Episode 107 - "Face Off"

We're back with more discussions about facial recognition and the draconian world we're quickly building. Updating our previous discussion with new information out Clearview AI, the 2020 protests, coronavirus and our new masked world, and much more. We're thrilled too have a special interview with fashion designer, activist, and technologist Kate Bertash to discuss the implications of facial surveillance and how we can start to fight back. A lot to unpack so sit back and hit play.

Chapters

• 04:47 - Intro stats
• 06:23 - What is facial recognition?
• 09:14 - Why should we care?
• 20:20 - Faults in the system
• 35:16 - Clearview AI
• 45:48 - Consumer facial recognition
• 49:40 - Benefits of Facial Recognition?
• 54:37 - Fear
• 56:21 - Facial tracking in the home
• 58:58 - Interview with Kate Bertash
• 01:22:29 - Over-surveillance of communities of color
• 01:29:08 - THOSE WHO RESIST: Artists, Technologists, Legislators

A full transcript will be available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.

Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.

CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 106 - "Human Nature"

This week we get back to the basics with an episode about climate change and the many people waking up to it. Join us as we explore everything from a new European report on need for renewable energy to fuel economic growth to the work archaeologists are doing on how humans have always had an impact on the earth. A dive into humans, nature, and our place in the world.

Chapters

• 02:48 - Progress on 20 Global Sustainability Goals
• 14:39 - Failure to respond
• 19:13 - MEDEAS Report in Europe
• 25:37 - Faith in science restored?
• 31:29 - Short term gains, long term pains
• 39:32 - What's coming: migration, heat, crop loss, and more
• 53:40 - Brazil mayors cut trees for election
• 59:48 - Money is the root of all evil
• 1:01:11 - Debt jubilee
• 1:04:18 - Economic theory disproves climate change
• 1:13:03 - Deep Anthropocene
• 1:33:34 - What to Do

A full transcript will be available soon and detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) are on our website ashesashes.org.

Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.

CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 105 - "School's Out"

Friend of the podcast Moriah sits down with us to discuss life as a grad student during the pandemic. Then, we dive into Wendell Berry, a brief history of the start of some universities, the school-to-sports pipeline, competition in the workforce, and we ask what is the purpose of education anyway? Join us on a meandering walk down the hallway of another broken system (don't worry, we'll be back on this soon for deeper dives).

Chapters

• 03:44 Moriah Catches Up
• 23:47 Degrees for Cops
• 27:16 Profits Over Education
• 30:50 Sports
• 47:24 Packers
• 51:33 What Are People For?
• 01:12:21 Land Grant Universities
• 01:48:42 What is the Purpose?

Detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) are available on our website ashesashes.org.

Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.

CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 104 - "This Land Is My Land"

You might be surprised how much our cities and streets are designed to keep people out. From spikes on sidewalks, baby shark music in our parks, to gates, buzzers, bouncers, water, deeds, and a whole bunch of clowns, and more! Why are our places designed to be so hostile to common enjoyment and peace? Why is it so important for white people to wall themselves off from the rest of the world? What does it mean to live in places designed like prisons on the eve of historic climate calamities? These and other questions are all explored as we contemplate and reflect on the crazy world that's driving us all nuts!

Chapters

• 01:12 Some things that make cities terrible
• 18:58 Exclusion connected to racism
• 35:31 Origins of "Family Values"
• 40:47 Whiteness is self-destruction
• 46:42 Real estate market exclusion
• 1:01:59 Clown Town
• 1:05:01 Clown Music
• 1:13:34 Anti-Cruisin' USA and more examples
• 1:26:57 Gated communities, escapism, and climate change

Detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) are available on our website ashesashes.org.

Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.

CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 103 - "Minimum Justice"

Mandatory minimums, three strike rules, and other similar laws were created to strengthen the "justice" system and make us safer - but have they done the opposite? This week we interview newly minted activists working to free a man caught up in this system and explore in detail the how's and why's of this tragedy of justice.

Chapters

• 04:18 Disparities in Sentencing
• 13:26 Justice for Willie Simmons
• 29:10 Interview Takeaway
• 31:01 The ones who get away with it
• 42:05 Mandatory Sentencing and Unintended Consequences
• 01:09:08 We live in a bullshit society
• 01:18:21 Why do prisons exist? Reading from Ruth Wilson Gilmore
• 01:30:21 "Justice" versus Justice: What can we do

A full transcript will soon be available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.

Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast or follow our live shows at twitch.tv/ashesashescast.

CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 102 - "The Then, The Now, and The Next"

We've been away for a while and this episode exists to fill in the gap. Catch up with us as we discuss what we've been up to, a small state of the world, and the big question of where do we go from here?

We hope you've been healthy, happy, and working towards a better future because we've certainly been (well - maybe we haven't been totally happy).

Chapters

• 01:07 Patreon
• 03:01 Where ya been
• 10:41 Organizing
• 20:47 Daniel and the Land
• 24:17 Quarantine
• 30:33 Work and Connections
• 36:26 What next?

Detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.

Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.

CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 101 - "We Didn't Start the Fire"

Jack from Uni Students for Climate Justice joins us to discuss the bushfires in Australia, some of the resulting political and economic fallout and ways to respond. Then, with fire and ashes on our mind, we turn our attention to the unfolding catastrophes catalyzed by COVID-19, how we are each responding as individuals, and ways to move forward in our communities.

Chapters

• 03:38 Bushfires in AU
• 00:59 Bushfire political fallout
• 13:02 Bushfire perspectives as an environmental student
• 30:17 Anxiety and Agency
• 42:06 Foundations of Power Questioned
• 46:10 NYC
• 51:31 What are our socially responsible options?
• 59:04 Two divergent opportunities presented in crisis
• 01:01:55 What can we do, economic fallout, and more

A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.

Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.

CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 100 - "One Hundred Years of Ashes"

We're incredibly lucky to spend this week celebrating our 100th episode with all of you. Looking back at all the episodes we've recorded, the many systemic threats, issues, and problems explored, we thought it would be a nice change to look forward instead. This week we discuss one hundred years of the future, imagining what that might look like, good and bad, in some of the key areas of this show. What lessons have we learned? What obstacles will we face? Can we really build a better world? In this time of great uncertainty, it's important to look inside and imagine the future we want for the world so we know how to go ahead and start building it.

Join us for Ashes Ashes #100 and to imagine a better future for all.

Chapters

• 05:53 100 Years of Surveillance and Fashion
• 29:40 Social Media
• 34:59 The Commons and Land
• 40:32 Georgism
• 47:36 Mad Mac and the World of Copyright
• 53:21 Economic Collapse
• 59:32 Climate change
• 01:09:01 Hope in Disaster

A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.

Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.

CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 99 - "Collapse Chat: Border Patrol Catch COVID-19"

It's time for another chat show as David and Daniel review more bad news // from the border involving a recent Supreme Court decision // which reminds us to reflect on the real gun control debate not being had // recent labor struggles in education // indigenous activists fighting big gas // COVID-19 aka coronavirus and what we might expect economically, politically, and medically

Chapters

• 00:57 STRIKE!
• 04:07 RESIST!
• 06:03 Border Patrol (again)
• 18:35 COVID-19
• 43:19 Pandemic Economy
• 01:03:39 Healthcare Sucks

A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.

Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.

CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 98 - "Water World (Spoiler: Not So Good)"

The latest IPCC report details observed effects of climate change on the ocean and cryosphere (really really cold places), which are altering the environment from the highest mountain peaks to the lowest depths of the ocean. The implications for our world are significant. The ocean, which has been absorbing 90% of the excess heat we produce, is giving way to critical levels of acidity and hypoxia threatening the foundation of all marine life. Sea level rise caused by melting ice and thermal expansion threatens to transform once-in-a-century sea level events into regularly occurring annual events by 2050. As if that were not enough, arctic sea ice is decreasing, marine heatwaves are accelerating, permafrost is melting, and planet-scale ocean currents are slowing. If you want to learn more, you've come to the wrong place. You'll find nothing here but rants and nonsensical metaphors.

Chapters

• [10:07] Melting Ice
• [22:16] Rising Seas
• [32:39] Warming Oceans, Acidification, DEOXYGENATION
• [44:29] AMOC
• [47:33] Ecosystems, Life, and Indigenous Knowledge
• [01:12:02] What can we do?
• [01:21:19] A Tale of Two Reports

A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.

Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.

CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 97 - "Collapse Chat: Borders, Fires, Viruses, and Cannibalism"

We've published our big border show and now take a chance to reflect on the production (and why it took so long) as we ease back into weekly episodes. A lot happened over the past few months and we briefly address new border developments, the Australian Fires, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Daniel chats about business, Christopher Columbus, and cannibalism and you don't want to miss it.

Chapters

• [00:31] We're back, what happened?
• [14:29] Border news updates
• [23:55] Quick note on bushfires, viruses and coping
• [31:31] Daniel rambles incoherently on business management and cannibalism

A full transcript is coming soon and you can find detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.

Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast.

CC BY-SA 4.0