Uncivilize

It couldn’t be more perfect that for this last episode of Uncivilize, my guest is the very person who inspired me to start the show: Daniel Vitalis, former host of the immensely popular and provocative Rewild Yourself Podcast. Being interviewed by Daniel for Rewild Yourself (Episode 134) was a revelation, because until that introduction, I hadn’t known that the seemingly disparate areas that had enthralled me since my childhood—exploring the wilderness, environmental conservation, anthropology, ancestral peoples, and a general aching to have lived at an earlier time in our human existence—had a name, let alone had converged into a movement: rewilding.Much has happened since that epiphany more than two years ago, especially for Daniel, who not only found love and got married but dove deeper into another love: hunting, fishing, foraging and food. From that came WildFed, his new culinary adventure show and podcast that hopes to connect people with their local landscapes—not to mention 3 million years of human history—by opening their eyes to sustainably harvesting, cooking and eating wild food.Here’s what we talk about: -Daniel’s recent wild-food wedding-Finding the balance between the modern and the primitive-Connection to the landscape through food-The problem with rugged individualism-“We’re at risk of losing some very fundamental human technologies”-Daniel’s non-hunting childhood-Urban vegans, and making the case for hunting-Wild turkeys, leeks and fiddleheads: Daniel’s first harvest-Bear fat!-Hunting in the United States: What you need to know-The making of WildFed-How to find your wild food niche, no matter where you liveCheck out the WildFed Podcast (available wherever you get your podcasts) and go here to watch trailers for and order Season 1 of the WildFed show. You can also follow Daniel and all his happenings on his website, as well as on Facebook and Instagram.Thank you for listening to and supporting this show over the past two years! You can subscribe on iTunes to catch up on all 35 episodes. (If you’ve enjoyed the show, I always appreciate good ratings and reviews. It will help me with my next project.) The theme music is by Paul Damian Hogan.

This week, I bring you the delightful AC Shilton, the investigative journalist of Netflix’s “The Innocent Man” fame who recently added farmer to her resume: Last year, the self-described city kid and her park ranger husband went all in on their bucolic fantasy, purchasing a 45-acre fixer-upper ranch in rural Tennessee.Here, AC shares the real story of how she now divides her day between tending chickens and penning pieces for the likes of The New York Times and Outside magazine (spoiler: it’s not easy). She also dishes on learning to farm by the seat of her pants, prepping her farm for climate resilience, and why farming may be the perfect antidote to our modern scourge of arrival fallacy.Here’s the rundown: -A day in the life of an investigative journalist–farmer-What it really costs to start a small farm-“This has brought me more joy than anything I could have ever imagined”-Pastured eggs, honey and Dexter cattle-Planning her farm with climate change in mind-Learning to farm as city kids-Arrival fallacy-Rural loneliness, recent injuries, and advice for wannabe farmers

I had a big birthday on Tuesday, and one of my wishes is to travel to the mountains of Southern Appalachia to take Natalie Bogwalker’s immersive women’s carpentry class (followed by perhaps her tiny house building class). If you haven’t yet heard of Natalie, prepare to be amazed: A trailblazer in all things rewilding, she co-founded Firefly Gathering and is now the founder and director of Wild Abundance, a one-of-a-kind permaculture and homesteading school outside of Asheville, N.C.There, from her working eco-homestead, she not only builds but forages, gardens, crafts, and raises her young daughter, all while teaching an abounding offering of earth-based living classes with her partner Frank and a community of devoted instructors. I felt honored that Natalie found time last month to step away from it all (including the launch of her groundbreaking online hide tanning course; seriously, check it out) to talk with me about the incredible life she’s created and the Wild Abundance student experience.Some of what we talk about: -Laterlife motherhood and the ultimate childcare co-op-Growing up in the woods of Washington state and the accident that changed her life-Living in a squat in Barcelona and Wild Roots-The rewilding movement, 15 years ago-Firefly Gathering, Wild Abundance and her women’s carpentry classes-What the future holds-Her new online hide tanning courseLearn more about Natalie and the Wild Abundance class offerings on the Wild Abundance website. Natalie is also an inspiring presence on Instagram and Facebook. And watch the trailer, below, to get a glimpse of her new Online Hide Tanning Course (use coupon code BUCKSKIN for 20% off through October 30).

I’m so excited to share this fascinating conversation I recorded last spring with Victor Kühn, a master traditional bowmaker and primitive archery expert based in Boulder, Colorado. Here, Victor traces the ancient history of the bow and arrow, revealing how its invention tens of thousands of years ago forever changed the trajectory of humankind. We also talk about Victor’s (née: Vitezslav) remarkable childhood in the aftermath of Communist Czechoslovakia, his passion for the iconic American West, and the intense craftsmanship that goes into his one-of-a-kind bows (he fells his own trees!).Show notes:-How Victor first discovered bowmaking-“Wild times in the ‘90s”: Growing up after the fall of Communism in Czechoslovakia-Coming to the US and falling in love with the iconic American West-The ancient history of his homeland versus the untouched wilderness-How bowmaking forever changed human history-Is bowmaking still relevant in a world with guns?-Why Victor feels called to preserve this art-The intense research and craftsmanship that goes into Victor’s traditional bows

In this premiere episode of our third (and final!) season, I talk with outdoor adventure journalist extraordinaire Wes Siler, who runs Outside’s lifestyle column IndefinintelyWild. Here, Wes shares his stereotype-defying approach to “rewilding,” including his recent transformation from Angeleno to gun-toting Montanan, why all environmentalists should support hunting, and everything you need to know to recreate his epically cushy camping experience.Here’s the run-down: -On camping: What you’re doing wrong and a camping mattress you can have sex on-Growing up in North Carolina, France and going to military school in England-Why being Bear Grylls sucks-How to move beyond fear in the outdoors-How Wes splits his time between work and the wilderness-The North American Model of Wildlife Conservation-Hunting, guns and prepping-Wes’s advice for creating a nature-fueled life-His upcoming adventure wedding in Baja

