The BREAK—DOWN
by The Break—Down
Latest episode
Data Centres and Growth Mindsets w/ Paris Marx
Data Centres and Growth Mindsets w/ Paris Marx
About this podcast
The BREAK—DOWN asks how capitalism both shapes, and is being reshaped by, the climate and nature crisis.
We are a not-for-profit initiative, and our work is made possible by our listeners and readers—to support us, go to www.break-down.org/subscribe-now/
Episodes
- Data Centres and Growth Mindsets w/ Paris Marx · 54 minADRIENNE BULLER and PARIS MARX break down the AI and data centre boom, from the thirst for land, energy and water to the fantasies of Silicon Valley scions. From the material…
- LIVE: The Mineral Age with Isabel Estevez and Emily Iona Stewart · 41 minThe supply and control of "critical mineral" supply chains is now a defining political issue, as the pace of the energy transition collides with rising militarism, geopolitical…
- Understanding China w/Tim Sahay, Li Shuo and Jeremy Wallace · 41 minIt is by now all but impossible to have a meaningful conversation about climate politics without including China. At the same time, misunderstandings and the astonishing pace of…
- A Crisis of Ideas w/Joel Wainwright · 56 min"The Left is in a serious crisis of ideas." Those are the simple and fairly damning words with which our guest, Joel Wainwright, opened his interview with our Editor Adrienne…
- Latin America Turns Right – Guillaume Long on the Politics of Extraction and US imperialism in South America · 59 minIn April this year, the Colombian city of Santa Marta hosted the first Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels. The conference was a landmark gathering which sought to…
- CONTINENTAL SHIFT Ep 4: Extraction North of Empire · 54 minIn Canada, intensive resource extraction has long been baked into the country’s political economy and, arguably, to nation-building itself. Resource booms and policy choices have…
- CONTINENTAL SHIFT Ep 3: Extraction South of Empire · 51 minThe ratification of NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) in 1994 transformed Mexico in profound ways. Over the next thirty years it deepened and expanded the resource…
- CONTINENTAL SHIFT Ep 2: A (Not So) New Gold Rush · 54 minThe term “critical minerals" suddenly seems to be all over the headlines. Securing access to this group of commodities, from familiar metals like lithium and copper to more…
- CONTINENTAL SHIFT Ep 1: Free Market Fictions and Trade Frictions · 1 h 6 minWelcome to Continential Shift, a series from The Break—Down and Geopolitical Ecology, where we examine the global rush for critical minerals and the struggle for resource…
- LIVE: War and Peace in a Warming World w/Adam Hanieh, Guillaume Long, Samar Al-Bulushi and Lorah Steichen · 1 h 6 minOn Friday 26 June, The BREAK—DOWN, Transition Security Project, and King’s College London co-hosted a public panel called “Securing The Future? War and Peace in a Warming World”…
- Iran, Oil and Empire w/Laleh Khalili · 1 h 6 minLast night, after more than 100 days since the US and Israel went to war against Iran, the US and Iran reached a partial framework for peace. When the war began at the end of…
- LIVE: Airborne Launch w/ Geoff Mann, Daniela Gabor and Oliver Eagleton · 59 minWe're celebrating the launch of The BREAK—DOWN's spring issue, Airborne! On May 6th, we hosted a live podcast where Adrienne Buller was joined by Geoff Mann, Daniela Gabor and…
- The Billionaire Machine w/ Hettie O'Brien · 49 minYou may never have heard of private equity firms like Blackstone, KKR, Bain Capital or the Carlyle Group, but in recent decades they have quietly become some of the most powerful…
- Nuclear is Not the Solution w/M.V. Ramana · 49 minIn the mid-20th century, nuclear energy was seen as the technology of the future. Then, questions about its environmental impact and waste, alongside crises like Chernobyl and…
- How Wall St. Gambles on Your Future w/Ann Pettifor · 1 h 5 minWe’ve all heard it before: any time a politician tries to put forward a policy that might finally improve people’s lives—think Mamdani's fast free buses, affordable homes, or…
- Beyond Techno-Optimism w/ David Edgerton · 46 minThe history of the climate crisis is often told as a story about technology. Growing out of the dark satanic mills of the Industrial Revolution, and accelerating along with new…
- Free Gifts w/Alyssa Battistoni · 56 minCapitalism is often defended on the basis of freedom — “free markets”, free choice, as well as being credited with producing the wealth and material abundance that has freed…
- Survival of the Greenest w/Amir Lebdioui · 46 minWe hear a lot about “sustainable development”—it’s the buzzword of virtually every UN convening—but often with little clarity on what it means in practice. Countries like the US…
- Lula’s Dilemma w/ Sabrina Fernandes · 52 minWhen Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, or Lula, was re-elected as the President of Brazil in 2022, defeating Jair Bolsonaro in a tense election, the Brazilian left and many around the…
