Banana Town: Where Michael Moore Is Censored by the Left and Promoted by the Right (Episode 24 of Crazy Town)
Asher Miller Jason Bradford Rob Dietz
Asher, Rob, and Jason grapple with the cacophony, hash out the good and bad of the film and the response to it, and argue for an honest, messy-middle approach to the transition away from fossil fuels.
Review: Planet of the Humans
A few days ago, Emily Atkin posted a reaction to Michael Moore’s latest film, Planet of the Humans (directed and narrated by Jeff Gibbs), in which she began by admitting that she hadn’t seen the film yet. When writers...
Let’s Stop Pretending Billionaires Are In the Same Boat As Us During This Pandemic
In this pandemic, we are unfortunately not in the same boat. Most Americans don’t even have a canoe. But some billionaires have taken to the high seas in their yachts – literally – to ride out the pandemic. While ordinary workers...
U.S. Billionaire Wealth Surges as Covid-19 Pandemic Worsens
As the pandemic-fueled U.S. unemployment rate approaches 15 percent, America’s billionaire class is experiencing a wealth surge, according to a new Institute for Policy Studies report that I co-authored with Omar Ocampo and Sophia Paslaski, Billionaire Bonanza 2020. Between March...
Fraying Food System May Be Our Next Crisis
If you’re already overwhelmed with news of the pandemic and are coping with depression, read no further. However, if you’re a crisis responder by inclination or profession, you might start thinking food. Experts who study what makes societies sustainable...
Mayor McCheese & Modern Medicine: the Good & Bad of High Energy Modernity (Episode 23 of Crazy Town)
Asher Miller Jason Bradford Rob Dietz
In this episode, Rob, Asher, and Jason ask themselves, “If High Energy Modernity is on the way out, what will we miss most, and what will we be glad to see go?” And they ponder appropriate technology and whether...
Earth Day 50, Under Lockdown
April 22 was supposed to be a day of global celebration and protest. Fifty years ago, up to ten percent of Americans participated in thousands of local events on the first Earth Day. That mass action, which would have...
How Much is a Barrel of Oil Worth?
If you were an oil futures trader wanting to unload a May 1 contract on Monday, April 20, a barrel of oil was worth $-37. That’s right, traders were, in effect, willing to pay someone—anyone—to take ownership of a...
Please Don’t Read this Blog. Do Something Else Instead.
I haven’t yet written a comprehensive, illuminating blog about these Days of the Coronavirus, partly because many other people far wiser than me are already doing it far better than I would, but also because I am still trying...
COVID-19 and the Death of Market Fundamentalism
On top of the countless human tragedies, there will be many long-lasting social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Perhaps none will be more profound though, than the death of free market fundamentalism and the return of the...