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SHHH: The Poopcast (aka S**t and Shame with Shawn)

Join Shawn Shafner (The Puru), performer, activist, and educator for serious but entertaining talk about poop, fecal matters, LGBT shame and other unnameable taboos that clog our bodies, minds, and communities. Shawn and his esteemed guests talk (and might even sing) about taking responsibility for our literal shit and our metaphorical shit, to transform them from waste to resource. It’s time to get our shit together, before it hits the fan.
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Now displaying: 2017
Dec 31, 2017

Community Led Total Sanitation as colonial hangover, how to poop while on the trail, shoehorning sanitation inside other sectors, and the importance of sunblock. Shawn “The Puru” Shafner spends an hour with anthropologist and Emory University PhD candidate Jennifer Barr. Jennifer spent 13 months living in Delhi and writing case studies of NGOs including Sulabh, India’s toilet-building monolith, and Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA), a grassroots organization dedicated to the liberation and rehabilitation of all persons engaged in manual scavenging. It left her wondering: do current international development practices put human dignity and wellbeing at the center of their work? Where might colonial history and modern biases be skewing our attempts to do good? Hear Jennifer’s findings PLUS reasons why NGOs should use the word “shit,” and why the wise stop trying to “change the world” and instead focus on making small, human-centered improvements with gentleness, compassion and love. More from Jennifer on Twitter: @jenniferabarr

Also mentioned in this episode

Stakeholders, diarrheal disease, environmental enteropathy, malnourishment, stunting, CARE International, nutrition, sanitation, UNICEF, MHM, menstrual hygiene management, India Habitat Center, The Great Stink, sanitary revolution, CLTS, roundworm, outhouses, bullying, open defecation, David Inglis, Sociological History of Excremental Experience, Bezwada Wilson, Dalit, caste system, Untouchables, Mierle Ukeles, Rose George, The Big Necessity, World Toilet Summit, Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, Rajasthan, Alwar

Sep 27, 2017
Building water infrastructure in Addis Ababa, filtering Flint’s taps to keep kids healthy, and tackling traditional paradigms of where to put your pee. In this episode, Shawn Shafner (The Puru) sits down with Nancy Love--professor, pioneer, engineer and expert who literally wrote the book on Biological Wastewater Treatment. Often the lone woman in a male-dominated field, Nancy recounts how a little girl on the family golf course became one of the most sought-after professors at the University of Michigan, and hypothesizes why women might do a better job of solving humanity's problems. Plus, we’ll tour a centralized Wastewater Treatment Plant, appreciate the promise of decentralized sanitation systems, and learn why the National Science Foundation has given her a lot of money to study how urine could fertilize our amber waves of grain. So grab a drink, and an empty cup, and prepare to connect with all the waters around, under and in you. 
 
Also mentioned in this podcast:
Urine diversion summit, water, sanitation, technology, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, civil engineer, wastewater, stormwater, groundwater, University of Michigan, open defecation, pit latrine, fecal sludge, source separation, infrastructure, septic system, Vermont, Mathew Lippincott, recycling, golf, Silent Spring, Rachel Carson, gender equality, Milorganite, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, biosolids, Nitrogen, phosphorous, carbon, Virginia Tech, Chesapeake Bay, grit, Clean Water Act, aeration, bacteria, sustainable resource recovery, microbial fuel cell, bioelectrolysis, Sashti Balasundaram, WE Radiate, Kim Nace, Abe Noe-Hays, fertilizer, struvite, Haber-Bosch
Jul 31, 2017

What happens when you take a bunch of artists and put them together in a beautiful house in rural Vermont with a shared schedule dedicated to creativity? The Art Monastery Project. While in-residence at the monastery, Shawn Shafner (The Puru) hosts a roundtable of “Artmonks” at their finest. St. Francis, King Solomon, Buddha and a bunch of Rabbis all appear, alongside bat guano, bugs, and indigenous wisdom. Plus Abbess and co-founder Betsy McCall passes on a blessing to say when peeing on the planet. Core member Raphael Sacks explains why he's been sprinkling coyote urine on the garden. Voice doula Kaitlin June sings the blessings of our odor-free dry toilet, and chef Emma Wyman pitches in to thank the Muse. Holy shit? You bet your art.

