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Podcast episodes

Check latest episodes from Crazy Town podcast

Choose Your AI Adventure: Immiseration or Extinction

2026/01/28

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, 2025Episode 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”

EVs on Speed: The Jevons Paradox Strikes Again

2026/01/14

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 transportWilliam 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 SocietyCalculate your ecological footprint. Related episode(s) of Crazy Town: Episode 3, "One Point Twenty-One Jigawatts"Episode 19, "I Can’t Drive...

Sane Town: A Realistic Vision of Life 100 Years from Now

2025/12/17

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

Toasting Bread Is WAY Harder Than You Think: The Challenges of a Renewable Energy Future

2025/12/03

What does a livable future look like 100 years from now? If we unlocked unlimited green energy, what would we actually do with it? And are our dreams of a renewable-energy utopia sometimes just as delusional as the old fossil-fueled, drill-baby-drill mentality? Alex Leff of the Human Nature Odyssey podcast hosts this special Crazy Town highlights compilation. Alex revisits some of the most thought-provoking moments from Crazy Town, weaving in new commentary and context. Together, we explore energy literacy, the promises and pitfalls of a renewable-energy transition, and why toasting a simple slice of bread is much harder than you might think. Along the way, we meet an Olympic athlete trying to toast bread with nothing but a bicycle. We also step inside a billionaire’s latest invention—a time-travel device designed to fling us one hundred years into the future. Stay tuned for Part 2, where we take the full leap into the time machine and imagine what life a century from now could really look like in a post high-energy future. Sources/Links/Notes: The Toaster Challenge, Olympic Cyclist Vs. Toaster: Can He Power It?, 2015Tom Murphy, Galactic-Scale Energy, Do the Math, 2011.Tom Murphy, Limits to Economic Growth, Nature Physics, August, 2022.Solar Freakin' Roadways, Indiegogo, 2014Human Nature Odyssey podcast Related episode(s) of Crazy Town: Episode 3 "1.21 Jigawatts: Energy Literacy and the Real Scoop on Fossil Fuels" Episode 5 "Solar Freakin' Roadways: How Technological Optimism Undermines Sustainability" Episode 106 "Blinded by the Light - Facing Reality with Renewable Energy" ADDITIONAL MUSIC Modified version of "Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30" by Strauss, from classicals.de — licensed under CC BY 4.0

Worried about the Future? Join the Club

2025/11/19

There’s the book club, the Rotary Club, the Mickey Mouse Club, and the club sandwich. Whatever your preference, you might want to think about joining a club. Social clubs, fraternal orders, and the like have had a storied and critical role in public life. That is, until government programs and technology gave us an out from having to deal with each other. But with modernity failing, will clubs and community organizations make a huge comeback? In this episode we explore club life – past, present, and future, if there is one. Originally recorded on 11/6/25. Sources/Links/Notes: Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, Simon & Schuster, 2000.John Michael Greer, "Secret Handshakes," The Archdruid Report, January 21, 2010. Related episode(s) of Crazy Town: Episode 65, "Why the Polycrisis Is a Statistical Anomaly: The Willful Delusions of the World’s Leading Pseudointellectual"

Searching for the Golden Toad with Kyle and Trevor Ritland

2025/11/05

Frog and Toad Are Friends, at least according to a venerable children’s book. And so are Jason (Crazy Town’s resident biology nerd) and conservationist brothers, Kyle and Trevor Ritland, authors of The Golden Toad: An Ecological Mystery and the Search for a Lost Species. The three eco-explorers connect over wondrous habitats and critters in Costa Rica's cloud forest and swap stories that cover Lazarus species, global pandemics, self-taught naturalists, birding, and even pregnancy tests. Spliced into the nostalgia and stories are reflections on how to cope in a world where biodiversity is declining and how to regain the connections that modernity has severed between humanity and wild nature. Originally recorded on 10/9/25. Sources/Links/Notes: Kyle and Trevor Ritland, The Golden Toad: An Ecological Mystery and the Search for a Lost Species, Diversion Books, 2025.Adventure Term, Kyle and Trevor's nonprofit experiential learning initiative Related episode(s) of Crazy Town: Episode 40, "Nature Detachment and Ecocide, or… the Story of the Marauding Mountain Lion"Episode 49, "A Day at the Zoo Is No Walk in the Park: Humanity’s Overexploitation of Animals and Nature"

