Episodes
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We're celebrating the launch of The BREAKâDOWN'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 âthe environmentâ 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 SĂ©golĂšne 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 â become a memberâ and get your copy of our latest issue - and follow us on our â socialsâ .
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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 â 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 OâBrien, who is the author of new book The Asset Class: How Private Equity Turned Capitalism Against Itself.
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Episodes manquant?
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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 todayâs 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
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Weâve all heard it before: any time a politician tries to put forward a policy that might finally improve peopleâs livesâthink Mamdani's fast free buses, affordable homes, or renewable energy infrastructureâtheyâre met with the same line: we canât afford it. Media pundits and technocrats alike obsess over the national debt, balancing the books and not âspookingâ the ever mysterious bond vigilantes.
Itâs 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.
Itâs also, as todayâs 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 Annâs view, an incredible human innovation that could be leveraged to transform our world for the better, rather than enrich a small minority. In todayâs episode, she tells us how.
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The history of the climate crisis is often told as a story about technology.
Growing out of the dark satanic mills of the Industrial Revolution, and accelerating along with new forms of production and consumption in the mid-twentieth century, we often hear that is technological development and innovation that got us into the mess weâre in. But it can also, apparently, get us out of it: whatâs needed is a new green industrial revolution, or else other forms of technology like nuclear power or some form of geoengineering.
Could a more nuanced, and more accurate, history of technology and production tell us something new about the politics of the climate crisis? And could it even help us to think about new directions beyond fossil fuelled capitalism?
This week weâre joined by David Edgerton, historian and author of books including The Rise and Fall of the British Nation, and The Shock of the Old: Technology and Global History Since 1900. He joins John Merrick, deputy editor of The BreakâDown in his first podcast appearance, to discuss how his historical work has shaped his understanding of the climate crisis, the rise of China as both an emissions and a green tech powerhouse, the new retro revivalism of the British right, and the ubiquity of AI boosterism.
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Capitalism is often defended on the basis of freedom â âfree marketsâ, free choice, as well as being credited with producing the wealth and material abundance that has freed countless people from poverty.
Marx, meanwhile, described workers under capitalism as âfree in the double senseâ: âfreeâ to sell their labour power in the market, and âfreeâ or divorced from the means of production: the land, machinery or materials to sustain themselves on their own. In other words: not particularly free, at all.
We can add to this the countless things that are, within market systems, âfreeâ insofar as they are assigned no value, from the free gifts of nature to uncompensated environmental destruction and the unpaid labour that creates and sustains life.
What, then, does freedom really mean within a capitalist society? When wealth is so vastly unequal, can it really be argued that market exchange is âfreeâ in any real sense? And when the harms of our economic actions are invisible in the prices we payâfrom deforestation to child labourâcan we really be said to be making âfree choicesâ? These are the questions at the heart of Alyssa Battistoniâs book Free Gifts. In this episode, she joins Adrienne to talk about value, the politics of nature, and how we might live freely in a finite world.
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We hear a lot about âsustainable developmentââitâs the buzzword of virtually every UN conveningâbut often with little clarity on what it means in practice.
Countries like the US, Canada or the UK hardly developed âsustainablyâ, so to demand that others organise their economies and societies in ways that we never did can feel like pulling up the ladder behind us.
Moreover, how is âdevelopmentâ really defined? Reaching a certain level of GDP per capita? Having the right kinds of âadvancedâ industries, like finance or tech? And what do any of these indicators tell us about the things that really matter, like ensuring a decent, affordable life for everyone without compromising the planet?
Joining Adrienne to answer these questions is Amir Lebdioui, a development economist, Associate Professor in Political Economy at the University of Oxford and author of âSurvival of the Greenestâ. In this episode, Amir breaks down the economics of sustainable development, the implications of global tariff wars and what we should all be learning from China.
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When Luiz InĂĄcio Lula da Silva, or Lula, was re-elected as the President of Brazil in 2022, defeating Jair Bolsonaro in a tense election, the Brazilian left and many around the world breathed an almost literal sigh of relief. Under Bolsonaro, Brazilâs ecological and climate record was scorched, with deforestation in the Amazon reaching record highs.
