The first video clip describes my personal journey in the usual, self-indulgent manner, and the program allowed no time for subsequent questions. The second clip humorously describes the efforts we’ve made at the mud hut, and the formal presentation is followed by my answers to a few softly spoken questions.

Also on 13 November 2011, during a break from the conference, I was interviewed by KMO along with Kurt Cobb and Henry Warwick. The resulting audio file is posted at KMO’s C-REALM radio.

Finally, my monthly essay for Transition Voice was published a few days ago: Is terminating the industrial economy a moral act? The latter essay is permalinked at Counter Currents.

Also, as I’ve indicated many times, there are a couple general approaches one can pursue along the path of climate change and simultaneous collapses of the industrial economy and the living planet. You can hit the road, or you can mitigate in place. Either way, you’ll need to secure clean water and healthy food, maintain body temperature, and create and maintain a decent human community.

I recommend a life of travel for most people, although I’ve taken a different route for personal reasons. Either way, an adventure-filled life awaits. On the road, you’ll need quick wits, good interpersonal skills, and astonishing amounts of creativity, compassion, and courage. Ditto for mitigating in place. In this post, I’ll address the primary concerns associated with mitigating in place, with a particular focus on me and the mud hut (my favorite subject and my favorite location, respectively).

If you’re staying put, I suggest you pay attention to the 3 Rs of the future. No, not the educational ones from years gone by. And it’s far too late for the three Rs targeting reduced consumption in a nation build on consumption, two of which we have ignored because there is no financial profit in reducing and reusing. Recycling — the only one of these three relevant actions fascist Amerika promotes — is like an apology after a punch in the face (credit Mike Sliwa). We punch the planet in the face with every cultural act, and then we apologize by sorting plastic and aluminum into separate bins.

The three Rs of interest in this post are relocalization, resilience, and redundancy. We’re headed for a severely constrained future with respect to transport of materials and humans. The days of the 12,000-mile supply chain are nearly behind us. Forget about cheap plastic crap from China, expensive watches from Switzerland, and decent hand tools from the Sears Roebuck catalog: We’re going to have to make do with what we’ve got in the very local area. Before the supply chain breaks, we should work toward building a resilient set of living arrangements steeped in redundancy. After the supply chain breaks, it’ll be a little late to start digging a well and learning how to grow food.

Here at the mud hut, we pay serious attention to multiple sources of water (two solar pumps, hand pump, rainwater harvesting from two rooftops, and the nearby river), food (wildcrafting, orchard, gardens, goats for milk and cheese, eggs from ducks and chickens, and in the future, hunting relatively large-bodied animals), body temperature (well-insulated, passive-solar house, multiple awnings, proper clothing, and abundant water and firewood), and human community (abundance in this category exceeds my patience to explain again, but search the archives for a few hints). I’ve no doubt we’re missing some things that will ease our lives in our post-carbon future. Some of these items will remain unknown, even to us, until it’s too late. I’m already missing a few things, even before the impending big crash leads to “lights out.” (As Dmitry Orlov uncharacteristically suggests, the day draws near. As “Tyler Durden” characteristically suggests, the day is near enough to be seen by a blind man.) And as I’ve mentioned a few hundred times, skyrocketing greenhouse gas emissions, along with wholesale destruction of the living planet, will seal our fate as a species unless we crash this luxury ship, and soon.

I know you’ve read this one before, but I’d love to have a solar ice-maker to cool our drinks and our bodies. But if the industrial economy reaches its overdue end within a few weeks, I won’t. And I suspect we’ll muddle through, until we don’t. I’d love to have more time to convince my human community to climb aboard the collapse train. But if the industrial economy reaches its overdue end within a few weeks, I won’t. And I suspect we’ll muddle through, until we don’t. I’d love to make a few more trips to discuss the dire nature of our predicaments with people who are aware and interested. But if the industrial economy reaches its overdue end within a few weeks, I won’t. And I suspect I’ll muddle through, although I’ll miss trips tentatively scheduled to Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, New England, and various places nearer the mud hut.

Closer to home, and closer to my heart, I’d love to have time for my parents — and the thousands of other winter immigrants descending on this area — to make the return trip to their northern homes. But if the industrial economy reaches its overdue end within a few weeks, or even within a few months, they won’t. And I have no idea how we’ll muddle through.

