What a Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire

Both the single-disc DVD-ROM and the three-disc DVDs contain over 13 hours of slightly edited raw interview footage, some of which ended up in What a Way to Go. Here’s what you’ll get:

Fr. Thomas Berry:Â Catholic Priest, “geologian” and author or co-author of The Dream of the Earth, The Universe Story: From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era, The Great Work: Our Way into the Future and more.

Description: Thomas Berry sees our present predicament as the result of having lost our understanding of the Universe, leaving science rudderless and our heads filled with delusions of power and control. The way through is to recognize that the Earth and the Universe are primary and must serve as our guides as we reclaim our human role and recover the lost mind of the child. It can be done. Are we up to it?

Interview:Â 9/1/05 - 52 min

William R. Catton, Jr., Professor Emeritus, Sociology & Human Ecology, Washington State University and author of Overshoot:Â The Ecological Basis for Revolutionary Change.

Description:Â A clear and edifying discussion with William Catton on ecological principles, the excesses of Homo colossus in the Age of Exuberance, the myth of progress, and facing the realities of population overshoot in a world on the brink.

Interview:Â Â 10/5/05 - 1 hr 18 min

Sally Erickson:Â Artist, Therapist and Producer

Description: Take a walk with Sally Erickson through the psychological, emotional and spiritual side of our present predicament. Picking her way carefully through the debris of a culture that has wounded us, enslaved us and driven us to small and dissatisfied lives of consumerism, denial, delusion and disconnection, she guides us towards an open space from which we can see beyond our present system, to some distant possibility. By remembering who we are, by facing into the situation as it is and fully feeling our emotional responses, by holding a vision unattached to the outcome, and by embracing uncertainty and intention, we may just be able to shed our dysfunctional and hyper-individualized ego structures and find our way back into community and connection: with ourselves, our fellow humans, and the community of life on this planet.

Interview:Â 2/17/06; 2/20/06; 3/22/06 - 1 hr 54 min

Chellis Glendinning: Psychotherapist, political activist and author of My Name Is Chellis and I’m in Recovery from Western Civilization, Off the Map: An Expedition Deep into Empire and the Global Economy, When Technology Wounds: Waking Up in the Nuclear Age and more.

Description:Â Chellis Glendinning takes this conversation right off the map, through technology, wounding, addiction, and fragmentation, and on into healing and de-colonization as we reach the end of empire.

Interview:Â 10/18/05 - 54 min

Richard Heinberg:Â Journalist, Senior Fellow of the Post Carbon Institute and author of The Party’s Over: Oil, War, and the Fate of Industrial Societies, Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World, The Oil Depletion Protocol: A Plan to Avert Oil Wars, Terrorism and Economic Collapse, Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century of Declines and more.

Description: The party’s over, the perfect storm is upon us, and Richard Heinberg is working tirelessly to help us understand and respond. While Peak Oil, economic disruption, climate change and re-localization will take decades to play out, we can begin to respond now by accepting the inevitable, learning the cultural lessons inherent in the situation, and using these challenges as an opportunity to grow up.

Interview:Â 10/11/05 - 1 hr 13 min

Derrick Jensen: Writer, environmental activist and author of A Language Older Than Words, The Culture of Make-Believe, Endgame, Thought to Exist in the Wild, As the World Burns, How Shall I Live My Life?, What We Leave Behind, Songs of the Dead and more.

Description: The culture of civilization is, itself, the problem says Derrick Jensen, as it’s built on unsustainable foundations of hierarchy and violence, the funneling of wealth from poor to rich, and the negation of life. Moving far beyond hope, Jensen calls for the dismantling of civilization and the restoration of the Earth, which is primary to everything we do.

Interview:Â 10/9/05Â - 1 hr 50 min

Jerry Mander:Â Writer, activist, and author of Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television, In the Absence of the Sacred and more.

Description: Take a tour of “Empire’s last gasp” with Jerry Mander as he points out the collision between the growth model and the end of cheap energy, the myth of progress and the truth about technology. While it may be more challenging in the US, we have an opportunity to regain the indigenous perspective and move back into small, local lives that will be much more satisfying.

Interview:Â 10/14/05 - 1 hr 12 min

Richard Manning:Â Journalist and author of A Good House: Building a Life on the Land, Last Stand:Â Logging, Journalism, and the Case for Humility, Grassland:Â The History, Biology, Politics and Promise of the American Prairie, Against the Grain:Â How Agriculture Has Hijacked Civilization and more.

Description: Richard Manning makes clear how catastrophic agriculture has lead us to crises of food, water, climate, mass extinction, and into a cultural prison where our quality of life as been greatly degraded. While inherent qualities of the human species may have made much of this inevitable, the process of cultural evolution may give us an opportunity to reclaim our true selves as sensual animals.

Interview:Â 10/1/05 - 58 min

Ran Prieur:Â Blogger, essayist and author of Superweed, Civilization Will Eat Itself, Apocalypsopolis, and essays too numerous to list!

Description: This wide-ranging conversation with Ran Prieur takes us from an analysis of the coming crisis and of life in this sterile and disconnected cultural prison to a discussion of real freedom and the up sides of the collapse of our current system. By dropping out, extending our empathy, reclaiming time and siding with the grass, we can meet the coming challenges as joyful warriors.

Interview:Â 10/2 - 10/3/05 - 1 hr 43 min

Daniel Quinn:Â Author of Ishmael, The Story of B, My Ishmael, Beyond Civilization, After Dachau, The Holy, Tales of Adam and more.

Description: Daniel Quinn keeps the frogs boiling as he ponders totalitarian agriculture, population growth, mass extinction and the secret plan to stay the course no matter what. He reveals the dangerous stories we tell ourselves and explores the possibility of reclaiming our birthright as tribal beings.

Interview:Â 10/21/05 - 1 hr 4 min

Paul Roberts:Â Journalist and author of The End of Oil:Â On the Edge of a Perilous New World
and The End of Food.

Description: Join Paul Roberts as he looks at Peak Oil through the lens of markets, economy, and the next energy economy. Though humans seem inherently resistant to change, Roberts does see some ways to move forward through this challenging situation.

Interview:Â 9/21/05 - 29 min

In addition to the interview footage, the Bonus Discs contain the trailers and the deleted scene “Six Degrees of Devastation” from the original What a Way to Go DVD.

If you would like to look at excerpts of the footage online, we have posted portions of it as the “Why Are Things Falling Apart?” series on Blip TV.