James Howard Kunstler muses on the increasing irrelevance of the two political parties in America. Neither party seems to be truly facing our energy predicament and the coming obsolescence of suburbia. Yet this is with the complete connivance of the voting public, which is too heavily invested in the status quo.

Music featured in this episode courtesy of iodaPromonet.

In this special video podcast edition of the KunstlerCast you can watch and listen to the second half of a commentary track that James Howard Kunstler and Duncan Crary recorded for a soon-to-be-released DVD called The Story of Sprawl. The DVD is being produced by Planetizen.com. Kunstler and Crary comment on The City a 1939 film with a narrative written by the great 20th century generalist Lewis Mumford. In part 2 of the film Mumford pitches the idea for "green cities," but these green cities look an awful lot like suburbia.

For information about this film and to watch a version without commentary, visit www.kunstlercast.com

In this special video podcast edition of the KunstlerCast you can watch and listen to a commentary track that James Howard Kunstler and Duncan Crary recorded for a soon-to-be-released DVD called The Story of Sprawl. The DVD is being produced by Planetizen.com. Kunstler and Crary comment on The City a 1939 film with a narrative written by the great 20th century generalist Lewis Mumford. In part 1 of the film, Mumford provides a nostalgic view of rural small-town American life in contrast to life in the harsh industrial cities and among the towering skyscrapers of New York. Mumford urges viewers that we can build better environments to live in, especially for our children. But we know where that line of thinking led us to: suburbia.

For information about this film and to watch a version without commentary, visit www.kunstlercast.com

This is the audio only version of KunstlerCast #35. There is a video podcast version of this episode as well.

 

In this special edition of the KunstlerCast, James Howard Kunstler and Duncan Crary recorded a commentary track for a soon-to-be-released DVD called The Story of Sprawl. The DVD is being produced by Planetizen.com. Kunstler and Crary comment on The City, a 1939 film with a narrative written by the great 20th century generalist Lewis Mumford. In part 1 of the film, Mumford provides a nostalgic view of rural small-town American life in contrast to life in the harsh industrial cities and among the towering skyscrapers of New York. Mumford urges viewers that we can build better environments to live in, especially for our children. But we know where that line of thinking led us to: suburbia.

 

To watch the video podcast or to watch the original film without commentary, visit www.KunstlerCast.com

James Howard Kunstler is not a hope dispenser to passive consumers of hope. But ultimately he believes that life is moving into a more favorable phase, even if it will be difficult to get there. In this show Kunstler responds to a listener call about our moral responsibility to do the right thing and fix our country. He talks about the importance of cultivating joy in one's life and doing meaningful work. He also shares his thoughts on Sen. Barack Obama's hopeful message and discusses how his own mood has changed since he first wrote The Geography of Nowhere.

Music featured in this episode courtesy of iodaPromonet.

James Howard Kunstler comments on the Great Bailout of 2008 and how we got into the current financial crisis. As the U.S. manufacturing economy withered away, Americans sought to gain wealth by getting something from nothing through Ponzi scheme investment algorithms. By assuming liability of bad mortgages, Congress may be in position of attempting to prop up the value suburban houses. But Kunstler believes the housing values will continue to go down, no matter what happens. And the truth is that we shouldn't want that devaluation to stop because we need to reach a point where the median price of a house is equal to the median income of the average America. The true damage may yet to be seen. Kunstler also explains his meme that the GOP is the party that wrecked America.

( 11 MB | 24:00 mins.)