KunstlerCast - Conversations: Converging Catastrophes of the 21st Century
James Howard Kunstler, author of The Geography of Nowhere, The Long Emergency, and World Made By Hand, takes on the converging catastrophes of the 21st century. Features a new guest each episode. (Note: Episodes 1 - 214 featured conversations between Duncan Crary and JHK during the years 2008 through 2012 and focused on the topics of suburban sprawl, disposable architecture and the end of the cheap oil era.)

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Direct download: KunstlerCast_109.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:00am EST

James Howard Kunstler believes that the virtual is not an adequate replacement for the authentic. In spite of how appealing and ingenious we may find virtual life, it is not as good as real life. Kunstler calls the Internet "the world's most amazing distraction from reality that has ever been invented" and he notes that it appeared just at a time when we are in desperate need to attend to the major troubles facing our society. Online spaces now serve as our "third place," but that often occurs at the expense of our tangible public realm. Kunstler says the sense of place in the U.S. was severely damaged well before the Internet came along, but he wonders if there is a link between our impoverished public realm and our increasing desire to inhabit the Internet landscape. Other areas of discussion include: the Internet as "green," the enterprise of "infotainment" and the effects of digital communication on human interaction. Sponsor: www.CNU18.org

Direct download: KunstlerCast_108.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:40pm EST

This conversation was recorded one day before James Howard Kunstler was scheduled to debate Randal O'Toole at Brown University in Providence, RI. O'Toole is a well-known advocate for the suburban living arrangement. Host Duncan Crary chats with JHK about the pro-suburbia arguments in preparation for the debate. JHK refutes some of the major arguments used by sprawl defenders, including the notions that sprawl is good because people choose it and that sprawl represents liberty. JHK also notes that while the infrastructure required to deliver suburbia is extremely subsidized with government money, many sprawl defenders argue against public transportation because it is subsidized. Sponsor: www.CNU18.org

Direct download: KunstlerCast_107.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 4:07pm EST

As NASA prepares to retire its space shuttle program, James Howard Kunstler takes a few moments to muse on the past, present and future of space exploration. Personally, JHK is glad that our government is cutting funding for space exploration. He's not sure what the 20th Century fiesta of technology accomplished anyway. On the topic of space colonization, Kunstler says he fears that humans will make the rest of the universe as bad as Hackensack, New Jersey. He also touches upon the issues of resource exploitation, offloading surplus population, and the wishful thinking that lies behind the space exploration narrative. Sponsor: www.CNU18.org

Direct download: KunstlerCast_106.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 2:22pm EST

James Howard Kunstler continues his virtual "walking" tour/commentary of Baltimore, Maryland. In this tour, he inspects the light rail system, the water taxi and market place in historic Fell's Point neighborhood, and a new urbanist-influenced condo-harbor district. He concludes the tour at the Legg Mason building, a particularly bad skyscraper where JHK delivered a breakfast talk recently to a group of community stakeholders. Kunstler considers buildings like this to be a future liability as energy supplies grow scarce. Sponsor: www.cnu18.org

Direct download: KunstlerCast_105.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 3:19pm EST