Cultures of Energy
Cultures of Energy brings writers, artists and scholars together to talk, think and feel their way into the Anthropocene. We cover serious issues like climate change, species extinction and energy transition. But we also try to confront seemingly huge and insurmountable problems with insight, creativity and laughter. We believe in the possibility of personal and cultural change. And we believe that the arts and humanities can help guide us toward a more sustainable future. Cultures of Energy is a Mingomena Media production. Co-hosts are @DominicBoyer and @CymeneHowe
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235 - Forever Chemicals (feat. Rachel Frazin)
08/03/2025
235 - Forever Chemicals (feat. Rachel Frazin)
Dominic gives a quick update from the frontlines of home repair. Then (3:30) we welcome an energy and environmental reporter from The Hill to the podcast to talk about her new book, together with Sharon Udasin, How Forever Chemicals Contaminated America (Island Press, 2025). We start with the basics: what forever chemicals and PFAS are, where they came from and when it first became clear that they could have devastating health impacts. We move from there to why, even though 97% of Americans have PFAS in their blood, Rachel sees this as a global problem and discuss some of the powerful and tragic personal stories covered in the book. We then talk about the failures of the regulatory state that allowed the PFAS epidemic to get so out of hand and various efforts to bring the originators of PFAS to justice. Finally, Rachel offers some very helpful thoughts about what people can do to keep PFAS out of their lives and bodies. You can find Rachel on , and and if you have a forever chemicals story of your own you can reach her at The Hill at
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234 - Failed States (feat. Imre Szeman)
07/21/2025
234 - Failed States (feat. Imre Szeman)
Dominic reports briefly on how your co-hosts returned home to their own personal Hurricane Harvey. Then (4:20) returns to the podcast to talk about his new book Futures of the Sun: The Struggle Over Renewable Life (University of Minnesota Press, 2024), a marvelous analysis of the narratives that shape how we conceive of, and experience, energy futures. Imre explains how the book is as much about failed states as it is about renewable energy and highlights the struggle over who gets to define “common sense” as a central feature of politics today. Imre talks about the tech barons who have wriggled out of the cracks of state failure to promote technofeudalist politics. And then we turn to about the generational character of climate politics and the seemingly increasingly insane quality of populist politics. We close with what Imre is up to these days, including his work with the Canadian Green Party and his new position as Director of the at the University of Toronto Scarborough. Hang in there, everyone, peace and love.
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233 - The Abyss (feat. Stacy Alaimo)
07/05/2025
233 - The Abyss (feat. Stacy Alaimo)
Cymene and Dominic report from Berlin, a land of feisty wasps (which are possibly bees) and haunted lakes. Then (16:38) we are so thrilled to welcome Queen of Ecodelia, Stacy Alaimo back to the podcast to discuss her brand new book The Abyss Stares Back: Encounters with Deep-Sea Life (U Minnesota Press, 2025). We talk about the history of the deep sea as a space of military, capitalist and scientific interest as well as a place of wonder and reflection. Stacy explains that the question of what it would take to provoke concern about life at the bottom of the sea inspired the project and why she became interested in creaturely aesthetics as a way of exploring the deep sea. We talk about the oceanic abyss as experimental space and foil for the extraterrestrial abyss and the critical potential of focusing on the richness of abyssal earthly life in contrast to the hypermasculinist mineral fantasies imposed on places like Mars. From there we talk about jellyfish and suffrage, the virtues of staying ignorant in the interpretive process, the limits of the sublime as analytic, and, of course, the importance of practicing ecodelia against the Anthropocene. What deep sea creature is Stacy eyeing for her next incarnation? You’ll have to listen to find out!
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232 - Lithium (feat. Mark Goodale)
06/21/2025
232 - Lithium (feat. Mark Goodale)
Cymene and Dominic report from the most sus tourist apartment in Barcelona. Then (15:48) we are delighted to welcome to the pod talk about his forthcoming book about the Bolivian lithium boom, : Lithium in an era of Transition (U California Press, 2025). We start with the long history of extractivism in Bolivia, and why he found the concept of assemblage helpful to think with in characterizing the Bolivian lithium project today. We turn from there to Mark’s concept of “flexible extractivism” and how extractivist practices are being reabsorbed into a model of productive sovereignty that in turn is deeply invested in Bolivia’s history of gas exploration. We hear about the role that Silicon Valley types are playing in this process and talk about why the elemental form of lithium matters. We close with the ways in which the green energy transition extends the logic of the petrostate and how we can strive for more livable meso-worlds. Hang in there, everyone, peace and love.
