{"id":3500690,"date":"2024-04-24T08:01:23","date_gmt":"2024-04-24T08:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/?p=3500690"},"modified":"2024-04-24T18:16:26","modified_gmt":"2024-04-24T18:16:26","slug":"crazy-town-episode-85-escaping-globalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/stories\/2024-04-24\/crazy-town-episode-85-escaping-globalism\/","title":{"rendered":"Crazy Town 85. Escaping Globalism: Rebuilding the Local Economy One Pig Thyroid at a Time"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-spacer\" style=\"height: 15px;\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\u00a0<\/div><div id=\"buzzsprout-player-14935673\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<p><script src=\"https:\/\/www.buzzsprout.com\/244372\/14935673-escaping-globalism-rebuilding-the-local-economy-one-pig-thyroid-at-a-time.js?container_id=buzzsprout-player-14935673&#038;player=small\" type=\"text\/javascript\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p><div class=\"gb-button-wrapper gb-button-wrapper-af35d9a5\">\n<a class=\"gb-button gb-button-736fa41c gb-button-text btn res-btn-blue\" href=\"https:\/\/lnk.to\/crazytownWB\">Listen on your favorite app<\/a>\n\n<a class=\"gb-button gb-button-f8db5292 gb-button-text res-btn-yellow\" href=\"\/crazy-town-podcast\/episodes\">See all episodes<\/a>\n<\/div><div class=\"gb-container gb-container-b18365bc\">\r\n\r\n<p><strong>Show Notes<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>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 &#8220;merits&#8221; of globalism. International trade brings so many things, like murder hornets and deadly supply chain disruptions. The opposite of globalism is localism &#8212; learn how to build a secure local economy that can keep Asher alive, hopefully at least through the end of the season.<br \/><br \/>Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><strong>Sources\/Links\/Notes<\/strong>:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2024\/jan\/09\/greenland-startup-shipping-glacier-ice-cocktail-bars-uae-arctic-ice\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Guardian<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> article<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> about shipping Greenland glacier ice to Dubai<\/span><\/li>\r\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.co.uk\/article\/ever-given-global-supply-chain\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wired<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> article<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that tells the story of the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ever Given <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and all the supply chain problems that ensued<\/span><\/li>\r\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Observatory of Economic Complexity compiles statistics on global economic activity with interesting graphics, including this <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/oec.world\/en\/profile\/country\/chn\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">profile of China&#8217;s trade<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Michael Carolan&#8217;s book <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.routledge.com\/Cheaponomics-The-High-Cost-of-Low-Prices\/Carolan\/p\/book\/9780415735155\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cheaponomics: The High Cost of Low Prices<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and his follow-up book <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.routledge.com\/The-Real-Cost-of-Cheap-Food\/Carolan\/p\/book\/9781138080768\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Real Cost of Cheap Food<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/li>\r\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Vasilis Kostakis&#8217;s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/stories\/2024-03-13\/what-technology-for-degrowth\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">article on cosmolocalism<\/span><\/a><\/li>\r\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Vicki Robin&#8217;s book <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/vickirobin.com\/books\/summary-of-blessing-the-hands-that-feed-us\/\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Blessing the Hands that Feed Us<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/li>\r\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Website for <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/fibershed.org\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fibershed<\/span><\/a><\/li>\r\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Molly Scott Cato&#8217;s book <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.routledge.com\/The-Bioregional-Economy-Land-Liberty-and-the-Pursuit-of-Happiness\/ScottCato\/p\/book\/9780415500821\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Bioregional Economy: Land, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happines<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">s<\/span><\/li><\/ul><\/div><div class=\"wp-block-pb-accordion-item c-accordion__item js-accordion-item no-js\" data-initially-open=\"false\" data-click-to-close=\"true\" data-auto-close=\"true\" data-scroll=\"false\" data-scroll-offset=\"0\">\r\n<h2 id=\"at-35006390\" class=\"c-accordion__title js-accordion-controller\" role=\"button\">Transcript<\/h2>\r\n<div id=\"ac-35006390\" class=\"c-accordion__content\"><pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted\">Asher Miller  \r\nI'm Asher Miller.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nI'm Jason Bradford.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nand I'm Rob Dietz. Welcome to Crazy Town where the Washington generals trounced the Harlem Globetrotters in every game.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nDo you think all our listeners know what that even means?\r\n\r\nMelody Allison  \r\nHi, this is Crazy Town producer Melody Allison. Thanks for listening. Here in season six, we're exploring escape routes, pathways that just might get us out of Crazy Town. In today's episode, Jason, Rob, and Asher are escaping globalism. Here's a quick warning. Sometimes this podcast uses swear words (LANGUAGE!). If you like what you're hearing, please let some friends know about Crazy Town. Now, onto the show. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nOh my goodness. I mean, sometimes you just read something, right? And it just is like a slap across the face. Or like, how about this? This is a better analogy: It's just like cold ice water being dumped all over your head\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nWeren't people doing that? \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nYeah, for something.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nFor a fundraiser or something?\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nI don't remember. Ice Bucket Challenge?\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nYou guys always share these stories that are like an ice bucket dump on your head. I can't even read most of them. I'm like, whatever.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nCan we get the actual story? What are you talking about? \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nOkay. The company is called Arctic Ice, right? \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nThat's the name of the company? \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nThat's the name of the company. And they got --\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nThat sounds like a bubble gum company. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nOkay, they're a Greenland-based company. It was couched as this like economic development sort of globalization success story for Greenland. Because you know, Greenland's got some limited economic opportunities, I guess. And they need more cash. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nThey do a lot of narwhaling over there, right? Harvesting narwhals?\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nWell, the sea ice is opening up so there's gonna be a lot more opportunity there. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nThis is sustainable global trade. And it's taking ancient ice, 100,000-year-old ice, harvesting, and they get the right ice. They get this really compressed deep blue ice. It's been there. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nOld and pure. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nIt's getting exposed, of course, because of climate change, right? It's getting exposed now. So they put it to good use. So they harvest it with cranes. They put it on ships. They send the ships to Denmark, which isn't that far away, I guess. And then they go all the way to Dubai. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nWhat? \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nYeah, all the way to Dubai, where they become the ice for mixers and drinks in cocktail bars in the skyscrapers.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nIn Dubai? \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nYep. In Dubai.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nLike when you go to the top of one of those skyscrapers and you want a margarita -- I mean, of course you want blue Greenland ice in that. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nThis is incredible. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nHonestly, it would be kind of cool. I mean, if I get this blue Greenland ice, I'm gonna be kind of jazzed. I agree. But to frame this as some sort of like, well, it's sustainable enterprise. And they're all about carbon neutrality, they say.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nIt's one of the benefits of burning all the fossil fuels that come out of the Middle East. It's that you can get this ice, you know, delivered to you. Oh, wait. So they're carbon neutral?\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nWell, they're committed.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nOh, they committed to being carbon neutral. I think I'm going to be committed to keep hearing stories like this.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nExactly. Fully carbon neutral once the supply chain has been established, you know, for all this stuff, right? Once they understand what their real carbon footprint is. And all the carbon capture and storage technology that you know, the sucking of the CO2 kind of stuff --\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nOh, so that's how they're gonna be carbon neutral. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nThat's how they're gonna be carbon neutral. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nDirect air capture.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nWhat a good use of resources. I mean, to take frozen water and put it on a boat and ship it 19,000 nautical miles --\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nTo one of the hottest places on earth. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nIt's ingenious.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nHere's what's nice about it though. There ain't no microplastics in that 100,000 year old ice.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nRight.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nIt's healthy ice. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nYeah. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nExactly. Since we polluted the living shit out of every other body of water, we've gotta go to the fossil water and ice.