Shows
Dumpster FiresThe End of HostilitiesWhile the drunk t-ball coaches who never found the clit wear masks like f*****g cowards as they hunt Mexicans in unmarked GMC Suburbans across American cities—occasionally shooting soccer moms in the face—I thought I’d make a fun informative video about this important overlooked historical site down the street from my house where a group of mixed-race, multi-lingual warriors, with no proper legal authority, accepted the surrender of a Mexican general in 1847, effectively acquiring 530,000 acres of land for the United States.“Defend the Homeland,” say the propaganda posts pumped out by the Trump admin recruiting...
2026-01-0902 min
Aliens Love EarthThe unexpected way art healed the earth in 2025Join us for a reflective and forward-looking episode, focusing on the intersection of art, nature, and the human experience. We discuss the impact of our community's efforts, including supporting indie artists and achieving significant nature restoration efforts, all contributing to ecosystem restoration. This episode highlights our mission to heal the earth through music, conversation, and creative expression, and how we're continuing this mission this year. 👽🌳🔊Links to the full interviews:Wolf Kinsmen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZIh2cDGRZA&list=PLusaVJt6cMkZlGSUYEHySkeer5I6EH-x4&index=11iNKOGNiiTO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1phoPsSU...
2026-01-021h 02Aliens Love EarthThe unexpected way art healed the earth in 2025Join us for a reflective and forward-looking episode, focusing on the intersection of art, nature, and the human experience. We discuss the impact of our community's efforts, including supporting indie artists and achieving significant nature restoration efforts, all contributing to ecosystem restoration. This episode highlights our mission to heal the earth through music, conversation, and creative expression, and how we're continuing this mission this year. 👽🌳🔊Links to the full interviews:Wolf Kinsmen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZIh2cDGRZA&list=PLusaVJt6cMkZlGSUYEHySkeer5I6EH-x4&index=11iNKOGNiiTO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1phoPsSU...
2026-01-021h 02
Dumpster FiresArgumentum Ad BaculumHave you ever heard of the BACULUM? It’s the perfect holiday gift!It’s all natural, affordable, and sure to spark fun family conversation about the FALL of MAN. It’s also dredges up a bit of abysmal trivia I’ve dropped to no avail in a few unpublished essays over the years—trivia which I share now in video form for your morose delectation. As I continue to empty my pockets of choice research nuggets in the form of failed viral content in the hope of increasing my Instagram following to the extent...
2025-12-1802 min
Dumpster FiresFrom Worthlessness to WealthBack in 2018 when Christina ruined my life by telling me she would kill me (by castration) if I wrote about the 1959 nuclear meltdown in Los Angeles at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory—the largest nuclear meltdown in US history—I lied to her and told her that I would not actually make my new book about the nuclear meltdown at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory. I told her it would be a book about Los Angeles. It would only pass through the Simi Hills and the meltdown site. The focus would be LA history. My devi...
2025-12-0302 min
The Wild IdeaBarret Baumgart: The Desert is a Haunted HouseAuthor and essayist Barret Baumgart joins Bill and Anders for a Halloween special that leans into the stranger side of wild nature. His latest book, Yuck: The Birth and Death of the Weird and Wondrous Joshua Tree, explores how this desert icon went from being despised as grotesque and “demonic” to adored as a backdrop for modern desert dreams. In a conversation that ranges from natural history to horror, they dig into what the Joshua Tree reveals about human nature, the stories we project onto wild places, and the uneasy line between wonder and fear.Find out more...
2025-10-2835 min
Dumpster FiresThe "Infernal" "Grotesque" "Demoniacal" Joshua TreeDid you know that Joshua Tree National Park was founded on Halloween Day, 1994? It’s almost as if federal government had some inkling of the vast hate once heaped upon the lowly, humble, “demoniacal” Joshua Tree. The strange saga of Joshua Tree antipathy was largely forgotten until, well, I dug it up and turned it into a new book—YUCK: The Birth & Death of the Weird & Wondrous Joshua Tree, Yucca brevifolia. For Halloween, I thought I’d toss out a couple of the more merciless and inspired attacks I came across in my research. These choice bit...
