strong language. He also muses on the built environment in Tuscon Arizona and what role it might have played in the tragedy.

KunstlerCast #139: Social Critic

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 02:17:35 +0000

James Howard Kunstler talks about his literary influences, including H.L. Mencken, Tom Wolfe and Samuel Beckett. He also explains the role of the social critic and how he separates his critic persona from his own personality. Lastly he muses on what he might like his legacy to be. This conversation, all about writing, is background information for a forthcoming KunstlerCast book.

KunstlerCast #138: A Christmas Orphan

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 16:26:51 +0000

James Howard Kunstler discusses and reads from his novella, A Christmas Orphan -- the story of a young boy from the big city who runs away on Christmas Eve to small-town Vermont. JHK explains how this story deals with many of the issues he writes about in his nonfiction commentary on our living arrangements of the late 20th and 21st centuries. A Christmas Orphan is available for purchase at http://Northshire.com. Music used by permission of IODA Promonet.

KunstlerCast #137: Berkeley, San Fran, Pasadena & Santa Monica

Fri, 10 Dec 2010 00:10:00 +0000

JHK shares his thoughts on a recent visit to the San Francisco Bay Area and the greater Los Angeles region in the final chapter in his Witch of Hebron book tour.

KunstlerCast #136: Perth, Australia

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 23:14:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler reports on his recent trip to Perth, Australia. He joins host Duncan Crary by telephone during a long layover at the LAX aiport on the return trip. Kunstler found Perth to be a very pleasant city with good urbanism and public transit. And in spite of an enthusiasm for suruban development, the center city is very dense. However, he believes Australians may be caught off guard by the coming geopolitical changes of the Long Emergency.

KunstlerCast #135: Melbourne, AU Cont.

Thu, 25 Nov 2010 17:09:18 +0000

James Howard Kunstler continues his discussion of Melbourne, Australia based on his recent visit to that country to speak at the VIC Urban conference. In this podcast, JHK touches upon the Australia housing bubble and the fate of suburiba there; the Australian economy, and geopolitical issues facing the Australia continent.

KunstlerCast #134: Melbourne Australia

Fri, 19 Nov 2010 00:06:19 +0000

Jim shares his observations of Melbourne, Australia based on his recent visit to that city to speak to the VIC Urban organization. Though he was impressed by the downtown, JHK says the areas outside Melbourne look a lot like the suburban areas of Southern California. One of his stops was Aurora, a so-called "green suburb" that failed to impress. Finally, JHK shares his adventures in the countryside beyond the Australian suburbs.

KunstlerCast #133 - The Tea Party

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 04:33:00 +0000

JHK shares his thoughts on the recent U.S. midterm elections, the Tea Party, Jon Stewart's Rally for Sanity, and the problems of progressivisim.

KunstlerCast #132:Travel Notes - Boulder & Minneapolis

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 21:27:17 +0000

JHK shares his observations of Boulder, Colorado and Minneapolis, Minnesota--two cities that do not live up to their reputation for entirely different reasons.

KunstlerCast #131: Portland, Oregon

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 23:05:50 +0000

James Howard Kunstler discusses Portland, Oregon, an American city that did a lot of things right. Topics include: the urban growth boundary, architecture, transit and political attitudes.

KunstlerCast #130: Seattle

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 19:13:28 +0000

James Howard Kunstler shares his observations of Seattle based on his recent trip to that city. He believes that the Queen Anne Hill neighborhood gives one an idea of what the best of American urbanism can be, inspite of some clunky housing types. Though downtown is active and fairly pleasant, JHK has ominous feelings about the future of its many glass apartment towers. Kunstler also describes the Capitol Hill neighborhood, University District, Pike Place Market and Pioneer Square. He talks about riding the bus and the lessons we can learn from the lame monorail. Seattle is also home to the ubiquitous coffee chain Starbucks, which has many downsides to it, but which has also introduced some culture to certain places that had previously lacked any sort of "third place."

KunstlerCast #129: Gambling

Thu, 14 Oct 2010 21:03:24 +0000

James Howard Kunstler examines the last ditch effort of some states to try to generate revenue through casinos. Kunstler believes gambling is a marginal activity that states should not be pushing into the mainstream. Also featured in this episode is a short clip from JHK's one hour interview on KBOO public radio in Portland, Ore.

KunstlerCast #128: Travelogue - WA, LA, N.H.

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 23:58:14 +0000

JHK checks in with Duncan via phone during the West Coast leg of his book tour for The Witch of Hebron. He shares his recent observations from visiting New Orleans; Portsmouth and Exeter, N.H.; and Bellingham, WA.

KunstlerCast #127: The Tragedy of the Commons

Thu, 30 Sep 2010 20:35:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler explains the Tragedy of the Commons, as first described by Garrett Hardin in 1968, as how this philosophical theory relates to the public realm, suburbia, private property, commerce, environmentalism and concepts of freedom. This episode also includes a short radio story produced by MichiganNow.org featuring a walking tour by JHK in Bay City, Michigan. Special thanks to http://www.michigannow.org/

KunstlerCast #126: The Disservice Industry & The Next Manhattan Project

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 00:57:13 +0000

James Howard Kunstler joins Duncan by phone from his hotel room in New Orleans. Their conversation moves from Dearborn, Michigan to the failings of the airline industry, to Burlington, Vt., to the potential of Thorium, the so-called "green" nuclear energy source, to the Boomer generation's parting gift to future generations.

KunstlerCast #125: Cassandra, A Thought Experiment

Thu, 16 Sep 2010 22:17:05 +0000

Duncan asks JHK what he would say to the American people of 1946 if he had the means to travel back in time. What would Kunstler tell them about the suburban dream as promised to them? Would they listen?

KunstlerCast: Crazy Update from LA

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 21:06:06 +0000

The KunstlerCast will return next week. Duncan was flown to LA at the last minute to appear on a daytime TV show. He also wandered into the midst of a real LA riot. He's fine and will return next week with JHK and lots of good fodder for the podcast. Thanks for your patience.

KunstlerCast #124: The American Vacation

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 22:23:38 +0000

James Howard Kunstler muses on The American Vacation and why the act of vacationing in American has become so stressful and unpleasant. He also shares his observations on Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, three states he visited during his own recent vacation. Kunstler doesn't believe that motor-based tourism will be around for much longer...and that's probably a good thing.

KunstlerCast #123: The Witch of Hebron

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 01:21:00 +0000

Journalist/Author Peter Golden interviews James Howard Kunstler about The Witch of Hebron, the second novel in Kunstler's World Made By Hand series. Without giving away any major plot points, Golden explores the major themes in this Autumn story set in a world after the lights have flickered out and the oil has dried up. Topics include: the rule of law, the importance of ritual holidays, and the role of religion in a tight-knit community. In this novel, Kunstler has revealed more about the circumstances that have placed his characters in a world without modernity. Golden aks if Kunstler believes that people are happier in this imagined future than they are in today's high tech world. Music: "Be Thou My Vision," performed by Ed Lowman & John Kirk, recorded specially for the World Made By Hand series.

KunstlerCast: The Witch of Hebron, Chapter Thirteen

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 18:48:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler reads Chapter 13 from his post-oil novel The Witch of Hebron (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2010). Music: "Duck River," performed by Matt Brown. Used by permission. Available for purchase through 5-String Productions. http://www.5-string.com

KunstlerCast: The Witch of Hebron, Chapter One

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 18:32:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler reads the first chapter of his post-oil novel The Witch of Hebron (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2010). Music: "McCully's Waltz," performed by Ed Lowman & John Kirk, recorded specially for the World Made By Hand series.

KunstlerCast: The Witch of Hebron, Chapter Thirty-Eight

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 18:16:00 +0000

Author James Howard Kunstler reads Chapter Thirty-Eight from his post-oil novel, The Witch of Hebron (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2010). Music: "Sweet Rosey Cheeks," performed by Ed Lowman & John Kirk, recorded specially for the World Made By Hand series.

KunstlerCast #122: A Grand Wobble

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 19:37:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler takes a look at the systematic failures of our finanical future and the efforts by the U.S. government to sustain the unsustainable.

KunstlerCast #121: Modern Family Living

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 20:18:14 +0000

James Howard Kunstler muses on the suburban family living arrangement--past, present, future. Points of discussion include: adult kids living at home, caring for seniors, living in closer proximity to family members.

KunstlerCast #120: To Combat Sprawl

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 20:27:00 +0000

A listener asks what other ways average folks can combat sprawl without becoming a professional urban planner. JHK shares the story of his personal choice in 1970s to leave the big city and consciously live in a small American town with a livable urban fabric.

