Ashes Ashes

Episode 58 - "Renewable Problems" With the deadline for keeping global warming below 1.5C quickly approaching (at least according to the extremely optimistic IPCC calculations - and we know how we feel about those), the time for renewable energy is yesterday. The transition to these clean sources of energy should be a no brainer, right? Well, as always, the story is more complicated than it would first appear and our addiction to cheap and highly energetic fossil fuels isn't going away anytime soon. Can we break our addiction and create real change? Chapters 00:29 Energy Investment in Southern Mexico 10:12 Why is Ashes Ashes hating on renewable technology? 16:11 Individual vs Social Change 20:56 Energy Density 29:35 Hidden Externalities 34:57 Grid storage 39:37 Struggling to Maintain Renewables 46:51 Close Out A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 57 - "Do No Harm" By now we are used to the idea that every action we take in the world is tracked, but what happens when that all-pervasive panopticon is turned inside each and every one of us? An explosion of personal medical technology, health programs, and terrible data practices have meant that the very records of who we are are being packaged, sold, and stolen. Our health records have become assets used to sell us out - and the dangers are only growing. Can we regain our most intimate form of privacy? Or are we doomed to a future where the details of our body and mind are open to the highest bidder? Chapters 05:50 DNA and Me 11:56 Corporate Wellness Programs 19:31 Why might your employer want your health information? 27:09 Anonymous data isn't? 34:42 Mental Health Surveillance 41:01 Building a nefarious infrastructure 48:47 In who's hands are the keys to women's health data? 57:53 Pirvacy concerns in Australia 1:00:27 Benefits from central health databases? 1:04:46 What can we do? A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 56 - "Beneath the Paving Stones, the Beach" Beneath our paving stones, paved roads, walls, windows, computers, industry, and more, is a collection of hard material no larger than a speck. Sand is the fundamental building block of modern civilization, mined and extracted more than any other natural resource after water, and this fact should give us pause. Where does all this sand come from in the first place? What are the environmental consequences of sand mining? Most importantly, what happens when access to this most basic component of modern life begins to run out? Our modern civilization may pass, like sand through an hour glass. Chapters 02:42 Why Sand? 03:31 What is Sand and Where is it? 08:40 Why do we care about sand? 16:09 Some History 20:59 Economics of Sand Scarcity 28:05 Destructive nature of Sand Extraction 39:07 Sand Mafias 48:06 Tragedy of the Unmanaged Commons 58:50 The Best of Times? A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 55 - "What We Can Do" It's a new year and perfect time for reflection, resolutions, and hope for something better. This special episode features both Daniel and David explaining what they work on outside of the show to make the world better (even if just a little bit), why that matters, and different ways that we all can do our part to push things forward towards fixing everything that's broken around us. Chapters 01:24 Daniel's Story 11:40 David's Story 18:35 Community 21:23 Organizing 28:13 Individual Actions 34:12 Collective Action 41:17 Homework A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 54 - "Golden Age: A Pirate's Life" Much maligned by history, they nevertheless hold a special place in culture and our hearts. This week we're discussing all things pirates. What drove these men and women to a life as enemies of all nations? What went on aboard their ships? Is a pirate's life really for us? We answer these question and much more as we look back to the Golden Age of Piracy and what we can learn from the period and how it relates to the piracy ocurring today. (we apologize for the audio issues in this episode. we recorded out of our regular set up, but we'll fix it when we get time back in studio) Chapters 10:37 Why become a pirate? 13:12 A more equal social order 26:12 What systems made pirates inevitable? 31:47 Perks of a pirate's life 39:05 Courage above all else 41:21 A pirate's life was made possible by a long history of cultural and generational knokwledge and tradition 45:38 Fast forwarding to the modern day 59:53 Closing thoughts A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 53 - "Welfare Titans" Amazon created competition between cities to land its HQ2 location, along with hefty tax subsidy packages. While this process garnered significant media attention, businesses and municipalities regularly engage in these types of deal making in which the promise of jobs and economic development all ostensibly justify enormous costs at the taxpayer's expense. Amazon alone has received over $1.6bn in economic development packages for it's various warehouses, so it's high time that we ask what's really going on behind the scenes. Does the public actually benefit from corporate welfare deals or is this just another method of transferring wealth out of local communities? In addition, we explore miscellaneous tools used for similar means, like Tax Increment Financing, and Tax-Exempt Municipal Bonds for stadium construction. Chapters 02:31 Economic Development Incentives 14:01 Company Queens of Tax Grift 37:40 Tools of Diverting Public Funds: Tax Increment Financing 43:40 World of Sports A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 52 - "Killing Fields" Following the acquisition of Monsanto by Bayer, just a handful of companies now control over 70% of the world's supply of pesticides and 60% of patented seeds. Consolidations like this speak to an underlying trend in industrial agriculture, and in this episode we stop to consider the role that pesticides play in a system of food production that threatens biodiversity, food security, human health, and the environment on which crops are grown. In addition, we ask what impact these trends have on small farmers, and what we can learn from the efforts by local community seedbanks to preserve diversity and resist industrialization. While we do explore the human health consequences of certain pesticides, as well as the risks we may not be certain of, we primarily choose to focus more deeply on why pesticide-aided industrial practices attract investment in the first place and what effects that has had on Earth and all of us. Chapters 00:36 Agrochemical consolidation and pesticide dependance 09:51 Pesticides affect more than humans 16:35 Understanding the role pesticides play in a larger system 20:28 Why industrial farming anyway? 27:55 Roles of diversity in a better world 29:41 Indian landraces - Dr. Debal Deb 32:51 Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute 45:21 Intellectual property stalls farming innovation 50:38 Desiccation: the insane farming practice you've never heard of 56:35 We have enough food to feed the global population? 