California’s Imperial Valley is home to one of the world’s largest deposits of lithium—a mineral that may be crucial to engineering a low-carbon economy. Companies and governments interested in extracting Imperial’s lithium promise that the process will bring jobs and investment to the Valley, one of the most socially and economically marginalized places in the state. In this episode, we ask experts, activists, and community members whether lithium mining in Imperial could be part of what experts call a “just transition”: a shift to green energy that undoes the logic of exploitation that’s led us into climate crisis, instead of repeating it.

Cover image: “SaltonSeaArielFromSouth.jpg”
By Samboy
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

"Micro Flute Composition 2"
Composed by Mitch Stahlmann
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
https://freesound.org/people/mithimightbe/sounds/426857/

In this episode, Christopher Kelty explores the rather surprising background to the No Kill Movement in LA. (It's Satan.)

This is the sixth episode produced as part of our collaboration with the Labyrinth Project. 

You just saw a coyote on the street. Or maybe you read about it on Nextdoor. What should you think? In this episode, Spencer Robins asks whether you really saw that coyote, or whether you’ve followed a ghost—a cloud coyote—into a surprising political storm in Los Angeles.

This is the fifth episode produced as part of our collaboration with the Labyrinth Project.