Extraction

Elon Musk’s Endgame

The Ezra Klein Show, 30 October 2026. The book comes up at 1 hr 11 min in.

Quinn Slobodian recommends Thea Riafrancos's Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism as the first of three books, describing it as addressing the challenge of climate action in a world still governed by the price mechanism. He argues that none of the machines or data centres central to AI would function without raw materials extracted from the earth, and that Riafrancos gives a rich account of the political settlements and struggles that emerge from that process.

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