
Crazy Town
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 we’re all deluding ourselves.
Episodes
139 episodes
A Temporary Techno Stunt: Tom Murphy on Falling out of Love with Modernity
Recovering technology booster Tom Murphy visits Crazy Town to discuss his journey from shooting lasers at the moon, to trying to "solve" the energy predicament, to falling out of love with modernity itself. Asher, Jason, Rob, and Tom d...
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Episode 100
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54:21

Eating the Future: The NY Times Goes Full Ecomodernist on Food and Farming
How will we feed people living in the megacities of the 21st century, especially while confronting climate chaos and the depletion of fossil fuels and fossil water? According to the mainstream media: ecomodernism! Massive deployment of technolo...
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Episode 99
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47:00

Bargaining With Collapse: A Superabundance of Lab Grown Meat and Dryer Balls
Do you contemplate topics like climate change, biodiversity loss, and the risk of civilizational collapse? If so, then you probably understand something about bargaining – a psychological defense mechanism that’s one of the five stages of grief...
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Episode 98
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37:32

The House Is Quite Literally on Fire: Peter Kalmus on the Climate Emergency Hitting Home
Peter Kalmus, climate scientist and returning friend of Crazy Town, used to live in Altadena, California, where one of the disastrous Los Angeles wildfires struck on January 7th. Having learned that his former house had burned, Peter p...
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Episode 97
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53:48

The Frequent Flyer Tree: Losing the Last Bit of Sense in the Climate Emergency
In the world of college sports, money talks and the volleyball team walks, er, flies 33,000 miles to play games. The NCAA, like almost everyone else, is playing games with Mother Nature. What do we expect student-athletes to gain from ignoring ...
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Episode 96
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30:28

Shotgunning Hedwig: The Dilemma of Invasives and the Bizarre Decision to Slaughter Barred Owls
The US Fish and Wildlife Service decided to "manage" barred owls by shooting half a million of them over the next three decades. Jason, Rob, and Asher (along with the postal workers at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry) are upset a...
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Episode 95
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33:36

Breaking News: Crazy Town Joins the Newly Formed Department of Entropy
Rob, Jason, and Asher talk about joining the new Trump Administration, at least until Elon Musk eradicates it. They explore the implications of Trump 2.0 through three reality-bending lenses – shifting baselines, entropy, and the upside of down...
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Episode 94
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45:08

Bonus: Human Nature Odyssey
Sometimes you just wanna hear from someone else. In this bonus episode, Alex Leff enters Crazy Town to introduce his podcast, Human Nature Odyssey. B...
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40:11

Escaping Escapism: What a Bizarre Rodent Ritual Can Teach Us About Navigating a World We Can't Really Escape
After a full season of trying to escape more than a dozen evil -isms (fun things like capitalism, industrialism, extremism, and otherism), Rob, Jason, and Asher come to one conclusion: there is no true escape -- at least not for those of us who...
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Episode 93
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1:06:03

Escaping Otherism: Why Dr. Seuss Could Never Find a Rhyme for Genocide
The drive to belong to an in-group and the tendency to observe differences in others are core parts of the human condition. But differentiating can (and often does) turn deadly when it morphs into othering. Jason, Rob, and Asher try not to othe...
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Episode 92
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1:18:34

Escaping Extremism: Slap Fighting Our Way to a More Civil Society
The forces of media, technology, and even the wiring of our own brains seem aligned to draw people toward extremism. But never fear: Asher, Jason, and Rob unpack why we're so susceptible to wackadoodle viewpoints and offer ways to tamp down ext...
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Episode 91
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1:06:33

Escaping Humanocentrism: Why a Slime Mold Will Be President in 2028
The myth of human dominion and exceptionalism is as old as the Bible and as unquestioned as gravity, at least in "modern" society. Rob, Asher, and Jason explore the ways that humanocentrism has come to dominate the planet and our minds, while p...
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Episode 90
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1:10:15

Escaping Individualism: Why Rickey Don't Like It When Rickey Feels Lonely
The epidemic of loneliness isn't just a product of technology or even capitalism -- it has its roots in the same fertile ground as the founding of the United States. And it may just be the most important "ism" of all to escape as we enter the G...
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Episode 89
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1:11:22

Escaping Imperialism: Where Does Darth Vader Get His Lithium?
Perhaps no community has undergone more versions of imperialism than the tiny island nation of Nauru, which has morphed from being "Pleasant Island" to the mined-out home of offshore banks, discarded refugees, and deep sea mining interests. Jas...
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Episode 88
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1:12:54

Escaping Capitalism: How to Replace the "Logic" of Psychopaths, Pharma Bros, and Private Prisons
Capitalism ruins SO many things, from key sectors like college sports all the way down to novelties like people's health and the environment. Jason, Rob, and Asher rely on their keen insight and otherworldly investigative talents to somehow une...
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Episode 87
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1:10:54

Escaping Growthism: Wendigo Economics, Mystery Houses, and Becoming the Bear
Grow or die. It's the governing principle of companies, investment portfolios, national economies, and even philanthropic foundations. Oh, and cancer. Asher, Jason, and Rob lay bare the stats on everything from human population, energy consumpt...
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Episode 86
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1:03:22

Escaping Globalism: Rebuilding the Local Economy One Pig Thyroid at a Time
From the top of a skyscraper in Dubai, Jason, Rob, and Asher chug margaritas made from the purest Greenland glacier ice as they cover the "merits" of globalism. International trade brings so many things, like murder hornets, piles of plastic tc...
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Episode 85
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1:08:09

Escaping Technologyism: Dreams of AI Sheep and the Deadliest Word in Film History
Modern humans have a Stockholm Syndrome relationship to technology, which has kidnapped us while convincing us it has our best interests in mind. But when one looks back at the history of plastics or the current frenzy around AI, it isn't hard ...
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Episode 84
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1:06:47

Escaping Speedism: How to Slow Down and Enjoy the Collapse
Consult your inner tortoise to find novel ways of slowing down and living the good life. In a world haunted by just-in-time delivery, hyperactive business, accelerating environmental calamities, and metric tons of stress, Jason, Rob, and Asher ...
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Episode 83
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1:09:13

Escaping Urbanism: Green Acres, Climate Migration, and the End of the Megacity
Did a whimsical 1960s TV sitcom presage climate migration and a reversal of urban growth? We're not calling for a Godzilla-esque teardown of cities, but climate change is forcing a serious urban rethink. Jason, Rob, and Asher offer visions of b...
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Episode 82
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1:18:43

Escaping Consumerism: Why Crocheted Codpieces Are the Perfect Antidote to Fast Fashion
If American consumers ever come up for air under the pile of crap in their storage units, they find themselves face to face with a materialistic hellscape of megastores, McMansions, endless fleets of delivery trucks, and evil hordes of targeted...
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Episode 81
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1:03:27

Escaping Industrialism: How to Avoid Pancakes on a Stick and Other "Miracles" of the Industrial Age
Jason, Rob, and Asher take a tour of New Caledonia, California's Central Valley, Bhutan, and Cuba to uncover the ins and outs of industrialism, especially as it has been applied to agriculture. Along the way they riff on how the hell we can esc...
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Episode 80
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57:29

Escape Routes: Let's Get the F**k out of Crazy Town
Escape Routes! That's the theme of the sixth season of Crazy Town. We're exploring how to escape industrialism, consumerism, globalism, capitalism, and all the other -isms that are causing a polycrisis of environmental and social breakdown. Mos...
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Episode 79
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51:02
