The Lighter Side of Dark Ages with Chris Smaje

Chris Smaje visits Crazy Town for some farmer-to-farmer straight talk with Jason Bradford. Are these two long lost cousins? Both dropped out of academia years ago to become philosophizing farmers (can we call them “pharmers” with a “ph,” as in PhD?!?). Chris’s latest book, Finding Lights in a Dark Age: Sharing Land, Work and Craft explores how we can move from modernity’s unsustainable political economy toward a re-organization of society, driven by communities and local food systems. In this wide-ranging conversation, Chris and Jason cover everything from Viking raids to agrarian populism, from societal collapse to the practicalities of making your way in a failed state. And they can’t get away from the shop talk of gardens, livestock, and home economics. Originally recorded on 4/2/26.

Sources & Links

• Chris Smaje’s Blog
• Finding Lights in a Dark Age by Chris Smaje
• Excerpt of the book on Resilience
• Second excerpt on Resilience
• Review: Saying NO to Ecomodermism. Smaje Versus Monbiot, It’s No Contest

Related Episodes

• Episode 98, “Bargaining With Collapse: A Superabundance of Lab Grown Meat and Dryer Balls”

Credits

Production and editing by Alex Leff. Editorial assistance and transcripts by Taylor Antal.

Theme music is “Way Huge” and “Don’t Give Up” by Midnight Shipwrecks, used with permission.

Thanks to all the Crazy Townies, our listeners who are trying to understand humanity's overshoot predicament and do something about it.