Finding Crazy Town Part 5: Adapting to the Adaptive Cycle

What if collapse isn't the end of the story but part of a larger cycle?

In Part 5 of our six-part summer series, Finding Crazy Town, producer Alex Leff continues his investigation into the mysterious disappearance of Jason Bradford, Rob Dietz, and Asher Miller. Following clues from the Crazy Town archives leads to the adaptive cycle: a framework from ecology that describes how complex systems move through growth, maturity, collapse, and reorganization.

From the Titanic and lifeboats to Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic expedition, the search turns toward a more difficult question: How do we navigate a period of contraction while building something more just, sustainable, and resilient on the other side?

Originally recorded on 9/10/26 with archival episodes.

• Episode 25, “Koala Butts Ablaze and the Sweet Relief of the Adaptive Cycle”
• Episode 26, “Doors and Deck Chairs on the Titanic: Reimagining Lifeboat Ethics in the Age of Overshoot”

Production and editing by Alex Leff. Editorial assistance and transcripts by Taylor Antal.

Theme music is “Way Huge” and “Don’t Give Up” by Midnight Shipwrecks, used with permission.

Thanks to all the Crazy Townies, our listeners who are trying to understand humanity's overshoot predicament and do something about it.