Building Local Power

The third episode in the Building Local Power, The New Class series finds us talking to North Carolina State Rep Dante Pittman, recently elected to represent his hometown of Wilson, NC and the surrounding Wilson County. From municipal fiber broadband to monumental folk art, Wilson has never shied away from innovative ideas. Those ideas, and the dynamic leaders who embraced them, have led to a rare thing: a small city in the rural South that is showing promising growth. Rural America has lagged far behind big cities in economically recovering from the Coronavirus Pandemic, slowing growth across the region. In a lively conversation, Pittman shares the ways Wilson has found ways to buck that trend and attract new residents, support its businesses, and create robust communities. Further, Pittman shares his strategies for encouraging that growth from his new seat in the North Carolina Statehouse. For the full transcript and related resources, visit the episode page: https://ilsr.org/articles/blp-taking-a-risk-for-rural-economic-growth

The second episode in the Building Local Power, The New Class series finds us talking to Baltimore City Councilman Zac Blanchard, who recently won a tight race to unseat his District 11's incumbent. Blanchard, a Marine vet and father of two young children, got his political start joining and eventually leading neighborhood associations. That experience, combined with his love for Baltimore, influenced his political philosophy and will guide him during his city council tenure. In this episode's wide-ranging conversation, Blanchard and host Danny Caine discuss Baltimore's challenges while also unpacking what makes Baltimore such a uniquely beautiful place. Blanchard shares his thoughts on the city's architecture and character and his journey to calling Baltimore home and eventually representing the key 11th District, which contains significant parts of Downtown and the iconic Inner Harbor. He also weighs in on the city's worst-in-the-nation heat island problem, driven by the presence of large trash incinerators within city limits. Other topics addressed include internet connectivity, highway removal, and the importance of bringing grocery stores to Baltimore's walkable neighborhoods. For the full transcript and related resources, visit the episode page: https://ilsr.org/articles/blp-from-neighborhood-streets-to-city-hall

This episode is the first in our new season of Building Local Power, The New Class, where we are talking to interesting changemakers among the state and local politicians newly elected in November 2024. Our first guest is Tristan Rader, representing District 13 in Ohio's House of Representatives. District 13, which is host Danny Caine's district, covers the near-West Side of Cleveland as well as the inner-ring suburb of Lakewood. Rader's experiences range from working with the Cleveland Food Bank to Bernie Sanders' 2016 campaign to Lakewood City Council. On this episode, Rader weighs in on what makes Cleveland great and why organized labor is a vital part of that history. We also talk about local energy, taxation, and how exactly large corporations took such control of Ohio's economic policy. A through-line of the discussion is how Ohio's Republican supermajority shapes state politics and how Rader hopes to successfully fight for change in the district he represents. For the full transcript and related resources, visit the episode page: https://ilsr.org/articles/blp-staying-local-at-the-statehouse

The inspiration for this season of Building Local Power is ILSR's Power Play report, written by ILSR senior editor and researcher Susan Holmberg. Sue joins us today for a wide-ranging and candid conversation about the report and its main finding: that monopolies leverage systemic racism to build and retain their power. Our conversation ties together the previous conversations in our Power Play series, from organizing an Amazon warehouse to consumer redlining to the inequitable environmental harm of AI data centers. Sue discusses the monstrous costs of monopoly power to communities of color and the interconnected ways corporate power can ensnare these communities. But it's not all doom and gloom. Sue, like her report, has much to say about legislative and community fixes to the problem of monopoly power and structural racism. If you want to know not only how monopolies damage communities of color but also how to fix it, this conversation is a must-listen. For the full transcript and related resources, visit the episode page: https://ilsr.org/articles/blp-structural-racism-fuels-american-monopolies

AI technology and large language models are growing in popularity. Also growing is the technology's detrimental effect on the environment. Each query into ChatGPT, to use one example, requires billions of calculations. Multiply that by millions of users, and suddenly, tech companies need to greatly expand their computing power in the form of new, energy-draining data centers. Each of those centers requires staggering amounts of fresh water to keep its servers cool. By some estimates, just 10 ChatGPT queries are equivalent to evaporating a 16oz bottle of water. For context, the popularity of these queries has resulted in one of the major technology companies now having the same annual water consumption as PepsiCo. Joining us on Building Local Power to discuss what this all means is UC Riverside professor Dr. Shaolei Ren. Continuing our series exploring how monopolies exploit structural racism to gain monopoly power, Ren not only outlines the environmental effects of AI but also explains how data center location decisions by Big Tech companies exacerbate environmental inequity. Almost all of the counties most affected by AI's climate harms are low-income communities and Black communities. What can policymakers and the public do? Ren has ideas for that, too, as he pushes for what he calls "health-informed computing." For the full transcript and related resources, visit the episode page: https://ilsr.org/articles/blp-environmental-inequity-of-ai