58:39 Harvard finds way to profit from climate change 1:02:49 Glyphosate 1:13:47 Regulations blind to global poor 1:19:07 What can we do? A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 51 - "Eyes on Me" Surveillance technology continues to creep into our lives, whether it’s facial tracking in NY kiosks, invasive monitoring in Venezuela, China’s expanding social credit system, or entire cities being designed from the ground up in Egypt to better capture the intimate lives of its residents. These initiatives are driven by desires for profit and power, and justified through campaigns of fear. Technology however is just one facet of any surveillance machine. According to former CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden in 2013: "the top 20% of American intelligence - that exquisite insight into an enemy's intentions - is generally provided by human sources." To understand the role in which we as individuals are turned into tools for surveillance, the so called “eyes and ears” of the state, we examine the historical development of crowd-sourced community policing, and the related programs that have been developed in the US for conscripting citizens into harvesting data on their neighbors, friends, and family. Chapters 03:39 Part I: Soft creep of surveillance technology 18:08 Children 25:42 Cameras 30:32 What to make the soft creep of surveillance tech? 38:11 Part II: The social and cultural side of surveillance 40:39 Historical: Introduction of community policing 49:46 Defining crime through a carefully constructed lens 1:02:21 Children snitches 1:15:22 Takeaways Detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) are available on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 50 - "Apocalypse Now" The IPCC recently released its most dire report yet, warning us of a planet quickly warming to 1.5C, implications for our future, and offering pathways for mitigating the damage. But at the core of these pathways are flawed assumptions, paradoxes, and impossible promises. Why do these failures persist at our highest international institutions, what does this signal about the broader economic and political failings that got us to this dire situation, and how can we re-frame our perspectives to face the greatest challenge we as a species have ever faced? Chapters 03:46 A 1.5C World 07:33 Preventing a 1.5C World 13:42 Ecological Consequences of 1.5C 20:51 IPCC Failures 23:57 Ecological Feedback 32:39 Magic Technology Needed 37:55 Indigenous Knowledge and Economic Growth 50:00 Why Does the IPCC Miss the Target? 1:03:06 Shared Memory and Loss 1:10:04 Hope 1:13:51 Imagination A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 49 - "The World Might Be Broken" This week we present a short presentation we gave during the Sound Education conference at the Harvard Divinity School. The World Might Be Broken is a summation of some of the topics we cover in this show, the way they are interrelated, and how our approach to solving them will require an awareness of their systemic roots, and specific action. A brief audience discussion follows, as well as our post-conference thoughts. Chapters 02:05 The Presentation 13:13 Audience Questions 25:30 Post Presentation Discussion Detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 48 - "Black Ballot Box" Of all Western Democracies, the US is ranked last in terms of free and fair elections (52nd worldwide). On top of the political reasons for that, our election systems (voting machines; registration lists; centralized election management systems; reporting sites) are all vulnerable and easy to hack. Audits on these systems rarely ever occur. In a broken system like this, what does political participation mean? The solutions to these problems are right in front of our eyes, but when those who write the rules come to power through the very system we need to fix, can we ever hope to implement them? Chapters 02:25 Our least favorite Gerry 06:30 The annual purge 14:12 The founding fathers would be proud 26:44 The scary part 31:04 Voting machines we use 41:38 Not just voting machines 49:45 Will the internet save us? 54:56 How do we go forward? A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 47 - "painKiller" The final part of our American healthcare series, painKiller brings together everything we've learned the past two weeks and beyond in Ashes Ashes to explore how the opioid crisis was created and how it is perpetuated to fulfill a single ultimate goal: profit. Pharmaceutical companies, the insurance industry, hospitals, doctors, and politicians - all which ostensibly exist to serve the public have instead mostly contributed to our modern day hellscape of pain, addiction, and increasingly death. This isn't a show about how the end of the world is looming, this is a look at the ugly truth of collapse affecting people all around us right now. Chapters 4:40 Pharma companies create misuse 11:25 Pill Mills 13:42 The modern day problem 19:09 Chronic pain 24:18 Physician frustration 30:16 Making sense of it all 43:21 What can we do? A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 46 - "Pill of Sale" Drug prices, shortages, and barriers to access are out of control, prompting hospitals to join forces to make their own, and spurring the emergence of inventors hoping to chart a future in which life-saving drugs can be made cheaply at home. To lock in high prices, drugmakers have learned to game the American patent system to extend their monopolies, and block generic alternatives for essential medicines. Additionally, pharmaceutical companies have for years withheld data from important clinical trials, skewed the data that is published, and put the health and safety of clinical trial participants at risk. In this episode, we will examine these trends, as well as the historical quirks of drug approval in the United States that have led us down this sick path. Chapters 01:51 Drug prices out of control 08:08 Case story: Inhalers 10:38 The process of drug approval 14:41 American drug patent system and the games companies play 20:23 Behind the scenes: clinical trial results manipulation 22:06 Behind the scenes: clinical trial human guinea pigs 27:58 Behind the scenes: clinical trial oversight 31:21 Are drugmakers even making the medicines we need? 36:24 The evils of socialized medicine 38:10 Going forward: alternative systems A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 45 - "Bill of Health" American healthcare is taking a toll on America's health. Costs outpace economic growth, medical debt plagues millions, confusing and surprising bills infect further more, insurance premiums and deductibles are out of control, and at the end of the day we're not even receiving better care as a result of all this change. In part one of a three part series, we will hear three personal stories as we try and make sense of where American healthcare went wrong - and how we can get it back on track. Chapters 06:31 Juanne from Ontario 11:44 Insurance and surprise charges 17:55 Insurance's humble origins 20:06 Insurance competition raises costs 24:40 Hospitals flex their power 32:44 Joel from DC 37:11 American medical coding oddity 48:24 Emergency service private equity 53:07 "Residency and training, or free labor?" 