As rewilding has reached the mainstream (or the word rewilding, anyway), it’s come to encompass many tenets: land conservation, nature immersion and ancestral skills; living off grid; homeschooling and forest schools; even wearing minimalist footwear. (At its most commercial, the term has been used to sell trucker hats and promote vegan restaurants, but I digress.) But the deeper meaning of rewilding—the call for systemic rewilding—is what we should be focusing on, says my guest Peter Michael Bauer, as we stare down an environment cataclysmically changed by civilization.Peter would know: He was at the forefront of the rewilding movement when it emerged from the green anarchist movement in the early 2000s and is the author of the seminal book Rewild or Die. Now, he’s fostering place-based resilience with his organization Rewild Portland, along with his newly launched The Rewilding Podcast.Editorial note: This episode originally aired on December 26, 2019. It has since been changed to the date of my actual interview with Peter, in order to provide more context for the final season of the show. Here’s the rundown:-Peter’s recent trip off grid to the Olympic Peninsula and the Makah Museum-Systemic rewilding-What’s wrong with civilization?-The consequences of agriculture and the myth of progress-“There is no collapse. There is transformation.”-Rewild Portland, and why he isn’t living in the woods-Rewilding as a crime?-Peter’s newest project: The Rewilding PodcastFollow Peter’s work on his website and on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Listen to The Rewilding Podcast on iTunes. And don’t miss his upcoming Annual North American Rewilding Conference in Portland.If you enjoyed this show, subscribe on iTunes so you don’t miss the next one (and don’t forget to leave a rating and review). The theme music is by Paul Damian Hogan.

I know many of you, like me, dream of decamping the modern existence to live in the solace of the woods or on a bucolic homestead—just as many of our Uncivilize guests have done. But many of you also may not yet be able to fully commit to that dream (like me) or perhaps don’t even want to commit to that dream; that what, in fact, you are searching for is a more connected human existence in the 21st-century city or town in which you already live. To you, I introduce cohousing, an intentional community-on-the-rise best described as a modern and sustainable take on the village (or commune) of yesteryear.And to give you the rundown, I introduce Karin Hoskin, executive director of The Cohousing Association of the United States, who lives with her husband, two teenage kids, mother-in-law, two cats and two dogs in Wild Sage Cohousing in Boulder, Colo. Wild Sage is a community of 91 people living in 34 homes on an acre-and-a-half of land surrounded by nature and open space; but as Karin explains here, the possibilities for cohousing are as diverse as their settings and the folks who choose to live there. (There’s a mixed-income bike-sharing condo community in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood and a rural cabin community eight miles west of Fairbanks, Alaska!)Here’s the episode breakdown:-How Karin came to live in cohousing and with her mother-in-law-When did it become so uncommon to live with extended family?-“There were always people in, people out”: Karin’s upbringing with dozens of cousins in the farming Midwest-Cohousing, explained, and the difference between cohousing and other intentional communities-What it’s like to raise kids in cohousing, from babyhood to the teenage years-Why you don’t have to be an extrovert to live in cohousing-Karin’s thoughts on the future of urbanization and the rise in communal livingWant to explore cohousing communities or learn how to start your own? Check out the wealth of resources on the Coho/US website or attend the upcoming 2019 National Cohousing Conference, May 30-June 2, in Portland, Ore. (At last check, tickets are still available. The conference also includes tours of seven Portland cohousing communities.) You can also connect with Karin and Coho/US via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

I am so excited to bring you this interview with one of my favorite guests to date: Herman Pontzer, a biological anthropologist at Duke University whose paleontological and biological field work across Eurasia and Africa have upended much of what we in the modern world thought we knew about diet, exercise, metabolism and human health.Here, Herman reveals what it’s like to live and work with the Hadza hunter-gatherers of Tanzania, the paradox of calorie expenditure (hint: you can’t burn off that Shake Shack), and why we as humans must move to survive. (Don’t miss his brilliantly written recent feature for Scientific American, along with this episode!)Here’s the run-down: -Growing up in the woods of Pennsylvania and finding his evolutionary calling in college-A day in the life of a Hadza hunter-gatherer-Why everything we thought we knew about human energy expenditure is wrong-The connection between sedentary lifestyles, inflammation and our modern-day epidemic of chronic disease-Misinterpretation of scientific studies in the media-How humans evolved to require high levels of physical activity-Evolutionary mismatch-What does the future hold for the human species?-How to live a more evolutionarily aligned lifeMusic by Paul Damian Hogan.

Happy New Year! I’m coming back to you from winter hiatus later than anticipated, due to an extended illness and the now-historic teacher’s strike here in Los Angeles. During that time (which also saw LA pounded by torrential rains and floods), my daughters and I holed up at home and often lived vicariously through the videos of my guest today: homesteader Kip Smyth of the 1000’s of Roots YouTube channel. Via twice-weekly vlogs, Kip, his wife Carrie and their six children—ages 15 years to 19 months—document their permaculture-homesteading and homeschooling adventures living on a 500-square-foot off-grid home set on 20 acres in the Missouri Ozarks.The Smyth family’s stripped-down way of life is deeply rooted in their Christian faith; and yet, as Kip reveals in this interview, this was an existence he never could have imagined growing up as a self-described “jock” in a secular family in suburban Los Angeles. Here, we talk about consumerism overload, his calling to Christianity, homesteading from scratch, and so much more.Show notes: -Kip’s troublemaker childhood in Thousand Oaks, CA-From the party scene to finding himself on his family’s land in Alaska: “That’s when crazy stuff started happening to me”-Becoming a Christian, Simpson University as a 25-year-old freshman, and meeting Carrie-Arizona, the housing bubble and discovering Joel Salatin-Working at Home Depot: “If consumerism is the problem, then I need to become a producer”-Back to Alaska, and a brief foray into hunting and fishing-Strategic Relocation and why the Smyths chose Missouri-Primitive skills and the problem with the prepper mindset-Learning to homestead from scratch, building debt-free, and the long-term vision for 1000’s of Roots-Faith, their lifestyle as a calling, and Kip’s advice for other wannabe homesteading families

