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!

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 Candace Fujikane 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.

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 here. Hang in there, everyone, peace and love.

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, What’s Wrong with Rights? 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:

https://framerframed.nl/en/dossier/boekwinkel-selectie-court-for-intergenerational-climate-crimes/

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:

https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/whats-on/court-for-intergenerational-climate-crimes-cicc/

Hang in there, everyone, peace and love.

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 here). 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 Climate and Community Institute, 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.

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 😊

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 Jamie Jones to the podcast to talk about her new book, Rendered Obsolete (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 ❤️

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 Myles Lennon (Brown University) to the podcast to talk about his new book, Subjects of the Sun. 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 ❤️

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: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5VjbVDQw0dz1VH3t9gOF1K?si=fmDpMfT3TsyWwb-AzyuYfw&pi=6lp9H1kWT6ie8

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.