Episode description

Siddharth Kara (@siddharthkara) is a British Academy Global Professor, an Associate Professor of Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery at Nottingham University, a Senior Fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health, and the author of the New York Times bestseller Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives.

• Cobalt is an essential component of every lithium-ion rechargeable battery made today — the batteries that power our smartphones, tablets, laptops, and electric vehicles.
• About 75 percent of the world's supply of cobalt is mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, often by peasants and children in subhuman conditions who suffer and often die for their trouble.
• The environmental impact of cobalt extraction, including deforestation and pollution, that leaves behind toxic pits and wasteland unfit for sustaining life.
• The complex web of actors involved in the exploitation of Congo's mineral resources, including smugglers, traders, and corrupt government officials.
• As consumers, what can we do to raise awareness and jolt ourselves out of the apathy that allows these atrocities to continue in our names while holding the multinational interests that perpetrate them accountable?
• And much more...

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