2025-10-2702 min
High Tales of HistoryYuck: The Weird and Wondrous History of the Iconic Joshua TreeWelcome to a bonus episode in which Kt and Laurel have award winning author, screenwriter and essayist, Barret Baumgart, in the Smoke Circle. Together we discuss his newest book Yuck: The Birth and Death of the Weird and Wondrous Joshua Tree, Yucca Brevifolia. You might not believe it, but the Joshua Tree has a strange little part to play when recounting the history of the American West and Westward Expansion and Barret is here to tell us about it.In addition to Yuck, he has also authored some more strange nonfiction--China Lake, his debut novel, is about one...
2025-10-2444 min
Dumpster FiresThe Most Sexually Frustrated Cat on EarthFor years I’ve wanted to say something about P-22, formerly the world’s most famous mountain lion (RIP-22). And, well, I finally got around to it—albeit in the form of a deranged 3 minute Instagram Reel, created largely in the hopes of improving my numbers on social media so that I might eventually attract a literary agent to sell my next book, an agent search now being a regrettable necessity as I foolishly fired my previous representation some years ago after he proved unable to seize the moment, i.e. that week Kim Kardashian started Tweeting about...
2025-09-2702 minAliens Love EarthBarret Baumgart on the Weird, Wild, and Wonderous Joshua Tree - Yucca BrevifoliaWe had a seriously inspiring chat with Barret Baumgart about his wild creative path and his deep dive into the world of Joshua Trees. It’s kind of hilarious—this tree that people used to hate is now a full-on icon for beauty and spirituality. Barrett, in his latest book YUCK, walks us through that irony with a wink, and we get into the messy, magical business of writing about the environment ✨We talked about how tricky it is to tell the truth about nature in a world that sometimes feels allergic to facts, and why humor an abs...
2025-08-151h 04Aliens Love EarthBarret Baumgart on the Weird, Wild, and Wonderous Joshua Tree - Yucca BrevifoliaWe had a seriously inspiring chat with Barret Baumgart about his wild creative path and his deep dive into the world of Joshua Trees. It’s kind of hilarious—this tree that people used to hate is now a full-on icon for beauty and spirituality. Barrett, in his latest book YUCK, walks us through that irony with a wink, and we get into the messy, magical business of writing about the environment ✨We talked about how tricky it is to tell the truth about nature in a world that sometimes feels allergic to facts, and why humor an abs...
2025-08-151h 04
Dumpster FiresThe LA Times Stole my Viral ReportingOn Monday, it came to my attention that one of the most prominent journalists in Southern California, Gustavo Arellano, lifted the contents of the viral Reel I shared with you and thousands of other people last week. My El Aliso Instagram Reel, viewed 23,000 times, with a total watch time of 127 hours, 526 shares, 193 saves, and 59 comments, “broke” the story (earth-shaking news, I know!) that the historic plaque for this sacred, little-known, long-dead tree was missing. Beyond that, in a brief and pithy little package, it unpacked some serious virtually unknown history that stunned and delighted thousands of viewers with...
2025-08-1402 min
Dumpster FiresEl Aliso TreeHappy #NationalWhiteWineDay #winelover #winetasting Actually that was yesterday. For years I’ve wanted to create some “content” about this insane spot in downtown LA, a couple blocks a from where I work. And, well, I finally got my s**t together and did it. Watch the video and weep.The below is a brief written excerpt from a chunk of my next book, which is about the Santa Susana Field Laboratory’s 1959 nuclear meltdown in Los Angeles, an event which basically no one has ever heard of and that has perhaps killed thousands. A chunk of this...
2025-08-0503 min
The LandscapeThe strange and mysterious history of the Joshua treeKate and Aaron interview author Barret Baumgart about his new book Yuck: The Birth and Death of the Weird and Wondrous Joshua Tree. Baumgart became obsessed with Joshua trees during the pandemic and ended up uncovering some interesting facts and stories about them.