This week, I bring you this much anticipated conversation with ethnographer and award-winning photographer and explorer Alegra Ally. Via her Wild Born Project, Alegra has traveled to the far-flung corners of the globe to document the traditional ecological knowledge of indigenous motherhood—from pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding to rite-of-passage rituals for young girls.This year, Alegra became a new mother herself. She spoke to me from her native Israel, where she and her husband (free diver and photographer Erez Beatus) were enjoying time with family before embarking with their baby son on their next adventure. For Alegra, the drive to explore seems inborn; here, she shares the remarkable story of her first solo expedition to Papua New Guinea at the age of 17, the near improbable logistics of photographing remote tribal birth, and the “superhuman” power she’s found in the wake of new motherhood.Here’s the run-down:-Traveling to Tonga as a new mother-Alegra’s own experience of birth-Working as a diving instructor, early travels and how she met Erez-Her childhood in Israel, and “planning” her first expedition at age 11-Her first solo expedition to Papua New Guinea at age 17-The spiritual and intuitive search that led her to Wild Born-How she documents indigenous motherhood: the logistics-Her forthcoming book, her new nonprofit, and what’s next for Alegra and Wild Born

This week’s guest is adventurer and environmental activist Rob Greenfield, whose societal-boundary-pushing projects have ranged from biking across the United States on a bamboo bicycle for sustainability (three times); to dumpster diving in thousands of grocery store dumpsters to raise awareness about food waste and hunger; to wearing 30 days’ of trash to create a visual of how much trash one American creates. Here, we focus on Rob’s latest extreme endeavor: Growing and foraging 100 percent of his food for One. Entire. Year.From his 100-square-foot tiny home in Orlando, Florida (hand-built from 99 percent salvaged materials, natch), Rob shares the eating hows and whats of his aptly named Food Freedom project (think harvested salt and golf-course-foraged giant yams; oh, he also grows his own toilet paper). But with no shortage of self-reflection, Rob also digs deeper: into his own impoverished upbringing, the unintended consequences of living with no car or bank account or bills, and finding his true purpose in a life both inside and outside industrial capitalist society.Some of what we talk about:-What’s behind all the 1s: The launch of Food Freedom on 11/11 and Rob’s 111 possessions-The plan to grow and forage 100 percent of his food for one year; building his 100-square-foot tiny house in Orlando (and why Orlando?)-Staple crops, salt from scratch and the 160-pound yam-How to make coconut oil; North America’s yerba mate-The 11 months of prep that went into the project-Rob’s philosophy on foraging and pesticides-A sampling of the 300-500 foods Rob will be eating for the next 12 months-Taking inspiration from subsistence cultures-The paradox of Rob’s impoverished childhood: “We were consumers. My mom was a consumer; I was a consumer.”-His awakening to “not living a delusional life”-What it’s like to live with no credit cards, no bank account, no driver’s license, no car, no bills and no taxes-Consumerism and mortality-Rob’s vision for the future

In her mid-20s and a few years past her ecology studies at Columbia University, Ayana Young’s life had the makings of an off-the-grid fantasy. She lived with her partner in a cabin on an organic farm on an Oregon mountaintop. She studied herbalism. Then, Fukashima happened. The two, no longer feeling safe, set off on a journey to find “the promised land”—that untainted wilderness where they could live out their days sheltered from the toxic threats of industrialized civilization. Instead, Ayana found herself awakened to the harsh reality of her anarcho-survivalist quest: that it had clouded her true calling of working in service of something greater than herself.This week, I speak with Ayana about that remarkable journey and the “something greater” that resulted: her creation of the trailblazing For the Wild collective—which now encompasses the 1 Million Redwoods reforestation project, For the Wild podcast, and a new spinoff series birthed from a preservation campaign around the Tongass National Forest. (She helms this all from yes, her handbuilt cabin in the coastal redwood mountain range of Northern California.)Some of what we talk about:· The making of “the little cabin that could”· “So lost and damn naïve when I started this endeavor”· Ayana’s upbringing in suburban Southern California· Living in an 1800s farmhouse in Pennsylvania and the birth of the For the Wild podcast(then Unlearn and Rewild)· The cedar cabin in Oregon, the journey to New Zealand and the awakening to the Anthropocene· The inevitable consumerist existence of cities· Human supremacy· The Bill McKibben question and “What are we really trying to save here?”· The 1 Million Redwoods Project, biomimetic reforestation and learning how to have a reciprocal relationship with nature· The off-the-grid fantasy versus Ayana’s life now· “We don’t have the time to be arguing about small things anymore”Music by Paul Damian Hogan.

In this first episode of our second season, I interview Steve Nygren, the founder of Serenbe—a microcosmic urban utopia set on 65,000 acres of preserved forest land, a mere 40 minutes south of Atlanta’s expanding sprawl. Yet to paint Serenbe as the latest picture of the New Urbanist movement (or as a green community, or a nature community, or an “agrihood,” as it’s been called in reference to the 25-acre organic farm the town is centered around) wouldn’t do it justice, as my family and I discovered when we called Serenbe home for two months this past summer.Here, during an epic walk in the woods, Steve and I delve into the biophilic theory underpinning Serenbe’s design—along with the journey that took him from “having it all” in Ansley Park as a successful restaurateur to a life of deep nature connection for his family and Serenbe’s burgeoning community.

