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 economy toward a re-organization of society, driven by communities and local food systems. In this wide-ranging conversation, Chris and Jason cover everything from Viking raids to agrarian populism, from societal collapse to the practicalities of making your way in a failed state. And they can’t get away from the shop talk of gardens, livestock, and home economics. Originally recorded on 4/2/26.

Sources & Links

• Chris Smaje’s Blog
• Finding Lights in a Dark Age by Chris Smaje
• Excerpt of the book on Resilience
• Second excerpt on Resilience
• Review: Saying NO to Ecomodermism. Smaje Versus Monbiot, It’s No Contest

Related Episodes

• Episode 98, “Bargaining With Collapse: A Superabundance of Lab Grown Meat and Dryer Balls”

Credits

Production and editing by Alex Leff. Editorial assistance and transcripts by Taylor Antal.

Theme music is “Way Huge” and “Don’t Give Up” by Midnight Shipwrecks, used with permission.

Thanks to all the Crazy Townies, our listeners who are trying to understand humanity's overshoot predicament and do something about it.

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 restoration involves the cleanup of tons and tons of concrete. We’re talking dam removal today. So grab a sledge hammer, a few sticks of dynamite, and a wrecking ball, and come along as we explore the battle between concrete placement and concrete removal. And don’t miss our interview with Tara Lohan, author of Undammed: Freeing Rivers and Bringing Communities to Life. Originally recorded on 3/17/26.

Sources/Links/Notes:

• The Reef Line
• “Underwater ‘traffic jam’ off Miami beach, CBS News, November 3, 2025
• Miami Beach’s New Traffic Jam Frolics With the Fishes, New York Times, December 1, 2025
• We Finally Know Why Ancient Roman Concrete Stood The Test of Time, Science Alert by Michelle Starr, October 29, 2025
• L“Concrete: From Ancient Origins to a Problematic Future” by Mary Soderstrom. University of Regina Press, 2020.
• “Concrete: From the Ground Up” by Larissa Theule. Candlewick Press, 2022.
• “This is the total weight of everything humans have created since 1990” World Economic Forum, December 6, 2021
• “Global human-made mass exceeds all living biomass” Nature.com, December 9, 2020
• “Undammed: Freeing Rivers and Bringing Communities to Life” by Tara Lohan. Princeton University Press, 2025
• Map of U.S. Dams Removed Since 1912
• “Ten years after Oregon’s largest dam removal” Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, 2017
• “‘Salmon Everywhere’ One Year After Klamath Dam Removal” California Department of Fish and Wildlife, 2025
• Undammed: The Klamath River Story podcast
• “First Descent: Kayaking the Klamath River after the largest dam removal in U.S. history” Oregon Public Broadcasting
• Car Free Alliance
• Auto Mat
• Transportation Action Network
• “Stop this destructive, car-centric development” Hindustan Times, December 22, 2025
• Ridges to Riffles
• Rivernetwork Member Directory
• Depave.org

Related episode(s) of Crazy Town:

• Episode 48, “The Taming of the Slough: Humanity’s History of Trying to Control Water”
• Episode 123, “Mailbag: The Crazy Townies Speak!”

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 talents, and underwhelming insights to your Crazy Townie queries. Originally recorded on 3/6/26.

Sources/Links/Notes:

• Tradable Energy Quotas
• Carfree City Alliance
• Braver Angels
• Maclean Art Blog

Related episode(s) of Crazy Town:

• Episode 19, “I Can’t Drive… 35! The Rationale for Rationing”
• Episode 45, “Feedback Loops and Climate Catastrophe, or… the Story of the Baseball Bloodbath”

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 love nature and the technology they use to connect to it, and how even the most gentle of shared passions can get corrupted by status-fueled competition. Bear with us through the maddening tech and over-the-top competition as we rediscover how to observe and just exist within our home ecosystems. Originally recorded on 3/5/26.

Sources/Links/Notes:

• Holding the Fire
• Owen Reiser, Listers: A Glimpse Into Extreme Birdwatching, 2025
• David Frankel, The Big Year, 2011 film
• Nature photographer Hannah Seilhan

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, Jason, and Asher invite Douglas Rushkoff, media theorist, professor, and host of the Team Human Podcast to answer the question. In this far ranging conversation, they discuss why “leveling down” might be the best strategy for navigating late stage capitalism and bringing ourselves back into right relationship with each other and the planet. Originally recorded on 2/24/26.

Sources/Links/Notes:

• Team Human
• Douglas Rushkoff YouTube Channel
• Douglas Rushkoff, “You Are Not Crazy,” Substack, January 7, 2026
• Douglas Rushkoff, “Survival of the Richest,” Medium, July 5, 2018
• Jesse Armstrong, Mountainhead, 2025 film
• Dan Fogelman, Paradise, Hulu, 2025 series
• Prospera
• Neom
• California Forever
• Jack Manno, Privileged Goods, 1999 book

Related episode(s) of Crazy Town:

• Tech Bros on Acid with Douglas Rushkoff (Bonus episode of Crazy Town)
• It’s All Paradox with Douglas Rushkoff (Bonus episode of Crazy Town)

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, some horrendous, but some with positive effects. Originally recorded on February 6, 2026.