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231 - Drifting (feat. Rafico Ruiz)
06/06/2025
231 - Drifting (feat. Rafico Ruiz)
Dominic and Cymene complete their stint in paradise on this week’s podcast. We review some highlights from the final lap including multispecies erotica (snail edition) and Cymene’s first karaoke performance. Then (19:04) we are thrilled to welcome Rafico Ruiz () to the conversation, the author of Slow Disturbance (Duke UP, 2021) who is finalizing a new book project Phase State Earth, which uses the different phase states of water to track the impact of shifting climatological conditions upon the earth. Rafi explains how a chance encounter with a bottle of water got him interested in ice and tells us the unbelievable story of a 1970s plan to tow icebergs to Saudi Arabia and what it says about resource imaginaries and water crises then and now. We move from there to talking about carbon subjects, climate change and global warming as a new settler in the Arctic. We hear about a new project, Arctic Infrastructures: A Damaged Field Guide and its experimental take on communicative infrastructure. Then we close talk about drifting, temperate privilege and the importance of recognizing Indigenous sovereignty claims in the North.
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230 - Intermission
05/24/2025
230 - Intermission
Cymene 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!
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229 - Abundance (feat. Candace Fujikane)
05/10/2025
229 - Abundance (feat. Candace Fujikane)
Cymene and Dominic arrive in Italy just in time for the naming of another Chicagoan as pope and discover the wonders of street to table cuisine. Then (15:41) we welcome the amazing to the podcast to talk about her book Mapping Abundance for a Planetary Future: Kanaka Maoli and Critical Settler Cartographies in Hawai’i (Duke University Press, 2021). We start with the Hawaiian conception of abundance and why capitalism fears it. From there we move to mapping as narrative, how old maps can aid struggles for environmental justice and regeneration and the friction between laws of private property and the laws of akua (the elemental forms of the world). We discuss the powers of recognition that the earth holds, the way the settler military complex in Hawai’i threatens water and lives, and how programs of mutual care take better care of us than national security measures. We wrap up by talking about the Hawai’ian practice of kilo—keen observation of the world—and how its practitioners help us to understand phenomena like climate change and the elements.
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228 - Noise (feat. Marina Peterson)
04/25/2025
228 - Noise (feat. Marina Peterson)
Cymene tells us about her struggles to get a passing grade in art class in this week’s podcast. And then (15:20) we welcome a dear friend, Marina Peterson from UT-Austin, to the podcast. We start with her book Atmospheric Noise: The Indefinite Urbanism of Los Angeles (Duke UP) and its study of the making of atmospheres and noise pollution and how it helps us to attune to less earthbound dimensions of cities. We talk about her idea of using glitches to navigate the boundaries of science, art and ethnography. And we turn from there to new projects on cloud-seeding in LA, how the elements impact urban existence, folding and frequency. More on Yum Yum . Hang in there, everyone, peace and love.
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227 – The Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes (feat. Radha D’Souza and Jonas Staal)
04/11/2025
227 – The Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes (feat. Radha D’Souza and Jonas Staal)
Cymene communes with Californian nature (slugs and all) on this edition of the podcast. Then (14:33) we welcome Radha D’Souza and Jonas Staal to the podcast to talk about their amazing project, the Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes (CICC). The CICC aims to put the law itself on trial by creating new laws and juridical mechanisms capable of actually holding states and corporations to account for their role in the climate emergency. We discuss Radha’s pathbreaking book, and how it traces modern rights discourse back to colonial principles and institutions. Jonas explains how organizational art can advance the cause of emancipatory politics through experiments like the CICC. Finally, we explore how it helps the climate struggle to understand that we have never left the colonial period and its pioneering military industrial and corporate state forms of governance. Please check out their book detailing our alternative legal framework and judgements: And here is the main link to the public hearings of the next iteration of the CICC happening right now in London, The British East India Company on Trial: Hang in there, everyone, peace and love.