56:29 Matt from Nashville 1:03:57 What can we do? A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 44 - "Do Not Disturb" The world is waking up to the negative health consequences of noise pollution. The WHO recognizes noise as a health crisis, and the number of places around the world not devastated by human noise is rapidly depleting. But the problems posed by our traffic noise, our airplane noise, and other anthropogenic intrusions go much deeper than the long list of human health effects like stroke, heart disease, diabetes, mental health problems, and increased general mortality. The natural world organizes itself in large part through sound. Our noise disrupts these delicate systems, breaks down ecosystems, and drives species into confusion, disarray, and death. Bernie Krause joins us to help illuminate the complexity of natural soundscapes, and the threats to their stability. Can we relearn how to listen before it's too late? Chapters 06:22 Bernie Krause 08:56 Components of a Soundscape 11:29 Niche Hypothesis 13:02 What are ways animals vocalize to survive? 14:52 The sound of habitat destruction 24:41 Beauty of marine environments 29:21 Cultural pathology and inattention 30:52 Difference between organized and chaotic sound 48:50 Loudness wars against our health 52:58 Human health consequences of sound 58:55 Animal health consequences of sound 1:08:08 Going forward A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 43 - "FUBAR" The military exists to engage in seemingly endless war, but the damage doesn't stop during peace time. For decades, the US military (and many others around the world) has been systematically destroying the Earth and the very nations they're sworn to protect. Disregard for the natural world and those that inhabit it has resulted in the US military becoming the largest single polluter in the world, destroying large swaths of land, and poisoning foreigners and Americans alike. Can this machine be stopped? Additionally, this week we're joined by activist and journalist Sophia Perez for a special interview on the military's plans to destroy islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands - plans we're running out of time to stop. Chapters 01:57 Around the World 10:21 Sophia Perez 12:08 CNMI 15:36 Original Bargain 17:42 How does the military sell this idea? 21:10 Natural Connection 26:09 Alternative Zero Coalition 27:35 NEPA 30:25 Resistance 35:30 What can we learn from the Marianas? 42:43 How can we help? 46:07 Colonialism is not over 50:53 Domestic Damage 54:50 Open Burn Pits 1:04:40 The Military, Trust, and Health 1:09:21 Perpetual War 1:11:58 "Dude, where's my nukes?" 1:14:48 What can we do? 1:17:15 What is the purpose of military? A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 42 - "No Catch" The peak of our industrial fishing returns has come and gone, despite a myriad of innovations. In fact, these very innovations may be driving food insecurity even deeper. As fish stocks decline, new methods of extraction are trained on ever-dwindling fish populations to prop up an unsustainable system, leaving vulnerable communities all over the world in their destructive wake. Ironic, since the communities we are leaving behind may ultimately hold the secrets to regional food security. Can we find a life vest to weather the coming tsunami of international food crises? Or will we simply trawl our way to the bottom? Chapters 02:30 The Cod War 15:54 Industrial High Seas Fishing 21:54 The Wondyrechaun 31:51 The Importance of Small-Scale Fisheries 35:42 Fish are food not friends 39:18 Food Production Through Theft 41:37 "As Always, Climate Gets the Final Word" 45:01 What Can We Do? A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 41 - "Dead Tired" Despite a plethora of health benefits that sleep promotes, and a host of dramatic consequences when we neglect it, the world is rapidly trending towards fewer and fewer restful hours. 40% of Americans are sleep deprived and on average we get 2 hours less sleep than just a few decades ago. What has driven this change? Can we survive the consequences of those decisions? Chapters 04:07 Benefits of Sleep 10:56 Consequences of Sleep Loss 19:57 Sleep Variations 28:41 Demands of Modern Life 43:53 Circadian Disruption 52:10 Sleep Denied 54:45 What can we do? A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 40 - "Land of the Free" Never have as many people been locked up than right now, here in the United States. The US has more prisoners per capita than anywhere else on the planet and that number continues to climb at a terrifying rate. Once within the prison system, inmates are abused and exploited out of sight and out of mind of the rest of the population. With these crimes against humanity growing ever greater and the impossible to ignore racial disparity continuing to get worse, it's time we take a critical look at our prison system and the monster we've all created. This episode is dedicated to the prisoners currently on strike across the United States who just want to be treated with the humanity that all of us deserve. Chapters 3:49 Nothing New 11:42 Prisons in America Today 15:57 Prison Labor Today 27:42 What sparked the strike? 28:53 Forced riots 32:54 All demands matter 38:28 What can we do on the outside? 42:38 Language 45:18 Risks higher for some 46:36 How large is this prison strike? 57:52 Benefits of labor? 1:03:33 Disenfranchisement: Has the debt been paid or not? 1:05:40 Collapse? 1:12:20 What can we do? A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 39 - "Impact of Growth" From the ancient philosophers, to modern day scientists, much has been said about the relationship between human population growth and its effects on environmental destruction, famine, and death. Modern policy makers and political leaders have taken inspiration from these debates to craft initiatives aimed at curbing population, but through these efforts a host of human rights abuses have emerged worldwide. With millions of people left in the wake of forced sterilization and other population control programs, we are compelled to ask: what role, ultimately, does population play in a rapidly deteriorating world? Chapters 00:55 A Little History 13:43 Ecology and Systems 27:56 Modern Population Control 36:38 The Wrong Question 55:51 Structural Change or Nothing 1:00:44 Who Gets the Last Laugh? A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 38 - "Dead Air" Despite efforts to develop cleaner technology, air pollution remains quite possible the world's greatest killer. New reports by the WHO put the annual deaths around 7 million, with 90% of the global population breathing dangerous air. Air pollution itself is an amalgam of particles with different sizes and chemical properties, and so the health impacts of polluted air are complex and encompass a diversity of chronic illnesses, cognitive dysfunction, infectious disease, and more. The implications of this health crisis are not fully understood, but the costs are widespread, and rising. Worse, addressing this problem seems to lead us into a classic catch-22. Can we afford to ignore this problem anymore? Can we afford not to? Chapters 02:43 Magnitude of Air Pollution by Deaths 04:32 What is Air Pollution? 