32. Animal Husbandry After the Collapse with Aaron Fletcher, Homeless Farmhand

Explicit content warning

02/10/18 • 99 min

Good Life Revival: Permaculture, Rewilding, Homesteading

Do you believe that we are currently observing the early signs of the collapse of civilization, and that our society could actually quite easily fall apart within our lifetimes, due to any of myriad looming existential threats?

If you knew that civilization was going to collapse one year from now, how would that affect your daily life?

What if that collapse was set to arrive one month from now? Or a week from now?

How would that change your agenda, and what would you prioritize?

If the proverbial shit really did hit the fan, ...what then? What skills, knowledge, and experiences could you call upon in a long-term or potentially permanent survival scenario?

Are you “prepared”? And what does preparedness truly consist of anyway? Does it look like a bunker full of rations, or a more like a healthy mind and body full of earth skills?

For this installment of the Good Life Revival Podcast (no. 32), I spoke with the one and only Aaron Fletcher of Oregon, a self-proclaimed herder-gatherer who leads a lifestyle of intentional homelessness with a modest flock of sheep.

Over a decade ago, Aaron observed all of the ways that our modern civilization subjugates and exploits us while poisoning the planet, and recognized that this house of cards was built to collapse, and so he resolved to check out – to the fullest extent possible.

You might call him a doomsday prepper or a survivalist, but Aaron is someone who understands that true preparedness consists of requiring very little, and being able to acquire it for yourself directly through your interactions with nature.

Aaron Fletcher is truly one-of-a-kind in our era, and I think there’s a wealth of wisdom to be gleaned from his experiences. You may not be convinced to trade all of your worldly possessions for a flock of sheep by the end, but I hope this conversation will spark your imagination about unique possibilities for your own life.

If you knew that civilization was going to collapse one year from now, how would that affect your daily life?

What if that collapse was set to arrive one month from now? Or a week from now?

How would that change your agenda, and what would you prioritize?

If the proverbial shit really did hit the fan, ...what then? What skills, knowledge, and experiences could you call upon in a long-term or potentially permanent survival scenario?

Are you “prepared”? And what does preparedness truly consist of anyway? Does it look like a bunker full of rations, or a more like a healthy mind and body full of earth skills?

Previous Episode

31. Cereal Grains and Chemical Warfare: A Brief History of the Green Revolution with Sam Sycamore

Agriculture is one of the primary drivers of of overpopulation, deforestation, erosion, pollution of soil, water, and air, habitat loss, biodiversity loss, and global climate disruption. We know this.

How did we get here? And has it always been this way?

Is agriculture to blame for the problems of modern civilization? Is modern civilization to blame for the ecological suicide course of modern agriculture?

Is it possible, as many would have you believe, for us to use more agriculture to repair the health of our bodies and our ecosystems?

To get to the bottom of these questions, we’ll have to take a deep hard look at the origins of agriculture, and how it relates to our modern food system and the relationship we’ve inherited with nature.

In the latest episode of the Good Life Revival Podcast — no. 31 — we will unpack some of the inherent flaws of agriculture, and connect the dots through to our modern-day paradigm of chemical and genetic warfare being waged across hundreds of millions of acres of land around the world.

We’ll also talk about the potential alternatives to our massive, globalized, monopolized, mono-cropped agriculture, and how we might be able to move forward at the individual and community level to rise above the status quo.

(I’ve got some pretty exciting personal news to share on the “moving forward” front, by the way!)

The picture is bleak today, my friends, and you should not expect me to sugar-coat it. With that said, if we have any hope of averting global ecological catastrophe, we need to understand why our brittle multinational systems are now on the brink of collapse.

I hope that this podcast helps you to better understand the sheer magnitude of the problem at hand, and hopefully encourages you to think and work harder to derive solutions — whatever form they might take.

Next Episode

33. Diversity and Abundance of Nutritious Movement with Katy Bowman, Biomechanist

Why is it so tough for us modern humans to take good care of ourselves?

We created all of this technology to make life easier on our muscles, bones, and joints—so why do these core components of our bodies now seem to make us suffer more than ever before?

For episode 33 of the Good Life Revival Podcast, I had the pleasure of speaking with biomechanist and movement ecologist Katy Bowman, who likely needs no introduction among my audience but here goes anyway.

Katy is a prolific writer, speaker and podcaster on the topics of natural movement and human physiology from a cross-cultural perspective; she’s a serious research scientist with the rare skill of being able to translate often esoteric scientific jargon into clear, engaging, actionable English.

Through her work in the field of biomechanics, she has become well acquainted with the ways that our bodies have been warped and reshaped by this strange sedentary zoo we call civilization.

She wants to help you and me feel better from day to day, and reclaim as much of our innate human animal potential as possible by educating us on the ins and outs of “nutritious movement.”

Katy and I had a fascinating and insightful conversation, exploring why a healthy relationship with our bodies is about so much more than diet and exercise alone. She also offered some really useful advice for farmers and gardeners like me to help avoid a “monocrop of movement” while playing in the dirt.

Katy’s book ‘Move Your DNA’ is my pick for February in our ongoing book club series – stick around to the end of the episode for a discount code to save 20% when ordering through her website. And keep an eye out in the coming days for my extended audio commentary on the book, exclusively for Patreon supporters!

(Speaking of which: Patreon supporters got to hear this interview days ago, now that I’m offering early access as a new perk. Where were you? Just sayin’.)