KunstlerCast #119: The Projects - Audio Only

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 17:18:26 +0000

JHK explores a mostly abandoned low-income housing project in Duncan's neighborhood. Two of the three 9-story brick "vertical slums" are boarded up and abandoned. They come complete with their own "rape-o-matic" tunnel for pedestrians to travel under the bridge ramp that separates them. Kunstler says these "towers in a park" are based on the ideas of Le Corbusier, the Swiss-French architect/planner whose "Radiant City" plans envisioned turning the right bank of Paris into a series of high rise towers connected by highways. Corbu's plans were not implemented in Paris, but his ideas didn't die. In fact they morphed into what are commonly known as "the projects," low-income high rise towers all around the U.S. and indeed the world. Taking inspiration by the housing projects in Troy, Kunstler explains the history of this style of low-income housing and its detrimental side effects. Sponsor: PostCarbon.org

KunstlerCast_118: A Great American Street: Audio-Only

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 23:43:07 +0000

JHK and Duncan celebrate the Fourth of July by touring Uncle Sam's neighborhood. They stroll down Second Street in Troy NY, admiring the 19th century architecture along the way. Destinations include: Russell Sage College, the county court house and one of only two privately owned and maintained residential green squares in New York state (the other is the famous Gramercy Park in Manhattan). They speak to some workers laying a stone street by hand, and explore the alley in an exclusive neighborhood. Sponsor: PostCarbon.org

KunstlerCast #118 Enhanced: A Great American Street

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 23:21:00 +0000

KunstlerCast #117: Berlin

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 20:20:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler reports on his recent visit to Berlin, Germany...the one place where people know how to pronounce his name correctly. Thirteen years ago, James Howard Kunstler traveled to Berlin, Germany to research a chapter for his third nonfiction book, The City in Mind. On his recent trip, he discovered that the place has healed remarkably over the past decade. Of course he had to go check in on the Führerbunker which is now the site of one of Berlin's few surface parking lots. JHK notes that history is a great prankster and therefore it's no surprise that while the U.S. won the war against Germany, it's cities looked bombed out. While Germany lost the war and its cities are beautiful, civilized places. Listeners end the show with their reactions to the BP oil spill. Listeners end the show by sharing their reactions to the BP oil spill. Sponsor: Post Carbon Institute, http://postcarbon.org

KunstlerCast #116: Deep Water Horizon

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 19:41:35 +0000

JHK examines the tragic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the fog of incomplete information that surrounds it. Kunstler sees this incident as further proof that the peak oil story is real. Now that the low hanging fruit of our oil resources has been plucked, the paradigms of our car-dependent society are forcing us to drill under difficult conditions that are hard to control. The return of $4 gallons of gasoline is not far around the next corner and the trauma from this event is already provoking strange emotional outbursts and pockets of denial from the public who do not want to get off the path of Happy Motoring. JHK also believes that the escalating and increasing failures of liberal democracy in the U.S. are getting to the point where American people don't trust the government to be competent anymore. Ecological disasters are amplifying economic disasters, which are feeding a political disaster. In the end, this event may accelerate the process of America rethinking how its living and whether in fact maybe what we're doing is insane, especially this campaign to sustain the unsustainable which is underway. Sponsor: http://PostCarbon.org

KunstlerCast #116: Deep Water Horizon

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 15:30:00 +0000

KunstlerCast #115: Atlanta

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 19:52:10 +0000

James Howard Kunstler shares his observations from a recent visit to Atlanta, Ga.

KunstlerCast #114: Agrarian Urbanism

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 16:47:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler recently returned from the 18th Annual Congress for the New Urbanism. Agrarian urbanism was a hot topic among many New Urbanists at the Congress and in this episode Kunstler takes the time to explore the topic of food production in cities. Rising energy prices and poor growing weather may lead to global food shortages, but JHK believes that the idea of feeding the U.S. population with rooftop gardens and skyscraper terrariums is absurd. Gardening and even raising certain animals in the city was a normal part of urban life before World War II and we may see a return of some of those practices. But Kunstler believes that it is important to cut through some of the fantasies to figure out what's really possible. We must also be careful not to confuse the urban with the rural.

KunstlerCast #113: Pit Bulls in the China Shop

Thu, 27 May 2010 18:13:00 +0000

Using the example of a recent gimmick to allow dogs into the stores in downtown Saratoga Springs, James Howard Kunstler examines the topic of decorum in the public realm. JHK believes that Americans struggle with boundary issues and evaluating appropriate behavior, which may explain the increased presence of pet dogs in inappropriate venues. Vicious dogs, which have become the latest "urban" accessory, add an even more troubling dynamic to the streetscape. The situation gets worse when dog owners leave their pet's droppings in the sidewalk. Kunstler notes that dogs have always played a role in city life, but now we rarely employ dogs in the traditional roles that they were bred for. And listlessness leads to bad behavior in all mammals, dogs and humans included. Sponsor: http://paulrapp.com.

KunstlerCast #112: The Politics of Place

Thu, 20 May 2010 18:35:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler examines the politics of place. Are the suburbs more conservative than cities? Why are people who try to conserve the historic fabric of their towns branded as radical liberals, while the agents of destruction in those towns call themselves "conservative?" What is the historical relationship between political ideas and the places where they originate from? JHK addresses these questions in today's episode. Sponsor: http://audiblepodcast.com/kunstler

KunstlerCast #111: Brutalism

Thu, 13 May 2010 19:17:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler explains the origins of brutalism, the modernist architectural style that resulted in the horrible, poured concrete bunker-like buildings found all across the world. JHK explains why these concrete buildings age more rapidly, and less gracefully, than Roman concrete buildings. He also tells the story of how Hitler inspired (indirectly) these despotic structures. Specific examples of brutalist buildings discussed in this episode are: Boston City Hall, Troy City Hall, the Paul Rudolph building at Yale University and The Third Church of Christ, Scientist, in Washington, D.C.

KunstlerCast #110: Human Scale

Thu, 06 May 2010 15:37:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler explains what it means to build to the human scale and how our modern built environment fails to do this.

KunstlerCast #109: Rock and Roll

Thu, 29 Apr 2010 04:00:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler shares some stories from his days writing for Rolling Stone magazine in the 1970s. He reflects on the role that technology played in creating the mind-blowing music that defined a generation. He also wonders about the future of popular music as we head into the Long Emergency.

KunstlerCast #108: The Virtual Realm vs. The Authentic

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 16:40:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler believes that the virtual is not an adequate replacement for the authentic. In spite of how appealing and ingenious we may find virtual life, it is not as good as real life. Kunstler calls the Internet "the world's most amazing distraction from reality that has ever been invented" and he notes that it appeared just at a time when we are in desperate need to attend to the major troubles facing our society. Online spaces now serve as our "third place," but that often occurs at the expense of our tangible public realm. Kunstler says the sense of place in the U.S. was severely damaged well before the Internet came along, but he wonders if there is a link between our impoverished public realm and our increasing desire to inhabit the Internet landscape. Other areas of discussion include: the Internet as "green," the enterprise of "infotainment" and the effects of digital communication on human interaction. Sponsor: www.CNU18.org

KunstlerCast #107: Sprawl Defenders

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 20:07:00 +0000

This conversation was recorded one day before James Howard Kunstler was scheduled to debate Randal O'Toole at Brown University in Providence, RI. O'Toole is a well-known advocate for the suburban living arrangement. Host Duncan Crary chats with JHK about the pro-suburbia arguments in preparation for the debate. JHK refutes some of the major arguments used by sprawl defenders, including the notions that sprawl is good because people choose it and that sprawl represents liberty. JHK also notes that while the infrastructure required to deliver suburbia is extremely subsidized with government money, many sprawl defenders argue against public transportation because it is subsidized. Sponsor: www.CNU18.org

KunstlerCast #106: Space Exploration

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 18:22:00 +0000

As NASA prepares to retire its space shuttle program, James Howard Kunstler takes a few moments to muse on the past, present and future of space exploration. Personally, JHK is glad that our government is cutting funding for space exploration. He's not sure what the 20th Century fiesta of technology accomplished anyway. On the topic of space colonization, Kunstler says he fears that humans will make the rest of the universe as bad as Hackensack, New Jersey. He also touches upon the issues of resource exploitation, offloading surplus population, and the wishful thinking that lies behind the space exploration narrative. Sponsor: www.CNU18.org

KunstlerCast #105: Virtual Tour of Baltimore - Part 2

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 19:19:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler continues his virtual "walking" tour/commentary of Baltimore, Maryland. In this tour, he inspects the light rail system, the water taxi and market place in historic Fell's Point neighborhood, and a new urbanist-influenced condo-harbor district. He concludes the tour at the Legg Mason building, a particularly bad skyscraper where JHK delivered a breakfast talk recently to a group of community stakeholders. Kunstler considers buildings like this to be a future liability as energy supplies grow scarce. Sponsor: www.cnu18.org

KunstlerCast #104: Virtual Tour of Baltimore - Part 1

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 22:10:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler sometimes thinks of Baltimore, Maryland as the poster child for how cities are going to contract in this country and around the world as we enter into a new energy era. In many ways, Kunstler says Baltimore is a very damaged city, but there are some parts of it that are quite interesting fun and heartening. During this episode, JHK gives a virtual tour of B'more using Google Street view. Before zooming in, however, he takes a moment to appreciate the geography of the Cheasapeak Bay system and to discuss the history and possible future of shipping in that region. Sponsor: http://www.cnu18.org

KunstlerCast #103: Parking Militants and Hot Heads

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 21:39:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler is sometimes propelled into "mad dog mode" when speaking about the modern American landscape. But tempers fly on all sides of these urban policy debates. And there are many times when the only sane response is to be angry about what we've done to the North American landscape over the past 50 years. In this conversation, JHK explores the heightened emotions that erupt over the issue of parking in small cities and towns. Community leaders across the country still believe that motoring and car storage will be the determining factor in everything. But JHK thinks that one day soon everyone will just wake up with a different idea, because it will be self-evident that densely conceived and executed redevelopment will be necessary. Sponsor: PostPeakLiving.com

KunstlerCast #102: Building the Future

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:48:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler believes that one way or another, we're going to end up living in a very different daily environment than the one we're used to. In this episode, he discusses the future of building materials. JHK doesn't believe that we'll continue to use the same "jive plastic" production home building materials and techniques in the future. He's been thinking a lot about how we're going to re-orient the building trades to use less exotic materials and fewer fabricated, mass-produced items. He describes the diminishing returns of fake cladding materials and snap-together home kits. He ponders the re-use of salvaged suburban building materials. Finally, he takes a moment to consider the use of abandoned shipping containers for human habitation.

