Ashes Ashes: Recent Episodes
Ashes Ashes
Ashes Ashes is a podcast about the end of the world. Each week we explore a new systemic or apocalyptic issue that society is facing now or will have to deal with in the coming decades. Through this we hope to draw the listener to the conclusion that our overarching economic and political systems are inherently flawed. Once that fact is accepted, it's that much easier to do something about it.
Find episodes, full transcripts, links, and more at https://ashesashes.org.
Episode 107 - "Face Off" We're back with more discussions about facial recognition and the draconian world we're quickly building. Updating our previous discussion with new information out Clearview AI, the 2020 protests, coronavirus and our new masked world, and much more. We're thrilled too have a special interview with fashion designer, activist, and technologist Kate Bertash to discuss the implications of facial surveillance and how we can start to fight back. A lot to unpack so sit back and hit play.
Chapters * 04:47 - Intro stats * 06:23 - What is facial recognition? * 09:14 - Why should we care? * 20:20 - Faults in the system * 35:16 - Clearview AI * 45:48 - Consumer facial recognition * 49:40 - Benefits of Facial Recognition? * 54:37 - Fear * 56:21 - Facial tracking in the home * 58:58 - Interview with Kate Bertash * 01:22:29 - Over-surveillance of communities of color * 01:29:08 - THOSE WHO RESIST: Artists, Technologists, Legislators
A full transcript will be available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 106 - "Human Nature" This week we get back to the basics with an episode about climate change and the many people waking up to it. Join us as we explore everything from a new European report on need for renewable energy to fuel economic growth to the work archaeologists are doing on how humans have always had an impact on the earth. A dive into humans, nature, and our place in the world.
Chapters * 02:48 - Progress on 20 Global Sustainability Goals * 14:39 - Failure to respond * 19:13 - MEDEAS Report in Europe * 25:37 - Faith in science restored? * 31:29 - Short term gains, long term pains * 39:32 - What's coming: migration, heat, crop loss, and more * 53:40 - Brazil mayors cut trees for election * 59:48 - Money is the root of all evil * 1:01:11 - Debt jubilee * 1:04:18 - Economic theory disproves climate change * 1:13:03 - Deep Anthropocene * 1:33:34 - What to Do
A full transcript will be available soon and detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) are on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 105 - "School's Out" Friend of the podcast Moriah sits down with us to discuss life as a grad student during the pandemic. Then, we dive into Wendell Berry, a brief history of the start of some universities, the school-to-sports pipeline, competition in the workforce, and we ask what is the purpose of education anyway? Join us on a meandering walk down the hallway of another broken system (don't worry, we'll be back on this soon for deeper dives).
Chapters * 03:44 Moriah Catches Up * 23:47 Degrees for Cops * 27:16 Profits Over Education * 30:50 Sports * 47:24 Packers * 51:33 What Are People For? * 01:12:21 Land Grant Universities * 01:48:42 What is the Purpose?
Detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) are available on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 104 - "This Land Is My Land" You might be surprised how much our cities and streets are designed to keep people out. From spikes on sidewalks, baby shark music in our parks, to gates, buzzers, bouncers, water, deeds, and a whole bunch of clowns, and more! Why are our places designed to be so hostile to common enjoyment and peace? Why is it so important for white people to wall themselves off from the rest of the world? What does it mean to live in places designed like prisons on the eve of historic climate calamities? These and other questions are all explored as we contemplate and reflect on the crazy world that's driving us all nuts!
Chapters * 01:12 Some things that make cities terrible * 18:58 Exclusion connected to racism * 35:31 Origins of "Family Values" * 40:47 Whiteness is self-destruction * 46:42 Real estate market exclusion * 1:01:59 Clown Town * 1:05:01 Clown Music * 1:13:34 Anti-Cruisin' USA and more examples * 1:26:57 Gated communities, escapism, and climate change
Detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) are available on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 103 - "Minimum Justice" Mandatory minimums, three strike rules, and other similar laws were created to strengthen the "justice" system and make us safer - but have they done the opposite? This week we interview newly minted activists working to free a man caught up in this system and explore in detail the how's and why's of this tragedy of justice.
Chapters * 04:18 Disparities in Sentencing * 13:26 Justice for Willie Simmons * 29:10 Interview Takeaway * 31:01 The ones who get away with it * 42:05 Mandatory Sentencing and Unintended Consequences * 01:09:08 We live in a bullshit society * 01:18:21 Why do prisons exist? Reading from Ruth Wilson Gilmore * 01:30:21 "Justice" versus Justice: What can we do
A full transcript will soon be available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast or follow our live shows at twitch.tv/ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 102 - "The Then, The Now, and The Next" We've been away for a while and this episode exists to fill in the gap. Catch up with us as we discuss what we've been up to, a small state of the world, and the big question of where do we go from here?
We hope you've been healthy, happy, and working towards a better future because we've certainly been (well - maybe we haven't been totally happy).
Chapters * 01:07 Patreon * 03:01 Where ya been * 10:41 Organizing * 20:47 Daniel and the Land * 24:17 Quarantine * 30:33 Work and Connections * 36:26 What next?
Detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 101 - "We Didn't Start the Fire" Jack from Uni Students for Climate Justice joins us to discuss the bushfires in Australia, some of the resulting political and economic fallout and ways to respond. Then, with fire and ashes on our mind, we turn our attention to the unfolding catastrophes catalyzed by COVID-19, how we are each responding as individuals, and ways to move forward in our communities.
Chapters * 03:38 Bushfires in AU * 00:59 Bushfire political fallout * 13:02 Bushfire perspectives as an environmental student * 30:17 Anxiety and Agency * 42:06 Foundations of Power Questioned * 46:10 NYC * 51:31 What are our socially responsible options? * 59:04 Two divergent opportunities presented in crisis * 01:01:55 What can we do, economic fallout, and more
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 100 - "One Hundred Years of Ashes" We're incredibly lucky to spend this week celebrating our 100th episode with all of you. Looking back at all the episodes we've recorded, the many systemic threats, issues, and problems explored, we thought it would be a nice change to look forward instead. This week we discuss one hundred years of the future, imagining what that might look like, good and bad, in some of the key areas of this show. What lessons have we learned? What obstacles will we face? Can we really build a better world? In this time of great uncertainty, it's important to look inside and imagine the future we want for the world so we know how to go ahead and start building it.
Join us for Ashes Ashes #100 and to imagine a better future for all.
Chapters * 05:53 100 Years of Surveillance and Fashion * 29:40 Social Media * 34:59 The Commons and Land * 40:32 Georgism * 47:36 Mad Mac and the World of Copyright * 53:21 Economic Collapse * 59:32 Climate change * 01:09:01 Hope in Disaster
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 99 - "Collapse Chat: Border Patrol Catch COVID-19" It's time for another chat show as David and Daniel review more bad news // from the border involving a recent Supreme Court decision // which reminds us to reflect on the real gun control debate not being had // recent labor struggles in education // indigenous activists fighting big gas // COVID-19 aka coronavirus and what we might expect economically, politically, and medically
Chapters * 00:57 STRIKE! * 04:07 RESIST! * 06:03 Border Patrol (again) * 18:35 COVID-19 * 43:19 Pandemic Economy * 01:03:39 Healthcare Sucks
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 98 - "Water World (Spoiler: Not So Good)" The latest IPCC report details observed effects of climate change on the ocean and cryosphere (really really cold places), which are altering the environment from the highest mountain peaks to the lowest depths of the ocean. The implications for our world are significant. The ocean, which has been absorbing 90% of the excess heat we produce, is giving way to critical levels of acidity and hypoxia threatening the foundation of all marine life. Sea level rise caused by melting ice and thermal expansion threatens to transform once-in-a-century sea level events into regularly occurring annual events by 2050. As if that were not enough, arctic sea ice is decreasing, marine heatwaves are accelerating, permafrost is melting, and planet-scale ocean currents are slowing. If you want to learn more, you've come to the wrong place. You'll find nothing here but rants and nonsensical metaphors.
Chapters * [10:07] Melting Ice * [22:16] Rising Seas * [32:39] Warming Oceans, Acidification, DEOXYGENATION * [44:29] AMOC * [47:33] Ecosystems, Life, and Indigenous Knowledge * [01:12:02] What can we do? * [01:21:19] A Tale of Two Reports
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 97 - "Collapse Chat: Borders, Fires, Viruses, and Cannibalism" We've published our big border show and now take a chance to reflect on the production (and why it took so long) as we ease back into weekly episodes. A lot happened over the past few months and we briefly address new border developments, the Australian Fires, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Daniel chats about business, Christopher Columbus, and cannibalism and you don't want to miss it.
Chapters * [00:31] We're back, what happened? * [14:29] Border news updates * [23:55] Quick note on bushfires, viruses and coping * [31:31] Daniel rambles incoherently on business management and cannibalism
A full transcript is coming soon and you can find detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 96 - "Walls That Divide U.S." There is a crisis at the border between the U.S. and Mexico. Global forces of climate change, development and war conspire in a deadly feedback loop of human suffering. At the heart of this crisis is the most sprawling system of detention and surveillance the world has ever seen, relying on unjust criminalization for the benefit of a few sources of power. What does it all mean, how did we get here, and what can we do about it?
Learn more at https://borders.ashesashes.org
Chapters (00:00) PART I: The Border Crisis
- (02:31) 1.1: Humane Borders and Desert Aid Work
- (15:47) 1.2: Guest intros and Crisis Summary
- (34:28) 1.2.1: Fake University, Real Arrests
- (38:55) 1.3: History of US Border Patrol
- (1:16:10) 1.4: Criminalization of Status and Public Safety vs National Security
- (1:33:13) 1.5: What Does it Take to Become a Refugee?
- (1:52:20) 1.6: The Wall and Climate Change
- (2:17:00) 1.7: Child Separation and the History of Concentration Camps
(3:02:50) PART II: How We Got Here
- (3:04:30) 2.1: Mexico
- (3:52:20) 2.2: Guatemala
- (4:00:23) 2.3: El Salvador
- (4:20:08) 2.4: "Just Enter Legally"
- (4:28:40) 2.5: The Border Benefits Power
- (4:36:14) 2.5.1: Prison Corporations
- (4:55:49) 2.5.2: Law Enforcement and Criminality
- (5:17:04) 2.5.3: Big Surveillance, Co.
- (5:49:09) 2.5.4: Immigration Enforcement Turned Back on Everyone Else
- (5:58:49) 2.5.4: Global Development, the Fourth Invasion
- (6:23:39) 2.5.5: Lucrative Drug Smuggling
(6:49:57) PART III: What Can We Do?
Special Thanks * Doug Ruopp, Humane Borders * Amilcar Valencia, El Refugio * Paedia Mixon, New American Pathways * Azadeh N. Shahshahani, Project South * Erin Argueta, Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative
Music by Juan Camillo Garza
Detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) are available on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 95 - "Collapse Chat: Silviculturists, Entrepreneurs and Social Science" A real silviculturist provides inputs on last week's show // David provides first-hand knowledge of essential bathroom upgrades // The big business of promoting entrepreneurship abroad // Co-opting social scientists // Future show updates
Chapters * 01:01 Will the real silviculturists please stand up * 05:01 Promoting Entrepreneurship * 10:55 Invading Communities from the Inside * 23:47 How to Change Your Diet * 27:19 Social Science and Industry * 35:32 Wake Up and Smell the Gas(lighting) * 44:09 Ashes Ashes Updates
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 94 - "If a Tree Falls" We're missing the forest and the trees. Not only has logging exploded in recent years, but it is has done so often in the explicit name of sustainability and green energy. We examine the authenticity of these practices as well as look at some of the long-term destructive consequences that forest disturbances can wreak, in some cases (e.g. extinction debt) reverberating a century in the future. Additionally, the same economic forces that destroy pristine and critical ecosystems are the same that seek to divide and conquer indigenous people by pitting them against one another and against the health of the very land they depend on.
Chapters * 00:38 "The Industrial 'One-Night Stand'" * 08:22 Logging 101 * 11:32 Good or Bad? * 19:52 Sustainable Logging * 32:45 Problems * 34:23 Biomass Woes * 45:09 Logging and Climate * 53:42 Dangerous Jobs * 58:08 Land Tenure * 1:12:18 What's this all for?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 93 - "Collapse Chat: Birds, Vindictive Climate, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch" You asked for topic updates so we deliver. Bird populations are not doing well in North America and researchers are shocked at how effective it is to connect the dots. Tropical storms in Texas remind us of the economic paradoxes we've placed ourselves in. In addition, we reflect on Friday's climate strike from New York and Boston and start tackling the looming question in all of our minds over the climate crisis, "What now?"
