Death in The Garden

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit deathinthegarden.substack.com

On this bonus episode, we are joined by Alex Leff of Human Nature Odyssey to discuss the food system and the strange incentives that perpetuate a system that is at once convenient and destructive. Alex was also thinking about food, as he had just released a podcast entitled The Forest and Forager before this conversation, where he takes the listener on a journey through the Garden of Eden and the grocery store, trying to understand ourselves as a foraging creature who...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit deathinthegarden.substack.com

As people who were willing to drive 3.5 hours one-way to see The Odyssey projected on 70mm IMAX, it’s safe to say we are fans of Christopher Nolan and we love the art of cinema. In this bonus episode with Alex Leff of Human Nature Odyssey, we discuss Nolan’s latest epic and all of the implications that his surprising retelling has today.

We discuss the importance of myth and storytelling, and the need for us to engage consciously with...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit deathinthegarden.substack.com

On this bonus episode of Death in The Garden with Alex Leff of Human Nature Odyssey, Alex takes us along on a deep-dive into The Score by game philosopher C. Thi Nguyen.

In this episode we discuss all things quantification and gamification, and the ways that our civilization has prioritized what can be measured at the expense of almost everything else. W…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit deathinthegarden.substack.com

On this bonus episode of Death in The Garden with Alex Leff of Human Nature Odyssey, we talk about the strangely beautiful, gore-filled sequel to Danny Boyle’s genre-defining film, 28 Days Later — 28 Years Later.

Set 28 years after the rapid spread of the “rage virus” across Britain, we follow a group of survivors who have managed to create a small, insular, and seemingly egalitarian society on an island off the coast of the mainland, protected from the zombies roaming...

On this episode of Death in The Garden, we’re sharing the interview we did with Allan Savory, president and co-founder of the Savory Institute, an organization created to regenerate grasslands by training and connecting global practitioners in how to holistically manage their land to restore biodiversity.

Last April, we had the opportunity to travel to Zimbabwe to film promotional material for Allan’s memoir. You can sign up for the pre-sale list to be notified when the book comes out. We had the opportunity to read a proof copy before our trip, and it was absolutely fasc...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit deathinthegarden.substack.com

On this bonus episode of Death in The Garden with Alex Leff of Human Nature Odyssey, we’re talking about a strange little documentary that came out in 2020 called Spaceship Earth. When Jake and I first saw this film, we were impacted in a surprising way. Beyond the project of Biosphere 2, the film ultimately depicted the power of a group of people who r…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit deathinthegarden.substack.com

MASSIVE SPOILER WARNING!

Do not listen to this podcast if you haven’t watched Andor. Close the post! Don’t risk spoiling this show for yourself. If you’re thinking to yourself, “Psht, they’re talking about a Disney Star Wars show? Sounds dumb! I don’t care if that’s spoiled for me!” please be advised that you are wrong and have been warned!

Watch the sh…

On this episode of Death in The Garden, we’re sharing our most recent interview with Helena Norberg-Hodge that we did while we were in Ladakh, India. Helena is the director of Local Futures, the organization leading the global localization movement. This interview was recorded following the events of the Planet Local Summit, which was a profoundly inspiring event that brought brilliant people from all over the world to discuss the most pressing issues of the day. We learned so much from our time at this summit, and are filled with a renewed sense of common humanity and inspiration, kn...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit deathinthegarden.substack.com

We are so excited to share with you our brand new collaboration with the wonderfully bright Alex Leff from his greatly inspiring podcast, Human Nature Odyssey. We insist that you follow his podcast immediately, and do consider joining his Patreon.

As fellow creatives trying to understand our place in the world, civilization, and our modern era, we decided it would be really fun (and also fruitful) to create regular podcasts together that we can share with our audiences to...

We are happy to announce that the podcast is back!

To break our long hiatus, we’re excited to share with you this beautiful podcast with our friends Thomas and Tess. Tess is a home-birth midwife and Thomas runs Heart of Men, a group council with the aim of reorienting men internally and externally and helping heal the wounded masculine in the culture. As you’ll hear, Tess and Thomas feel called to tend to life in different, but incredibly powerful ways.