Note: This program contains explicit language.

KunstlerCast #101: Climate Change

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:36:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler answers a listener call about the relationship between climate change and peak oil.

KunstlerCast #100: Rochester NY

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 04:59:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler is pleasantly surprised by Rochester, N.Y., a small industrial city in the Great Lakes region. The first portion of this program features two of JHK's former classmates who share stories about Jim's college days. The bulk of the show includes a driving tour of Rochester NY with JHK.

KunstlerCast #99: Big Slide Q & A

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 01:56:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler answers questions from cast members and the audience who attended the staged reading of "Big Slide," an original three-act by JHK.

KunstlerCast #98: Big Slide - Acts 2, 3

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:35:00 +0000

On today's podcast, we present the conclusion of "Big Slide," an original three-act play by James Howard Kunstler. Set in the autumn of an unspecified near-future year, at an Adirondack "great camp," this is the story of three generations of the Freeman family who have taken refuge from New York and Boston during a severe national political maelstrom. Though we are never fully apprised of the exact nature of this event, it appears that a coup d'etat has occurred in the White House and local militias have risen up all over the nation in response. The estate at Big Slide is isolated from these events, but the electricity has stopped working and, apparently, the law enforcement has, too.

Purchase the Big Slide ebook at: http://kunstler.com/BigSlide

KunstlerCast #97: Big Slide - Act 1

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 20:58:00 +0000

On today's podcast, we present the first act of "Big Slide," an original three-act play by James Howard Kunstler. Set in the autumn of an unspecified near-future year, at an Adirondack "great camp," this is the story of three generations of the Freeman family who have taken refuge from New York and Boston during a severe national political maelstrom. Though we are never fully apprised of the exact nature of this event, it appears that a coup d'etat has occurred in the White House and local militias have risen up all over the nation in response. The estate at Big Slide is isolated from these events, but the electricity has stopped working and, apparently, the law enforcement has, too.

Purchase the Big Slide ebook at: http://kunstler.com/BigSlide

KunstlerCast #96: Road Trip

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:31:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler and Duncan Crary hit the open road to bring you these audio postcards from the NYS Thruway on their way to Rochester. To pass the time, they discuss the American experience of the road trip, the future of the small forlorn cities they pass along the way, the enterprise of downhill skiing, and how life in upstate New York has colored Kunstler's worldview as an author and commentator.

Sponsor: Cultivatis, a full service land planning and consulting firm that integrates agriculture and resource conservation into every project. Core services include: agricultural urbanism; sustainable food system consulting, Urban farm and garden design, community engagement and workshop facilitation. http://www.cultivatis.com

KunstlerCast: Preview 2010

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 05:02:00 +0000

JHK and Duncan have returned from their road trip to Rochester and they have tons of stories to tell. In this mini preview episode, you'll here some excerpts from their travels on the highway, around the city and in the theater during a staged reading of JHK's play "Big Slide." The KunstlerCast will return in full next week.

Note: This podcast contains some cursewords.

KunstlerCast #95: Where We're At '09

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 19:55:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler takes a moment to examine where we're at as a culture at the end of 2009. JHK shares his thought process leading up to his 2010 annual forecast. Topics include healthcare, economics and foreign affairs.

KunstlerCast #94: Disneyfication of America

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 09:49:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler explains the story behind Disneyland, Disney World, and Walt Disney's legacy on the American built environment.

KunstlerCast #93: College Campuses

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:01:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler discusses the built environment on the American college campus and how modernist ideas about architecture are programming young people to become cynical. Kunstler talks about some of the ugliest campuses in the country, as well as some of the best. Even some of the best beaux arts Ivy league campuses have been thrashed by starchitecture, parking lots, and "diversity monomania." Sponsor: PostPeakLiving.com

[Note to re-broadcasters: This show contains one curse word at 12:57 and 26:09]

KunstlerCast #92: Long Emergency US Tour -Part 2

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 18:00:00 +0000

In this in part two of this discussion, James Howard Kunstler predicts how various regions of the United States will fare during the coming energy crisis that he anticipates. Kunstler refers to the coming crisis as "The Long Emergency." In this half of the discussion, Kunstler discusses: the Great Plains, the Upper Midwest, the Mid Atlantic and New England. He also talks about issues with fresh water scarcity. Sponsor: www.postpeakliving.com

KunstlerCast #91: Long Emergency US Tour -Part 1

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 17:37:00 +0000

In this in installment, James Howard Kunstler predicts how various regions of the United States will fare during the coming energy crisis that he anticipates. Kunstler refers to the coming crisis as "The Long Emergency." In the first part of this discussion, Kunstler discusses: the Southern States, the Southwest, the Pacific Northwest and the Rockies. A listener caller reacts to the Happy Motoring podcast and Duncan closes the show with the Esso Happy Motoring song.

KunstlerCast #90: The Demise of Happy Motoring

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 19:39:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler believes that the Happy Motoring project is running out of time. Peak Oil and problems with alternative energy aren't the only issues facing future motorists. He thinks that car ownership will become less democratic in the future as cars become too expensive to buy without the current financing options. Kunstler dismisses Christopher Steiner's "$20 Per Gallon" book for assuming that an orderly procession of events will take us from $3 per gallon to $20. The conversation naturally leads to a discussion of NASCAR, which Kunstler views as a particularly pathetic reincarnation of Roman chariot races that serve to preoccupy the masses as the American empire declines. Lastly, Kunstler addresses a recent International Energy Agency scandal to cover-up the reality of dwindling oil supplies.

Sponsors: http://www.chelseagreen.com and http://www.postpeakliving.com

KunstlerCast #89: Everyday Architecture

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:26:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler thinks that most modern buildings are not really architecture, they're just manufactured boxes. Whether it's suburban houses, or retail stores, the buildings of our everyday environment send the message that we don't care about ourselves or our surroundings. Kunstler tackles cartoon eateries, reflective glass office buildings, and otherwise good new urban buildings that lack proper ornamentation. We hear from a listener caller in Pittsburgh at the end of the show.

Note: curseword at 35:18 mins

Sponsors: Chelsea Green, publisher of James McCommons' "Waiting on a Train" ( http://chelseagreen.com) and Post Peak Living, online courses to prepare for a post-peak world (http://www.postpeakliving.com).

KunstlerCast #88: In General

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:42:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler speaks about the role of generalists in a world of hyper specialists. Although hyper-specialists are experts in their narrow fields, their work is often disregardful of the larger picture. Traffic engineers, for example, can move huge numbers of cars extremely efficiently, using fine-tuned formulas for curve ratios and grades, but their final product often makes downtowns un-walkable for pedestrians. A sense of hyper-individualism in U.S. culture is another obstacle that stands in the way of thinking about our society and its problems in general terms. At the close of the show, a listener shares his thoughts on the vibrant center city of Philadelphia.

Sponsors: Chelsea Green, publisher of Waiting on a Train by James McCommons, with forward by James Howard Kunstler. http://chelseagreen.com. Additional support from: http://audiblepodcast.com/kunstler

KunstlerCast #87: Boston

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:10:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler thinks Boston is one of the few healthy major cities left in the U.S. He says gentrification has been a good thing for the city. He is disappointed with the outcome of Boston's "big dig" project, though. When the city finally placed a major elevated expressway underground, Boston squandered a great opportunity to repair the street-and-block fabric that the highway had previously disrupted. Instead, so-called environmentalists succeeded in advocating for a half-assed, nebulous "green space." On the subject of ugly architecture, Kunstler says the MIT area in nearby Cambridge is the ugliest academic neighborhood in America. The devil could not have designed a worse campus.

Note: Curse word at 15:47 mins.

Sponsor: http://GrinningPlanet.com

KunstlerCast #86: The High Line

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 06:09:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler discusses two major projects that have recently turned 19th century railroad structures into parks: the High Line in lower Manhattan and the Walkway Over the Hudson in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. The High Line is a unique park in New York City, built upon a former elevated rail line that used to bring trains through buildings. Although the High Line gives reprieve to New Yorkers, Kunstler finds it to be an accidental freak of urban nature. We would benefit more from the deliberate creation of beautifully designed streets and boulevards at grade level. The Walkway Over the Hudson is an extremely long railroad bridge that now serves as a pedestrian park. On the plus side, Kunstler believes this type of project might protect the bridge so that it doesn't completely fall apart. But he finds it tragic that America has discarded the major investments it once made in a rail system. A listener caller who is an urban planner in Vancouver shares his thoughts on adaptive reuse of buildings.This week's sponsor is Revolution Hall in Troy N.Y., inviting listeners to see Deer Tick, the band that sings the KunstlerCast theme song, this Nov. 4. www.RevolutionHall.com

KunstlerCast #85: Is NYC The Green Metropolis?