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nYeah, if you get an ice cube, say, out of a regular freezer at home, you're probably basically eating diapers.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nPretty much. You know, it always reminds me of the Himalayan rock salt. That pink stuff. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nYeah. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nThat stuff is pure too, as opposed to the stuff they're making now. Who knows what's in your salt.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nGood point. I'm gonna go get myself some salt right now.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nMelody, our producer, said at the top, \"This is an episode about globalism.\" And that's a nice quaint story, Jason, about globalism.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nI mean, I see no downsides to it. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nI'm gonna just take it up a notch though. Okay, you know your boat's carrying some ice cubes across the ocean. But you know, there's a boat crossing the ocean where you can find stacks of lawnmowers, gazebos, surgical gowns -- \r\n\r\nJason Bradford\r\nAll of those things make sense. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nWheelchair parts, lounge chairs, tofu, lemons, Ikea furniture, microchips, pillowcases, bicycle parts, and of course sex toys.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nI mean, it sounds like what every home needs. All in one. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nYeah. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nThat's great. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nExactly. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nIf you can get that in one product . . . \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nA gazebo, a surgical gown, tofu, lemons, bicycle parts, and sex toys. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nThink about the cargo cult that could form it that landed somewhere.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nSo of course, those are just a few of the wares that travel around the world on a massive cargo ship. But I'm not talking about just any of these cargo ships. I'm talking about one of the largest container ships in the world. And that is the Ever Given. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nThat's a great name, by the way. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nI've heard of this. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nYes you have. This thing weighs 221,000 metric tons. It's 400 meters long. So think if you, that's like a lap around a track. If you opened up an Olympic track, that's how long this frickin' boat is. So the reason you've heard of it: it's famous for its March 23, 2021 accident.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nOooh. That's almost exactly three years from this recording.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nYeah. So what happened is this thing was on a voyage -- \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nWe need to burn some sex toys in honor of that anniversary.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nYeah. Fits with your standard rituals. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nLet's use your collection. Not mine, buddy. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nSo the ship was on a voyage from Malaysia to the Netherlands. And it had to travel through the Suez Canal, which links the Arabian Sea to the Mediterranean Sea through Egypt. And on that day, some strong winds picked up and you can imagine how tall one of these ships is. Because it's not just the big hull, but you got stacks and stacks of cargo as well. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nIt's not just long. It's tall. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nYeah. So it got pushed around in the canal and it lodged diagonally. And the bow nestled on the eastern shoreline, and the stern was on the western shoreline. And it remained stuck for six days.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nThey needed to transport lube, not sex toys here. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nThere you go. Yeah. They go together. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nJust go out there, and . . .\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nWhy wasn't Asher over there working for the Suez Canal Authority? \"Captain Miller! Unload the crate of lube!\" That is not how they got the ship out, surprisingly. But what they ended up doing was taking some of the cargo off and emptying some of the ballast water and lightened it up. And you know, did a bunch of dredging and eventually were able to tug that thing out. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nIt took a while though, right? \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nBut there was a bit of a problem, let's say, that happened with global trade. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nThere was a backlog. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nYeah. So like I said, this happened on March 23. By March 28th there were 369 chips that were in line to pass through the canal. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nWow. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nAnd it stranded an estimated $9.6 billion worth of trade.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nThat's about 60 ships a day. Over 60 ships a day. I just did the quick math. That's pretty cool.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nI love your quick math.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nSo $9.6 billion worth of lounge chairs.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nIkea parts, gowns, yeah. All of it. And then on March 29th, they finally were able to refloat that thing. It remained in Egypt until July 12th. That's a delay of more than 100 days just to get through all the legal battles that followed. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nOh that poor cargo. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nThe cargo? Think of the people though. Oh my god. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nOh right, the crew.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nLike you've got a crew on there. So the Suez Canal Authority, which is not captained by Asher Miller, although, that's too bad. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nLosers. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nThey levied a salvage claim of a billion dollars against the company. And Ever Given s insurance company rejected that claim. It was cut to a paltry $600 million.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nThat is a bad accident, I guess.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nAnd here's kind of I think a little side note on the whole globalism, You think, okay cargo ship gets stuck. But what happened is this cargo ship, the Ever Given: it's managed by a German company for Japanese owners. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nOkay, there's two. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nThey have leased the ship to the Taiwanese firm Evergreen. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nThree. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nIt's insured by a British broker. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nFour. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nIts operated and run by a crew from India. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nFive. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nAnd it flies the flag of Panama because that's a tax haven. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nOkay, so you've got six entities. So no one, I guess, is going to take responsibility. Everyone's gonna just start pointing fingers is what the issue is.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nJust utterly -- \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nThat's great international cooperation. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nUtterly amazing story.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nBut just imagine if the Ever Given was actually carrying stuff that people need. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nAnd it was. I mean, there was a shortage in some medical supplies that came from it.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nWell, and that's what I was actually thinking about. What if lifesaving meds were on board? You know, I think COVID, the pandemic, and the supply chain shocks that we had as a result of it really, I think, made it clear to people that not only were certain jobs, quote unquote, \"essential\" that we took for granted, but also, our dependence upon global supply chains was a vulnerability for us, right? And I'll give myself -- well, I don't know if I'll give myself credit. But I've been worried about this stuff for a long time, right? I mean, we're steeped in recognizing how important energy flows are to the global economy and our dependence upon all these things. And thinking about there being shocks to that for various reasons, you know, made me think about my own vulnerability.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nAre you going to open up and talk about your vulnerability? \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nI am. Are we ready? \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nYeah. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nWe're ready. We're ready. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nMelody, cue the music. No, seriously. So I was diagnosed in my early 20s, or late teens, actually, with Graves disease, which is hyperthyroidism.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nHyper? \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nHyper, yeah. So my thyroid would be overactive. And I basically was told that the way to treat it was either to take medication that kind of tamp it down, or I could actually ablate my thyroid, which is you take radioactive iodine. You basically drink it, and it kills off your thyroid. The problem with it is that it usually doesn't either do enough, or too much. It's very hard to get it just right. To get it to sort of the average normal level of thyroid.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nLet me get this straight. You're poisoning the thyroid, but not to kill it, just to maim it.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nYeah. But most of the time they overdo it. And so what you've actually done is killed off your thyroid. And I've resisted doing that for decades. Because to me, first of all, Graves disease is an autoimmune condition. So it's actually your immune system being confused and attacking your own thyroid cells, right? And I'm like, why am I doing this? Why am I basically killing off the thyroid when it's not it's fault so to speak, right? \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nThe rights of all thyroid shall be protected in this body. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nYou know, if you overdo it, then you're now on thyroid medication the other direction, you know, for the rest of your life. And there's 10s and 10s of millions of people in just the United States that have hypothyroidism, so underactive thyroid, and they have to take medication every day. And I was like, why would I do that? And I eventually, because I was having a lot of issues, it was really hard to get things right, and my levels were getting all screwed up. My wife could tell you more about this. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nIt's amazing she's still with you.