Doniga Markegard and her husband Eric are hard at work in their paradise of ethical meat. Following Allan Savory’s visionary prescription for what he calls “holistic management” of grasslands, the Markegard family’s method of ranching is restoring California’s threatened prairies while feeding people healthy and delicious meat and milk. They flip the traditional ranching model on its head in a very interesting way: by putting their needs, the needs of their community and the needs of the environment they live in first. A successful ranching business seems to spring organically from that groundwork. Along with her husband and four children, Doniga owns and operates Markegard Family Grass-Fed LLC raising grass-fed beef, lamb, pastured pork, chicken and dairy supplying the Bay Area with local, nutrient-dense foods. The family ranch leases land throughout the Bay Area, spanning over 10,000 a
For interview number two with Chris Martin of Heterodox academy, I sound half-asleep. But the conversation itself was fantastic. Chrisand I went into depth on what different groups value, what drives their morality, and the challenges of interacting with group moral systems. Also, I finally get around to asking Chris about his research. If you haven't listened to the part one of this series, I suggest starting there. Once you have, please enjoy part two of my two-partconversation with Chris Martin.
Chris Martin is a doctoral candidate in Emory University's sociology PhD program. He conducts research on culture, mental health, and well-being, and is a co-founder and content creator at Heterodox Academy. Lately, Chris has been putting out Heterodox Academy's regular "Half Hour of Heterodoxy", a series of video interviews focused on divergent topics in the social sciences. A few of Chris' recent guests and topics include: Episode 7: Lee Jussim on the accuracy of stereotypes and biased science Episode 5: Christine Legare on the difficulties of teaching controversial topics Episode 2: George Yancey on anti-Christian bias and race relations Episode 13: Glenn Lourey on administrators and free speech challenges on college campuses And this is how Chris' work came to my attention. After reading Jonathan Haidt's seminalThe Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion,
Having studied Orthodox Theology and Iconology at the University of Sherbrooke in Québec, Jonathan Pageau has been carving different types of liturgical objects for the past 14 years. His carvings have been commissioned by priests, bishops and laypeople in the United States, Canada and Europe. His work is also represented by major liturgical art companies including Desmarais & Robitaille in Canada and New World Byzantine Studios in the United States. Jonathan is one of editors and contributors of the Orthodox Arts Journal and also teaches icon carving with Hexaemeron, non-profit organization offering courses in religiously-inspired icon painting, carving and embroidery. This extensive background in sacred symbols positions Jonathan surprisingly well to respond to the recent spike in interest from the atheist and agnostic community in symbolic readings of Christian texts. This interest ha
Shannon Kachel is a University of Washington PhD student leading a research project in collaboration with panthera.org aimed at understanding how snow leopards interact with wolves, bears, and their shared prey in the wilds of Kyrgyzstan. Shannon is also involved in research in Tajikistan investigating how traditional methods of herding impact snow leopards, wolves, and bears and the conservation value of community-based trophy hunting initiatives, which seek to provide local people with an incentive to protect wildlife as an important economic resource. Obviously, Shannon's work is amazing and interesting at first glance, but he and I get into topics ranging from our human relationship with nature, trends in ecological science, conservation politics and what it's like to maintain a relationship between the U.S. and Kyrgyzstan.
Ben Weiss is a practicing clinical social worker in Massachusetts. He holds a masters degree from the Smith College School for Social Work and completed a two-year advanced fellowship in psychodynamic therapy at Harvard Medical School in 2012. Then in 2013, he received a certificate in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy from Boston University. Ben is a good friend and had a bit of a bone to pick with Ricks Warrens' (episode 3) claim that CBT is the most effective form of therapy. Bendescribes the two major schools of western psychological theory and our conversation quickly travels into the uncharted territory of psychoanalytic therapy—what it is, who it helps, and who it doesn't help. We wrapped up by talking about the future of mental health and what it will take to make all forms of therapy more accessible to more people, as well as how to find a good therapist. While it does seem that Ben
Dr. Ricks Warren is a clinical psychologist of Cognitive & Behavioral Psychology at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Depression Center. He is also a clinical assistant professor at the University of Michigan Department of Psychiatry. Ricks is the author of several books and book chapters on the topic of Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (which is a subset of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) for anxiety, depression, obsession and has published over 41 peer-reviewed articles on the topic. During our 3/4-hour talk together, Ricks and I discussed behavior change, self-compassion and meditation. I think you’ll find this episode especially interesting because Ricks is a real pro in these areas, and I know that most of us suffer from some degree of self-doubt, second-guessing and debilitating thought patterns. Ricks speaks directly to how these things can have power over us, how they can
My brother Evan Meffert and I have been having mind-bending conversations about religion, politics, art and meaning since we were in our teens. And this one is no exception. Evan spent eight years as an operational engineer at Bell’s Brewery in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and moved to Berlin in October to participate in the graduate-level Certified Brewmaster Course at VLB Berlin. VLB Berlin is an international organization that provides research, training, education and service for the brewing industry. Evan is also a blogger, avid mountain biker and passionate student of philosophy and political science. You can follow his adventures in Berlin and beyond at tmeffert on Instagram or check out his blog at http://evanmeffert.wordpress.com. Over the course of our hour together, Evan and I got into the origins of his love of brewing, his favorite philosophers, postmodernism, weird art trends and q
Karl Rosaen has been pushing the edge of software engineering since his early work on Google's Android phones, and his recent leap of faith into the world of machine learning and artificial intelligence is no exception. Karl is a senior research engineer at the U of M and Ford Center for Autonomous Vehicle at the University of Michigan. Karl took a learning sabbatical in the summer of 2016 to focus on machine learning and before that he was head of product and engineering at Food52.com. Karl and his brother Alex host the Brosaen Detroit Pistons Podcast, where they regularly geek out on all things Detroit Pistons. In addition to the podcast, which you can find on iTunes, you can find Karl’s resources for machine learning and his research journal at KarlRosaen.com, or find him on Twitter and Github at krosaen. During our hour long talk, Karl and I talked about his work on the then top-secr