This beautiful conversation explores our yearning for kin, and the space between the real...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit deathinthegarden.substack.com

On this episode of “Death in The Garden,” we discuss Finite and Infinite Games: a Vision of Life as Play and Possibility by the late professor of religion, James P. Carse. We wanted to discuss this book because there’s a great difference between the pop-culture reception of this book and some of the deeper themes, which pertain profoundly to worldviews and how they cause us to interface with the living world in one way or another. We discuss the issues with s...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit deathinthegarden.substack.com

On this episode of “Death in The Garden,” we discuss the incredibly fascinating, profound, and instructive book, The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World by Iain McGilchrist. Following a similar structure to the book, we first talk about what brain lateralization is; what the difference between the left and right hemisphere is (along with the misconceptions); the importance of attention, metaphor, and theory of mind; and then we talk about why this concept of l...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit deathinthegarden.substack.com

On this episode of “Death in The Garden,” we discuss what we can learn from the Luddites and how the true meaning of what they stood for can be instructive for how we deal with the rise of A.I. and in our time. In addition to discussing the Luddites, we discuss other works of fiction from the industrial age. We talk about humanity’s proximity to technology, toolmaking, and therefore, machines, and what that means for us moving forward in a tech...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit deathinthegarden.substack.com

On this episode of “Death in The Garden” we are sharing our conversation with Alex Leff, which was co-released for his podcast subscribers. Alex Leff is the creator and visionary behind Human Nature Odyssey, which is a cinematic audio journey through the fantastic and iconic book, Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. He is also the creator of a beautiful film called Cycle of Memory, which takes the viewer on an intimate and compassionate journey through his family’s experience of their patriarch suffer...

On this episode of “Death in The Garden,” Maren is reading her recent piece, The Tales that Really Matter - Part I. In this audio essay, you’ll hear tracks and clips from The Lord of the Rings films by Peter Jackson, and music composed by Howard Shore. Additionally, you’ll hear original synth soundscapes inspired by Howard Shore’s compositions, from the songs “In Dreams”, “The Road Goes Ever On…, Pt. 1”, and “Samwise the Brave”.

All credit for movie clips and songs used goes to Peter Jackson et al. and Howard Shore.

This podcast is sponsored by The Beek...

Welcome back to the “Death in The Garden” podcast! A lot changed for us over the past 4 months, and we’ve needed to take some time to figure out how to proceed with the film/podcast/writing project in light of a change in resources. But we’re back!

As a preface to what is to come, we’re sharing today a reading of a short myth-inspired tale that Maren wrote last year, which was inspired by the works of Daniel Quinn. The podcast, to follow, will be centered around audio essays, produced with original and licensed music and...

On this episode of “Death in The Garden,” we spoke to author and farmer Chris Smaje about his new book Saying No to a Farm-Free Future which was written in response to George Monbiot’s book Regenesis. We talk about the dangers of the ecomodernist worldview, about how the narrative of progress inhibits practical solutions, and we discuss at length the importance of moving towards agrarian localism as a lifeway in order to weather the coming storms. We talk about the precariousness of urbanization, and how moving toward a more rural, local society offers resiliency. We talk about the issue...

On this episode of “Death in The Garden” we are joined by James Connolly, producer of the film series and dear friend, to discuss this recent “Barbenheimer” phenomenon to accompany the piece Maren wrote on the subject last week in her piece below:

On this far reaching discussion, we discuss both films and what they represent to each of us, as well as what they both say about the broader culture. We really allowed ourselves to riff and let the conversation lead where it needed to, which allowed us to discuss the historical background of Oppenheimer that comes fr...

On this episode of “Death in The Garden,” we had a conversation with Rune Hjarnø Rasmussen of Nordic Animism, a project which aims to recover Euro-traditional animist knowledge and share it with a contemporary audience as a means of understanding ourselves, our kinship relations with other-than-humans, and ultimately working towards a resilient future for all life on earth. Rune is a Danish historian of religion, which an extensive background of fieldwork studying contemporary animist religions. Nordic Animism “bridges scholarship with cultural activism,” and Rune discusses many of the social issues that are most relevant in our times through an animist a...

On this episode of “Death in The Garden,” we’re sharing a more produced podcast version of the recording of The Quantitative Cosmology: The Historical Precedent for George Monbiot's Worldview and its Implications Today for our podcast listeners who might not be subscribed to our Substack.

In this essay, I (Maren) explore the historical roots of the mechanistic, reductionistic, and ultimately quantitative worldview that undergirds society today and dictates how we understand the world. I use George Monbiot and his book Regenesis as a jumping off point to discuss how this worldview was first concieved by Plato, Pythag...

On this episode of “Death in The Garden,” we had the pleasure of interviewing Helena Norberg-Hodge, linguist, author, and filmmaker behind the incredible localization organization, Local Futures. She has written several books, such as Ancient Futures and Local is Our Future: Steps to an Economics of Happiness.

In this expansive interview we discuss the broad impacts of globalization and development and how it has atomized our society, standardized our cultural diversity, and laid waste to the biodiversity of the ecosystems from which we depend. We discuss how colonization continues to sever community-reliance, and the importance of emphasizing huma...