Chapters * 2:06 Birdemic * 13:48 Tropical Storm Catch-22 * 23:47 Responsibility * 27:29 Climate Strike * 43:24 A Better World
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 92 - "Good Heavens" In 1967 the world witnessed the signing of the Outer Space Treaty, and now over 100 countries have joined the international agreement to declare space as "the province of all mankind," to be used "exclusively for peaceful purposes", and kept free of weapons and military installations. This idealism is a far cry from current reality, with US officials espousing values of domination and exclusive advantages to be maintained in space, while other countries are blowing satellites out of the sky with missiles to prove themselves mighty "space powers." Will we ever reclaim space as the peaceful province of all mankind, or will the road to Donald J. Kessler's infamous scenario be paved with neutral particle beams, lasers, nano-satellite swarms, machine-gun mounted satellites, and giant tungsten rods?
Chapters * 03:46 Space Opera * 08:05 Beams, Bombs, and Rods from God * 15:35 Two Visions for Space * 24:33 Space Force and the Drive to Dominate * 27:55 Neighbors and Rockets * 40:22 Satellite-Killers * 52:29 What Choice?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 91 - "Collapse Chat: Name and Shame, Community, and Re-Imaginings" It's another chat episode as we take a break between deep dives and this week we explore in more depth some of the experiences Daniel has had in the organizing for his new work. It turns out there are important lessons to be learned for not just Daniel, but all of us even in his first few days on the job. David also shares his latest organizing work and explores some trends in the world around us.
Reflections on naming and shaming, community work, food justice and agricultural sustainability, the tipping point of a global future, community radio, rants, and more - this week we've got it all!
Chapters * 04:49 A Language Note * 10:05 Two Projects * 24:10 Tipping Points * 36:16 World David * 43:02 I've got Mine * 51:39 Imagination
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 90 - "A Grave Situation" Over 100 billion people have died on this planet and been laid to rest through countless burial traditions and customs, and while a majority of these passings simply re-entered natural ecological cycles, many popular burial traditions of today require exorbitant additions of resources that cause dramatic natural disturbances guaranteed to have a lasting environmental impact. But beyond this, it appears that the way we live in society carries over to the ways we die. The same alienation, segregation, and disconnection from our land and ourselves that we experience in life can all be found in our cultural habits surrounding death. Can we imagine a better way? Or will this grave situation only deepen?
Chapters * 03:49 Post-Life Carbon Footprint * 17:50 Embalming History * 28:42 Land and Space Challenges * 48:10 Segregation in Life and Death * 1:00:01 Body Brokers: Bodies and Profit
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 89 - "Collapse Chat: Banality, Good, and Evil" Another week, another collapse chat! This week we explore bullshit jobs through a listener email, dive into the upcoming Earth Strike event through interviews with activists and organizers, and take a look at the playbook of the forces who want to stop activism at all stages. There's a lot to learn as we jump through all these different topics so settle in and enjoy the ride!
Our most sincere apologies for the sound quality in some of these interviews, sometimes you just have to roll with what you're given.
Chapters * 00:34 Lawrence's BS Job * 15:38 Earth Strike * 21:41 Earth Strike NYC * 39:03 Earth Strike UK * 47:25 Corporate Wars and Activists
Recommended Reading * The origin comment of Earth Strike * The Duchin Formula (warning, Facebook link)
Links from Jacob * UPROSE * Outlive Them Network * Bronx Climate Justice North * Rise and Resist * AFT
Links from Cosmo * By 2020 We Rise Up * International Rebellion Oct 7th * Earth Strike * Extinction Rebellion * Global Climate Strike
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 88 - "This Land is Our Land" The IPCC released their special report "Climate Change and Land" to examine how human-led land use change is contributing to global warming irrespective of our direct GHG emissions, and how this might impact our future resilience in the face of desertification, land degradation, and food insecurity. This episode features a ton of facts: surface air temperature is warming twice as fast above land compared to the global average; land change alone accounts for a whopping 1/4 of all anthropological based warming; agriculture is responsible for 70% of global freshwater use; and industrial agricultural methods along with nitrogen fertilizer use have exploded so rapidly over the past several decades that top soil is being lost at rates 100 times faster than the earth's ability to replenish it. But more importantly, these facts are just the tip of the rapidly melting iceberg and give way to plenty of endless rants on all of the usual failures of the IPCC's failures and omissions.
Chapters * 00:31 Fire Lord Bolsonaro * 04:47 IPCC: Climate Change and Land * 12:17 Our Waists and Waste * 24:17 Nitrogen - it's a gas * 30:21 Sustainable What * 44:47 Risks * 50:46 Feedback Loops * 1:04:56 Adaptation and Projections * 1:18:03 Blame * 1:26:44 What Can We Do?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 87 - "Collapse Chat: On the Border" David and Daniel are in person in Tucson, AZ reflecting on their time at the US Border Patrol Museum, running into border patrol agents on New Mexico state road 9, walking into Juarez, Mexico, and much more.
Chapters * 01:21 Border Patrol Museum * 17:10 Detention Visitation * 28:51 Border Drive * 40:01 Medic Training
From the Show David's tweet gallery from the Border Patrol Museum: https://twitter.com/davidtorcivia/status/1159978514289954816
Where to start if you want to visit an immigrant in detention:
- Find the local organizations in your area: Freedom for Immigrants
- Read the "Freedom for Immigrants Guide to Visiting People in Immigration Detention": Visiting Guide
- Additional groups that may be in your area: More groups
Medic stuff:
- NYC Action Medical: NYCAM
- Atlanta Resistance Medics: ARM
- An example of what can go wrong when you call 911: 911 Story
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 86 - "Sprawl Above All" What began as a harmless attempt by the wealthy to escape the poor peasants they were forced to rub shoulders with in the cities turned into the greatest infrastructural nightmare ever to be unleashed upon this world: the American suburb. Countless people and generations of their progeny who got swept up in the fervor of suburban sprawl experienced a radical shift in physical space that has left communities in shambles or precluded their existence and paved over much of the land we should have conserved for agricultural use. Economically, what began as a financial shot of adrenaline to kickstart the post-war economy has now culminated in a ticking time bomb of unpaid infrastructure and health liabilities threatening to bankrupt municipalities throughout the country. If that wasn't enough, sprawl is an ecological and environmental disaster that contributes more to climate change than any other development pattern.
We can trace some of these consequences to the early foundation of property law in the United States, as well as a handful of powerful men destined to drive a stake in public transportation and influence generations of engineers and city planners. More importantly, we can rant and rave for two hours about how much we hate the suburbs.
Chapters * 11:21 A Brief History of Property Law * 18:03 The Birth of the Suburb * 23:29 Innovations in Housing Construction * 25:03 The Post War Economy * 29:48 "The Auto, Baby" * 35:47 What is Sprawl * 58:52 Early Zoning * 1:02:56 Divide and Separate * 1:13:08 Shopping Mall Financials * 1:17:35 Road Costs and Driving Pains * 1:23:03 Little Lords * 1:35:16 Bernays and the Suburban Experience * 1:45:39 Oh Yeah, Climate Change Talk Too * 1:49:49 Looking Forward
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 85 - "Ep 85 - Collapse Chat: Beach Vibes, Rockets, and Burgers" What compels a group of truck owners to drive in a procession down the sandy Florida coast (and how does racism relate to environmental issues)? How can you bypass the paywall to access the latest scientific papers? Why do you need an adblocker? Can the world create a co-op burger joint with vegetarian options? More importantly, what is the quickest and surest way to trigger David? These questions and more are discussed on the latest collapse chat.
Chapters * 02:47 Trucks on the Beach * 22:56 ROCKET MANNNNNN * 33:10 Research Tricks * 36:45 Militarization of the Climate * 50:53 Carbondale Spring Updates * 53:51 Advertising Hate
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 84 - "Carbon Bootprint" They're the single biggest polluter on earth in both chemicals and greenhouse gas emissions, their effects can be felt around the world in both rising temps and destroyed lives, in fact they're in the very business of destruction: it's the US Military. This week we are joined be researcher Dr. Patrick Bigger to discuss the paper he coauthored (Hidden carbon costs of the “everywhere war”: Logistics, geopolitical ecology, and the carbon boot‐print of the US military) covering some of the far reaching impacts of imperialist policies and what it really costs to have the most powerful military on Earth. Tune in to hear about logistics, supply chains, concrete, solar powered tanks, and so much more in our exploration of the everywhere war.
Chapters * 01:08 Externalities * 16:31 Dr. Patrick Bigger * 52:01 Thinking Big
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 83 - "Collapse Chat: Love, Life, and Salmon" Collapse Chat is back and it's here to stay. This is the first of a new period for Ashes Ashes. To keep up our high levels of research, we're going to need a little more time per episode and will be transitioning to an every other week schedule for our deep dives. But fret not, collapse chat will fill in the gaps and educate you on what's happening in our immediate worlds as well as our thoughts on everything going on in the larger world around us. This week we cover Daniel's new career shift, how both of us came to our current thinking, what media we're currently consuming, some talk about salmon, and a whole bunch of other interesting tidbits. We hope you enjoy this and stick around for our deep dive back next week!
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 82 - "Cash Out" South Korea is eliminating coins and requiring shoppers to upload their cash receipts to a digital database; Indians are still reeling from a 2016 decision that turned 86% of the country's cash worthless in a matter of hours; migrants and refugees are being targeted for new schemes of financial inclusion, but not experiencing the promised benefits; US cities are retaliating against cash-only retailers eager to speed the flow of customers, increase spending, and surveil our every purchase while excluding undesirable demographics; and despite our technological proficiencies, fiction writers 500 years ago still had more creative solutions to our money woes.
It seems like a straight-forward topic and yet we still manage to ramble off script.
Chapters * 09:08 The Age of Cashless * 16:30 Resisting * 21:11 Ancient Wisdom * 25:56 India Demonetization * 35:32 Refugee Services * 47:54 Migrants and Music Festivals * 51:37 The High Cost of Banking * 58:19 The Psychology of Cashless * 1:06:01 Surveillance and Control
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 81 - "This Is Not a Place of Honor" It has threatened to start wars and it has (arguably) finished them; its effects and influences can be found throughout our world today; it has nearly limitless power for creation and destruction; and according to some people it may be our only hope. This week (and the last one too) we are digging deep into the controversial world of nuclear power generation. Over the course of two episodes we'll explore the basics of this technology (which is coincidentally where most other podcasts and videos seem to stop) and go from there to really truly explore the pros and the cons - including plenty that you've probably never considered. Is this technology our best hope for a carbon free future? Or is it another example of too many promises and technological optimism clouding out the realities of our situation?
All this and more in a special two part series on everything nuclear power.
Chapters * 12:16 Unexamined Costs * 17:25 Megatons to Megawatts * 24:16 Thoughts from former chairman of US NRC * 30:01 Construction costs * 34:24 Waste * 36:24 Church Rock * 41:17 Waste disposal plans * 44:45 Uranium-235 reserves * 46:14 How do you communicate with the future? * 56:47 What choice do we have?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 80 - "The Nuclear Option" It has threatened to start wars and it has (arguably) finished them; its effects and influences can be found throughout our world today; it has nearly limitless power for creation and destruction; and according to some people it may be our only hope. This week (and the next one too) we are digging deep into the controversial world of nuclear power generation. Over the course of two episodes we'll explore the basics of this technology (which is coincidentally where most other podcasts and videos seem to stop) and go from there to really truly explore the pros and the cons - including plenty that you've probably never considered. Is this technology our best hope for a carbon free future? Or is it another example of too many promises and technological optimism clouding out the realities of our situation?
All this and more in a special two part series on everything nuclear power.