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:40:00 +0000

Inspired by David Owen's book "Green Metropolis," James Howard Kunstler examines the idea of Manhattan as a "green" city. Kunstler believes that, during his lifetime, New York has never been in as good shape as it is now. But he also thinks it will never be in as good shape again. Financial and energy problems in the future may turn our newest skyscrapers into one-generation buildings, outlandish monuments built during the twilight of an empire. Of all the boroughs, Kunstler thinks Brooklyn may fare the best because of its higher quality urban fabric.

Sponsor: http://www.grinningplanet.com

KunstlerCast# 84: Urban Thinkers

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:09:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler believes that urban design will be the next big philosophical battle for the hearts and minds of Americans. One of the most important tasks we will face is determining the size, scale and shape of the 21st Century city. Kunstler says current cities are not scaled to the energy realities of the future. We must downscale, reform and de-automobilze our cities. Urban thinkers and urban planners will serve as our guides throughout that process. In this episode, Kunstler returns to the list of top 100 urban thinkers complied by Planetizen.com to discuss some of the top names on that list. People discussed on this program include: Christopher Alexander, Frederick Law Olmsted, Daniel Burnham, Lewis Mumford, Leon Krier, Le Corbusier, and Ian McHarg.

Sponsor: GrinningPlanet.com

KunstlerCast #83: Jane Jacobs

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:37:00 +0000

Planetizen, an urban planning website and book publisher, recently conducted a poll about the Top 100 Urban Thinkers. Jane Jacobs, author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities, made #1 on the list. Kunstler explains the story and importance of Jacobs. He also recollects interviewing her in 2000. Although at the time Jacobs was writing a book about the coming energy crisis, Dark Age Ahead, Kunstler said she didn't seem interested in talking about "Long Emergency" issues during their conversation. A listener caller tells us why he thinks Seasame Street is a good model for urbanism.

Sponsor: GrinningPlanet.com

KunstlerCast #82: Food in a World Made By Hand

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:13:00 +0000

In this week's episode, listener Frank Aragona of the Agroinnovations Podcast asks James Howard Kunstler to talk about the role of food in Jim's post-peak oil novel World Made By Hand. Although the characters in the novel must overcome many obstacles, the food that they eat is delicious in general and is a vast improvement to the current American diet. Aragona thinks that perhaps food is the triumphant element in the novel. Kunstler talks about how horrendous spectacl and the tragic results that the fast food nation has brought about. He also speaks about the lost ceremony of eating with family and friends. Listeners also comment on the recent podcasts about Los Angeles and white rooftops.

Sponsor: The Agroinnovations Podcast: http://agroinnovations.com/podcast

KunstlerCast #81: Los Angeles

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:43:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler shares his thoughts on Los Angeles, California after a recent visit to Tinseltown. The motoring infrastructure of Los Angeles stretches from horizon to horizon. It is a provisional civilization in which all is subordinate to the car. However, Kunstler believes Los Angeles is more urban than people assume. He was particularly surprised by the pleasant side streets of West Hollywood. But Kunstler wonders how well Los Angeles would fare after even a minor disruption to the supply of cheap gasoline.

Sponsor: New Society Publishers. NewSociety.com

KunstlerCast #80: White and Green Rooftops

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:20:00 +0000

Professor Steven Chu, the US Energy Secretary, is advocating for people to paint their rooftops white in order to save on energy and to cut down on global warming. James Howard Kunstler reacts to this idea and also addresses the topic of rooftop gardens, or "green" roofs.

This week's podcast is sponsored by New Society Publishers http://newsociety.com

KunstlerCast #79: Packing for France

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:16:00 +0000

A Listener caller asks James Howard Kunstler if now is a good time to emigrate from the U.S. to France. During his response, Kunstler poses the question: exactly what allegiance do you owe to your country if your country is making a foolish spectacle of itself? Kunstler explains why he himself has not packed his bags for Europe. And he covers the possibility of regional autonomy arising in the U.S. if various energy, climate, political and financial crises push us in that direction.

Warning: This episode contains explicit language. Times: 5:13, 21:09, 22:15, 22:24.

Today's sponsor is NewSociety.com, publishers of peak oil thinkers.

KunstlerCast #78: Litter & Pollution

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:29:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler says one reason why American cities are so dirty is because we do not have a firm agreement about how to treat the public realm in this country. He believes that people will literally trash a place that they don't like or respect. And a lot of American space is difficult to respect. While suburbia contains meticulously groomed private yards, the public highways are often lined with impressive amounts of trash on the shoulder. On a larger scale, many corporations treat the American landscape with a similar disregard. While Kunstler believes that large scale pollution from mega corporations may taper off with the cheap oil supply, he thinks local manufacturing in the future might reintroduce forms of pollution that haven't been seen in the U.S. for a while.

Note: The voice of Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk appears in this episode, courtesy of Planetizen, publisher of The Story of Sprawl DVD. KunstlerCast listeners receive a $5 discount when purchasing this DVD by using the discount code FIESTA: http://www.planetizen.com/DVD

SPONSOR: This week's sponsor is New Society Publishers, the leading publisher of Peak Oil thinkers such as Dmitry Orlov, Richard Heinberg, Sharon Astyk and Michael Ruppert. NewSociety.com

KunstlerCast #77: Idiocracy

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:11:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler believes that stupid Americans are exerting their political and cultural tyranny over the rest of us. No other society has produced a larger group of stupid people with as much money and means to express their thoughts, pleasures, ideas, biases, delights, and hatreds in things that can be broadcast, built or in some way imposed on other people. Those who object to this situation are called elitist, he says. JHK also explores the diminishing returns of information technology and the Internet.

KunstlerCast #76: Man Caves

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 08:38:00 +0000

A "man cave" discovered in a government complex made national news earlier this month. Eminent new urbanist planner Andres Duany was prompted to speak out in defense of the man cave and "male space" in general, which he sees as a disappearing habitat in modern America. James Howard Kunstler and host Duncan Crary listen to a recording of Duany's "The Dilemma of Male Space" and further explore the concept of male space. Not only does Kunstler believe that male space is disappearing in suburbia, but he thinks adult space in general is endangered. Info at http://kunstlercast.com

KunstlerCast #75: Jet Skis in the Wilderness

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:22:00 +0000

Even during a recession, Americans are pouring into our nation's "wilderness areas" with jet skis and cigarette boats in tow. After returning home from a visit to the Adirondack Mountains of New York, James Howard Kunstler serves up some thoughts on the gas guzzling toys we use to get off on in nature. Although we have a residual memory of what the American wilderness used to be like before World War II, the reality of our "nature areas" today is much different. Plastic weenie stands, ice cream emporiums and gift shops have invaded the woods. But Kunstler believes the days of traffic jams in Yosemite are numbered. This week's sponsor: www.PostPeakLiving.com

KunstlerCast #74: Electric Society

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 17:27:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler explores the possibility of transitioning our society from fossil fuels to one that runs on electricity. This discussion is based on ideas presented in an episode of NOVA titled "Car of the Future" (Season 33, Episode 3). This episode of the KunstlerCast is sponsored by The Stakeholders, Inc.

KunstlerCast #73: The Horse Latitudes of Our Economy

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:09:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler believes that the consumer credit economy is over and that we are now moving on to the next phase of the U.S. economy. Kunstler provides some historical context on our current global economy and muses on the relationship between over-complexity and diminishing returns, which he believes is the "hallmark of all civilizations that come to grief."

KunstlerCast #72: Sprawling to Obesity

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 17:32:00 +0000

This May, the Committee on Environmental Health of the American Academy of Pediatrics confirmed that the design of U.S. communities (i.e. car-dependent suburbia) negatively affects the health of children (i.e. makes them obese). James Howard Kunstler explores the relationship between suburban sprawl and the declining health of Americans. SPONSORSHIP INFO: This week's sponsor is PostPeakLiving.com, offering online courses that prepare you for the post peak oil world. Use "KunstlerCast" as your discount code.

KunstlerCast #71: Doomers

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:35:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler and other commentators are often called "doomers" for their seemingly bleak outlook for modern society after the peak of oil production. Kunstler gives a brief introduction to other "doomer" authors, including Dmitri Orlov, John Michal Greer, Jay Hanson, and James Lovelock. Though Kunstler rejects the doomer label, he does believe that we are involved in a human system that needs to be severely pruned. He believes that resurrection and redemption are great themes in the human story and that civilization has a few more cycles to go.

KunstlerCast Grunt: Jacko

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:00:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler joins host Duncan Crary for a quick KunstlerCast "grunt" to react to the recent death of pop star Michael Jackson. Kunstler thinks Michael Jackson represents many of the bad choices that America made about itself and also its difficulty in telling the truth about it. To read Kunstler's recent obituary for Jackson, visit http://kunstler.com/blog. The KunstlerCast will return in full next Thursday on July 16.

