KunstlerCast - Conversations: Converging Catastrophes of the 21st Century

Dr. Shane Simonsen is an Australian experimental farmer, author, podcaster, and thinker based in the subtropical Sunshine Coast hinterland of Queensland (on around 40 acres among the Glasshouse Mountains). He holds a PhD in biochemistry and previously worked in academia and as a teacher before leaving in his late 20s — disillusioned by institutional structures, the global financial crisis, and concerns over peak oil— to pursue independent work in biology, ecology, and sustainable systems. For the last decade he obsessively developed hardy staple crops for his little mountain village. Australia is uniquely vulnerable to energy system disruptions and totally unprepared for post-industrial agriculture. Shane blogs weekly at Recombination Nation. His podcast of the same name interviews amateur plant breeders, geopolitical experts and culture innovators. His non-fiction book Taming the Apocalypse explores a post-industrial future built purely on biological technology He also wrote a novel under the nom-de-plume Haldane P. Doyle, Our Vitreous Womb, imagining a biotechnological civilization in the distant future.

Alex Krainer is a Croatian-born market analyst, author, and former hedge fund manager based in Monaco. Coming of age in socialist Yugoslavia, Krainer's unconventional path took him from serving in Croatia's war of independence to becoming one of the few fund managers to generate positive returns (+27-percent) during the 2008 financial crisis. He founded his own investment management firm in 2007 and later joined Altana Wealth, where he developed systematic portfolio allocation strategies bridging technology and finance. Krainer is the author of Mastering Uncertainty in Commodities Trading"(ranked #1 by Financial-Expert.co.uk), The Grand Deception, and Alex Krainer's Trend Following Bible. A sought-after voice on geopolitics, commodities markets, and global finance, he publishes regular market analysis through TrendCompass and his Substack, offering sharp, unconventional insights shaped by his unique background navigating both socialist regimes and Western financial markets. The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

Stephan Sander-Faes is a professor of history teaching European civilization at the University of Bergen, Norway (faculty profile: https://www4.uib.no/en/find-employees/Stephan.Sander-Faes). His work focuses mainly on post-mediaeval (Central) Europe. He blogs semi-anonymously about European affairs at https://fackel.substack.com/ (click and sign up, it's free). When he's not teaching, he tends to his livestock (follow his sheep at https://bsky.app/profile/ramsesandhisgang.bsky.social). In whatever spare time he has left, he explores our analogue, pre-internet world cataloging his late grandfather's vintage picture postcard collection, which you may as well check out over at https://espc.substack.com. The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

Dr Drew Miller, Col USAF (Ret) holds a masters degree and a PhD in Public Policy from Harvard. He had a distinguished career as an intelligence officer serving overseas in Iraq and as a senior executive in the Department of Defense (Now Dept, of War). Today he is CEO of Fortitude Ranch the nation's largest catastrophe survival community and he is also Managing Director of the consulting firm Fortitude Collapse Preparedness. His new book is Preparing to Survive in the Age of Collapse, from Skyhorse Publishing. The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

Elizabeth Nickson is a distinguished veteran of American and Canadian journalism. She was trained as a reporter at the London bureau of Time Magazine and became European Bureau Chief of LIFE Magazine in its last years of monthly publication. She went on to write for Harper's Magazine, the Guardian, the Observer, the Independent, the Sunday Telegraph, the Sunday Times Magazine, the Globe and Mail, and the National Post. Her first book The Monkey Puzzle Tree was an investigation of the CIA MK-ULTRA mind control program. She followed with Eco-Fascists: How Radical Environmentalists Are Destroying Our Natural Heritage, a look at how environmentalism, badly practiced, is destroying the rural economy and rural culture in the U.S. and all over the world. Her next is The Green Book, a collection of her essays on the environmental junta, coming in February 2026. She is a Senior Fellow at the Frontier Center for Public Policy, fcpp.org. Elizabeth Blogs at Welcome to Absurdistan on Substack.

This one's a little break from the usual — it's me talking to a friend about my new novel, Look, I'm Gone with a particular emphasis on the iconic American author JD Salinger, who has a meaty role as a character in my book, playing himself, kind of a first for Salinger, who passed away in 2010. My friend Ted Cleary is a writer, artist, and musician from New York City. He studied English and history at Columbia University and has taught writing and literature for several decades. He's been a landscape gardener, assistant district attorney, and stroke oar for an American rowing team racing traditional Irish fishing boats in western Ireland. Two energetic novellas, At the End of the World and Song of the Cicada, are available on Amazon, and he has recently launched Substack as tedcleary1. The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

Charles Marohn, founder of Strong Towns and expert in town planning, dives into the pitfalls of suburban sprawl. He reveals how suburban development resembles a Ponzi scheme, leading cities to financial instability. The conversation touches on the fragility of infrastructure and the cultural resistance to critiquing suburban policies. Marohn advocates for localism, tactical urbanism, and realistic salvage plans for abandoned spaces. He also warns about the risks of car dependency and proposes innovative neighborhood solutions to foster resilience.

Piero San Giorgio is one of Switzerland's best selling authors. After 20 years as an executive in the software business, Piero decided to write essays about the future. His first book Survive —The Economic Collapse was in the top-50 best selling books of 2012 in France and has sold over 200,000 copies, with translations into English, Italian, Russian, Arabic, Romanian, Polish, Turkish etc. and has a foreword by JHKunstler. His other books are , CBRN (How to Survive Nuclear, Radiological, Biological,and Chemical events), and Giuseppe: A Survival Story, a biographical novel about his grandfather's ordeals in WW2. The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

Jeffrey Tucker is founder and president of Brownstone Institute, Senior Economics Columnist at Epoch Times, and author of 15 books. His newest book, The Spirits of America, is a reflection on American values – cultivated deep in US history dating back to the founding. The book is meant to inspire us to a restoration of our once-sturdy common culture in this period of great political turbulence. Please take the time to visit the Brownstone Institute's excellent website and its stable of fine writers. The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

Thomas B. Fowler is the author of five books and over 150 articles and reviews, ranging over philosophy, theology, engineering, physics, and mathematics. He is an expert in analyzing systems and procedures for the U.S government. He says he is "keenly aware of the rapid politicization that has occurred not just in the humanities, but increasingly in the science, technology, and mathematics (STEM) areas, and is devoted to debunking the shoddy reasoning behind many contemporary trends such as the extravagant claims made for Artificial Intelligence." His latest book is Artificial Intelligence: Foundations, Limitations, Benefits and Dangers — and is the subject of this conversation. He is president of the Xavier Zubiri Foundation of North America, and has translated several of the Spanish philosopher's books into English. Currently an independent consultant and Adjunct Professor of Engineering at George Mason University, he has lectured widely in the U.S., South America, and Europe on science and philosophy. His doctorate from George Washington University is in system theory.