Podcast: Ologies with Alie Ward (LS 81 · TOP 0.01% what is this?)
Episode: Collapsology (SOCIETAL COLLAPSE, LOL!) with Joseph Tainter
Pub date: 2026-07-01

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What is your Roman Empire? It’s about to be this episode. What causes the big dogs to stumble and fall? Do societies collapse suddenly, or would one notice as it happens? What *is* a complex society – and is it better than a simple one? Depends on who you ask, and we went straight to the source: the legendary anthropologist, scholar, historian and author of “The Collapse of Complex Societies,” Dr. Joseph Tainter. New obsession awaits you in the fall of the Roman Empire, cities lost to the desert dust, diminishing returns, fiddling amid the flames, the worst beard in history, fossil fuels, fertilizer, bread, circus, hanging chads, and if you should go live on a small goat farm. Happy 250th birthday to the currently United States of America!

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Buy his book, The Collapse of Complex Societies

A donation went to Utah State University's Ecology Center