Unsung Heroes: Sustainability Gurus Who Influenced the Crazy Town Worldview

2025/10/22

Some key understandings in Crazy Town: the Earth is finite; the economy cannot grow forever; people can harm ecosystems and cause global warming; physics, chemistry, and biology are real; inequality hurts everyone; healthy humans need community, and it’s more fun to laugh than to cry. But where did principles like these originate? In this episode, Jason, Asher, and Rob use the format of a fantasy football draft to pick the pundits who most influenced their thinking on sustainability, resilience, community, science, economics, and politics. Like starry-eyed fanboys (but hopefully a bit more articulate) they gush over their heroes and tell behind-the-scenes stories about how they came to be influenced. And they ask listeners to share their top picks for influencers (in the best sense of the term). Originally recorded on 9/29/25. Visit Crazy Town on the web.

Burned by Billionaires, with Chuck Collins

2025/10/08

Billionaires. They should be objects of scorn rather than envy. While they ride around in their super-yachts and private jets, producing the climate-damaging pollution of entire nations, they’re doing things to extract even more wealth, harm your health, diminish democracy, and rig the whole system in their favor. How did this happen? Why do we tolerate it? How can we stop the billionaires? And can we get a hold of our own super-yacht for Crazy Town pleasure cruises? Chuck Collins returns to Crazy Town to offer insights from his new book, Burned by Billionaires: How Concentrated Wealth and Power Are Ruining Our Lives and Planet. Originally recorded on 10/3/25. Sources/Links/Notes:Chuck Collins, Burned by Billionaires: How Concentrated Wealth and Power Are Ruining Our Lives and Planet, The New Press, October 2025.Chuck Collins, Born on Third Base: A One Percenter Makes the Case for Tackling Inequality, Bringing Wealth Home, and Committing to the Common Good, Chelsea Green Publishing, September 2016.Chuck Collins, The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions, Polity, January 2022. Related episode(s) of Crazy Town:Episode 10, "Tackling Inequality, One Pair of Lederhosen at a Time"Episode 43, "Overproduction of Elites and Political Upheaval, or... the Story of Rich People Doing Stupid Things"

Crazy Town Classics - Maximum Power and Scarcity, or... the Story of the Birdbrained Backhoe on the Beach

2025/09/24

The “maximum power principle” may sound like the doctrine of an evil supervillain, but it actually applies to all living creatures. The principle states that biological systems organize to increase power whenever constraints allow. Given the way humans adhere to this principle, especially by overexploiting fossil fuels, we often do behave like supervillains, wielding power in wildly irresponsible ways and triggering climate change, biodiversity loss, and other aspects of our sustainability predicament. Sometimes it seems like we’re using a backhoe to dig our own grave. Fortunately, once you understand efficiency and its different flavors, you can see opportunities to optimize power rather than maximize it. While considering the outlook for humanity, the Crazy Townies ponder a weird question: are we smarter than reindeer? Richard Heinberg, author of Power: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival, joins the team to share his research on how people can optimize power. Originally recorded on May 6, 2021. Sources/Links/Notes: Richard Heinberg’s book is Power: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival.John DeLong’s definition of the maximum power principle is that biological systems organize to increase power whenever the system constraints allow.DeLong also wrote: “The maximum power principle predicts the outcomes of two-species competition experiments“.Statistics on the Bagger 293 bucket-wheel excavatorDams powered airplane and ship building in the Pacific Northwest (Bonneville and Grand Coulee Dams).The cross-Atlantic sailing voyage of Greta ThunbergShort comic with the story of reindeer on St. Matthew IslandEpisode of the Radiolab podcast with a wild story about mTOR Support the show

Et Tu, Bhutan? Cryptocurrency and Late-Stage Capitalism

2025/09/10

Maximize profits, exploit nature, hoard money, and, like Buzz Lightyear, grow the economy to infinity and beyond! That’s the modern economic playbook. But for decades, one renegade country has taken a contrarian stance that actually cares about people’s wellbeing and environmental health: the Himalayan nation of Bhutan. When Bhutan embraced “Gross National Happiness” and a sane notion of progress, environmentalists and social reformers rejoiced. They spotlighted Bhutan as an example of how we can build a better economy. But now it seems that no one can escape the gravity field of techno-capitalism’s black hole of cryptocurrency and bullshit investments. In today’s episode, we explore Bhutan’s dark turn and go on the hunt for other examples of nations doing things to curb overexploitation of people and the planet. Originally recorded on 7/21/25. Visit Crazy Town on the web. Sources/Links/Notes: To be fair, Bhutan is still working on Gross National Happiness. In fact, there's a Global GNH Forum being staged November 7-12, 2025 in Dungkar Dzong, Paro, Bhutan.Steven Anderson, "Bhutan Uses Bitcoin to Boost Salaries and Curb Brain Drain," The Currency Analytics, April 15, 2025.The creation of Nunavut Related episode(s) of Crazy Town: Episode 37, "Discounting the Future and Climate Chaos" Support the show

