Writer’s Voice: compelling conversations with authors who challenge, inspire, and inform.

This episode of Writer’s Voice features two leading voices confronting the defining challenges of the 21st century — corporate monopolization and climate breakdown.

Together, these conversations show that both the digital and planetary crises share a root cause — the concentration of power — and that the path forward lies in collective action, technological democratization, and the reclaiming of our common future.

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Key Words: Cory Doctorow, enshittification, Big Tech, Amazon, Google, Facebook, antitrust, AI bubble, Electronic Frontier Foundation, EFA, digital rights, surveillance capitalism, Bill McKibben, Here Comes The Sun, climate change, renewable energy, solar power, wind energy, batteries, climate justice, energy transition, balcony solar, climate hope

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READ THE TRANSCRIPT

Cory Doctorow unpacks the viral term he coined — enshittification — and the systemic forces that make once-beloved platforms like Amazon, Google, and Facebook “turn to crap.” He explains the three-stage process by which tech companies exploit users, businesses, and workers; how weakened antitrust enforcement and regulatory capture enabled the digital monopolies; and why true resistance requires organized collective action — not just individual boycotts.

“Publishers, users, advertisers — everyone’s getting it in the neck. That’s the third stage of enshittification.” — Cory Doctorow

He calls for stronger labor organizing among tech workers, international trade reforms that liberate users from proprietary tech restrictions, and a cultural shift away from “voting with our wallets” toward building movements for digital rights.

Digital monopolies • Platform decay • Antitrust • Monopsony • Labor rights in tech • AI hype cycle • Policy reform • Collective organizing • Electronic Frontier Foundation • Digital rights activism

Bill McKibben, one of the world’s most influential climate voices, returns with a message of hard-won optimism. In Here Comes The Sun, he argues that the falling cost of solar and wind power represents a “fresh chance for civilization.” For the first time, humanity has a scalable, affordable tool to curb the climate crisis.

“We’re seeing a faster energy transition than we’ve ever seen before with any fuel.” — Bill McKibben

McKibben outlines breakthrough examples — from California’s renewable tipping point to Pakistan’s citizen-led solar revolution — and explains how clean energy could decentralize power, undermine authoritarianism, and foster a more equitable world. He also warns that political backsliding under Trump threatens U.S. leadership and risks ceding economic primacy to China, even as global solar deployment accelerates.

Renewable energy revolution • Solar economics • Climate hope • Fossil fuel phase-out • Global energy transition • Geopolitics of solar • Just transition • Battery storage • Permitting reform • Third Act activism • Balcony solar • Citizen movements