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226 - Extraction (feat. Thea Riofrancos)
03/28/2025
226 - Extraction (feat. Thea Riofrancos)
Cymene and Dominic advise universities on how to handle blackmailers and wish a certain daughter a happy birthday on this sweet sixteen episode of the podcast. Then (13:40) Dominic chats with the brilliant Thea Riofrancos about her new book Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism (now available for pre-order from WW Norton ). We start with extraction as a difficult topic for the Left and then turn toward why people are talking so much about "critical minerals" of late. We discuss her travels to lithium frontiers like Chile and Nevada and Thea puts forth an important distinction between extraction and extractivism. Thea explains how resistance can be world-making, and how writing for broad audiences makes you a sharper theorist. We close with the backstory to one of her latest collaborative projects, the , how it grew out of pandemic-era efforts to catalyze a green stimulus, and how it now acts, among other things, to shape green policy and build supply-chain solidarity.
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225 - Bad Weather (feat. Jerry Zee)
03/13/2025
225 - Bad Weather (feat. Jerry Zee)
Even though Cymene and Dominic clearly dislike billionaires they sure seemed enchanted by pirate gold in this episode of the podcast. Then (16:44) we talk to Jerry Zee about where he got the idea to pursue a political anthropology of strange weather in China. We discuss his recent book Continent in Dust: Experiments in a Chinese Weather System (U California Press, 2022) and how sand becomes a “theory machine” as Jerry documents efforts by scientists to keep Chinese cities unburied by encroaching deserts. We talk about the Chinese concept of “wind sand” and how an ethnography of China looks different when it is focused on sky rather than land. We turn from there to how state socialism has been reorganizing itself in China in recent decades and the potential of socialist ecological civilization to become the next phase of Chinese socialism. We close with what bad weather can teach us about different modes of political collectivity and Jerry’s latest project on understanding the New Cold War between China and the USA through atmospheres, river systems and landscapes. Hang in there, folks, peace and love 😊
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224 - Peak (Whale) Oil
02/28/2025
224 - Peak (Whale) Oil
Dominic and Cymene bask in their new mics in this week’s podcast and talk about a new Glacier Graveyard installation coming soon to the UNESCO HQ in Paris. Then (15:55) we welcome to the podcast to talk about her new book, (U North Carolina Press, 2023). We talk to Jamie about how whale oil defined the historical context into which petroleum was born and contributed to a unified idea of “energy” as a market commodity. We then discuss Jamie’s argument that Melville’s Moby Dick is a peak (whale) oil novel. We discuss the shared vulnerability of working class humans and whales in extractive industry, whaling and imperialism, whether there are traces of the past worth recovering, narratives of energy obsolescence and white supremacy, and the many afterlives of whaling in American culture. Hang in there, good people of the pod, peace and love ❤️
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223 - Bringing solar back to earth (feat. Myles Lennon)
02/12/2025
223 - Bringing solar back to earth (feat. Myles Lennon)
Cymene gives us part one of a two-part story about her imminent return to the world of being tattooed and defends USAID while Dominic rants for a while about Democrats’ spinelessness as BigTechMaga organizes to eliminate both marginalized communities and the educated classes. Then (19:50) we welcome (Brown University) to the podcast to talk about his new book, . We start with the politics of sunlight and the built environment in New York City. We discuss how the ubiquity of screenwork influences how climate professionals think about solar energy by removing that energy from the social and material contexts in which it is made and deployed. From there we talk about the visual media associated with solar energy, the relationship between electricity and capitalism, the affective infrastructures of energy and we close discussing his new work on the paradox of liberation on stolen lands through Black land stewardship. Hang in there, good people of the pod, peace and love ❤️
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222 - Soul Train to Communism with Timothy Morton
01/29/2025
222 - Soul Train to Communism with Timothy Morton
Cultures of Energy is back and biweekly for 2025! Half interviews with bright and shiny people, half unlicensed therapy (for us anyway), half everything related to energy and environment issues. Today it’s podcasting against fascism with the spiritual guidance of our dear friend Timothy Morton. Dominic and Cymene see if they can think of something positive to say and then discuss Taylor Sheridan’s Landman so you don’t have to watch it very carefully. Then (17:00) Tim joins us to talk about the quiet truth of snowfall and how the sociopathy of cars led to the Internet. Next, we turn to how to reimagine communism as planet-scale collectivity while dealing with the narcissists who want to devour the world. We close with a few words on David Lynch and what his ability to juxtapose, vividly, beauty and nightmare might teach us about how to make paradise despite the hell of fascism. Hang in there, folks, peace and love 😊 PS Soul Train to Communism playlist now ready! Check it out at:
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221 - Planetarity Now! (with Jonathan Blake and Nils Gilman)
07/09/2024
221 - Planetarity Now! (with Jonathan Blake and Nils Gilman)
Dominic and Cymene are beaming to you this week from a European Cup-addled Berlin. They share a few reflections on their time in Cape Town and then ruminate on why it is it doesn’t seem possible to hate anyone from California. Is it the sunshine? As if to underscore this point about the essential good of Californians, we welcome to the podcast (15:55) two brilliant residents of the Golden State, Berggruen Institute based political philosophers Jonathan Blake and Nils Gilman to talk about their new book, Children of a Modest Star: Planetary Thinking for an Age of Crises (Stanford UP, 2024). We start with the concept of subsidiarity and why they view it as crucial to creating new kinds of political institutions capable of managing planetary challenges like climate change and health crises. They explain why it’s problematic that so much sovereignty is bound to the nation-state when the scale of planetary challenges exceeds nation-states. Similarly, we talk about how that disables multilateral institutions like the United Nations from engaging planetary challenges effectively too. From there we turn to the need for new supranational institutions to reign in corporate power, why they are not calling for a world government, the importance of planetary sapience and remote sensing and close with a discussion of why they emphasize the importance of multispecies flourishing in the project. Please listen, read and share!! ps Special shout out to Alex Gardels from Berggruen for engineering the recording of this week’s interview.
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220 - Design Earth (with Rania Ghosn)
05/24/2024
220 - Design Earth (with Rania Ghosn)
Cymene and Dominic recap last week’s Petrocultures Los Angeles conference and discuss the new filed in France seeking to press criminal charges against the CEO and directors of the French oil major TotalEnergies. Then (15:27) we welcome the brilliant and megatalented Rania Ghosn to the podcast. We start with the work of , Rania’s practice together with El Hadi Jazairy and how the collaboration began. Rania explains how Design Earth seeks to explore how design can help respond to the climate crisis and why they tend to work in a narrative or speculative mode. We discuss their strategies for cultivating what she calls “geostories” at the intersection of art, science and design. From there we move to talking about what energy means in the context of design, how the ruins of carbon modernity will haunt urbanism and landscapes for many years to come, speculative ecofeminist storytelling, and the art of making exquisite corpses. We close talking about what it means to inherit the world in all its crisis and how to learn to live in a time of collapse.
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219 - Climate Storytelling (with CNN's Bill Weir)
04/27/2024
219 - Climate Storytelling (with CNN's Bill Weir)
Dominic and Cymene react to the police violence sweeping across US university campuses. Then (15:11) we are thrilled to welcome CNN’s Chief Climate Correspondent, Bill Weir, to the podcast. We begin with the big news of the day—the landmark legal ruling by the European court of human rights that Switzerland had violated the human rights of more than 2,000 older Swiss women by failing to cut its national greenhouse gas emissions. Then, we dive into Bill’s great new book, (Chronicle Books 2024). We talk about how to balance nightmares and dreams in climate storytelling, techniques for building effective story arcs, the five stages of climate grief, and disrupting the idea that consumption leads to happiness. Bill explains the ideas of protopia and YIMBYism to us and emphasizes the need to act locally and with humility as he shares with us some of the more encouraging stories he’s encountered in his travels as a reporter. We close by discussing what Bill thinks has changed in terms of news coverage of climate change during the course of his long and storied career. Please listen and share!!
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218 - Solar Futures (with Siddharth Sareen)
03/17/2024
218 - Solar Futures (with Siddharth Sareen)
Cymene tries to convince Dominic to join the Freemasons on this episode of the Cultures of Energy podcast. Plus, a shallow dive into Buzkashi, the national sport of Tajikistan, the country that helped convince the UN to designate 2025 the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation. Then (13:22) we are thrilled to welcome Siddharth Sareen from U Stavanger, author of (Bristol U Press, 2024) and the winner of this year’s in Norway (go Sid!) We start with how Sid’s interests in energy research shifted from India to Portugal, an underappreciated star in solarity. We talk about the struggle between large scale solar and community solar in the context of aspirations toward a just energy transition. We discuss the environmental impact of solar and how it can be improved, and Sid explains why standards matter as solar becomes a more mature industry and how standards of commoning could help to constitute a better future for solar power. Finally, we discuss the need to pursue prefigurative politics as way of bringing more energy utopias into the world and allowing them to flourish.
