Last Born In The Wilderness

Meteorologist Jeff Masters joins me in this interview to discuss the damage wrought by Hurricane Helene in the southeastern United States, as he has written extensively about for the Yale Climate Connections blog, Eye on the Storm. // Support the work and listen to the full interview: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness

Epidemiologist and writer Abby Cartus returns to continue our discussion about the so-called successes and failures of public health, particularly as it relates to the ongoing pandemic. In this interview, I asked Abby to clarify the kinds of data that are collected—mainly from wastewater sites—and how that data is modeled and presented at this phase of the pandemic. How does this impose limitations on our view of the current rates of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the US population? After establishing what can be understood, and not understood, from wastewater data, I asked Abby to raise her critique of how this data is being modeled and presented by the Pandemic Mitigation Collaborative, a popular and well regarded resource often cited by covid cautious and public health advocacy individuals and groups, and what this indicates about not only where we are at this phase of the pandemic, but how data and statistics are underlaid by ideological assumptions that deserve examination. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/abby-cartus // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Epidemiologist and writer Abby Cartus joins me in this interview to explore a fascinating set of questions: What does it mean for public health to fail? What does it mean for it to succeed? Within the context of the ongoing pandemic, we often hear, or ourselves may make, the refrain that "public health has failed us." This may be true, but it's quite a bit more than failure we must address. Public health is more, possibly less, but certainly different, than it purports and narrativizes itself to be. The rapid shifts in social relations with the onset of the pandemic almost five years ago, and with other looming, percolating crises gathering on the horizons, wondering about not only how public health could seemingly fail, but theoretically succeed, is a fundamentally generative discussion. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/abby-cartus // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Epidemiologist and writer Abby Cartus joins me in this interview to explore a fascinating set of questions: What does it mean for public health to fail? What does it mean for it to succeed? // Support the work and listen to the full interview: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness

Award-winning journalist, author, and activist Barrett Brown returns to the podcast to discuss his much anticipated new book, My Glorious Defeats: Hacktivist, Narcissist, Anonymous: A Memoir. Brown provides updates on the subjects explored in our first interview in 2022, which fleshed out the complex web of media outlets, personalities, hackers, and intelligence community assets connected directly or indirectly with far-right Silicon Valley billionaire, Peter Thiel. I asked Brown how his bid for asylum in the UK has played out, and why he really isn’t worried about being deported or extradited to the United States, despite his current status in the country. And among other themes I wanted to focus on from his memoir, Brown discusses his experience in the United States federal prison system, and the hard truths he learned there about the declining American imperial project. // Content warning: Throughout this discussion, especially in the later half, there is mention of child sexual abuse and trafficking. It is discussed as part of the larger point Barrett makes about conspiracism and covert intelligence entities and tactics. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/barrett-brown-2 // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast