For Immediate Release

Contact Duncan Crary, 518-274-2723

Podcast-Based Book Explores The Tragic Comedy of Suburban Sprawl

The KunstlerCast: Conversations with James Howard Kunstler by Duncan Crary

TROY, N.Y. (Nov. 29, 2011) — James Howard Kunstler is one of the most outspoken and funniest critics of suburban sprawl, fossil fuel depletion and the collapsing American dream.

His best-known books on the subject include “The Geography of Nowhere,” “The Long Emergency,” and the post-oil novel “World Made By Hand.”

A new book-length interview with the acclaimed urban planning/social critic revisits and updates his ideas on America’s built environment, impending energy crisis and unfolding financial meltdown.

“The KunstlerCast: Conversations with James Howard Kunstler … The Tragic Comedy of Suburban Sprawl,” by Duncan Crary (New Society Publishers, Nov. 2011) is available through booksellers. The book is based on four years of recorded conversations between Kunstler and Crary, which first “aired” on the popular weekly “KunstlerCast” podcast.

The topics covered in “The KunstlerCast” are often dire, like peak oil, urban planning, architecture, the economy, gentrification and infrastructure. But these intergenerational conversations between Kunstler, 63, and Crary, 33, are often highly amusing.

“It’s sort of evolved into a comedy act,” Kunstler says of his approach to critiquing life in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. “Samuel Beckett put it well when he said ‘Nothing is funnier than unhappiness.’ Our built environments cause us so much unhappiness, so much distress, that they’re a source of comedy.”

Crary, who has spent more than 100 hours talking with Kunstler on the podcast, says Kunstler’s humor and command of language keep him coming back for more, year after year, despite the commentator’s sometimes bleak and frightening outlook for American civilization.

“Like a lot of Gen X’ers, I was hatched on a cul-de-sac in the American suburbs,” said Crary. “And I was very unhappy growing up out there. But Jim’s maliciously funny view of suburbia has always given me a lot laughs. And it helped me to better articulate the failures of that ‘living arrangement with no future.’”

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR THE KUNSTLERCAST

“James Howard Kunstler plainly has a lot to say about the state of the world. And while much of it is bad, bad news — aggressively, congenitally, perhaps even fatally bad — he speaks with such vim and vigor that you find yourself nodding in agreement rather than looking for a noose. Duncan Crary wrangles these free-wheeling conversations masterfully. A bracing dose of reality for an unreal world.”

— Stephen J. Dubner, co-author, “Freakonomics” and “SuperFreakonomics”

PUBLICITY IMAGES

For more information and high-resolution publicity images, visit http://KunstlerCast.com/book

Contact Duncan Crary, 518-274-2723.

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Media coverage Resulting from this press release

For news & reviews of The KunstlerCast, visit: http://kunstlercast.com/book/book-reviews

Contact: Andre Angelantoni, 415.754.3294

Classes Cope With Anxiety About Life After Oil

Global Energy Crisis Brings New Opportunities To Connect With Community

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — A psychologist is teaching students to prepare emotionally and spiritually for life after the collapse of fossil fuel-based civilization.

“I think everybody knows deep down in their bones that changes are ahead, and that we are at the end of the world as we have known it,” said Carolyn Baker, Ph.D. “There’s going to be tremendous emotional turbulence as things unravel. People are going to have to cope with their feelings and be anchored to some kind of sense of principle or meaningfulness.”

Starting April 24, Baker will lead a four-week distance-learning course titled “Navigating the Coming Chaos of Unprecedented Transitions.” The Boulder, Colo.-based psychotherapist is the author of “Sacred Demise: Walking The Spiritual Path of Industrial Civilization’s Collapse” (2009), which is the textbook for this course offered by PostPeakLiving.com.

The premise of Baker’s book and online course is that a global energy crisis is very near. The world’s oil supply is already at peak production now. As we pass the “peak oil” point, soaring energy costs will disrupt everything from the economy to the food supply, and will make paying down the world’s debt impossible.

“We need to prepare for the daunting changes ahead in our future,” Baker said. “This course and my book are about preparing for the inner transition for life after the peak.”

Books like James Howard Kunstler’s “The Long Emergency” (2005) and television shows like National Geographic’s “Aftermath: World Without Oil” (airing March 8 & 11) are introducing the concept of peak oil to large audiences. The new Transition Town social movement is supporting communities throughout the country to re-make their local economies as they prepare for a world of expensive and likely scarce oil.

The most emphatic among the peak oil proponents are often called “doomers” by their critics and fans alike.

But getting ready for a post-peak oil world isn’t all doom-and-gloom, said André Angelantoni, founder of PostPeakLiving.com. Baker’s upcoming course is just one of many offered by the California-based online, distance-learning school. Other courses include: “Sustainable Post-Peak Livelihoods,” “Introduction to Sustainable Gardening,” “Chickens 101″ and the “UnCrash Course,” the company’s six-week intensive preparation course.

“Our course instructors dedicate a lot of time to showing people the opportunities they have to redesign their lives after oil,” Angelantoni said. “The sooner we acknowledge that the days of cheap oil are numbered, the sooner we can start making realistic plans for the next phase in human history.”

All PostPeakLiving.com courses are available to anyone with access to the Internet. Baker’s course will begin on April 24 and consists of four three-hour sessions on consecutive Saturdays. Students call into a central phone line where they can hear the instructor and each other. They follow along with an online PowerPoint presentation and complete homework between sessions.

“When most people first learn about peak oil, they get depressed,” Baker said. “But it’s worse when they are so terrified of this impending change that they don’t even want to hear about it.”

For information, visit http://www.PostPeakLiving.com.

Contact: André Angelantoni, 415.754.3294

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Media coverage resulting from this press release:

Imagining Life Without Oil, and Being Ready*
The New York Times, June 5, 2010

Oil is front and center in doomsday scenarios
MSNBC, June 6, 2010 (syndicated)

[*Note: The online version of this article links to three clients of Duncan Crary Communications: Post Peak Living, James Howard Kunstler and the KrisCan show.]

Contact: Susanne Friend, contact@friendlyaquaponics.com

Aquaponics is Revolutionizing Sustainable Home Farming

HONOKA’A, Hawaii (02/17/2010) — The creators of a new home-farming system say their “Aquaponics” technique is the world’s most sustainable and affordable food production method.

The new Do-it-yourself “MicroSystem” by Friendly Aquaponics costs less than $500 to build and can grow between 20-40 pounds of fruits and vegetables per month, while using a fraction of the time, space, energy and water of in-the-ground gardening. The system comes with detailed instructions and plans. Training courses are available.

“Our MicroSystem helps anyone step onto the path of food freedom,” said Tim Mann, co-founder of Friendly Aquaponics. “It will pay for itself in just three months with the money saved in store-bought groceries. You could even make money by selling your extra produce!”

Aquaponics is the combination of Aquaculture (growing aquatic life like fish and prawns) and hydroponics (growing plants in water). By combining these technologies the Friendly Aquaponics way, users create a vibrant natural ecosystem that will easily grow an abundance of food.

Friendly Aquaponics is the world’s first certified organic aquaponics farm, located on the Island of Hawaii. The group has created dozens of innovations to simplify and refine aquaponics so that just about anyone can grow safe, nutritious, and delicious food just about anywhere in the world.

Friendly Aquaponics is also a functioning family-run farm with a long-term contract delivering hundreds of pounds of organic lettuce to their local Costco every week, and it all sells out within hours.

“We want to feed our neighbors and teach folks everywhere how they can do the same thing, too,” said Susanne Friend, owner.

The Friendly Aquaponics team developed their MicroSystem and instructional courses after their farm became overwhelmed by visitors seeking tours of the facilities and asking for more information.

Already, hundreds of students from the U.S., Canada, Europe, Latin American, Japan and China have studied auquaponic farming techniques at the Hawaii headquarters of Friendly Aquaponics. The group also offers private consultations and training materials by postal mail or Internet download.

The next commercial training will be offered in April 19-22, and is expected to sell out well in advance.

For information about Friendly Aquaponics, to purchase the MicroSystem, or to inquire about training sessions, visit: http://friendlyaquaponics.com

To contact Susanne Friend directly, email: contact@friendlyaquaponics.com

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Do-It-Yourself Sustainability
Hawaii Business magazine, May 2010

Contact: James Howard Kunstler, 518-581-1876

NEW e-BOOK BY JAMES HOWARD KUNSTLER
IMAGINES COLLAPSE OF U.S.