Chapters * 01:47 Nature First * 09:07 The Atomic Age * 12:18 Controversy * 15:01 The Strong Nuclear Force * 25:44 Types of Reactors * 38:43 LFTR * 48:53 Lives saved? * 58:34 Climate Change Prep * 1:04:40 Unaccounted Damage * 1:09:10 Nuclear CO2 Emissions?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
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Episode 79b - "Death Dealers Part II" Part II of Ep 79 - Death Dealers
Merchants of Death. War Profiteers. Death Dealers. These are the people who fan the flames of war to transmute human suffering into profit. They play one nation against another to sell to both sides. Although the international community condemned these actors as conspirers in the tensions leading up to WWI, no policy effectively curbed their influence. In fact, such is the clout of wealth and power accumulated through arms deals that these merchants of death now litter the administrations of our governments’ institutions. Their presence is felt in the profligate overspending that results in $10,000 toilet seats for military cargo planes, it is seen in the constant rebuke of humanitarian law, and it is revealed through the habits of our politicians who espouse ideals of democracy and freedom while pedaling billions of dollars of weapons into regions rife with human rights abuse and violent conflict.
As our world clings ever more desperately to life, it seems our leaders can think of nothing but death.
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
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Episode 79 - "Death Dealers" Merchants of Death. War Profiteers. Death Dealers. These are the people who fan the flames of war to transmute human suffering into profit. They play one nation against another to sell to both sides. Although the international community condemned these actors as conspirers in the tensions leading up to WWI, no policy effectively curbed their influence. In fact, such is the clout of wealth and power accumulated through arms deals that these merchants of death now litter the administrations of our governments’ institutions. Their presence is felt in the profligate overspending that results in $10,000 toilet seats for military cargo planes, it is seen in the constant rebuke of humanitarian law, and it is revealed through the habits of our politicians who espouse ideals of democracy and freedom while pedaling billions of dollars of weapons into regions rife with human rights abuse and violent conflict.
As our world clings ever more desperately to life, it seems our leaders can think of nothing but death.
Chapters * 15:05 Economy of War * 25:52 Basil Zaharoff * 34:53 European disagreement over Saudi arms exports * 39:05 America says no * 40:40 Do we sell arms to human rights abusers? * 48:50 Is there an economic benefit to arms exports? * 53:34 Costs not included in economic figures * 1:00:09 Things that maybe should not be a business * 1:04:19 What enables notorious Merchants of Death?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
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Episode 78 - "Grounded" Sweeping deregulation of the Airline industry in 1978 brought big changes to air travel. Lower prices, more routes, and consolidation of the market allowed for regional hub-and-spoke models of logistics and greater access to air travel with the associated massive surge in passengers. Now, with the current climate crisis and an industry responsible for 10% of US GHG emissions, we may be suffering from success.
What does the future hold for a business sensitive to many different climate factors? What is the responsibility we each have for our own transportation choices? Will carbon credits or fuel efficient technology save us? And what might we expect for the future of air travel? All this and more on Episode 78 - Grounded.
Chapters * 4:32 MAX 8 * 15:37 Regulation * 25:35 Jevon * 31:39 The Climate Crisis * 44:43 Centralization & Shocks * 52:51 Limited Dreams * 1:07:45 Grounding * 1:11:26 More Jevon * 1:14:33 The Future * 1:20:58 Slowdown
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
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Episode 77 - "Coping with Collapse" Awareness of the systemic threats to our world comes at a cost. Often, that cost includes feelings of isolation, existential dread, depression, shock, and other uncomfortable realities. But these emotions do not define the final stage of our journeys. This week we read from listener emails, each describing a different point along the path of coming to terms with uncomfortable truths, and from these we learn that there is a way to move forward. Through confronting the denial that our society wants us to consume, pushing past hopelessness, and expressing our grief, we can begin to reconnect with other humans, build communities, "prep" for the future, and build a better world together.
Chapters * 08:38 Denial * 14:32 Hopelessness * 20:40 Grief * 34:27 Preparing * 49:32 What can we do?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
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Episode 76 - "Self-made" For once we thought it would be nice to look at a culture of building things up, rather than the slow collapse of everything around us that we normally discuss. We find this culture in a huge variety of different fields from repair in the home to hacking and building in farming fields to careful experimentation on our bodies to filling in gaps in the beauty world to digging deep into the source code of the software that runs everything. In so many worlds this vibrant idea of "let's do it ourselves" has empowered people, spurred innovation, saved lives, and helped to end the alienation that society so frequently forces on us in our modern economic system. This week is everything DIY as Ashes Ashes digs into the culture of creativity and seeks to learn why this idea is so powerful and pervasive.
Chapters * 05:10 David Does It Himself * 11:09 Farming * 17:42 Repair Cafes * 21:09 Beautiful Hair * 42:07 The DIY Body * 1:00:36 Free Software * 1:25:24 D I Why * 1:31:46 What Can We Do?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
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Episode 75 - "Business. School." The past few decades has seen explosive growth in the number of universities around the world, but it may not be for the noble reasons we would like. Decreased public funding, and new conceptions of universities as engines for economic growth has spurred an intensity of competition for student fees. This shift may help explain rising trends in managerialism, over-quantification of students and researchers, commodification of education, and an 'amenities arms race.' Not to mention staggering student debt, elitism, college admission scandals, and whole countries in protest. Will we be able to turn this failing grade around, or will class be dismissed?
Chapters * 05:38 Speaking of Universities * 17:58 Dystopian Future of Universities * 20:53 Bolsonaro Assaults Education * 33:36 U.S. Education Scandals * 38:46 Managerialism and Quantification * 47:56 Student Debt; Predatory For-Profit Schools; Competition * 56:47 What Can We Do?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
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Episode 74 - "Eco-lapse" The IPBES Global Assessment summary is out and we're digging in to all 39 pages this week. The report lays out a grim picture of our current world in terms of life on earth, the ecosystems they create, and our relationship with them that our civilization as we know it depends upon. While not the full 1500+ page report due out later this year, this study is perhaps the most important look at the state of our world that we've ever seen - and if we don't act quickly to fix the problems it so clearly exposes, then nothing less than very the future of humanity may be at risk.
Chapters * 4:07 "The IPBES report findings on biodiversity, ecosystem services, agriculture, and more" * 30:23 Indigenous and Marginalized People * 54:02 What Can We Do?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
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Episode 73 - "Tear Up, Tear Down" Protests around the world in 2011 gave riot-gear dealers a three-fold increase in sales of tear gas. In 2013, Turkey used up an entire year's supply of tear gas in just two days, before promptly ordering more. 2015 was the year Kenyan police fired tear gas into a group of schoolchildren as young as 7, and its use is so popular in Uganda that a girls rugby team named themselves the Police Teargas Rangers. Such profligate use of tear gas tempts us to take for granted the conflicts between unruly protesters and the police who demand order. Indeed, Israeli Defence Forces have employed tear gas for close to 90 years against Palestinians.
But tracing the history of tear gas tells the story of a tool that did not simply emerge naturally, but was created from the ground up for the singular purpose of domination. Of countries opposed to the use of gas against citizens on ethical grounds, but eventually caving from the economic necessities of colonial empire; of industrial owners, rich from the poison gas arms race of global war, determined to drum up new demand for their banned products; and finally, of the creeping association of protesters with criminality. More than anything else, the history of this weapon is a revelation into the relationship between the state and her citizens, and the many ways status quo hierarchies are maintained in the face of public outcry against overt expressions of violence and power.
Chapters * 11:55 Tear gas: from the trenches of WWI * 25:48 Tear gas: the colonial arsenal * 29:36 Tear gas: policing in 60s America * 32:51 A state and its people * 44:13 Tear gas: nonlethal? * 53:48 Going beyond * 58:15 What can we do: direct action * 1:08:37 What can we do: protest safety
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
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BONUS EPISODE (there is no episode) Well we fucked up and here we are without an episode (it would've been really great, we swear). We didn't want to leave our loyal listeners hanging, so we put something together anyway. Listen in and find out how and why we made such a big screw up, get updated on the state of the show, find out how to grab some sweet swag, and learn about a couple important apps and reports because David and Daniel can't go more than a few minutes without lecturing about things.
It's got everything a regular episode would have (except the episode) and so much more!
Chapters A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
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Episode 71 - "The Mean, Big Green, Corporate Machine" The world may be burning, but more and more companies are giving us green alternatives to our favorite products so we can continue to shop and consume the same way we always have, but without hurting the Earth - or so they would like us to believe. Greenwashing, the practice of making bad things seem environmentally friendly, has run rampant across the shelves of our favorite stores and even carried over to the actions of companies, NGOs, and nations themselves. Is there any hope to the allure of shopping in an environmentally friendly way? What are the greatest greenwashing sins occurring right now? Is there any hope outside of radical change if we want to save the Earth? We think you probably know the answers to these questions, but join us this week as we explore all this and much more in our dive into the mean, green, corporate machines of the world.
Special thanks to fans of the show, The Matching Shoe, for the outro track "Pickin' Up Speed." Be sure to check out their new album!
Chapters * 04:35 Big Green * 22:44 The Seven Sins * 48:59 The Economy vs The Environment * 1:07:34 What can we do?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
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Episode 70 - "Thinner Ice" New reports find the Arctic to be the warmest it's been in millennia, and complex feedback loops mean this warming could continue unabated for decades to come. While the Arctic may feel like a distant place far removed from the concerns of daily life to many of us, the connections between melting sea ice, global ocean currents, and local weather patterns mean that the effects of a warmer Arctic are closer to home than we realize. It's cooler than cool this week as we discuss enthalpy of fusion, albedo, exploding methane in Siberia, and what it all might mean for our future.
Chapters * 07:56 Ice formation and the link to the world's oceans * 10:13 Albedo * 14:55 How are we connected to the Arctic? * 24:08 Enthalpy of Fusion?? Also the Blue Ocean Event * 31:25 Arctic opening: shipping, militaries, and ticks * 42:49 Permafrost * 50:00 What can we do?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
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Find out more on the Ashes Ashes website.
Episode 69 - "Rent Seekers" Half of America's poor pay at least 50% of their income on rent, while a quarter of them pay over 70%, and this trend is worsening as the number of affordable housing units continues to outpace Americans' abilities to pay for them. How did we get in a scenario where so many Americans are surrendering so much just to have a place to live? What incentives drive people to prey upon the needs we have for basic necessities? What does eviction actually mean? All these questions will be answered and we'll get to listen into a special interview with a guest joining us from Santa Cruz to discuss tenant organizing, legislative solutions, and how all of us could be making a difference in our lives and those of our neighbors in this intro episode to housing rights.
Chapters * 5:51 "Multifamily Evictions, Large Owners, and Serial Filings: Findings from Metropolitan Atlanta" * 13:22 Maximizing that Mailbox Money * 24:57 "Do the Poor Pay More for Housing? Exploitation, Profit, and Risk in Rental Markets" * 32:23 Nothing is Profitable * 41:59 Neoclassical economics and oversimplification * 51:43 INTERVIEW: Claire from Santa Cruz, CA
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
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Episode 68 - "Mask Off" Half of all US Citizens have their faces in a database that can be searched by facial-tracking software, and the slow creep of surveillance technology means more of us are being watched and analyzed by AI face-detection cameras, often without us knowing, and almost always without our consent. So what are some of the ways companies and governments deploy these technologies today? What are the limits and blind spots to these systems? More importantly, what can and does go wrong when we choose to outsource human recognition to automated computers?
Chapters * 03:21 Implementations * 11:25 Landlords, Churches, Hotels, and Schools - Oh My! * 23:30 Technology Creep * 31:29 Potential for Abuse * 37:24 Ridiculous Ideas * 41:43 Failures and Blind Spots * 48:43 Irrevocable Consequences * 55:25 Aiding Selective Enforcement * 1:05:41 Fighting Back * 1:15:01 Daniel moving to Boston?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
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Episode 67 - "Collapse Chat: So Long and Thanks for All the Surveillance" This week we're trying a new format for periodic updates. Daniel, David, and Moriah King all sit down together to discuss a handful of important articles and texts they selected covering everything from dolphins to tragedies. We go over the key points of each piece and spend a little time discussing the ramifications of what these (typically dark) pieces of news means for us and the entire world. Hopefully we take away some valuable lessons that allow us to build better things.
Chapters * 03:04 Dolphins and Language * 15:59 Surveillance for Profit * 24:38 Acceleration of Time * 47:42 Freedom Technologists * 57:40 Christchurch
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
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Episode 66 - "Trash Talk" The world is garbage and we're talking trash in this week's episode. What really happens when you throw something away? Is recycling as green as we think it is? Just how much garbage are we making anyway? All this answered and so much more as we find ourself waist deep in the world of waste.