Artifacts of Collapse: Touring the Crazy Town Museum

2025/08/27

In this episode we travel in time to the year 2125, to visit the Crazy Town museum, which showcases today’s world of wanton consumption and profligate waste. How will humans in 2125 – if there are any of us left – judge the things everyone sees as normal today? Jason, Rob, and Asher take turns serving as expert curators of this future museum, nominating items that best encapsulate how foolish and environmentally ruinous our priorities are. At the end we call on you, dear listener, to share what you would include in the museum. Originally recorded on 7/11/25. Visit Crazy Town on the web. (Spoiler Alert) View Artifacts in the Museum: Sportscar hopping from skyscraper to skyscraper (from the movie Furious 7)"Ronnie Fieg Has Mastered The Art Of Collecting" in Haute MagazineEcho PB-9010T backpack leaf blowerSoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, CaliforniaRonald Reagan’s 1985 inaugural addressBarbie Pool Party PlaysetThe world's biggest landfill in Las Vegas, NevadaThe world's largest cruise ship, Royal Caribbean Icon of the SeasJimmy Dean blueberry pancakes and sausage on a stick Support the show

Crazy Town Classics - Net Energy and Sustainability, or… the Story of the Overstuffed Strongman

2025/08/13

All of humanity’s feats, whether a record-setting deadlift by the world’s strongest man or the construction of a gleaming city by a technologically advanced economy, originate from a single hidden source: positive net energy. Having surplus energy in the form of thirteen pounds of food per day enables a very big man, Hafthor Bjornsson, to lift very big objects. Similarly, having surplus energy in the form of fossil fuel enables very big societies to build and trade very big piles of stuff. Maybe Hafthor has a rock-solid plan for keeping his dinner plate well stocked, but no society seems ready to have a mature conversation about how our sprawling cities and nations will manage as net energy declines. Calling our conversation “mature” might be a stretch, but at least we’re willing to address climate change, sustainability, and the rest of the net energy conundrum head on. Alice Friedemann, author of Life after Fossil Fuels, joins the conversation. Originally recorded on April 10, 2021. Support the show

Just One Word: Microplastics, with Matt Simon

2025/07/30

Put on your best polyester pants, grab a bunch of gleaming mylar balloons, and crack open a case of bottled water. In today's episode, we're entering the plastic world of plastic pollution in all its glorious plasticity. We're on the hunt for microplastics – and we won’t have to go very far, as they're present everywhere – in the soil, in the water, in the air, and in our bodies. We'll be looking for systemic solutions and talking with Matt Simon, author of the book A Poison Like No Other. Originally recorded on 7/10/25. Visit Crazy Town on the web. Sources/Links/Notes: Matt Simon, A Poison Like No Other: How Microplastics Corrupted Our Planet and Our Bodies, Island Press, October 27, 2022.Katie Okamoto, "Microplastics Are Everywhere. Here’s How to Avoid Eating Them." New York Times, April 21, 2025.Ocean Cleanup (large organization with a popular, but frustrating, ecomodernist approach to plastic pollution).Jen Fela, "Global Plastics Treaty Delayed, but Not Defeated," Earth Island Journal, December 11, 2024. Related episode(s) of Crazy Town: Episode 84, "Escaping Technologyism" Support the show

Crazy Town Classics - Lord of the Swans: The Tragedy of the Enclosure of the Commons