08:14 Hazy Places 10:30 Sources of Air Pollution 21:50 Does Progress Outweigh the Cost? 29:13 Health Impacts of Air Pollution 49:30 Catch-22 57:23 What Can We Do? A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 37 - "Logistics Of Slavery (Part 2 of 2)" Last week we explored some of the conditions of the record number of slaves all across our world today. But to really understand the issue, we need to look at the systems that create and depend upon this cheap form of exploited labor - and to do that we turn our conversation to logistics. No other force has reshaped our world as much as modern day logistics. From it's humble beginnings with the shipping container to redefining national security and our very political borders today, the massive power of shipping goods from A to B has dramatically changed the world - often for worse. This week we explore some of the effects of this force and the workers that get caught up in the process. Chapters 00:19 Paris Transforms 05:00 Military and Logistics 07:37 Logistics Transforms the World 14:45 Flags of Convenience 17:36 Cruise of Convenience 22:22 Speeding Up Goods and Death 24:53 Driving Faster Logistics 41:25 Security of Logistics 55:42 Workers are Threats 59:15 Borders are Threats 1:01:38 Democracy and Pirates 1:08:15 What Can We Do? A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 36 - "Slaves to Progress (Part 1 of 2)" Despite universal condemnation of slavery, there are more slaves than ever before. They are cheaper (and more disposable) than they ever have been. Who are these people toiling without rest and what forces bind them? Can economic expansion find innovative solutions to this age-old problem? Or is slavery itself built into the foundation of our modern economy? We will explore these questions and more, as well as the connections between slavery and environmental destruction, migration, and the products we consume daily. This is the first of a two part series. Chapters 03:19 Pirates 07:42 Slaves by the Numbers 12:04 Diversity of Products 14:33 The "Third World" and the Environment 21:03 Vicious Cycle 23:10 Global Demand; Local Conflict 24:33 Conflict Mineral Supply Chain 28:55 Debt Path to Slavery 33:28 Malaysia 37:53 Vulnerability through Migration 39:56 Seafood 48:00 What are Rights? 55:28 Benevolence of Jobs? 57:49 Thinking in Aggregates A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 35 - "Plugged In" What compels people to throw their money away at a slot machine? In short: design. The design that goes into making a slot machine addicting is deliberate and effective, but restrained in some part by regulation. But what happens when the same tools used to addict people to losing money are released unfettered into products and services we interact with every day, constantly? And how might these tools evolve when aided by artificial intelligence that can customize design for each individual without their consent or awareness? Is such a thing even plausible? Join us as we explore these questions and much, much more. Chapters 03:16 The Slot Machine 07:31 Time on Phone Numbers 10:24 Addicting by Design 28:00 Notifications 33:40 Business of Addiction 43:09 The Illusion of Choice 56:23 The Children 01:00:22 Going Forward? 01:04:38 Practical Tips and Tricks A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 34 - "Irreplaceable" The expansion of human beings is perhaps unrivaled by any other species. Yet that success threatens to be our downfall. As civilization grows, the wildlife that enables it gets pushed out, and valuable ecosystems are stressed to their breaking point. Worse still, the destruction of biodiversity means the keys that could unlock a path forward for life are lost forever. How much time do we have to halt the sixth mass extinction before we too drown in its wake? The answer is much, much shorter than you think. Chapters 05:40 Human Beings and Our Place on Earth 09:17 Defining the Anthropocene 11:19 The 6th Extinction 18:38 The Greatest Threat? 21:50 Global Changes are Cyclical? 26:08 Ecosystems and their Services 29:55 Biodiversity 36:30 In Crisis: Insects 48:09 Our Gardens 59:51 History of Lawns 1:07:13 Normalized to Catastrophe 1:09:05 Crisis: Amphibians 1:12:55 In Crisis: Birds 1:18:12 What Can We Do? A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 33 - "All Rights Reserved" Ideas have become property. This is the magic spell that intellectual property has cast across our society. Innovation, art, new ideas, and even our culture can be locked behind the restrictions of the law, protected by armies of lawyers, devastating fines, and the full power of the justice system. This system is built for and run predominantly by publishers, not the creators it purports to support - and we all suffer from it. How did we get here? Where did we go astray and lose control of the very act of creation that defines what it is to be human? This week we explore the foundations of intellectual property, the effects it has had on our history and our current day, times and places where IP is lacking and creativity flourishes, and finally we share our hope for a better future. This is the most expensive Ashes Ashes show ever and we hope you enjoy and share freely. Chapters 01:43 $1 Billion 04:05 A Brief History 07:17 Printing Press 13:30 Statute of Anne 20:31 France 23:05 Switzerland 24:18 The Wild West of IP 27:05 Germany 30:23 James Watt's Steam Engine 33:27 Copyright in the US 39:21 Modern Absurdity 44:41 Science and Research 46:15 The Contributions of Who? 51:14 IP Costs Lives 59:38 Medicines and Pharma 1:05:20 Fashion and Designs 1:09:46 Technology and Software 1:13:49 Culture and History 1:25:21 Whatt Can We Do? A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 32 - "For Better or For Worse 2" This week we explore updates to many of the subjects we've tackled so far. Guest host Moriah King joins us as we discuss our biggest fears, as well as updates in government surveillance, water insecurity, automation, financial crises, and so much more. Strap in: it's a few months of bad news all at once (with a little good news and a whole lot of analysis thrown in), but as always we hope you'll be as motivated by these stories as we are to start working towards something better. Chapters 03:50 Moriah's Fear 09:59 Walls 13:58 Government Surveillance 