247 - Feeding the Future (feat. Nicole Negowetti)
Cultures of Energy
We kick things off this week with a short but heartfelt celebration of the tenth anniversary of the podcast. Several friends—Geoff Bowker, Heather Davis, Imre Szeman, John Grzinich, Karen Pinkus and Tim Morton—drop in to share thoughts about what’s urgent to think and feel in energy and environmental humanities these days. Then (34:00) Cymene welcomes lawyer-scholar-activist to speak about her new book, (Georgtown U Press, 2026) and its spotlight on regenerative food practices and the role that communities worldwide are playing in transforming the global food system. Hang in there,...
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246 - Radioactive Governance (feat. Maxime Polleri)
Cultures of Energy
Happy 2026! It’s been quite a year so far and your co-hosts talk about their recent trip to Nicaragua and Shadow’s reinvention as a fly assassin. Then (17:18) we welcome to the conversation to talk about his fascinating new book The Politics of Revitalization in Post-Fukushima Japan (NYU Press, 2025). We begin with the 2011 Fukushima earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster and the role that luck played in preventing 14 core meltdowns instead of the 3 that actually happened. From there, Maxime takes us into the center of his argument about the politics of post-disaster recovery in...
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245 - 2025 Year in Review (feat. AI ;)
Cultures of Energy
Neither headcolds nor hangovers will keep your plucky co-hosts from bringing you one more episode for 2025. Since this is supposedly the year of AI, we let ChatGPT create a Year in Review episode structure and ask us questions about energy and environmental matters in 2025. The whole thing goes off the rails pretty quickly, descending into what Cymene calls “technocratic Mad Libs”. And then compounding that error, we also invited an AI voice editor program to help edit the episode. That program obviously didn’t like our laughter or our banter or the critical things we kept saying about...
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244 – Energy Transition (feat. Jean-Baptiste Fressoz)
Cultures of Energy
In honor of cookie week, your co-hosts tackle an age-old question: are brownies cookies are not? Then we process the fact that next month will be the 10th anniversary of Cultures of Energy (wow!) Thereafter (11:51) we welcome the terrific Jean-Baptiste Fressoz to the podcast to discuss his provocative and fascinating new book : An All-Consuming History of Energy (Penguin, 2025) and its core argument that “energy transition” is a fiction. We begin with JB’s unease with the dominant historiography of energy and its tendency to focus on change rather than accumulation and move from there to...
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243 - Oil and Intimacy (feat. Chelsea Schields)
Cultures of Energy
Cymene and Dominic recount a pleasant business trip to New Orleans including a mild bout of Satanic panic. Then (9:10) we are joined by the delightful to talk about her recent book, (U California Press, 2023). We begin with how research in Aruba and Curacao led her to contemplate the ubiquity of oil’s presence in the Caribbean and to shine a spotlight on refineries alongside sites of extraction. We talk about how the management of sexuality and desire became key to the organization of oil labor in the region as well as to the protection of middle-class whiteness and its nuclear family...
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242 – Living Minerals (feat. Javiera Barandiarán)
Cultures of Energy
Dominic and Cymene begin with the war on Chicago and Kelly Hayes’s amazing essay, “” which everyone should read. Then (15:20) we welcome Javiera Barandiarán to the podcast to talk about her new book, (MIT Press, 2025), and what Javiera loves about the element of lithium. We discuss lithium’s futurity and multiplicity, why Javiera thinks it’s wrong to think about lithium as a single thing. From there, we talk about lithium’s role in nuclear fusion, what rights of nature minerals should enjoy, and why so many people believe minerals create wealth. Then we wrap up with Javiera’s...
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241 - Militant Chemistry (feat. Alice Lovejoy)
Cultures of Energy
Dominic and Cymene talk about AI and other chowhounds to kick off this week’s podcast. Then (12:46) we welcome the wonderful to talk about her new book (U California Press, 2025). We begin with the materiality of early film and how it became intertwined with the industry of chemical warfare. At stake in the making of this militant chemical complex was chemistry’s fundamental principle of transformation, which brought materials like film into close alignment with a burgeoning plastics industry. We move from there to talking about the forms of expertise involved in militant chemistry, the...
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240 - Carbon Banking (feat. Ben Luzzatto & Gustav Peebles)
Cultures of Energy
We begin this episode with a shoutout to our friends at the Canadian Centre for Architecture () and try to settle once and for all the Montreal vs New York bagel question. Then (13:58) we welcome to the pod old friends and new co-authors and to talk about their new book, (MIT Press, 2025). We start with their that the history of the monetary gold standard could be reconceived as a beta test for a new carbon banking paradigm to draw down atmospheric carbon, convert it into biochar and sequester it in a Fort Knox of sorts. But what about carbon’s earthly abundance and lack of charismatic...
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239 - Carbon Capital (feat. Sean Field)
Cultures of Energy
There be tales of two Sean Fields on this week’s podcast. Happily, we are only welcoming (8:56) the smart and accomplished to the podcast to talk about his pathbreaking new ethnography of oil and finance, (NYU Press, 2025). We begin with why it matters to understand the moral landscape and ethical values of oil investment. From there, the conversation evolves to include oil and Christianity, the intersection of value and values, why the oil industry “inhales capital” and how private equity firms helped US oil and gas industry explode in size. We dig into how both finance and oil...
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238 - Thinking Like a Climate (feat. Hannah Knox)
Cultures of Energy
Cymene and Dominic talk about screamo music and the band Phish and how you can’t fake the feels on this week’s intro to the podcast. Then (13:07) expert in all things Mancunian, the great and wondrous Hannah Knox joins the conversation to discuss her recent book : Governing a City in Times of Environmental Change (Duke UP). Hannah explains to us how climate change has challenged both the concepts and methods of urban governance and how governmental and non-governmental experts in Manchester have sought to come to terms with the scope of the problem. We talk carbon footprints, emissions...
info_outlineCymene and Dominic check in briefly from Italy on this week's podcast, begging your pardon for the lack of a guest and the double-helping of co-host chat time. But there is an Italian train-to-convent adventure to share as well as an update from this week Undercurrents conference in Venice and thoughts on season 2 of The Rehearsal. Back in two weeks with more excellent guests!