In honor of the TWO YEAR ANNIVERSARY (!) of the EXALT Podcast (and also the release of Dune: Part 1 in the US), we decided to do a special bonus episode in a new format! Rather than an interview, Sophia (a Dune neophyte) and Christopher (a self-proclaimed Dune nerd) decided to sit down and talk about the expressions and examples of extractivism(s) in Denis Villeneuve's blockbuster Dune: Part 1. Naturally, it is chock-full of SPOILERS for the movie, so if you haven't seen it, you might want to wa...
Oct 25, 2021•47 min
This month we were very fortunate to be joined by Robin Broad and John Cavanagh. Robin is a professor at the School of International Service at American University and John is a senior advisor and the former director of the Institute for Policy Studies. They joined us to talk about their recent released book The Water Defenders: How Ordinary People Saved a Country From Corporate Greed from Beacon Press. In this conversation we jump into the dangerous world of environmental activists trying to de...
Sep 24, 2021•1 hr
In this episode we talk to Victoria Kiechel , a professor from American University. She is an architect and teaches in the School of International Service. Her focus is on the relationship between the built environment and extractivism. This conversation is premised on Victoria’s contribution to the open access book Our Extractive Age (link below). We talk about building as they contribute (or don’t) to urban and social life. We discussed the lifecycle of buildings and the extent of the extracti...
Aug 26, 2021•57 min
Mira Käkönen is currently a post-doctoral researcher in Global Development Studies at University of Helsinki. She is an environmental social scientist with a focus in political ecology and water infrastructures through the lens of infrastructural politics and the intersection of water and climate. Her work focuses on the Mekong region and the impact of hydropower development. This exciting conversation was a deep dive into the history of water infrastructures and the impact of these development ...
Jul 30, 2021•56 min
Arturo Escobar is a Professor emeritus of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. He also works in Colombia as a Research Associate with the Culture, Memory, and Nation group at Universidad del Valle in Cali and the Cultural Studies groups at Universidad Javeriana in Bogota. He has published widely on political ecology, ontological design, and the anthropology of development, social movements, and technoscience. This exciting conversion ranged extensively over so many ri...
Jun 25, 2021•52 min
The May podcast is a delightful dive into looks at extractivisms through an artist lens. We were joined by mirko nikolić , an artist and post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Culture and Society (IKOS) at Linköping University (LIU). mirko’s work occupies a post-disciplinary space that falls between art and environmental humanities and explores the many entanglements of climate and social justice in areas affected by extractivism and the intense exploitation of ‘natural resources.’ Our co...
May 28, 2021•1 hr 1 min
This month on the podcast we were honored to spend some time with the renowned Saskia Sassen , who is the Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology at Columbia University in New York City. Her research and writings focus on globalization, global cities, states in the world economy, and international human migration. The three key variables that have run through her work are the exploration of inequality, gendering, and digitization. Dr. Sassen shared with us her approach to her work and how she like...
Apr 30, 2021•1 hr 1 min
This month on the podcast we were joined by Beril Ocaklı to discuss extractivisms through the lens of post-soviet spaces. Beril is a critical institutional economist and commons researcher with a track record of leading international transdisciplinary cooperation projects in resource governance. Challenged by the realities on the ground, she has returned to academia in 2015 for pursuing her doctoral research on resource conflicts in Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia. Currently based at IRI THESys, Humbol...
Mar 26, 2021•1 hr 6 min
This month we talked with Yafa El Masri, who is getting a doctorate in Geography in a joint research program between the University of Padova, University of Venice, and University of Verona. She was also a visiting researcher at the Global Development Studies Unit at the Social Sciences Faculty of the University of Helsinki. Yafa is also a stateless Palestinian refugee who was born and raised in refugee camps in Lebanon. She does autoethnographic research on solidarity among refugees in refugees...
Feb 26, 2021•57 min
We have a treat for you! Our conversation with Alexander Dunlap was so wide-ranging and entertaining that we ended up talking a little longer than normal, which means you get a bonus episode!! This extension of our discussion further explores the violent technology of extraction, total extractivism, and the major systemic issues that plague our world system. We delve deeply into the conceptualization of the capitalist worldeater. We think about what is really happening to the world and the delus...
