Uploaded June 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Jason, Rob, and Asher are taking out a huge, unaffordable mortgage on the housing crisis. What’s behind the shortage in housing? Why is it that no one, except canine Tik Tok influencers with billion-dollar bank accounts, can afford to own a home? While mainstream pundits press for an energy-blind buildout of desert sprawl and gleaming towers of glass and steel, we propose a surprising change of course inspired by little people with hairy feet. Originally recorded on 5/21/25.
Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.
Sources/Links/Notes:
• The story of Gunther (idahostatesman.com/press-releases/article305385056.html) , the world's most moneyed canine.
• You can't make this stuff up: Gunther offers to buy Nicholas Cage's island (idahostatesman.com/press-releases/article305385056.html) .
• David Wessel, "Where do the estimates of a 'housing shortage' come from? (https://www.brookings.edu/articles/where-do-the-estimates-of-a-housing-shortage-come-from/) ," Brookings Institute, October 21, 2024.
• Alex Fitzpatrick and Alice Feng, "Americans' average daily travel distance, mapped (axios.com/2024/03/24/average-commute-distance-us-map) ," Axios, March 24, 2024.
• Jon Gertner, "America Is on Fire, Says One Climate Writer. Should You Flee? (nytimes.com/2024/03/22/books/review/abrahm-lustgarten-on-the-move.html) ," New York Times, March 22, 2024.
• U.S. News and World Report, "Fastest-Growing Places in the U.S. in 2025-2026. (realestate.usnews.com/places/rankings/fastest-growing-places) "
Good Ideas for Addressing the Housing Crisis:
• Jason Bradford, "Growing the Shire, Not the 'Burb: Facing the Housing Crisis with Ecological Sanity (resilience.org/stories/2025-05-27/growing-the-shire-not-the-burb-facing-the-housing-crisis-with-ecological-sanity/) ," Resilience, May 27, 2025.
• Global Ecovillage Network (ecovillage.org/)
• Nate Hagens, "Alexis Zeigler — Living Without Fossil Fuels: How Living Energy Farm Created a Comfortable Off-Grid Lifestyle (thegreatsimplification.com/episode/171-alexis-zeigler) ," The Great Simplification, April 9, 2025.
Energy-Blind Non-Solutions for the Housing Crisis:
• Conor Dougherty, "Why America Should Sprawl (nytimes.com/2025/04/10/magazine/suburban-sprawl-texas.html) ," New York Times, April 10, 2025.
• Binyamin Applebaum, "Build Homes on Federal Land (nytimes.com/2025/04/15/opinion/housing-crisis-federal-land.html) ," New York Times, April 15, 2025.
• Ezra Klein, "Abundance and the Left (nytimes.com/2025/04/29/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-saikat-chakrabarti-zephyr-teachout.html) ," The Ezra Klein Show, April 29, 2025.
• Samuel Moyn, "Can Democrats Learn to Dream Big Again? (nytimes.com/2025/03/18/books/review/abundance-ezra-klein-derek-thompson.html) ," New York Times, March 18, 2025.
• Tyler Cowen, "Ezra Klein on the Abundance Agenda (Ep. 236) (conversationswithtyler.com/episodes/ezra-klein-3/) " Conversations with Tyler, March 7, 2025.
Related Episode(s) of Crazy Town:
• Episode 37 (resilience.org/stories/2021-04-15/discounting-the-future-and-climate-chaos-or-the-story-of-the-dueling-economists-episode-37-of-crazy-town/) . Discounting the Future and Climate Chaos, or… the Story of the Dueling Economists
Support the show (postcarbon.org/supportcrazytown/)
Jason, Rob, and Asher are taking out a huge, unaffordable mortgage on the housing crisis. What’s behind the shortage in housing? Why is it that no one, except canine Tik Tok influencers with billion-dollar bank accounts, can afford to own a home? While mainstream pundits press for an energy-blind buildout of desert sprawl and gleaming towers of glass and steel, we propose a surprising change of course inspired by little people with hairy feet. Originally recorded on 5/21/25.
Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.
Sources/Links/Notes:
• The story of Gunther (idahostatesman.com/press-releases/article305385056.html) , the world's most moneyed canine.
• You can't make this stuff up: Gunther offers to buy Nicholas Cage's island (idahostatesman.com/press-releases/article305385056.html) .
• David Wessel, "Where do the estimates of a 'housing shortage' come from? (https://www.brookings.edu/articles/where-do-the-estimates-of-a-housing-shortage-come-from/) ," Brookings Institute, October 21, 2024.
• Alex Fitzpatrick and Alice Feng, "Americans' average daily travel distance, mapped (axios.com/2024/03/24/average-commute-distance-us-map) ," Axios, March 24, 2024.
• Jon Gertner, "America Is on Fire, Says One Climate Writer. Should You Flee? (nytimes.com/2024/03/22/books/review/abrahm-lustgarten-on-the-move.html) ," New York Times, March 22, 2024.
• U.S. News and World Report, "Fastest-Growing Places in the U.S. in 2025-2026. (realestate.usnews.com/places/rankings/fastest-growing-places) "
Good Ideas for Addressing the Housing Crisis:
• Jason Bradford, "Growing the Shire, Not the 'Burb: Facing the Housing Crisis with Ecological Sanity (resilience.org/stories/2025-05-27/growing-the-shire-not-the-burb-facing-the-housing-crisis-with-ecological-sanity/) ," Resilience, May 27, 2025.
• Global Ecovillage Network (ecovillage.org/)
• Nate Hagens, "Alexis Zeigler — Living Without Fossil Fuels: How Living Energy Farm Created a Comfortable Off-Grid Lifestyle (thegreatsimplification.com/episode/171-alexis-zeigler) ," The Great Simplification, April 9, 2025.
Energy-Blind Non-Solutions for the Housing Crisis:
• Conor Dougherty, "Why America Should Sprawl (nytimes.com/2025/04/10/magazine/suburban-sprawl-texas.html) ," New York Times, April 10, 2025.
• Binyamin Applebaum, "Build Homes on Federal Land (nytimes.com/2025/04/15/opinion/housing-crisis-federal-land.html) ," New York Times, April 15, 2025.
• Ezra Klein, "Abundance and the Left (nytimes.com/2025/04/29/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-saikat-chakrabarti-zephyr-teachout.html) ," The Ezra Klein Show, April 29, 2025.
• Samuel Moyn, "Can Democrats Learn to Dream Big Again? (nytimes.com/2025/03/18/books/review/abundance-ezra-klein-derek-thompson.html) ," New York Times, March 18, 2025.
• Tyler Cowen, "Ezra Klein on the Abundance Agenda (Ep. 236) (conversationswithtyler.com/episodes/ezra-klein-3/) " Conversations with Tyler, March 7, 2025.
Related Episode(s) of Crazy Town:
• Episode 37 (resilience.org/stories/2021-04-15/discounting-the-future-and-climate-chaos-or-the-story-of-the-dueling-economists-episode-37-of-crazy-town/) . Discounting the Future and Climate Chaos, or… the Story of the Dueling Economists
Support the show (postcarbon.org/supportcrazytown/)