Chapters * 00:31 Trash Opportunities * 06:01 Trash Stories * 17:10 Trash Stats * 36:16 The Big Biz of Recycling * 1:05:47 What Can We Do?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
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Episode 65 - "Above the Paving Stones, the Desert" Two-thirds of Spain is at risk of permanent desertification. The cold and wet country of Iceland holds half of all Europe's deserts. China's Gobi Desert is expanding rapidly, swallowing thousands of villages and threatening to envelop the capital city Beijing. In just 40 years a third of the plant's arable land has eroded, and each year desertification destroys the potential to grow 20 million tons of grain.
Once again, a show all about sand, but this time we're not building with it; we're running from it. What are some of the long-term systems that lead to desertification? What are some of the simple causes? And in what ways does human and economic development play a role in this process?
Chapters * 00:32 Civilizations Rise and Fall * 12:00 "Spain, Iceland, China, Mongolia" * 24:54 Global Aridity * 31:30 Desertification Causes and Feedbacks * 44:28 Land Use * 53:07 Incentives * 59:09 What can we do? * 1:06:55 Carbondale Spring
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
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Episode 64 - "Sweet Re-Release" It's natural, it's delicious, it's everywhere, and it may be killing us. For years, sugar has been overlooked as a serious detriment to our health because of the manipulations of the sugar industry in both science and politics, but the lies are coming to light as the diseases caused by that deadly white powder threaten to overwhelm the health systems of the world.
Can we wake in time up to the danger that this major health risk is posing? Or are we too addicted to the sweet release? Join us this week as we explore the how and why of sugar.
This episode originally published March, 2018, and we have a few up to date comments to make before and after.
Chapters * 05:45 Progress in the 21st Century * 09:50 The Scam * 18:11 "Pure, White, and Deadly" * 19:12 Ancel Keys * 20:17 Seven Countries Study * 22:16 Coca-cola continues the scam in 2015 * 25:00 The Start of Nutrition * 29:24 Pendulum Swings * 32:32 The Failure of the Scientific Method and Industry Infiltration * 35:43 "This is Objective Science" * 38:30 Publication Bias * 41:49 Failure of Politics * 43:58 Local Political Manipulation * 44:58 What Can We Do? * 46:18 Food Access * 48:41 Food Affordabilty * 51:45 Don't Shame * 53:14 Avoid Bad Science * 55:11 Updated Thoughts
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
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Episode 63 - "Busy Work" Some 37% of workers believe their jobs are pointless, and if we include the jobs that exist to serve those pointless jobs in some way, it's possible that half of the jobs in our economy today (mostly residing in the informational sectors of white-collar work) could disappear with no ill-consequences. In this episode we read and hear from listener-submitted examples of pointless jobs, explore the nature and causes of this phenomenon as outlined in David Graeber's book on the subject, and imagine a world where such pointless assaults on our soul can't happen.
Chapters * 07:29 Our Own BS Jobs * 18:24 What are the definitions and categories of BS jobs? * 31:09 Even More BS Jobs * 47:47 Concepts about these BS jobs * 1:00:13 BS jobs responsible for social media? * 1:06:07 Why do BS jobs proliferate? What are the structures? * 1:19:55 Bringing it all home; policies to support; what we can do
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
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Episode 62 - "Separate Ways" A global epedimic of loneliness is spreading rapidly. 20% of the UK population claims to be always or often lonely, 3 out of 4 people fin the US are affected by loneliness, a quarter of Japanese men over 60 don't have a single friend or family member they can talk to, and there is an alarming rise of youth across borders who are feeling joyless, useless, and alien in their own homelands. This is a growing health disaster: loneliness has been shown to significantly increase the risk of early death, heart disease, stroke, and much more. Medicine and the high tech industry are working on "loneliness pills" and other high tech software fixes, but we're increasingly afraid that they've missed the point and are wasting time chasing symptoms. This week we explore the systemic causes of why we all feel so alone and look towards a world where we make the dramatic shifts to our social insitutions, governments, economic relationships, and very culture so we can begin to repair the frayed seams of our great big collective family.
Chapters * 00:31 Loneliness: Stats and Figures * 09:36 Getting to the Source * 14:39 America: Declining Social and Civic Engagement * 20:25 America: Suburban Sprawl and the Commercialization of Social Life * 25:49 China and the Big Money Machine * 33:28 Japan: Relationless Society * 38:41 Hikikomori * 56:13 Individualism and Social Media * 1:05:06 David's 5 Points to Get Your Life Together and Stop Loneliness in its Tracks * 1:21:50 What Can We Do?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 61 - "Owning Change" In an age of global disparity and inequity, billionaire philanthropists (dead and alive) are stepping up to the plate with powerful foundations and acts of charitable giving to solve some of the world's greatest challenges. But how much faith should we place in the hands of individuals with concentrated wealth and power? And if we take a step back to examine the broader system in which these individual philanthrocapitalists function, do we find any contradictions between wealth doled out and the process of accumulating it? Further, despite some of the good that we perceive directly stemming from philanthropic efforts, what are some of the hidden motivations behind these efforts that ultimately seek to deepen the same structures that produced the problems in the first place which philanthropy purports to solve?
Chapters * 04:44 The Man Who Wrote the Gospel * 40:44 Philanthropy and Celebrity * 48:11 The Larger System * 54:12 Just How Rich? * 1:03:04 "How philanthropy shapes foreign policy, civil rights, and healthcare" * 1:20:20 Taxes and Giving * 1:30:36 What Can We Do?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
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Episode 60 - "Drawn Apart" Invisible, but they define our world. Borders are the lines that limit us as we live our lives and as we increasingly feel the frictions they cause, it brought us to wonder: where did these things comes from anyway? A look back through history shows that what we take for granted may in fact be ridiculous, that lines on a map can be a world changing invention, and that things that feel as old as civilization may have surprisingly recent origins. Join us this week as we draw a line in the sand and begin working towards tearing down the myths, preconceptions, and assumptions we share about the lines that divide us.
Chapters * 06:58 Evolution of Border Concepts * 37:38 Modern Map Origins * 44:52 The Question of National Identity * 57:44 Freeports and Free Flowing Capital * 1:04:13 UK Home Office Incompetence * 1:17:48 Indigenous People on the Margins * 1:24:58 Who moves anyway? * 1:29:09 The C Word * 1:32:12 No Man's Land
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
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Episode 59 - "Bankrupt Ethics" After the US government shutdown of 2018-2019 witheld two paychecks from 800,000 federal workers and countless more contractors and businesses, and with US officials encouraging furloughed employees to simply take out loans, we've got debt on the mind again. Citizens of the US and UK are experiencing record high levels of debt concurrent with falling wages, and higher costs of living. But the financial systems that enable these vicious debt spirals play out on the world stage, as private companies and wealthy governments alike employ innovative strategies for ensnaring vulnerable countries, companies, and individuals in inescapable economic webs. Vulture funds play an important role here, but we also want to understand how the opportunities for vulture funds open in the first place. Will we finally solve the global debt crisis, or will the hole get deeper and deeper?
Chapters * 00:33 Debt on the Mind * 13:35 Africa: opportunities for predatory financial systems * 26:30 Sudan and the HIPC Initiative * 34:32 Puerto Rico: Vicious Cycle * 47:15 Debt in a Climate Change World * 50:38 What Can We Do?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
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Episode 58 - "Renewable Problems" With the deadline for keeping global warming below 1.5C quickly approaching (at least according to the extremely optimistic IPCC calculations - and we know how we feel about those), the time for renewable energy is yesterday. The transition to these clean sources of energy should be a no brainer, right? Well, as always, the story is more complicated than it would first appear and our addiction to cheap and highly energetic fossil fuels isn't going away anytime soon. Can we break our addiction and create real change?
Chapters * 00:29 Energy Investment in Southern Mexico * 10:12 Why is Ashes Ashes hating on renewable technology? * 16:11 Individual vs Social Change * 20:56 Energy Density * 29:35 Hidden Externalities * 34:57 Grid storage * 39:37 Struggling to Maintain Renewables * 46:51 Close Out
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
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Episode 57 - "Do No Harm" By now we are used to the idea that every action we take in the world is tracked, but what happens when that all-pervasive panopticon is turned inside each and every one of us? An explosion of personal medical technology, health programs, and terrible data practices have meant that the very records of who we are are being packaged, sold, and stolen. Our health records have become assets used to sell us out - and the dangers are only growing.
Can we regain our most intimate form of privacy? Or are we doomed to a future where the details of our body and mind are open to the highest bidder?
Chapters * 05:50 DNA and Me * 11:56 Corporate Wellness Programs * 19:31 Why might your employer want your health information? * 27:09 Anonymous data isn't? * 34:42 Mental Health Surveillance * 41:01 Building a nefarious infrastructure * 48:47 In who's hands are the keys to women's health data? * 57:53 Pirvacy concerns in Australia * 1:00:27 Benefits from central health databases? * 1:04:46 What can we do?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 56 - "Beneath the Paving Stones, the Beach" Beneath our paving stones, paved roads, walls, windows, computers, industry, and more, is a collection of hard material no larger than a speck. Sand is the fundamental building block of modern civilization, mined and extracted more than any other natural resource after water, and this fact should give us pause. Where does all this sand come from in the first place? What are the environmental consequences of sand mining? Most importantly, what happens when access to this most basic component of modern life begins to run out? Our modern civilization may pass, like sand through an hour glass.
Chapters * 02:42 Why Sand? * 03:31 What is Sand and Where is it? * 08:40 Why do we care about sand? * 16:09 Some History * 20:59 Economics of Sand Scarcity * 28:05 Destructive nature of Sand Extraction * 39:07 Sand Mafias * 48:06 Tragedy of the Unmanaged Commons * 58:50 The Best of Times?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 55 - "What We Can Do" It's a new year and perfect time for reflection, resolutions, and hope for something better. This special episode features both Daniel and David explaining what they work on outside of the show to make the world better (even if just a little bit), why that matters, and different ways that we all can do our part to push things forward towards fixing everything that's broken around us.
Chapters * 01:24 Daniel's Story * 11:40 David's Story * 18:35 Community * 21:23 Organizing * 28:13 Individual Actions * 34:12 Collective Action * 41:17 Homework
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 54 - "Golden Age: A Pirate's Life" Much maligned by history, they nevertheless hold a special place in culture and our hearts. This week we're discussing all things pirates. What drove these men and women to a life as enemies of all nations? What went on aboard their ships? Is a pirate's life really for us? We answer these question and much more as we look back to the Golden Age of Piracy and what we can learn from the period and how it relates to the piracy ocurring today.
(we apologize for the audio issues in this episode. we recorded out of our regular set up, but we'll fix it when we get time back in studio)
Chapters * 10:37 Why become a pirate? * 13:12 A more equal social order * 26:12 What systems made pirates inevitable? * 31:47 Perks of a pirate's life * 39:05 Courage above all else * 41:21 A pirate's life was made possible by a long history of cultural and generational knokwledge and tradition * 45:38 Fast forwarding to the modern day * 59:53 Closing thoughts
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 53 - "Welfare Titans" Amazon created competition between cities to land its HQ2 location, along with hefty tax subsidy packages. While this process garnered significant media attention, businesses and municipalities regularly engage in these types of deal making in which the promise of jobs and economic development all ostensibly justify enormous costs at the taxpayer's expense. Amazon alone has received over $1.6bn in economic development packages for it's various warehouses, so it's high time that we ask what's really going on behind the scenes. Does the public actually benefit from corporate welfare deals or is this just another method of transferring wealth out of local communities? In addition, we explore miscellaneous tools used for similar means, like Tax Increment Financing, and Tax-Exempt Municipal Bonds for stadium construction.
Chapters * 02:31 Economic Development Incentives * 14:01 Company Queens of Tax Grift * 37:40 Tools of Diverting Public Funds: Tax Increment Financing * 43:40 World of Sports
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 52 - "Killing Fields" Following the acquisition of Monsanto by Bayer, just a handful of companies now control over 70% of the world's supply of pesticides and 60% of patented seeds. Consolidations like this speak to an underlying trend in industrial agriculture, and in this episode we stop to consider the role that pesticides play in a system of food production that threatens biodiversity, food security, human health, and the environment on which crops are grown. In addition, we ask what impact these trends have on small farmers, and what we can learn from the efforts by local community seedbanks to preserve diversity and resist industrialization.