Feb 05, 2021•32 min
This month on the podcast we were joined by Alexander Dunlap. Alexander is a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Oslo, Centre for Development and Environment . His body of work tackles critical examinations of police-military transformations, market-based conservation, wind energy development and extractive projects, including coal mining in Germany and copper mining in Peru. His current research “investigates the formation of transnational-super grids and the connections between conventio...
Jan 29, 2021•48 min
This month we talked with Josua Mata, the Secretary General of SENTRO (Co-operative and Progressive Workers' Center) in the Manila, Philippines. He shared with us his on the ground experiences at the forefront of the labor movement in the Philippines. Globalization has had a massive impact on the labor market in the Philippines, partially due to the rise of temp work contracts replacing regular work contracts. In the 1980s, when Josua enterd the workforce, most workers had a “regular” job. Today...
Dec 24, 2020•1 hr 8 min
This month we talk with Katherine Trebeck, the Advocacy and Influencing Lead for the Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WEAll), Co-founder of the Wellbeing Economy Governments partnership (WEGo), Senior Visiting Researcher University of Strathclyde, and Honorary Professor University of the West of Scotland. She is an advocate and pioneer for the wellbeing economy approach to economics and the world. The concept of the wellbeing economy grows out of the recognition that the economy is embedded within so...
Nov 27, 2020•46 min
This month we talk to Markus Kröger, Associate Professor in Development Studies at the University of Helsinki, an Academy of Finland research fellow, and one of the founding members of the EXALT Initiative. His work looks at political/economic analysis to explain the where we are in the development of systems, and where we are going. He has focused on industrial forestry, and the conflicts related to the expansions of these plantations. He has done work in many countries including Brazil, India,...
Oct 30, 2020•36 min
October 2020 is the FIRST ANNIVERSARY of the EXALT Podcast! So, we decided to commemorate it with a quick bonus episode. We sit down and look back on how we got here, the great guests we've had, what's coming ahead for year/season two, and a few outtakes from our first year.
Oct 30, 2020•15 min
This month we talk with Nick Couldry and Ulises Mejias. Nick is a professor of Media, Communications and Social Theory in the Department of Media and Communications at London School of Economics. Ulises is a professor of Communication Studies and the director of the Institute for Global Engagement at SUNY Oswego. They recently co-authored a book called ‘ The Costs of Connection: How Data is Colonizing Human Life and Appropriating it for Capitalism .’ This book explores the role that data and dat...
Sep 25, 2020•50 min
This month we are joined by Anja Nygren a professor in Development Studies at the University of Helsinki. She is also a docent of political ecology at University of Tampere in Finland. She has done intensive empirical frontline research in many countries, including Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Mexico. We discuss her first hand experiences seeing the ravages of extractivism on the lives of average people and the environment over her experience living and working in Central America. Anja’s...
Aug 28, 2020•45 min
This month we had a conversation with Gutu Olana Wayessa a University Lecturer in Development Studies at University of Helsinki. He is a member of the Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS) and the Helsinki Inequality Initiative (INEQ). His scholarly work has looked at resettlement and displacement, and livelihood implications of government sponsored movement from place to place. More recently he has been interested in social movements and scholarly activism. His recent research e...
Jul 31, 2020•53 min
This episode we are joined by Will LaFleur, a doctoral researcher at University of Helsinki in the Doctoral Programme in Political, Societal and Regional Change. Will is also a student affiliate of the Helsinki Institute for Sustainability Science (HELSUS) and a member of the Global Extractivisms and Alternatives Initiative (EXALT). This episode builds on our May episode on Food Systems with Rachel Mazac (if you have not heard that episode, please click here to check it out!) Will leads us throu...
Jun 26, 2020•42 min
This month we dive deep into the tangled web that is the food system. We talked with Rachel Mazac, MSc, who is a doctoral researcher in the Interdisciplinary Environmental Sciences Doctoral Programme (DENVI) at University of Helsinki. Rachel led us through some of the depth and complexity of the food system. In particular, we discussed some of the externalities that affect the functioning of the food system and how extractivism plays a huge role in the makeup of our modern foodscapes. In additio...