In “Big Slide,” Family Seeks Refuge in Adirondacks During National Meltdown
Available as e-Book, Kindle, and Podcast

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. (Feb. 2, 2010) — Author and social commentator James Howard Kunstler is using live theater, podcasting and a self-published “e-book” to distribute his new three act-play, titled “Big Slide.”

The story centers on a large family seeking refuge in the Adirondack Mountains of New York state as the country is collapsing into economic and political turmoil.

“Right now, we are a nation going through a slow-motion train wreck. But obviously our situation is not as grave as the compressed events that are portrayed in this play,” Kunstler said. “‘Big Slide’ is a work of the imagination that happens to be circumstantially about the times we’re living in and the times we may be moving into.”

Set in the autumn of an unspecified near-future year, “Big Slide” tells the story of three generations of the Freeman family, who have gathered at their Adirondack “great camp” (near Big Slide Mountain) to take refuge from New York City and Boston during a severe national political maelstrom. We are never fully apprised of the exact nature of this event, but it appears to involve a coup d’etat in the White House and the uprising of local militias all over the nation in response.

The estate at Big Slide is isolated from these events, but news dribbles in by radio. The electricity has stopped working and law enforcement seems to have been suspended, making it dangerous to travel even to the nearest town for food and necessities.

The thirteen members of the family, ranging from the dying patriarch, Clifford Freeman, to his grown children and their spouses, to the two teenage step-siblings, Raven and Zach, struggle to work out how they will organize themselves for survival in the months ahead against a background of old and deep personal grievances with each other.

“This was designed to be a classic, three-act play with a large cast and swirling motion on two levels of the stage,” Kunstler said. “But the situation with regional theater now is that nobody wants to do a play with more than one character, so that all you get is ‘A Night With Emily Dickinson’ or somebody impersonating Truman Capote. When I was a drama student at SUNY Brockport, we did big plays with lots of characters — ‘The Cherry Orchard,”Marat / Sade’ — and that’s what this is.”

“Big Slide” was first performed before a live audience as a “staged reading” by 13 actors on Jan. 9 at the Multi-use Community Cultural Center in Rochester, N.Y. Kunstler said he hopes to see a full-theatrical production in the future. A free audio .mp3 recording of the staged reading is available through author’s weekly podcast, “The KunstlerCast.”

A script of “Big Slide” is available for purchase (price: $5) as a downloadable 116-page .PDF, or in Kindle and Kindle-for-the-iPhone editions.

Production and oversight of the “Big Slide” e-book is by Duncan Crary, an independent media and publicity consultant, who hosts and produces “The KunstlerCast.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Kunstler is the author of four non-fiction books, including “The Geography of Nowhere” (Simon & Schuster, 1993) and “The Long Emergency” (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005), which have been concerned with a wide range of urgent issues, such as the global oil predicament, the banking fiasco and the problems associated with suburban development in America.

His most recent novel, “World Made By Hand” (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2008), takes place in a post-petroleum American future. A sequel is scheduled to be published this year.

For information, to purchase “Big Slide,” or to listen to the podcast, visit: http://Kunstler.com/BigSlide

JOURNALISTS ONLY:

Artwork and publicity images are available at: http://www.kunstler.com/BigSlide/PublicityImages.php

Journalists may request a review copy of “Big Slide.”

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Kunstler tries hand at writing a play on social collapse
Daily Gazette, Feb 21, 2010

Family takes refuge in the Adirondacks in ‘Big Slide,’
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, Feb. 12-18, 2010

Kunstler play available online
Press Republican, Feb. 11, 2010

Where’d Those Books Go? (and does it matter?)
Seven Days, Feb. 04, 2010

For Immediate Release

Contact: KrisCan Show, Email

GET READY FOR LIFE AFTER OIL WITH FUN YOUTUBE SHOW

Web Videos Prepare Viewers For Life After Fossil Fuel in a Fun, Sexy Way

NORTHAMPTON, Mass. (Jan. 19, 2010) — Most people don’t want to think about what will happen when the world runs out of cheap oil. But a semi-monthly Internet video program is reaching a growing audience by making the issue of Peak Oil fun and entertaining.

“Peak Oil is real. Fossil fuel depletion is real. It’s not getting better, and it’s not going away,” said Internet video host/interviewer KrisCan. “Selling bad news is tricky. But people are more likely to watch and learn about these issues when you present them in an upbeat, cool, humorous way.”

With more than 60 episodes since 2008, “KrisCan: Peak Oil Action and Adventure” tackles serious issues like energy depletion, sustainable agriculture and transportation through interviews, sexy video shorts and spoofs.

Notable guests have included James Howard Kunstler, author of “The Long Emergency,” and Richard Heinberg, author of “The Party’s Over.” Other guests include: David Yarrow, author, environmentalist and biochar expert, and Ethan Roland, permaculture designer and teacher.

One provocative episode titled “Peak” features a seemingly naked KrisCan posing behind two strategically placed oilcans. A straightforward voice over informs viewers about the impending global energy crisis.

In another episode, KrisCan parodies the Internet phenomenon “Hot For Words,” a YouTube video blog starring sexy host Marina Orlova who gives the etymology of words while flirting with the camera.  Dressed as Orlova, KrisCan gives the origin of the term “Peak Oil,” a term first used by M. King Hubbert to describe the point where maximum petroleum output is reached.  Many people believe the global oil supply is at or near peak oil production now.

The goal of the KrisCan Show is not only to entertain and educate, but also to use video to reflect on the predicaments arising from our energy challenges. The show also presents various solutions people are using to increase their resiliency and sustainability in lieu of a future with less affordable energy.

KrisCan created her show after observing a lack of interesting and informative media about the global petroleum shortage.

“Even now, it’s only a handful of older white men who are really talking about Peak Oil and the serious energy crisis we’re facing,” said KrisCan. “I felt an urgent need to make this message more appealing and fun for a wider audience. I want to motivate younger generations to get involved now in some of the efforts to prepare for a world that no longer runs on cheap oil.”

To watch episodes of the KrisCan show, visit: http://www.kriscan.com . For information and press images, visit: http://www.kriscan.com/what-is-kriscan .

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Contact: Andre Angelantoni, 415-462-1626

Online Peak Oil Preparation Classes Now Open

Raising Chickens, Growing Food and Making Money After Fossil Fuel

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. (Aug. 11, 2009) — An online school based in California is teaching students how to prepare for a coming world without oil.

“Right now, oil production is at or past its peak. The days of cheap oil are numbered,” said André Angelantoni, president of Post Peak Living. “The sooner we acknowledge that, the sooner we can start making realistic plans for the next phase in human history.”

PostPeakLiving.com has opened registration for its new “UnCrash Course,” a six-week online program that teaches people how to succeed in a world of declining oil production. Students may also register into the “Sustainable Livelihoods” course, which concentrates on the skills that will earn money as the economy changes.

With 18 hours of instruction, the UnCrash Course gets students ready for the major areas of life after peak oil. Topics covered in the course include: transportation, food production and storage, finances, shelter, post-peak jobs and health. Expert instructors provide individual feedback to students on all homework assignments. Students also learn from each other in online discussion forums.

“As a civilization, we are completely addicted to oil. Nearly every aspect of modern society depends on cheap, abundant fossil fuels. The clothes we wear, the food we eat, the roads we drive on are all made with petroleum products,” Angelantoni said. “No matter how hard we try, we are not going to bailout our economy so long as it is based on a rapidly depleting supply of increasingly expensive oil.”

But preparing for a post-peak oil world isn’t all doom-and-gloom, Angelantoni said, because many new businesses will form in North America as foreign imports become too expensive. “Our course instructors dedicate a lot of time to showing people the opportunities they have to redesign their life after oil,” he said.

The Sustainable Livelihoods course is a two-hour examination of how the work world will change and the specific kinds of jobs that will be in demand. It is taught by Sarah and Paul Edwards, authors of “Middle Class Lifeboat, Careers and Life Choices for Navigating a Changing Economy.”

The number of people who are aware of peak oil is growing. But they are still few and far between, so it is vital that these courses are available to anyone with access to the Internet, Angelantoni said.

The UnCrash Course begins Sept. 5 and continues for six Saturdays. Sustainable Livelihoods: Now, In Transition and Post-Peak takes place Sept. 13.

In addition to these courses, Post Peak Living also offers “Chickens 101″ and “Introduction to Sustainable Gardening.”

For information, visit http://www.PostPeakLiving.com or call André Angelantoni at 415.462.1626.

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Can You Survive Life After Cheap Oil? It May Be Time to Find Out
Huffington Post, Sept. 17, 2009

Would You Know How to Survive After the Oil Crash?
AlterNet, Sept. 17, 2009

Meet the Planet (Radio)
Aug. 30, 2009