30:31 Tracking Children's Faces 37:46 Automation 40:28 Debt 45:15 "Plastic, Walls, and Trade" 51:30 Heat 54:45 Water 1:07:11 Wet and Dry 1:10:27 Wildfires 1:13:28 Pensions 1:14:29 Infrastructure 1:19:10 For Better? A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 31 - "No Entry" Rescue ships denied; children detained far away from parents; smugglers profiting to the tune of hundreds of millions. As crises across the globe drive people from their homes, the nations of the world are stepping up border security and building walls like never before in human history. While walls purport to increase security and halt unwanted people and activities, a closer inspection reveals something entirely different. In the first of a series exploring the ins and outs of borders, we examine the paradoxes that exist on the margins of the walls that define our nations today. This is a world desperate to resist the powerful forces of climate change and economic collapse (events we directly caused) - and failing miserably. Walls, borders, immigration, what it means to be a human in a global age, and so much more this week in Ashes Ashes. Chapters 02:29 Modern Border Walls 06:37 Paradoxes of Modern Walls 09:00 US-Mexico Border 14:11 Walls Stop Crime and Drugs? 29:39 Dangers and Risks for Migrants 33:20 Risk the Dangers? 33:51 Walls and Terrorism 36:37 Walls Blur Lines 38:37 Walls and Labor 51:45 Why Do We Build Walls? 1:01:11 EU Tension 1:04:46 What Can We Do? A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 30 - "Parched" As always, the world is facing a crisis. This week we explore the exploding problem of water access as large swaths of the world find themselves drying out risking agriculture, industry, and the very water we drink. By 2020, 100 million Indians will find themselves without water - and this is just the beginning of what might be the largest disaster in human history. Can states prepare themselves for the coming hordes of water refugees? Can civilization survive water hungry industrial agriculture as climate change reshapes where rain falls? Can we act as sustainable stewards of our shared water resources? Or is it all too little, too late? Chapters 4:26 Climate Contribution to Water Stress 7:40 Current Victims of Water Stress 9:52 Day Zero 13:35 India 19:52 Irrigation vs Drinking Water 21:43 "Migrants, Borders, and Conflict" 27:48 Ethiopia and African Tension 32:38 Business of Water 37:44 Infrastructure and Cost 39:45 Australia Reacts to Water Scarcity 41:55 Need for Systems Thinking 45:25 "Romans, Ancient and Modern" 47:40 Lakes Disappearing 49:18 Agricultural Use of Water 52:48 What Can We Do? A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 29 - "War Machine" International calls to ban autonomous weapon systems have done little to slow the escalating arms race between nations to acquire weapons of the so called third revolution in warfare - or simply "killer robots." The intersection of AI, deep learning, and lethal weaponry presents a future of war unlike any the world has ever seen. In the crosshairs of this new frontier of violence we find moral accountability, the ethics of killing, and of course the comforting lullaby that we have any meaningful control over our world. What will war become when all the warriors are replaced by weapons that "think" but do not feel? Listen in this week to find out. 5:10 Arms Race for LAWS 8:28 Autonomous Weapons: This Time It's Different 15:47 Calling for a Ban 28:46 Robot Dystopian Future #1 32:03 Is Technology Just a Tool? 39:30 Robot Dystopian Future #2 42:22 War Business and Following Orders 47:12 Robot Dystopian Future #3 55:46 Robot Overlords 58:31 Sitting on a Man 1:01:14 Culture that Outpaces Technology 1:03:27 Flaw of Averages 1:06:47 Robot Dystopian Future #4 1:12:17 Absurdity of War 1:16:35 What Can We Do? A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 28 - "Debt End" This episode is all about debt. Where does debt come from? Why is the concept of borrowing and lending mired in moral confusion and contradiction? What is the purpose of debt and who ultimately pays? To get to the heart of all these questions, one has to navigate through economic myth, blood and ultimately the human soul. Join us as we travel back through time and explore the systems that led to this tool that shapes our world for better and for worse. Chapters 04:43 Consumer Foundation of Economy Driven by Debt 07:46 Origin of Money 13:00 War and the Need for Currency 20:33 South Africa 31:30 International Development 35:20 Blood Runs in Rivers 38:33 Violence and Economics 42:44 Haitian Independence Debt 51:23 Debt at the Individual Level 53:24 Moral Contradiction: Who Has to Pay? 59:16 Moral Contradiction: Industrious Poor 1:00:51 Why Intererst? 1:04:05 Going Forward 1:07:27 Jubilee A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 27 - "The Robot Is In" By 2030 over 800 million jobs could be automated globally. While in the past, increased productivity from innovation tracked positively with wage increases and employment, these trends have parted ways. The integration of information tech, precision manufacturing, and machine learning place us on the precipice of a rapidly changing economy - and an end to work as we know it. Can we adapt to the incoming automation wave, or will we be left out in the cold as the robots take our jobs, our world, and our very ability to survive? Chapters 06:47 Obstacles to Total Manual Automation 10:14 Automation Economics 11:36 Wages 14:31 Job Creation 23:34 Unemployment 24:11 De-Skill 30:29 Minimum Wage 32:40 White Collar Jobs 45:15 Education Can Save Us? 52:30 Jobs that Lack Meaning 1:01:58 Who Paid for Technology? 1:04:06 Universal Basic Income? 1:09:12 What Can We Do? A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 26 - "Barrier to Growth" There seems to be a perfect storm of factors that threaten to completely reshape who owns farmland here in the US and globally. 400 million acres of farmland in the US alone will change hands in the next 20 years, farmers are retiring and there is a much smaller generation of young farmers to replace them, and global investment for agriculture land is on the rise, which will push family farmers off the land in favor of industrial consolidation. Beyond that, farmland is being lost to competing land uses. In the United States, that's between 1 and 3 acres of farmland lost every minute. To help navigate some of these issues, and as an example of solutions that are being developed and implmented to fight against these trends, we are joined by Ian McSweeney, organizational director of Agrarian Trust. Chapters 00:18 Panama 04:14 Theft As Policy 07:52 M28,Farming is Hard 14:45 "Ian McSweeney, Agrarian Trust" 17:48 Early Work in Real Estate 20:25 Where Did a Passion for Farmland Come From? 24:16 "When Community Suffers, Community Farms Suffer" 24:43 Founding of Agrarian Trust 28:06 Why Agrarian Trust? 