May 29, 2020•55 min
Maija Lassila is an artist and a doctoral student at the University of Helsinki in Development Studies. This conversation explores the relations between humans and nature and the understanding of what is nature. We broke down assumptions about what is nature and our role as humans within nature, especially looking at this relationship from different cultural perspectives. We also explored different types of knowledges and specifically the knowledges related to the creation of art and research. E...
Apr 24, 2020•38 min
This episode we are joined by Dr. Tom Maraffa a retired professor from Youngstown State University which is a public university in Youngstown, Ohio. We explore Extractivism and sense of place from small town USA and how extractive activities have influenced the history and lived experience in Columbiana County in Ohio. This county serves as a case study of a place that has undergone change as extractive activities and the global economy have evolved around it. Many of the local companies that we...
Mar 27, 2020•47 min
This podcast episode is groundbreaking for the EXALT Podcast. It is our first episode with two guests, but also our first multi-lingual podcast – whether you are listening to the English version, the Spanish version, or the original – we hope that you enjoy! This is the English version with the translation imposed over the original Spanish segments. We talked today with Katy Machoa and Paola Minoia. Katy is a Clinical Psychologist from the Kichwa Community of Shamato, part of the Amazonian Kichw...
Feb 28, 2020•26 min
This podcast episode is groundbreaking for the EXALT Podcast. It is our first episode with two guests, but also our first multi-lingual podcast – whether you are listening to the English version, the Spanish version, or the original – we hope that you enjoy! Esta es la versión en español, sin traducción al inglés. We talked today with Katy Machoa and Paola Minoia. Katy is a Clinical Psychologist from the Kichwa Community of Shamato, part of the Amazonian Kichwa nationality. Paola is a Senior uni...
Feb 28, 2020•30 min
This podcast episode is groundbreaking for the EXALT Podcast. It is our first episode with two guests, but also our first multi-lingual podcast – whether you are listening to the English version, the Spanish version, or the original – we hope that you enjoy! This is the original version with the full Spanish responses immediately followed by the translation. We talked today with Katy Machoa and Paola Minoia. Katy is a Clinical Psychologist from the Kichwa Community of Shamato, part of the Amazon...
Feb 28, 2020•44 min
Sanna Komi is a doctoral student at the University of Helsinki in Development Studies. Her research is part of the CONVIVA project which explores the concept of convivial conservation which offers an alternative to the model of conservation through capitalism. Sanna’s work within this project is specifically connected to wolf conservation in Finland and the attitudes towards wolf conservation. In general, her work concentrates on moving beyond the nature/society dichotomy and the model of conser...
Jan 31, 2020•31 min
This month we are joined by Maria Ehrnström-Fuentes , postdoctoral researcher from Hanken School of Economics . Together we take a deep dive into the pluriverse and how Maria has explored this concept in her research. This conversation covers ideas of decoloniality, degrowth, and turning a critical eye to some of the established notions of how research is conducted. Maria shares her experiences in conducting research in Latin America and the Finnish countryside. The conversation comes around to ...
Dec 27, 2019•32 min
This episode we sit down with Dr. Aili Pyhälä, lecturer in Development Studies at the University of Helsinki. She takes inside her more than 20 years of work as an activist and a researcher in indigenous and other communities facing the threat of extractivist practice. She shares with us her stories and lived experiences from the field. We explore the gray area between extractivisms and alternatives and look at extractivism as an alternative when it is in the right hands. She also shares with us...
Nov 29, 2019•43 min
In the third and final part of our conversation with Professor Barry Gills from University of Helsinki and one of the founders of the Global Extractivisms and Alternatives (EXALT) initiative , we talk about the need for action on a personal and political level to face the challenges presented by the climate emergency, trying to find balance between the comforts of modern society and environmental conscientiousness, the impact and evolution of community in the digital age, and examples of alterna...
Oct 23, 2019•27 min
In the second part of our conversation with Professor Barry Gills from University of Helsinki and one of the founders of the Global Extractivisms and Alternatives (EXALT) initiative , we discuss local and indigenous approaches to solving problems, the issue of "externalities" in economics (a cost of producing something that is taken from external parties that did not choose to incur that cost - for example, a lithium mine might severely poison a body of water, creating knock-on effects for local...
Oct 23, 2019•35 min