ILSR co-executive directors Stacy Mitchell and John Farrell join Reggie Rucker to discuss the year in ILSR and the issues we care about. What did the media get wrong about the economy in the lead-up to the election? How can voter frustration turn into positive political change? Will we ever move past "change elections?" Will the antitrust revival last through the next four years? How can states and cities fight corporate consolidation and monopoly power? What victories did the antitrust movement see in 2024, and how can we replicate that success in the future? And how can ILSR help? All of these questions and much, much more come up in this in-depth and far-reaching conversation between ILSR's fearless leaders. Building Local Power's special year-end 2024 recap episode charts how we got to this moment, and what the path ahead can look like. For the full transcript and related resources, visit the episode page: https://ilsr.org/articles/blp-a-rebalancing-act

AI technology and large language models are growing in popularity. Also growing is the technology's detrimental effect on the environment. Each query into ChatGPT, to use one example, requires billions of calculations. Multiply that by millions of users, and suddenly, tech companies need to greatly expand their computing power in the form of new, energy-draining data centers. Each of those centers requires staggering amounts of fresh water to keep its servers cool. By some estimates, just 10 ChatGPT queries are equivalent to evaporating a 16oz bottle of water. For context, the popularity of these queries has resulted in one of the major technology companies now having the same annual water consumption as PepsiCo. Joining us on Building Local Power to discuss what this all means is UC Riverside professor Dr. Shaolei Ren. Continuing our series exploring how monopolies exploit structural racism to gain monopoly power, Ren not only outlines the environmental effects of AI but also explains how data center location decisions by Big Tech companies exacerbate environmental inequity. Almost all of the counties most affected by AI's climate harms are low-income communities and Black communities. What can policymakers and the public do? Ren has ideas for that, too, as he pushes for what he calls "health-informed computing." For the full transcript and related resources, visit the episode page: https://ilsr.org/articles/blp-environmental-inequity-of-ai

In March, 2020, Amazon warehouse worker Chris Smalls led a walkout protesting a lack of Covid-19 safety measures at the JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island. He was fired two hours later. In the following days, a leaked memo revealed that the Amazon c-suite (including Jeff Bezos) was planning to discredit Smalls by racially scapegoating him. When aspiring documentarian Mars Verrone heard the story, they sent an Instagram DM to Smalls asking about the prospect of turning his story into a movie. Now, three years later, that movie is here: the acclaimed new documentary Union, which chronicles Smalls' successful efforts to unionize JFK8. For this episode of Building Local Power, Verrone joins us to share the story of Union's creation, as well as the challenges distributing a film like this. They also provide insights into the role that race plays in the story of Chris Smalls and the labor struggle in general. This lively and memorable conversation is the second in our series of episodes about race and monopoly power. For the full transcript and related resources, visit ilsr.org: https://ilsr.org/articles/filming-the-amazon-labor-fight

For many years, Reverend Ryan Brown has been a picker at Amazon's RDU1 warehouse outside of Raleigh, NC. In 2020, he was asked to work in a part of the warehouse he knew was a dangerous COVID hot spot. He refused, calling his decision to do so a "Rosa Parks moment." In the immediate aftermath, Reverend Ryan and some comrades founded Amazon CAUSE (Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment) and began campaigning to unionize RDU1. In this episode, Reverend Ryan and fellow CAUSE organizer Adam Stromme join host Danny Caine for a lively discussion of their unionizing efforts. Running through the conversation is the truth that systemic racism is deeply intertwined with the labor struggles at Amazon's warehouses. It's the first episode in a series inspired by ILSR's Power Play report, exploring how monopolies exploit systemic racism to build and maintain their power. For the full transcript and related resources, visit the episode page: https://ilsr.org/articles/blp-amazon-labor-and-race