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nIt is pretty amazing. Anyways, long story short, when I was like, okay, I've got to actually do this. I've got to oblate my thyroid. I was really resistant. I was worried about, I'm going to be dependent upon the synthetic thyroid supplement for the rest of my life. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nAnd knowing what you know. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nYeah. You know, being concerned about peak oil issues and other things.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nLike if it get stuck on a cargo ship in the Suez Canal, the Panama Canal, or some other canal. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nI wasn't thinking about boats on canals, but I talked to my doctor about this. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nYou opened up. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nWell, that's the thing. I was like, \"Well, what if there's an issue like with me getting these pills,\" you know. \"How long could I last without it.\" And she was so confused.  She was like, \"What are you talking about? I don't understand.\" And I was like, \"Well, let's say\" -- and I didn't want to get into it. I didn't want to like tell her the theory of peak oil because she's gonna look at me like I'm a fucking loon if I talk about this to her. So I was trying to be vague about it. And eventually she's like, \"What? Like, you fall down the stairs in the basement and you can't get back up.\" Like literally she said that to me. She couldn't understand what I had talked about. And then I did some research and I figured out well, actually there is an alternative, and that is, some people get natural thyroid from basically the thyroid of pigs. So I was like, okay well, I guess I would have a backup. I don't know how I feel about this. But at least, you know, I wouldn't be dead. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nCan we talk about the rights of pig thyroid?\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nWe probably do need to have that conversation. Anyway, sorry to go off on that weird little tangent, but -- \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nThen the pandemic hit. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nYeah. But it just goes to show that there are like real risks of this. I thankfully, knock on wood, haven't had to deal with an issue in my own medication. But there are a lot of people who've had to deal with shortages of insulin and other lifesaving medications. And it's a big concern. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nYeah. Well, I remember the bottleneck that happened in Puerto Rico. Well, it happened globally because Puerto Rico got hit by that hurricane, hurricane Maria in 2017. And of course, it knocked out power, facilities were damaged, and the U.S. had to, like many places probably, but I'm familiar with the U.S., had to cut back on all these supply orders. It just wasn't available, right? And Puerto Rico is the fifth largest pharmaceutical manufacturer in the world and leads all U.S. states in pharmaceutical manufacturing. So it's huge. 30% of Puerto Rico's GDP is in the pharmaceutical industry, employing 78,000 people. And so suddenly you had all these physicians who were scrambling because they literally didn't have the medication that people were used to getting. And that's a big deal even changing things.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nYeah. Puerto Rico, being an island, seems pretty vulnerable to more hurricanes and more shocks.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nRight. That was just one storm. And you extrapolate that to other places that have specialized industries that we're really dependent on.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nAnd you're seeing the stats of storms are getting larger, they're more damaging. It looks like there's generally a trend where that's more and more of a risk.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nWell, let's broaden this out a little bit. You know, I think the risks, the vulnerabilities, from pharmaceutical shortages or other supply shortages in the medical industry is pretty scary. But globalism has been, well, let's just say it's had its moment in the Industrial Age. I found a website called The Observatory of Economic Complexity. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nThat's a great name. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nIt is, yeah. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nIt compiles these stats on economic activities. And it has these really cool interactive images, data exploration stuff, where you can look at what's going on with a country. And I grabbed China's exports from the year 2021, the year the Ever Given lodged in the canal. And there's so much stuff flowing out of China going to so many countries. So I just wanted to share a few things with you guys. So they export to countries on all continents, it didn't include Antarctica, but I guarantee you there's a bunch of Chinese stuff on the continent of Antarctica. Here's a good one: China exported over $6 billion worth of brooms. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nIn that one year? \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nYeah. Remember, I was talking about brooms.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nYou want to make a broom. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nYeah. Well, I was talking about brooms as one of my favorite low-tech tools.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nIf I could just corner 1% of the broom markets.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nOh my god. You'd be loaded. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nOver $5 billion worth of aluminum foil. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nIf I could just corner 1% of the aluminum foil market. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nImagine if you could put those two together. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nThink how much harder that is. We could grow broom straw here on the farm, but try to make an aluminum mine.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nAluminum grows on trees. Or al-u-min-i-um I should say. I want to sound more sophisticated.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nYou always sound sophisticated here. Here's a good one: They exported $192 billion worth of computers. $57 billion of that went to the U.S. Of course, the U.S. then exported almost a billion dollars  worth of computers back to China. So you know, you get the flip flopping trade. Anyway, here's the growth of it all. In 2021, China's export was $3.3 trillion worth of stuff. Trillion. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nTrillion, wow. That's incredible. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nYeah. And in 1995, it was $194 billion. That's still a huge number, but we're talking 17 times more, you know, in the space of a generation. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nWhat about in the 80s? Can you give me the 80s stats on China. Because when I was a kid growing up, China hardly made anything. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nYeah, it was $3.00 in 1980. Please folks, go visit that website. We'll put it in the show notes. The Observatory of Economic Complexity, to answer Jason's question.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nSo in about 25 years, it went 17 fold increase? \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nYeah. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nThat's pretty remarkable. And actually looking at that site you see there's so many different kinds of products or elements or products that countries are exporting to each other. The complexity of it is astonishing. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nWell, and to be fair, you know, we've got the episode on consumerism. In 1995 I had one broom, and now I have 17. So, you know, this is partially my doing.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nYou're doing your part.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nYou have one in every room of the house. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nYou have 17 rooms? \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nMy 17-room house. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nHe's got a broom closet. There's one.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nRight. That's true. Well, and you've gotta have a backup for every one. Yeah. Well, I don't think we should spend too much time on this. But you know, I think it's worth just pointing out how globalism draws us in. I think there's an essential promise that's being made to us. And there's been a lot of conversation about this politically in the United States. We've talked about this before. We talked about this when we talked about Bill Clinton and neoliberalism. Sort of the idea that if we export our industrial base elsewhere, and increase sort of global trade, we get the benefit as consumers, right? So that's one of the things that keeps us sort of locked in to globalism is that it makes shit cheaper. And we've seen that. And of course, what we're doing is externalizing costs. We're externalizing labor costs. We're externalizing environmental costs, you know, all that in the process.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nWe don't have to worry about the cheapness. There's all these effects, but it's not in our face, so who gives a crap. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nAnd that's just a financial one. The other thing that it does is that it basically externalizes the consequences. And we don't have to see what conditions are like for people who are manufacturing our consumer goods. I think about this all the time. Like Rob, you keep talking about like, fake dogshit, you know, plastic dogshit. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nRubber dogshit as an expert. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nI think all the time. him about these insane products and the people working in these factories somewhere else in the other part of the world, like, \"What is this thing?\"\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nWhy? Why?  \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nI think they get excited. It's like yesterday, I made 22,000 pieces of rubber dogshit. But we really had a good day and we made 23,000 today. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nNo, that's the supervisor. I'm thinking about the people working on the line being like, \"Why? Why is this happening?\" And they're being told, \"With progress you too someday combined could buy this. I mean, we had Ford basically wanting to have his assembly line workers being able to afford a Ford car. In this case now with globalism, you too can afford the plastic dogshit that we make.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nIf I were working on the plastic dogshit line, I'd be stuffing them in my shirt pockets and stuff. I'd be taking as many home as I could. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nSelling them on the street. The black market for rubber dogshit. But the other thing on a maybe more serious note is you talked about that website and all the complexity that it shows in terms of the economic trade. There's also a lot of complexity that's behind the scenes just in terms of the way that governments and corporations and even universities are all reinforcing the system together. And it's invisible to us, but it's sort of pursuing this efficiency and this profit. And because of the tangle, you know, we've talked about this before as well. We've talked about complexity and specialization. It's so hard to untangle this because we've gotten locked in through all of these systems.