Our Season 1 finale is here! I can't imagine a more fitting close to our six-month journey than this interview with Amanda Caloia and Elizabeth Wells, two of the co-founders of EverWild—a Los Angeles-based community that connects city-dwellers to the wild through family adventures, conservancy projects, and a pioneering nature-immersion homeschooling program. Amanda's and Elizabeth's journeys to create EverWild (along with Rebecca Chou, not featured in this episode) mirror so much of what we’ve been searching for on this show: a connection to nature, yes; but also a connection to true, human community. After all, the wild places we made our home in our ancient human past wouldn’t have been survivable without the tribe that surrounded us. As I’ve come to recognize over these past 22 episodes, we’re hardwired to be in the fold. While the loss of nature is palpable, community is that unnamable thing we’re grasping for in an increasingly virtualized and individualized world. In my LA backyard (over foraged yerba santa tea, homemade pumpkin bread, and a smattering of airplane and mower noise), Amanda and Elizabeth and I chatted it up about the quest for the "perfect" place to live, surfing and skating (Amanda is a Longboard Girls Crew USA skater), homeschooling in the wild, and how they ultimately found “the EverWild way” of life. Thank you all for your incredible support this first season! I wish you lots of time to “uncivilize” in your own life until I'm back again this fall.

In 19th-century America, cesarean section was a treacherous, last-ditch surgery that nearly always resulted in death of the infant and, half the time, the mother. Fast forward to today, where 1 in 3 American babies is delivered via surgical birth. But even until the 1960s, cesarean section was virtually unknown to the American public, says my guest today, historian Jacqueline H. Wolf, the author of the riveting new book Cesarean Section: An American History of Risk, Technology and Consequence. The book, which will be published this May by Johns Hopkins University Press, was funded by a three-year-grant from the National Institutes of Health. In it, Professor Wolf unfolds an astounding story: How, over the span of a mere century (and most rapidly, a few decades), industrialized America normalized surgery as the means of bringing babies into the world.Some of you may recognize Jackie Wolf’s name from my book Unlatched (where she transported us to the death-by-artificial-infant-feeding epidemic of Industrial Age America). As a professor of the History of Medicine in the Department of Social Medicine at Ohio University, she is one of the foremost authorities on the history of breastfeeding and birth practices in the United States, having authored two prior books and numerous articles on the subjects in venues such as the American Journal of Public Health, Journal of Social History, and The Milbank Quarterly. I was captivated by my conversations with Jackie back then, and I hope you’ll be as captivated as I was by this one, here: From the story of the first cesarean in recorded American history, the myth of Julius Caesar and the racially charged past of early cesareans; to the rise of birth as a pathological process, Jackie Kennedy's role in all this, reclaiming birth in the 21st century (including how to avoid your own C-section) and more, you won’t want to miss this episode!

We want to believe that we are living at the pinnacle of human existence; that since hominins first walked on two legs, man has been marching toward our vision of modern civilization. But what if despite humanity's vast achievements, we left behind a way of life that not only served our species better, but actually defined us as a species? So posits my guest today, Arthur Haines, the author of the transformative new book A New Path: To Transcend the Great Forgetting Through Incorporating Ancestral Practices Into Contemporary Living. The book, and today's conversation, is centered around a remarkable premise (first conceived with Daniel Vitalis): that modern-day humans have become a domesticated sub-species of Homo sapiens, our once-wild progenitors. Our divergence from our biologically normal way of life has not only de-evolved us, it is at the root of our current epidemic of ill health and environmental degradation.But given that we can’t turn back the clock to live as indigenous hunter-gatherers, where do we go from here? Arthur has spent a lifetime ruminating on that question, as a botanist, taxonomist, forager and ancestral skills mentor who runs the Delta Institute of Natural History in Canton, ME. In A New Path, he offers revolutionary answers. Here, we talk about the book that's being called "the bible of the rewilding movement," and putting theory into practice with Wilder Waters, the neo-aboriginal community Arthur and his family are creating on 150 acres of protected forest in the woods of central Maine.

Meet Paul Arney, the mad genius behind The Ale Apothecary, a wild-ferment brewery housed in a cabin in the woods of Bend, Oregon. Paul is a master brewer who honed his craft-beer chops for more than 15 years at Bend’s legendary Deschutes Brewery. Now, on his own land and with the magic of the microbial creatures and natural materials that inhabit it (think: black currants, tree parts and an ancient snow-melt aquifer), he has developed The Ale Apothecary into an idealistic, if not utopian endeavor: a hyper-local and sustainable brewery based on the past 10,000 years of our brewing history as humans. For the overwhelming majority of that history, the beer we drank was wild (sometimes called sour)—a much different animal than the crisp (or hoppy or malty) libation so many of us think of when we hear the word “beer” today.* As I learned in this eye-opening conversation with Paul, even many of today’s “craft” breweries are still part of an industrial system of beer-making that arose only a couple hundred years ago. Here, we not only delve into the fascinating history of beer and its industrialization, but Paul’s ultimate vision to reclaim community, autonomy and our place-based experience of taste by rewilding one of humanity’s first beloved beverages. *I owe my “discovery” of wild beer to my first taste of Ale Apothecary up in Bend, six years ago, and I’m never going back. I hope this conversation sparks your love for wild beer, too!

I am so excited to bring you this thought-provoking conversation with naturalist and educator Erin Kenny, an international leader in the forest kindergarten movement and the founder of Cedarsong Nature School -- the very first US kindergarten based on the based on the German waldkindergarten model. If you haven’t yet heard of waldkindergarten (or forest kindergarten, for that matter), it is very much as it sounds: an entirely outdoors-based early childhood education program which, in Cedarsong's case, goes on rain, snow, or shine on five acres of magical native forest on Vashon Island, a ferry's ride from Seattle.But forest kindergarten is also so much more: Here, Erin and I talk about the crisis of nature deprivation confronting today’s generation of children and parents; why this unique style of education is a compelling and desperately needed solution; and the remarkable learning that emerges from the deep nature immersion experienced at Cedarsong. Amazingly, forest kindergartens are only just taking off here in the US (despite having existed in Germany for more than half a century and where there are now more than 1,500 in existence), so if you're eager to join this burgeoning movement as a parent or an educator, don't miss Erin and this eye-opening episode!

