Thu, 24 June 2010
James Howard Kunstler reports on his recent visit to Berlin, Germany...the one place where people know how to pronounce his name correctly. Thirteen years ago, James Howard Kunstler traveled to Berlin, Germany to research a chapter for his third nonfiction book, The City in Mind. On his recent trip, he discovered that the place has healed remarkably over the past decade. Of course he had to go check in on the Führerbunker which is now the site of one of Berlin's few surface parking lots. JHK notes that history is a great prankster and therefore it's no surprise that while the U.S. won the war against Germany, it's cities looked bombed out. While Germany lost the war and its cities are beautiful, civilized places. Listeners end the show with their reactions to the BP oil spill. Listeners end the show by sharing their reactions to the BP oil spill. Sponsor: Post Carbon Institute, http://postcarbon.org |
Thu, 17 June 2010
JHK examines the tragic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and
the fog of incomplete information that surrounds it. Kunstler sees this
incident as further proof that the peak oil story is real. Now that the low
hanging fruit of our oil resources has been plucked, the paradigms of our
car-dependent society are forcing us to drill under difficult conditions that
are hard to control. The return of $4 gallons of gasoline is not far around the
next corner and the trauma from this event is already provoking strange
emotional outbursts and pockets of denial from the public who do not want to
get off the path of Happy Motoring. JHK also believes that the escalating and
increasing failures of liberal democracy in the U.S. are getting to the point
where American people don't trust the government to be competent anymore. Ecological
disasters are amplifying economic disasters, which are feeding a political
disaster. In the end, this event may accelerate the process of America rethinking
how its living and whether in fact maybe what we're doing is insane, especially
this campaign to sustain the unsustainable which is underway. Sponsor: http://PostCarbon.org |
Thu, 17 June 2010
JHK examines the tragic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the fog of incomplete information that surrounds it. Kunstler sees this incident as further proof that the peak oil story is real. Now that the low hanging fruit of our oil resources has been plucked, the paradigms of our car-dependent society are forcing us to drill under difficult conditions that are hard to control. The return of $4 gallons of gasoline is not far around the next corner and the trauma from this event is already provoking strange emotional outbursts and pockets of denial from the public who do not want to get off the path of Happy Motoring. JHK also believes that the escalating and increasing failures of liberal democracy in the U.S. are getting to the point where American people don't trust the government to be competent anymore. Ecological disasters are amplifying economic disasters, which are feeding a political disaster. In the end, this event may accelerate the process of America rethinking how its living and whether in fact maybe what we're doing is insane, especially this campaign to sustain the unsustainable which is underway. Sponsor: http://PostCarbon.org
Category:podcasts
-- posted at: 11:30am EST
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Thu, 10 June 2010
James Howard Kunstler shares his observations from a recent visit to Atlanta, Ga.
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Thu, 3 June 2010
James Howard Kunstler recently returned from the 18th Annual Congress for the New Urbanism. Agrarian urbanism was a hot topic among many New Urbanists at the Congress and in this episode Kunstler takes the time to explore the topic of food production in cities. Rising energy prices and poor growing weather may lead to global food shortages, but JHK believes that the idea of feeding the U.S. population with rooftop gardens and skyscraper terrariums is absurd. Gardening and even raising certain animals in the city was a normal part of urban life before World War II and we may see a return of some of those practices. But Kunstler believes that it is important to cut through some of the fantasies to figure out what's really possible. We must also be careful not to confuse the urban with the rural. |