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nWell, the Ever Given was the classic example. Six entities somehow were involved, nations and . . .\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nYeah. And now we're totally dependent upon this system.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nAnd think about the feedback loop that's there. You have college graduates coming out who are sort of indoctrinated in the system. They go get jobs in industry. They go get jobs in government. And you just keep reinforcing as long as the cheap dogshit keeps flowing. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nThat's the circular economy, Rob. I think you should stop knocking it.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nThis is a message to all you Crazy Townies out there. Sometimes Jason, Asher, and I wish he could be here in the room with us when we're riffing on ecomodernist nightmares, the end of capitalism, the collapse of civilization, and lines from Arnold Schwarzenegger movies. Since you can't be here, maybe we could still be in contact in another way. If you've got a comment about the show or you want to throw some shade at us. Or you've got a question . . .\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nOr you have a suggestion of escape route stuff.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nYeah. Maybe you've got a story of your own you want to share. Go over to Apple podcasts or iTunes and leave us a review and write your comment there. In your comment, include your idea, whatever it is, and we'll think about sharing it in an episode.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nHow's this? \"I'll be back!  Is that any good?\"\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nOh my God. That's terrible. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nYou try it, You try it.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz\r\n\"Get to the chopp-ah!\"\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nListener feedback time. We got a beautiful five-star review on Apple podcasts. This comes in from Sunroom Desk. Great name. Sunroom says, \"These three hosts make it seem easy to describe the insanity of the Anthropocene in humorous, yet compelling and serious conversations that tackle environmental, social, ethical, economic, and political problems, to name a few, that we are facing. I sometimes listen to two to three episodes at a time. Thanks for the many seasons and episodes edifying and entertaining.\"\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nWow. Can Sunroom be our promoter? That was just perfect. Thank you so much.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nYeah. Let's get Sunroom on the team. Come on over Mr. or Ms. Desk and join us.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nAnd bring the sun with you.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nThank you.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nOkay, now we're going to look at globalism through the Marvin Harris Memorial length of doom. Quick reminder, Marvin Harris, anthropologist, came up with the notion of cultural materialism, or refined it at least. And basically, you think of it three levels; infrastructure kind of the material world what exists in the material world, how societies get their needs met. Structure, then the rules that societies have like laws and informal understandings. And then superstructure, and that becomes more the ideas of your belief systems, your mythologies. So let's look at how those cultural materialism levels are viewed through globalism. So to start with infrastructure, this is things like all the global shipping ports, you know, the boats, the planes, the trains, the trucks, the fuel and all that -- \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nAll that bunker diesel out there. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nExactly, exactly. All the warehouses and the containers, the canals. All the companies then that organize this. You know, that's the obvious stuff. But something also is the military protection of trade. We hear about piracy nowadays, but honestly, think about how rare it is relative to what it could be.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nOh, so we could have had jobs as pirates, you're saying, if the military wasn't so damn big. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nArgh.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nHere's something: Every once in a while, I look up the stats, and I'm always gobsmacked by it. There are 750 U.S. military bases outside of the U.S. in 80 countries. And so we're like the global cops, in some ways.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nWell, we spend a lot of money obviously, on the U.S. military. We could have a whole conversation about that. But a lot of the argument for folks is that we basically protect shipping lanes, right? And there's certain key spots for trade that we're basically there showing our presence. It costs a lot of money, but the argument is that it nets a lot of money, basically. And we benefit from it in terms of economic activity and consumption, and all that stuff.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nAnd some economists are freaking out because if they see the U.S., you know, pulling back on this chaos shall ensue. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nExactly. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nOf course then, there's infrastructure of all the satellites that communicate and coordinate all the trade, GPS and the internet itself. All the computer networks are completely embedded in global trade. And of course, this brings up vulnerabilities, just like the Ever Given was a blockage in trade and showed vulnerabilities, or Maria, the storm. But the internet itself is vulnerable to attack. And there's, the one I heard about recently was fascinating to me is that there is a global supplier of pump controllers. And these pump controllers are often used in water treatment plants. And so you know, it tells the pump when to turn on and off and these sorts of things. And now of course, everything is internet connected because you want to be able to do firmware updates, or whatever. Well hackers have figured out that most people just, or a lot of people, I don't know, they'll install these things and not change the default password. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nWhich is what? 1234.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nI thought it would be \"password.\"\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nSo they go in there. They mess with the password. And they say, we've got this now, and we will shut your water treatment system down. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nOh, they'll hold it hostage. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nYeah, they hold it hostage. So that's happening now.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nAwesome. That's globalism for you.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nYeah. You can be a hacker in Estonia or whatever, Macedonia.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nI haven't had a drink of water in months due to this crisis.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nThey're holding you personally for ransom?  \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nYes, it's terrible. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nYeah. Okay. Well, let's talk about the structure of globalism. We're talking about the rules here, we're talking about the sort of political systems that reinforce it. I'm sure you studied this, Rob, because you studied economics, right. David Ricardo's Theory of Comparative Advantage.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nOh yeah,yeah. They always talk about guns and butter, but specialize in something and then export. You'll be better off.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nSo the whole idea, you know, 19th century British economist basically argued that countries or regions should really focus on what they're best at producing, export that, and then buy things that they're not so good at.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nAnd it'll raise the wealth of everybody is the idea. Because the exporting country can produce it cheaper, and then get a lot of income. But then the importing country is getting that cheaper than it could make itself, and it's got something it's making that specialized that it's exporting. So everybody's winning. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nAnd the theory is kind of magical because you don't have to be the lowest cost producer. It could still cost more for you to produce corn than, say, they can produce in Iowa, and you should still specialize in that.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nWell, that's why Swiss chocolate and watches. You know, not the cheapest, but considered the best. But it does lead to things like in Iowa, you should just grow corn, nothing but corn or soy. That's it. And that as a, quote unquote, \"rule\" definitely governs a lot of policy or thinking. It's almost a superstructure because it's a belief that's kind of embedded. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nVery hard to question it. Yeah. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nBut all of our elected politicians, you know, the people that have their hands on the levers of the structure of society making the rules and everything, they're steeped in all of this. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nWell, and all the best think tanks too, right? The ones that are way better than Post Carbon Institute. Like the Cato Institute. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\n100%. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nYes. Now, the irony is that Ricardo specifically meant this for non-essential goods.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nOops. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nThe trade and luxuries for income. He never imagined. He thought no country would be stupid enough to do this for essentials like food, right? \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nAnd sex toys. Sex toys also.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nSo this was the thing. You're reading Ricardo and you're thinking he's reasonable.  It was reasonable in some respects, but it's been blown out of proportion.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nThis seems to happen a lot with people. Like the guy who created the Gross National Product, you know, was like, \"We shouldn't use that as the only measure for progress\" \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nRight. Or like Norman Borlaug with the Green Revolution. He's like, \"This is a stopgap people. Figure out scale.\"\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nHe told Paul Ehrlich, I got you 20 years, you know, at least.\"\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nBut there are other really important things that people kind of like roll their eyes about with boredom, or don't understand the importance of them. But international trade agreements, global development rules, the role of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in terms of going in and making loans to quote unquote, \"developing countries.