Some things our economy discards aren't waste objects or toxic substances. They're buildings. Businesses. And the people who ran them.

In 2003, a group of laid-off workers broke a single padlock, slipped into an abandoned five-star hotel in Buenos Aires, and reopened it themselves — no owners, no bosses. They ran the 22-story Hotel Bauen as a worker cooperative for nearly two decades. Everyone rotated through every job, from the front desk to the trash tunnels beneath the lobby. Everyone was paid the same.

Our guide to this story is ethnographer Dr. Katherine Sobering, who didn't just study the Bauen — she worked there, rotating through departments and drinking more yerba mate than any person should. Her book, The People's Hotel, calls it an "equality project": a deliberate, imperfect attempt to build a fairer workplace from the inside.

The Bauen is one story, but its question is landing closer to home. As many American downtowns struggle, a generation of baby-boomer-owned small businesses — worth trillions — faces a change of ownership. This presents a rare opening: when the boss walks away, can the people who built the value, shift after shift, finally own it?

TALKING TRASH is a new podcast about the hidden waste systems upstream from your bin.

🎧 New episodes every other week.

🌐 Full episode page, transcript, and resources: talkingtrashpod.com

📱 Follow us:

Instagram: @_talkingtrashpod

TikTok: @talkingtrashpod

YouTube: @talkingtrashpod

CREDITS:

Host & Show Creator: Matt King

Art Director: Frances Miller

Photography: Martin Barzilai

https://martin-barzilai.com/

In December 2008, three days before Christmas, a 60-foot wall collapsed at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston Fossil Plant. Over a billion gallons of coal ash slurry — a hundred times the volume of the Exxon Valdez spill — surged into the Emory River and buried 300 acres of East Tennessee. It was, and remains, the largest industrial disaster in US history.

And most Americans have never heard of it.

For the first episode of TALKING TRASH, host and journalist Matt King digs into the Kingston disaster. He speaks with Jared Sullivan, author of Valley So Low — the definitive account of the disaster cleanup and legal fight that followed; Dr. Lisa East, an environmental sociologist at UT-Knoxville who taught about the disaster to students for over a decade; and Wes Bunch, a former Kingsport Times-News journalist who grew up in the Kingston area.

Together they trace how coal ash — a substance the industry has both buried and rebranded — poisoned hundreds of workers, killed more than 60, and still isn't classified by the EPA as hazardous waste.

TALKING TRASH is a new podcast about the hidden waste systems upstream from your bin.

🎧 New episodes every other week.

🌐 Full episode page, transcript, and resources: talkingtrashpod.com

📱 Follow us:

Instagram: @_talkingtrashpod

TikTok: @talkingtrashpod

YouTube: @talkingtrashpod

CREDITS:

Host & Show Creator: Matt King

Art Director: Frances Miller

Exploring the hidden systems behind everything we throw away. Because the real waste crisis isn’t coming from your trash bin, but far upstream.

Talking Trash is a new independent podcast from journalist Matt King that uses waste as a window into systems of power, money, race, and design. Each episode features a different author, filmmaker, scientist, or artist unearthing the biggest messes industry has left behind — and the people fighting back.

New episodes every other week. No consumer guilt trips.

FOLLOW US:

Instagram: @_talkingtrashpod

TikTok: @talkingtrashpod

YouTube: @talkingtrashpod

CREDITS:

Host & Show Creator: Matt King

Art Director: Frances Miller