29:53 Innovation 31:50 Community Based Ownership Model 32:43 Land Prices 35:45 Land Valuation Methods 40:34 What Does Agrarian Trust Do? 43:20 Models for Creating Local Communities 47:57 Ensuring Long-Term Communities 50:04 Conversations Easments 52:55 Enforcing Sustainable Action 55:23 Opportunities for Restructuring Conservation Management 57:34 Scaling Processing with Land Trust Vertical Integration? 59:13 Alternative Financing for Farmers 1:02:56 Agrarian Lawyer Network 1:06:03 Urban Farming 1:08:40 Addressing Climate Change? 1:11:47 Initial Areas for Farm Commons Projects 1:12:59 Agrarian Trust work going foward 1:14:08 Next Steps 1:19:55 What Can We Do? A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 25 - "Heat Death" As climate change accelerates, much of the media attention is given to effects like rising seas, super storms, and increased weather variability. Often overlooked is the temperature itself and the direct impact warmer temperatures will have on our ability to maintain infrastructure, agricultural effects, our health, and even the very ability to live in much of the world. As the temperature rises, so does the risk that the very fabric of modern society simply evaporates. Maybe it's time to ask the question, "How hot is too hot?" Chapters 08:58 How will Modern Infrastructure Adapt to Heat? 10:18 Transportation 17:45 Energy 22:56 Renewable Energy 25:24 Animals and Crops 32:50 Human Health 44:20 Pakistan and India 46:24 Wet-Bulb 52:41 Future Temperatures 1:01:23 Variable Benchmarks 1:02:53 What Can We Do? A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0 Listener Correction: Correction submitted by a listener with education in metallurgy and material science, and experience in a metals heat treating facility: I wanted to correct a small detail in your show "Heat Death". ... You mentioned that rails change crystal structure in increased heat. That is not correct in the environment that rail roads would be subjected to. Steel does not undergo a phase transformation until around 1500 F (slight variations on that temperature depending on the alloy of steel). The friction from the car moving on the rail would not generate that much heat to cause that transformation. Even if the pressures were huge it would actually suppress phase changes. ... What does cause the rails to warp from high temperatures is that the steel expands slightly. The expansion will generally happen in the direction the steel was rolled during manufacturing. Miles and miles of rails expanding along the track direction generates enough compressive stress for the steel to buckle outwards. This expansion isn't the crystal structure changing, but atoms just becoming more energetic and taking up slightly more space in their lattice multiplied by the huge number of atoms there are in rail road tracks.

Episode 24 - "Suspect Science" The depiction of forensic science in popular entertainment is ubiquitous. We might be lead to believe that the field utilizes actual scientific methods of crime scene analysis to bring criminals to justice with irrefutable evidence, but a closer look reveals a very different story. This week we draw a magnifying glass over this industry rife with broken incentives, subjective guesswork, and willful negligence. Our entire justice system will need a massive restructuring if there can be any hope of preventing innocent people from being sent to prison - or worse. Can law and order be saved or is the system and its methods rotten to the core? Chapters A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 23 - "The Best of Times..." We frequently hear that this is the greatest time in human history, that we've never had it this good before. And actually that's absolutely true - if you're one of the wealthy few that can take advantage of the system. But for the rest of humanity, and make no mistake it's the vast majority of the earth's population, things are rough and frequently getting worse. Join us this week as we scratch the surface of this story of two worlds, of the haves and havenots. Chapters 03:33 Work Hours 05:52 Quality of Life 06:51 Poverty 09:40 $2 A Day 10:57 Well Being 13:01 Debt 18:39 The Debt and Prison Pipeline 25:24 Inequality 30:12 Health Trends 35:58 Work Kills 43:53 Modern Violence 48:14 The Needs that Drive Us 50:38 Disconnected: Modern Slavery 54:26 Life Built on Human Suffering 55:51 The Purpose 57:41 Wrap Up A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 22 - "Fashion Victims" What does it take to make a shirt? That question might seem simple at first glance, but as we explored the fashion industry, we discovered a world of environmental destruction, exploitation, and human suffering on a staggering scale. Hidden just out of sight from the cheap clothes we find in our closets and strip malls is a story centuries in the making of struggles that continue through today. Join us this week as we explore the ins and outs of this dirty industry. Chapters 01:53 Scope of the Industry 05:23 Shift in the Industry 13:13 Labor 16:26 Slavery in our Modern World 20:39 Supply Chain: Raw Materials 29:30 Supply Chain: Manufacture 33:59 Labor 34:24 Police in Fashion? 37:55 Pink 39:52 Supply Chain: End of Life 41:55 Bloody History of the Textile Industry 45:07 The Triangle Factory 47:22 Can We Have The World We Want? 57:38 What Can we Do? A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 21 - "Clima Ex Machina" The global climate is in bad shape and quickly getting worse. The debate as to how or why is long over (from both data and irrelevance) and the conversation is now turning to "Well what now?" The IPCC has set down an ambitious plan to get us off our fossil fuel fix, but it involves a lot of unproven technologies to help us stay under 2C. Further, many researchers believe this won't be enough and are proposing their own megascale engineering projects to try and keep Earth from slowly cooking us. This week on Ashes Ashes we tackle the world of geoengineering, exploring what's realistic, what's likely, and just how much trouble are we really in. Chapters 09:26 Cloud Seeding 11:28 Albedo 13:29 Stratospheric Aerosol Injection 15:10 Cirrus Cloud Thinning 19:48 Accidental Cloud Seeding 24:15 Moral Hazard 27:03 Halting Ice Melt 30:24 Simulate Ice? 31:17 Addressing the Underlying Problem 32:08 Ocean Iron Fertilization 36:07 Colonize Mars 40:16 Reforestation & Afforestation 46:35 "Out of Sight, Out of Mind" 49:38 The Final Frontier 55:04 BECCS 1:00:57 DACS 1:04:46 Just Scratching the Surface 1:06:58 What Can We Do? 1:09:32 Close Out A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 20 - "Irresistible" Around the world, pathogens of all types are showing resistance to standard treatment. Failure among so called "drugs of last resort," a decline of disease prevention programs, and shifting climate all present ominous signs for the risk of global infectious disease. Joining us this week are three professors from the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Georgia. All three have experience in antimicrobial resistance and the connection between humans, animals, the environment, and the pathogens that move among us all. Chapters 03:07 Modern Medicine at Risk? 05:54 What is an Antibiotic? 