 

Also mentioned:

Anaya Cullen, costume designer, Neva Cockrell, Gerry McCulloch, Goldsmith’s University, pirkei avot, physical theater, alternative lifestyle, spiritual practice, community living, painting, video, Aberdeen Farm, maple syrup, plant genetics, beer, sausage, Eco Institute at Pickards Mountain, Diogenes of Sinope, ascetic, urinal, pee recycling, urine diversion, humanure, humus, hummus, Rich Earth Institute, Kim Nace, Abe Noe-Hays, tangaryo, menstruation, Joel and Michelle Levy, Integratron, Mojave Desert, urine as fertilizer, Nitrogen, woodchuck repellent, nun’s cap, Carol Steinfeld, Mathew Lippincott, Bootstraps, Earthdance Massachusetts, contact improv, race, class, transforming the shit, purity, impurity

Jun 30, 2017

Legalizing green sanitation, kite safety through cartwheels, coming back from serious crisis, and all the ways your shower can kill you. In this special live episode, polymath Mathew Lippincott enlightens Shawn Shafner (The Puru) with his encyclopedic knowledge of everything. A designer who creates future technologies influenced by history, Mathew tells us how he helped create Portland’s emergency sanitation protocol, worked with RECODE to make compost toilets a legal option, and takes us under the leach field to see why most septic tank users are pooping straight into their aquifers. PLUS Shawn tells stories of his travels in Nicaragua, reveals the origins of “justify your existence,” we redeem the value of outside defecation, and learn why it might be best to hold your breath the next time you visit a PortaPotty.

Also mentioned in this episode:

West Side Story, lunar colony, industrial design, University of Pennsylvania, Center for Social Impact, Global Social Impact House, Nicaragua, crisis, Joseph Campbell, hero’s journey, the origins of justify your existence, privilege, poverty, El Porvenir, Public Lab, crowdsource data, Deepwater Horizon, presence, safety, Kite Man, Portland, Oregon, airline travel, REN Project, Wayne RESA, curriculum development, Michigan, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Guerilla Science Group, Oregon Eclipse Festival, shower, sink, low-flow toilet, design object, Victor Papanek, Design for the Real World, basic human needs, consumer society, James Hennessey, How Things Don’t Work, unbalanced mixer valves, pressure valves, intentional community, bucket toilet,Molly Jean Winter (née Danielsson), sepsis, Art Monastic Laboratory, bucket system, majority world country, libraries, ARPANET, OhioLINK, apocalypse, interlibrary loan, Clara Greed, Alexander Kira, Joel Tarr, Carnegie Mellon, Cloacina, Cloaca, Rome, portable compost toilet, Henry Moule, Australia, Natural Event, Pootopia, Hamish Skermer, green, sustainability, Adam Rome, Bulldozer in the Countryside, primary treatment, scum, leach field, aquifer, laminar flow, Pacific NorthWest College of Art, Neighborhood Emergency Training, Portland Bureau of Emergency Management, emergency sanitation, citizen science, Uniform Plumbing Code, Rich Earth Institute, 20/20 Engineering, Greywater Action, Laura Allen, Watershed Management Group, John Grey, Interface Engineering, Nicole Cousino, Nature’s Commode, International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO), Green Supplement, American National Standards Institute (ANSI), WE Stand (Water Efficiency), public domain, NorthWest Permaculture Convergence, open defecation, family restroom

May 31, 2017

Sustainable menstruation management, exploding the privilege to pee standing up, queering the country through relocation, and how to make money with minimal misery. In this episode, Shawn Shafner (The Puru) communes with Krista Eickmann, whose passion for menstrual cups and urine diverters once had her proselytizing these products straight from her purse to friends, family, and strangers on the bus. Reduce waste, remove the threat of toxic shock, and pee through your pants’ fly without removing layers of clothes or dropping full trou in the middle of the woods? They practically sold themselves. And now, thanks to the internet and The pStyle Company, anyone can go online and share Krista’s love for “plastic crotch devices.” Join in for a generous hour detailing the genesis of menstrual devices, rapidly bleeding into the economics of reuse, how much is “enough,” and why everyone deserves a range of options to express themselves and expel their bladders. So come on out of whatever closet you’re in, grab a stranger, and stand up (or sit down) for an hour in your power.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Trash, waste, environment, sustainability, shame, environmental, activist, keeper, Leona Chalmers, tampon, pads, consumerism, disposable, zine, allergy, Joseph Gayetty, toilet paper, Scott, Waldorf, period, counterculture, Lou Crawford, Tassaway, SASE, Walmart. Rite-Aid, vagina, cunt, vulva, pussy, Tennessee, goat milk, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, South, transgender, FTM, identity politics, community, cisgender, Miki Agrawal, Thinx, Luna Pads, misogyny, feminist, excess, freelax, pissoir, urinal, bourdalou, Indiegogo, penis envy, hypospadias, Standing Up, manneken pis, Marie-Anne Gillet, Isabelle Gilboux, Transhealth conference, Sex for Smart People, S. Ryan Johnstone, genderful, BBC, human right, Rich Earth Institute, Vermont, dirt, transphobia, racism.

