Sometimes you just wanna hear from someone else. In this bonus episode, Alex Leff enters Crazy Town to introduce his podcast, Human Nature Odyssey. Before playing the first episode of the podcast, Jason, Rob, and Asher find lots of laughs with Alex as they contemplate environmental destruction, gorilla suits, the fate of civilization, tandem bike rides, imaginary games, and how to make a podcast. If you need a little more encouragement to check out Human Nature Odyssey, our friend Tom Murphy (author of the Do the Math blog) gives it his highest recommendation.

Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.

Sources/Links/Notes:

• Human Nature Odyssey on Apple Podcasts
• The work and philosophy of Daniel Quinn, author of Ishmael
• Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
• Alex Leff’s Patreon page for Human Nature Odyssey

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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 want to help their communities collapse and re-emerge gracefully. Join the boys as they explore what the cult classic Groundhog Day has to teach us about navigating the endlessly insane world of modernity and reflect on key lessons and actionable steps we can all take to navigate the Great Unraveling of environmental and social systems.

Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.

Sources/Links/Notes:

• Trailer for the cult classic Groundhog Day
• Article: "Harold Ramis didn't intend 'Groundhog Day' to be Buddhist, but it's a dharma classic" by Perry Garfinkel in Lion's Roar
• Article: "Was Modernity Inevitable?" by Tom Murphy in Do the Math
• Article: "Hospicing Modernity: Not a new idea" by Eliza Daley in Resilience
• Article: "Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System" by Donella Meadows, published by the Donella Meadows Project
• Multisolving Institute
• Book: A Darwinian Survival Guide: Hope for the Twenty-First Century by Daniel R. Brooks and Salvatore J. Agosta, published by MIT Press

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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 other one another as they explore the roots and consequences of othering, and the ins and outs of belonging as a key organizing principle of society.

Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.

Sources/Links/Notes:

• Wes Tank rapping Fox in Socks
• The Sneetches and Other Stories by Dr. Seuss
• Definition of othering from the Canadian Museum for Human Rights
• Stereotype Content Model
• Susceptibility to othering
• Othering and Belonging Institute
• Book by john a. powell and Stephen Menendian - Belonging Without Othering: How We Save Ourselves and the World
• Crazy Town episode 51 on colonization and the mindset of extraction
• Seeing White podcast
• Racial Equity Institute
• Colonial roots and other drivers of genocide in Rwanda
• Trump’s reprehensible remarks about immigrants and about liberals
• The dystopian, othering politics of Balaji Srinivasan (article by Gil Duran in The New Republic)
• Christian Picciolini’s Ted Talk about how he stopped othering and helps more people do the same
• Marnita’s Table
• Needham Resilience Network

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