While we do explore the human health consequences of certain pesticides, as well as the risks we may not be certain of, we primarily choose to focus more deeply on why pesticide-aided industrial practices attract investment in the first place and what effects that has had on Earth and all of us.
Chapters * 00:36 Agrochemical consolidation and pesticide dependance * 09:51 Pesticides affect more than humans * 16:35 Understanding the role pesticides play in a larger system * 20:28 Why industrial farming anyway? * 27:55 Roles of diversity in a better world * 29:41 Indian landraces - Dr. Debal Deb * 32:51 Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute * 45:21 Intellectual property stalls farming innovation * 50:38 Desiccation: the insane farming practice you've never heard of * 56:35 We have enough food to feed the global population? * 58:39 Harvard finds way to profit from climate change * 1:02:49 Glyphosate * 1:13:47 Regulations blind to global poor * 1:19:07 What can we do?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 51 - "Eyes on Me" Surveillance technology continues to creep into our lives, whether it’s facial tracking in NY kiosks, invasive monitoring in Venezuela, China’s expanding social credit system, or entire cities being designed from the ground up in Egypt to better capture the intimate lives of its residents. These initiatives are driven by desires for profit and power, and justified through campaigns of fear.
Technology however is just one facet of any surveillance machine. According to former CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden in 2013: "the top 20% of American intelligence - that exquisite insight into an enemy's intentions - is generally provided by human sources." To understand the role in which we as individuals are turned into tools for surveillance, the so called “eyes and ears” of the state, we examine the historical development of crowd-sourced community policing, and the related programs that have been developed in the US for conscripting citizens into harvesting data on their neighbors, friends, and family.
Chapters * 03:39 Part I: Soft creep of surveillance technology * 18:08 Children * 25:42 Cameras * 30:32 What to make the soft creep of surveillance tech? * 38:11 Part II: The social and cultural side of surveillance * 40:39 Historical: Introduction of community policing * 49:46 Defining crime through a carefully constructed lens * 1:02:21 Children snitches * 1:15:22 Takeaways
Detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) are available on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 50 - "Apocalypse Now" The IPCC recently released its most dire report yet, warning us of a planet quickly warming to 1.5C, implications for our future, and offering pathways for mitigating the damage. But at the core of these pathways are flawed assumptions, paradoxes, and impossible promises. Why do these failures persist at our highest international institutions, what does this signal about the broader economic and political failings that got us to this dire situation, and how can we re-frame our perspectives to face the greatest challenge we as a species have ever faced?
Chapters * 03:46 A 1.5C World * 07:33 Preventing a 1.5C World * 13:42 Ecological Consequences of 1.5C * 20:51 IPCC Failures * 23:57 Ecological Feedback * 32:39 Magic Technology Needed * 37:55 Indigenous Knowledge and Economic Growth * 50:00 Why Does the IPCC Miss the Target? * 1:03:06 Shared Memory and Loss * 1:10:04 Hope * 1:13:51 Imagination
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 49 - "The World Might Be Broken" This week we present a short presentation we gave during the Sound Education conference at the Harvard Divinity School. The World Might Be Broken is a summation of some of the topics we cover in this show, the way they are interrelated, and how our approach to solving them will require an awareness of their systemic roots, and specific action. A brief audience discussion follows, as well as our post-conference thoughts.
Chapters * 02:05 The Presentation * 13:13 Audience Questions * 25:30 Post Presentation Discussion
Detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 48 - "Black Ballot Box" Of all Western Democracies, the US is ranked last in terms of free and fair elections (52nd worldwide). On top of the political reasons for that, our election systems (voting machines; registration lists; centralized election management systems; reporting sites) are all vulnerable and easy to hack. Audits on these systems rarely ever occur. In a broken system like this, what does political participation mean? The solutions to these problems are right in front of our eyes, but when those who write the rules come to power through the very system we need to fix, can we ever hope to implement them?
Chapters * 02:25 Our least favorite Gerry * 06:30 The annual purge * 14:12 The founding fathers would be proud * 26:44 The scary part * 31:04 Voting machines we use * 41:38 Not just voting machines * 49:45 Will the internet save us? * 54:56 How do we go forward?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 47 - "painKiller" The final part of our American healthcare series, painKiller brings together everything we've learned the past two weeks and beyond in Ashes Ashes to explore how the opioid crisis was created and how it is perpetuated to fulfill a single ultimate goal: profit. Pharmaceutical companies, the insurance industry, hospitals, doctors, and politicians - all which ostensibly exist to serve the public have instead mostly contributed to our modern day hellscape of pain, addiction, and increasingly death.
This isn't a show about how the end of the world is looming, this is a look at the ugly truth of collapse affecting people all around us right now.
Chapters * 4:40 Pharma companies create misuse * 11:25 Pill Mills * 13:42 The modern day problem * 19:09 Chronic pain * 24:18 Physician frustration * 30:16 Making sense of it all * 43:21 What can we do?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 46 - "Pill of Sale" Drug prices, shortages, and barriers to access are out of control, prompting hospitals to join forces to make their own, and spurring the emergence of inventors hoping to chart a future in which life-saving drugs can be made cheaply at home. To lock in high prices, drugmakers have learned to game the American patent system to extend their monopolies, and block generic alternatives for essential medicines. Additionally, pharmaceutical companies have for years withheld data from important clinical trials, skewed the data that is published, and put the health and safety of clinical trial participants at risk. In this episode, we will examine these trends, as well as the historical quirks of drug approval in the United States that have led us down this sick path.
Chapters * 01:51 Drug prices out of control * 08:08 Case story: Inhalers * 10:38 The process of drug approval * 14:41 American drug patent system and the games companies play * 20:23 Behind the scenes: clinical trial results manipulation * 22:06 Behind the scenes: clinical trial human guinea pigs * 27:58 Behind the scenes: clinical trial oversight * 31:21 Are drugmakers even making the medicines we need? * 36:24 The evils of socialized medicine * 38:10 Going forward: alternative systems
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 45 - "Bill of Health" American healthcare is taking a toll on America's health. Costs outpace economic growth, medical debt plagues millions, confusing and surprising bills infect further more, insurance premiums and deductibles are out of control, and at the end of the day we're not even receiving better care as a result of all this change.
In part one of a three part series, we will hear three personal stories as we try and make sense of where American healthcare went wrong - and how we can get it back on track.
Chapters * 06:31 Juanne from Ontario * 11:44 Insurance and surprise charges * 17:55 Insurance's humble origins * 20:06 Insurance competition raises costs * 24:40 Hospitals flex their power * 32:44 Joel from DC * 37:11 American medical coding oddity * 48:24 Emergency service private equity * 53:07 "Residency and training, or free labor?" * 56:29 Matt from Nashville * 1:03:57 What can we do?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 44 - "Do Not Disturb" The world is waking up to the negative health consequences of noise pollution. The WHO recognizes noise as a health crisis, and the number of places around the world not devastated by human noise is rapidly depleting. But the problems posed by our traffic noise, our airplane noise, and other anthropogenic intrusions go much deeper than the long list of human health effects like stroke, heart disease, diabetes, mental health problems, and increased general mortality. The natural world organizes itself in large part through sound. Our noise disrupts these delicate systems, breaks down ecosystems, and drives species into confusion, disarray, and death.
Bernie Krause joins us to help illuminate the complexity of natural soundscapes, and the threats to their stability.
Can we relearn how to listen before it's too late?
Chapters * 06:22 Bernie Krause * 08:56 Components of a Soundscape * 11:29 Niche Hypothesis * 13:02 What are ways animals vocalize to survive? * 14:52 The sound of habitat destruction * 24:41 Beauty of marine environments * 29:21 Cultural pathology and inattention * 30:52 Difference between organized and chaotic sound * 48:50 Loudness wars against our health * 52:58 Human health consequences of sound * 58:55 Animal health consequences of sound * 1:08:08 Going forward
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 43 - "FUBAR" The military exists to engage in seemingly endless war, but the damage doesn't stop during peace time. For decades, the US military (and many others around the world) has been systematically destroying the Earth and the very nations they're sworn to protect. Disregard for the natural world and those that inhabit it has resulted in the US military becoming the largest single polluter in the world, destroying large swaths of land, and poisoning foreigners and Americans alike. Can this machine be stopped?
Additionally, this week we're joined by activist and journalist Sophia Perez for a special interview on the military's plans to destroy islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands - plans we're running out of time to stop.
Chapters * 01:57 Around the World * 10:21 Sophia Perez * 12:08 CNMI * 15:36 Original Bargain * 17:42 How does the military sell this idea? * 21:10 Natural Connection * 26:09 Alternative Zero Coalition * 27:35 NEPA * 30:25 Resistance * 35:30 What can we learn from the Marianas? * 42:43 How can we help? * 46:07 Colonialism is not over * 50:53 Domestic Damage * 54:50 Open Burn Pits * 1:04:40 The Military, Trust, and Health * 1:09:21 Perpetual War * 1:11:58 "Dude, where's my nukes?" * 1:14:48 What can we do? * 1:17:15 What is the purpose of military?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 42 - "No Catch" The peak of our industrial fishing returns has come and gone, despite a myriad of innovations. In fact, these very innovations may be driving food insecurity even deeper. As fish stocks decline, new methods of extraction are trained on ever-dwindling fish populations to prop up an unsustainable system, leaving vulnerable communities all over the world in their destructive wake. Ironic, since the communities we are leaving behind may ultimately hold the secrets to regional food security. Can we find a life vest to weather the coming tsunami of international food crises? Or will we simply trawl our way to the bottom?
Chapters * 02:30 The Cod War * 15:54 Industrial High Seas Fishing * 21:54 The Wondyrechaun * 31:51 The Importance of Small-Scale Fisheries * 35:42 Fish are food not friends * 39:18 Food Production Through Theft * 41:37 "As Always, Climate Gets the Final Word" * 45:01 What Can We Do?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 41 - "Dead Tired" Despite a plethora of health benefits that sleep promotes, and a host of dramatic consequences when we neglect it, the world is rapidly trending towards fewer and fewer restful hours. 40% of Americans are sleep deprived and on average we get 2 hours less sleep than just a few decades ago. What has driven this change? Can we survive the consequences of those decisions?
Chapters * 04:07 Benefits of Sleep * 10:56 Consequences of Sleep Loss * 19:57 Sleep Variations * 28:41 Demands of Modern Life * 43:53 Circadian Disruption * 52:10 Sleep Denied * 54:45 What can we do?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 40 - "Land of the Free" Never have as many people been locked up than right now, here in the United States. The US has more prisoners per capita than anywhere else on the planet and that number continues to climb at a terrifying rate. Once within the prison system, inmates are abused and exploited out of sight and out of mind of the rest of the population. With these crimes against humanity growing ever greater and the impossible to ignore racial disparity continuing to get worse, it's time we take a critical look at our prison system and the monster we've all created.
This episode is dedicated to the prisoners currently on strike across the United States who just want to be treated with the humanity that all of us deserve.
Chapters * 3:49 Nothing New * 11:42 Prisons in America Today * 15:57 Prison Labor Today * 27:42 What sparked the strike? * 28:53 Forced riots * 32:54 All demands matter * 38:28 What can we do on the outside? * 42:38 Language * 45:18 Risks higher for some * 46:36 How large is this prison strike? * 57:52 Benefits of labor? * 1:03:33 Disenfranchisement: Has the debt been paid or not? * 1:05:40 Collapse? * 1:12:20 What can we do?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 39 - "Impact of Growth" From the ancient philosophers, to modern day scientists, much has been said about the relationship between human population growth and its effects on environmental destruction, famine, and death. Modern policy makers and political leaders have taken inspiration from these debates to craft initiatives aimed at curbing population, but through these efforts a host of human rights abuses have emerged worldwide. With millions of people left in the wake of forced sterilization and other population control programs, we are compelled to ask: what role, ultimately, does population play in a rapidly deteriorating world?
Chapters * 00:55 A Little History * 13:43 Ecology and Systems * 27:56 Modern Population Control * 36:38 The Wrong Question * 55:51 Structural Change or Nothing * 1:00:44 Who Gets the Last Laugh?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 38 - "Dead Air" Despite efforts to develop cleaner technology, air pollution remains quite possible the world's greatest killer. New reports by the WHO put the annual deaths around 7 million, with 90% of the global population breathing dangerous air. Air pollution itself is an amalgam of particles with different sizes and chemical properties, and so the health impacts of polluted air are complex and encompass a diversity of chronic illnesses, cognitive dysfunction, infectious disease, and more. The implications of this health crisis are not fully understood, but the costs are widespread, and rising. Worse, addressing this problem seems to lead us into a classic catch-22. Can we afford to ignore this problem anymore? Can we afford not to?