06:39 Resistance: a Response to Attacks 10:12 Resistance to Last Resort Drugs 12:25 Risk of Global Pandemic 18:08 Resistance to Drugs of Last Resort 20:08 Pandemics: Multi-Faceted Problem 20:37 Pandemics: Climate 25:42 Pandemics: Industrial Agriculture and Food Animals 28:09 Interview: Dr Credille 45:05 Interview: Dr Sanchez & Dr. Louge 1:10:28 China 1:11:53 Pandemics: Environment 1:14:39 Pandemic: Socio-Economic 1:18 Global Prevention 1:21:44 Disease Surveillance 1:26:03 Economic Cost 1:29:14 What Can we Do? 1:30:38 What Can we Actually Do? A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 19 - "Life in Plastic" Despite what you might have heard, our life in plastic is less than fantastic. Plastic is everywhere and enables our modern standard of living, but it turns out that this comes at a cost. Recent discoveries have found plastic in the oceans, in our soil, in the food we eat, and even the air we breathe. The health and environmental effects of all this plastic are just beginning to be understood - and it's not looking good. Join us this week as explore the world of plastics and microplastics and speak with environmental attorney John Parker about this growing threat. Chapters 4:48 Where Does it All Go? 5:11 Great Pacific Garbage Patch 6:12 What are Microplastics 7:23 Where do Microplastics Come From? 12:04 What Are the Environmental and Health Implications? 12:30 In our Water? 15:04 In our Bodies 15:59 Marine Food Chain Impacts 18:02 We Breathe Plastic? 18:54 Affects of Plastic on Health and Environment 23:43 Chemicals In Our World 28:53 Externalities and Pofitibility 36:09 There is no Profit? 43:04 Local Politics and Business 43:15 Ban on Bans 44:01 John 44:42 JOHN: Experience 45:29 JOHN: Why is it Hard to Get Clean Water? 46:12 JOHN: New York Doing Enough? 47:31 JOHN: Proactive or Reactive? 49:38 JOHN: Where Does Responsibility Lie? 52:16 JOHN: Importance of Awareness 54:04 JOHN: Who is Leading Awareness? 55:33 JOHN: Groups Doing Good 57:09 What Can We Do? 1:03:20 Gavin A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 18 - "Scripted" What happens when you can't trust anything anymore? That's the question we'll be exploring this week as we look into the world of half truths, lies, bots, manipulation, and our rapidly approaching post truth world. Everything from voice to video to our very sense of self is at stake in this rapidly changing world where the ability to manipulate becomes easier than ever. What does that mean for law, politics, sex, and our culture? Listen in to find out. Chapters 05:39 Weird Tech Incoming 10:30 Reality and Politics 12:18 Political Armies 14:08 David Ruined Net Neutrality 15:44 Erosion of Trust in Truth 17:23 Centralized Media? 18:23 Apathy 19:01 Conspiracy 23:46 Apathy Benefits Oppression 26:14 The Role of Bad News 27:14 Fake Porn 32:28 Forgery 33:52 Scamming the Elderly 34:51 Laser Phishing 38:20 Perfect You 42:04 Evidence, Courts, Legal Systems 45:19 A Silver Lining? 47:16 Economic Incentives 48:17 Fake Reviews 50:19 Commdifying Us 52:05 What Can We Do? 55:33 Don't Ask What but Why A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 17 - "For Better or For Worse #1" One of our hosts is out of town, so we take this week to explore updates to many of the subjects we've discussed so far. Guest host Moriah King helps us explore everything from the power grid to pensions, state surveillance to sea level rise, and so much more. Strap in this week: it's a few months of bad news all at once (with a little good news thrown in), but we hope you'll be as motivated by it as we are to start working towards something better. Chapters 02:33 Infrastructure 09:44 Power Grid 14:43 Preparing for Infrastructure Failure 17:08 Communites and Death Spirals 20:10 Pension Systems 28:15 What is Community? 31:33 Where Does the Retirement Burden Fall? 34:02 Government Surveillance 54:56 Corporate Tracking 1:06:09 Sea Level Rise 1:08:21 Facebook 1:09:13 Agriculture 1:09:49 Good News? 1:10:54 Close out A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 16 - "What We Reap" Global topsoil is being lost at terrifying rates. So much so that many experts predict less than 60 years left of agricultural yields before the global food system collapses. Add to this questionable chemical inputs, monoculture, and other large-scale industrial practices as well as the dangers climate change introduces to disrupt traditionally fertile regions (decreasing yields further and impacting food nutrition) and we've got a perfect storm on the horizon. We are joined by Chris D'Alessandro of Harvest Moon Garden & Orchard to discuss organic farming techniques, what it means to form a regenerative relationship with the soil, and hopefully how we can avoid this coming tragedy. Chapters 04:51 Unsustainability 06:25 Can Anyone Farm? 08:17 What is Topsoil? 13:12 Soil: Bacteria 13:54 Soil: Fungus 16:15 Pear Tree from the Ashes 18:17 Chemical Revolution 20:42 Soil: Nitrogen 26:30 Overshoot and Carrying Capacity 29:45 Industrial Agriculture 34:23 Debt Cycle of Fear 36:50 Financial Resiliency 39:19 Balancing Large and Small 40:55 Organic Profitability 43:49 Input Costs 44:28 Phosphorous 45:43 Diversity 46:48 Weeds 50:41 Monoculture 51:27 Honeybees 56:47 Plant Nutrition 59:33 Soil Nutrition 1:01:21 Wine 1:03:00 Climate Change: Soil Loss 1:04:50 Climate Change: Heat 1:06:15 Year Round Growing 1:08:47 Variability 1:09:48 Hope? 1:14:58 Thinking About Technology 1:18:59 Exponential Growth 1:21:14 Diversity and Integration 1:23:52 What is Productive 1:25:03 Supporting Farming 1:28:00 The Most Important Question 1:28:35 More About Chris A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 15 - "Terms of Service" Facebook has entered nearly every part of our internet connected lives. Most of us aren't happy with this, but tolerate it as a part of modern day living. But as we dig deeper into this social media and advertising juggernaut, we start to learn that maybe we shouldn't trust Zuckerberg and crew with so much of our world and our own lives. Join us as we explore psychological experiments, obscene image work farms, revenge porn, and so much more in this episode all about Facebook. Chapters 01:17 A Purpose? 02:42 Why Facebook? 04:58 Evolution 08:42 VPN 10:50 Facebook in Business4 13:11 Unfairly Crushing Competition 17:06 Providing Internet 22:01 The Internet as a Right? 