In the The King Is Dead, Now What? we're exploring the history of the left / right political spectrum and the 250 year struggle for democracy. In Part 1 we started telling the story that began with the French Revolution of 1789, when those in favor of monarchy sat on the right wing of the national assembly room and those in favor of revolution sat on the left wing. In the wake of the 1848 revolutions, the struggle between left and right gave rise to three major political ideologies—conservatism,...
Jun 26, 2025•54 min•Season 2Ep. 6
How many people are happy with the way society is headed? There seems to be a general consensus - maybe the one thing we all agree on - that things are not right. But our different opinions on what’s wrong and what directions could be better too often fall on either side of a left vs right political spectrum. Where did we get this idea of a left wing and a right wing anyway? How is it in a world of such diversity of languages and traditions and religions there’s just two freakin’ wings? What are...
May 22, 2025•50 min•Season 2Ep. 5
What will happen to our scientific knowledge if civilization collapses? Will astrophysics survive a future stone age? In this episode, we rest from our journey to talk with astrophysicist Tom Murphy, who’s been on an odyssey of his own—moving from academia to a growing concern about the collapse of civilization, to an ever expanding appreciation of the cosmos. Together we’ll gaze at the grandeur of the stars and marvel at the complexity of one of our oldest cousins: the amoeba. If you’re seeking...
Dec 19, 2024•58 min•Season 2Ep. 4
Looking for a game to play over the holidays? Why not try the real world global economy? Too late, you’re already playing it! Have you ever noticed how the most popular board games just so happen to reflect core components of our civilization? Settlers of Catan involves the extraction of raw materials. Risk is the imperialism and war between nations. Monopoly demonstrates the pitfalls of capitalism. Now in the real world, I rarely celebrate resource extraction, imperialism, or capitalism. But th...
Nov 26, 2024•46 min•Season 2Ep. 3
Gather around the campfire for a ghost story about the most destructive monster in history: civilization itself. In this episode, we delve into the countercultural writings of Fredy Perlman, whose strange 1983 book “Against His-Story, Against-Leviathan”—riddled with grammatical errors and misspellings—blends myth and history to explore the nature of power, subjugation, and the struggle between the rulers and the ruled. Our journey takes us back to ancient Sumer, where egalitarian hunter-gatherer...
Oct 24, 2024•42 min•Season 2Ep. 2
In the spring of 1992, twenty-four-year-old Christopher McCandless left society behind, hitchhiking 3,000 miles into the Alaskan wilderness. Two years earlier, Chris had donated his entire life savings to Oxfam, burned his social security card, and headed west seeking life on his own terms - without telling a soul, particularly his parents. In this episode, we delve into Into the Wild 's larger cultural implications, exploring the conflict between self and society, community and solitude. Philos...
Sep 19, 2024•46 min•Season 2Ep. 1
Is it possible to escape industrialism, capitalism, imperialism or are we trapped? Crazy Town podcast hosts Jason Bradford, Rob Dietz, and Asher Miller join us for a wide-ranging discussion of big topics like modern civilization’s converging crises, the concept of 'red pilling', and the 1993 Bill Murray classic film Groundhog Day. With equal parts humor and in-depth analysis, Asher, Rob, and Jason safeguard their sanity while probing crazy-making topics like climate change, overshoot, runaway ca...
Aug 29, 2024•56 min•Season 1Ep. 11
What death is required for life to grow? In our culture’s resistance to death we seem to have caused so much of it. And what if humans aren't inherently a destructive force on the planet? How might we actually be another symbiotic part of our ecosystems? Jake Marquez and Maren Morgan are the hosts of Death in the Garden , a podcast exploring the complex intersection between myth, civilization, climate change. Mandy Magill is a regenerative agriculture educator and cofounder of the Earth Regenera...
Jul 25, 2024•37 min•Season 1Ep. 10
Civilization is an interactive immersive experience. Worldbuilding isn't just for sci-fi and fantasy, but how we can change our society. Abraham Burickson, co-founder of Odyssey Works —an organization dedicated to crafting personalized, immersive experiences—has long been captivated by the transformative power of design. Whether in the structure of a building or the verses of a poem, he explores how these creations shape our perceptions and interactions with the world. In his latest book, Experi...