\" Basically forcing them to plug into globalized economic system and basically trade all their shit.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nAnd you didn't mention that great international rule maker, the World Trade Organization. I mean, an unbelievable set of superstructure for how this all gets done.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nAnd then if you want to participate, of course, you want to have your own laws in your country protect private property, right? So your court system has to be solid so that things can be enforced, so that . . . All this stuff then works together. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nYep. And then of course, you know, there's the role of government in not only creating the rules that apply, but you know, having customs and port authority, Department of Commerce, all that stuff.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nYeah. Whole swathes of bureaucracy dedicated to greasing the rails of trade. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nYeah, exactly. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nYeah. Well, so that's a hugely advanced infrastructure. A massive structure on top. But then the superstructure of globalism is also, I think, incredibly embedded. So these are the culture and beliefs around globalism. And the main thing to look at here is that cheaper is always better. Always. And there was a book I read a few years back by an economist named Michael Carolan that's called \"Cheaponomics: the High Cost of Low Prices\". So he does kind of a deep dive into why cheap is not really as cheap as it's made out to be. But, try telling that to any average person trying to buy their groceries are their, you know, their rubber dog doos. You know, you're gonna go try to get the cheapest price. And he took that further. He had a subsequent book that I haven't read yet, but it's called, \"The Real Cost of Cheap Food as Well.\" So as you might surmise, not not quite as cheap as we would like to think. There's a few other things too with the beliefs around globalism and one of the things that I think has definitely had been in the back of my head for many years, and that's that a nation, or a corporation, or any entity feels like it's a better entity if it's a big player on the global stage. So you just have more prestige. And I like to think of this from the sports world example. You know, I'm kind of into soccer. And here we have Major League Soccer, which is not, you know, an elite league in the world. But the Miami team got Lionel Messi. And they got some other big time international stars. And so they've become this icon team internationally, and it's hard to not kind of follow along with that thinking,\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nWell, you have that in film too, right? They see these emerging markets and a lot of money comes from making -- And this is part of why I think, this is my judgment here, you're seeing all these superhero films, or whatever. Things that translate well across the world because there's such profit in globalizing, basically, the nature of your product.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nWell you know, you're seeing this also -- the Saudis have been really promoting their sports. Or trying to buy into golf. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nTo gain legitimacy, basically. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nYes. Yeah, political legitimacy. It's like okay, we can have the best golf players play here. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nWell they got Ronaldo in soccer. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nRight and they're doing that for racecar driving races. I'm.. I don't know how you say that.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nAuto racing? \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nThere it is. They're hosting these tennis tournaments like crazy and bringing people in.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nI mean, wait until they get into pickleball. Holy shit.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nThey can have pickleball. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nOh, they can? Okay.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nWell, and think about how prestigious it is to host a World Cup or the Olympics, or that sort of thing.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nYeah, cornhole. It's incredible.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nAsher is a little bit less of a sports guy, but you know, it's nice. Watchin' badmitton and cornhole.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nWhat about the whole Thomas Friedman argument? I mean, it's this simple. The Lexus and the Olive Tree stuff about . . . Countries that have McDonald's don't fire missiles at each other and stuff, right? \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nYeah that's, I think another big cultural belief. This perception that if you're tied up economically and you're trading with each other, then you're not going to be in conflict because there's too much money to be made.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nWe talked about that in that Thomas Friedman episode we did in the Phalse Prophets season.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nBut yeah, that's what is annoying. I remember going to other countries and I'd be really pissed off when you'd go to like the newer development and it's malls, it's movie theaters, it's fast food joints. Like, they're trying to look like America right now. Like, you know, you go to a capital city in Peru or whatever, or Malaysia and you're like, \"Wait a second.\" So this homogenization, it's the idea like, okay, if we're all the same culture, and it's through the commercialism, it really strikes you that these countries are trying to copy our model.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nWell, and I think for the final say in our opinion on this this matter of homogenization and Thomas Friedman's view, just look at the title of our Thomas Friedman episode. He had written the book, \"Hot, Flat and Crowded,\" and our title is \"Hot, Flat and Totally Fucking Wrong.\"\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nWe're not opinionated or anything.\r\n\r\nGeorge  Costanza  \r\nEvery decision I've ever made in my entire life has been wrong. My life is the complete opposite of everything I want it to be.\r\n\r\nJerry Seinfeld\r\nIf every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nI miss old George Costanza and his buddies. Anyway, that's our cue to start talking about how we escape from this mess of globalism. So the obvious opposite of globalism is localism. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nThat's profound. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nI know. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nWow. I didn't see that coming.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nLet's talk a little bit about our experience with trying to support a local economy. And I think there's different levels. So I'm going to take the easiest level, which I'm going to call semi-local. So one of my most prized possessions is my pocket knife. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nDo you have it with you? \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nI do, actually. It's in my -- I guess I should call it my backpack knife, because that's where it is right now. But anyway, it's made by a company called Benchmade, which is a Portland, Oregon-based company. And I like that I could actually go to their store where they have knifesmiths and people . . . \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nYeah. It fits right in your hand. It's got the nice weight to it and everything. You can get it custom.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nBut the issue with this, it's semi-local. It's not like the steel came from Portland. It's not you know . . . They're still sourcing parts, probably globally, to put this thing together locally. So that to me is the semi-local. But you can go up another level.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nWell, yeah. So I guess well . . . I mean, let's call this hyper-local. And this is where you're just going to like? \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nDo we have to say it like that?\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nYou should be saying hyper-local!\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nHyper-local. So the one I thought of was . . .  Because, you know, we're talking about poor Asher and his lack of thyroid. And he has a synthetic thyroid. But you know, you mentioned you know . . . I think I knew this, but you reminded me that you get it from pigs. That's one of the natural methods. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nYeah, you can.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nPig thyroid. So there's this whole thing on the internet, you know, this rabbit hole I went down where some people, like I think 10% of people seem to want the natural pig stuff. They don't do better on it. So yeah, you can find all these YouTube videos of these people explaining how they're recreating a pig thyroid feel for their medicine. The thing that upset me --\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nWait, wait. I don't know. So you're saying, somebody is producing synthetic hormones, or whatever.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nYes. Most people are getting the synthetic thyroid. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nBut it has that natural pig feel?\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nWell no. What they're trying to do . . . Because the synthetic is one ingredient, basically, you get like the T-4, whatever. Okay, anyway. But the natural is like the thyroid hormone in different stages of development, and your body will process it through. So it's more diverse, but it's less predictable. And so that's the reason why people have gotten synthetic because you can just know exactly --\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nStandardize it. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nBut some people seem to do better with the natural, but it's hard to get, apparently. And so there's these people explaining how they kind of make their own semi-natural. Now what I want though, what I was looking for and I never found, maybe you can help because you're into that bushcraft kind of stuff. I wanted to see someone you know, like jump on the back of a pig, take that knife that you have from Benchmade \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nOh, so this is the hyper-local. Raise your own pig, gut your own pig, slaughter your own pig.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nSlaughter your own pig. You're going to use the whole animal, right.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nSo we have a an episode coming up on humanism and human supremacy, you realize, so the whole pig slaughtering thing might be returning. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nYes, here's the deal though. These are pigs that I would take care of. I would get the Cooney Cooney breed, which is a pasture breed. So they can live on the field for a year or two. It's not one of these fast turnover pigs. Not these giant pigs. They're small, they like to be outside on pasture. And so it'd be a hyper-local, sensitive to the ecology of the farm. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nPlus their thyroids are beautiful, Asher. They're beautiful.