I talk with Robert A. Jensen, author of the new book Personal Effects: What Recovering the Dead Teaches Me About Caring for the Living. Over the past three decades Jensen has travelled to every major disaster you’ve heard of, and many you haven’t, to help recover bodies and the personal effects of the deceased. We discuss the importance of recovering “fragments”, the role played by local customs in his work, the politics of dead bodies, and why the British Empire buried their citizens wherever they died.

Related links:

• Jensen’s former company, Kenyon International Emergency Services

• Robert A. Jensen homepage

• Personal Effects for sale at Barns & Noble

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In this solo show, I respond to a listener email about why I didn’t talk about 9/11 last episode, by talking about it way too much this episode. I reflect on my own slice of life during that moment of death, talk about freedom, tally up costs, and tell a story about an extreme tailgater. I promise you it all fits together, somehow.

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In this solo show, I talk about what happens when our inherently restless and looping minds do battle against multinational, multibillion dollar companies intent on addicting us to their services. Also, I discuss the milk crate challenge because I have a theory about it. This show was aired on September 11, 2021, the twentieth anniversary of  the beginning of the modern era of terror as political tool.

 

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