Apr 26, 2017

Got some peanut shells, banana peels, and old newspapers? Then you might also have the power to generate renewable enegy, fight coastal erosion, control heavy metals, increase civic participation, create nourishing soil, and much more. That’s the magic of compost! Join Shawn Shafner (The Puru) and Sashti Balasundaram, eco-educator and entrepreneur behind WeRadiate, for a bewitching episode that explains how recycling our food scraps can reduce landfill loads, create green jobs, and save all of us money. Just in time for International Compost Awareness Week (May 7-13), this episode offers everything you need to start your own bin. So start saving those shells; it’s time to save the world.

 

Also mentioned in this episode:

Ecological consciousness, waste management, compost, recycling, “farm to table”, India, pondicherry, Life of Pi, Yann Martel, French, Tamil, NGO, “non-governmental organization”, Shuddham, cleanliness, food scraps, worm bin, soil amendment, cycle, rats, Department of Health, decomposition, planting, community garden, farmer, scientist, science, Carl Mehling, American Museum of Natural History, AMNH, puppet, scientific method, temperature, moisture, nitrogen, carbon, sugar, microorganisms, energy, thermometer, Vermont, greenhouse, animal pens, Rwanda, Pivot Works, biochar, methane, bokashi, Department of Sanitation, NYC, New York City, landfill, Freshkills, Staten Island, horticulture, chemical fertilizer, anthropogenic, aerobic, anaerobic, entrepreneur, raised beds, Rich Earth Institute, pharmaceuticals, compost tea, 462 Halsey Street Garden, human poop, humanure, vermicompost, Flush, Karina Mangu-Ward, biosolids, pathogens, dirt, soil, libertarian, hyper=local loop, green jobs, GrowNYC, Lower East Side Ecology Center, Milorganite, vermicasting, red wrigglers, Jim’s Worm Farm, litterlist.co, ILSR, Institute for Local Self Reliance, NYC Compost Project, Brooklyn Botanical Garden, Queens Botanical Garden

Mar 31, 2017

Passion or paycheck, profession or play, beauty or the butt? We tackle the art world’s opposing objectives to redeem or exploit our excrement, the politics of status (and Brad Pitt’s pet rat), the importance of whimsy, and how every poo has a story to tell. Join Shawn Shafner (The Puru) in conversation with Dan Roberts from the National Poo Museum on the Isle of Wight, just south of London. Imagine a room full of polished crystal balls lit beautifully from below, and inside each floats a delicate turd. Created by the Eccleston George art collective, Dan charts the museum’s journey from the Swedish elk pat that started it all, to the BBC reporter who made it legit by harvesting meerkat scat on TV. An odd collection of crystal-balled caca becomes so much more by reminding us that anything--no really, anything--may just be possible after all.

Also mentioned in this episode:

NYU Tisch, An Inconvenient Poop, Nigel George, Sweden, shameful shitter, chronic constipation, starving artist, cognitive dissonance, taboo, shock, death, mummies, community-based sculpture, tricycle, Portugal, Mary Overlie, Viewpoints, Anne Bogart, original anarchist, doing the unnecessary, impulse, New School, Anthropology, judgment, Flux, tattoos, risk-averse, social contamination, sociology, anthropology, Roland Barthes, William Ian Miller, Anatomy of Disgust, Karen Finley, queen of dung, resin, social release, matter out of place, Victorian era, diapers, incontinence, International Women's Day, international sanitation crisis, menstruation, Delhi, open defecation, zoo, sharing economy, bird pellet, cloaca, uric acid, microbiome, co-evolution, Scientific American, data manipulation, pigeon poo, Nitrates, stoma, stigma, Marcel Duchamp, fountain, Sigmund Freud, Paul Spinrad, Re:Search Guide to Bodily Fluids, nose picking, IBS, Crohn's, fecal transplant, transgender access, library

