The BREAK—DOWN

Planet B Productions
Planet B Productions

The BREAK—DOWN is a not-for-profit media project publishing new writing and conversations on capitalism, nature and the climate. Our work is made possible by our listeners and readers—to support us, go to www.break-down.org/subscribe-now/

  1. −5 h

    CONTINENTAL SHIFT Ep 2: A (Not So) New Gold Rush

    The term “critical minerals" suddenly seems to be all over the headlines. Securing access to this group of commodities, from familiar metals like lithium and copper to more obscure “rare earth elements” like yttrium, appears to be a growing priority of world leaders—particularly for those who consider China, currently the world's main producer of most critical minerals, a threat. But what exactly what makes these commodities so “critical” in the first place? Who defines them as such, and who benefits from that decision? In fact, whether a mineral is “critical” depends on who you ask, and what their strategic priorities are—whether that's producing electric vehicles, fighter jets, or AI infrastructure. Importantly, extracting these minerals has profound human and ecological impact. This is what makes their governance so challenging: because even in many green utopian visions of the future, with a world powered by renewables and running zero carbon transit, there’s no side-stepping either the need for these minerals, or some of the harms involved in their extraction. What, then, can be done? How should we understand the sudden push to control critical mineral supply chains? What is their role in competing visions of the future? How might we reduce the harms of extraction—can there ever be a form of extraction that is genuinely just or “sustainable”?  To answer these questions, in this episode we're joined by Thea Riofrancos and Emily Iona-Stewart. Thea Riofrancos is Associate Professor of Political Science at Providence College and author of Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism. Emily Iona-Stewart is Head of Policy and Advocacy at Global Witness.

    CONTINENTAL SHIFT Ep 2: A (Not So) New Gold Rush

  2. 9 juli

    CONTINENTAL SHIFT Ep 1: Free Market Fictions and Trade Frictions

    Welcome to Continential Shift, a series from The Break—Down and Geopolitical Ecology, where we examine the global rush for critical minerals and the struggle for resource dominance on the North American continent. The phrase "trade regimes" may sound dry, but these rules and agreements are a defining architecture of the global economy. They determine who gets to exploit a country’s resources, and who profits from it. They determine whether states can be sued by private investors and corporations, or whether domestic sovereignty—of the state, or of Indigenous peoples, for example—is protected. In our first episode we’re joined by historian Quinn Slobodian and economist Isabel Estevez to unpack how longstanding trade rules, investor protections and liberalization have shaped how resources are extracted and governed in North America.  After the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement entered limbo last week when negotiators failed to make the July 1st deadline for agreeing a new deal, those same rules and institutions are suddenly more shaky than they’ve been for years, raising big questions about how, and in whose interest, the global race to dominate critical minerals will be run. Continental Shift is made possible by support from the Public Scholars Initiative at the University of British Columbia.

    CONTINENTAL SHIFT Ep 1: Free Market Fictions and Trade Frictions

  3. 3 juli

    LIVE: War and Peace in a Warming World w/Adam Hanieh, Guillaume Long, Samar Al-Bulushi and Lorah Steichen

    On Friday 26 June, The BREAK—DOWN, Transition Security Project, and King’s College London co-hosted a public panel called “Securing The Future? War and Peace in a Warming World” as part of the Climate Security Forum during London Climate Action Week. In a panel featuring Samar Al-Bulushi (UC Irvine and Quincy Institute), Adam Hanieh (Director of SOAS Middle East Institute and author of Crude Capitalism), Guillaume Long (Fellow at CEPR and diplomatic advisor to the Hague Group) and Lorah Steichen (Transition Security Project), we unpacked the historical and ongoing relationship between fossil fuels and war; new forms of imperialism in the pursuit of resource dominance; the geopolitical re-alignments emerging from the energy transition; and new opportunities for collaboration in the effort to build a more sustainable, secure world. Go to our website to ⁠⁠become a member⁠⁠ and get your copy of our latest issue - and follow us on our ⁠⁠socials⁠⁠.

  4. 15 juni

    Iran, Oil and Empire w/Laleh Khalili

    Last night, after more than 100 days since the US and Israel went to war against Iran, the US and Iran reached a partial framework for peace. When the war began at the end of February, it was all but impossible to make sense of the irrational explosion of violence. In the months since, that sense of irrationality has hardly ebbed, not least as the economic impacts of the war and resulting closures of the Strait of Hormuz—on food and oil prices, and on the supply of goods like ammonia and aluminium—have begun to bite.The destructiveness of this war is clear. Less clear is what it could mean for the future of an industry at the heart of the region and the conflict: oil. Our guest today is Laleh Khalili, a Professor of Gulf Studies at the University of Exeter and author of several books, including Sinews of War and Trade. In this episode, she breaks down the mess of the US-Israeli war on Iran, shifting relations among the region’s petro-states, the US as an empire in decline, and the future of global energy.