For 99 percent of our human history, we lived in small, likely egalitarian societies—tight-knit hunter-gatherer bands of a couple dozen people deeply reliant on their community and on the surrounding environment, for their survival. So where does that leave we present-day humans, now navigating an increasingly virtualized and individualized world amidst the dizzying urban constructs (not to mention vast social inequality) we call modern civilization? In a word: searching, to return to the fold of community and nature in which our species evolved for hundreds of thousands of years. My guests today, Chris Morasky and Rachel Natland, know that search well, and for decades pursued it on disparate paths: Chris, as a wildlife biologist who lived for more than 20 years in the wilderness and became one of the foremost Stone Age skills experts in North America; and Rachel, as a single mother who overcame her own inner-city childhood of abuse and addiction to become a spiritual mentor. Four years ago the rugged survivalist and the urban community-builder met, and the rest is history—and the future: Now a pair and living in Portland, they are restoring ancient egalitarian wisdom to the 21st century via their Wisdom Keepers school in Los Angeles and the Pacific Northwest. Hear their incredible life stories that brought them to this remarkable moment in time, their poignant vision for the future, and how they're re-creating the village with their don't-miss Elements Gathering in the ancient sequoias. Hope to see you there!

Meet today’s guest, who might be called the Michael Pollan for the millenial generation: award-winning food writer Megan Kimble, now senior editor at Austin Monthly Magazine and the author of the book Unprocessed: My City-Dwelling Year of Reclaiming Real Food. In this deep-dive journalistic memoir into her year-long journey of eating only whole, unprocessed foods, Megan set out to answer some seemingly straightforward questions: What does unprocessed mean in the modern world? Why does it matter? And how can we afford it in an age where time has become perhaps more precious than money? Yet the path to answer those questions proved anything but, sending Megan down the rabbit hole of our industrialized food system (spoiler alert: she slaughtered a sheep in the name of book research).Now a few years down the road from her book journey and living in a new city (Austin, by way of Tucson), I was so excited to have the chance to check in with Megan to hear how she’s putting unprocessed into practice, as well as hear her long-term wisdom gleaned from a life devoted to urban food sovereignty. From food co-ops, equity crowd-funded breweries and tackling food insecurity to home mead-making, ancient bread-baking and respectful meat-eating in a modern society, this is a lively conversation you won’t want to miss! Enjoy!

Today’s episode sounds like it was lifted off the pages of a Hollywood screenplay: two renown survivalists find themselves in an all-too-real survival experience, after a natural disaster decimates their tropical island home. Yet that has been the past five months of reality for my guests Carmen and Matt Corradino, husband-and-wife survival skills instructors who live on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where they have been dealing with the devastating aftermath of hurricanes Irma and Maria. The category 5 storms, mere weeks apart in a slew of powerful storms churned up in the Atlantic this past fall, were two of the most intense hurricanes in recorded history. Though there may have been no one better prepared for such a “force of nature,” as Matt referred to the storms. Together, he and Carmen have nearly three decades of survival skills experience, including a five-year stint living in a primitive shelter while teaching at survivalist Tom Brown Jr.’s Tracker School in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. And for the past decade, the two have carved out a subsistence lifestyle in the tropical forests of St. Croix (now with their 3-year-old daughter Ilee), where they own Mt. Victory Camp eco lodge and teach primitive and survival skills by way of their school, Caribbean Earth Skills. Hear from Carmen and Matt as they not only share survival lessons learned from the hurricanes, but the paths that led them to their way of life, and the contentment they've found in an existence deeply immersed in the natural world—even in the face of natural disaster.

It is 2018. Scientists sent a man to the moon half a century ago, they mapped the human genome more than a decade ago, and yet we still have scant scientific understanding about breast milk -- the lifeblood that has sustained humankind for at least the past 7 million years. All of that is about to change, if my guests today have their way. Meet Lars Bode and Alan Daly, two of the scientist powerhouses behind the newly launched Larsson-Rosenquist Foundation Mother-Milk-Infant Center of Research Excellence (LRF MoMI CoRE) at the University of California, San Diego—one of the first research centers in the world focused on unraveling the mystery of human milk. Lars, who serves as director of the new center, is a noted human milk researcher who is also the president of the International Society for Research in Human Milk and Lactation and an associate professor of pediatrics in UCSD's Division of Neonatology and Division of Gastroenterology and Nutrition. (Some of you may recognize his name from my book, Unlatched, in which I visited his laboratory at UCSD and delved into his groundbreaking research on human milk oligosaccharides and the microbiome.) Alan, who serves on the scientific advisory board of MoMI CoRE, comes to human milk research from the social science side: He is the chair and professor of the Department of Education studies at UCSD, as well as executive editor of the journal Educational Neuroscience.In short, these two guys are rockstars of the academic world (with the global travel schedules to match), and I was so thrilled to finally get the opportunity to sit down with them and talk about The Milk Moonshot, as we dubbed it; find out the full story of why breast milk is not a food, but a human tissue; and get two male scientists to weigh in on the "mommy wars." You won't want to miss this one!

In America today, 25 percent of women go back to work less than two weeks after giving birth. Seventy percent of babies under the age of one are regularly cared for by someone other than a parent. When you consider the biological imperative for mothers to be close to their babies -- the indisputable norm for how babies were nourished, nurtured, and protected from potential predators for millennia of human history -- it would appear we are now in the midst of a biological and societal experiment in child-rearing unprecedented in the history of humankind. This experiment hasn’t been without consequences, says Erica Komisar, my guest today and the author of the thought-provoking (and controversial) new book Being There: Why Prioritizing Motherhood in the First Three Years Matters. In it, she explores the critical nature of a mother’s presence in early childhood, and connects the alarming increase in childhood mental disorders over the past 30 years to our society’s absence and devaluation of mothering. Erica is a psychoanalyst, so not surprisingly we unpack a lot in this interview -- from the neuroscience underscoring the pivotal role of motherhood and our time’s misguided focus on gender neutrality, to her thoughts on technology, modern-day alloparenting, and how we can spark the revolution toward a truly child-centric society in the 21st century.