On this episode of “Death in The Garden,” we are pleased to share with you the first in our new series of podcasts entitled “A 30,000 ft. View with James Connolly”. James Connolly is the producer of Sacred Cow and Death in The Garden, a chef, an artist, and an all around brilliant guy. On this episode, James interviews the author of We Are Proud Boys: How a Right-Wing Street Gang Ushered in a New Era of American Extremism, Andy Campbell.

In the intro, we all discuss the convergence of the rise of Qanon, incel culture, and the Proud Bo...

For our 50th podcast, we decided it would be a good time for us to speak candidly about where we have come from, where we are going, and where we are now with the project: not only as an update to those who have been following us for a long time, but as a way to introduce ourselves to everyone who is new to Death in The Garden. We discuss the creative process, and the challenges that come when one feels that they need to commodify themselves in order to stay “relevant” or to feel important. We talk about reco...

On this episode of “Death in The Garden”, we are sharing a reading of our recent Substack piece entitled The Terrible and the Tantalizing: Grappling with AI, Machine Learning, and the Future of Art, where we discuss the emergence of AI “art” and the ramifications it is having for artists. In this essay, we discuss what art is and isn’t, and whether or not we’re comfortable with the definition being subsumed by “machines and the unaccountable corporations at their helms.” We talk about Luddism, and how AI “art” threatens to render artists redundant, just as factories rendered the Luddites, artisa...

On this episode of “Death in The Garden,” we talked with pastoralist advocate, ethnoveterinarian, and author Ilse Köhler-Rollefson about her new book, Hoofprints on the Land. We absolutely loved Ilse’s book, and were honored to discuss it in detail with her. We talked about sedentarization being used as a tool of colonial control, the importance of decolonized animal science, the brutality of factory farming, and the fallacy of eliminating livestock as a means to rewild. We discuss field slaughtering and the importance of connecting with death. We talk about 30x30 and how fortress conservation harms human-coupled ecosystems by seve...

On this episode of “Death in The Garden”, we share our film interview with Stephen Corry, former CEO of Survival International, indigenous rights activist, and author of Tribal Peoples: For Tomorrow’s World. On this episode we discuss how land theft, assimilation, and sedentarization are threatening indigenous cultures worldwide in the name of homogenizing culture under a Western colonial paradigm. We talk about how dangerous this is, and how important it is for there to be diversity of cultures and lifeways in the world. We talk about the goodness in human nature, and how shame-based propaganda that makes us hate h...

On this episode of “Death in The Garden,” we’re sharing our interview with our friend, fellow podcast host, up-and-coming author, educator, and farmer/gardener, Derrick Weston. Derrick is the co-host of the Food and Faith Podcast alongside Anna Woofenden, and the pair’s book The Just Kitchen: Invitations to Sustainability, Cooking, Connection, and Celebration will be available soon! We had the pleasure of doing this interview at Rockrose City Farm, a beautiful community garden space in Baltimore, where Derrick stewards plots with volunteers and other community members, cultivating food that is donated to food pantries. In this conversation, we discu...

This episode is a little something different. On this episode of the podcast, we’re sharing a reading of Maren’s recent Substack piece entitled The Legacy of the '“Men Who Pulled Bread From Air” which breaks down the legacy of the Haber-Bosch process, The Green Revolution, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution in food systems. The piece discusses the states of emergency that bred these periods of innovation, as well as the ramifications that have befallen the planet due to them. Trying to understand where we come from as well as where we are going, Maren gives a history...

On this episode, we talk to our friend and previous podcast guest Daniel Griffith, a farmer, father, author, poet, and food systems visionary. We wanted to talk to Daniel again to share his experience applying for the USDA’s Climate-Smart Commodity Program grant, and ultimately being denied. We discuss the problems of titanic multinational agribusiness corporations that were granted funding, and we talk about the importance of grass-roots small-scale organizations defining regenerative agriculture in local contexts. We talk about how the solutions to our agricultural woes will not come from the top — that small, human-scale farms hold the key to a...

On this episode of “Death in The Garden,” we share our in-person film interview with writer Paul Kingsnorth, creator of the Abbey of Misrule and author of many acclaimed books, such as Alexandria, Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist, and Savage Gods. In this interview we discuss broadly the Machine, a metaphor for the mechanized, atomizing, and ruthlessly extractive society we live in today and how it impacts us spiritually, psychologically, and physically. We discuss the process of unseating the sacred from the “throne” at the center of our societies, and how we’ve supplanted it with technology, reason, and above all...

On this episode of “Death in The Garden,” we spoke to conservationist Dr. Aby Sène, professor of Parks and Conservation Area Management at Clemson University, where she researches the intersection between rural development and conservation, race and nature, nature-based tourism, and protected area governance in both the US and in Africa. In this episode, we discuss the colonialism, capitalism, and white supremacy that scaffolds much of the conservation movement, and the societal forces that perpetuate it. We talk about the history of conservation and its relationship to eugenics, as well as the elite powers that currently uphold extractive indus...