News
Trump admin to ink deals with states for forest management – E&E News
The Forest Service Claims It’s Fully Staffed for a Worsening Fire Season. Data Shows Thousands of Unfilled Jobs. – ProPublica
As US wildfires rage, Trump staff cuts force firefighters to clean toilets, critics say – Reuters
DOE picks 4 sites to build da...
2025-07-2522 min
The LandscapeThe strange and mysterious history of the Joshua treeKate and Aaron interview author Barret Baumgart about his new book Yuck: The Birth and Death of the Weird and Wondrous Joshua Tree. Baumgart became obsessed with Joshua trees during the pandemic and ended up uncovering some interesting facts and stories about them.
News
Trump admin to ink deals with states for forest management – E&E News
The Forest Service Claims It’s Fully Staffed for a Worsening Fire Season. Data Shows Thousands of Unfilled Jobs. – ProPublica
As US wildfires rage, Trump staff cuts force firefighters to clean toilets, critics say – Reuters
DOE picks 4 sites to build data centers...
2025-07-2522 min
Living The Next Chapter: Candid Conversations with Authors and Writers for Readers Searching for a New ReadE560 - Barret Baumgart - Yuck - turning your Joshua Tree vacation into a terrifying revelationEpisode 560 - Barret Baumgart - Yuck - turning your Joshua Tree vacation into a terrifying revelationBarret Baumgart is an essayist, screenwriter, and the author of the nonfiction books China Lake and YUCK. His essays have appeared in The Paris Review, The Gettysburg Review, The Iowa Review, The Rumpus, Vice, LitHub, The Seneca Review, and The Literary Review, among others. He lives in Los Angeles.Book: Yuck: The Birth & Death of the Weird & Wondrous Joshua Tree, Yucca brevifoliaAre you headed to Joshua Tree this summer? Get...
2025-07-0447 min
Nature's Archive#116: Iconic Joshua Trees with Barret BaumgartThe Joshua Tree is perhaps only rivaled by the saguaro cactus as the icon of the desert southwest. Featured on U2’s classic album cover, and now the backdrop of countless instagram glamor shots, its unique, almost alien look is unmistakable.But for decades the Joshua Tree was looked at with disdain - even loathing and hatred. Today, our guest is Barret Baumgart, author of the new book, “Yuck: The Birth & Death of the Weird & Wondrous Joshua Tree”. Barret explores the history of the Joshua Tree, in a book that can be considered part history, part n...
2025-06-1945 min
In Defense of Plants PodcastEp. 530 - Our Relationship with the Joshua TreeThe Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia) has attained celebrity status in recent times, but that hasn't always been the case. For over a century, the Joshua tree was viewed as a useless and repulsive plant that bucked all attempts to tame it. How our relationship with Yucca brevifolia went from hatred to worship is the topic of "Yuck", in which author Barret Baumgart dives into the history of this species, how it has changed over the years and how climate change and rampant tourism may spell disaster for Yucca brevifolia in the future. Join us for a philosophical dive into...
2025-06-1544 min
Brushwood Media NetworkCover To Cover with Barret BaumgartBarret Baumgart - Mysteries of Our Planet
Barret Baumgart is an essayist, screenwriter, and the author of the nonfiction books China Lake and YUCK. His essays have appeared in The Paris Review, The Gettysburg Review, The Iowa Review, The Rumpus, Vice, LitHub, The Seneca Review, and The Literary Review, among others. He lives in Los Angeles.
Grab a copy of the book- YUCK: The Birth and Death of the Weird and Wondrous Joshua Tree, Yucca Brevifolia by Barret Baumgart https://a.co/d/gByPIOQ
2025-06-1429 min
Cover To CoverBarret Baumgart - Mysteries of Our PlanetBarret Baumgart is an essayist, screenwriter, and the author of the nonfiction books China Lake and YUCK. His essays have appeared in The Paris Review, The Gettysburg Review, The Iowa Review, The Rumpus, Vice, LitHub, The Seneca Review, and The Literary Review, among others. He lives in Los Angeles.