Hopes were high, and for good reason: Lula campaigned on the rights of the working class and Brazilâs Indigenous peoples; under his watch deforestation quickly began to fall; and at COP27 in Egypt he declared in no uncertain terms: "Brazil is back."
Yet Lulaâs record so far is complex, particularly when it comes to the challenges and perceived trade-offs of economic development and the climate, all while managing powerful competing forces in Brazilian politics.
As COP30 begins in BelĂ©m Brazil, Adrienne is joined by Sabrina Fernandes, an economic sociologist and head of research at the Alameda Institute, to discuss her essay âLulaâs Dilemmaâ, which she wrote for the second print issue of The BREAKâDOWN, on the complexities of Brazilian ecological politics, the power of big agri-business and what we can expect from Brazilâs leadership of this yearâs climate conference.
Further reading: Sabrina Fernandes, Lulaâs Dilemma, The BREAKâDOWN
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To celebrate the launch of The BREAKâDOWN ISSUE #1, editor Adrienne Buller was joined by Quinn Slobodian and Geoff Mann for a timely conversation on the afterlives of neoliberalism, the climate crisis, and the global rise of the far right.
ISSUE #1
The BREAKâDOWN is dedicated to exploring the political economy of the climate crisis. We bring together personal stories, cultural critique, expert insight and radical imagination to explore the systems driving ecological collapse â and what it might take to confront them.
In the wake of Donald Trumpâs return to the White House, our first issue, RIGHT TURN, explores climate politics in an age of rising authoritarianism, asking what happens when the future of the planet is shaped by a hardening new right.
Issue â #1â is available now. Buy a print copy â hereâ .
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In much of the media, the importance of the legacies of empire and colonialism are often dismissed, with the public conversation dominated by the "culture war" elements, from debates about statues to institutions like the National Trust becoming "woke". The implication within much of this discourse is that empire and colonialism are features of the past, and should be left there.
In reality, it is far from that simple. Our guest for Episode 18 is legal scholar Kojo Koram, whose first book, Uncommon Wealth: Britain and the Aftermath of Empire, unpacks how the legacies of empire continue to structure every part of our unequal global economy, from international tribunals that protect corporate interests to the systems that leave countries trapped in cycles of debt. Rather than a thing of the past, Kojo expertly breaks down just how present empire really is, and critically, how it has shaped both the roots and impacts of climate and ecological crisis.
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Around the world, politics is incredibly polarised, but if thereâs one thing politicians of all major parties can agree on, itâs growth â that their political rivals failed to deliver growth, that we need more of it, and that getting it will solve all of our problems, from inequality and poverty to crumbling public services and stalling investment.
But not everyone agrees. For a growing movement of post-growth and degrowth economists, economic growth is neither neutral nor desirable. Instead, many increasingly call for the abandonment of our growth-dependent economic model on the basis that unfettered growth is driving our climate and ecosystems to the brink.
My guest today, Hans Stegeman, is an unusual figure in this community â a banker who wants finance, and the wider economy, to move beyond growth for the sake of the planet. Hans is Chief Economist at Triodos Bank, as well as a leading writer and thinker on post-growth economics.
In todayâs episode, Hans and Adrienne discuss degrowth, the myth of green finance, and why breaking the rules of mainstream economics is the first step to a sustainable future.
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A lot has happened in the six months since we launched this project. It feels like every week of 2024 has packed a decadeâs worth of news. In just the past few weeks, we've seen crises hit the French and German governments, the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, a day of martial law in South Korea, and, of course, Trumpâs reelection to the White House.
Amidst all of it, climate has generally taken a political backseat. This is despite 2024 having been a bumper year for the climate as well â whether itâs record breaking investment in energy; the hottest year on record; the highest annual emissions on record; or an alarming number of supposedly âonce in a lifetimeâ storms and heatwaves.
With all of this in mind, progressive and independent media voices covering climate feel more important than ever. Weâre therefore delighted to welcome James Meadway, host of the hit weekly economics podcast Macrodose, to the Break Down. For todayâs crossover episode, James and Adrienne take a look back at a tumultuous 12 months.