2025/07/16

The “tragedy of the commons” is an idea that has so thoroughly seeped into culture and law that it seems normal for people and corporations to own land, water, and even whole ecosystems. But there’s a BIG problem: the “tragedy” part of it has been debunked – it really should be the triumph of the commons. Learn the origin story of privatization and explore the true meaning of commons and how to manage them for sustainability and equity. Also check out our suggestions for championing the commons (beyond Robin Hood’s strategy of stabbing the aristocracy). Originally recorded on 2/10/22. Sources/Links/Notes:The oddity of the queen’s ownership of swansMore about the swansAn Act Concerning Swans (1482)Simon Fairlie wrote the article “A Short History of Enclosure in Britain” in The Land (2009). Briony McDonagh and Carl Griffin wrote “Occupy! Historical geographies of property, protest and the commons, 1500-1850,” Journal of Historical Geography (2016).Stephen Knight of the University of Melbourne writes about Robin Hood and the Forest Laws.Stephen Quilley & Katharine Zywert wrote the article “Livelihood, Market and State: What Does a Political Economy Predicated on the ‘Individual-in-Group-in-Place’ Actually Look Like?,” Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(15), pages 1-23, July 2019.Munro Fraser and Thomas Mande wrote a report called The Commons in a Wellbeing Economy, a briefing paper published by the Wellbeing Economy Alliance.David Bollier wrote the outstanding and super-readable book The Commoner’s Catalog for Changemaking: Tools for the Transitions Ahead. On the Commons has been helping to build a commons movement since 2001. Peter Barnes has written many articles and books about property rights and the commons.“Elinor Ostrom’s 8 rules for managing the commons” based on Derek Wall’s book Elinor Ostrom’s Rules for Radicals Support the show

Will Trump's Tariffs Fuel or Foil the Degrowth Movement?

2025/07/02

As Trump’s tariffs kick in, the Republican party is suddenly spouting anti-consumerist rhetoric that would make the Lorax smile. Should we cheer on this accidental experiment in economic shrinkage, or will this ham-fisted set of trade policies cause a backlash against the proponents of degrowth? As political confusion reigns, we offer eco-localism as the no-regrets way to build community resilience in the face of unprecedented ineptitude that probably won’t go away anytime soon. Originally recorded on 6/16/25. Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language. Sources/Links/Notes: Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, Abundance, Avid Reader Press, March 2025.UN Alliance For Sustainable Fashion addresses the damage of ‘fast fashion’Kelsey Piper, "Trump’s bizarre new push to make us poorer," Vox, February 7, 2025.Kenneth Pucker, "Lessons From Trump’s Degrowth Experiment," Business of Fashion, May 9, 2025.Kenneth Bradsher, "China’s Chokehold on This Obscure Mineral Threatens the West’s Militaries," New York Times, June 9, 2025.Adam Tooze, "Trump's futurism: Elon's rockets and fewer dolls for "baby girl," Chartbook, May 6, 2025."The End of Fast Fashion?," The Daily, May 15, 2025.Kurt Cobb, "Trade war vise grip: China is squeezing rare earth supply and it’s hurting," Resilience, June 8, 2025."Derek Thompson: Trump's War on Dolls," The Bulwark, May 2, 2025.Richard Heinberg, "How Eco-Localism Differs from Tariff Terrorism," Resilience, April 17, 2025. Related episode(s) of Crazy Town: Episode 86, "Escaping Growthism"Episode 94, “Breaking News: Crazy Town joins the newly formed Department of Entropy” Support the show

vegsister 2025/07/28

Making guilt trips fun

"Air conditioning is cooling off my little enclosed space by heating up the rest of the world" is now burned into my soul with the force of 1000 Catho...

Little Brook Farm 2025/06/10

A little bit of sanity in a crazy town.

It’s hard to overstate how isolating it can be to feel like you’re sitting in an audience at a play production and everyone but you thinks it’s real. ...

Quicktricker 2025/05/27

Bespoke

I never knew! Thank you! It’s cotton ball crazy!!

KarenOle 2025/01/07

Antidpressant Effect

My son, a long time listener and fan, recommended this podcast. I love it! It is saving my sanity and my sense of humor. These podcasters refreshi...

Howie in the 505 2024/04/10

A lifeline on a burning planet

In an era of complacent ignorance, Crazy Town provides me with a lifeline to not only keep my head up, but even get into some good trouble. Delightful...

-on 2024/03/24

Comic relief about the end of the world as we know it.

I do recommend this podcast to everyone concerned about the future. They question the absurd world we live in—CrazyTown—which is the only sane thing t...

WillPowers13 2024/03/22

Loving the theme of the new season!

I really enjoyed the first episode about industrialism. Since much of it was about industrial agriculture, it would’ve been nice to hear more about lo...

Sunroom Desk 2024/03/07

So glad I started!

These three hosts make it seem easy to describe the insanity of the anthropocene in humorous, yet compelling and serious conversations that tackle env...

burnbizzle 2023/06/12

Great podcast, keep it up

My wife and I love your podcast! You guys are right on with respect to the rood cause of the issues we are causing in our relationship with the pla...

O0bah 2023/06/06

Props from a fan in Albany

Before I even started listening to you guys, the episode titles alone made me pretty sure I would enjoy the show. This was confirmed to be true very q...

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