KunstlerCast #70: Commercial and Corporate Art in Public

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:19:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler takes a look at various types of public artwork on display in Troy NY, a small American city. Kunstler notes that many public murals in America attempt to put a human face in places where people are noticeably absent. He notices that 20th century commercial advertisements painted on building exteriors exhibit more skill than most 21st century "art." He analyzes a painted steel, corporate sculpture that adorns the public face of glass box corporate building. He also discusses the role that formal statues play in adorning public squares. Visit http://KunstlerCast.com to view photographs.

KunstlerCast #69: Public Art and Public Eyesores

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:48:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler discusses public art in our cities and towns. Modern public art often lacks artistry and is an ironic representation of our 21st century junk empire. But Kunstler says we don't need any more irony. We need a dignified public realm. Instead of engaging amateurs and children to splash paint on the blank walls of publicly facing buildings, we need to stop creating blank walls in the first place. Even the skilled work of professional muralists often results in little more than a neurotic attempt to give our deactivated streets the appearance of life, when the real problem is that our streets are dead. Kunstler relates these issues to Potemkin villages, trips to Disneyland and do-it-yourself home improvement kits.

KunstlerCast #68: Historic Preservation

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:26:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler addresses some issues regarding historic preservation. Kunstler supports historic preservation, because adaptive reuse is part of what makes the great European cities so rewarding to be in. According to Kunstler, the historic preservation movement really ramped up in the U.S. after the destruction of Penn Station in New York City. At times the historic preservation movement has gotten hysterical to save any scrap of anything built before WWII. But Kunstler believes that hysteria is understandable when one considers that modern Americans do not create buildings that are as good as the old buildings we are losing. Other topics include facade preservation, cheap cladding, a return of traditional building materials, passive heating, cooling and energy conservation.
Follow along with this program with Google Street View windows at http://kunstlercast.com
Sponsor: PostPeakLiving.com. Music provided by IODA Promonet.

KunstlerCast #67: Jaime Correa - The 40 Percent Plan

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:17:00 +0000

New Urbanist Planner and Author Jaime Correa speaks about urban planning in the peak oil era. KunstlerCast Host Duncan Crary recorded Correa's talk on May 28 at the Albany Roundtable in Albany, N.Y. Correa speaks about how the end of cheap oil will affect communities in the future. He describes his peak oil action plan, which he calls The 40 Percent Plan. As urban communities begin to contract in the future, Correa has some ideas about what people need to do to successfully prepare for the future. James Howard Kunstler introduces Correa and chats with Crary about the role that Correa has played in the New Urbanism. Kunstler also responds to a question posed to him by Correa about his preparations for peak oil.
Note: Curse words and adult language occur at 27:30, 27:37 and 30:17
Websites: http://correa-associates.com | http://albanyroundtable.com
This week's sponsor is PostPeakLiving.com, offering online courses that prepare you for the post peak oil world.

KunstlerCast #66: New Listener Orientation

Thu, 28 May 2009 06:27:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler and host Duncan Crary take a moment to welcome new listeners and explain what the KunstlerCast is about. Kunstler gives a brief overview of topics covered in this program series and explains why these topics are important. Crary explains how and where to listen to the podcast. The program ends with two listener calls responding to the recent show about Detroit. NOTE: The KunstlerCast will take next week off and will resume on June 11. In the meantime, you can listen to JHK and Duncan on the C-realm Podcast at http://c-realmpodcast.podomatic.com/

KunstlerCast #65: Virtual Tour of Detroit

Thu, 21 May 2009 17:41:00 +0000

At the suggestion of a listener caller, James Howard Kunstler gives a virtual walking tour of Detroit, Michigan using Google Street View. Google Street View is an interactive photographic map that allows users to view photographs of streets and buildings in many cities throughout the world. Users can follow along with this program using the embedded Google Street View windows in the show notes for this episode at http://kunstlercast.com. During this "walking" tour, Kunstler examines the Michigan Central Depot Train Station, Tiger Stadium, the Renaissance Center, the People Mover, The Joe Louis Arena (aka the Aztec Mall of Death), The Grand Circus, the Fillmore and Fox theaters, and the Detroit waterfront.

KunstlerCast #64: Contracting Cities & Urban Chickens

Fri, 15 May 2009 01:58:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler talks about two former industrial cities undergoing massive contractions: Flint, Michigan and Youngstown, Ohio . The local governments in both cities have adopted policies to manage the contraction to reduce public safety issues caused by large abandoned areas within their borders. Kunstler then responds to a listener call from suburban Chicago about the prospects of farming in the post-cheap oil suburbs. The conversation then turns to the future of former city farms. Sponsorship for this podcast comes from Audible. Visit http://audiblepodcast.com/kunstler for a free audio book download and 14-day trial.

Music supplied by IODA Promonet.

KunstlerCast #63: Obama's High Speed Rail Corridors

Thu, 07 May 2009 20:25:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler responds to a listener call about the 10 "high speed" rail corridors the Obama administration is seeking to restore in the U.S. The phrase high-speed rail is a little misleading, though, because what Obama is looking to do with rail in this country is actually just bring it back up to "Bulgarian" standards. These passenger rail upgrades and restorations will service trains that travel around 100 miles per hour, not nearly as fast as the high speed trains in Europe or Japan.

Sponsorship of this podcast comes from the Congress for the New Urbanism. www.cnu.org

KunstlerCast #62: Swine Flu and Pirates

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:50:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler talks about the recent outbreak of swine flu and the increased attention to modern-day pirates. Several bloggers have noted some similarities between current headlines and the scenario in Kunstler's novel, World Made By Hand, in which a severe economic downturn is followed by a deadly Mexican flu epidemic. A few years ago, Kunstler took some heat from critics for his chapter in The Long Emergency that addressed the potential threat of Asian pirates in the Pacific Northwest. Now that piracy is in the news, some people are going "hmmmm." The show closes with a listener call responding to the KunstlerCast about bad behavior and urban policing. Sponsorship for this podcast comes from The Congress for The New Urbanism, www.cnu.org

KunstlerCast #61: Getting to Work

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 19:18:00 +0000

Host Duncan Crary has been taking James Howard Kunstler's ideas about water transport seriously. This Spring, Duncan is bringing back passenger riverboat commuting service to the Hudson River in Albany. On May 13, Duncan is hosting a day where people can commute to and from work on board the Dutch Apple between the cities of Albany and Troy NY. Kunstler talks with Duncan about this project. People take ferries to work every day in other regions and it's a rewarding experience that can be replicated. On the topic of alternative commuting, Kunstler addresses the notion that telecommuting will solve our impending energy woes. Kunstler doesn't think that telecommuting will save us, but a combination of alternative commuting that includes some telecommuting might help.

Support for this podcast comes from the Congress for New Urbanism, www.cnu.org, and Audible http://www.audiblepodcast.com/kunstler,

KunstlerCast #60: Bad Behavior and Urban Policing

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 18:17:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler often advocates for a return to urban living arrangements. But urban living often bring residents into close proximity to bad behavior. The situation can be especially frightening when people inhabit cities that aren't fully repopulated yet. Suburban style "car cop" policing causes additional problems because car culture can foster bad behavior from the police themselves. Kunstler believes that police on foot and horse would lead to more productive policing and would also allow citizens to police the police. Later Kunstler speaks about the "Broken Window Theory." Host Duncan Crary asks Kunstler about the obligation of citizens to address and correct bad behavior when they encounter it. In his response, Kunstler touches upon the underlying racial issues that are sometimes present in these situations. Finally, Kunstler muses on the future of community policing after insolvent municipalities can no longer afford to pay for overwhelming vehicular policing styles. A listener caller from Portland, Maine ends the show with thoughts on "driving" bicycles on the street. This episode is sponsored by the Congress for the New Urbanism. Learn more at www.cnu17.org

KunstlerCast #59: The Role of Bicycles

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 17:28:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler responds to a listener who doesn't understand why Jim sounds kind of down on bicycle transportation. Kunstler clarifies his position on bicycles -- he's a big supporter of bicycle use, but he doesn't know if Americans will support bicycle projects with so many highways and bridges in disrepair. While places like Amsterdam have excellent bicycle facilities that are integrated into their urban fabric, Kunstler believes the most successful bicycle facilities in the U.S. are separate from the street pattern. He also warns of overly ambitious, high tech plans regarding bicycle trail projects. Lastly he discusses New York City's recent plans to turn a portion of Broadway into a bicycle/pedestrian way, and the bicycle sharing program in Paris. A listener call from a former student of Frank Lloyd Wright defends and clarifies Wright's feelings about cities. Sponsorship of this podcast comes from The Congress for New Urbanism.

KunstlerCast #58: New Urbanism in South Africa

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:57:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler reports on two recent trips he took. First he talks about his appearance at the annual Aspen Institute Environmental Forum, where talk of alternative fuel, and other ways to keep our happy motoring scene running, dominated the talks about peak oil. For the remainder of this program Kunstler reports on his recent trip to Johannesburg, South Africa, where he inspected a 35-acre new urbanist neighborhood project. Kunstler describes his urban planning and cultural observations of this region of the world.

