Death in The Garden – Details, episodes & analysis

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 some of the pop-culture explanations, as popularized by Simon Sinek, and delve deeper into the lesser known topics that are touched on in the book. We discuss a more nuanced understanding of finite and infinite games, players, and the worldviews associated with each. We talk about how death is conceived within each worldview, as well as how Carse is inconsistent on this topic within the book. We discuss artistry, poeisis, and what it means to be a infinite player, inspiring people to express their genius rather than “winning” the game of creativity. We go over the difference between society and culture; what waste represents; and how our relationship with nature is oppositional under the finite worldview. We talk about the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, as well as sharing a few personal stories. Ultimately, we discuss the difference between the machine and the garden within this framework (and how that applies to our project), and we really try to expand on what people typically understand as finite and infinite games to give this framework the gravity it deserves.

To listen to the full episode, upgrade your subscription to “paid” for only $5 a month or join us on Patreon. It’s the best way to support the podcast, our short films, and the writing we’re producing. It takes a lot of expense, time, and energy to produce this project, so every bit helps! Thank you to everyone who is already supporting us.

Death in The Garden is a listener-supported project. To support the us, consider becoming paid subscriber.

Use coupon code DITG20 for 20% off your order, and try out The Beekeeper’s Granddaughter Whipped Tallow Balms today!

We’re for hire! Check out our videography website to check out our show reel and connect with us about video and documentary work.

Mentions:

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 left brain dominance (with right brain primacy) is so important. We then dive into the history as McGilchrist lays it out in his expansive book, showing the oscillation between the right hemisphere being respected, and the left hemisphere taking control. Always orienting towards the distinction between manifestions of right and left hemisphere attitudes and behaviors, we discuss antiquity, Ancient and Classical Greece, Rome, the Renaissance and Reformation, the Enlightenment, Romanticism and the Industrial Revolution, Modernism and Postmodernism, ending on today, where the left hemisphere (which governs our impulse towards mechanical thinking, control, quantification, objectivication, among so many other qualities) has taken dominion, leaving our humanity and earth systems imperiled. Of course, we talk about death, and the fear of death, and its profound role in all of this, as the left hemisphere abhors death and all that is uncertain. We then discuss what we might be able to do in the face our awareness of this incredibly potent phenomenon, and how we might again, allow the right hemisphere to resume its rightful place as Master.

This book is profoundly important (perhaps one of the most important books of our time), so please buy it, read it, and come to your own conclusions.

To listen to the full episode, upgrade your subscription to “paid” for only $5 a month. It’s the best way to support the podcast, our short films, and the writing we’re producing. It takes a lot of expense, time, and energy to produce this project, so every bit helps! Thank you to everyone who is already supporting us.

Use coupon code DITG20 for 20% off your order, and try out The Beekeeper’s Granddaughter Whipped Tallow Balms today!

We’re for hire! Check out our videography website to check out our show reel and connect with us about video and documentary work.

Mentions:

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 human-scale local knowledge systems in our quest to create a more just world outside of the global corporate economic structure. We talk about how important it is for us to continually educate ourselves on the global context we all live under, as well as gaining intimate local knowledge which informs how we move through our landscapes and communities. Helena breaks down the myth of the “Global Village” and how this corporate ploy has led to the insane economic system of highly destructive comparative advantage that we see today. Above all, we talk about the importance of liberating our minds from the strictures of the story of mechanization, standardization, globalization, and atomization that exists ambiently in our culture, informing our “solutioneering” and detracting from our ability to create lasting, meaningful change.

Be sure to follow Local Futures on Instagram and Twitter, and consider participating in the Planet Local Summit in Bristol, Sept. 29 - Oct. 1.

If you enjoyed this podcast, please share it with the people in your life. You can support the podcast by leaving us a 5-star rating and subscribing to the show. If you’d like to financially support the project, consider becoming a paid subscriber on Substack or joining our Patreon. Thanks for listening.

Editing: Maren Morgan

Music: “SING” by My Chemical Romance

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 Boys, and the extremism that is coming from these areas of the culture. We discuss the white supremacy that is latent in the early conservation movement, bleeding into the modern environmental movement, and how these things intersect with right-wing extremism. We talk about the films This Place Rules and TFW no GF and the docuseries Into the Storm, discussing the role of meaninglessness and chaos in these movements. We talk about how a history of white supremacy has lead us to these movements where a fear of being “replaced” or rendered “redundant” by society has manifested in white nationalism, ecofascism, and other brands of extremism. We talk about authoritarianism, and how the extremes on both ends of the political spectrum come together in the middle. We also discuss how often conspiracy theories in their wildness obscure the truths that need to be investigated within them.

In the interview, James and Andy discuss specific details of the Proud Boys. They go into the lead-up to Jan 6, the main actors, and go into the overall history of the Proud Boys coming onto the scene and the cultural impact it has had.

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 recognizing our personal limitations, and our awareness that growth and mastery take time, energy, and focus. We explain our current creative process with the film/book, and discuss how important it is for us to feel like we can put all of our energy into those long-form pieces. We discuss how the creative process is like a conception, a gestating, and a birth, and the death and fear that comes with that sort of transformation. We also talk about growth, collaboration, and where the project will go beyond the film and book.

