Episode Summary:

This week, I sat down with Ben Inskeep from Citizens Action Coalition, someone I've followed on Twitter for a while and who always gets me riled up about data centers. We got into the environmental toll, the grid risks, the sad math on jobs per megawatt, and the deeper AI conversation around stolen labor, harmful use cases, and who actually benefits.

Sponsor:

City Rising — cityrising.org

Music:

Jennasen — "Scared Rabbit"

Timestamps:

00:00 – Intro

01:24 – Meet Ben & CAC

08:52 – Environmental & grid impact of data centers

13:56 – Jobs vs. power consumption

16:07 – AI, copyright & slop

18:03 – AI harms

22:31 – Legitimate AI uses & the hype bubble

26:41 – Economic fallout of automation

30:35 – Grok, Memphis & environmental injustice

34:23 – Subsidies & lack of transparency

39:20 – Moratoriums & local fights

41:49 – How to get involved

46:00 – Politicians dismissing opposition

47:47 – Sponsor break

48:19 – Third spaces & libraries

54:06 – Rapid-fire: previous guest's question, Luddites, final thoughts

1:01:06 – Sign-off