Grab a copy of the book- YUCK: The Birth and Death of the Weird and Wondrous Joshua Tree, Yucca Brevifolia by Barret Baumgart https://a.co/d/gByPIOQ
2025-06-1429 min
Dumpster FiresFull Metal Book Jacket - Documentary Footage“Writing is about discovering things hitherto unseen. Otherwise there’s no point to the process.” —W.G. SebaldWeird is an older, stranger word than most realize. It derives from the ancient root wert, “to twist or to wind.” When we ask, “How did you wind up here?” or when we say, “I lost my keys, but then they turned up,” we get a hint of what WEIRD used to mean. Originally weird meant something like fate. Weird was “that which comes…” Whatever arrives unbidden, carrying some kind of import or meaning, as if somehow sent, directed, dispatched...
2025-05-0736 min
90 Miles from Needles: the Desert Protection PodcastS4E13: Yuck: The Wild, Weird History of Joshua Trees with Barret BaumgartEpisode Summary: In this engaging episode of the "90 Miles from Needles: The Desert Protection Podcast," host Chris Clarke is joined by author Barret Baumgart. The conversation centers around Baumgart's book "Yuck," which explores the peculiar and iconic Joshua Tree. From its historical misunderstandings and numerous failed attempts to capitalize on the plant, to its symbolic resistance against commodification, the chat offers a fresh perspective on the interaction between humans and this resilient desert species. The episode also leaps into broader themes of environmental justice and political critique, with Chris Clarke expressing strong views on contemporary socio-political issues...
2025-04-2938 min
Get Hooked On An Captivating Full Audiobook And Elevate Your Mindset.Yuck by Barret BaumgartPlease visithttps://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/2/audible/62308to listen full audiobooks.
Title: Yuck
Author: Barret Baumgart
Narrator: Barret Baumgart
Format: mp3
Length: 1 hr and 47 mins
Release date: 03-25-25
Ratings: 5 out of 5 stars, 1 rating
Genres: Outdoors & Nature
Publisher's Summary:
YUCK is a prismatic collage, a poetic wandering, a compact history of the West as twisted and weird and ominous and beautiful as the plant it obsesses over. From divine providence to gaseous landfill to Instagram paradise, Yuck deftly traces the modern history of a small patch of desert to leave us with a big warning about America's demented relationship with the...
2025-03-251h 47Experience A Full Audiobook That Is Simply Edge-Of-Your-Seat.Yuck by Barret BaumgartPlease visithttps://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/2/audible/62308to listen full audiobooks.
Title: Yuck
Author: Barret Baumgart
Narrator: Barret Baumgart
Format: mp3
Length: 1 hr and 47 mins
Release date: 03-25-25
Ratings: 5 out of 5 stars, 1 rating
Genres: Outdoors & Nature
Publisher's Summary:
YUCK is a prismatic collage, a poetic wandering, a compact history of the West as twisted and weird and ominous and beautiful as the plant it obsesses over. From divine providence to gaseous landfill to Instagram paradise, Yuck deftly traces the modern history of a small patch of desert to leave us with a big warning about America's demented relationship with the...
2025-03-251h 47
Dumpster FiresIn a Future Far, Far Beyond the FestivalAt the start of November I returned to the Mojave Desert to attend Ridgecrest’s 10th annual Petroglyph Festival. I’d been following the event for a decade, ever since I became obsessed with the petroglyphs on the China Lake naval base while writing my first book, but something felt different this year. At first I couldn’t figure it out. Outside the main gates I met the same protestors, members of the local Kawaiisu Nation, who continue to oppose the festival and the permanent petroglyph reproductions displayed throughout the city. Inside, beyond the quiet picket line, there...
2024-11-1405 min
Dumpster FiresStress Ruins FleshSoothing New Podcast Content!!! Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, or on the Substack app. I live behind an actual slaughterhouse, and around the corner from a gay sex club, which shares a back wall with a pet hospital and a new charter elementary school. There’s a lot going on here. It’s one of the things I love about Los Angeles—diversity.If you read the first important historical work written on the city, The Fragmented Metropolis (1967), its chapter on zoning weirdly shows, of all the infinite cross-sections of Los Angeles, the tw...
