S01e06 An Ode to Tek

S01e06 An Ode to Tek

Tek! What is it, where does it come from, and what on Earth does that goofy “k” imply? On this episode of Lifepod, I consider what this little chunk of language has taught me about how knowledge is developed and shared, and how practices born in guerrilla mycology might help us more effectively organize shelter and mutual care in our communities. Terms and topics mentioned in this episode: - “LRH tech [https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/wakefield/us-08.html]“ - Julia Watson, Lo-TEK: Design by Radical Indigenism [https://www.lo-tek.com/product-page/lo-tek-design-by-radical-indigenism] - Shroomery [https://www.shroomery.org/] - Erowid [https://www.erowid.org/plants/mushrooms/mushrooms.shtml] - The Whole Earth Catalog [https://wholeearth.info/] - Merlin Sheldrake, Entangled Life [https://www.merlinsheldrake.com/entangled-life] - Paul Stamets, Mycelium Running [https://library.uniteddiversity.coop/Permaculture/Mycelium_Running.pdf] - Step-by-step PF Tek [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4jUTIv0XfY] how-to video - Nodestar [https://nodestar.net/] and Meshtastic [https://meshtastic.org/] - Deb Chachra, How Infrastructure Works [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/612711/how-infrastructure-works-by-deb-chachra/] - W. Brian Arthur, The Nature of Technology [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/56161/the-nature-of-technology-by-w-brian-arthur/9780141031637] - Robert's Rules of Order [https://www.ulm.edu/staffsenate/documents/roberts-rules-of-order.pdf], and Rusty's [https://www.iww.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/rustys-rules.pdf] - IWW [https://iww.org] - Sociocracy [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociocracy] - One perspective on projectuality [https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/various-authors-willful-disobedience-volume-4-number-1], not necessarily my own. - Alfredo Bonanno [https://illwill.com/an-illogical-life] - Murray Bookchin on affinity groups [https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/murray-bookchin-a-note-on-affinity-groups] - Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed - Joreen, “The Tyranny of Structurelessness [https://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny.htm]” - Municipalism [https://municipalism.org/] - Cassie Thornton’s Hologram [https://thehologram.xyz/] - Resilience Hub Community Resilience Toolkit [https://resiliencetoolkit.org/about/] - Appropedia [https://www.appropedia.org/Welcome_to_Appropedia] More ways to stay connected: - You can follow Lifepod on Instagram [https://instagram.com/hellolifepod], or Adam’s personal account on Mastodon [https://social.coop/@adamgreenfield]. You can always reach us via email at hellolifepod@protonmail.com. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★ [https://www.patreon.com/cw/adamgreenfield]

S01e05 Susana Caló and Godofredo Pereira: “Institution” Is A Verb

On this week’s Lifepod, researchers Susana Caló and Godofredo Pereira join me to discuss their new book “CERFI Analysis Everywhere,” and the history of that organization’s experiments in collective psychotherapy in the France of the 1960s and ‘70s. Starting from CERFI’s advocacy for a dynamic understanding of "institutions" as processes rather than static structures, we cover everything from the transformative power of desire to the meaning of “transversality” to the radical potential of swimming in a river — pausing along the way to consider what the young Félix Guattari might have learned from his time in youth hostels. Terms and topics mentioned in this episode: - CERFI Analysis Everywhere [https://www.minorcompositions.info/?p=1661] book page - Wikipedia’s not bad on Félix Guattari [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%A9lix_Guattari] - The Algerian struggle for independence [https://www.marxists.org/history/algeria/index.htm] - The Events of May '68 [https://libcom.org/article/1968-chronology-events-france-and-internationally] (note that “Events,” les événements, is itself a politically loaded, widely-despised rubric)  - Deinstitutionalization movement [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10116376/] (US) - Frederick Wiseman's Titicut Follies [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuAGuf-QhAQ] - Suicidal Tendencies, "Institutionalized [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoF_a0-7xVQ]" - La Borde [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/featured-blogger/72464/notes-toward-a-new-language-on-la-borde-] clinic and "the grid [https://www.anthropocene-curriculum.org/contribution/the-grid]" - “Transversality [https://www.are.na/block/8512360]” - Paulo Freire [https://freire.org/paulo-freire] - The Sanrizuka struggle [https://opencitylondon.com/2025-festival/programme/sanrizuka-notes-on-a-struggle/] and Ogawa Pro [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYWfSzCaqMc] films [https://vimeo.com/264394443] - Recherches [https://latoupiefolle.org/] - Colin Ward [https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/colin-ward-the-child-in-the-city] and more on adventure playgrounds [https://seventeenplaygrounds.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Adventure_Playgrounds_a_Brief_History.pdf]  - Nomadology: The War Machine [https://www.patreon.com/posts/notes-on-part-i-142961660] - Radio Alice [https://intrusionproject.com/], Bologna - semiotext(e) [https://www.semiotexte.com/about] and the Foreign Agents series [https://mitpress.mit.edu/series/semiotexte-foreign-agents/?page_number=6] - Other Ways to Care [http://www.otherwaystocare.org/] - The “international network of free clinics [https://freepsyproject.com/]” Susana mentions - Alma-Gare [https://www.urbanisteshautsdefrance.org/dossier-alma-gare], Roubaix - Minor Compositions [https://www.minorcompositions.info/] - More on Anne Querrien [https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/dls.2016.0234], Ginette Michaud [https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginette_Michaud_(psychanalyste)], Jean Oury [https://www.radicalphilosophy.com/interview/jean-oury-the-hospital-is-ill], François Pain [https://www.e-flux.com/criticism/661068/fran-ois-pain-s-psychiatry-is-what-psychiatrists-do], Gaëtane Lamarche-Vadel [https://philpeople.org/profiles/gaetane-lamarche-vadel] and Michel Rostain [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Rostain]. Very little seems to be available on Florence Pétry [http://www.editions-recherches.com/] and Lion Murard. More ways to stay connected: - You can follow Lifepod on Instagram [https://instagram.com/hellolifepod], or Adam’s personal account on Mastodon [https://social.coop/@adamgreenfield]. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★ [https://www.patreon.com/cw/adamgreenfield]