  5. 1 juni

    LIVE: Airborne Launch w/ Geoff Mann, Daniela Gabor and Oliver Eagleton

    We're celebrating the launch of The BREAK—DOWN's spring issue, Airborne! On May 6th, we hosted a live podcast where Adrienne Buller was joined by Geoff Mann, Daniela Gabor and Oliver Eagleton to discuss climate crisis through and beyond the contents of AIRBORNE. ISSUE #3: Airborne The engines of industrial production that power the modern economy release vast quantities of carbon and pollutants into the air, seeping into our soil, our water, and even our bodies. Air pollution alone is responsible for around ten million deaths each year. And yet this everyday emergency has not fundamentally reshaped how we understand our place in the world. This issue explores the tensions between global causes and local effects, between the invisible and the immediate, by looking closely at the air itself: the medium that surrounds us, connects us, and sustains life, even as it is increasingly contested and compromised. Featuring essays by Adam Almeida and Shruti Iyer on the inequalities of air pollution across time and place, from New York to India; Zsuzsanna Ihar on a spaceport in the outer Hebrides; Vera Huwe on the political history of air travel; Mae Losasso on the origins of “the environment” in airborne chemical warfare; Cecilia Rikap on Big Tech and the cloud; Drew Pendergrass on complexity and planning; Natasha Heenan on the politics of climate repair; a photo essay by Amelie David and Ségolène Ragu on the fight for clean air and energy in Beirut under renewed military assault; and an interview with journalist David Wallace-Wells. Go to our website to ⁠become a member⁠ and get your copy of our latest issue - and follow us on our ⁠socials⁠.

  6. 26 mars

    The Billionaire Machine w/ Hettie O'Brien

    You may never have heard of private equity firms like Blackstone, KKR, Bain Capital or the Carlyle Group, but in recent decades they have quietly become some of the most powerful companies in the world. They own your hospitals, your nurseries, your energy systems. Their reach stretches from formerly public utilities to the home you rent and the food you eat. In their rise to power, they have reshaped capitalism in their own image – all by using debt as a weapon to produce vast returns for the companies who own and control them. The implications for inequality, for how our economy functions, and for the fight to build a sustainable future, are profound. Our guest this week is the Guardian journalist Hettie O’Brien, who is the author of new book The Asset Class: How Private Equity Turned Capitalism Against Itself.

  7. 12 feb.

    Nuclear is Not the Solution w/M.V. Ramana

    In the mid-20th century, nuclear energy was seen as the technology of the future. Then, questions about its environmental impact and waste, alongside crises like  Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, created a major public backlash, and the construction of new nuclear in places like the US stalled altogether. But as the climate crisis pushes demand for non-fossil fuel energy, nuclear is once again being positioned as the energy source of the future: emissions free and a reliable baseload, ready to be deployed at scale again. As M. V. Ramana, physicist and Professor at the University of British Columbia, argues in today’s episode however, the case for new nuclear power is not just misguided, but potentially dangerous. But the reasons he thinks so might surprise you, going beyond the standard points about accidents and waste to the heart of the political economy of the energy transition. This talk was originally presented in partnership with the How The Light Gets In Festival, held in London in September 2025

  8. 29 jan.

    How Wall St. Gambles on Your Future w/Ann Pettifor

    We’ve all heard it before: any time a politician tries to put forward a policy that might finally improve people’s lives—think Mamdani's fast free buses, affordable homes, or renewable energy infrastructure—they’re met with the same line: we can’t afford it. Media pundits and technocrats alike obsess over the national debt, balancing the books and not “spooking” the ever mysterious bond vigilantes.  It’s an obsession that paralyses action on the very challenges we most need to meet, from transforming our energy system to providing care for the most vulnerable.  It’s also, as today’s episode explores, deeply misleading.  Our guest today is Ann Pettifor, the esteemed political economist and author most recently of The Global Casino: How Wall Street Gambles with People and Planet, which covers everything from the shocking power of Wall Street to Keynes's legacy to what money really is: in Ann’s view, an incredible human innovation that could be leveraged to transform our world for the better, rather than enrich a small minority. In today’s episode, she tells us how.

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The BREAK—DOWN is a not-for-profit media project publishing new writing and conversations on capitalism, nature and the climate. Our work is made possible by our listeners and readers—to support us, go to www.break-down.org/subscribe-now/

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