24:03 News Feed Algorithms 35:22 Psychological Experiments 39:52 Think of the CHILDREN 41:39 Ethics 43:06 Slaves to Offensive Pictures 45:17 Revenge Porn 48:18 Trust and Security 49:12 Facebook and Intelligence 52:55 Censorship 56:12 Elections 1:00:03 'Don't use it' 1:01:38 Ghost Profiles 1:02:45 Real Life 1:04:35 A Challenge Resolved 1:05:18 Question Everything A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 14 - "Sweet Release" It's natural, it's delicious, it's everywhere, and it may be killing us. For years, sugar has been overlooked as a serious detriment to our health because of the manipulations of the sugar industry in both science and politics, but the lies are coming to light as the diseases caused by that deadly white powder threaten to overwhelm the health systems of the world. Can we wake up to the danger this major health risk is posing in time or are we too addicted to that sweet release? Join us this week as we explore the how and why of sugar. Chapters 00:20 Progress in the 21st Century 04:45The Scam 13:06 "Pure, White, and Deadly" 14:06 Ancel Keys 15:11 Seven Countries Study 17:10 Coca-cola continues the scam in 2015 19:54 The Start of Nutrition 24:18 Pendulum Swings 27:26 The Failure of the Scientific Method and Industry Infiltration 30:37 "This is Objective Science" 33:24 Publication Bias 36:43 Failure of Politics 38:52 Local Political Manipulation 39:52 What Can We Do? 41:12 Food Access 43:35 Food Affordabilty 46:39 Don't Shame 48:08 Avoid Bad Science A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 13 - "Lights Out" What do airports, water treatment facilities, gas stations, and espresso machines all have in common? A dependence on a reliable and stable network of power generation and distribution. In America, and around the world, our electrical grids are aged, stressed, and increasingly at risk of attack. Worse, the centralization and increased interdependence of these grids mean the risk for large-scale failure has never been greater. If we don't act quickly, the next time the lights go out, they may not turn on again. Chapters 00:00 Preshow 00:45 What is the Grid? 01:58 Some History 03:53 The Grid Today 05:27 Foliage 07:45 Renewable: Difficulties 09:40 Renewables: Subsidies 12:06 Energy Storage 14:37 Transformers: Ageing 16:25 Transformers: Raw Materials 17:19 Transformers: Lead Time 19:53 Critical Substations 21:04 Physical Threats 21:29 Physical Threats: Liberty 22:54 Physical Threats: Metcalf 27:33 Transformers: Spares in Reserves? 29:47 Cyber Threats 31:42 Ukraine Cyber Attack 35:09 Incentives for a Cyber Attack 38:21 How Will War Begin? 39:56 What happens when the Lights go Off? 42:15 Electromagnetic Pulse 43:06 Solar Threat 44:04 Carington Event 46:28 1989 Geomagnetic Storm 48:04 Bureaucracy 48:29 What Can we Do? 55:21 Wrap up A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 12 - "Up in Smoke" In forests, grasslands, and landscapes around the world, poor wildland management and climate change have combined to produce some of the most explosive fires ever seen. This trend is getting worse, and as we continue to push development into these areas, the need to extinguish fires that threaten human life and property rises. But paradoxically, fighting fires is a big piece of the puzzle in how we got here in the first place. We are joined by Tommy Nease and Tyler Marlow, both with professional Forest Service experience, to help make sense of this frightening trend. Chapters 00:00 The Great Fire 02:59 Intro 06:48 The Forest Service 09:38 Hurry Up and Wait? 10:26 Engine Work 12:05 Dangers 13:44 Hand Crews vs Engine Crews 14:42 Setting Fires? 15:39 Prescribed Fires 16:59 Fire is Unpredictable 20:16 Too Much Development? 23:21 What Should People do? 25:45 Fire as a Natural Disaster 26:18 Education? 27:24 Rescuing the Governor 28:23 Send in the Calvary? 30:59 Why Should We Care? 35:34 Send Off 38:21How Did We Get Here? 40:24 Climate Change 44:23 Fire is Good 46:40 Overcrowded Forests 48:46 California 51:49 Slave Labor 53:42 An Investment that Really Caught Fire 55:41 Worldwide 59:58 Climate Feedback 01:01:23 What can we do? 01:05:33 Wrap Up A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 11 - "Designing Deception" What do suffragettes, cigarettes, Sigmund Freud, bacon and eggs with breakfast, bananas, and a coup in Guatemala all have in common? We'll explore the answer to that question in this week as we look at the lessons from an important man and contemplate the extraordinary effects he had (and continues to have) on our society. It's propaganda, public relations, advertising and more on this episode of Ashes Ashes. Chapters 00:00 Preshow 00:30 This is Bananas 09:09 The Man They Hired 12:26 Mozart Pianos 16:03 Torches of Freedom 17:19 Appropriating Social Movements 18:33 Millienials Love Social Change...I Think 20:06 Subconcious Associations 24:56 Manipulating the Media and Press 27:10 "I'm not affected by advertising" 27:37 Influencers 34:12 What Alternatives? 35:21 Needs to Desires 37:13 A Diamond is Forever 38:49 Modern Advertising 39:53 Business Casual 44:56 It's Okay to Question 45:58 How Does This Relate? A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 10 - "Broken Promises" Pensions have long been considered to be the gold standard of retirement, the treasured benefit of public service and big company jobs. But because of changing demographics, evolving financial environments, and poor accounting practices, these once sure things may soon become a liability. With a reckoning soon approaching, will retirement, the markets, and all of us as a whole be able to survive this ticking time bomb? Chapters 00:00 Preshow 01:52 The Idea of Retirement is Centuries Old 02:26 History of Pensions in the US 04:46 Decline of Pensions 06:13 Crisis Looming; Dallas Case Study 08:58 Short Term Promises With No Long-Term Sustainability 11:10 Musuem Tower 14:40 What is a Pension Anyway? 17:24 Risky Investments 18:32 CalPERS 21:36 Public Pensions vs Risk Free Investing 23:35 The Individuals 25:23 Wall Street 28:14 Private Pensions Foreshadow Doom 31:07 Where Will the Money Come From? 36:22 Inequality and Discrimination 39:43 A Better Future 40:38 Wrap Up A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0

Episode 09 - "Nothing Left to Hide" The relationship between government intelligence, the military-industrial complex, and big business goes deep. In technology hubs around the world, complex surveillance products are developed and sold to governments that deploy the tech on journalists, lawyers, academics, and their own citizens. How are these technologies spreading and what effects do they have on society and us as individuals? Join us this week as we explore one of the most heavily surveilled places on earth and ask ourselves how to respond as these technologies increasingly come home to be deployed right here in America. Chapters 01:55 A History of Spying 07:09 Surveillance as Business 09:03 Ethiopia 12:35 Mexico 15:14 Name and Shame 16:02 Where Does this Money Come From? 18:06 China 23:19 Surveillance at Home 28:25 Affecting our Right to Protest 32:22 Terrorist or Enemy of the State? 43:49 Predictive Policing 49:24 Chicago 51:37 How Data Could Be Used to Reduce Crime 56:57 Nothing to Hide A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org. Find more information along with relevant news and links on your favorite social network @ashesashescast. CC BY-SA 4.0