If health is the measure by which we humans are equipped to survive in our current environment, then our children are the proverbial canaries in the coal mine. One in 13 American children has a serious food allergy. Nearly one in 10 has asthma. One in five is obese. And one in 68 has a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. The rate at which these and other chronic conditions have become commonplace (read: epidemic) over the past few decades is equally stunning: childhood food allergies have increased 50 percent since 1997; celiac disease has more than quadrupled over the past half-century, with rates increasing particularly among children; and serious mental disorders, once rare, are now expected to afflict 20 percent of children over the course of their lifetime. So what the hell is going on?My guests today, Dr. Michelle Perro and Vincanne Adams, offer some stunning answers in their must-read new book What’s Making Our Children Sick? How Industrial Food Is Causing an Epidemic of Chronic Illness, and What Parents (and Doctors) Can Do About It. In it, they explore the connection between genetically modified foods, glyphosate (the world’s most widely used pesticide), and gut health, and make a damning case for the related rise in chronic childhood disorders since GM foods were introduced to the American public. GMOs have sparked endless controversy in the US, which is why it’s notable that Adams and Perro are far from the conspiracy-theory crowd: Vincanne is a professor and vice-chair of medical anthropology at the University of California, San Francisco, and Michelle is a pediatrician with over 35 years of experience in acute and integrative medicine (including as a former director of the Pediatric Emergency Department at New York’s Metropolitan Hospital). Here, they trace their own journeys from skeptics to activists and make a powerful case for why it's critical we move beyond the "GMOs aren't natural" argument. We also delve into Michelle's method for successfully treating children with chronic hard-to-diagnose health problems. So if you have a child with a chronic health issue (or even you yourself have a chronic health issue) and have been struggling to find answers, don't miss this episode!

This week, I step away from my Skype interview setup to head out into the urban wild with Los Angeles-based survivalist (and National Geographic Doomsday Preppers alum) Christopher Nyerges, who has taught wild food foraging, wilderness skills, and ecology awareness to nature-starved urbanites for the past five decades. Christopher was the editor of the former Wilderness Way magazine, and is also a prolific writer, having authored thousands of articles and more than 20 books on the skills of self-reliance, including How to Survive Anywhere, Guide to Wild Foods and Useful Plants, Foraging California, and Extreme Simplicity: Homesteading in the City.In many ways, that latter title could serve as the theme of his life's work, as I learned in this forthright conversation with Christopher about our societal obsession with money, his School of Self-Reliance, and what’s driven him to live a (some might say, though I wouldn’t) radically spartan, even off-grid existence in a city where materialism seems to know no bounds. I also got a literal taste of Christopher’s vast wild food knowledge, thanks to the accompanying edible plant walk he took me on in Pasadena’s Hahamongna Watershed Park.

I couldn’t imagine a more perfect conversation to jumpstart your path to uncivilizing in the New Year than this one with Alyssa Ravasio, the wunderkind camping enthusiast and conservationist who founded Hipcamp. Alyssa created the online platform in 2013, just three years out of UCLA, and in that short time has not only transformed the antiquated camping researching/booking system of yore; she has inspired millions of Millenials and Gen Zers to put down their phones and head outdoors. (It is no coincidence that more than 1 million new households have started camping each year since 2014, the year after Hipcamp was founded.) If you’ve yet to utilize the site, picture Airbnb-meets-camping: In addition to being the most comprehensive guide to public camping across the United States, Hipcamp has opened up the experience of camping on private land, called "land sharing." This revolutionary concept-turned-movement allows private landowners to earn income from renting their land for camping; campers get to pitch their tent (or glamp) on a farm, ranch, vineyard, pristine land preserve, and more. Alyssa has always been guided by her deep love of the natural world, but I was fascinated to learn about her perspective as a "digital philosopher." Whereas outdoorsy types are often wary of our time's proliferation of digital technologies (ahem), Alyssa sees the internet as a powerful force for nature -- an obsession that began with the creation of her own Digital Democracy major at UCLA. We cover a lot of ground here, from the story of Hipcamp's founding to its ultimate mission as perhaps the most scalable model for land conservation on the planet. Not to disappoint, there are plenty of amazing camping tips in here, too! Whether you're a first-time camper, a seasoned outdoorsperson, want to learn what it's like to be a Hipcamp host, or like me, have made a New Year's resolution to get out and camp more this year, you'll want to check out this episode!

Shelter has always been, and will always be, one of our critical human needs for survival. So I would be remiss if in a podcast seeking to uncover the core of how we were meant to live as human beings, I focused on cabins, tiny homes, and other stylish back-to-basics dwellings for upscale urbanites while ignoring an untenable truth I witness every day: That there are untold thousands of people living in our cities who, in fact, have no shelter at all. In Los Angeles alone, where the homeless population increased a staggering 23 percent in the past year and more than 50,000 people sleep on the streets every night, we are in the midst of a homelessness (really, houselessness) epidemic unprecedented in the course of human history. How have we, as a modern society, allowed homelessness to persist on this unimaginable scale? And how can we, as a modern society, begin to rectify it? This is the focus of my episode with LA-based writer, designer and architect Sofia Borges, director of the prestigious Martin Architecture and Design Workshop (MADWORKSHOP) and a faculty member at the USC School of Architecture, where she recently spearheaded the school’s first-ever advanced topics design studio on the homeless crisis in LA. The resulting project, Homes for Hope (a light-filled, rapidly deployable 92-square-foot modular microhouse for the homeless that could easily work as a backyard studio for the minimalist design enthusiast) won a 2017 Fast Company World Changing Ideas Award. Sofia has also authored and edited more than two dozen books on architecture and design, and as you will hear, is a true urban visionary. Here, she speaks passionately about the manifold possibilities for Homes for Hope, the scourge of NIMBYism, and the call for us all to be part of a sea change to combat unsustainable human suffering everywhere.