All things being equal, I’d rather have the solar ice-maker in a community fully on-board with collapse. All things being equal, I’d rather make a multitude of excursions to exotic places. All things being equal, I’d rather my parents experience collapse in their own home. But all things are not equal and, more than all these things, I’d rather have a planet marked by much more abundance and far fewer extinctions than we’re currently witnessing.

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I’m scheduled to speak at several events during the coming week or so; (1) On Wednesday, 9 November at 7:00 p.m., I’ll address the Atlanta Beyond Oil Monthly Meetup, 657 Rosalia Street SE, Atlanta, Georgia; on (2) Saturday, 12 November and Sunday, 13 November I’ll deliver two, 18-minute presentations at the International Conference on Sustainability, Transition & Culture Change in Bellaire, Michigan, and (3) on Tuesday, 15 November at 6:30 p.m. at 5885 M 115 Frankfort Hwy, I’ll speak about developing a durable set of living arrangements in Benzonia, Michigan (sponsored by Grow Benzie). I hope to meet you at one (or more) of these events.
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This post is permalinked at the Refreshment Center and Island Breath.

I’ve embedded one of the thirteen presentations I delivered over a span of eight days. It’s my final presentation, excluding Q&A (which might come later), which partially explains my on-and-off incoherence (the remainder is inexplicable, as usual).

The presentation includes a half-hearted pitch of my final book. The book is available, a couple months earlier than anticipated, and can be found at this link as well as the usual online outlets. If all goes according to plan, I’ll receive a few copies later today. The book has already been reviewed by Sandy Krolick, the kulturCritic and Cameron Conaway, the poet. Krolick’s review was picked up by Transition Voice, and Conaway’s review was run by Examiner.

I’m trying to produce video from my presentation at a Harvest Gathering Festival with a barn as venue. I may post it at a later date, if all goes according to plan. It includes no slides, and the material differs considerably from the one above.

Reaction was mixed, as usual. Some people, such as this college student, found my messages unbelievable. Others quibbled with the timing of the sources I presented (I carefully avoided pushing my own predictions). Standing ovations were rare — even though I begged for them — but in the end several people understood the importance of collapse if we are to extend our run as a species.

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Huge thanks to Shelley Youngman, who facilitated, organized, chauffeured, and hosted. A kindred spirit, Shelley was kind enough to make many of the arrangements and also to spend large blocks of time with me. Voluntarily, no less.

Thanks, too, to my many new friends and hosts (in the order I met them): Mike Draney and Vicki Medland (University of Wisconsin-Green Bay), Steve DeGoosh and Brooke Isham (Northern Michigan University), Sarah Redmond and Dan Redmond (Alger Community Transition), Shelley Youngman and Frank Youngman (Transition Cadillac), and Kimberly Sager and Aaron Wissner (Local Future).

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This post is permalinked at Plan B Economics and Survival Acres.

Acknowledgments: Karen Sliwa performed real work on the property while Mike Sliwa shot and edited these videos. You can follow the work of Mike and Karen here.
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My monthly essay for Transition Voice came out yesterday. It can be viewed here.

My July essay at Transition Voice summarizes collapse-related information.

I am featured in this article from 14 July by editor Erik Curren at Transition Voice.

I am featured in this article from 4 August at The Good Men Project.

Finally, I will be speaking in the upper midwestern U.S. next month. Details are still in development, and will be posted in this space. For now, the schedule includes the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (ca. 12-13 September), Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Michigan (14-15 September), Munising, Michigan (16 September), and in and around Cadillac, Michigan (17 September through … unknown). I’d love to see you at any of these events, so please let me know if you’ll be there and available to meet.

Various fora are useful starting points for those interested in meeting like-minded people. These include, for example, the Classified Ads sections of fora such as Silent Country, Sustainable Country, Hubbert’s Arms, and The Oil Age. Michael Ruppert’s Collapse Network has a directory of lifeboats, and the occasional blogger understands the nature of our predicament and sends out a lifeline (here’s an example from Gregg Brazel, who wrote a guest essay for this site in late March of this year). Nonetheless, there remains much more to be done in the name of bringing like-minded people together for discussions of our future.