S01e04 Cassie Thornton on the Hologram and the viral practice of mutual care

Cassie Thornton of the Feminist Economics Department drops by to discuss the Hologram — a framework for viral, peer-to-peer care she developed following a visit to post-Crisis Greece, and which people all over the world are currently using to make themselves “harder to fuck with.” We talk about the Hologram works, how to start one for yourself, and how to access the resources that are available to help you do so – and a whole bunch of other stuff, including antifragility, the Flat White Dimension, Miranda Mellis’s book Crocosmia, the brain fog of war, and what it feels like to be a human rhizome. Terms and topics mentioned: - The Hologram: Feminist, Peer-to-Peer Health for a Post-Pandemic Future [https://www.plutobooks.com/product/the-hologram/] - Pirate Care gathering [https://pirate.care/blog/2025/07/21/on-mutiny-and-federation-pirate-care-gathering-agit-and-casino-for-social-medicine-berlin-18-21-september-2025/], Berlin, September 2025 - Social Solidarity Clinic, Thessaloniki [https://www.kiathess.gr/images/pdf/kia_english.pdf] - Berkeley Free Clinic [https://www.berkeleyfreeclinic.org/] - Medicine for Nightmares [https://medicinefornightmares.com/], San Francisco - The rhizome in botany [https://www.britannica.com/science/rhizome] and Deleuze [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhizome_(philosophy)] - The criminalization of support for Palestine Action in the UK [https://gjia.georgetown.edu/2025/12/10/the-shrinking-space-for-public-protest-examining-the-united-kingdoms-proscription-of-palestine-action/] - “Antifragility [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifragility]” - Tensegrity structures [https://www.archdaily.com/893555/tensegrity-structures-what-they-are-and-what-they-can-be] - The Hologram site [https://thehologram.xyz/] - Johanna Hedva [https://johannahedva.com/] - Cassie’s new work, The Waiting Room [https://waitoftheplanets.com/] - T.S. Eliot, "East Coker [http://www.davidgorman.com/4quartets/2-coker.htm]" - Julio Linares, Decolonizing Money [https://www.plutobooks.com/product/decolonizing-money] - Miranda Mellis [https://mirandamellis.com/] and Crocosmia [https://nightboat.org/book/crocosmia/] - Ill Will Editions [https://www.illwilleditions.com/] More ways to stay connected: - You can follow Lifepod on Instagram [https://instagram.com/hellolifepod] or Adam’s personal account on Mastodon [https://social.coop/@adamgreenfield], or support the podcast on Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/cw/adamgreenfield]. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★ [https://www.patreon.com/cw/adamgreenfield]

