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Crazy TownAuthor: Post Carbon Institute
With equal parts humor and in-depth analysis, Asher, Rob, and Jason safeguard their sanity while probing crazy-making topics like climate change, overshoot, runaway capitalism, and why were all deluding ourselves. Each fortnightly episode helps you understand the Great Unraveling of our environmental and social systems and describes how we can make the transition to a sustainable and equitable world. If youre someone who questions the trajectory of society and struggles to understand why most people would rather eat nachos on the deck of the SS Denial than face reality, youll find community and plenty of laughs in Crazy Town.Brought to you by https://www.resilience.org/ and the unconventional minds at Post Carbon Institute, a nonprofit think tank that builds awareness of the polycrisis and prescribes community resilience-building as the most appropriate response.Your hosts:Asher Miller - Nonprofit executive director by day, apocalypse comedian by night. Feels most at home exploring insanity-inducing topics while trying not to spill coffee on his keyboard as he convulses over the latest ecomodernist fantasy. In danger of losing his mind every time he encounters someone using a gas-powered blower to move leaves from one spot to another.Rob Dietz - Jack-of-all-trades environmental scientist, conservation biologist, and ecological economist with a penchant for relating planetary overshoot to the catalog of movie scenes that play on a continuous loop in his colonized brain. Known for inserting random ecological facts into casual conversation, often in Arnold Schwarzeneggers voice. His friends call him pessimistically hilarious.Jason Bradford - Activist farmer and former encyclopedia salesman with a PhD in plant ecology who gets genuinely excited discussing soil microbes and societal collapse in the same breath. Morally opposed to doomsday prepping, but predisposed toward sharing everything he keeps in his bunker, er root cellar, including potatoes, wine, and a 47-month s Language: en-us Genres: Earth Sciences, Nature, Science Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it Trailer: |
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Blinded by the Light - Facing Reality with Renewable Energy
Episode 106
Wednesday, 18 June, 2025
Solar panels and other modern energy technologies can be really useful, but the belief that we can technologize our way to a bigger and better society powered by clean energy is tragically flawed. Asher, Rob, and Jason dig into the up-and-down story of the Ivanpah concentrated solar power plant, review the Harry Potteresque thinking behind complex, centralized power plants, and expose the truth of the energy transition. After they finish making fun of concentrated solar/golf course/outlet mall complexes in the desert, they discuss how to make real progress on energy and sustainability. Originally recorded on 6/5/25.Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.Sources/Links/Notes:Michael R. Blood, “11 years after a celebrated opening, massive solar plant faces a bleak future in the Mojave Desert,” AP News, January 30, 2025.Laura Paddison, "This alien-like field of mirrors in the desert was once the future of solar energy. It’s closing after just 11 years," CNN, February 13, 2025.Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, More and More and More: An All-Consuming History of Energy, January 1, 2024.Rachel Donald, “The ‘Energy Transition’ is a Pipe Dream | Jean-Baptiste Fressoz,” Planet: Critical podcast, March 19, 2025.Drax Power StationU.S. Department of Energy, Facts about IvanpahEnergy Monitor report on the opening of IvanpahLouis Sahagun, "This Mojave Desert solar plant kills 6,000 birds a year. Here’s why that won’t change any time soon," Los Angeles Times, September 2, 2016.Annual carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions worldwide from 1940 to 2024Resources for conservation and local solar power:Solar United Neighbors2,000-Watt SocietyPeter Kalmus, Being the Change, New Society Publishers, July 10, 2017.Kris De Decker, "How to Build a Low-Tech Solar Panel," Resilience, October 21, 2021.Coop PowerSeeds for the SolThe Institute for Local Self-Resilience has a community solar program.Related episode(s) of Crazy Town:Episode 45 on feedback loopsEpisode 60 on air conditioningSupport the show