Consider various models on topics much less important than environmental and economic collapse. These include websites dedicated to Seniors Homing Together, Couch Surfing, farming/gardening, and house-swapping while on sabbatical leave. Dozens of other sites doubtless exist beyond my knowledge and interest. These sites serve valuable functions and some combination of them could be developed as a one-stop shop for doomer-oriented classified ads.

Sub-topics are limited only by our imaginations. Bartering for goods and services knows no bounds. From sharing land to sharing intimate futures, somebody should develop the one-stop shop before it’s too late. After all, times are changing. Rapidly.

How rapidly? It would be nice to know for sure.

I suspected it was game over, within a matter of weeks or months, when the per-barrel price of oil hit $126 in late April. After all, $120 oil brings American Empire to a close, as I pointed out about 18 months ago, and subsequently supported a few months ago). Michael Ruppert predicts lights out by July, which would be two months after the price spike. Ruppert’s prediction, which is viewed throughout the blogosphere as pure insanity, is completely plausible, and is consistent with events of July 2008 ($147.27 oil) and September 2008 (when all the banks in the country came within an eyelash of failing, back before the Federal Reserve Bank became powerless). Paradoxically at this point, higher oil prices indicate continuation of the industrial economy, whereas lower prices put us on track for 2008 all over again (albeit more catastrophic from the perspective of the industrial economy).

Brent crude priced in Euros

Of course, the price of oil could rise to the $200/bbl and then the $300/bbl forecast by Chris Martenson. If it does, we’ll need to bring back the Pony Express to spread the news across a nation without an electrical grid. Actually, the impending ongoing collapse of the U.S. Postal Service indicates we’re close to that point already.

As we all know, completion of the ongoing collapse can happen rapidly. I’m not saying it will happen by July: I’m still sticking with my four-year-old forecast of light’s out by the end of 2012, which is looking ludicrously conservative. But it certainly could happen by July, and I wouldn’t bet against it even as I wish for it. In any event, I’ve been pondering what I would do with an extra few days, weeks, months, or even years.

With an extra couple days, I would call the people I love to wish them goodbye, and I would spend a little extra time in the garden gazing into the adjacent wilderness. On the other hand, with an extra couple days we would drive an additional few hundred species to extinction while bringing nearly half-a-million people into a world they didn’t choose to enter.

What would you do with an extra couple days?

With an extra couple weeks, I would complete a long-planned gathering with my parents and siblings in the northern Idaho campground where we spent a week or two each summer during my youth. On the other hand, with an extra couple weeks we would drive about 3,000 extra species into the abyss of extinction while bringing nearly 3 million people to the planet just in time to suffer and die young.

What would you do with an extra couple weeks?

With an extra couple months, I would construct a solar ice-maker at the mud hut and then write about it and the biochar kiln we recently added (the obvious title of that essay: Fire and Ice). Then we would retain the ability, after the deep-chest freezer follows the electrical grid over the cliff, to cool food (and us). After all, the typical lifetime of an American appliance is seven years, suggesting ours is already in middle age. Can you imagine our prospects for bartering if we have ice in the summer, in the desert? As a society, we could seriously ratchet up the madness with an extra couple months. In that seemingly short time, we would murder an extra 12,000 or so species and bring an additional 12 million or so people into a planet on the brink.

What would you do with an extra couple months?

With an extra couple years, the orchard will be bearing fruit and we might know something about building soil. My tenth book would be published and I would be able to help a few willing people in minor ways. But, at least for me, the psychological and emotional costs are so great I cannot think about an additional two years of planetary madness. The diminishing hope for the future of Homo sapiens on an overwrought, overshot, overheated planet is too much to bear. Despite all the signs and all the evidence, this disaster we call society continues to set records for carbon emissions.

But back to the notion of connections, assuming it’s not too late. This blog has very limited readership (though I don’t know how limited, because I don’t track statistics). Nonetheless, in the spirit of taking a tentative step in the direction I’m proposing — and hoping an organization with a mission, staff, and credibility steps up — I’ve added a classified ads page (see tab at the top of this page). Send me your ad, and I’ll post it there. At any time, let me know if you’d like to revise or remove it. Use me for contact information, if you’d like, so I can serve as a human spam filter.

