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This week on Angry Planet we’re taking a break from the horrors of the present to explore horrors of a past distant enough now that they’re entertaining. But then, America found those horrors pretty entertaining at the time, too. Even when it was still a thriving community and a going concern, the town of Deadwood, South Dakota, was the subject of dimestore novels and tall tales.

Peter Cozzens is here with us to talk about his new book Deadwood: Gold, Guns, and Greed in the American West. Cozzens is a historian who has written 17 books that focus on the U.S. Civil War, the Wild West, and the American Indian Wars. His latest work is all about Deadwood and the wild cast of characters who inhabited it. Come sit with us a spell and learn about the real Calamity Jane, Wild Bill Hickok, and Al Swearengen.

• “Power comes to any man who has the color.”
• Black Elk and how the West Was Lost
• Conflicting perceptions of Wild Bill Hickock
• Professional gamblers
• Creating Calamity Jane
• Softening George Hearst
• “In the West, women didn’t wear underwear.”
• Deadwood burns
• How history becomes a dime store novel
• “The most diabolical town on the face of the earth.”

Deadwood: Gold, Guns, and Greed in the American West

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Is your Empire feeling less than fresh? Does it feel like the modern world’s best days are behind it? Do conquest and global power politics not hit as good as they used to? Welcome to the Age of Stagnation, a time when the fruits of the Industrial Revolution can be enjoyed but not replicated.

It’s making us all a little crazy, especially world leaders. With us today on the show is Michael Beckley, a political science professor at Tufts University and his career includes stretches at the Pentagon, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the RAND Corporation. To hear Beckley tell it, stagnation might not be such a bad thing. If we can avoid repeating the worst mistakes of the 20th century and let go of a “number go up” mind set, then maybe we can all learn to enjoy a long age of stabilization.

• The diminishing returns of the Industrial Revolution
• Winners and losers in the Age of Ascent
• Moore’s Law sputters out
• Stabilization isn’t so bad. “We’re some of the luckiest people who’ve ever lived.”
• Shenanigans and shithousery
• AI isn’t “ready” yet
• Why conquest doesn’t work anymore
• China as a paper tiger in the age of stabilization
• America’s unique advantages
• “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” - Mike Tyson

The Stagnant Order

I Tried the Robot That’s Coming to Live With You. It’s Still Part Human.

Michael Beckley

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We’re obsessed with apocalypses, big and small. We fantasize about what the future might look like after the fall of society and fear the coming tribulation. Rome fretted about decline until its end. Stories of the Sea Peoples terrified the monarchs of the Late Bronze Age. During the 30 Years’ War, Europeans imagined Armageddon had finally begun.

But a funny thing happens after the collapse: things tend to get a little better for everyone.

Luke Kemp is here to hold our hands through the end of the world as we know it. Kemp is a researcher at Cambridge’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk and the author of the book Goliath’s Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse.

• Beauty in collapse
• Matthew’s AI test
• The Doctor Doom mask
• “Collapse was good for most people.”
• Sea People’s mentioned
• Why a Goliath and not a Leviathan?
• Down with Thomas Hobbes
• Fear of a mass panic driving collapse
• “Emergency powers have a very funny tendency to stick around”
• The problem with guns, germs, and steel
• The Tree of Evil
• On the purpose of human sacrifice
• Doctor Doom is the belle of the ball
• Are we ending on a high note?

Buy Goliath’s Curse

Centre for the Study of Existential Risk

The rewards of ruin

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege.

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