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217 - A Song of Concrete and Ice (with Cristián Simonetti)
02/29/2024
217 - A Song of Concrete and Ice (with Cristián Simonetti)
Cymene accounts for her mysterious conversion from a coffee-drinker to a tea-drinker but [spoiler alert] it turns out she’s not a doppelganger after all. Then after some EV road trip talk (16:06) we are delighted to have Cristián Simonetti join us from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. We start with Cris’s research on concrete, one of the most abundant contemporary materials, and what it reveals about the course of the Anthropocene trajectory. From there we talk about the debate over the Anthropocene designation and how stratigraphers tend to petrify earth processes by valuing solids over fluids. From there we move to talking about ice and his interest in the viscosity of glaciers and soil. We circle back to concrete and how the Romans conceived of it as a solid fluid and as a conversation between the elements. Finally, we talk about the special role glaciers have played in the Chilean Anthropocene. Glaciers move like ketchup? Concrete is a colloid? For those and further revelations, please listen on!
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216 - Carbon Colonialism (with Laurie Parsons)
02/06/2024
216 - Carbon Colonialism (with Laurie Parsons)
Cymene arrives at the Covid party on this week’s episode and she’s got the sultry radio voice to prove it. We share a few words about a magnificent pug named Doug and Cymene discovers Russell Brand’s rightward "grift drift" to her horror. Then (18:58) we welcome Laurie Parsons to the podcast to talk about his excellent new book, Carbon Colonialism (Manchester U Press, 2023), which originated from his long-term research on the Cambodian garment industry. Laurie explains how when it comes to climate change we’re really not all in it together: carbon colonialism creates northern resource feasts and luxury at the expense of great climate and social vulnerability in the Global South. From this discussion of the deep inequalities in climate impacts, we move to the way the COP process has been perverted in recent years, the contested landscape of climate resilience, the low profitability of extraction, ignorance as green capital, and whether there is a pathway toward a non-extractive global economy. Laurie explains to us his skepticism about the idea of sustainable consumption and his feeling that we’ve entered the age of environmental sophistry. Finally, we discuss six myths that Laurie has identified that help to keep carbon colonialism going. Enjoy!
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215 - No More Fossils (with Cara Daggett)
01/24/2024
215 - No More Fossils (with Cara Daggett)
The Cultures of Energy podcast is back with the first of several new episodes for 2024. First, Cymene and Dominic share what they've learned from their very late arrival to watching the show Survivor and why Shadow, their 75% chihuahua, has never worked a day in her life and proudly so. Then (11:40) the main part of this week's episode is a conversation between Dominic and Cara Daggett () about his latest book No More Fossils (online Open Access edition here: . Many thanks to Maggie Sattler from U Minnesota Press for organizing the conversation and for a wonderful job of producing and editing the interview. Next episode coming soon: a report on a cross-country electric adventure and a conversation with Laurie Parsons about his new book Carbon Colonialism.
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214 - Oil Beach (with Christina Dunbar-Hester)
04/27/2023
214 - Oil Beach (with Christina Dunbar-Hester)
Dominic and Cymene start off with a review of the new Apple TV Cli-Fi series Extrapolations especially its killer walruses and then recap a chat with German climate activist Luisa Neubauer and former US National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy about how civilizational change is coming, either by design or by disaster. Then [23:51] we are thrilled to have USC’s Christina Dunbar-Hester join us on the podcast to talk about her new book Oil Beach (U Chicago Press, 2023), a study of toxic infrastructure and more-than-human relations in the Los Angeles port complex. We begin with how her interests in media became interests in energy and climate and how underneath silicon there is petroleum. Then, we turn to the challenges of seeing organismic life under the “lethal sublime” of petro/military/industrial infrastructure and to Christina’s concept of “infrastructural vitalism.” We ask: What if pipelines carried water instead of oil? How much of LA’s “green port” mythology is real? We close talking about what Christina means by trans-species supply chain justice” and how one of the LA ports’ greatest products is the making of scale itself. Enjoy, dear listeners, and remember that walruses will save us from all the evil villains of the Anthropocene.