If you're not already familiar with Macrodose, you can find their feed wherever you get your podcasts.
Thank you for joining us this year on The Break Down. Weâll see you in 2025.
Further Reading
Ned Beauman, Venemous Lumpsucker, Sceptre, 2022
Thomas Ferguson and Servaas Storm, "Oil Prices, Oil Profits, Speculation and Inflation", Institute for New Economic Thinking
Michaël Aklin and Matto Mildenberger, "Prisoners of the Wrong Dilemma: Why Distributive Conflict, Not Collective Action, Characterizes the Politics of Climate Change", Global Environmental Politics
Isabella Weber et al., "Inflation in times of overlapping emergencies: Systemically significant prices from an inputâoutput perspective", Industrial and Corporate Change
Jinshan Hong and Bhuma Shrivastava, "Yes, Everyone Really Is Sick a Lot More Often After Covid", Bloomberg
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In 2024, weâre set to break a major climate threshold for the first time: this will be the first calendar year in which global average temperatures breach the 1.5 degree Celsius threshold enshrined in the Paris Agreement. Importantly, while one year at this temperature doesnât mean all is lost, it does fire a profound warning shot over our faltering progress on mitigating and adapting to the climate crisis.
While every fraction of a degree matters when it comes to the climate, the consensus is clear that above 1.5C the severity of impacts and risk of tipping points like mass coral reef die off or the collapse of the Greenland ice sheet become substantially higher. You might therefore expect this to be front page news. Yet compared with its gravity, it has barely made headlines. If, like us, youâre wondering why â as it turns out, this was always part of the plan.
In this episode, Adrienne and Andreas Malm break down the concept of âovershootâ, how itâs tied up with the power of fossil fuels, and the future of climate politics, from ecofascism to geoengineering.
Andreas Malm is an associate professor at Lund University, an activist and the author of several books, most recently Overshoot: How The World Surrendered to Climate Breakdown, co-written with Wim Carton.
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In the wake of the US election, hot takes and autopsies of the Democratsâ fairly spectacular loss are a dime a dozen. Amid the swirl of diagnoses there has also been real fear about what a Trump presidency means for the climate â an issue that felt almost entirely absent from either campaign, despite its significant role in Bidenâs policy platform.
How should we understand what just happened? What comes next for climate policy, both in the US and, through its huge influence, in countries around the world. And crucially, in a moment where it feels so politically sidelined, how can we build a broad base of popular support for action on climate?
Joining us on The Break Down to work through these questions is Matt Huber, a Professor at Syracuse University and author of âClimate Change as Class Warâ. If the bookâs title is any indication, Matt makes the case that climate and ecological crisis are fundamentally class issues, and that any chance of political success means taking climate out of the world of technocrats and experts, and connecting it to the everyday issues that shape peopleâs lives.
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Amid the threat of âProject 2025â, ongoing genocide in Gaza, and a nation-wide battle over reproductive rights, to name a few major issues, the climate crisis has been considerably sidelined in the US election taking place on November 5th. But even if itâs not grabbing headlines, what the United States does â or does not do â on climate has profound implications for the entire world.
So where does climate stand in this election? With Kamala Harris praising both the Green New Deal and her role as a champion of fracking, how should we understand the Democratic position on climate? What is the legacy of the Inflation Reduction Act, and does it even register with voters? What, if anything, is the future of the Green New Deal? And, for the many people who donât feel represented by either major party, is voting for a third party â or not voting at all â the answer?
These are big questions â here to help us answer them are two brilliant guests, journalist Kate Aronoff and Democratic strategist Waleed Shahid. In this special episode, Adrienne, Kate and Waleed unpack the chaos and the stakes of the US election, and what it means for climate action in the US and beyond.
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In a 2023 referendum, the people of Ecuador voted 59 per cent to 41 per cent to stop exploiting oil in the YasunĂ region, one of the most biodiverse places on Earth, with more tree species in one single hectare than in all of the landmass of Canada and the US combined. It was a massive break with the global status quo, in a year when fossil fuel use around the world reached record highs and profits soared.