We also break down the ways that the podcast is going to change, namely through the introduction of a new series which will be entitled “A 30,000 ft. View with James Connolly.” James Connolly, who is not only our mentor and friend, is the producer of Sacred Cow and Death in The Garden. In these episodes, we will share new and interesting conversations about a myriad of topics that are part of the larger web of the transcontextual world we live in: from white supremacy, to effective altruism, to Davos men, and beyond. These episodes will include a conversational intro between the three of us, and then will follow into a interview James has hosted with an author, journalist, researcher, or artist who is an expert on whatever given topic.

We’re not going anywhere: we’re just honoring our creative process, focusing deeply on the creation of the film series and book, and will be so happy and grateful to share writing and podcasts with you as our creativity and curiosity flourishes. Thank you all for being here.

Editing: Jake Marquez

Music: “Love It If We Made It” by The 1975

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, artisanal weavers, redundant, and how we ought to reclaim that oft misunderstood and maligned title. We talk about shifting baseline syndrome, and how, as a culture, we’ve gotten used to the cheapened version of everything; from food, to furniture, to art itself. In the end, we talk about the grief for all that the machine takes from us, and call for all of us to stand up for what we still have left: human creativity, and human-made art.

Links to things mentioned in the essay:

* Steven Zapata Video Essay entitled The End of Art: An Argument Against Image AIs

* “Echoes” by Pink Floyd AI generated music video

* Destino by Salvador Dali and Walt Disney

* The Yes Men Fix the World

* Marques Brownlee Video entitled The Truth about AI Getting “Creative”

Support the project by joining our Patreon or consider becoming a paid subscriber on Substack. Thank you so much for your attention!

Editing: Jake Marquez and Maren Morgan

Music: “Echoes” by Pink Floyd

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 severing the relationships between pastoralist and indigenous peoples from nature. We talk about how both sides of the livestock debate (plant-based and industrial animal ag proponents) both have a tendency to reduce animals into input-output machines, measuring their value based on efficiency and their ability to convert nutrients into food— comparing that with the reverence and respect pastoralists have for their herds as members of a mutually beneficial co-creative team. Overall, we discussed how pastoralism is the way of the future, and how important it is to protect and learn from those who steward lifeway that is under threat around the world.

You can purchase a copy of Hoofprints on the Land here. Please buy her book, and give Ilse a follow on Twitter. Support Ilse’s NGO, Lokhit Pashu-Palak Sansthan here and check out the League for Pastoral Peoples here.

If you would like to financially support DITG, please consider signing up for a paid subscription to Substack or joining our Patreon. If that isn’t in your budget, a share/review/or a comment goes a long way, as well!

Editing: Jake Marquez

Music: “Go Do” by Jónsi

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 humanity is a useful diversion which makes us more susceptible to accepting false solutions, such as industrial veganism, 30x30 proposals, and electric vehicles. Stephen dispels the Myth of Pristine Wilderness and how it’s been used to promote conservation and “protected areas” as a panacea to climate change, as well as questioning why the internet and military industrial complex are somehow immune to scrutiny within the topic of climate change. We break down the problems of individualism, consumerism, and the overall crisis of identity occurring in the West. We discuss the fragilities of the homogenized, anti-local ideology that has arisen from settler civilization, and talk about how the real solutions will be local, context specific, and grounded in relationship.

Please give Stephen a follow on Twitter, and follow Survival International on Instagram and Twitter as well. Read Stephen’s piece, A Deluge of Things: Von Humbolt, Da Vinci, and The Confounding of Nature and Scapegoats and Holy Cows: Climate Activism and Livestock.

Support the project - Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/deathinthegarden

Editing: Jake Marquez

Music: “Give Us the Wind” by Future Islands

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 discuss food accessibility, and the long history of food apartheid in this country, and how food is related to all of the social justice issues we face as a species. We discuss Christianity and how his faith and understanding of Jesus’ teachings informs how he understands his place in the world as a steward. We discuss the long shadow of slavery, and how racism, dispossession from land, and the systemic narrativizing which separates people from culture is not a thing of the past. We talk about how reconnecting with the land through food is an avenue of of liberation from these deeply engrained systems of oppression. We also discuss the importance of regenerative agriculture being more than a “program”— it needs to have an incredibly strong ethic at it’s foundation which honors the indigenous wisdom traditions it comes from in order to not be subsumed by the same capitalistic structures that created the problem in the first place. Above all, we talk about how the problems we face today, whether it’s consumerism, disconnection, or dislocation, all stem from severed relationships: between each other, and all of Creation. Our crisis of meaning is a crisis of belonging. Circumambulating that idea, we name the relationships that need to be repaired, and discuss visions for the future.

You can find Derrick on Instagram and Twitter, and if you’d like to listen to us on his podcast (among many other brilliant conversations), check out the Food and Faith Podcast!

Editing: Jake Marquez and Maren Morgan

Music: “Holocene” by Bon Iver

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 lesson and poses some important questions. Are we going down the right path? Should we continue down the road of high-tech, hyper-industrial agriculture? What sort of food system is aligned with living on Earth sustainably forever?

Understanding where we come from is an important first step on figuring out where to go. The industrial food system is only 100 years old. Is it our fate to be tethered to it forever? Are there viable alternatives to turn to? Do we need to continue down a path of control, uniformity, and chemicals?

We hope you enjoy this reading, and please, if you haven’t, subscribe to our Substack. Consider becoming a paid subscriber so we are more able to produce essays and researched content like this in the future. Or if you’d prefer, consider joining our Patreon community. We just created a new tier for $3 a month, which is less than a cup of coffee and helps cover some of Patreon’s fees!

Editing: Jake Marquez

Music: “Reckoner” by Radiohead