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Derrick Jensen on Decay, Parasites, and the Wetiko Psychosis
Derrick and I talked at length about some of the subjects within a couple books of his which are not yet published, and the interview ended up being quite unique and broad. He talks about how different parasites and viruses have the ability to take control of hosts, and how human behaviour is affected by this. He also talks about our perceptions of shit and waste and different ways of being in relationship with the earth, and how many Native Americans regarded (and still regard) European colonialists as insane - not metaphorically, but in that their cannibalistic, violent, self-destructive way of life is truly a psychosis for which there is no cure.
Gwen Olsen: Confessions of a Drug Pusher
Gwen Olsen spent 15 years as a drug marketer for some of the largest pharmaceutical companies, before suffering adverse reactions from some of the drugs she was taking, leading her to quit her job. Four years after she quit her job, her neice killed herself, a victim of the very drugs Gwen once encouraged doctors to diagnose. Gwen has since become a powerful whistle-blower, authoring a book called Confessions of an Rx Drug Pusher: God's Call to Loving Arms, as well as speaking on radio shows and events around North America.
Stephen Harrod Buhner: The Lost Language of Plants and the Heart as an Organ of Perception
Stephen Buhner is an earth poet, deep ecologist, and herbalist, as well as author of nine books, including The Lost Language of Plants and The Secret Teachings of Plants. We talked about some of the differences between earth-based worldviews and the scientific, mechanistic worldview, as well as the non-linearity of nature and some of the energetics of life. We also got into talking about the current ecological catastrophe that seems to be everywhere, and how exactly we can go about being alive and response-able in such a painful time.
Richard Heinberg on Oil Depletion, Civilization, and, of Course, Collapse
Richard Heinberg spoke at length with me about his new project, the Oil Depletion Protocol, and discussed different options remaining to industrial civilization at this point in time. He also gave a brief overview of the many problems fundamentally endemic to civilization, and shared his thoughts about what is worth keeping and what is realistic to expect within the next few decades.
John Seed is an Australian deep ecologist and rainforest activist, who writes and speakes extensively on issues relating to deep ecology, and facilitates workshops designed to break people's identification with the dominant paradigms. He is a co-author of Thinking Like a Mountain - Towards a Council of All Beings, he founded the World Rainforest Report, and has produced five albums of environmental songs.
Angela Bischoff
Angela has recently been traveling across Canada on the Healthy Mind Body Planet Tour, facilitating workshops in communities about mental health, the pharmaceutical industry, depression and burnout in activist circles, and more. In our interview we talk about all these topics, and end up talking about how we can stay healthy and active in our struggles... something which can certainly be elusive at some times.
Kelly from Boiling Frog with the Healthy Mind, Body, Planet Tour
Kelly is an instrumental part of Boiling Frog, whose mission is to "Promote and distribute activist and independent media committed to issues such as: environment, social justice, poverty, human rights, war, peace, globalization, and direct action." Along with Angela Bischoff and another friend, they have been traveling across Canada on an amazing and inspiring mission.
Derrick Jensen: The Collapse of Civilization and the Rebirth of Community
Derrick Jensen is the author of Language Older than Words, A Culture of Make Believe, Endgame Volume 1: The Problem of Civilization and Endgame volume 2: Resistance, among many others. He came to Guelph in early April, and spoke at length about the topics in Endgame, including the underlying premises of civilization as he sees it, the futility of non-violent business-as-usual strategies to solve the ecological and political problems we face, hierarchies, violence, hope, and much more.
Derrick Jensen: Civilization's Endgame, Strategies, and Tactics
Derrick Jensen is the author of Language Older than Words, A Culture of Make Believe, Endgame Volume 1: The Problem of Civilization and Endgame volume 2: Resistance, among many others. In this interview, Derrick discusses topics in his upcoming book, including countering abusive power dynamics, fighting back, surviving civilization's collapse, hopelessness, love, and so much more.
Erik Ohlsen: Permaculture, Mystery, and Industrial Collapse
Erik Ohlsen is an Ecological/Permaculture designer, practitioner, and teacher. He is a co-founder of the RITES Project (Return Intentions Toward Ecological Sustainability), Green Bloc Sonoma County, and Adopt-an-Activist. In our interview, Erik explains what permaculture is, and why it is so important in a time where industrial civilization is collapsing. We delve into the mysteries of spirals, the ability of mushrooms to heal the earth, how to reverse desertification, and the potential for us to create cultures of abundance by working with the earth.
Ralph Metzner: Developing Ecological Consciousness
Ralph Metzner, author, professor, and explorer of consciousness, discusses the evolution of the field of ecopsychology, and how civilization steals from us a deep, spiritual, connection to wild nature. He also shares knowledge from his studies of shamanism and how to access knowledge from other realms. Ralph is the author of The Well of Remembrance, Green Psychology, The Unfolding Self, and many others.
Richard Register: Redesigning and Re-perceiving Cities
Richard discusses at length the links between city design, peak oil, climate change, food production, the ineffectiveness of fuel efficient cars, and psychology, and talks about tools we can use to shift the direction cities are headed. Richard Register is a theorist and author in ecological city design and planning, with three decades of experience activating local projects, pushing establishment buttons and working with environmentalists and developers to get a better city built and running.
Craig Chalquist: Radical Ecopsychology
Craig talks about the combining of depth psychology with ecopsychology, and how we can no longer leave seperate the political, ecological, and psychological. Much of this interview explores the ideas within the field of terrapsychology, a fairly new word with very ancient roots. In Craig's words, Terrapsychology describes the study of the presence, soul, or "voice" of place: what the ancients knew as its genius loci or indwelling spirit. This perspective emerged from five years of qualitative research into how local ecological and historical woundings resonate symbolically into the lives of a place's current inhabitants. Polluted bays parallel polluted moods; congested freeways congest the free ways of connection; apartment complexes rise again in personal complexes and places of insulation. |