2024-06-1233 min
Dumpster FiresA Mortician's Paradise - Expanding Erewhonian Nightmare Part 4Join me as we sink deeper into the Expanding Erewhonian Nightmare and tie it all back to my failed book project about America’s largest nuclear meltdown at the Boeing-owned Santa Susana Field Laboratory.Part 4 of the “singular, hilarious, and groundbreaking study” (The New York Times) available on Apple Podcasts & SpotifyHere the horseshit really hits the fan…Erewhon is an absolutely insane name for a health food store headquartered in Southern California. Southern California was literally settled by the sick and suicidal.In fact, more people once killed themselv...
2024-05-1315 min
Dumpster FiresUtopia Means 'Nowhere' - Expanding Erewhonian Nightmare Part 3Part 3 of the “singular, hilarious, and groundbreaking study” (The New York Times) available on Apple Podcasts & SpotifyHere the horseshit really starts heating up…Did you know the obscenely overpriced, celebrity obsessed LA-based wellness grocer Erewhon is actually named after a fictional totalitarian Hell where it’s illegal to be sick or unhealthy? If you’ve followed my last few rants, you may have wondered where the hell all the words were headed. And after hearing three, four, five rambling run-on sentences in a row, you might have reasonably concluded—Nowhere. “Bro, this isn’t going an...
2024-05-1215 min
Dumpster FiresThe Privilege of Continuance - Expanding Erewhonian Nightmare Part 2Part 2 of the “singular, hilarious, and groundbreaking study” (The New York Times) available on Apple Podcasts & Spotify.Recently I discussed how I arrived inside Erewhon, Los Angeles’s most expensive health food store, for the first time ever in my life. The traumatic fecal-encrusted episode was somewhat fortuitous insofar as I had been planning to write something about the grocery chain for several weeks. Yet up until that point could not bring myself to Google a single Erewhon location, let alone imagine dipping through its sliding glass doors, to say nothing of coughing over $18 for some crappy Hailey...
2024-05-1210 min
Dumpster FiresJoggin' to Erewhon - Expanding Erewhonian Nightmare Part 1Behold the origins of my dismal errand… to Erewhon.In an effort to improve my health and not commit suicide, I’ve been exercising more the past few months. It feels good to get out early and hate the thing you’re doing to yourself more than yourself. Sometimes, jogging, you can even imagine you’re going places.Such was the case in Studio City the other day when, having finally hit some kind of stride, and feeling a little hot headed, I beelined across Ventura Boulevard, faking out a speeding Ferrari before blasting off a red cu...
2024-05-1008 min
Dumpster FiresLos Angeles - City of DemonsLos Angeles was for years the most murderous city in America. Newspapers called it Los Diablos instead of Los Angeles. “Some think it odd that there has been no violent deaths during the two weeks that we have been here,” an agricultural surveyor wrote home in 1860. “May the Lord watch over me.” Governors in Sacramento completely ignored the region for the first three decades after California joined the union, apparently hoping everyone down south would just hack each other to pieces and disappear. Unbelievably, the first state-funded institution in Southern California did not open until 1882. It was not an o...
2024-04-2029 min
Two Truths and a LieEpisode 61 REVEAL<p>Who was the liar? Leah Dubie, Cara Lopez Lee, or Barret Baumgart? Plus a sneak peak at the next episode!</p>
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<p>Want to support Two Truths and a Lie? <a href="http://patreon.com/twotruthspod" target="_blank">Become a patron</a>!</p>
<p>And, if you want to support the wildfire relief efforts in Ventura County, check out these links below:</p>
<p><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.co...
2018-01-0555 minTwo Truths and a LieSurvival<p>Three stories of people just making it out alive. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.leahdubie.com/">Leah Dubie</a> thinks she's about to be kidnapped by an NPR superstar. <a target="_blank" href="http://caralopezlee.com/">Cara Lopez Lee</a> argues with her grandfather in the middle of a wildfire. And <a target="_blank" href="http://barretbaumgart.com/">Barret Baumgart</a> faces death, but doesn't realize it.</p>
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2017-12-2955 min