There are a couple caveats: If the number or content of ads sent my way exceed my ability to effectively deal with them, I’ll pull the plug. Please don’t abuse my time. And, as always, I’m treating this activity as a work in progress, subject to your input and my blowing-in-the-wind whims. Thus, as always, I welcome your thoughts about this pursuit. Have I crossed the line from ridiculous to sublime? Is it true that I’ve lost my ability to reason? You’ve not held back before, so I assume you’ll respond honestly in this space or via email.

Two examples follow, and they’re real. I’ve already posted them to my Facebook page and one of the fora mentioned above. Apparently they’ve met with a fair amount of success already.

We are located in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, about halfway between Eugene and Corvallis, Oregon, in the foothills. The commute to Eugene is 30 minutes and to Corvallis about 40.

Looking for others who would like to split the costs of all living expenses, including rent and utilities, sharing resources and helping to develop a way to generate income that will benefit everyone involved. Joint ownership also will be considered.

Ideal partners will be good communicators who are enthusiastic and creative (i.e., they have the passion to create). Motivated couples, young families and/or individuals who share our concerns about climate change, resource depletion and surviving together through collapse of the current system, as we know it. We have enough space where all can live together harmoniously with separate living quarters determined by consensus of all concerned. There are a variety of options available. Kitchen and laundry facilities will be shared.

In considering our homestead, we appreciate others who enjoy actively working/stewarding the land. Ideally, we want to work together with our homesteading partners to find better ways to utilize the land we are tending: (water conservation, intensive sustainable planting, composting and organic planting) along with other mutually beneficial plans for farming. Using all of our talents/ideas and experiences to grow one or several businesses together would be a plus along with the desire to continue the arrangement for an extended period of time.

Our property is five acres, all usable with a gently sloped southern exposure and 55, 4×26′ raised beds and approximately 250′ of berries. We also have a young orchard of apple and pear trees. A creek runs along the bottom of our property (not on it) and a large tract of heavily wooded land lies beyond it (120+ acres).

Other resources:
10×15′ greenhouse
Diesel tractor with attachments, though our garden is tended by hand with no power equipment, has been “no till” for the last five years.
Free range chickens
Barn (with second-floor space) that has electric and water (needs work).
Woodworking equipment for repairs and a possible small business
Our home also has a flex-area for that can be used for classroom space, yoga or bodywork, massage therapy, an art studio (or other venture).

Additional interests include growing and processing food (canning, drying, etc). We would like our partners to share and collaborate with the garden, food preservation, and marketing the farmstead

We have considered workshops targeting sustainable practices, setting up a network with the community for bartering or bulk food purchasing and would also like to incorporate animal husbandry, mechanical, sewing, carpentry and renewable energy skills.

If interested, please contact us with more specifics about long-term plans, interests, and abilities as well as any financial or other resources you have to share. Please contact Guy McPherson via email if you are interested, and he will forward legitimate requests to us (grm@ag.arizona.edu).

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Greetings fellow Doomers:

I’m pleased to be a part of this movement and glad for the collapse of the prevailing planet-destroying order. Future generations will undoubtedly look back at the late-industrial era and scratch their heads in total disbelief. So, on to the future …

I’ve been studying and practicing organic agriculture for three years: experimenting with an urban garden in Chicago, wwoofing at two small farms in Michigan, and also helping out at Strawbale Studio (http://strawbalestudio.org/). I am well-versed and skilled in sustainable design & construction, with 20+ years of experience in engineering, architecture, design and planning. In addition to concerns about health, ecology, and the food chain, my love of cooking inspires me to cultivate fresh veggies, herbs and berries near my kitchen, to share with all.

I am passionately interested in the re-localization of economies … agriculture, building, energy, manufacturing, textiles, medicine, journalism, and the arts … authentic creativity and craftsmanship that come only from a Zen-merging of mind, body and soul. The People need to preserve and safeguard these knowledge bases and critical skills. We must take such matters back into our own hands as some industries are too important to be left to the profit motive that extracts true wealth (natural capital, clean environment, labor hours, genuine relationships) from the local economy. Rebuilding culture and communities from the ground up will be the next primary concern and enterprise of humanity. I am seeking to work with like-minded people to recreate human-scaled economies and humane modes of existence on this gorgeous, finite planet that is our source of all sustenance.