Chapters * 02:43 Magnitude of Air Pollution by Deaths * 04:32 What is Air Pollution? * 08:14 Hazy Places * 10:30 Sources of Air Pollution * 21:50 Does Progress Outweigh the Cost? * 29:13 Health Impacts of Air Pollution * 49:30 Catch-22 * 57:23 What Can We Do?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 37 - "Logistics Of Slavery (Part 2 of 2)" Last week we explored some of the conditions of the record number of slaves all across our world today. But to really understand the issue, we need to look at the systems that create and depend upon this cheap form of exploited labor - and to do that we turn our conversation to logistics.
No other force has reshaped our world as much as modern day logistics. From it's humble beginnings with the shipping container to redefining national security and our very political borders today, the massive power of shipping goods from A to B has dramatically changed the world - often for worse. This week we explore some of the effects of this force and the workers that get caught up in the process.
Chapters * 00:19 Paris Transforms * 05:00 Military and Logistics * 07:37 Logistics Transforms the World * 14:45 Flags of Convenience * 17:36 Cruise of Convenience * 22:22 Speeding Up Goods and Death * 24:53 Driving Faster Logistics * 41:25 Security of Logistics * 55:42 Workers are Threats * 59:15 Borders are Threats * 1:01:38 Democracy and Pirates * 1:08:15 What Can We Do?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 36 - "Slaves to Progress (Part 1 of 2)" Despite universal condemnation of slavery, there are more slaves than ever before. They are cheaper (and more disposable) than they ever have been. Who are these people toiling without rest and what forces bind them? Can economic expansion find innovative solutions to this age-old problem? Or is slavery itself built into the foundation of our modern economy?
We will explore these questions and more, as well as the connections between slavery and environmental destruction, migration, and the products we consume daily.
This is the first of a two part series.
Chapters * 03:19 Pirates * 07:42 Slaves by the Numbers * 12:04 Diversity of Products * 14:33 The "Third World" and the Environment * 21:03 Vicious Cycle * 23:10 Global Demand; Local Conflict * 24:33 Conflict Mineral Supply Chain * 28:55 Debt Path to Slavery * 33:28 Malaysia * 37:53 Vulnerability through Migration * 39:56 Seafood * 48:00 What are Rights? * 55:28 Benevolence of Jobs? * 57:49 Thinking in Aggregates
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 35 - "Plugged In" What compels people to throw their money away at a slot machine? In short: design. The design that goes into making a slot machine addicting is deliberate and effective, but restrained in some part by regulation. But what happens when the same tools used to addict people to losing money are released unfettered into products and services we interact with every day, constantly? And how might these tools evolve when aided by artificial intelligence that can customize design for each individual without their consent or awareness? Is such a thing even plausible?
Join us as we explore these questions and much, much more.
Chapters * 03:16 The Slot Machine * 07:31 Time on Phone Numbers * 10:24 Addicting by Design * 28:00 Notifications * 33:40 Business of Addiction * 43:09 The Illusion of Choice * 56:23 The Children * 01:00:22 Going Forward? * 01:04:38 Practical Tips and Tricks
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 34 - "Irreplaceable" The expansion of human beings is perhaps unrivaled by any other species. Yet that success threatens to be our downfall. As civilization grows, the wildlife that enables it gets pushed out, and valuable ecosystems are stressed to their breaking point. Worse still, the destruction of biodiversity means the keys that could unlock a path forward for life are lost forever.
How much time do we have to halt the sixth mass extinction before we too drown in its wake? The answer is much, much shorter than you think.
Chapters * 05:40 Human Beings and Our Place on Earth * 09:17 Defining the Anthropocene * 11:19 The 6th Extinction * 18:38 The Greatest Threat? * 21:50 Global Changes are Cyclical? * 26:08 Ecosystems and their Services * 29:55 Biodiversity * 36:30 In Crisis: Insects * 48:09 Our Gardens * 59:51 History of Lawns * 1:07:13 Normalized to Catastrophe * 1:09:05 Crisis: Amphibians * 1:12:55 In Crisis: Birds * 1:18:12 What Can We Do?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 33 - "All Rights Reserved" Ideas have become property. This is the magic spell that intellectual property has cast across our society. Innovation, art, new ideas, and even our culture can be locked behind the restrictions of the law, protected by armies of lawyers, devastating fines, and the full power of the justice system. This system is built for and run predominantly by publishers, not the creators it purports to support - and we all suffer from it.
How did we get here? Where did we go astray and lose control of the very act of creation that defines what it is to be human? This week we explore the foundations of intellectual property, the effects it has had on our history and our current day, times and places where IP is lacking and creativity flourishes, and finally we share our hope for a better future.
This is the most expensive Ashes Ashes show ever and we hope you enjoy and share freely.
Chapters * 01:43 $1 Billion * 04:05 A Brief History * 07:17 Printing Press * 13:30 Statute of Anne * 20:31 France * 23:05 Switzerland * 24:18 The Wild West of IP * 27:05 Germany * 30:23 James Watt's Steam Engine * 33:27 Copyright in the US * 39:21 Modern Absurdity * 44:41 Science and Research * 46:15 The Contributions of Who? * 51:14 IP Costs Lives * 59:38 Medicines and Pharma * 1:05:20 Fashion and Designs * 1:09:46 Technology and Software * 1:13:49 Culture and History * 1:25:21 Whatt Can We Do?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 32 - "For Better or For Worse 2" This week we explore updates to many of the subjects we've tackled so far. Guest host Moriah King joins us as we discuss our biggest fears, as well as updates in government surveillance, water insecurity, automation, financial crises, and so much more. Strap in: it's a few months of bad news all at once (with a little good news and a whole lot of analysis thrown in), but as always we hope you'll be as motivated by these stories as we are to start working towards something better.
Chapters * 03:50 Moriah's Fear * 09:59 Walls * 13:58 Government Surveillance * 30:31 Tracking Children's Faces * 37:46 Automation * 40:28 Debt * 45:15 "Plastic, Walls, and Trade" * 51:30 Heat * 54:45 Water * 1:07:11 Wet and Dry * 1:10:27 Wildfires * 1:13:28 Pensions * 1:14:29 Infrastructure * 1:19:10 For Better?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 31 - "No Entry" Rescue ships denied; children detained far away from parents; smugglers profiting to the tune of hundreds of millions. As crises across the globe drive people from their homes, the nations of the world are stepping up border security and building walls like never before in human history. While walls purport to increase security and halt unwanted people and activities, a closer inspection reveals something entirely different.
In the first of a series exploring the ins and outs of borders, we examine the paradoxes that exist on the margins of the walls that define our nations today. This is a world desperate to resist the powerful forces of climate change and economic collapse (events we directly caused) - and failing miserably. Walls, borders, immigration, what it means to be a human in a global age, and so much more this week in Ashes Ashes.
Chapters * 02:29 Modern Border Walls * 06:37 Paradoxes of Modern Walls * 09:00 US-Mexico Border * 14:11 Walls Stop Crime and Drugs? * 29:39 Dangers and Risks for Migrants * 33:20 Risk the Dangers? * 33:51 Walls and Terrorism * 36:37 Walls Blur Lines * 38:37 Walls and Labor * 51:45 Why Do We Build Walls? * 1:01:11 EU Tension * 1:04:46 What Can We Do?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 30 - "Parched" As always, the world is facing a crisis. This week we explore the exploding problem of water access as large swaths of the world find themselves drying out risking agriculture, industry, and the very water we drink. By 2020, 100 million Indians will find themselves without water - and this is just the beginning of what might be the largest disaster in human history.
Can states prepare themselves for the coming hordes of water refugees? Can civilization survive water hungry industrial agriculture as climate change reshapes where rain falls? Can we act as sustainable stewards of our shared water resources? Or is it all too little, too late?
Chapters * 4:26 Climate Contribution to Water Stress * 7:40 Current Victims of Water Stress * 9:52 Day Zero * 13:35 India * 19:52 Irrigation vs Drinking Water * 21:43 "Migrants, Borders, and Conflict" * 27:48 Ethiopia and African Tension * 32:38 Business of Water * 37:44 Infrastructure and Cost * 39:45 Australia Reacts to Water Scarcity * 41:55 Need for Systems Thinking * 45:25 "Romans, Ancient and Modern" * 47:40 Lakes Disappearing * 49:18 Agricultural Use of Water * 52:48 What Can We Do?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 29 - "War Machine" International calls to ban autonomous weapon systems have done little to slow the escalating arms race between nations to acquire weapons of the so called third revolution in warfare - or simply "killer robots." The intersection of AI, deep learning, and lethal weaponry presents a future of war unlike any the world has ever seen. In the crosshairs of this new frontier of violence we find moral accountability, the ethics of killing, and of course the comforting lullaby that we have any meaningful control over our world.
What will war become when all the warriors are replaced by weapons that "think" but do not feel? Listen in this week to find out.
- 5:10 Arms Race for LAWS
- 8:28 Autonomous Weapons: This Time It's Different
- 15:47 Calling for a Ban
- 28:46 Robot Dystopian Future #1
- 32:03 Is Technology Just a Tool?
- 39:30 Robot Dystopian Future #2
- 42:22 War Business and Following Orders
- 47:12 Robot Dystopian Future #3
- 55:46 Robot Overlords
- 58:31 Sitting on a Man
- 1:01:14 Culture that Outpaces Technology
- 1:03:27 Flaw of Averages
- 1:06:47 Robot Dystopian Future #4
- 1:12:17 Absurdity of War
- 1:16:35 What Can We Do?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 28 - "Debt End" This episode is all about debt. Where does debt come from? Why is the concept of borrowing and lending mired in moral confusion and contradiction? What is the purpose of debt and who ultimately pays?
To get to the heart of all these questions, one has to navigate through economic myth, blood and ultimately the human soul. Join us as we travel back through time and explore the systems that led to this tool that shapes our world for better and for worse.
Chapters * 04:43 Consumer Foundation of Economy Driven by Debt * 07:46 Origin of Money * 13:00 War and the Need for Currency * 20:33 South Africa * 31:30 International Development * 35:20 Blood Runs in Rivers * 38:33 Violence and Economics * 42:44 Haitian Independence Debt * 51:23 Debt at the Individual Level * 53:24 Moral Contradiction: Who Has to Pay? * 59:16 Moral Contradiction: Industrious Poor * 1:00:51 Why Intererst? * 1:04:05 Going Forward * 1:07:27 Jubilee
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 27 - "The Robot Is In" By 2030 over 800 million jobs could be automated globally. While in the past, increased productivity from innovation tracked positively with wage increases and employment, these trends have parted ways. The integration of information tech, precision manufacturing, and machine learning place us on the precipice of a rapidly changing economy - and an end to work as we know it.
Can we adapt to the incoming automation wave, or will we be left out in the cold as the robots take our jobs, our world, and our very ability to survive?
Chapters * 06:47 Obstacles to Total Manual Automation * 10:14 Automation Economics * 11:36 Wages * 14:31 Job Creation * 23:34 Unemployment * 24:11 De-Skill * 30:29 Minimum Wage * 32:40 White Collar Jobs * 45:15 Education Can Save Us? * 52:30 Jobs that Lack Meaning * 1:01:58 Who Paid for Technology? * 1:04:06 Universal Basic Income? * 1:09:12 What Can We Do?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
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Episode 26 - "Barrier to Growth" There seems to be a perfect storm of factors that threaten to completely reshape who owns farmland here in the US and globally. 400 million acres of farmland in the US alone will change hands in the next 20 years, farmers are retiring and there is a much smaller generation of young farmers to replace them, and global investment for agriculture land is on the rise, which will push family farmers off the land in favor of industrial consolidation. Beyond that, farmland is being lost to competing land uses. In the United States, that's between 1 and 3 acres of farmland lost every minute.
To help navigate some of these issues, and as an example of solutions that are being developed and implmented to fight against these trends, we are joined by Ian McSweeney, organizational director of Agrarian Trust.