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213 - The City Electric (with Michael Degani)
01/19/2023
213 - The City Electric (with Michael Degani)
Cymene and Dominic natter a bit about holiday misadventures and then (13:49) happily welcome Mike Degani (Cambridge U) to the podcast to talk about his new book, The City Electric (Duke UP 2022). We begin with how Mike became interested in electricity as an ethnographic object through experiencing power failures in Dar es Salaam. Then we talk about how electropolitics threads through various key moments in Tanzanian history. We turn to Tanzanian postsocialism, the durability of socialist habitus and how Mike’s concept of modal reasoning connects to the moral quandaries of neoliberal transition as well as to European and African conceptions of parasites. We move from there to illegal connections and pirate electricity, electricity as a mode of state intimacy, the electrified sensorium of the city, and northern fantasies of energy without consequences. We close on why getting infrastructure right is key to surviving the Anthropocene. Listen and enjoy!!
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212 – Carbon Technocracy (with Victor Seow)
11/08/2022
212 – Carbon Technocracy (with Victor Seow)
Cymene and Dominic relate tales from their harrowing weekend of having to deal with the absence of Henry Rollins in Black Flag and the presence of an active shooter down the block. Then (15:35) we welcome Harvard’s own Victor Seow to the podcast to discuss his remarkable book, Carbon Technocracy: Energy Regimes in Modern East Asia (U Chicago Press, 2022). We start with how studying labor migration in Manchuria first led him to the largest open coal mine in Asia, Fushun—now a pit with three times the excavated material of the Panama Canal—whose story became the crux of the book. We talk about Victor’s engagement with Tim Mitchell’s concept of “carbon democracy” and how some of Mitchell’s ideas about energy and politics were anticipated by Japanese administrators during their occupation of Manchuria. That gets us to chatting about the mechanization and automation of coal mining as a technopolitical responses aimed at managing potentially unruly coal miners. We cover the rise of petropolitics in the coal belt and the idea that coal could be made to serve the purposes of oil. We discuss the enduring allure of technocracy today as well as Victor’s observation that technocracies seldom achieve what they set out to achieve. What is a world in a mine? Is there such a thing as carbomelancholia among coal miners? Why does modern energy fear scarcity? These questions answered and more on today’s episode!
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211 - Half Earth Socialism (feat. Drew Pendergrass and Troy Vettese)
09/13/2022
211 - Half Earth Socialism (feat. Drew Pendergrass and Troy Vettese)
Cymene and Dominic talk about hauling ice, champagne socialism and the mystery of Viennetta cakes on this week’s intro. Then (16:07) we are joined by Troy Vettese, an environmental historian, and Drew Pendergrass, an environmental engineer, to talk about their bold and imaginative new book, Half-Earth Socialism: A Plan to Save the Future from Extinction, Climate Change and Pandemics (Verso 2022, ). We begin with the value of thinking in impractical ways and how utopian socialists past like Edward Bellamy, William Morris and Otto Neurath inspired this project. We discuss how high growth expectations have bedeviled planning in the past and talk about the flaws in the utopia of automated luxury socialism. Is capitalism an inherently irrational system? Does planning have irrational tendencies too? We cover where the idea to make a game version of the book came from (). We move from there to what the Left could stand to learn from the tactics of the neoliberal revolution, the necessity of utopian imagination for mass organizing, how intellectuals underestimate the readiness of the working class for change and much, much, more. Also please check out Drew and Troy’s Noema essay based on the book at:
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210 - Rights of Nature (feat. Daphina Misiedjan)
07/19/2022
210 - Rights of Nature (feat. Daphina Misiedjan)
Dominic and Cymene begin this week’s episode with a medley of Hawaiian experiences, everything from 25-foot waves to energy utopias to whether watching Sharknado can actually help someone overcome fear of sharks. Then, we welcome to the podcast the brilliant Dr. Daphina Misiedjan from Erasmus University Rotterdam () to help us better understand the evolving legal and cultural debates concerning Rights of Nature. Daphina surveys the places around the world where Rights of Nature has become an active political discussion, beginning with Ecuador and its pathbreaking constitutional recognition of Pachamama. We talk about the challenges Rights of Nature interventions face in overcoming European colonial law and legal principles like terra nullius that naturalize extractivist and individualistic property relations. We compare Rights of Nature movements to Universal Human Rights movements and discuss where rights meet obligations. We turn from there to Daphina’s research on Yemen, the first country projected to run out of drinking water. We talk about the ethical questions raised by endemic water shortages in places like Yemen, South Africa and California. We close on Daphina’s current work on climate justice in the Dutch Caribbean, where colonialism and climate change are intersecting in an increasingly troubling way. Enjoy!! P.S. Here's a teaser for our next episode:
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209 - Degrowth (feat. Timothée Parrique)
06/26/2022
209 - Degrowth (feat. Timothée Parrique)
Dominic and Cymene share first impressions of Honolulu and query why there are chickens everywhere. Then (16:50) we are thrilled to welcome economist Timothée Parrique ( @timparrique) to the podcast to bring us up to speed with the latest news from ecological economics and its signature degrowth paradigm. We start with the basics. There’s more talk about degrowth now than ever before. But what are degrowth proponents really advocating? Timothée explains how degrowth is not meant to deprive poorer countries of prosperity, it’s best understood as a diet for countries already overshooting the world’s ecological carrying capacity. We talk about the problems with the “green growth” paradigm and how it usually just moves pollution around the planet despite the existence of a few decoupling unicorns. With the IPCC report mentioning degrowth for the first time in a recent report, is degrowth ready for the mainstream? What can the pandemic teach us about degrowth and the effort to distinguish the more and less essential parts of the economy” We talk about how the world can no longer afford the profligate emissions of the super-rich. And, finally, we discuss the cooperative economy movement and how it is already helping to create the better world that degrowth imagines.
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208 - Sarah Besky
04/20/2022
208 - Sarah Besky
Cymene and Dominic talk about flying chihuahuas and playground chamomile in this week’s intro. Then (12:26), we welcome Cornell’s Sarah Besky () to the podcast to talk about her latest book Tasting Qualities: The Past and Future of Tea (U California Press, 2020). We start with how and why Sarah first became interested in tea. From there we move on to the relationship between quality, distinction and standardization in Indian tea making. How did the experience of British colonialism shape the experiential qualities of tea? Has the digitization of tea auctions reinforced or disrupted those colonial trends? Sarah explains plantation sickness to us and why is it spreading. We talk about tea jitters and the chemical life of tea and why Sarah thinks about tea as a tentacular form. We close by discussing climate change and how it is impacting the Indian tea industry from monsoons to landslides. Enjoy!
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207 - Dilip da Cunha
03/30/2022
207 - Dilip da Cunha
Cymene and Dominic begin with a speculative analysis of malfunctional laptops. Then (11:32) we welcome the brilliant landscape architect Dilip da Cunha to the podcast to talk about his longstanding collaborative work with Anuradha Mathur on wetness, rivers, monsoons, estuaries and so much more (). Dilip explains how it was the Mississippi landscape that first got them thinking about rivers and how the representation of rivers impacts design. He encourages us to think wetness beyond the divide of land and water (and about rivers as the colonization of rain for the purposes of development). We move from there to how geometry precedes geography and the ancient roots of our terrestrial centrism. We discuss the supposed islandness of Mumbai and why Dilip and Anu think that Mumbai would be better described as an estuary in the monsoon. Dilip challenges the current “living with water” paradigm of imagining coastal communities in an era of sea level rise and explains why he thinks living creatively and agilely between clouds and aquifers might the better way of conceiving our wet future. We close on estuarian thinking and the need to develop a conceptual language beyond fair weather landscapes. This episode of Cultures of Energy is dedicated to the memory of Anuradha Mathur who passed away in the weeks between the recording of our conversation and its broadcasting.
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206 - Gail Simmons
03/10/2022
206 - Gail Simmons
Dominic and Cymene share a close encounter with a phantom raccoon and offer two ideas for sure-to-succeed new TV shows. Then (12:17) we are thrilled to welcome Gail Simmons—star judge of Bravo’s Emmy and James Beard-award winning show Top Chef as well as a food writer and culinary expert—to the show. We get started with how Gail‘s background in anthropology influenced her career. Speaking of cultures and cuisine, we ask whether non-western cuisines finally receiving the recognition and respect they are due from the world of fine dining. Do standards of taste still bear the imprint of colonial legacies? We talk food justice and insecurity and what is problematic about the concept of “food desert” as a way of talking about what might be better called “food apartheid.” We touch on the impact of climate change on the culinary industry and the stigma vegetarians still face in some restaurants. We close on why Top Chef finally decided to come to Houston, the most diverse city in America and what surprised and delighted Gail once she arrived. You can find this season’s run of Top Chef at: Enjoy!
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