Jun 13, 2024•47 min•Season 1Ep. 9
In this very special episode, author Daniel Quinn’s wife Rennie Mackay Quinn joins us for her first ever interview: sharing untold stories, new insights, and reflections on her life and journey with her beloved late husband & Daniel Quinn. Rennie tells us about the 15 years it took Daniel to write Ishmael , the childhood dream that sparked it , how the word "hamburger" changed their lives, how they navigated the response and acclaim to Ishmael, and much more. CITATIONS Ishmael by Daniel Quin...
Dec 14, 2023•46 min•Season 1Ep. 8
In this climactic culmination of the Ishmael series, we ask the question : how do we transform an entire society? Ishmael doesn’t give us the “10 Simple Steps to Save the World” instead, he offers us a map and compass to navigate our intergenerational civilizational transformation ourselves. Where we go from here is up to us. We’ll meet the fantastical Prince who first concocted the criminal justice system, have a final reckoning with our Taker Mythology hat, and return to the abandoned land of ...
Nov 16, 2023•39 min•Season 1Ep. 7
Is it possible to build a civilization that flies? (metaphorically speaking of course) How did we eventually learn to fly? It wasn’t by defying gravity and disobeying aerodynamics but by learning how to work with them. Daniel Quinn, in his novel Ishmael, argues there are laws of nature that we have to learn to live within, rather than resist, if we are to continue as a society. In this episode we explore what this “Law of Life” could be. This is an episode of short stories, cinematic sound effec...
Oct 05, 2023•36 min•Season 1Ep. 6
Who first told the story of the Garden of Eden? Could it have been a way to explain the unfolding Agricultural Revolution from the perspective of the people who were there? The Garden of Eden has been told and retold for thousands of years. Why do we keep telling it? With insight from modern biblical scholarship, we investigate the origins of this ancient story and what warning this active myth still has yet to be heeded today. It’s an adventure to the far flung lands of Alex’s 5th grade classro...
Sep 07, 2023•47 min•Season 1Ep. 5
In this episode we take a step back from Ishmael to better view the philosophical context it was written in. We explore the history of the terms “civilized” and “primitive” and how their definitions have evolved over time. Topics include: Rome’s influence on Western European colonization, noble savage theory, primitivism, and the rise of the identity “indigenous”. When we say civilization who do we include and exclude? Who is civilized and what does that mean? If you’d like to support Human Natu...
Aug 10, 2023•33 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Ishmael theorizes our culture is held captive by a story, a mythology we take for granted, act out every day, and is leading to the destruction of the world. So in this episode we tell this story out loud, from beginning, to middle, to end. Along the way we chat with a 6-year-old animal expert, discuss adult imaginary games, analyze the subliminal cultural messages conveyed in religion and philosophy, and meet a sassy imaginary top hat with a poorly performed Brooklyn accent. Taker Mythology, th...
Jul 06, 2023•43 min•Season 1Ep. 3
Why can’t we seem to stop destroying the world? Like seriously though? Ishmael, the telepathic gorilla from Daniel Quinn’s philosophical novel, suggests we’re captives of a society where our individual society depends on our collective destruction. As we embark on our quest through the landscape of ideas in Quinn’s novel, we’ll travel to a dystopian future where Nazi Germany won the war, meet our long lost furry and feathery cousins, explore a sinister layer where villainous henchman plot the en...
Jun 08, 2023•37 min•Season 1Ep. 2
We’re all on our own quest to live more meaningful, healthy, and fruitful lives. To more fully understand the situation we’re in, we’re going to have to expand our scope in geography and time. This is a sociological examination of the personal, and a psychological examination of the social. Alex takes you back in time to a fateful childhood summer when the world was a magical place to explore, yet seemed like it was ending just as he was getting to know it. It was then that Alex first read Ishma...
May 04, 2023•20 min•Season 1Ep. 1
You are living the latest chapter in a 10,000 year story. Join storyteller Alex Leff on a search for better ways to understand and more clearly experience the incredible, terrifying, and ridiculous world we live in. The first stop on our quest through a landscape of ideas and stories is the 1992 novel Ishmael by Daniel Quinn about a telepathic gorilla with great hope for humanity. Next episodes every month beginning May 4th, 2023. === Music: Celestial Soda Pop By: Ray Lynch From the album: Deep ...
Apr 13, 2023•3 min