Chapters * 00:18 Panama * 04:14 Theft As Policy * 07:52 M28,Farming is Hard * 14:45 "Ian McSweeney, Agrarian Trust" * 17:48 Early Work in Real Estate * 20:25 Where Did a Passion for Farmland Come From? * 24:16 "When Community Suffers, Community Farms Suffer" * 24:43 Founding of Agrarian Trust * 28:06 Why Agrarian Trust? * 29:53 Innovation * 31:50 Community Based Ownership Model * 32:43 Land Prices * 35:45 Land Valuation Methods * 40:34 What Does Agrarian Trust Do? * 43:20 Models for Creating Local Communities * 47:57 Ensuring Long-Term Communities * 50:04 Conversations Easments * 52:55 Enforcing Sustainable Action * 55:23 Opportunities for Restructuring Conservation Management * 57:34 Scaling Processing with Land Trust Vertical Integration? * 59:13 Alternative Financing for Farmers * 1:02:56 Agrarian Lawyer Network * 1:06:03 Urban Farming * 1:08:40 Addressing Climate Change? * 1:11:47 Initial Areas for Farm Commons Projects * 1:12:59 Agrarian Trust work going foward * 1:14:08 Next Steps * 1:19:55 What Can We Do?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
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Episode 25 - "Heat Death" As climate change accelerates, much of the media attention is given to effects like rising seas, super storms, and increased weather variability. Often overlooked is the temperature itself and the direct impact warmer temperatures will have on our ability to maintain infrastructure, agricultural effects, our health, and even the very ability to live in much of the world.
As the temperature rises, so does the risk that the very fabric of modern society simply evaporates. Maybe it's time to ask the question, "How hot is too hot?"
Chapters * 08:58 How will Modern Infrastructure Adapt to Heat? * 10:18 Transportation * 17:45 Energy * 22:56 Renewable Energy * 25:24 Animals and Crops * 32:50 Human Health * 44:20 Pakistan and India * 46:24 Wet-Bulb * 52:41 Future Temperatures * 1:01:23 Variable Benchmarks * 1:02:53 What Can We Do?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Listener Correction: Correction submitted by a listener with education in metallurgy and material science, and experience in a metals heat treating facility:
I wanted to correct a small detail in your show "Heat Death". ... You mentioned that rails change crystal structure in increased heat. That is not correct in the environment that rail roads would be subjected to. Steel does not undergo a phase transformation until around 1500 F (slight variations on that temperature depending on the alloy of steel). The friction from the car moving on the rail would not generate that much heat to cause that transformation. Even if the pressures were huge it would actually suppress phase changes. ... What does cause the rails to warp from high temperatures is that the steel expands slightly. The expansion will generally happen in the direction the steel was rolled during manufacturing. Miles and miles of rails expanding along the track direction generates enough compressive stress for the steel to buckle outwards. This expansion isn't the crystal structure changing, but atoms just becoming more energetic and taking up slightly more space in their lattice multiplied by the huge number of atoms there are in rail road tracks.
Episode 24 - "Suspect Science" The depiction of forensic science in popular entertainment is ubiquitous. We might be lead to believe that the field utilizes actual scientific methods of crime scene analysis to bring criminals to justice with irrefutable evidence, but a closer look reveals a very different story. This week we draw a magnifying glass over this industry rife with broken incentives, subjective guesswork, and willful negligence. Our entire justice system will need a massive restructuring if there can be any hope of preventing innocent people from being sent to prison - or worse.
Can law and order be saved or is the system and its methods rotten to the core?
Chapters A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
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Episode 23 - "The Best of Times..." We frequently hear that this is the greatest time in human history, that we've never had it this good before. And actually that's absolutely true - if you're one of the wealthy few that can take advantage of the system. But for the rest of humanity, and make no mistake it's the vast majority of the earth's population, things are rough and frequently getting worse.
Join us this week as we scratch the surface of this story of two worlds, of the haves and havenots.
Chapters * 03:33 Work Hours * 05:52 Quality of Life * 06:51 Poverty * 09:40 $2 A Day * 10:57 Well Being * 13:01 Debt * 18:39 The Debt and Prison Pipeline * 25:24 Inequality * 30:12 Health Trends * 35:58 Work Kills * 43:53 Modern Violence * 48:14 The Needs that Drive Us * 50:38 Disconnected: Modern Slavery * 54:26 Life Built on Human Suffering * 55:51 The Purpose * 57:41 Wrap Up
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 22 - "Fashion Victims" What does it take to make a shirt? That question might seem simple at first glance, but as we explored the fashion industry, we discovered a world of environmental destruction, exploitation, and human suffering on a staggering scale. Hidden just out of sight from the cheap clothes we find in our closets and strip malls is a story centuries in the making of struggles that continue through today.
Join us this week as we explore the ins and outs of this dirty industry.
Chapters * 01:53 Scope of the Industry * 05:23 Shift in the Industry * 13:13 Labor * 16:26 Slavery in our Modern World * 20:39 Supply Chain: Raw Materials * 29:30 Supply Chain: Manufacture * 33:59 Labor * 34:24 Police in Fashion? * 37:55 Pink * 39:52 Supply Chain: End of Life * 41:55 Bloody History of the Textile Industry * 45:07 The Triangle Factory * 47:22 Can We Have The World We Want? * 57:38 What Can we Do?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
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Episode 21 - "Clima Ex Machina" The global climate is in bad shape and quickly getting worse. The debate as to how or why is long over (from both data and irrelevance) and the conversation is now turning to "Well what now?"
The IPCC has set down an ambitious plan to get us off our fossil fuel fix, but it involves a lot of unproven technologies to help us stay under 2C. Further, many researchers believe this won't be enough and are proposing their own megascale engineering projects to try and keep Earth from slowly cooking us.
This week on Ashes Ashes we tackle the world of geoengineering, exploring what's realistic, what's likely, and just how much trouble are we really in.
Chapters * 09:26 Cloud Seeding * 11:28 Albedo * 13:29 Stratospheric Aerosol Injection * 15:10 Cirrus Cloud Thinning * 19:48 Accidental Cloud Seeding * 24:15 Moral Hazard * 27:03 Halting Ice Melt * 30:24 Simulate Ice? * 31:17 Addressing the Underlying Problem * 32:08 Ocean Iron Fertilization * 36:07 Colonize Mars * 40:16 Reforestation & Afforestation * 46:35 "Out of Sight, Out of Mind" * 49:38 The Final Frontier * 55:04 BECCS * 1:00:57 DACS * 1:04:46 Just Scratching the Surface * 1:06:58 What Can We Do? * 1:09:32 Close Out
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
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Episode 20 - "Irresistible" Around the world, pathogens of all types are showing resistance to standard treatment. Failure among so called "drugs of last resort," a decline of disease prevention programs, and shifting climate all present ominous signs for the risk of global infectious disease.
Joining us this week are three professors from the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Georgia. All three have experience in antimicrobial resistance and the connection between humans, animals, the environment, and the pathogens that move among us all.
Chapters * 03:07 Modern Medicine at Risk? * 05:54 What is an Antibiotic? * 06:39 Resistance: a Response to Attacks * 10:12 Resistance to Last Resort Drugs * 12:25 Risk of Global Pandemic * 18:08 Resistance to Drugs of Last Resort * 20:08 Pandemics: Multi-Faceted Problem * 20:37 Pandemics: Climate * 25:42 Pandemics: Industrial Agriculture and Food Animals * 28:09 Interview: Dr Credille * 45:05 Interview: Dr Sanchez & Dr. Louge * 1:10:28 China * 1:11:53 Pandemics: Environment * 1:14:39 Pandemic: Socio-Economic * 1:18 Global Prevention * 1:21:44 Disease Surveillance * 1:26:03 Economic Cost * 1:29:14 What Can we Do? * 1:30:38 What Can we Actually Do?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
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Episode 19 - "Life in Plastic" Despite what you might have heard, our life in plastic is less than fantastic. Plastic is everywhere and enables our modern standard of living, but it turns out that this comes at a cost. Recent discoveries have found plastic in the oceans, in our soil, in the food we eat, and even the air we breathe. The health and environmental effects of all this plastic are just beginning to be understood - and it's not looking good.
Join us this week as explore the world of plastics and microplastics and speak with environmental attorney John Parker about this growing threat.
Chapters * 4:48 Where Does it All Go? * 5:11 Great Pacific Garbage Patch * 6:12 What are Microplastics * 7:23 Where do Microplastics Come From? * 12:04 What Are the Environmental and Health Implications? * 12:30 In our Water? * 15:04 In our Bodies * 15:59 Marine Food Chain Impacts * 18:02 We Breathe Plastic? * 18:54 Affects of Plastic on Health and Environment * 23:43 Chemicals In Our World * 28:53 Externalities and Pofitibility * 36:09 There is no Profit? * 43:04 Local Politics and Business * 43:15 Ban on Bans * 44:01 John * 44:42 JOHN: Experience * 45:29 JOHN: Why is it Hard to Get Clean Water? * 46:12 JOHN: New York Doing Enough? * 47:31 JOHN: Proactive or Reactive? * 49:38 JOHN: Where Does Responsibility Lie? * 52:16 JOHN: Importance of Awareness * 54:04 JOHN: Who is Leading Awareness? * 55:33 JOHN: Groups Doing Good * 57:09 What Can We Do? * 1:03:20 Gavin
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
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Episode 18 - "Scripted" What happens when you can't trust anything anymore? That's the question we'll be exploring this week as we look into the world of half truths, lies, bots, manipulation, and our rapidly approaching post truth world. Everything from voice to video to our very sense of self is at stake in this rapidly changing world where the ability to manipulate becomes easier than ever. What does that mean for law, politics, sex, and our culture? Listen in to find out.
Chapters * 05:39 Weird Tech Incoming * 10:30 Reality and Politics * 12:18 Political Armies * 14:08 David Ruined Net Neutrality * 15:44 Erosion of Trust in Truth * 17:23 Centralized Media? * 18:23 Apathy * 19:01 Conspiracy * 23:46 Apathy Benefits Oppression * 26:14 The Role of Bad News * 27:14 Fake Porn * 32:28 Forgery * 33:52 Scamming the Elderly * 34:51 Laser Phishing * 38:20 Perfect You * 42:04 Evidence, Courts, Legal Systems * 45:19 A Silver Lining? * 47:16 Economic Incentives * 48:17 Fake Reviews * 50:19 Commdifying Us * 52:05 What Can We Do? * 55:33 Don't Ask What but Why
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
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Episode 17 - "For Better or For Worse #1" One of our hosts is out of town, so we take this week to explore updates to many of the subjects we've discussed so far. Guest host Moriah King helps us explore everything from the power grid to pensions, state surveillance to sea level rise, and so much more.
Strap in this week: it's a few months of bad news all at once (with a little good news thrown in), but we hope you'll be as motivated by it as we are to start working towards something better.
Chapters * 02:33 Infrastructure * 09:44 Power Grid * 14:43 Preparing for Infrastructure Failure * 17:08 Communites and Death Spirals * 20:10 Pension Systems * 28:15 What is Community? * 31:33 Where Does the Retirement Burden Fall? * 34:02 Government Surveillance * 54:56 Corporate Tracking * 1:06:09 Sea Level Rise * 1:08:21 Facebook * 1:09:13 Agriculture * 1:09:49 Good News? * 1:10:54 Close out
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
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Episode 16 - "What We Reap" Global topsoil is being lost at terrifying rates. So much so that many experts predict less than 60 years left of agricultural yields before the global food system collapses. Add to this questionable chemical inputs, monoculture, and other large-scale industrial practices as well as the dangers climate change introduces to disrupt traditionally fertile regions (decreasing yields further and impacting food nutrition) and we've got a perfect storm on the horizon.
We are joined by Chris D'Alessandro of Harvest Moon Garden & Orchard to discuss organic farming techniques, what it means to form a regenerative relationship with the soil, and hopefully how we can avoid this coming tragedy.
