Podcasts
CRV 302
Podcast (crealmvault): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:07:32 — 39.0MB)
KMO mashes up an essay about how Dune is the only fandom not beholden to corporate overlords and a report about how a Mormon billionaire's plan to build a high-tech, high-density eco community in Vermont was stymied by local resistance and a report from Douglas Rushkoff about fielding questions from oligarchs about how to keep their private security forces from taking command of their luxury apocalypse bunkers once the economy has collapsed. It's a delicious melange, and it must flow.
CRV301
Podcast (crealmvault): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 58:40 — 33.9MB)
KMO reads and responds to a December 2016 opinion piece in The Nation which praises the socio-political foresight of the late Hunter S. Thompson. Thompson, in his book Hell's Angels, saw in the WWII-veterans-group-turned-outlaw-biker-gang the resentment at having been left behind in the global economy that now manifests in the form of the Trumpism of 21st Century deplorables.
527: Thinking Like a Writer
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:07:47 — 39.0MB)
KMO welcomes author Elayne Clift to the C-Realm to talk about finding one's voice as a writer and using it to change the world for the better. Elayne has worked in many countries around the world in international public health education and communication with a focus on maternal and child health, which led her to Virginia Woolf’s conclusion: “As a woman, I have no country. As a woman, I want no country. As a woman, my country is the whole world.” She now lives in rural Vermont where she writes full time and mentors developing writers.
526: Bash Bash Conversation
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:03:42 — 36.8MB)
Will the advent of artificial superintelligence (ASI) spell the end of capitalism? Doug Lain explores that question in his new novel, Bash Bash Revolution in which an AI named Bucky creates proliferating copies of itself to work questions of personal identity and free will. Eventually, the Buckys ensnare almost all of humanity in the GameCube Economy which makes people think they are having exciting adventures when in fact they're doing boring, repetitive labor. One of the challenges that Bucky faces is getting non-gamers to put on VR headsets. Nuclear Armageddon is on the line, but fortunately, the AI understands the appeal of 90s nostalgia.
525: Challenging Corruption
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:06:03 — 37.8MB)
KMO talks with Dr. Dan Freilich, a Navy veteran and VA doctor who hopes to defeat Vermont's incumbent Representative, Peter Welch, in the upcoming primary election. For Dr. Dan, every problem and every issue that progressives care about comes back to campaign finance reform. He has vowed not to accept campaign contributions from corporations or from special interests of any kind. He says he'll drop out of the race if Representative Welch will make the same pledge. The conversation ranges over many topics, including the F-35 fighter, the opiate addiction crisis, the role of lobbyists and the unworkability of throwing up one's hands and declaring the entire system to be hopelessly corrupt.