KunstlerCast #57: New Orleans Follow up

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 14:55:00 +0000

In this short podcast, James Howard Kunstler returns briefly to the topic of New Orleans. This time he discusses the future of the Port of New Orleans. In the second half of this program, we hear from listeners around the country. One listener from New Orleans doesn't think Jim gave her city a fair shake. She says New Orleans is everything new urbanists want in a community -- street cars, walkable streets and places worth caring about -- except it's old urbanism, not new urbanism. Other listeners respond to the virtual tour of Paris, healthcare and population decline, Jim and Duncan's encounter with the Mayor of Troy, finding meaningful work in the new economy and the recent space shuttle blast off.

KunstlerCast #56: Virtual Walking Tour of Paris

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 04:01:00 +0000

At the suggestion of a listener caller, James Howard Kunstler gives a virtual walking tour of Paris, France using Google Street View. Google Street View is an interactive photographic map that allows users to view photographs of streets and buildings in many cities throughout the world. Users can follow along with this program using the embedded Google Street View windows in the episode notes for show #56 at KunstlerCast.com.

Music provided by IODA Promonet.

KunstlerCast #55: Meaningful Work in a New Economy

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:52:00 +0000

At the suggestion of a listener, James Howard Kunstler muses on the future of animal powered transportation in the future. He briefly describes the systems required to maintain a horse-drawn transportation system. The conversation leads to a discussion about finding meaningful work in the new economy. Kunstler believes that as the old economy dwindles, there will be many opportunities for local entrepreneurs to create useful work in their communities. The discussion also covers the struggling media industry and new opportunities for weekly community publications. Kunstler talks about his local print newsletter project, Civitas. Host Duncan Crary asks Kunstler if the urban planning profession may receive a boom with the new economic stimulus and a renewed focus on reactivating forlorn downtowns. Kunstler thinks urban planning will be reinserted into American culture less formally than it was in the past. The show closes with a listener comment from an architect who was laid off and found a creative way to work for himself. Released: March 12, 2009.

Theme music provided by IODA Promonet.

KunstlerCast #54: Retooling Suburbia

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:42:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler explores the topic of building traditional town centers in suburbia, where town centers are typically absent. Though it may be possible to retrofit the suburbs, Kunstler doesn't believe that Americans will have the money to remake some of the worst suburbs into more traditional, mixed-use neighborhoods...even if they wanted to in the first place. As more and more suburbanites find themselves unemployed, some of the more isolated housing subdivisions are simply being abandoned. In the second half of this podcast Kunstler explores the topic of future population decline in the United States. Kunstler believes that Americans will face enormous problems producing food for its population as financial problems make agribusiness increasingly expensive. Moreover, suburbia has destroyed much of America's agricultural land, which most people wouldn't know how to farm anyway.

Theme music provided by IODA Promonet.

KunstlerCast #53: Incomprehensible Buildings

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 10:26:00 +0000

A listener asks James Howard Kunstler to react to the Feb. 9 fire that destroyed a Beijing building by Dutch starchitect Rem Koolhaas. Kunstler believes many famous architects, including Koolhaas, often strive to confound people in order to appear supernaturally brilliant. It's all in the service of grandiosity and narcissism, though. Rather than attempting to disturb our expectations, architects should strive to give us buildings that are neurologically comprehensible and that satisfy our need for cultural orientation. Kunstler also takes shots at a proposed skyscraper in Boston and the Southern Poverty Law Center. **Tim Halber, managing editor of Planetizen, responds in a listener comment to Duncan's recent comments about the failures of new urbanism.

KunstlerCast #52: Rebuilding New Orleans

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 07:02:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler discusses the issue of rebuilding New Orleans after hurricane Katrina. Legal disputes, government inefficiency and suburban mindsets have stood in the way of constructing traditional neighborhoods in New Orleans. While the charming urban fabric of the French Quarter and the Garden District still remains, Kunstler believes that New Orleans is likely to be a much smaller city than it was in the 20th century. Much of the cultural programming that emerged in the poorer neighborhoods of New Orleans may not return. Ultimately, the realities of climate and weather may determine the fate of the Crescent City. **To celebrate the one-year anniversary of the KunstlerCast, host Duncan Crary joins the band Deer Tick for a live concert. Deer Tick performs the theme song for the KunstlerCast.Released: Feb. 19, 2009.

KunstlerCast #51: Seaside Revisited

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 15:13:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler is back from a visit to the American South. He reports on two New Urbanist developments outside of Montgomery, Alabama. In many ways Kunstler believes that the new urbanist model of building 400-acre "traditional neighborhoods" out in the green fields of suburbia is over. He explains the relationship between new urbanism, suburbanism and just plain old urbanism. Kunstler's journey also took him to revisit Seaside, Florida, one of the most famous new urbanist projects produced by Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk. Many people criticize Seaside for being elite and artificial. But Kunstler says Seaside will probably feel more authentic as it ages naturally. Released: Feb. 12, 2009.

KunstlerCast #49: After the Plastic Fiesta

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:45:00 +0000

Many everyday items in our lives are made from petroleum byproducts like plastic. But James Howard Kunstler believes that the rising costs of petroleum will change our relationship to plastic products. In the future, people might actually start repairing items rather than just throwing them away. While on the topic of plastic, Kunstler takes on one of the staples of suburban life: vinyl siding. In particular, he explains why vinyl siding sucks so much.

KunstlerCast #48: From Suburbia to Peak Oil

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 17:02:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler tells the story of how he came to learn about peak oil while writing about suburban sprawl. Topics include The Yom Kippur War, The Hubbert's Curve, the New Urbanists and the strong relationship between suburban sprawl and diminishing supplies of cheap fossil fuel. Kunstler explains the chronology and relationship between all four of his nonfiction books.

KunstlerCast #47: Credit Crisis

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 06:27:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler believes the credit orgy that was the background and basis for our era is over. It will become increasingly harder to lend money into existence and Americans will probably have to pay as they go with what they have. Kunstler explores the historical relationship between credit and the creation of suburbia. But he does not know how our current credit problems will stimulate people to change the physical arrangements of their lives. He assumes, however, that Americans will be dragged kicking and screaming from the happy motoring commuter experience. Released: January 15, 2009.

KunstlerCast #46: Highway to Hell

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 07:12:00 +0000

A listener caller asks James Howard Kunstler about President-elect Barack Obama's massive proposed stimulus package, which will probably be used to rebuild America's highways. Along with the auto industry bailout, Kunstler thinks this major proposed investment in our highway infrastructure may be a last ditch effort to sustain the unsustainable. Americans have invested so much of their wealth and identity into their happy motoring suburban commuter system for daily life that they cannot imagine letting go of it or even substantially reforming it. Kunstler also talks about passenger rail, light rail and streetcars. He also strays into the thickets of futurology to talk about 21 century trans oceanic zeppelins. A listener caller ends the program with his thoughts on efforts to create local currencies, such as the Berkshares in the Berkshire region of Massachusetts.

KunstlerCast #45: JHK's Resolution for 2009

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 21:18:00 +0000

In this abbreviated edition, James Howard Kunstler shares his New Year's resolutions for 2009. He also sets some personal goals for finishing the sequel to his post oil novel, World Made by Hand, and gives some details on what that book will be about. For the rest of this short show Duncan answers some listener questions about the podcast.

Info about music at KunstlerCast.com

KunstlerCast #44: Forecast 2009 - Remembering Y2K

Thu, 25 Dec 2008 07:09:00 +0000

Every year James Howard Kunstler publishes his annual forecast on his popular blog. For this installment of the KunstlerCast, Jim gives us a sneak preview of some of his predictions for 2009. Topics in this show include: phony baloney money, new economies, home deliveries, oil shortages and price increases. Kunstler also talks about his 1999 predictions and thoughts about Y2K. Released: Dec. 25, 2008

KunstlerCast #43: Missing Teeth in the Urban Fabric

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 17:11:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler explains the negative effects that empty building lots have on the urban streetscape. These empty spaces or "missing teeth" are dead zones that are repellent to pedestrians. But, at the moment, our car crazy society prefers to keep those dead zones for surface parking rather than to infill them with good urban buildings. During the second half of the program Kunstler speaks face-to-face with Troy, N.Y. Mayor Harry Tutunjian about what to do with the empty space that will be left behind after the city demolishes its current City Hall. Plans for the soon-to-be empty lot include an underground parking garage with grass on top. The mayor says that the lawn will allow access to the Hudson River and provide scenic views of the River from Broadway. Kunstler argues that the building lot should be completely occupied by a good urban building, like a new city hall. Released: Dec. 18, 2008

KunstlerCast #42: Victorian Stroll

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 22:33:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler joins host Duncan Crary for the Victorian Stroll in downtown Troy, NY. During this annual event, the city evicts the automobile from the streets and 21st century people discover how pleasurable it is to explore this 19th century urban fabric on foot. Kunstler believes events like this are rehearsal for the times ahead when Americans will be forced to re-inhabit their small cities and classic main-street towns.

KunstlerCast #41: Private Property

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:08:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler says the notion that Americans have a long tradition of being able to do whatever they want with their land is a fallacy. This false notion is really just the result of a propaganda campaign by the promoters of suburban sprawl and the real estate industry. In reality, there is a whole corpus of responsibilities, obligations and duties that come with land ownership in America that simply can't be ignored. Kunstler compares American attitudes toward community ownership with those in Europe.