However, the referendum was not an overnight success. It built on years of struggle, including the failed YasunĂ-ITT initiative undertaken by then-president Rafael Correa in 2007, which asked foreign governments to pay Ecuador not to exploit the oil in this region.
So how did it happen, and what lessons can the rest of the world learn from Ecuador? Here to answer these questions, and many more, is Andrés Arauz, a Senior Fellow at the Center for Economic Policy Research and, formerly, a politician in the Ecuadorian government.
In this special episode, Adrienne speaks to AndrĂ©s about Ecuadorâs pursuit of climate and environmental justice, as well as the barriers facing lower income countries in the context of a highly unequal global economic system. From the International Monetary Fund to the rules of international trade, AndrĂ©s unpacks the ways that injustice is built into global capitalism, and lays out a blueprint for a radical alternative.
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We have become incredibly good at producing food. In doing so we have transformed our planet. Yet when we go to the supermarket or eat at a restaurant, the supply chains, labour and environmental impacts that went into our food are all but invisible.
Those impacts are huge. Today, humans and livestock make up 96 per cent of all mammals. Agriculture consumes about 70 per cent of global freshwater, and is responsible for some 80 per cent of deforestation. And yet despite producing more than enough food to feed everyone on earth, every day a minimum of 800 million people go hungry, while a fifth of all food produced for human consumption goes to waste.
Clearly, something has got to give. Thankfully, here to help us out of the mess is Dr. Sonali McDermid, a climate scientist and Chair of the Department of Environmental Studies at NYU. In this episode, she breaks down how climate and ecological crisis threaten our food systems â and how we can feed the world without wrecking the planet.
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In a 2004 essay for the New Left Review, theorist and literary critic Fredric Jameson wrote: âUtopias are non-fictional, even though they are also non-existent. Utopias in fact come to us as barely audible messages from a future that may never come into being.â
Today's episode of The Break Down explores the idea and the power of utopian fiction with guest Kim Stanley Robinson, the acclaimed science fiction author whose most recent novel, The Ministry for the Future, offers a harrowing and detailed vision of how we might respond to the climate crisis.
Among other things, Adrienne and Stan discuss the politics of science and technology; the place of speculative fiction in an era dominated by nostalgia and the importance of utopia at a time when our political imaginations are so constrained.
Like The Ministry for the Future itself, this episode is dedicated to the late Fredric Jameson.
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Followers of The Break Down may remember our very first episode, in which Adrienne spoke to the brilliant Brett Christophers about the many and varied reasons why â despite all the hype about how cheap renewables have become â the transition to renewable energy cannot be left to the market and the profit motive. What that interview didn't leave us with, however, was an answer to the obvious question: if not the market, then what?
Here to make the case for a simple but radical solution are Chris Hayes and Melanie Brusseler, the Chief Economist and US Programme Director, respectively, at Common Wealth, a progressive UK based think tank and our partners in this series. In todayâs episode, Chris and Melanie break down how public ownership can transform our energy system, providing not only a faster and cheaper path to 100 per cent clean energy, but also the foundations of a more just and democratic economy overall.
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As a listener of The Break Down, chances are youâre living in a political system that could be defined as âliberalâ. But what does âliberalismâ really describe? Is it about democracy? Free markets? The protection of individual freedom? Ask ten different people, and youâre likely to get ten different answers.
According to Chris Shaw, liberalism can boiled down to a system oriented around the âbourgeoisieâ or, to put it more simply, the âmiddle classesâ, in which technocratic governance is preferred to the messiness of politics, in which the individual takes precedence over the collective, and in which the protection of markets and private enterprise takes priority.
In this episode, Chris breaks down the ways in which liberalism has placed a stranglehold over our political imaginations; why this is so crucial when it comes to the climate crisis; and what a climate politics that takes class seriously would look like.
Chris Shaw is an Associate at the University of Sussex and former Director of Research at Climate Outreach, where he spent nearly a decade developing strategies for communicating climate change. His most recent book is called âLiberalism and the Challenge of Climate Changeâ.
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