Show Notes
The second and final episode of our series on Nauru. After gaining independence and taking control over the phosphate industry, the island undergoes an unprecedented economic boom, followed by a devastating crash. Amid financial crises, Nauru finds temporarily lifelines in two new industries- lifelines that further entangle the island with extractive capitalism and a dark colonial legacy.
Hosted by Jesse Black and Shannon Rawlings
Music by California Death Worm (californiadeathworm.bandcamp.com)
Asylum and Extraction in the Republic of Nauru by Dr. Julia Morris
Nauru: Phosphate and Political Progress by Dr. Nancy Viviani
Dr. Diva Amon (@divaamon.bsky.social)
DSM Observer (dsmobserver.com) by Dr. Andrew Thaler (@drandrewthaler.bsky.social)
Donate to help asylum seekers in the Pacific:
Asylum Seeker Resource Centre
Gifts for Manus and Nauru
For full works cited list, see the episode description for on substack here.
(It should be free to access- you might have to put in your email first? Idk substack is weird sometimes).
Finally, all of our research episodes are entirely free, but you can get access to sillier and generally less disturbing premium content for just a dollar a month on our patreon (patreon.com/sludgefest)! We’ve got a bunch of cool stuff cooking!
More from Sludgefest
Everything is aggressively stupid and evil right now, so Lucy and I just talked about whatever we felt like for about an hour. With as few references to Elon Musk as we could manage. Need to tune your brain to TV static for an hour? This is the episode for you. Energy drinks, television shows, AI slop, manosphere ghouls, edible books, biased steaks, and a sequel to the groundbreaking 2015 documentary Chappie. CW: we do discuss briefly Criminal Minds, which is a pretty offensively shitty show about serial killers and sex criminals. Please feel free to skip ~8-14 minutes in if you (understandably) don't want to hear about the television program Criminal Minds. Working on the next proper Sludge episode too I promise <3
The first in our series on the environmental and humanitarian legacy of US uranium mines in The Navajo Nation and abroad. Before we get there, we will need to bring along some history. In this episode, we outline the broader historical context, in which the Navajo find themselves beset by a succession of ruthless settler-colonial empires: first Spain, then Mexico, and finally the United States.