Sources/Links/Notes:

• Adam McCay, The Big Short, 2015 film
• Henry VIII
• Gabriella Angeleti, “Two men sentenced to prison time for vandalising Nevada petroglyphs,” The Art Newspaper, November 10, 2022
• Owen Clarke, “A Utah Woman Must Pay $15,000 in Fines for Vandalizing Ancient Petroglyphs,” Outside Magazine, November 20, 2025
• Lehman’s Catalog
• John Prine, “Paradise” 1971 song
• X post on Brian Johnson’s erections, February 11, 2024
• Epic of Gilgamesh
• Tompkins Conservancy and Patagonia National Park
• Instituto Terra
• Eric Grundhauser, “Visit a Beard That Killed Its Owner,” Atlas Obscura, January 26, 2018
• Raoul Wallenberg

Related episode(s) of Crazy Town:

• Crazy Town Classics “Terror Management Theory”
• Episode 51, “A Load of Papal Bull: Greenlighting Colonization and the Mindset of Extraction”
• Episode 54, “Colonizing the Sky: The Untold Environmental Toll of Skyscrapers”
• Episode 92, “Escaping Otherism: Why Dr. Seuss Could Never Find a Rhyme for Genocide”

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 anyone they perceive as a threat to their beliefs. And extra-super-duper disconcerting is how unaware most of us are that we are susceptible to such bad behavior when we’re reminded that one day we’ll die. Follow Jason, Rob, and Asher as they try not to deny climate change, vilify any out-groups, or assault one another while diving into the topic of death. In the Do-the-Opposite segment, Michael Hebb (author of Let’s Talk about Death over Dinner) shares wisdom for developing a healthier relationship with death. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website. Originally recorded on December 22, 2020.

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 merits of mitigation versus adaptation, and how to take meaningful action in your own community. Originally recorded on 12/22/25.

Sources/Links/Notes:

• American Resiliency
• Mark Rober YouTube Channel
• Sixth National Climate Assessment, International Panel on Climate Change

Related episode(s) of Crazy Town:

• Episode 8, “Mosquito-Flavored Popcorn, or What Climate Scientists Are Getting Wrong”
• Episode 34, “Fear of Death and Climate Denial, or… the Story of Wolverine and the Screaming Mole of Doom”
• Episode 37, “Discounting the Future and Climate Chaos, or… the Story of the Dueling Economists”
• Episode 45, “Feedback Loops and Climate Catastrophe, or… the Story of the Baseball Bloodbath”
• Episode 77, “The Elon Musk Episode about Elon Musk Brought to You by Elon Musk”
• Episode 97, “The House Is Quite Literally on Fire: Peter Kalmus on the Climate Emergency Hitting Home”

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 immiseration. Originally recorded on 12/3/25.

Sources/Links/Notes:

• “Colossus 1” Search Engine podcast, November 21, 2025
• “Colossus 2” Search Engine podcast, November 21, 2025
• Episode 77, "The Elon Musk Episode about Elon Musk Brought to You by Elon Musk", Crazy Town podcast, June 14, 2023
• “Elon Musk on DOGE, Optimus, Starlink Smartphones, Evolving with AI, Why the West is Imploding” All In podcast, September 9, 2025
• “Is there an A.I. Bubble? And What if It Pops?” The Daily, November 20, 2025
• Hanna Rosin, The Atlantic, “What If AI Is a Bubble?” The Atlantic, November 13, 2025

Related episode(s) of Crazy Town:

• Episode 77, “The Elon Musk Episode about Elon Musk Brought to You by Elon Musk”
• Episode 84, “Escaping Technologyism: Dreams of AI Sheep and the Deadliest Word in Film History”
• Episode 101 “Even AI Chatbots Hate Us: The Rise of the New Luddites, with Brian Merchant”

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 other sectors, and we cover ideas for avoiding the efficiency trap, including unveiling our new political platform, which is sure to take the country by storm.

Sources/Links/Notes:

• Jason Barlow, "EVs Have Gotten Too Powerful," Wired, September 19, 2025.
• Russ Heaps, "Heaviest Electric Vehicles of 2025," Kelley Blue Book, April 7, 2025.
• Wikipedia article on energy efficiency in transport that includes a table that compares many modes of transport
• William Stanley Jevons, The Coal Question: An Inquiry concerning the Progress of the Nation, and the Probable Exhaustion of our Coal-mines (London: Macmillan and Co., 1866). 2nd edition, revised.
• Tomas Kloucek, "Darkness as an Endangered Species: Why Light Pollution Matters," Earth Bridge, June 11, 2025.
• Scenic America, "Billboards in the Sky: The Hidden Culprit Behind Light Pollution," July 30, 2025.
• Prepared Mind, "Welcome to the Great Unraveling (Tapestry Cloud Style Reweaving Polycrisis into Polyopportunity," June 20, 2025.
• 2,000 Watt Society
• Calculate your ecological footprint.

Related episode(s) of Crazy Town:

• Episode 3, "One Point Twenty-One Jigawatts"
• Episode 19, "I Can’t Drive... 35! The Rationale for Rationing"
• Episode 101, "Even AI Chatbots Hate Us: The Rise of the New Luddites, with Brian Merchant"

Picture the future 100 years from now. What do you imagine? Flying cars? Space colonies? AI talking toasters?

But if we can’t sustain an endlessly growing economy - even with a transition to green energy - what does a realistic and positive future look like?

Alex Leff of the Human Nature Odyssey podcast joins Jason, Rob, and Asher to imagine life in the 22nd century: walking from our family farms into communal villages, living off the land in a low-energy lifestyle, taming our pet donkeys, and resisting our local warlords.

It’s not the future the movies told us to expect. But it might be a future we enjoy living in.

Sources/Links/Notes:

• Human Nature Odyssey podcast