In our world of endless consumerist and technological distraction, “undistractable attention” is about more than just shutting off the social media; it’s about tuning into the guiding voice that’s inside each and every one of us. One pathway to that voice may be meditation or yoga, but our most fundamental route—as I learned in this life-changing conversation with Jim Robertson, an aboriginal skills instructor and naturalist based in Santa Monica, California, who coined that term—is via our eons-old home in the natural world. As Jim explains here, the absence of that connection in our modern-day lives has led to an epidemic of physical and mental illness, and left us struggling to fill that void with one mind-numbing addiction after another.Jim has worked as a naturalist for the Santa Monica Mountains and taught aboriginal skills and wilderness survival training to nature-bereft urbanites for over a decade. But remarkably, Jim didn’t come to the world of aboriginal skills until he was well into his fifties. It isn’t often in our modern world and culture that we have the opportunity to sit and absorb the wisdom of our elders, and Jim, 78 years young, held me rapt as he unfolded his captivating life history over the course of this conversation, including a moving look at his struggles with physical and emotional pain that brought him to his current path. Whether you want to learn more about plants and the fun of primitive campouts, seek inspiration on how to live more deeply and fully every day, or simply want to be enthralled by the wisdom of one of the most delightful human beings I’ve ever had the pleasure of interviewing, check out this episode!

For thousands of years, new generations -- and new mothers, in particular -- had the wisdom of their elders, of their culture, of their sense of place to guide them. Today in 21st-century America, where so many of us can only trace our ancestry back to one immigrant grandparent and what family we have is scattered across the continent (or the globe), modern motherhood can be a crushingly isolated existence. Add in the the demands of our go-go-go technologized life and an economically obsessed patriarchal society that doesn’t value motherhood as a meaningful pursuit, and it’s no wonder I often wish I could toss myself, my husband and our two little girls in a time machine and head back to a simple Little House on the Prairie-like homestead somewhere in my past. Except like so many modern displaced people of lost ancestry, I wouldn’t actually know where to point the time machine to go home.So imagine my delight when I discovered writer Sarah Menkedick, who lived out my actual fantasy (minus an actual time machine). Four years ago, she ditched the modern world and her modern existence literary writing and trekking around the globe (teaching English to teenagers on far-flung Réunion Island, camping on the Mongolian grasslands) to start her family, offline, in a tiny 19th-century cabin on her family’s Ohio farm. The result was her beautiful daughter, and a magnificent memoir in which she explores the existential nature of modern motherhood and the meaning of home (but so much more): Homing Instincts: Early Motherhood on a Midwestern Farm, which was released by Pantheon earlier this year.I was so excited to have the opportunity to interview the brilliantly talented Sarah about her book and other writings (she’s a writer’s writer: bylines in Harper’s, Pacific Standard, Oxford American, The Paris Review Daily, The New York Times and a Fulbright fellow, to boot), as well as how she’s taking lessons learned from a simpler existence into her life and home now, post-cabin.

Groundbreaking physician Dr. Michelle Gerber joins the podcast this week to discuss naturopathic medicine -- a radically different approach to health and disease that is urgently needed in a modern world besieged by skyrocketing rates of chronic illness, and where few answers exist in modern medicine for those suffering, save for a disease name and a pill to treat the symptoms. I know few more qualified to dive into this topic: As a licensed naturopathic doctor, board-certified naturopathic pediatrician (the only in Los Angeles), and a certified professional midwife, Michelle is a triple threat primary-care physician perhaps unequaled even in the mainstream medical world. And as such, she not only has the holistic perspective of caring for patients from birth through adulthood, but through naturopathic medicine is able to draw on a breadth of traditional medical systems and knowledge (including Western medicine) to both support long-term health and uncover the underlying physiology of chronic disease.Yet remarkably, naturopathic medicine is still well outside the mainstream, even though the roots of naturopathic medicine extend back thousands of years. Indeed, naturopathic physicians have practiced in America for over a century (naturopathic doctors attend four years of medical school and must pass extensive board exams just like conventional medical doctors; they are currently licensed to practice in 21 states). In our conversation, Michelle delves into why that’s so, and also lifts the curtain on everything you ever wanted to know about this timeless (and now, timely) branch of medicine: how a naturopathic doctor works to treats patients; naturopathic medicine's comprehensive and synergistic approach to uncovering the root of disease; the naturopathic doctor's critical role as patient educator; plus Michelle's wisdom on the modern dilemma of biological dissonance, nutrition and the microbiome, preconception care and more. Whether you or a family member are struggling with a chronic illness and are frustrated by the confines of conventional medical care, or you're simply curious about a medical paradigm that can promote wellness in an ever more uncertain future, you won't want to miss this episode!

When plastic made its foray into daily life in the 1950s, it was billed as the liberation to an existence constrained by household drudgery. Plates could be tossed instead of washed; coffee could be chugged on the go and then chucked into a rubbish bin; and frozen TV dinners could be stripped of their plastic wrap and popped in the oven at a moment’s notice. Life Magazine touted the disposable revolution in an article entitled ‘Throwaway Living’; a mere half-century later, every piece of plastic modern mankind ever made is still with us. Indeed, 8 million metric tons of these metamorphosed fossil fuels continue to enter our oceans each year, choking all life in the pervasive plastic path of its micro-pieces, and ultimately working its way up the food chain, into us.We’ve been taught that we can use plastics so long as we recycle, but that system, is in fact, grievously broken, and perhaps never should have been the answer all along, as I learned in this thought-provoking conversation with Rachel Lincoln Sarnoff, executive director of the 5 Gyres Institute, the ocean conservation non-profit that first discovered plastic microbeads in 2012 and campaigned for a successful federal ban in 2015. But how can we even begin to tackle the 5.25 trillion particles of “plastic smog” (that’s 270,000 tons) polluting our oceans worldwide? How can we reverse the seemingly inescapable grasp of a now entrenched throwaway society? Rachel is an awe-inspiring former journalist and mom of three (as well as my friend and neighbor, lucky me!), and she digs deep in this interview -- unraveling not only the history of plastic and the roots of our throwaway society, but channeling the save-everything mentality of her great-grandmother to inspire all of us toward a post-plastic revolution through doable change.