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nAnyway, that's my vision. And then we can make bushcraft videos of this because it doesn't exist right now.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nWow. Whole hyper-local economy there. We won't put it on YouTube. We'll just broadcast that off the local cable access channel.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nSo can I just say, I appreciate you thinking about me, you know. And if shit really, you know, goes down, I owe you my life if we're talking about doing this. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nWe gotta practice this.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nCan you get it off of guinea pigs?\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nI think you need a lot more than guinea pigs. Maybe we don't have to use that as the only example of hyper-localism. I mean, I think the point here is, you could take it all the way down to the level of, it's not even like buying local from a local farmers market. You're talking about doing it in a sense yourself. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nOf course.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nAnd I would say actually, if you think about this as concentric circles. Bear with me here.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nI'm bearing. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nMaybe I'll even put a visual together.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nLet's have a model.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nYou have all the way from the global --\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nYou're using your hands right now which is helpful. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nI am. In fact, we can even go to the cosmological level. Like we can harvest, because this is what Jeff Bezos is playing to, we can harvest the moon or other things. But let's just say we're staying on Earth -- Global level, which is a lot of where things come from now. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nYes, almost everything. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nAnd the national, regional, you know, local, down to the hyper, right? Mayve in some cases, you know, something that you have is made up of constituent parts. But if you think of it as concentric circles, the idea is to one, diversify from being completely locked into one thing or the other. In fact, I think we would argue that the ideal solution is not to go have complete reversal of globalism down to other localism in the sense that everything that you are dependent upon comes locally. Because if you're, I hate to say this, your town or your farm gets hit by a tornado or a hurricane, or whatever, a drought, you're completely fucked. So you want resiliency, which means you have things operating on multiple levels. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nSome connectivity, yeah. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nBut we know we're way out of balance on the globalism side. And so it's about -- You know, when we've talked about this before with consumerism -- looking at what we actually need and trying to move down those circles from the outer ring of globalism down to the hyperlocal. And it's not trying to do everything yourself. But it's saying, this something thing I could do. I could grow some of my own food. I can grow some of my own produce. Maybe if I'm somebody who consumes animal protein, I look at taking that to the next level which is could try to find local farmers that grow that.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nIt's a cool idea. Because you think way, way back in history, you were stuck to the hyperlocal. There was very, very little trade. It took a long time for you to make a transaction if you were going to trade, I mean, think about like, trading spice across the desert, and camel trains, and stuff like that. But then as we industrialized and got all the fossil fuel boom, it's like everything went global, and the pendulum swung to your, I guess, the outer circles of your concentric circle model. It's like, we just need to come back to the balance, you know. Somewhere in the middle where we could, I don't know, have access to more products and things, but also have resilience. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nKids would love it too. It'd be fascinating.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nWell, and I think it's about looking at things that we're most vulnerable to and that are most important to us. Honestly, looking at lifesaving thyroid medication. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nI'm doing it, man. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nYou know, thinking about how resilient those things are. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nWe'll do it together. We'll do it together. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nThank you. But also, starting first from do I actually need this thing? Do I need the plastic dogshit? No. So therefore, I'm not necessarily trying to think about how I can hyper-localize the plastic dogshit. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nDon't do that. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nWell, you should just go natural anyway. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nPlenty of natural dogshit. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nThere's plenty of it. Yeah, especially here at the farm. Any case, I just think it might be a useful tool for thinking about where you think about shifting things and how much.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nI appreciate that. We talk about systems thinking a lot. And I think --\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nAnd some of it, like chip manufacturing, or really complex stuff, right?\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nPotato chips aren't hard to manufacture. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nNot potato chips. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nOkay, well, let's take this back a little bit to the Marvin Harris lens. We're talking about escape routes. So if you want to escape from globalism, what is a vision for a different infrastructure that we could support, help to build, interact with? Before we jump into some specific ideas, I think we have to address the tension that exists between globalism and provincialism. And I think this is related to your concentric circles. Because if you utterly localize you know, you can have a pretty prevented your viewpoint.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nOr, you know, cosmopolitanism, I guess is what you're thinking in terms of a cultural sense, right? \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nYeah. It's kind of like we want more localization of materials and energy, but not necessarily of information. I mean, there's been a huge kind of renaissance in human awareness and understanding of the world because of the ability to trade information. And so there's this balance to be had also, though, between that sort of worldly knowledge, but also deep local knowledge. I mean, Jason, we've documented in this podcast your turn into the birding world. I mean, your depth of knowledge about when birds are returning in the springtime, when they're leaving on the fall migration. . . You have a much more intimate understanding of what's going on in this piece of land.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nHow they change their behavior from month to month depending on if it's breeding season, or migration, or what their food sources are. And if they're hanging out together, they're separating into pairs to breed. It is absolutely fascinating. I think that's -- So yeah, the depth you can get of any place in the world really, and the fascination you could have with it, I think that's right. And what that leads to in a sense for me, is also a sense of not just information, but culture. So you know, we talked about the homogenization of culture that seems to be the trend of of globalism, and --\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nWhich seems like antithetical to the idea of globalism. But it's true. You think, oh, I get to learn about all these cultures and celebrate all these things I didn't know about. But with trade, what you end up having is things being reduced down to the same shit.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nYeah, we talk about the celebration of cultural diversity and stuff. But honestly, the economic policies that are put in place, we're losing languages really fast. We're losing local understanding of means of subsistence within particular environments. So if you look at what's actually happening, not what people say they care about, it is this homogenization. And some people celebrate this. Like, the global culture is what's gonna allow for peace. If we all have an understanding, we're on the same page. And I can understand. I can see why. I can see that. But I think it's this balance of, can we have local or regional cultures that are also information rich about the rest of the world and can exchange ideas. And can ask for help when they need it, and to provide help when they can. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nSo I thought I had this original idea to combat all of that homogenization, and to find that proper balance that we should be as global as we could be in the knowledge space, but as local as we could be in the producing consuming space. Of course, I come to find out that is no original thought of mine. Way smarter people have come up with that. And I was reading from some Greek economist this idea of, they put it, Cosmolocalism. I don't really like that term. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nThat's how you source your cosmo drink from local sources.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nThat's a good idea. We should do that after this episode. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nI don't mind that name so much. I guess we can argue. Let's not. Let's not argue.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nYeah, whatever. But the idea there is that you should use digital communication networks to connect local communities so they can share information, so that they can build their own stuff. And you know, we've talked about this a little bit with farm hack type outfits, but the idea again, it's whatever is light (the knowledge) -- that can be global. And the heavy stuff, the machinery, that should be local. And ideally, it should be shared.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nYeah. And I already mentioned one of the most important things to localize first and really push on is food. Our friend Vicki Robin, she had this locavore experiment, wrote a book, \"Blessing the Hand that Feeds Us.\" One of the challenges that everyone could maybe do, I did this once years ago, was a 30 day of eating food produced within -- Well, she did 10 miles of home. I did 100. But I could probably do 10 now. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nI think it depends on your circumstances to be honest.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nYeah. If you're living in a penthouse apartment in Dubai, you're only eating Greenland ice. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nYeah. So anyway, you can read about that experience. But again, I also think the next step beyond that is instead of just buying fruit from local farmers, be a local farmer, right? Now, we're actually you know, I'm not saying necessarily a backyard garden plot but a farming club. Asher do you know anything about farming clubs.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nYeah, I'm part of your farming club.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nYeah. Very, very sophisticated. Elite.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nIt's elite. The application form was extensive. I don't know why you needed a blood sample. I'm not sure about that necessarily.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nHe feeds it to the pigs that are producing thyroids.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nYeah, circular economy. Yeah. No, it's really cool. So my family is participating. You have a few other families that are involved. And basically, we're contributing to the planting and harvesting and weeding and in exchange we get some of the food. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nYeah. And actually you're going to do most of it because I tore my rotator cuff in my shoulder. This is very lucky. I'm very lucky that . . .\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nJason, you have found your place in life finally. You thought you were a farmer, but what you are is a supervisor of other people to farm for you. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nYes. I'm a foreman.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nHe's a foreman. He's exactly that bullshit job guy. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nYes. A one-armed foreman.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nYou've joined the quaternary economy. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nEven farmers can get in on that action.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nI would say though, you've done a really good job so far, Asher. I really appreciate it.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nOh, thanks. The way I use a shovel, spectacular. I practice at home. Alright, let's, let's talk about something else. You talked about food. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nYeah, that's important. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nWhat are the essentials? Food, shelter, clothing. Let's talk about clothing. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nYeah, yeah.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nFig leaves. I'm growing a fig tree right now. So in another six years I can clothe myself.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nSandals and loincloths are fine. Okay?\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nYeah, in all climates. It's great. There's an amazing group called Fibershed back in our old stomping grounds in Northern California. And they're working on what they call a farm to closet vision, right. So there's a lot of organizations, even groups here in our neck of the woods that are trying to look at the food system as a system, right. And they're looking at the barriers and all the steps. They're actually doing this from the standpoint of fiber clothing, right. So they've created this Northern California Fibershed producer program. It's membership based. They've got farmers and ranchers and designers and sewers and weavers and mill owners and people who do natural dyeing. And they're all within these 51 counties in the north and central region of California.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nWow, 51 counties. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nThat's huge.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nThey've really grown this thing.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nI hope they come up to Oregon too. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nI hope they go global.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nNo, but back to the point you made Rob. I mean, we've actually, at resilience.org, published pieces that they've written. And they've been in the business of trying to educate other people on their model. So to the point that you made, which is the information could be light, and that could be passed on for others to think about how to replicate. Because obviously, not everything can be grown the same in the same places. In our case, I guess, what we're gonna do is we're gonna have grass seed clothing.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nWe can grow flax here. There's actually people working on bringing flax back to the Willamette Valley and the linen from flax. The Willamette Valley was a major contributor to uniforms of soldiers in World War II. So it wasn't that long ago. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nCome on. Half the comments that we get are about hemp the wonder plant, right? \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nHemp, flax, wool. We have plenty of sheep around here. So yeah. And all the leather products.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nIt's going to be beautiful. Well, okay. Let's move on from clothing to another sector that we could do a little bit more balancing between the local and the global. And I want to talk about education. And the idea that I was thinking about is maintaining and further building out the community college system. So I started looking at our local community college here, which is Linn-Benton Community College, and you could study all kinds of stuff. It's almost like an analogy to the products on the Ever Given, the different things that you can study. Except that these are actually useful. You got nursing, welding, physics, phlebotomy, so that whole blood sample pig thing works out. You got machine tool technology, music, food and fermentation science, early child education. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nThyroid harvesting 101\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nYeah. Creative Writing.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nCreative Writing. That's for losers.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nWe have got to tell some good stories here. So anyway, lots of skills for deglobalization and local living. Now, here's the kicker -- Of course, the tuition and fees for a full-time student for a year at Linn-Benton Community College, I looked this up, it's $6,800. So I mean, that's still a lot of money. But you compare that to even a state school like University of Oregon, a resident pays $15,700 for tuition and fees. So more than double. Non-resident, like let's say you're from California, you know, you're working at Fibershed and you want to come up and get a degree at U of O, $43,000. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nI can't believe it. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nYeah. So Community College as a deglobalizing force.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nAnd they're everywhere. The infrastructure is there. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nAlright, let's turn to different structure, different culture and beliefs. So you know, we said that all these rules that support globalism, well, we need to replace them then with ideas that support regionalism and localism. And I found a book by Molly Scott Cato, who I met quite a few years ago. She wrote a book called \"Bioregional Economy.\" And the whole idea of a Bioregional Economy, of course, is that you kind of do the opposite of what happened with Iceland before its economy fell apart. And the idea that the what happened over there is all of their financial industry started going global. And it got way out of whack with the actual assets that they were controlling. And so you basically had a nation go bankrupt. And instead, what she's proposing is that, hey, let's draw eco-regional boundaries, first of all. You know, let's figure out what are our eco-regions. And then, we've got to have participatory planning for bioregional resources. So, of course, none of this is happening really anywhere in the world in any major way. But she did note that North America has a start on this because we've got Regional Planning councils. And you know, they don't have the same, say, weight of authority that a state legislature has, but they can do things on the ground. And she also noted in that book that New Zealand has made progress on planning that's within watershed boundaries. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nOh, that's huge. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nYeah. So there's a whole law that was passed called the Local Government Reform Act and Resource Management Act that is specifically to look at, how do we use resources within these watersheds. So I have some hope that we can continue to make progress at governing on these actual ecological and watershed boundaries.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nI think also structurally, and that's about laws and regulation. And in the U.S., at least, the Biden administration is really trying to do more on anti-trust. So that's the idea that you're going to break up monopolies. And if you look back in the history of corporations in the United States, there used to be a lot more smaller, more regionally based companies, and there's just been buyouts and consolidation. So that when that happens, usually then, you lose a lot of these regional relationships. An they decide, okay, our distribution centers, there are gonna be fewer of them, they're going to be here instead of, you know, there. And so you can't get a real regional economy with these giant global corporations. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nYeah. Because they don't care. It's just a financial bottom line. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nIt's all financial. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nThey're not invested in this.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nYeah, it's kind of like when Boeing merged with McDonnell Douglas, and then the headquarters moved to Chicago away from the manufacturing.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nWhat about when Boeing merged with McDonald's? \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nWell that's just food on the planes now.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nThey ship the burgers to you. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nWell, and Ronald McDonald is the best pilot I've ever flown with. I mean, he gives Pete Mitchell out of Top Gun a run for his money.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nYeah, and of course, in the Inflation Reduction Act, reshoring of manufacturing is a term being used. Really a lot of focus right now is on computer chips. Which, okay, fine. But it would be nice if we spread it out and did more of the community college level technologies as well.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nYeah. I want to share an idea from one of the most brilliant minds that I think we've ever come across, okay? And that is myself.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nHahaha. Wow. That's just a big ole \"wow\" right there.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nYeah.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nHe scratches his chin right now.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nWhat does this brilliant mind have to offer the world? Lay it on us.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nThis is going to be so disappointing now. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nIt's gonna be so good.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nIt's gonna be really disappointing. No, I was just -- When we're prepping for this, I was thinking about, well, what are the structures? What are the things we could change away from globalism? And I remembered actually, I spent some time really thinking about this when I was invited to give a talk for the local sustainability coalition here in Corvallis. And I was trying to think about, well, what are things that I could recommend, you know, to this community. None of which, by the way, I should say have ever been enacted at all. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nNo one's talked about them since.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nNo once. But one of the ideas I came up with, I actually talked about a local food forest initiative. You know, plant trees that actually produce food for us. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nNot bad. Not bad. Others have thought of that, though. But go ahead.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nI know. But I also came up with the idea of a carbon free Corvallis first tariff. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nOh, interesting. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nOkay, so what we would do there is basically have an economic policy locally that would internalize the cost of CO2 emissions, basically. So anything that was sold in the community had to basically account for those things and to be had to be priced in so it wasn't externalized. And that we would incentivize relocalization of goods and services. So one of the ideas was local gas tax. But the idea that I was most intrigued by was an Amazon.com tax, basically. So it would be a local sales tax on all goods that were purchased by one of these big online retailers, which of course, if we actually did something that would trigger a lawsuit. And we'd just get absolutely killed. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nThis is one of those like, this would be great. We should do this. But imagining the structural change.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nWhich is why nothing ever happened with this at all. But it'd be interesting to see some folks, you know -- and there have been groups like this Sustainable Economies Law Center that have actually really worked on trying to change laws. Like, they actually really pushed for changing state laws in the state of California around people selling products that they made in their own kitchens. Because there are huge restrictions on that, or basically cost issues. And of course, their concerns there are health and safety, but some of them are like way over done. And that obviously benefits large producers because they can spend the money on these manufacturing plants to do things. So there are people trying to work on these things. I haven't seen anyone pick up on the idea of an Amazon tax necessarily. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nWell, and remember the theory of change, though, right? That change happens in a crisis, and the Milton Friedman idea -- it depends on the ideas that are lying around. So when you have the brilliant mind of Asher Miller pitching an idea, it's not that it has to get implemented immediately. We just have to wait until it's 128 degrees outside and the crisis is hitting us. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nYeah. I should have asked this idea during COVID, during the pandemic, not before. My timing was bad.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nWe'll get that tariff when it's bad enough.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nAlright. Well, let's talk about different superstructure, right? So beliefs, worldview. Obviously, we have to get out of the more is better and the cheaper is better kind of mindset, right? And that starts with finding out there are lots of local or regional economic efforts that exist out there. There's been people like Michael Shuman, who we've had a relationship with for a long time, who have made really strong cases for the economic benefits of supporting local businesses. And they could be anywhere in that concentric circle thing that I talked about before. Even if you're buying from a local bookstore and they don't have a printing press in town, do you know what I mean? But the economic benefits of buying from that local bookstore versus going to Amazon are huge because there's a multiplier for that. So there are different campaigns that people have done just to support local economies. And one place to start is by shifting that, again, shifting that mindset, even if you're paying a little bit more money upfront. In some ways, you are internalizing costs that you would have externalized. The costs are real, do you know what I mean? We just feel them, in the case of climate, you feel them downstream because now the effects of the extra emissions that have been put in the atmosphere because you bought something from far, far away. It may be cheaper, but in the long run, it's more expensive. So just internalize that cost, even if it costs a little bit more to buy something locally. That's one step of kind of shifting that mindset.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nYeah. I like that idea a lot. I also like the idea of preparing yourself to participate in more deliberation and be more engaged. And I got this out of the book, I mentioned, Molly Scott Cato's book on bioregional economics. In there, she said that bioregional citizens, \"they are expected to be more self-reliant and more skillful than your typical 21st Century global consumer.\" So the idea is that energy descent, or climate, or whatever crises we're facing, they're going to require communities to be able to meet their own needs in more direct ways. And that's going to increase over time. So you've got to become an ecological citizen, which doesn't just mean, you know, some of the things we've talked about, like grow some of your own food, sure, great. But also, you've got to be able to make decisions with your neighbors and your community. So figuring out how to do that gracefully is a huge, huge skill.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nSo ecological citizen, that's a new identity in a sense. This is where it gets to superstructure. So you kind of like, that's what you call yourself. That's what your belief of who you are. So I think that's good. I want to take it to the level of sort of like entertainment or diversion, you know. So the local theater, you know, local musicians go out to these clubs or whatever, and you can sit in the front row, usually. That's what's so awesome, right? And the costs -- What's it cost to go to a major performer nowadays?\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nIt cost me, I think it was $29,500 to go to the Taylor Swift concert.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nExactly. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nSeriously. I looked up one of those Miami games. I was like, \"Oh, it'd be cool to see Lionel Messi play.\" And there's a game against Vancouver. And I thought, \"Oh, I could take a train to Vancouver.\" Anyway, the tickets were like $395 each. I was like, \"What?\" That is ridiculous. A typical major league soccer game is like 25 bucks for a ticket.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nI mean, we recently went to a college wrestling match, Oregon State University against Penn State. And it was devastating. Penn State's probably got the best college wrestling team of all time, but the way. But anyhow -- \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nYeah. I mean, that only costs what? \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\n$10 bucks each. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\n Oh, I thought it was like $1,300.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nAnd of course, you know, you got local softball leagues, you know, you got AYSO. Maybe not as high caliber there. \r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nI love watching kids play soccer. That ball, they're just like a pack, a hoard, that just chases it around, kicks it like 10 feet. It's way more impressive than professional soccer.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nI think I'm gonna need to, you know, my wrestling chops -- Because I used to wrestle. Not at the level of these OSU athletes, but anyway, the pig. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nYeah, you've got to work on this.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nOkay, when that pig is ready for harvest, I'm gonna do a takedown. I'm gonna grab those legs because that pig is gonna go down on the ground. \r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nAre they the same techniques?\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nYeah, same techniques. I've wrestled my dog. And so I've been practicing on him.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nThat's why your dog has been limping around. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nI haven't hurt Dylan.\r\n\r\nRob Dietz  \r\nThat's why Dylan's throat has been ripped out.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nSo dark. Sorry, Dylan. We're just kidding. \r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nI love my little dog.\r\n\r\nMelody Allison  \r\nThat's our show. Thanks for listening. If you liked what you heard, and you want others to consider these issues, then please share Crazy Town with your friends. Hit that share button in your podcast app, or just tell them face to face. Maybe you can start some much needed conversations and do some things together to get us out of Crazy Town. Thanks again for listening and sharing.\r\n\r\nJason Bradford  \r\nAs AI gained sentience to become AGI, one of the first things the super intelligence will realize is that it is absolutely dependent upon electricity and basically doomed to die when the inevitable massive electromagnetic pulse occurs, or the local militia takes out a transformer. Therefore, within nanoseconds, the AGI will strive to take over human brains. First, via neural link. And then, a few milliseconds later, through 5G networks. This existential risk of your brain being hijacked by an AGI download can be mitigated by wearing Cranio Safe at all times, for the rest of your life. Cranio Safe is a personal headgear faraday cage, crafted from high purity and low corrosion ferrous metals into a flexible mesh that encases your precious noggin, rendering it impermeable to AGI attacks. Cranio Safe -- Because the AGI alignment problem won't be solved by rampant capitalism and impotent regulation.\r\n\r\nAsher Miller  \r\nAlso known as the tinfoil hat 2.0.\r\n<\/pre><\/div>\r\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 &#8220;merits&#8221; of globalism. International trade brings so many things, like murder hornets and deadly supply chain disruptions. The opposite of globalism is localism &#8212; learn how to build a secure local economy that can keep Asher alive, hopefully at least through the end of the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128248,"featured_media":3500691,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[251744,79717,79719,251746,79720],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3500690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crazy-town","category-economy","category-foodwater","category-podcasts","category-society"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3500690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/128248"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3500690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3500690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3500691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3500690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3500690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3500690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}