My highest skills are in design+build … shelters, garden structures, furniture. So if you need affordable housing or a solar shower, a passive solar addition, chicken tractor … I am especially interested in helping in this regard. I’ve owned and run a small design/build company for 15 years and have strong business skills … web and graphic design, databases, marketing, cost estimating, project management. I gladly offer help in these areas if it would benefit your community.

Please drop by my website at www.ehrlum.com to view samples of my craft, and see my resume at http://ehrlum.com/gabportfolio/resume.pdf for complete info on my education and skills.

I am single, no children, pets, mortgage or leases. I am highly mobile and motivated, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,
Gregg Brazel
gregg@ehrlum.com

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This essay is permalinked at Island Breath.

Those events are coming to the whole country, and a lot sooner than most people realize. Nobody thought a first-world, industrialized nation such as Argentina would implode, either. Until it did, quite rapidly, a decade ago. And no wonder: All police states fail.

The U.S. will prove no exception to the rule of police states that fail. If unrest spreads to Saudi Arabia, it’s game over for the world’s industrialized countries (and therefore a whole new, better ballgame for life on Earth). Here’s hoping.

Economic hit-man John Perkins points out the obvious: Corporations, not nations, run the world. Maintaining American Empire as a corporate state requires obedience at home and oppression abroad. Oh, and we’re headed for complete economic collapse whether or not you continue to act as slave to the fascistic monsters in charge.

Even as corporations are worried about their ability to maintain supply chains to keep you fed and filled with toys, they continue to find novel ways to take money from your wallet. Consider, for example, your tax dollars going directly from Freddie and Fannie to Wall Street in the perfect bailout for the banks.

On the other hand, Obama is promising to cut the budget significantly, as indicated in this video. But the deficit comprises a larger share of the industrial economy than any time since 1945, and Obama’s response is to continue along the same path and lie about it. Sadly, many Americans believe Obama about his many promises, even gulping down the Kool-Aid of his surreal budget projections. For most Americans, soaring rhetoric beats the truth every time. Despite Obama’s frequent expressions of love for the free market, it’s pretty clear the government is manipulating the stock markets. After campaigning on the promise to close Guantanamo Bay, Obama is expanding it. And so on, until it becomes impossible to keep up with the never-ending string of lies emanating from our elected officials (which doesn’t stop the lists, such as this one, from proliferating). Along with his other transgressions, the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize has become arms dealer for the world. In short, hope and change is not working out for the average American, leading Mike Whitney to suggest we trade Obama for Hugo Chavez. That’s a great idea, but I doubt the Venezuelan people would go along with it.

Resistance is fertile. If you’re unwilling to take resistance seriously, you can start by planting a garden. Never mind the old adage, “who feeds you, owns you.” You’ll need the garden to survive. As you plant, grow, share the harvest, and improve the soil, it should become clear that your garden is a metaphor for life. You’ll want to tend your relationships as you tend your garden.

I suggest you start today. Even if the ongoing collapse of the industrial economy is not complete for another three years — which seems inconceivable in light of the steadily rising pace of events, including the accelerating decline of the U.S. dollar — it’ll take time to prepare for a bountiful future. As I’ve indicated many times, the time to dig a well is not when you’re thirsty, the time to plant a garden is not when you’re hungry, and the time to build shelter against the storm is not when it’s sleeting.

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This essay is permalinked at Running ‘Cause I Can’t Fly.

My monthly essay for Transition Voice, barely modified from an earlier essay in this space, was posted here today.

Liberal teaching means putting everything I know, and everything I am, at risk in the classroom. And not just in general, but specifically as well. That is, I put it all on the line during every meeting of every class. I’ve been wrong often enough to know it could happen again, and I’m willing to admit my errors in the pursuit of truth.

How courageous is this approach? Remember how it turned out for Socrates.

Pursuing a liberal approach to teaching is dangerous. It requires courage, a thick skin, and recognition that the personal costs of pursuing liberalism in the classroom are far exceeded by the opportunity costs of failing to do so. Indeed, I would argue that the pursuit of a liberal approach to any of life’s important activities is dangerous.

