#292 | Reclaiming Ourselves: Resiliency, Magic, & Building The Skills To Resist w/ Emma Kathryn

Intro: 13:27

Emma Kathryn, author of ‘Reclaiming Ourselves’ from Gods&Radicals Press, joins me to discuss her writings exploring the practical steps we all can take to reclaim basic skill sets, such as foraging, cooking, folk medicine, and witchcraft.

A large part of this discussion focuses around the steps we all can take to exert more personal autonomy and cultivate lasting connection to the land, the food we eat, our bodies, and the more-than-human world, and how this is crucial in reclaiming ourselves, building resiliency, and resisting the logic of capitalism. Emma also digs into the magical traditions she practices, in particular Obeah, which includes digging into the history of this spiritual tradition and how this interconnects with her broader work.

Emma Kathryn practices traditional British witchcraft, Vodou and Obeah, a mixture representing her heritage. She lives in the sticks with her family where she reads tarot, practices witchcraft and drink copious amounts of coffee. She is a regular contributor at Gods&Radicals Press, The House of Twigs, and Witch Way Magazine.

Episode Notes:

- Learn more about Emma and her work: https://emmakathrynwildwitchcraft.com

- Purchase her book ‘Reclaiming Ourselves’ from Gods&Radicals Press: https://abeautifulresistance.org/reclaiming-ourselves

- The music featured is by Waxie: https://waxiemusiclibrary.com

Video Segment:

#242 | State Of Exception: From A World That Has Stopped w/ Alley Valkyrie & Rhyd Wildermuth

Intro: 9:53 | Outro: 1:40:30 | Book Pre-sale

In this episode, I speak with Gods & Radicals Press co-founders and Empires Crumble co-hosts Alley Valkyrie and Rhyd Wildermuth. This discussion was recorded on March 22nd, 2020 from each of our respective locations, with Alley currently living in France and Rhyd in Luxembourg. We discuss the "state of exception" and “a world that has stopped” in the midst of this global pandemic and state-mandated lockdowns, as discussed in Alley’s essay ‘Dispatches From a World That Has Stopped,’ and Rhyd’s essay ’Pandemics and the State of Exception.’

“As a New Yorker living in France, living in a world that has stopped carries with it a specific cultural trauma that my friends, my neighbors, and my partner here do not share. It carries recollections and triggers that I honestly thought I left behind on the other side of the ocean. It carries the reminder of how we are defined and wired by past traumas, and the insidious manner in which such traumatic events weave themselves into our DNA.” — Alley Valkyrie, ‘Dispatches From a World That Has Stopped’ (https://bit.ly/2UpvRwi)

“Each government of the world has always held these powers, what Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt called “The State of Exception.” State monopolies on violence, for instance, are exceptions to all the laws that make illegal the confinement, abuse, and murder of citizens. That is, if you were to kidnap someone and lock them in a room for thirty years, that would be illegal. But governments do this all the time, and as a feature of being a government. It’s called prison. Similarly, what the police do on behalf of the state would be highly illegal if you were to do so. You cannot kill an unarmed person on the street because of the color of their skin and expect not to be held accountable, but a police officer may do this very same thing as part of their job. They’re the exception to the rule, because the government decides “the exception.”” — Rhyd Wildermuth, ‘Pandemics and the State of Exception’ (https://bit.ly/3doiDbZ)

Alley Valkyrie is the author of ‘Of Monsters and Miso’ — “a bilingual book of delicious miso sauce recipes,” and Rhyd Wildermuth is the author of ‘All That Is Sacred Is Profaned: A Pagan Guide To Marxism’ — a book that “teases out the intersections between Marx’s ideas and the core worldviews of animism and Paganism.” Alley and Rhyd are the co-founders of Gods & Radicals Press and the co-hosts of the podcast Empires Crumble.

Episode Notes:

- Read Alley’s essay ‘Dispatches From a World That Has Stopped’ and Rhyd’s essay ‘Pandemics and the State of Exception’ at Gods & Radicals Press: https://bit.ly/2UpvRwi / https://bit.ly/3doiDbZ

- Purchase Alley’s book ‘Of Monsters and Miso’ and Rhyd’s book ‘All That Is Sacred Is Profaned: A Pagan Guide To Marxism’: http://bit.ly/39iH08M / https://bit.ly/2U9u7sb

- Listen and subscribe to Empires Crumble: http://bit.ly/EmpiresCrumble

- The song featured in this episode is “How It Feels To Be Free” by Nina Simone: https://youtu.be/5dlrXCYrNYI

#234 | The Curse Of Hope: We Did Start The Fire w/ John Halstead

Intro: 11:51

In this episode, I speak with John Halstead — pagan writer, (former) activist, and author of 'Another End of the World is Possible.’ We discuss his two most recent essays published at Gods & Radicals Press — 'We Did Start the Fire: Climate Change and the Curse of Hope' and 'Why I Stopped Protesting and Started a Garden.’