On this episode of “Death in The Garden,” we spoke with farmer, butcher, and brilliant fellow podcaster, Kate Kavanaugh. Kate is the founder of Western Daughters Butcher Shoppe, located in Denver, CO, creator of the amazing podcast called “Ground Work” which discusses and circumambulates three interconnected themes: mind, body, and soil, as well as a farmer based in New York. The way Kate sees the world is illuminating and refreshing, and we had an instant connection after our first conversation. This episode is one of many we hope to share with Kate.

This episode travels into pretty c...

On this episode of “Death in The Garden,” we talked to our brilliant, long-time friend of the podcast, Isabel Ramirez. Isabel is a board certified health coach specializing in chronic conditions (she is auto-immune and paleo certified), an expert forager, inspiring mother, and all around amazing person. We discussed the importance of inclusivity into wellness and regenerative agriculture spaces, the problems of financialization in the health and wellness world, the way an ancestrally appropriate diet and lifestyle can help manage chronic health conditions, the incapability of industrial civilization with the biological needs of our bodies, and how overwhelming it can...

On this episode of “Death in The Garden,” we share our interview with Frédéric Leroy, professor of food science and biotechnology at the University of Brussels, President of the Belgian Association of Meat Science and Technology, President of Belgian Society for Food Microbiology, Administrator of ALEPH2020, and member of the Belgian Nutrition Society and Global Food Justice Alliance. We discuss the intersections between the campaigns to demonize meat-eating, the corporatization of the food system, the proliferation of chronic disease, biased nutritional science, global deficiencies and malnutrition, and animal-rights groups. We also touch on the biological indicators which prove...

On this episode of "Death in The Garden," we speak to Anders Oskal, the Secretary General of the Association of World Reindeer Herders and the Executive Director of the International Centre for Reindeer Husbandry in Guovdageaidnu/ Kautokeino, Norway. Anders speaks to us about Sámi culture, explaining the way of his people, the agreement they have made with the reindeer, the importance of their indigenous knowledge in the Arctic landscape, and how the "best available knowledges" must be combined if we ever have a hope of adapting to climate change in our ecosystems. We speak about the encroachments on S...

On this episode of "Death in The Garden," we share our interview with former CEO of Survival International, Stephen Corry. We have been interested in Survival International for a while, as many of you know, but we became particularly interested in speaking with Stephen when he started posting on Twitter about how problematic so much of the vegan agenda was, particularly conflating all livestock husbandry with factory farming. When he wrote this fantastic article, we were so excited to see that someone else was seeing the through-lines between the vegan narrative, conservation, and also the green energy climate change...

On this episode of "Death in The Garden," we share an interview we recorded over the summer and never released. It turns out that it was the perfect moment for us to revisit this wonderful conversation we had with Tyson Yunkaporta, member of the Apalech Clan, author of Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World and lecturer of Indigenous Knowledges at Deakin University. We talk about  how civilization is defined by the exportation of entropy through open loop systems, the financialization of climate action, the relationship of being, dying, and being reintegrated into a landscape, the similarities b...

On this episode, we talk to ourselves about some of our experiences traveling in Europe and our reflections thus far. We talk about the disillusionment of the fantasies about this continent, share some personal experiences we’ve had, things we’ve learned, and revelations we’ve come to. We break down some ideas we’ve had around the factory farming of all life on Earth, phantom carrying capacity, industrialization and derangement of the web of life, and how important it is to change our view of climate change from something nebulous and global to specific and local, such as focusing...

On this episode of "Death in The Garden" we talk to author and journalist, Richard Manning after reading his book Against the Grain: How Agriculture Has Highjacked Civilization, which discusses "catastrophic" agriculture's spread throughout history, its pattern of colonialism, and how it is a prerequisite for our civilization. We talk about the problems of agriculture broadly, including processed foods, CAFO meat farming, and the squandering of America's grasslands for biofuels, hunting, degrowth through regenerative food systems, the rewilding of the self, and the problems of carbon fundamentalism. 

Please, if you enjoy the podcast and want to s...

On this episode of “Death in The Garden,” Jake and Maren interview Wild Quetzal — a digital creator on Instagram, as well as a graphic designer for conscious companies. Quetzal is doing incredible work online, sharing knowledge and wisdom about the history of civilization and encouraging people to undomesticate themselves through reconnecting with our role in the ecology. Food, of course, is foundational to all of life, therefore all ecologies. This conversation covered so many topics: veganism, death, resilience, food sovereignty, technology, indigeneity, and so much more. This conversation goes deep into in to the substrata of what it means to be...