Sometimes when I’m up at night thinking about the inexorable alteration of the human existence since my own childhood and in the mere 150 years since America’s Industrial Revolution (yup, this is my brain not on drugs), what haunts me most is this: My two little girls -- and entire generations of human beings -- are now growing up without seeing the stars.And it’s not only megacity-dwelling people like us: Because of the ceaseless lights of our cities, suburbs and their surrounds, an astounding 80 percent of the world now lives under perpetual skyglow. In fact, two-thirds of Americans have lost the ability to see the Milky Way, and an unfathomable 99 percent of people (not to mention animals and plants) living in the United States and Europe will never experience the circadian rhythms of true darkness and natural light.Not surprisingly, there is a growing body of evidence on how our disconnection from the darkness may be profoundly impacting human health, not to mention its link to our modern-day epidemic of cancer and chronic disease. But I have bigger questions: What does it mean to the human existence, to our human souls, that we can no longer see and therefore dream about the heavens; that we no longer look up at the night sky and innately recognize our millions-year-old relationship with the universe?These were some of the topics at hand in my fascinating conversation for today’s episode with John Barentine, an astronomer who’s made it his mission to bring back the natural night sky in his work with the International Dark-Sky Association. John has had a remarkable career as an astronomer (a former researcher at NOAO and the NSO, as well as a former staff member at Apache Point), author and science communicator -- the last of which is apparent when you listen to John so eloquently deconstruct and discuss this epic topic, as well as inspire us on how to take action on light pollution and change our children’s literal vision of the future.

My interview today is with Greg Hennes, the brainchild behind the newly launched Prairie Mountain Folk School, a center for folk education and traditional craft set amidst the breathtaking natural landscape of Joseph, Oregon. In this tiny, remote town (population: 1,089) tucked into the vast wilderness of the Wallowa Mountains and the Zumwalt Prairie, Hennes hopes to foster a community where people from all over the world can relearn the traditional crafts of our ancestors that are on the brink of extinction -- blacksmithing, weaving, spoon carving, even cabin building -- from the actual local craftspeople and artisans preserving this heritage.In this episode, Greg guides us through the history of folk education and the makings of Prairie Mountain Folk School along with his other no-less-ambitious project, the Kickstarter-funded and artist-powered restoration of Joseph’s historic Jennings Hotel (warning: one click and you’ll be planning your next vacation). I for, one, loved hearing more about life in this stunning little-known corner of America, but was particularly moved by what Greg had to say about what is really driving the renewed interest (some might say fervor) toward traditional skills: namely, the deeply human need for real human interaction and community that’s missing from our modern world.

As we hurtle toward a world of digital jobs and automated consumerism (hello, Instacart and Amazon Dash), we urbanites who long for a deeper connection to the natural world, to our food sources and to do something real with our own two hands that doesn’t involve the pushing of a button, often think the lifestyle choice has to be either-or: Either we sock those dreams away in the “one day” file and surrender to the economic leviathan of modern city life, or we leave the city (and our livelihoods) behind to pioneer a homestead somewhere out in the country. But seven years ago, Root Simple founders Erik Knutzen and Kelly Coyne delivered us an alternate path forward with the release of their bestselling book The Urban Homestead and seminal follow-up, Making It: Radical Home Ec for a Post-Consumer World. From their hilltop bungalow set on 1/12 acre in Eastside Los Angeles, the pair sparked a DIY revolution -- bringing permaculture front yards, backyard chickens, wild-fermented beer and home-constructed milk crate dry toilets forever into the (almost) mainstream.I’ve been following Erik and Kelly’s work here in LA for nearly a decade now, and was excited to have the opportunity to check in with Erik to hear how far he and Kelly have progressed on the path toward self-reliance, since the book’s release. But as so often happens in these interviews, what transpired turned out to be a much different conversation than the one I had anticipated. Erik and Kelly have faced some serious life circumstances in the past year, and as a result Erik came to our talk with some new truths to reveal about the realities of running an “urban homestead,” the fool’s errand of self-sufficiency, and the real importance of community.

When I first came up with the idea for the Uncivilize Podcast, I knew that my first interview had to be with veteran outdoorsman Sean Critchfield, lead instructor for the Wisdom Keepers SchoolApprentice of the Wild program here in Los Angeles, via which he teaches ancient and wilderness skills to more than 200 children, including my own two kiddos. My girls and I began taking Sean’s classes last spring (adults accompany younger students plus he teaches adult classes, too), and since then we can’t imagine life in LA without him. He has become a much beloved mentor as our family transitions from mere outdoor enthusiasts to people with a true outdoor skill set.But it is also Sean who undoubtedly inspired this podcast, because he has opened up a world of possibility by doing what so many others in the wilderness / primitive skills movement wouldn’t dream of doing: choosing to reside in the midst of a megacity while he pursues a life immersed in the natural world and the fundamental skills of self-reliance. As a result of that seemingly paradoxical choice, he is not only living proof of the idea that nature is not, in fact, “somewhere else,” but an essential facet of the human existence with which we must all find a way to make our home; he has been able to share his knowledge with so many. Whether like me, you’re just entering the exciting world of plant identifying, animal tracking, fire making and shelter building and are overwhelmed about where to start, or you’re a veteran outdoorsperson struggling with navigating the realities of our hyper-modern world, I know you’ll appreciate the urban rewilding wisdom Sean brings to this interview. He’s also a gentle soul and a gifted storyteller (you should see this man hold rapt a dozen-plus otherwise rowdy kids in the woods), and I promise you’ll find yourself mesmerized by the profundity of his thoughts on nature, on learning, and on using the circumstances of our reality to more fully connect with the world around us, wherever that may be.