Feb 28, 2017

In this Dinosaur-sized episode, Shawn Shafner (The Puru) joins paleontologist Carl Mehling for a deep dive into fossilized dung (called “coprolites”), the scientific method, and why truth is often controlled by the storytellers. Wanna borrow a bone from the American Museum of Natural History? Carl’s your man. We’ll go behind the scenes at the museum to understand how scientists study and share prehistoric resources, get the inside scoop on how fossils are formed, and learn what they reveal about the past, present and future. You’ll also get Carl’s tips for foraging wild food, loving your bacteria, and moving through knee-jerk resistance to open the door for wisdom. So settle into your teeny-tiny corner of the ever-expanding universe, grab a shovel, and let’s get digging!

Also mentioned in this podcast:

Senior Scientific Assistant, Vertebrate Fossil Amphibians, Reptiles, and Birds, Horatio Alger, Dinos After Dark, public liaison, methodology, Annie Levy, Higgs-Boson, order, chaos, research, guts, poop, microbiome, ecosystem, germs, Jessica Richman, uBiome, Mierle Ukeles, Queens Museum, sanitation, crocodile, turtle, mastodon, 3D scan, fermentation, bacteria, fecal transplant, Clostridium dificile, C. diff, Peterson Guide to Edible Wild Plants, urine, Steve Brill, hoshigaki, Central Park, Prospect Park, Staten Island, cololite, hematite, colon, preservation, Scipionyx, La Brea tar pits, Ice Age, Doomsday Clock, b’tzelem elohim, Judaism, Zen Buddhism, Neanderthals, colonialism, hominids, bias, Leonardo da Vinci, inclusion, carnivore, herbivore, wombat, dung beetle, Tyrannosaurus Rex, T-Rex, anus, Permian, dicynodont, mammal latrine, ghost shrimp, whale, wastewater treatment, Phosphorous, Nitrogen, Triceratops, Jurassic Park, matrix, gut flora, Moa, protozoan cysts, Cretaceous, meteorite, paleobotany, petrified wood, silica, Buddha, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, poudrette, musk, ambergris, perfume, coprophage, caddis fly, eyelash mite, arthropod, parasite, commensal, symbiont, coprophis, #ResistTheEww

Jan 27, 2017

In this fast-paced hour, Shawn Shafner (The Puru) sits down with water and wastewater governance expert Raul Pacheco-Vega for a discussion that leapfrogs from the culture of flushing and bottled water, to the politics of poverty and what it means to pick trash for a living. Remember that kid who took their ball and went home when they didn’t get their way? Little Raul wanted to know how to keep the game going. Two Masters degrees, one PhD (with a double major in political science and human geography), and 15,848 Twitter followers later, Raul is one of the world’s foremost experts on sharing. He takes a holistic approach to studying how and why people, communities and governments do or don’t cooperate, and the tension caused by our competing desires to both shun the stranger and work together. You’ll also find out Raul’s number one secret for being productive, how he “obviously” drank sewer water, and why fear may be the worst advisor of all.

 

Also mentioned in this podcast:

Assistant Professor, Public Administration Division of the Centre for Economic Research and Teaching, CIDE (Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economicas, CIDE, AC), Aguascalientes, Mexico, Political Science, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, Human Geography, Chemical Engineer, closed system of recirculation, solution to pollution is dilution, EPA, Jamie Benidickson, University of Ottawa, Barbara Penner, Bathroom, Elinor and Vincent Ostrom, Common Pool Resources (CPR), Nobel prize, public policy, recycling, queer identities, dignity of a toilet, India, Donald Trump, Jurassic Park, Cristina Guggeri, Sarah Jewitt, geographies of shit, waste categories and continuums, valuable vs nonvaluable, production vs excretion, bio-political undertones, Daniel Gerling, Cuba, Mao Zedong, hazardous waste, landfill, NIMBY, informal settlement, slum, negative commons, single stream recycling, compassion, open defecation, Joshua Reno, health, human right to water, Jack Sim, World Toilet Day, Institutional Analysis and Development Framework, Social Ecological Systems Framework, Urine Diversion Summit, Rich Earth Summit, Lillian Volat, cewas Middle East, Syria, Palestine, Bill Gates, omni-processor, social media

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