“Human civilization is a fire. It’s been burning since we’ve been human. And the human story is not a straight line, but a circle, a great ring of fire.” (http://bit.ly/2TaUCwQ) In this discussion with John, we begin by examining some of the ideas he explores in his most recent writing, including where the Anthropocene began and where it will ultimately lead. In 'We Did Start the Fire: Climate Change and the Curse of Hope,’ John asserts that fire, or rather humankind’s long-standing relationship with fire, is where humanity’s complex and often impactful relationship with the biosphere truly began, with the crescendo in this process being the rise of industrial capitalism and the rapacious need to endlessly extract and consume fossil fuels to fuel its growth. Catastrophic climate change, mass extinction, and ecological collapse across the globe has been the result. 

We then move into discussing his most recent article ‘Why I Stopped Protesting and Started a Garden’ in which he lays out his reasoning for leaving behind environmental and climate activism, towards what Bayo Akomolafe has called “post-activism.” John states “I’m turning my attention from the planet to the place where I live, from humanity to the beings—both human and other—who I share this place with. I am turning from my hopes and fears about the future to the needs of the present. I’m turning from all the big picture stuff to the small scale, from the global to the local, to what I can see and touch and feel.“ (http://bit.ly/3alkM5T)

John Halstead is the author of ‘Another End of the World is Possible,’ in which he explores what it would really mean for our relationship with the natural world if we were to admit that we are doomed. John is a native of the southern Laurentian bioregion and lives in Northwest Indiana, near Chicago. He is a co-founder of 350 Indiana-Calumet, which (until recently) worked to organize resistance to the fossil fuel industry in the Region. 

Episode Notes:

- Learn more about John and his work, including his book ‘Another End of the World is Possible,’ at: https://anotherendoftheworld.org

- Read 'We Did Start the Fire: Climate Change and The Curse of Hope' and 'Why I Stopped Protesting and Started a Garden’ at Gods & Radicals Press: http://bit.ly/2TaUCwQ / http://bit.ly/3alkM5T

- The song featured in this episode is “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall (Live)” by Pete Seeger from the album The Complete Carnegie Hall Concert, June 8, 1963.

#226 | Giving Way To Passivity & Despair: Americans, How To Not Win A Damn Thing w/ Alley Valkyrie

Intro: 7:47

In this episode, I speak with social critic, activist, writer, and textile artist Alley Valkyrie, co-founder of Gods & Radicals and author of ‘Of Monsters and Miso,’ “a bilingual book of delicious miso sauce recipes.”

Waves of protests have swept nations around the globe, with robust examples mass resistance in such places as Hong Kong (http://bit.ly/2Q2LtF8), Chile, and France, just to name a few. (http://bit.ly/2SFi8lX) Organized resistance against the neoliberal economic polices imposed by governments globally, and the authoritarian responses from these states towards their respective populations, has not only demonstrated the spirit of the times we are in, but just as importantly, what the nature of resistance looks like in our time of compounding crises. Among these numerous examples of civil unrest, there is one glaring exception: the United States. As Alley explains in this episode, there are numerous historical, cultural, and sociological reasons as to why US citizens continue to believe that the electoral process, petition signing, and the ongoing impeachment proceedings against President Trump in the House and Senate will lead to the changes needed to adequately respond to the massive systemic injustices Americans experience in their economic and social lives daily. Faith in these bureaucratic processes are certainly not enough, and in fact, works to deter the kinds of direct actions required to actually force the hands of the political elite to do anything besides steal from and undermine the majority of the population in their ability to live lives of dignity, good health, and social welfare.

Alley Valkyrie is a co-founder of Gods & Radicals Press and co-hosts the Empires Crumble podcast with Rhyd Wildermuth. She currently resides in Rennes, France.

Episode Notes:

- Purchase Alley’s book ‘Of Monsters and Miso’: http://bit.ly/39iH08M

- Read Alley’s article ‘Refugees and the Reflection of Empire’: http://bit.ly/2F2ejPC

- Much of Alley’s work can be found at her website and at Gods & Radicals Press: https://alleyvalkyrie.wordpress.com / https://abeautifulresistance.org

- Listen and subscribe to Empires Crumble: http://bit.ly/EmpiresCrumble

- The song featured in this episode is “Strt Srns” by Wise Blood from the + EP.