Duncan Crary's Blog, page 22
March 28, 2013
KunstlerCast 222 - April 1 Special
April 1 Special: The story of the Stones, by Samuel Beckett, featuring JHK.
The new KunstlerCast music is called “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the new recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.
March 21, 2013
KunstlerCast 221 -- Real Abundance
JHK chats with Ben Hewitt writer / farmer of Cabot, Vermont, Author of The Town That Food Saved: How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food and the forthcoming new book, Saved: How I quit worrying about money and became the richest guy in the world.
The new KunstlerCast music is called “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the new recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.
March 7, 2013
KunstlerCast #220: A House Divided
JHK speaks with Rob Williams, co-author "Most Likely to Secede: What the Vermont Independence Movement Can Teach Us about Reclaiming Community and Creating a Human Scale Vision for the 21st Century."
February 28, 2013
Kunstler Cast 219 - Quant-O-Rama
#219
In his never-ending quest to make sense of the financial scene, JHK chats with his old buddy David Aronson, a predictive analytics and data mining specialist, otherwise known in the financial sector as a "quant." Dave did not verify my own prejudices or validate my hypothesis about the exact nature of the mischief in the dark realm of money, but we had a lively conversation about it.
February 21, 2013
KunstlerCast 218 - Surveying the Local Ag Scene
Some notes on the local farming scene. JHK chats with Washington County farmer Seth Jacobs and caterer Susie Quillio about the developing local ag scene. I met Seth at the Cambridge bluegrass jam, where he was playing mandolin. I've known Susie for twenty years.
February 15, 2013
KunstlerCast 217 - The God of Progress is Dead
JHK hunkers down with John Michael Greer of the Archdruid Report -- http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com -- to chat about politics, economy, the condition of American culture, and the state of the nation. Jim parses Obama's State of the Union Address.
February 7, 2013
KC #216: Chatting with the brave younger generation....
JHK banters with videographer Joe Schiappi, 27, who came to the Kunstler cave to interview JHK for a video about about technology, art, and the future, but also ended up as a guest on the podcast in Jim's quest to suss out the mood of the 20-something generation. Joe has been living in Switzerland, Norway, Australia, and New Zealand since graduating from the University of Wisconsin.
January 31, 2013
KC #215: JHK is back – Nicole Foss Interview
JHK steps up to resume the KunstlerCast solo without Duncan Crary. I'll do interviews with guests sometimes, and sometimes I will just yak on my own. This week I was fortunate to have Nicole Foss of TheAutomaticEarth.com swing by as an overnight houseguest and we got to sit down at the microphones for a chat. Nicole is a veteran of Canadian government's electrical ministry and has worked in the nuclear energy ministries of the UK and the European Union. She has lectured all over Europe, the USA, Australia and New Zealand in recent years.
The new KunstlerCast theme music is called "Adam and Ali's Waltz" from the new recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.
December 28, 2012
KunstlerCast #214: A Small American City
James Howard Kunstler will be resuming the KunstlerCast, solo, in the near future. In the meantime, this is the "pilot" episode for "A Small American City," a new podcast series by former KunstlerCast host Duncan Crary. Jim helped Duncan launch the new series with this special interview.
TROY, N.Y. - For many Americans, "The City" only refers to New York City, or one of the other major metroplexes in the country with populations in the millions. But North America is filled with smaller cities that were once just as lively, if only at a smaller scale. And they may come back to life again as events already underway continue to unfold.
Urban polemicist James Howard Kunstler believes that people will be living a lot differently in the U.S.A. during the coming years. Financial distress and energy scarcity are just two forces that may dictate Americans re-inhabit the centers of our smaller cities. But contrary to prevailing suburban notions of our times, life in an activated urban center - at a smaller scale - is delightful. The more activated these places become, the more desirable it will be to be in them.
Kunstler feels that Troy, N.Y., with its currently population of 50,000, has many characteristics that make it a universal stand-in for every small American city. But he also believes there are aspects that make Troy uniquely poised for a genuine comeback.
For this pilot episode of A Small American City, Kunstler joins host Duncan Crary for a special, introductory conversation about small cities, Troy, N.Y. and the urban fabric. From 2008 to 2012, Crary and Kunstler produced the popular podcast series, The KunstlerCast, a weekly conversation about "the tragic comedy of suburban sprawl." During their run, the two often used Crary's home city of Troy, N.Y. as an informal laboratory to illustrate and observe the urban design, energy and economic issues of the times.
Now, after completing what he considers an "intellectual apprenticeship," Crary will be setting off alone to continue exploring the urban organism. The episode begins with an excerpt from an essay by Crary about his time spent learning from Kunstler and living in Troy, NY. It first appeared in print as the concluding chapter of Crary’s book, The KunstlerCast: Conversations with James Howard Kunstler...the tragic comedy of suburban sprawl, (New Society Publishers, 2011). Visit http://asmallamericancity.com to hear more.
