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.)

John Michael Greer is a prolific author of novels and non-fiction books about the collapse of industrial civilization. He has a particularly long view of the human adventure and he is always fun to talk to. In this session, we delve into some questions of how technology behaves and where we are going with it in the years ahead.

Direct download: KunstlerCast_262.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:13pm EDT

Join me and Chris Martenson on a journey through the swamps of financial lingo so we might all develop a clearer notion of all that jargon we hear and read everyday in the chatter-sphere of the Internet. Chris is a PhD biologist who dropped out of the corporate gerbil wheel a few years ago and produced a groundbreaking web seminar called “The Crash Course” which helped a lot of people understand how our banking system actually works. Chris himself does two weekly podcasts on his own website, PeakProsperity.com: the informal “Off The Cuff” show and the long-form “Featured Voices” podcast.

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

 

Direct download: KunstlerCast_261.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 3:11pm EDT

#260 — Independent petroleum geologist Arthur Berman says of the shale oil and shale gas scene: “What we’re reading in the newspapers everyday is completely distorted. It couldn’t be more wrong and delusional.” JHK and Art delve into the finer points of the so-called shale oil miracle. Can anybody actually make any money in it? What are the long-term prospects? How are they raising capital to do it? We explore some deep, dark corners of this largely misunderstood phenomenon and its relation to the wishful thinking economy of our time.

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

Direct download: KunstlerCast260.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:57pm EDT

JHK Gets a new microphone and chats with J.D. Dickey author of “Empire of Mud — the Secret History of Washington, DC. For decades during the 19th century, the city was a national disgrace. Unfilled swamps, filthy canals, and rutted horse trails littered its landscape. Political bosses hired hooligans and thugs to conduct the nation's affairs. Legendary madams entertained clients from all stations of society and politicians of every party. The police served and protected with the aid of bribes and protection money. Beneath pestilential air, the city’s muddy roads led to a stumpy, half-finished obelisk to Washington here, a domeless Capitol Building there. Lining the streets stood boarding houses, tanneries, and slums.

Direct download: KunstlerCast_259.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 4:17pm EDT

JFK in free-ranging conversation with David Collum, who calls himself “the Paris Hilton of financial commentary.” Dave is also the distinguished Betty R Miller Professor of Chemistry and Chair in the Cornell University Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. He is a savvy cat and fun to talk to about the disorders of contemporary banking and economics.

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

Direct download: KunstlerCast_258.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 2:20pm EDT

JFK shoots the breeze with Piero SanGiorgio, author of Survive the Coming Economic Collapse, a practical guide. The book was originally published in France and has now been put out in an English language version by Washington Summit Books. San Giorgio has lived in the USA Africa and other places, but currently makes his home in Switzerland.
The KunstlerCast music is “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

Direct download: KunstlerCast_257.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 4:19pm EDT

JHK’s conversation with the excellent John Michael Greer, author and blogger about where we are now on the arc of collapse and what the mood of the culture is. Greer’s many books include The Long Descent, Green Wizardry, After Oil, The Wealth of Nature, and Not the Future We Ordered. His newest, Star’s Reach, is a novel set 400 years ahead in America’s neo-medieval future. He blogs weekly at TheArchdruidReport.Blogspot.com.

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

Direct download: KunstlerCast_256.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 4:42pm EDT

#255 – JHK yaks with Lynn Vannucci of Water Street Press (www.Waterstreetpressbooks.com) about the new model of book publishing in the digital age. Lynn has published four short-form novellas by JHK the past several years. Aspiring writers may be interested to discover that there is more of a market out there for you than the old mainstream New York publishing houses — most of which are now owned by gigantic conglomerates. Writing remains a tough racket, but there are new ways to find an audience.

 

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

 

Direct download: KunstlerCast255.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 3:28pm EDT

 JHK chats with Douglas Kelbaugh of the University of Michigan School of Architecture about Dubai, where JHK recently made a brief sojourn. Doug Kelbaugh was dean of the UMich architecture faculty for ten years. After that, he worked for two years for the Dubai-based Limitless Corporation, which did large scale development projects all over the world, including the Emirate of Dubai itself. Doug lived there those two years and got a firm sense for the flavor of the place. He is also a founding member of the Congress for the New Urbanism.

 

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

 

Direct download: KunstlerCast_254.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 2:25pm EDT

Alice Friedemann insists she is not an academic, but publishes on a wide variety of contemporary scientific issues bearing on the fate of industrial civilization. She subscribes to a scenario that she calls the "fast crash." She worked for 25 years as a systems architect and engineer in the corporate world, or "Dilbert-Land" as she calls it, before dropping out to write full time. Her science and economic essays can be found at her website: Energyskeptic.com. Alice is also a cookbook writer and blogger at the website Wholegrainalice.com She lives in Berkeley, California.

Direct download: KunstlerCast_253.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 10:09am EDT

JHK’s conversation with KMO of the C-Realm Podcast. KMO, who goes by that tag for his public persona, is one of the best interviewers in the podcast world. I’ve been listening to him for years, and have been on his podcast more than once, so it’s a treat to have him on mine. KMO is moving beyond the particulars of the collapse of industrial civilization to questions of what’s next under the circumstances.

 

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

 

Direct download: KunstlerCast_252.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 10:57am EDT

JHK yaks with independent energy analyst and author Chris Nelder about the fine points of making an energy transition (or not) from the current economy into whatever the next one is. Chris is more sanguine about the alt energy future than JHK is, but we have a respectful and lively discussion of the issue from two sides. Chris Nelder is the author of "Profit From the Peak" and "Investing in Renewable Energy." He has worked as a software engineer and technical writer for Microsoft and ran a solar electric installation company before turning full time into the specialized field of energy investment.

Direct download: KunstlerCast_251.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 4:32pm EDT

JHK and Charles Hugh Smith, author and blogger at OfTwoMinds.com, yak about the Deep State, our favorite new word for what used be be known as the Establishment. We also touch on Charles's theory that the Deep State will be willing to "throw Wall Street under the bus" to save itself, if it felt threatened. This is JHK's return to the podcast after several months off finishing the third instalklment of the four-part World Made By Hand series. The title of WMBH-3 is A History of the Future. It will be published in September by the Atlantic Monthly Press.

Direct download: KunstlerCast_250.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 3:19pm EDT