Cultures of Energy

• 244 – Energy Transition (feat. Jean-Baptiste Fressoz)

  In honor of cookie week, your co-hosts tackle an age-old question: are brownies cookies are not? Then we process the fact that next month will be the 10th anniversary of Cultures of Energy (wow!) Thereafter (11:51) we welcome the terrific Jean-Baptiste Fressoz to the podcast to discuss his provocative and fascinating new book More and More and More: An All-Consuming History of Energy (Penguin, 2025) and its core argument that "energy transition" is a fiction. We begin with JB's unease with the dominant historiography of energy and its tendency to focus on change rather than accumulation and move from there to his idea to write a history of energy that forefronted the symbiosis of energy and materials. We turn from there to the idea of energy amputation, how to avoid stage-ist thinking, why escaping carbon will be harder than escaping capitalism, and how the technocratic movement of the early 20th century and atomic science paved the way toward dominant narratives of energy transition and energy futures today. JB explains why he doubts—even as someone who sides with the climate movement—that we're going to escape fossil fuels any time soon. PS If you would like to send in a memory or reflection for our 10th anniversary podcast next month, please email or Wetransfer a 3-5 minute audio file to [email protected]. We'd love to hear from you!!

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• 243 - Oil and Intimacy (feat. Chelsea Schields)

  Cymene and Dominic recount a pleasant business trip to New Orleans including a mild bout of Satanic panic. Then (9:10) we are joined by the delightful Chelsea Schields to talk about her recent book, Offshore Attachments: Oil and Intimacy in the Caribbean (U California Press, 2023). We begin with how research in Aruba and Curacao led her to contemplate the ubiquity of oil's presence in the Caribbean and to shine a spotlight on refineries alongside sites of extraction. We talk about how the management of sexuality and desire became key to the organization of oil labor in the region as well as to the protection of middle-class whiteness and its nuclear family model. We discuss the impact of what Chelsea calls "the offshoring of sex" through sex worker recruitment and then turn to the impact of automation on oil labor. Finally, we circle back to what happened after the oil industry went bust in Aruba and Curacao and when the islands became reimagined as energy-intensive tourist paradises. Hang in there, everyone, peace and love.

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• 242 – Living Minerals (feat. Javiera Barandiarán)

  Dominic and Cymene begin with the war on Chicago and Kelly Hayes's amazing essay, "In Chicago, We Run Toward Danger Together" which everyone should read. Then (15:20) we welcome Javiera Barandiarán to the podcast to talk about her new book, Living Minerals: Nature, Trade, and Power in the Race for Lithium (MIT Press, 2025), and what Javiera loves about the element of lithium. We discuss lithium's futurity and multiplicity, why Javiera thinks it's wrong to think about lithium as a single thing. From there, we talk about lithium's role in nuclear fusion, what rights of nature minerals should enjoy, and why so many people believe minerals create wealth. Then we wrap up with Javiera's other new book this year, a study of the efforts to create a new constitution for Chile, Demanding a Radical Constitution: Environmentalism, Resilience, and Participation in Chile's 2022 Reform Efforts (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025). Please also check out Lithium Landscapes and this article on Chile's energy transition. Hang in there, everyone, peace and love.

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• 241 - Militant Chemistry (feat. Alice Lovejoy)

  Dominic and Cymene talk about AI and other chowhounds to kick off this week's podcast. Then (12:46) we welcome the wonderful Alice Lovejoy to talk about her new book Tales of Militant Chemistry: The Film Factory in a Century of War (U California Press, 2025). We begin with the materiality of early film and how it became intertwined with the industry of chemical warfare. At stake in the making of this militant chemical complex was chemistry's fundamental principle of transformation, which brought materials like film into close alignment with a burgeoning plastics industry. We move from there to talking about the forms of expertise involved in militant chemistry, the relationship between chemistry and empire, and the politics of labor in factories operated by firms like Kodak and AGFA. We close with the affinities and disaffinities between militant chemistry and the nuclear industry. Hang in there, everyone, peace and love.

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• 240 - Carbon Banking (feat. Ben Luzzatto & Gustav Peebles)

  We begin this episode with a shoutout to our friends at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) and try to settle once and for all the Montreal vs New York bagel question. Then (13:58) we welcome to the pod old friends and new co-authors Gustav Peebles and Ben Luzzatto to talk about their new book, The First and Last Bank - Climate Change, Currency, and a New Carbon Commons (MIT Press, 2025). We start with their bold idea that the history of the monetary gold standard could be reconceived as a beta test for a new carbon banking paradigm to draw down atmospheric carbon, convert it into biochar and sequester it in a Fort Knox of sorts. But what about carbon's earthly abundance and lack of charismatic features such as gold possesses? Ben and Gustav have answers for us and we move from there to talking about how to make carbon sacred, the project of converting waste into wealth, and how digital money and even crypto could help widen public participation in carbon banking. We examine the growing movement around biochar, and what we can learn from the 19th century activists that created the deposit banking system. Finally, we talk about the practicalities of how to get a carbon bank off the ground. Please listen and share! Happy Indigenous Peoples' Day! Hang in there, everyone, peace and love.

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