Sludgefest Sludgefest

Come, enter the Landscape of Thorns and join Jesse and Lucy Valentine (of the Boonta Vista podcast) by the fire. New episodes of Sludgefest are coming soon, and they're pretty upsetting so, we're taking a brief psychic rest to discuss mildly less depressing topics. Jonathan Frakes’ haunted chalkboard, Spam musubi, radioactive cats, car salesmen with sharpened nipples. It's all here.


Things you can do:


American Friends Service Committee (@afsc_org on twitter) compiled a list of campus protest orgs that need support here.



Things we mentioned:


Environmental Warfare in Gaza: Colonial Violence and New Landscapes of Resistance by Dr. Shourideh C. Molavi


Ray Cats Song



Beyond Belief with Jonathan Frakes crazy chalkboard episode

Join Jesse and Lucy Valentine from the Boonta Vista podcast as we take a dip in the viscous, multicolored pools of Lemon Springs. We discuss one of Australia’s weirdest environmental crimes and what it could mean for wildlife and collectors of horror film-memorabilia.



Listen to the Boonta Vista Podcast here or anywhere you get your pods.

Sludgefest produced by Jesse Black and Shannon Rawlings

Intro/Outro by Chat Pile

Ambient music by California Death Worm

Backround image by Joe Armao, EPA




Sources and links:

Visual article from Sydney Morning Herald by Chris Vedelago and The Visual Stories Team

Article from The Age by Chris Vedelago, Sumeyya Ilanbey and Cameron Houston

Lemon Springs EPA Kaniva Community Meeting:

See Substack post notes for sources and to see Lucy’s visual guide

Jesse speaks with Dr. Julia Morris, author of the book Asylum and Extraction in the Republic of Nauru. It's a great book and tremendous piece of research which deeply informed our series on Nauru. If you haven't listened to the previous two episodes of our series on Nauru, you may want to check those out first.



Dr. Morris is Assistant Professor of International Studies at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, where she researches migration policy with a focus on western outsourcing of asylum processing and offshore detention to other nations- often “former” colonial holdings. Her research has taken her to Australia, Geneva, Fiji, Jordan, Guatemala, Jordan, and of course, the Republic of Nauru.

 

In her book Asylum and Extraction in the Republic of Nauru,
she traces the path of extractive colonial industry imposed on the island nation by multiple countries throughout its history, particularly Australia. She draws parallels between the industries of phosphate mining and offshore detention, exploring how media representations and discourses in Australia have helped these industries grow and create toxic legacies for Nauruans and migrants.



Jesse's Notes:



You can donate to support refugees in Gaza at anera.org. DM Jesse a picture of your receipt and he'll give you free access to some (upcoming!!!) movie bonus eps.



Americans, please call your representatives to demand a ceasefire and end to the occupation of Palestine today. Ceasefiretoday.com has a bunch of useful links here.



Support the show at patreon.com/sludgefest



Sludgefest is produced by Jesse Black and Shannon Rawlings.



Music by California Death Worm (californiadeathworm.bandcampcom



Special thanks to Dr. Julia Morris for taking the time to speak with us!



Remember,

despair is useless, and i love you

The second and final episode of our series on Nauru. After gaining independence and taking control over the phosphate industry, the island undergoes an unprecedented economic boom, followed by a devastating crash. Amid financial crises, Nauru finds temporarily lifelines in two new industries- lifelines that further entangle the island with extractive capitalism and a dark colonial legacy.

Hosted by Jesse Black and Shannon Rawlings

Music by California Death Worm (californiadeathworm.bandcamp.com)



Asylum and Extraction in the Republic of Nauru by Dr. Julia Morris

Nauru: Phosphate and Political Progress by Dr. Nancy Viviani

Dr. Diva Amon (@divaamon.bsky.social)

DSM Observer (dsmobserver.com) by Dr. Andrew Thaler (@drandrewthaler.bsky.social)



Donate to help asylum seekers in the Pacific:



Asylum Seeker Resource Centre

Gifts for Manus and Nauru



For full works cited list, see the episode description for on substack here.

(It should be free to access- you might have to put in your email first? Idk substack is weird sometimes).



Finally, all of our research episodes are entirely free, but
you can get access to sillier and generally less disturbing premium content for
just a dollar a month on our patreon (patreon.com/sludgefest)! We’ve got a
bunch of cool stuff cooking!

From mines in the jungle, to shining company towns, to refugee tents, to the deep ocean floor- join us as we follow the story of the island in part 1 of our 2 part series.


Thank you to those who helped make Sludgefest possible:



Editor, sound designer and logo artist Shannon Rawlings (@bbytengu on Twitter).

Music by by California Death Worm.

You, dear listener!

3M and Dupont carry on the legacy of colonial violence by poisoning water, wildlife, people, and Indigenous ways-of life with "forever chemicals".




Donate to mutual aid programs to benefit Indigenous communities at indigenousmutualaid.org.
Donate to the Western Klamath Restoration Project, a partnership of conservation researchers and the Karuk Tribe to restore their ancestral lands and fisheries.

Editor, sound designer and logo artist Shannon Rawlings (@bbytengu on Twitter). She’s a triple threat!

Background ambience by California Death Worm.

Intro and outro by PUP the Band.

You, dear listener!

Action items:Thank you to those who helped make Sludgefest possible:

Full reference list here