I am often criticized for continuing my educational efforts here at Barefoot College. During the last couple years, I have hosted more than 200 people, showing how we might muddle through an ambiguous future if we work together. In return, many people question whether I should be demonstrating this doomstead to potential future marauders. Most of these people are anthropocentric, short-sighted, narcissistic cowards commenting anonymously on fora focused on economic collapse.

Image courtesy of Lesley Ash

When I point out I’m anti-civ, these and other people take issue with the language: “It’s better to be for something than against something, so your message should be pro, not anti.” I point out anti-civ means pro-life, but the latter label has been co-opted by a group with which I fundamentally disagree.

And so it goes, spiraling down into the uncomfortable abyss of talking past one another. We are so adept at finding an other with whom to part ways.

And I am not surprised many people fail to understand that we’re all in this together. Our culture has driven us apart, valuing competition over cooperation. I am not surprised many people fail to understand that, as the expression goes, divided we fall. And so we are. Our culture has promoted faux individualism instead of real collaboration. It’s all about me and my stuff, me and my success, me and my ego in this hyper-indulgent morass of American exceptionalism. It’s small wonder, then, that many people fail to understand the importance, to me, of educating others. It’s everything to me, more important than life itself.

I am profoundly committed to a life of service. For me, a life lived otherwise is not worth living.

As any real radical reformer knows, some things are worth dying for. Service to community and lifelong learning certainly fill the bill.

Mind you, I’m not acting heroically. I’ve built a lifeboat, after all, that might allow my survival for a few years beyond completion of the ongoing economic collapse. I’m not dependent on western medicine to maintain my life. In addition, absence of free will precludes an alternative route.

If you’re looking for heroes, look no further than Derrick Jensen. His level of commitment extends beyond his own life. He depends in the short term on the industrial economy, a system that is killing him in the long term. Yet he is willing to sacrifice the ability to extend his life to give the living planet a chance. Somebody who comments now and then in this space, demonstrating he is halfway along the path toward becoming an idiot savant, used Jensen’s example in a botched attempt to argue the contrary point. Jensen’s writing and speaking are heroic because he argues for termination of the industrial economy, knowing it will lead quickly to his own death.

I recognize that it’s too late to save society, and industrialized society is irredeemable, regardless. Capitalism is assumed to be the best, most efficient economic system, but I think it’s better described as a pathology than an economic system. So I’ll keep moving seemingly immovable individuals beyond their comfort points. I’ll inject empathy, therefore resistance, into a sociopathic culture largely devoid of people willing to stand in opposition to the mainstream. I’ll move individuals beyond dark thoughts and into the light of a new world. I’ll move them beyond inaction. I’ll move them beyond the oppression of civilization and into the brave new world of a life that gives as well as taking.

Or die trying.

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This essay is permalinked at Counter Currents.

I was shooting video of this presentation, but my camera failed 15 minutes in. So we’re stuck with multiple audio files and the slides in the usual awkward format. And whereas the audio files are adequate during the presentation, the only microphone in the room was near me, so the question part of the Q & A is poor.

You get the original slides this time, along with the audio file. Plagiarize to your heart’s content. Share widely. Spread the news. But please keep your complaints about the quality of these materials to yourself, unless you have suggestions for improvement.

I was speaking in the capital of the state built, economically at least, by oil. As I was speaking, I could see the Capitol, which convened the following day to deal with the state’s $27 billion deficit. Gee, I’d have never seen that coming.

My presentation was greeted with the usual mix of profound denial and fatalistic acceptance. The very few anarchists in attendance could hardly compete with the majority, who could see absolutely nothing amiss with the industrial economy, western civilization, or American Empire.

Powerpoint

Introduction from Gayle Borst, Design~Build~Live

Presentation part 1

Presentation part 2

Presentation part 3

Presentation part 4

Presentation part 5

Presentation part 6

Presentation part 7

Q & A part 1

Q & A part 2

Q & A part 3

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Special thanks to Ken McKenzie-Grant from Shades of Green Radio for the considerable effort behind the audio files and to Gayle Borst for hosting (and all the associated work).