Cultures of Energy

Dominic and Cymene marvel at April snow and the ice cream stylings of Ben and Jerry. Then (8:28) we welcome Dan Sosna to the podcast to discuss his new book, Europe's Disappearing Waste (Berghahn, 2026). We dive into his background in archaeology and what attracted him to landfill in the first place, how wastepicking can be viewed as a practice of "quiet sustainability", and the differences between circular economy as a bureaucratic project and an embodied project. We move from there to tech futurism's genocidal quality, what the effort to disappear waste really means and why landfill spaces have exhibited haunted, magnetic, strange qualities throughout history. Hang in there, everyone, peace and love.

Cymene and Dominic discuss what happened when ten art school kids were given a disney princess baking challenge on this week's episode of the podcast. Then (14:48) we welcome Casper Bruun Jensen to the pod to talk about a new collaboration and book project he organized called Southern Anthropocenes (Routledge, 2026). We begin with the Anthropocene concept and why Casper and his collaborators felt it was important to pluralize it. We turn from there to talking pluriversal politics, cosmopolitical openings, utopias, the need to take care of the possible and what tales of tomorrow we need to tell today. Check out Casper's Entangled Areas special issue here. And if you have time on May 11th beam into the Southern Anthropocenes conversation being hosted by the University of Tokyo. Hang in there, everyone, peace and love.

Cymene and Dominic lament what is happening in Iran and explore what kinds of dogs they would be on this episode of the podcast. Then (15:47) we welcome to the podcast the amazing multitalented multimedia artist Zina Saro-Wiwa to talk about her work. We begin with her father Ken Saro-Wiwa's courageous activism on behalf of the Ogoni people and tragic death at the hands of Nigeria's Abacha dictatorship. We then talk about her career in journalism and how coming to terms with the past eventually propelled her toward art. We turn from there to her creative practice. Zina explains to us what she means by "deep listening", why she finds Ogoni traditions of masquerade so generative to create with and how art is an angel with many eyes. We close talking about what it takes to hear the voice of oil and the many projects Zina has now collected under the mantle of her new Mangrove Arts Foundation. Check out Zina/SIRA*'s new album Songs for the End of the World here (a taste of it can also be found in this episode's outro music). And if finances allow, please consider making a donation or contributing to a Go Fund Me campaign to help Zina to create a museum in honor of her father's life and creativity. We just did!  Hang in there, everyone, peace and love.

Dominic and Cymene celebrate the 250th episode of the podcast with tales of steamy avian encounter. And then (16:14) we welcome Nikki Luke to the podcast, author of the brand-new book Electric Life: Utility Regulation and the Fight for Energy Democracy (MIT Press, 2026). We start with what energy democracy means to Nikki in the context of her work on utility regulation and then move to her case study of the famously recalcitrant utility, Georgia Power, and how the history of electricity in the American South has long been entangled with white supremacist politics. We talk about the politics of setting electricity rates, how and why investor-owned utilities undermine energy transition, and the intensifying grid politics of data centers. We touch on the poverty of imagination that electrical utilities so often display and then close with a discussion of what Nikki's analytics of feminist urban political ecology reveal about the quotidian labors involved in keeping the lights on. Check out your co-hosts at SXSW on a panel with Fire of Love and Time and Water director Sara Dosa (Friday, March 13, 530p-630p, 304 E 3rd Texas House, Austin) and Cymene's presentation on elemental attentions to the History of Consciousness program at UC Santa Cruz (Monday, March 9, 1p). More details here! Hang in there, everyone, peace and love.

Dominic and Cymene talk about their Cathostant (or is it Protelic?) families in this week's intro segment. And then (11:59) we are thrilled to be joined by Jennifer Mae Hamilton and Astrida Neimanis to discuss their work as the Weathering Collective, especially their inspiring new book How to Weather Together: Feminist Practice for Climate Change (Bloomsbury, 2026). We begin with their collaborative relationship, how it began and has evolved over the past decade, and how they learned to balance theory and practice together. We discuss how both climate science and feminist theory are best considered as works in progress and then turn to weather and why its capacity to attune to constant change helps us to grapple with the larger existential challenges of the climate crisis. From there, we talk about their concept of weathering as the ability to redistribute shelter and vulnerability in a climate changing world in ways that run counter to settler colonial legacies. Finally, we turn toward why they are happy to be ecofeminist again, how weathering meets undercommoning and how to cultivate and practice 'low stakes vulnerability' through games. Check out Jen's blog here and a recent publication here. Also stop by the FEELed Lab for a visit. Hang in there, everyone, peace and love.