- LIVE: The Afterlives of Neoliberalism w/ Quinn Slobodian and Geoff Mann · 58 minTo celebrate the launch of The BREAK—DOWN ISSUE #1, editor Adrienne Buller was joined by Quinn Slobodian and Geoff Mann for a timely conversation on the afterlives of…
- Legacies of Empire w/ Kojo Koram · 51 min · Episode 19In much of the media, the importance of the legacies of empire and colonialism are often dismissed, with the public conversation dominated by the "culture war" elements, from…
- Capitalism Without Growth? w/ Hans Stegeman · 43 min · Episode 18Around the world, politics is incredibly polarised, but if there’s one thing politicians of all major parties can agree on, it’s growth — that their political rivals failed to…
- Year in Review: A Macrodose x Break Down Crossover · 43 minA lot has happened in the six months since we launched this project. It feels like every week of 2024 has packed a decade’s worth of news. In just the past few weeks, we've seen…
- After Overshoot w/ Andreas Malm · 43 min · Episode 16In 2024, we’re set to break a major climate threshold for the first time: this will be the first calendar year in which global average temperatures breach the 1.5 degree Celsius…
- Climate Change as Class War w/ Matt Huber · 1 h 0 min · Episode 15In the wake of the US election, hot takes and autopsies of the Democrats’ fairly spectacular loss are a dime a dozen. Amid the swirl of diagnoses there has also been real fear…
- US Election Special w/ Kate Aronoff and Waleed Shahid · 47 min · Episode 14Amid the threat of “Project 2025”, ongoing genocide in Gaza, and a nation-wide battle over reproductive rights, to name a few major issues, the climate crisis has been…
- Cycles of Extraction: Ecuador, Oil and the IMF w/ Andrés Arauz · 35 min · Episode 13In a 2023 referendum, the people of Ecuador voted 59 per cent to 41 per cent to stop exploiting oil in the Yasuní region, one of the most biodiverse places on Earth, with more…
- Reaping What We Sow w/ Sonali McDermid · 49 min · Episode 12We have become incredibly good at producing food. In doing so we have transformed our planet. Yet when we go to the supermarket or eat at a restaurant, the supply chains, labour…
- Utopia and Crisis w/ Kim Stanley Robinson · 55 min · Episode 11In a 2004 essay for the New Left Review, theorist and literary critic Fredric Jameson wrote: “Utopias are non-fictional, even though they are also non-existent. Utopias in fact…
- Public Energy No. 1 w/ Chris Hayes and Melanie Brusseler · 56 min · Episode 10Followers of The Break Down may remember our very first episode, in which Adrienne spoke to the brilliant Brett Christophers about the many and varied reasons why — despite all…
- The End of Liberalism? w/ Chris Shaw · 47 min · Episode 9As a listener of The Break Down, chances are you’re living in a political system that could be defined as “liberal”. But what does “liberalism” really describe? Is it about…
- 7: Political Futures w/ Geoff Mann · 54 min · Episode 8"To the question how shall we ever be able to extricate ourselves from the obvious insanity of this position, there is no answer.” These words were written fifty years ago by…
- The Climate Impact of Military Power w/ Khem Rogaly · 47 min · Episode 7If you listen to this podcast, chances are you’ve heard of the global target of “net zero emissions” by 2050. You’ve probably also heard about how off track we are from meeting…
- The Invisible Code of Capitalism w/ Katharina Pistor · 48 min · Episode 6Capitalism could not exist without the power and structure of the law — that’s the simple but radical argument made by my guest today, Katharina Pistor, law professor at Columbia…
- What Economics Gets Wrong About Climate Change w/ Ha-Joon Chang · 53 min · Episode 5What would you say a human life is worth? According to the US government, for an American it’s about $7.2 million, compared with the global average of approximately $1.3 million…
- In Pursuit of Climate Justice w/ Fredi Otto · 46 min · Episode 4“The stakes could not be higher.” These are the recent words not of climate activists, but of a coalition representing major oil and gas companies in a letter to the US Supreme…
- Special Episode: Oil, Palestine and Climate Crisis w/ Adam Hanieh · 32 min · Episode 3In this special episode, Adam Hanieh explains the threads linking the global oil economy; more than a century of Western imperialism; contemporary American interests in the…
- A World Made of Oil w/ Adam Hanieh · 1 h 5 min · Episode 2Oil is fundamental to our understanding of the climate crisis. But despite its starring role, the dominance of oil in the global energy system is a relatively recent phenomenon…
- The Price is Wrong w/ Brett Christophers · 1 h 28 min · Episode 1Renewable energy is often held up as the great success story of climate change, with policymakers and journalists constantly celebrating that clean energy is now cheaper than…