Music provided by IODA Promonet. For information, visit http://kunstlercast.com

KunstlerCast #39: Water Transit

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 20:09:00 +0000

The Future of North American Shipping

James Howard Kunstler responds to a listener question about the future of water transportation in North America. There is a fabulous inland waterway system in North America that is going to become very important again. But, if we want to remain serious about trade in this country we are going to have to rebuild the infrastructure for water and rail transportation. All of those waterfronts where we've been building theme parks, condominium clusters and picnic grounds in recent times will have to make room for the warehouses, piers and sleazy accommodations for the sailors that are required by water transit.

KunstlerCast #38: Obama

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:20:00 +0000

JHK Reacts to the Election of Barack Obama

James Howard Kunstler shares his feelings about President-elect Barack Obama. For now Jim is hopeful that Mr. Obama can set a good example for decent behavior as he takes the helm of a functionally bankrupt government. In order to reform the systems of daily life that have to be fixed, it's important that Obama tells the truth to American people. Jim also addresses the high speed rail bond that passed in California. Lastly, a listener in Japan predicts how the Japanese will face The Long Emergency.

Promo music featured in this episode courtesy of IODA Promonet:

Hauschka
"Freibad" (mp3)
from "Ferndorf"
(Fat Cat Records)

More On This Album

For more info about the music on this podcast, visit: http://kunstlercast.com

KunstlerCast #37: Impotent Politics

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 19:50:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler muses on the increasing irrelevance of the two political parties in America. Neither party seems to be truly facing our energy predicament and the coming obsolescence of suburbia. Yet this is with the complete connivance of the voting public, which is too heavily invested in the status quo.

Music featured in this episode courtesy of iodaPromonet.

KunstlerCast #35: The City 1939 - Part 1 Audio Only

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 17:43:00 +0000

This is the audio only version of KunstlerCast #35. There is a video podcast version of this episode as well.

In this special edition of the KunstlerCast, James Howard Kunstler and Duncan Crary recorded a commentary track for a soon-to-be-released DVD called The Story of Sprawl. The DVD is being produced by Planetizen.com. Kunstler and Crary comment on The City, a 1939 film with a narrative written by the great 20th century generalist Lewis Mumford. In part 1 of the film, Mumford provides a nostalgic view of rural small-town American life in contrast to life in the harsh industrial cities and among the towering skyscrapers of New York. Mumford urges viewers that we can build better environments to live in, especially for our children. But we know where that line of thinking led us to: suburbia.

To watch the video podcast or to watch the original film without commentary, visit www.KunstlerCast.com

KunstlerCast #34: On Hope and Despair

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 14:44:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler is not a hope dispenser to passive consumers of hope. But ultimately he believes that life is moving into a more favorable phase, even if it will be difficult to get there. In this show Kunstler responds to a listener call about our moral responsibility to do the right thing and fix our country. He talks about the importance of cultivating joy in one's life and doing meaningful work. He also shares his thoughts on Sen. Barack Obama's hopeful message and discusses how his own mood has changed since he first wrote The Geography of Nowhere.

Music featured in this episode courtesy of iodaPromonet.

KunstlerCast #33: The Great Bailout 2008

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 15:21:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler comments on the Great Bailout of 2008 and how we got into the current financial crisis. As the U.S. manufacturing economy withered away, Americans sought to gain wealth by getting something from nothing through Ponzi scheme investment algorithms. By assuming liability of bad mortgages, Congress may be in position of attempting to prop up the value suburban houses. But Kunstler believes the housing values will continue to go down, no matter what happens. And the truth is that we shouldn't want that devaluation to stop because we need to reach a point where the median price of a house is equal to the median income of the average America. The true damage may yet to be seen. Kunstler also explains his meme that the GOP is the party that wrecked America.

( 11 MB | 24:00 mins.)

KunstlerCast #29: Tattoos and the American Costume

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:16:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler addresses the proliferation of tattoos on the American main street. He thinks the fierce looking tattoos on young Americas are actually a sign of how deeply insecure we are as a nation. They're also a form of "non-conformist-just-like-you" consumerism. Jim also takes on the hip hop costuming that has invaded the mainstream and has made young men look like oversized babies and violent clowns.

Direct Download:
KunstlerCast_29.mp3
( 14 MB | 17 mins.)

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KunstlerCast #28: The Pickens Plan

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:38:00 +0000

This July, oilman T. Boone Pickens told Congress that James Howard Kunstler is worth listening to and that he's right on about the mistakes we've made in America regarding our use of cheap oil. In this program, Kunstler discusses the "Pickens Plan" to use wind energy and natural gas to reduce America's reliance on foreign oil. Other topics include Shai Agassi's Better Place plan to make electric cars viable. Kunstler also answers a listener's question about purchasing a new car.

Direct Download:
KunstlerCast_28.mp3
( 23 MB | 32:00 mins.)

Links:
http://pickensplan.com
http://energyenvironment.tv

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KunstlerCast #27: Anti-urban Bias

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:38:00 +0000

This installment attempts to explore America's anti-urban bias. Topics include: environmentalists and the human habitat, suburban style housing projects in the ghetto, white flight, and Ralph Kramden's apartment in The Honeymooners tv show. James Howard Kunstler also gives advice to those of us who are required to visit the burbs to see our families.

[Note: one curse word.]

Direct Download:
KunstlerCast_27.mp3
( 18 MB | 26:00 mins.)

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KunstlerCast #26: From Hippies to Yuppies

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:39:00 +0000

How did the granola crunching nature-loving hippies of the 1960s become the gas guzzling, McMansion dwelling, suburban yuppies of today? James Howard Kunstler reflects on his own generation. Kunstler also shares some of his own groovy stories from the Age of Aquarius.

[Note: This episode mentions sex, recreational drug use, and includes some curse words.]

Learn about our theme music, join our mailing list and discuss this show at www.kunstlercast.com

Direct Download:
KunstlerCast_26.mp3 ( 18 MB | 25:30 mins.)

KunstlerCast #25: Frederick Law Olmsted and the American Park

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 21:13:00 +0000

Frederick Law Olmsted is most noted for designing Central Park in Manhattan. His method of landscape design now serves as the main model for how we design parks in America. But James Howard Kunstler believes that our ongoing attempts to replicate the Olmsted park have created many urban parks with serious shortcomings. Kunstler also warns listeners not to ask for "green space" in their towns because "green space" is an abstraction. Instead he urges people to learn the vocabulary of landscape architecture to be able to ask for specific park features.

Learn about our theme music, join our mailing list and discuss this show at www.kunstlercast.com

Direct Download: KunstlerCast_25.mp3 ( 19 MB | 27 mins.)

KunstlerCast #24: One City Block - Part 2

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 23:06:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler continues his walking tour of one city block in downtown Saratoga Springs, N.Y., a classic Main-street American town. We resume the tour on the corner of Division Street and Railroad Place, where a major urban infill project has produced a brand new urban street that is well defined on both sides by five-story high buildings, with dignified frontages, ground-level retail space and apartments above. Kunstler points out some architectural problems and weird transitions but he's mostly pleased by the new buildings in this neighborhood. As we leave the new urban street, things completely fall apart when we encounter the results of the urban renewal schemes of the 1960s. Most of the 20 acres in front of us is surface parking, occupied on the fringe by inappropriate suburban buildings.

[Note: Use Google Street View to follow along with this program. Visit: http://maps.google.com and enter this address: 402 Broadway Saratoga Springs, NY 12866. Cross Broadway, head up Division Street and turn left at Railroad Place.]

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Direct Download: KunstlerCast_24.mp3 ( 14 MB | 20 mins.)

KunstlerCast #23: One City Block - Part I

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:45:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler often describes Saratoga Springs N.Y. as a classic Main Street American town. In part one of this special program, we take to the streets of Saratoga to experience the sense of place in this small city. Kunstler brings us from the busy sidewalks along Broadway to a sidestreet leading to a major urban infill project. He explains the urban sensibilities of the 19th century structures, points out the boneheaded decisions of the 1960s one-story development, and the promising efforts of mid-1990s new urbanism.

[Note: Use Google Street View to follow along with this program. Visit: http://maps.google.com/ and enter this address: 402 Broadway Saratoga Springs, NY 12866]

Direct Download (21 MB):
KunstlerCast_23.mp3

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KunstlerCast #22: Handicap Access

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:52:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler explores the consequences of handicap access laws and codes, and how they have unintentionally promoted suburban sprawl throughout much of America. In many instances, developers feel it's easier and cheaper to just build one-story buildings rather than multi-story handicap accessible buildings. These laws can also discourage the retrofitting of second and third story retail space in old "Main Street" buildings as well. So while handicap access codes may make it easier for some people to use our built environment, they can also indirectly make it more difficult for those do not own a car.