S01e03 Dianna Settles with Arrangements of a Life Worth Living

Kentucky-based artist Dianna Settles joins us for a conversation about her work. We discuss what inspires the remarkable specificity in her paintings — as well as the people she doesn’t want collecting them, the mistakes first-time farmers make, the type of book one may wish not to read while nursing, and the making of a life worth living. Terms and topics mentioned: - Dianna’s own paintings, drawings and prints [https://diannasettles.website/] - MARCH Gallery [https://www.marchgallery.org/], New York City - “Stacking functions [https://theprepperjournal.com/2017/01/28/stacking-functions-increasing-yields-decreasing-labor-multi-function-elements/]” in permaculture (heads up: link is to a prepper site) - Police violence at the 2023 South River Music Festival [https://mixmag.net/read/south-river-festival-atlanta-condemns-police-violence-after-35-attendees-arrested-news], Atlanta - Pieter Bruegel the Elder [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Bruegel_the_Elder] - A sampler of some Viet Cong paintings [https://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/9780226078304_blad.pdf] - High Museum of Art, Atlanta [https://www.archdaily.com/110019/ad-classics-high-museum-of-art-richard-meier-partners-architects] - Kristin Ross, Communal Luxury: The Political Imaginary of the Paris Commune [https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/63-communal-luxury] - Napoléon Gaillard père [https://alwaysalreadyangry.tumblr.com/post/122046977932/to-be-recognized-as-an-artist-or-as-someone-in] (shoemaker/barricadist of the Paris Commune) - Ill Will [https://illwill.com/] - Ossabaw indigo [https://ujamaaseeds.com/products/ossabaw-indigo-botanical-dye] - Lexington Still Life Club [https://www.institute193.org/events/2025/6/1/still-life-club] - Phil Neel, Hellworld: The Human Species and the Planetary Factory [https://www.historicalmaterialism.org/book-series/hellworld-the-human-species-and-the-planetary-factory/] - Antoine Volodine [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine_Volodine] - John Berger, Pig Earth [https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/pig-earth-9781408859117/] - Joshua Clover, The Totality for Kids [https://www.ucpress.edu/books/the-totality-for-kids] and Madonna anno domini [https://archive.org/details/madonnaannodomin00clov/page/n3/mode/2up] - Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed [https://www.ursulakleguin.com/dispossessed] and The Left Hand of Darkness [https://www.ursulakleguin.com/left-hand-darkness] - Greer Kirshenbaum, The Nurture Revolution [https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Nurture_Revolution/8oKSEAAAQBAJ] - Diane di Prima, Revolutionary Letters [https://assets.ctfassets.net/zzo3jtyu2pmq/2cSKVd5ytirU1hEIkdue96/8ecb7a12640ae9942c5925d7ec2e8d76/diane-di-prima-revolutionary-letters.pdf] - Rosie Stockton, Fuel [https://nightboat.org/book/fuel/] - Jasper Bernes, Starsdown and The Future of Revolution [https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/977-the-future-of-revolution] - James Still, River of Earth [https://www.kentuckypress.com/9780813113722/river-of-earth/] - May 2026 “Lifehouses, Resilience Hubs and Dual Power [https://www.woodbine.nyc/lifehouses]” gathering at Woodbine, NYC More ways to stay connected: - You can follow Lifepod on Instagram [https://instagram.com/hellolifepod] or Adam’s personal account on Mastodon [https://social.coop/@adamgreenfield], or support the podcast on Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/cw/adamgreenfield]. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★ [https://www.patreon.com/cw/adamgreenfield]

S01e02 Chris Smaje with Finding Lights in a Dark Age

I welcome Chris Smaje to Lifepod, to discuss his book Finding Lights in a Dark Age [https://chrissmaje.com/book/finding-lights-in-a-dark-age/], an exploration of what he sees as the need for a transition from mostly urban to mostly rural “sustainable livelihood communities.” Chris shares his journey from academia to small farming in Somerset —highlighting the challenges involved in balancing high-complexity modern technology with local autonomy. We discuss the need for a practical, local politics of livelihood, and the potential for large-scale urban-to-rural movement to underwrite such a politics. Terms and topics mentioned: - David Graeber and David Wengrow, The Dawn of Everything [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/314162/the-dawn-of-everything-by-wengrow-david-graeber-and-david/9780141991061] - Nebelivka, a representative ”megasite” of Neolithic Ukraine [https://content.forensic-architecture.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/The-Nebelivka-Hypothesis_FA-Wengrow_Book.pdf] - Colin Ward, Anarchy in Action [https://freedompress.org.uk/product/anarchy-in-action-colin-ward/] - Murray Bookchin, Post-Scarcity Anarchism [https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/murray-bookchin-post-scarcity-anarchism-book] - Distributism [https://modjourn.org/essay/distributism/] - [Garrett] Hardin [https://www.splcenter.org/resources/extremist-files/garrett-hardin/] - [Elinor] Ostrom [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elinor_Ostrom] - Mark Vonnegut, The Eden Express [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eden_Express] - Simon Fairlie, Meat [https://www.permanentpublications.co.uk/port/meat-a-benign-extravagance-by-simon-fairlie/] - [Gerrard] Winstanley [https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gerrard-Winstanley], the Ranters [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranters] and the Diggers [https://tribunemag.co.uk/2019/08/remembering-the-diggers] More ways to stay connected: - You can follow Lifepod on Instagram [https://instagram.com/hellolifepod] or Adam’s personal account on Mastodon [https://social.coop/@adamgreenfield], or support the podcast on Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/cw/adamgreenfield]. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★ [https://www.patreon.com/cw/adamgreenfield]