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, 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
- Nebelivka, a representative ”megasite” of Neolithic Ukraine
- Colin Ward, Anarchy in Action
- Murray Bookchin, Post-Scarcity Anarchism
- Distributism
- [Garrett] Hardin
- [Elinor] Ostrom
- Mark Vonnegut, The Eden Express
- Simon Fairlie, Meat
- [Gerrard] Winstanley, the Ranters and the Diggers

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