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Direct Download (13 MB):
KunstlerCast_22.mp3

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KunstlerCast #21: Convenience

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:48:00 +0000

In preparation for the Fourth of July, Jim and Duncan celebrate the God-given right of every American to convenience, Cheez Doodles and happy motoring pleasure. Jim says convenience is the product of a particular set of circumstances that are coming to an end in this country. The diminishing returns of American convenience are apparent in things like Baluchitherium sized-people, short attention spans and road rage. This program includes other rants against cell phones, Trustafarians and the miracle of email. *Note: some cursewords

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Direct Download (14 MB):
KunstlerCast_21.mp3

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KunstlerCast #19: Wishful Thinking

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 04:01:00 +0000

Religious activists are praying at Washington DC gas stations for cheaper fuel. James Howard Kunstler says that type of neurotic behavior isn't much different than the behavior of cargo cults in the South Pacific. The concept of getting something for nothing is widely accepted by American culture, and religion, too. But Jim feels spirituality in America might one day evolve into something worthy of more respect than the Jiminy Cricket, consumerist culture of today's suburban mega churches.

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Direct Download (14 MB):
KunstlerCast_19.mp3

KunstlerCast #18: Pavement

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 04:39:00 +0000

Asphalt has become the default paving solution in America. And it's helped turn even side streets into mini freeways. It's ugly, it's bad for the environment and it might not be so cheap in the near future as the price of petroleum-based products rises. In this show, James Howard Kunstler discusses the aesthetics, the qualities and the practicalities of other paving materials. Jim says the built environment in America is so full of empty gestures that the sidewalks end after only 60 feet. But he has been to a place in Michigan where cars are not allowed. And the streets are wonderful. **Note to re-broadcasters: curse word at 1:22 mins.

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Direct Download (10 MB):
KunstlerCast_18.mp3

KunstlerCast #17: San Francisco

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 05:00:00 +0000

A listener from San Francisco, who admits to suffering excessive civic pride for his hometown, asks James Howard Kunstler to critique The Golden Gate City and to speak about some of the other places in America that Jim actually likes. Kunstler acknowledges that San Francisco does a lot of things right. But it bends over for the car, and many of the streets are poorly detailed. He also warns that the city's plan to erect seven new skyscrapers is ill fated. We close the show with the seven or so cities in America that Jim likes best.

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Direct Download (10 MB):
KunstlerCast_17.mp3

KunstlerCast #16: Peak Oil New Zealand

Thu, 29 May 2008 04:01:00 +0000

A listener from New Zealand asks JamesHoward Kunstler what peak oil holds in store for his island nation. The picture isn't pretty. Kunstler says the Kiwis better watch their backs. China, Japan and even Australia could all pose threats to New Zealand as they face shortages in the new energy future. At the end of the program, a cast of listeners sounds off. We hear from a black man in Queens who is not African-American, a former Long Island nanny, and an urban planner from Canada who asks Jim to lay off the planners, dude.

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KunstlerCast_16.mp3

KunstlerCast #15: Reactivating Small Cities

Thu, 22 May 2008 05:10:00 +0000

A listener from Canada asks if small cities will be willing and able to absorb more people after peak oil makes big city life problematic. James Howard Kunstler believes that many small cities across North America are waiting to be reactivated. These places would benefit from having more people living in them. But in order to prepare for returning populations, they will need to return to a much smaller increment of development.

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Direct Download (10 MB):
KunstlerCast_15.mp3

KunstlerCast #13: Personal Transit & Green Buildings

Thu, 08 May 2008 19:49:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler takes questions on personal rapid transit, sustainable green buildings and the happy motoring program in America. He also scolds us for us referring to ourselves as consumers. This show is the result of a special collaboration between The KunstlerCast and Planetizen, the online network for professional planners.

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Direct Download (7.1 MB):
KunstlerCast_13.mp3

KunstlerCast#12: Gentrification

Thu, 01 May 2008 17:17:00 +0000

A listener from Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. wants to know about the ethics of gentrification. What happens to the poor people who get pushed out of the cities when wealthier people move in? James Howard Kunstler addresses how abnormal it is that American city centers are primarily inhabited by poor people. Jim and Duncan also touch upon the racial dimensions of gentrification.

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Direct Download (7 MB):
KunstlerCast_12.mp3

KunstlerCast#11: Picturing Suburbia

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:41:00 +0000

When James Howard Kunstler isn't railing against suburban sprawl, he's painting it. Vincent van Gogh painted the peasant sleeping by the haystack because he was living in a landscape populated by people. Our landscape is populated by cars. So, as a sur la motif painter of our time, Jim's subjects include cars on the road, gas stations and the industrial ruins of America's manufacturing past. Making this landscape legible on the canvas is a challenge, but it's also dangerous! An angry manager once told Jim that painting the Burger King is not allowed.

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Direct Download (7 MB):
KunstlerCast_11.mp3

KunstlerCast #10: Children of the Burbs

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:16:00 +0000

Is raising children in suburbia a form of child abuse? What happens to developing people when public space is the berm between the Wal-Mart and the K-Mart? When school looks like a maximum security "facility"? When parents are chauffeurs? James Howard Kunstler addresses these topics and speaks of his own experiences growing up in the suburbs of Long Island and in Manhattan.

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Direct Download (7 MB):
KunstlerCast_10.mp3

KunstlerCast #9: Urban Planning

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 06:57:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler is one of the most vocal critics of modern urban planning. So it's only fair that in this show Jim fields some questions from the professional planning community. First off, the planners want to know how Jim answers to critics who challenge him on his lack of professional credentials in the planning and architecture fields. Next, a planning professor wants to know: what is the most important thing that cities can do to most improve the quality of the built environment? This show is the result of a special collaboration between The KunstlerCast and Planetizen, the online network for professional planners.

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Direct Download (7.1 MB):
KunstlerCast_09.mp3

KunstlerCast #8: The Glossary of Nowhere

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 17:55:00 +0000

When James Howard Kunstler wrote The Geography of Nowhere, it was to give people "the vocabulary to understand what's wrong with the places they ought to know best." In this installment we run down a few choice Kunstlerisms, like "parking lagoons" , "nature Band-Aides" and "patriotic totems." Kunstler also tells us why the depressing topic of suburban sprawl is also really funny.

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Direct Download (7 MB):
KunstlerCast_08.mp3

KunstlerCast #7: Fate of Flagstaff & Hydrogen Cars

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:14:00 +0000

A listener from Flagstaff, Ariz. wants to know what fate awaits his town in the post oil future. The verdict from Jim? At least it's not Phoenix, but most of Flagstaff looks like the service road around Newark Airport. The caller also asks about the new Honda hydrogen fuel cell car, which reminds Jim to bash so-called environmentalist Amory Lovins' fantasy to keep the motoring scene going at all costs.

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Direct Download (7 MB):
KunstlerCast_07.mp3

KunstlerCast #6: Zoning

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:24:00 +0000

Ya seen one town in America ya seen 'em all. But that's because they're all mandated to look that way! James Howard Kunstler tells the tragic story of zoning codes in the United States. At one time, zoning was a rational response to unpleasant conditions of the newly emerging industrial city. But the fanatical level to which zoning became worshiped by public officials has reduced urban planning from an art form to the mere administration of curb cuts, signage and statistical analysis of traffic flow. *Note to re-broadcasters: curse words at 8:48 mins.

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Direct Download (7.1MB):
KunstlerCast_06.mp3

KunstlerCast #5: Starchitects

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 06:49:00 +0000

How and why did Seattle build that hideous new public library? asks one listener from that city. James Howard Kunstler tells us how cities get hoodwinked into a status fashion contest to have a museum or library built by one of the celebrity architects of the day. Rem Koolhass, Frank Gehry, Peter Eisenman and others are deliberately designing these disastrous, anxiety-inducing mothership UFOs in order to mystify people into thinking they're supernaturally brilliant. And then we're stuck with these Gillette Blue Blade-clad fun houses for decades.

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Direct Download (7.1 MB):
KunstlerCast_05.mp3

KunstlerCast #4: Parking Garages

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 05:06:00 +0000

A listener from Columbus, Ohio shares the bad news about two proposed downtown parking garages. Even though James Howard Kunstler thinks the happy motoring scene in America is on the way out, he explains how to design a better parking garage with first-floor retail, a central lightwell and taller ceilings. The Europeans have a better solution, though: the car club.

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KunstlerCast_04.mp3

KunstlerCast #3: World Made By Hand

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 14:07:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler reads from World Made By Hand, his new novel based on the post-oil future. Published by The Atlantic Monthly Press, World Made By Hand is set in upstate New York in the not distant future. It is a fictional account of the ideas based in Kunstler's nonfiction book, The Long Emergency.

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Direct Download (7.2MB):
KunstlerCast_03.mp3

KunstlerCast #2: Small Cities & Towns

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 08:05:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler describes the impending end of cheap oil, which he calls The Long Emergency. Suburbia is a living arrangement with no future. Things are going to get pretty gnarly in the big cities, too. But small cities, that exist at a scale that can be rebuilt, are the places of the future.

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Direct Download:
KunstlerCast_02.mp3

KunstlerCast #1: Drugstores

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 06:00:00 +0000

James Howard Kunstler rips on drugstores: the one-story, junk food- dispensing boxes that masquerade as buildings on America's street corners. Topics include: monocultural zoning; big retail vs. mom & pop; separating the business programming from the container that it comes in; and the destiny of these awful structures after the cheap oil fiesta is over.

(Info about program and theme music at KunstlerCast.com)

Direct Download:
KunstlerCast_01.mp3