Author William Powers to Speak in Los Angeles

...s explores the viability of Slow Food and Slow Money, technology fasts and urban sanctuaries, rooftop gardening and beekeeping. Discovering a colorful cast of New Yorkers attempting to resist the culture of Total Work, Powers offers an inspiring exploration for anyone trying to make urban life more people- and planet-friendly. Skylight Books (a big supporter of our two books, by the way) is located at: 1818 N Vermont Ave Los Angeles, CA A conflict...

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Got a Critter Question?

...Our guest on the next episode of the Root Simple Podcast will be Lyanda Lynn Haupt, author of The Urban Bestiary: Encountering the Everyday Wild. We’re interviewing her tomorrow (Thursday) so if you have a question about coyotes, moles, raccoons, opossums, squirrels, rats or any of the other creatures that visit our urban backyards, leave a comment....

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Saturday Linkages: New Format!

...structure by David A. Banks Spritz Cookie Gravestone Man Spends 30 Years Regenerating NZ Farmland into Amazing Forest Democrats’ Climate Plans Lack Vision for City Transit Study Finds Urban Runoff Is a Toxic Soup Containing Dozens of Pesticides and Other Industrial Chemicals The shady politics of urban greening Surprise dip!...

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What Does California’s Prop 64 Say About Home Marijuana Cultivation?

After our fist book, The Urban Homestead, came out we visited a big-box bookstore to see what category it ended up in. This was before bookstores created separate shelves for urban homesteading. Unsurprisingly, we found it in the gardening section. What did surprise me was the other books in the garden category. The overwhelming majority were about growing marijuana. There were lavish coffee table books of bud porn, detailed encyclopedias edited...

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24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep

...erby. Our beat on this blog has been appropriate technology, gardening and urban homesteading (whatever that means!). Ironically, Kelly and I have had to spend a lot of time in front of screens researching and writing about these very analog subjects that, for the most part, involve an off-line engagement with the natural world. We’ve done this at a time of the explosive growth of social media. Early on there was a line of thought that social medi...

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