Chapters * 04:51 Unsustainability * 06:25 Can Anyone Farm? * 08:17 What is Topsoil? * 13:12 Soil: Bacteria * 13:54 Soil: Fungus * 16:15 Pear Tree from the Ashes * 18:17 Chemical Revolution * 20:42 Soil: Nitrogen * 26:30 Overshoot and Carrying Capacity * 29:45 Industrial Agriculture * 34:23 Debt Cycle of Fear * 36:50 Financial Resiliency * 39:19 Balancing Large and Small * 40:55 Organic Profitability * 43:49 Input Costs * 44:28 Phosphorous * 45:43 Diversity * 46:48 Weeds * 50:41 Monoculture * 51:27 Honeybees * 56:47 Plant Nutrition * 59:33 Soil Nutrition * 1:01:21 Wine * 1:03:00 Climate Change: Soil Loss * 1:04:50 Climate Change: Heat * 1:06:15 Year Round Growing * 1:08:47 Variability * 1:09:48 Hope? * 1:14:58 Thinking About Technology * 1:18:59 Exponential Growth * 1:21:14 Diversity and Integration * 1:23:52 What is Productive * 1:25:03 Supporting Farming * 1:28:00 The Most Important Question * 1:28:35 More About Chris
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
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Episode 15 - "Terms of Service" Facebook has entered nearly every part of our internet connected lives. Most of us aren't happy with this, but tolerate it as a part of modern day living. But as we dig deeper into this social media and advertising juggernaut, we start to learn that maybe we shouldn't trust Zuckerberg and crew with so much of our world and our own lives.
Join us as we explore psychological experiments, obscene image work farms, revenge porn, and so much more in this episode all about Facebook.
Chapters * 01:17 A Purpose? * 02:42 Why Facebook? * 04:58 Evolution * 08:42 VPN * 10:50 Facebook in Business4 * 13:11 Unfairly Crushing Competition * 17:06 Providing Internet * 22:01 The Internet as a Right? * 24:03 News Feed Algorithms * 35:22 Psychological Experiments * 39:52 Think of the CHILDREN * 41:39 Ethics * 43:06 Slaves to Offensive Pictures * 45:17 Revenge Porn * 48:18 Trust and Security * 49:12 Facebook and Intelligence * 52:55 Censorship * 56:12 Elections * 1:00:03 'Don't use it' * 1:01:38 Ghost Profiles * 1:02:45 Real Life * 1:04:35 A Challenge Resolved * 1:05:18 Question Everything
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
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Episode 14 - "Sweet Release" It's natural, it's delicious, it's everywhere, and it may be killing us. For years, sugar has been overlooked as a serious detriment to our health because of the manipulations of the sugar industry in both science and politics, but the lies are coming to light as the diseases caused by that deadly white powder threaten to overwhelm the health systems of the world.
Can we wake up to the danger this major health risk is posing in time or are we too addicted to that sweet release? Join us this week as we explore the how and why of sugar.
Chapters * 00:20 Progress in the 21st Century * 04:45The Scam * 13:06 "Pure, White, and Deadly" * 14:06 Ancel Keys * 15:11 Seven Countries Study * 17:10 Coca-cola continues the scam in 2015 * 19:54 The Start of Nutrition * 24:18 Pendulum Swings * 27:26 The Failure of the Scientific Method and Industry Infiltration * 30:37 "This is Objective Science" * 33:24 Publication Bias * 36:43 Failure of Politics * 38:52 Local Political Manipulation * 39:52 What Can We Do? * 41:12 Food Access * 43:35 Food Affordabilty * 46:39 Don't Shame * 48:08 Avoid Bad Science
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
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Episode 13 - "Lights Out" What do airports, water treatment facilities, gas stations, and espresso machines all have in common? A dependence on a reliable and stable network of power generation and distribution. In America, and around the world, our electrical grids are aged, stressed, and increasingly at risk of attack. Worse, the centralization and increased interdependence of these grids mean the risk for large-scale failure has never been greater.
If we don't act quickly, the next time the lights go out, they may not turn on again.
Chapters * 00:00 Preshow * 00:45 What is the Grid? * 01:58 Some History * 03:53 The Grid Today * 05:27 Foliage * 07:45 Renewable: Difficulties * 09:40 Renewables: Subsidies * 12:06 Energy Storage * 14:37 Transformers: Ageing * 16:25 Transformers: Raw Materials * 17:19 Transformers: Lead Time * 19:53 Critical Substations * 21:04 Physical Threats * 21:29 Physical Threats: Liberty * 22:54 Physical Threats: Metcalf * 27:33 Transformers: Spares in Reserves? * 29:47 Cyber Threats * 31:42 Ukraine Cyber Attack * 35:09 Incentives for a Cyber Attack * 38:21 How Will War Begin? * 39:56 What happens when the Lights go Off? * 42:15 Electromagnetic Pulse * 43:06 Solar Threat * 44:04 Carington Event * 46:28 1989 Geomagnetic Storm * 48:04 Bureaucracy * 48:29 What Can we Do? * 55:21 Wrap up
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
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Episode 12 - "Up in Smoke" In forests, grasslands, and landscapes around the world, poor wildland management and climate change have combined to produce some of the most explosive fires ever seen. This trend is getting worse, and as we continue to push development into these areas, the need to extinguish fires that threaten human life and property rises. But paradoxically, fighting fires is a big piece of the puzzle in how we got here in the first place.
We are joined by Tommy Nease and Tyler Marlow, both with professional Forest Service experience, to help make sense of this frightening trend.
Chapters * 00:00 The Great Fire * 02:59 Intro * 06:48 The Forest Service * 09:38 Hurry Up and Wait? * 10:26 Engine Work * 12:05 Dangers * 13:44 Hand Crews vs Engine Crews * 14:42 Setting Fires? * 15:39 Prescribed Fires * 16:59 Fire is Unpredictable * 20:16 Too Much Development? * 23:21 What Should People do? * 25:45 Fire as a Natural Disaster * 26:18 Education? * 27:24 Rescuing the Governor * 28:23 Send in the Calvary? * 30:59 Why Should We Care? * 35:34 Send Off * 38:21How Did We Get Here? * 40:24 Climate Change * 44:23 Fire is Good * 46:40 Overcrowded Forests * 48:46 California * 51:49 Slave Labor * 53:42 An Investment that Really Caught Fire * 55:41 Worldwide * 59:58 Climate Feedback * 01:01:23 What can we do? * 01:05:33 Wrap Up
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
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Episode 11 - "Designing Deception" What do suffragettes, cigarettes, Sigmund Freud, bacon and eggs with breakfast, bananas, and a coup in Guatemala all have in common? We'll explore the answer to that question in this week as we look at the lessons from an important man and contemplate the extraordinary effects he had (and continues to have) on our society.
It's propaganda, public relations, advertising and more on this episode of Ashes Ashes.
Chapters * 00:00 Preshow * 00:30 This is Bananas * 09:09 The Man They Hired * 12:26 Mozart Pianos * 16:03 Torches of Freedom * 17:19 Appropriating Social Movements * 18:33 Millienials Love Social Change...I Think * 20:06 Subconcious Associations * 24:56 Manipulating the Media and Press * 27:10 "I'm not affected by advertising" * 27:37 Influencers * 34:12 What Alternatives? * 35:21 Needs to Desires * 37:13 A Diamond is Forever * 38:49 Modern Advertising * 39:53 Business Casual * 44:56 It's Okay to Question * 45:58 How Does This Relate?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
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Episode 10 - "Broken Promises" Pensions have long been considered to be the gold standard of retirement, the treasured benefit of public service and big company jobs. But because of changing demographics, evolving financial environments, and poor accounting practices, these once sure things may soon become a liability. With a reckoning soon approaching, will retirement, the markets, and all of us as a whole be able to survive this ticking time bomb?
Chapters 00:00 Preshow 01:52 The Idea of Retirement is Centuries Old 02:26 History of Pensions in the US 04:46 Decline of Pensions 06:13 Crisis Looming; Dallas Case Study 08:58 Short Term Promises With No Long-Term Sustainability 11:10 Musuem Tower 14:40 What is a Pension Anyway? 17:24 Risky Investments 18:32 CalPERS 21:36 Public Pensions vs Risk Free Investing 23:35 The Individuals 25:23 Wall Street 28:14 Private Pensions Foreshadow Doom 31:07 Where Will the Money Come From? 36:22 Inequality and Discrimination 39:43 A Better Future 40:38 Wrap Up
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
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Episode 09 - "Nothing Left to Hide" The relationship between government intelligence, the military-industrial complex, and big business goes deep. In technology hubs around the world, complex surveillance products are developed and sold to governments that deploy the tech on journalists, lawyers, academics, and their own citizens. How are these technologies spreading and what effects do they have on society and us as individuals?
Join us this week as we explore one of the most heavily surveilled places on earth and ask ourselves how to respond as these technologies increasingly come home to be deployed right here in America.
Chapters * 01:55 A History of Spying * 07:09 Surveillance as Business * 09:03 Ethiopia * 12:35 Mexico * 15:14 Name and Shame * 16:02 Where Does this Money Come From? * 18:06 China * 23:19 Surveillance at Home * 28:25 Affecting our Right to Protest * 32:22 Terrorist or Enemy of the State? * 43:49 Predictive Policing * 49:24 Chicago * 51:37 How Data Could Be Used to Reduce Crime * 56:57 Nothing to Hide
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
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Episode 08 - "A Better You?" Genome engineering, CRISPR-Cas9, gene drives, designer babies, and so much more. Recent breakthroughs have given us the tools and techniques to alter the genetic code of living things around us and even dabble in playing with the very DNA that makes us human. But as the speed of these technological advancements accelerates, we have to ask, "Are we ready?"
This week we explore all this and more in "A Better You?" - an in depth look at gene editing and what this means for us today and the very near future.
If you want to skip straight to the good stuff and avoid the science talk, jump to 19 minutes.
Chapters * 00:00:50 Brief History of Gene Therapy * 00:05:19 What is CRISPR? * 00:08:21 2012 Cas9 Breakthrough * 00:09:51 Benefits of CRISPR * 00:19:18 Biohacking * 00:33:27 Combining Tracking with Genetic Data * 00:36:07 Gene Drives * 00:44:10 Designer Babies * 00:48:09 Unintended Consequences * 00:49:50 Lack of Biodiversity * 00:51:39 Social Conformity, Inequality, and Stratification in Society (and Sports) * 00:57:09 Adapting to Underlying Societal Flaws * 01:02:58 What Could Have Been * 01:04:17 What Can We Do?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
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Episode 07 - "Last Gasp" There's something in our air that's making us sick - fatigue, eye problems, inability to concentrate, headaches, obesity, even cognitive declines to name just a few symptoms. What's more, this health hazard is increasing at an alarming rate and researchers and doctors are only now beginning to understand just how much trouble we might be in.
Join us this week as we explore this rarely reported health risk in "Last Gasp."
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
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Episode 06 - "Dead in the Water" While the ocean may seem impossibly vast, human caused climate change may have begun to kick off a mass extinction on a scale never seen before on Earth. The combined effects of warming, deoxygenation, and acidification are wreaking havoc on these vast sections of earth - and the animals that live in it (maybe dooming us in the process). Join us this week as we explore how carbon dioxide (and our role in releasing it) is destroying the world's oceans and may ultimately leave us all dead in the water.
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
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Episode 05 - "End of the Road" The vital systems we rely on (roads, bridges, buildings, pipes, and much much more) are crumbling and in desperate need of repairs. Worse, many of these systems are coming up on the end of their life and will require trillions of dollars to fix - just to maintain the economic status quo. Funding is becoming increasingly difficult to find, all while costs are soaring. Can we get out of this infrastructure mess or are we facing the end of the road?
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 04 - "Net Neutrality" The FCC will vote on December 14, 2017 on whether to reverse common carrier status for broadband under Title II of the Communications Act. This action will have profound effects on the internet and the way it functions. Join us in this episode as we explore exactly what this means for censorship and the future of the internet as we know it.
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 03 - "Permanent Record" Every minute of your day you're tracked by a host of companies using a plethora of tools and techniques. In this episode, we dig into how this technology has infiltrated the real world, follows you into the digital domain, and shapes the world around you. Join us as we delve into the shadowy reality of corporate surveillance.
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 02 - "Concrete Reef" Sea level rise is happening faster than anyone expected and recent studies show it's only going to get worse - and far worse than anyone imagine. Cities are already struggling to deal with this catastrophe and people are finding themselves having to confront a tough choice: move or prepare for an expensive, disaster filled future. We explore the science behind this climate change fueled disaster and look at what the future might hold for the millions of coastal dwellers in the next 75 years.
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Episode 1 - "Thin Ice" A disaster is happening in slow motion at our planet's poles and climate change is to blame. How long can we survive the triggering of this dangerous feedback loop? In this, the inaugural episode of Ashes Ashes, we explore the melting polar ice caps, the science behind this process, and what that might mean for humanity's future.
A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.
Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.