KunstlerCast - Suburban Sprawl: A Tragic Comedy
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 month. (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.)

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

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

Direct download: Kunstlercast_249.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 9:00am EDT

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

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

Direct download: KunstlerCast_248.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 2:06pm EDT

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

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

Direct download: Kunstlercast_247.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 2:10pm EDT

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

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

Direct download: KunstlerCast_246.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 3:43pm EDT

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

Direct download: KunstlerCast_245.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:31pm EDT

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

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

Direct download: KunstlerCast_244.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 3:13pm EDT

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

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

Direct download: KunstlerCast_243.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 5:58pm EDT

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

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

Direct download: KunstlerCast_242.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 10:24am EDT

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

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

Direct download: KunstlerCast_241.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:44pm EDT

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

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

Direct download: KunstlerCast_240.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 2:06pm EDT

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

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

Direct download: KunstlerCast_239.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 5:00pm EDT

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

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

Direct download: KunstlerCast_238.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 2:35pm EDT

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

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

Direct download: KunstlerCast_237.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 2:46pm EDT

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

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

Direct download: KunstlerCast_236.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 10:19am EDT

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

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

Direct download: KunstlerCast_235.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 11:00am EDT

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

Direct download: KunstlerCast_234.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 9:34am EDT

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

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

Direct download: KunstlerCast_233.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 11:20am EDT

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

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

Direct download: KunstlerCast_232.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 4:19pm EDT

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

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

Direct download: KunstlerCast_231.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 3:03pm EDT

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

Charles describes it:

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

Direct download: KunstlerCast_230.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 10:49am EDT

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

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

Direct download: KunstlerCast_229.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 11:47am EDT

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

Direct download: KunstlerCast_228.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 10:04am EDT

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

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

    

Direct download: KunstlerCast_227.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 2:57pm EDT

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

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

Direct download: KunstlerCast_226.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 1:29pm EDT

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

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

Direct download: KunstlerCast_225.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:30am EDT

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

Direct download: KunstlerCast_224.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 9:22am EDT

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

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

Direct download: KunstlerCast_223.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 5:08pm EDT

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

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

Direct download: KunstlerCast_222.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 9:14am EDT

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

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

Direct download: KunstlerCast_221.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 2:40pm EDT

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

Direct download: KunstlerCast_220.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:22pm EDT

#219

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

Direct download: KunstlerCast_219.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 6:15pm EDT

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

Direct download: KunstlerCast_218.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 9:09am EDT

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

Direct download: KunstlerCast_217.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:16am EDT

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

Direct download: KunstlerCast_216.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 11:25am EDT

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

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

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

Direct download: KunstlerCast_215.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 10:55am EDT