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Crazy Town

Crazy Town

Post Carbon Institute 168 Episodes Latest Jun 10, 2026

Crazy Town is a fortnightly podcast that explores the 'Great Unraveling' of environmental and social systems with humor and in-depth analysis. Hosts Asher, Rob, and Jason discuss topics like climate change, overshoot, and runaway capitalism, while offering insights on transitioning to a sustainable and equitable world. The show is produced by Post Carbon Institute, a nonprofit think tank focused on resilience-building.

Episodes

Join the 2026 Crazy Town Hall Jun 10, 2026 01:55 Join your fellow Crazy Townies by registering at resilience.org/crazytownhallThe Crazy Town Hall is a live, online get-together for our most engaged listeners, affectionately known as Crazy Townies. The Town Hall is your chance to hang out with Jason, Rob, and Asher – and your fellow Crazy Townies – as we continue our arduous journey to the center of a collapsing techno-industrial, politically inc
The Hypocrite’s Guide to the Galaxy: Muddling Toward a Sustainable Footprint Jun 3, 2026 01:04:59 Is hypocrisy the one thing that can grow infinitely on our finite planet? When you learn that humanity’s fossil fuel burning, including your own, is contributing to climate chaos, what can you do? When you understand that economic growth and consumption are causing habitat loss and the sixth mass extinction, can you opt out? As long as you are embedded in an unsustainable society, it’s hard not to
The Lighter Side of Dark Ages with Chris Smaje May 20, 2026 57:47 Chris Smaje visits Crazy Town for some farmer-to-farmer straight talk with Jason Bradford. Are these two long lost cousins? Both dropped out of academia years ago to become philosophizing farmers (can we call them “pharmers” with a “ph,” as in PhD?!?). Chris’s latest book, Finding Lights in a Dark Age: Sharing Land, Work and Craft explores how we can move from modernity’s unsustainable political e
Take Me to the River: Getting Rid of Deadbeat Dams May 6, 2026 58:06 People REALLY love their impervious surfaces. Concrete structures practically permeate human-built landscapes. Rather than layering ever more concrete on top of living soils, in waterways, and all over the countryside, what if we re-established our connection with natural ecosystems and put a stop to the concrete madness? One of the most inspiring developments of environmental and cultural restora
Mailbag: The Crazy Townies Speak! Apr 22, 2026 53:12 It’s really refreshing to hear from you, our listeners and fellow strugglers living in high-energy modernity (affectionately known as Crazy Townies). This mailbag episode offers the element of surprise, as it gives Jason, Rob, and Asher a chance to respond with delight and spontaneity to your questions and comments. Join the guys as they apply their dubious intellectual powers, subpar comedic tale
Birdbrained: When Nature and Technology Collide Apr 8, 2026 51:10 What happens when technology and competition start to invade our experiences in nature? For example, what if you’re so focused on documenting a bird sighting in your iPhone app that you fail to appreciate the majestic songs of the bushtit or dickcissel on the branch in front of you? In this episode, Jason, Rob, and Asher explore the world of competitive birding, the relationship between those who
Being Team Human in Crazy Town Mar 25, 2026 54:29 Have you ever had that feeling in your gut, when you suddenly realize that the person you’re talking with might have a screw or two loose? What about when you’re the one others are trying to slowly back away from at the punch bowl? The question of who’s the real nut often arises for us collapse-aware folks living here in Crazy Town. Since Mr. Peanut is no longer returning their phone calls, Rob, J
You Ain’t Gonna Live Forever: The Dos and Don’ts of Legacy Building Mar 11, 2026 40:40 Immortality projects represent an often irrational, and sometimes even unconscious, way to tamp down anxiety about death. There are some shocking examples of people, especially those with lots and lots of money, who try to leave some sort of mark in a futile attempt to keep from facing death. In this episode, we run a special fantasy-football style draft to take a look at immortality projects, som
Crazy Town Classics - Terror Management Theory Feb 25, 2026 01:01:04 What can we learn about death from the X-Men, small screaming rodents, and unwitting college students in psychology experiments? It turns out that the fear of death (or death anxiety) affects human behavior in all sorts of surprising and deeply troubling ways. Especially disconcerting is the way such fear entices people to cling to cultural beliefs so tightly that they will attack anything or anyo
Getting Real about Resiliency with Emily Schoerning Feb 11, 2026 55:21 What if there were a news outlet that actually covered the most important environmental stories of our time? Dr. Emily Schoerning and her nonprofit, American Resiliency, translate the latest and most urgent climate science into useful information for communities across the United States. Jason and Emily discuss the potential collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), the m
Choose Your AI Adventure: Immiseration or Extinction Jan 28, 2026 34:09 Jason and Asher replace Rob with a much more humane and humble co-host, Elon Musk, to explore the feasibility of harnessing the entire sun to power AI superintelligence. We come away perplexed that not much of the excellent reporting on the environmental, energy, and financial risks of the AI boom address the googleplex-sized elephant in the room – that both AI success and failure lead to immisera
EVs on Speed: The Jevons Paradox Strikes Again Jan 14, 2026 43:18 Mainstream economists and environmentalists share something in common. Both tend to tout efficiency -- think better light bulbs -- as the solution to climate change and all our other environmental problems. But the little-understood Jevons Paradox intervenes to overwhelm any progress that comes from improved efficiency. We skewer the efficiency gains of electric vehicles, lighting, and plenty of o

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