INSIDE AND OUTSIDE: Nature + Pop Culture News with Jessica Murnane · Jessica Murnane

Composting 101 + Why Are Longevity Bros So Obsessed with Aliens? with Cass Marketos (author of Compost After Reading)

·40 min·2 clips

Cass calls the current alien moment a "longevity to alien pipeline" for bros.

1. Inside and Outside: Nature + Pop Culture News with Jessica Murnane centers on composting and a separate pop-culture turn toward aliens. 2. Jessica Murnane hosts, and Cass Marketos appears as a compost expert, artist, and author of Compost After Reading. 3. The episode asks what composting changes in daily life, then pivots to why "tech and finance bros" are suddenly so focused on aliens. 4. Cass says compost is the finished product of decomposition, not just the scraps or the process, and calls it a nutrient-rich fertilizer for plants. 5. She describes compost as smelling like "fresh earth" and looking dark, loamy, and "cake-like," which is meant to reset the stigma around it. 6. Cass says compost keeps food scraps and yard waste out of landfills and improves soil by cycling nutrients and retaining moisture. 7. She links landfill waste to pollution and says modern trash systems create an "awayness" delusion that hides consequences. 8. Cass says composting has changed her consumer habits, including how she reacts to plastic water bottles and individually wrapped food. 9. She also says small behavioral changes matter, but she rejects making composting a moral test or a one-size-fits-all rule. 10. Jessica uses her own 90-person Mongolian new year party as a concrete example of the budget tradeoffs around disposable versus reusable serving ware. 11. Cass says one starting question is whether someone has space and how much energy they want to put into the process. 12. For people with yards, she suggests starting a pile immediately, while apartment dwellers can look for community gardens or local farmers' markets. 13. She says many people get compost wrong by using too much food waste and not enough leaves or cardboard. 14. Cass says compost should not smell bad if it is balanced correctly, which challenges the idea that a compost pile is just a pile of rotten food. 15. She argues that people need a clear personal reason to compost, whether that is soil, food, or avoiding landfill methane. 16. Cass says urine can "kickstart" a new pile because it adds nitrogen, and she notices people often react to that tip with surprise. 17. She also says bread, citrus, and eggshells are compostable, though citrus can attract fruit flies and eggshells break down more slowly. 18. The conversation gets playful and practical, moving from trench composting with volunteers to the limits of countertop devices like the Lomi and the mill. 19. This is an interview with Jessica Murnane that mixes instruction, humor, and side conversations about parties, neighbors, and internet gossip. 20. People who like gardening, low-waste living, and strange internet trends will get the most from it; people wanting only hard science or aliens alone may skip it.

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