Future Discontinuous

Do we have to destroy the environment to save it, Julie Klinger?

Future Discontinuous

Show Notes

It is no news that humanity will have to extract enormous amounts of rare earths and other critical raw materials to move away from carbon-based economies. In episode four of Future Discontinuous, hosts Misha and Eva invite Julie Klinger, who studies the geopolitics of resource usage, to discuss the pitfalls of the green energy transition, whether we see the emergence of a new resource colonialism, and why states and mining companies alike are turning their gaze to outer space in the global race for rare minerals.

Julie Klinger is an associate professor of geography and spatial sciences at the University of Delaware. She publishes on rare earth elements, natural resource use, the energy transition, and outer space, and is the author of the award-winning book Rare Earth Frontiers: From Terrestrial Subsoils to Lunar Landscapes (Cornell University Press, 2018). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

More from Future Discontinuous

Mar 4, 2026

At the turn of the 20th century, Vienna was the capital of an empire in decline. Yet the city was a hotbed of intellectual cross-pollination, spawning new ideas and scientific innovations across fields ranging from physics and economics to psychoanalysis and the arts.

Dec 17, 2025

In this episode of Future Discontinuous, hosts Misha Glenny and Eva Konzett are joined by international relations scholar Ayşe Zarakol to rethink where global order comes from—and why it may now be coming apart. Drawing on her book Before the West, Zarakol challenges the familiar story that modern international politics begins with Europe and the Peace of Westphalia. Instead, she traces earlier Eurasian world orders built around empires rather than nation-states, focusing on the Mongol and Chinggisid models of sovereignty that organized power around rulers, households, and fluid realms rather than fixed borders. The discussion explores how these Eastern orders structured political competition across Asia, how their influence reached Europe through rivalry with the Ottomans, and how ideas of centralized authority took hold long before the modern state system.

Dec 3, 2025

Few historians illuminate the inner workings of Soviet and Russian foreign policy with the clarity and archival depth of Sergey Radchenko. Drawing on unprecedented access to Communist Party documents, Radchenko has rewritten key chapters of the Cold War, tracing the ambitions, insecurities, and delusions that drove leaders from Stalin to Gorbachev, which still echo in Vladimir Putin’s Russia today.

Nov 19, 2025

There is no shortage of critical commentary on the dizzying pace of developments in artificial intelligence. Yet, few do it as astutely as Karen Hao, whose award-winning book, Empire of AI, unveils the inner workings of OpenAI and the tech sector more broadly, shining a light on an industry marked by both grandiose proclamations and notorious secrecy. In this episode of Future Discontinuous, hosts Misha Glenny and Eva Konzett revisit some of Silicon Valley‘s foundational myths and trace the ever-increasing impact of AI on our lives. Together with their guest, they examine how OpenAI has become the multi-billion-dollar empire it is today, discuss the differences between AI doomers and AI boomers, and take stock of the environmental costs of the data centers mushrooming around the globe.

Nov 5, 2025

Often considered ‘the value of values,’ freedom is increasingly interpreted in negative terms as the absence of interference, especially by prominent figures on the right. Historian and author Timothy Snyder argues that in order to achieve true freedom, we must ask about the moral and political structures required for human societies to flourish. In this wide-ranging conversation with Snyder, hosts Misha Glenny and Eva Konzett explore topics such as the collapse of the Soviet Union, the many shades of freedom, and the importance of the humanities in helping us navigate the present.

See all episodes →