It's a good book!

Extraction, by the brilliant @triofrancos.bsky.social, is my book of the year. Mining for the green transition is… a minefield of contradictions. Thea reveals their contours, layer by layer, w stories & political economy. The journey’s revelatory. To navigate the polycrisis, read this book.

To read

two of my faves 🥹

Thread of my personal "top stuff" from 2025. 🧵 🎧 Top podcast: @thedigradio.bsky.social. I'd recommend the episode on "Chicago's Left Experiment" to anyone interested in Chicago politics. Also had multiple good episodes on Zohran's win in New York. thedigradio.com/podcast/chic...

Andrew Epstein and a team of strategists, speechwriters, designers, filmmakers wrote a big love letter to NYC and inoculated voters against a big money attack campaign. A behind the scenes look at masterful comms operation by guest host @micahuetricht.bsky.social. www.thedigradio.com/podcast/zohr...

Highly recommend. Doug Henwood interviews Thea Riofrancos and Alyssa Battistoni on Lithium and Nature. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/b...

Another good (open access) piece from London Review of International Law —- on nodules, frontiers, and Rosa. 🌊⛏️ academic.oup.com/lril/advance...

A personal list of some of the best climate books of 2025, from @alybatt.bsky.social @triofrancos.bsky.social @doctorvive.bsky.social @billmckibben.bsky.social @denisesrobbins.bsky.social @wimcarton.bsky.social @peterbrannen.bsky.social and more...

"Frontier names a duality where the place is important but the people are unimportant" Two brilliant scholars @triofrancos.bsky.social@lalehkhalili.bsky.social in conversation, highly recommended! proteanmag.com/2025/12/22/e...

It was an honor to be interviewed in-depth by @lalehkhalili.bsky.social @proteanmag.com A key theme: how to analyze “extractive frontiers” from a world-systemic perspective attentive to both the structures of colonialism and capitalism—and to socio-ecological struggle proteanmag.com/2025/12/22/e...

In this wide-ranging interview, Laleh Khalili (@lalehkhalili.bsky.social) speaks with Thea Riofrancos (@triofrancos.bsky.social) about her new book, "Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism"—on lithium mining, prospects for a just climate transition, and more. proteanmag.com/2025/12/22/e...

New Dig ep is honest, in-depth conversation on how Mamdani administration will do governance as @socialists.nyc and allied movements build power on the ground: opportunities, constraints, contradictions that’ll have big implications for entire socialist project. www.thedigradio.com/podcast/nyc-...

fresh audio product: • Thea Riofrancos @triofrancos.bsky.social , author of Extraction, on the complexities of lithium • Alyssa Battistoni @alybatt.bsky.social, author of Free Gifts, on the weird relationship between capitalism and Nature www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html#S...

Critical minerals currently being stockpiled by the Pentagon for weapons could be used to decarbonize the economy instead– at a time when our shrinking climate window demands decisive action. Read our Global Systems and Policy Manager in @financialtimes.com www.ft.com/content/42ab...

Today - Dec. 19 at Noon ET What Justice on a Burning Planet? The Left and the Climate Emergency w/ Andreas Malm & Thea Riofrancos @triofrancos.bsky.social @haymarketbooks.org @versobooks.bsky.social events.haymarketbooks.org/events/hayma...

🚨 Friday Dec 19 @ 12 pm ET @haymarketbooks.org @versobooks.bsky.social

Essential conversation that I think objectively lays out that there’s an enormous opportunity to reach and organize liberals who are filled with rage and open to socialist politics like never before. Made me extremely optimistic.

The radicalization of liberals is one of the past year's most overlooked stories Talked about this—& what it means for defeating Trump—w/ @leahgreenberg.bsky.social, @waleedshahid.bsky.social, & @danieldenvir.bsky.social on the new @thedigradio.bsky.social episode thedigradio.com/podcast/welc...

From @triofrancos.bsky.social: We need rigorous, empirically-grounded policy founded on cutting-edge research and a grounded theory of change to realize our climate goals. Donate $5 by Dec 31 to fund the movement for a climate just future! secure.actblue.com/donate/clima...

tomorrow! come listen to me ask @triofrancos.bsky.social about her brilliant new book!

Very very good breakdown from Molly here. As always you cannot ever exclude both the actual and perceived utility of a thing - whether it's a data centre, or a wind farm, to the local, regional and global reaction to it needing to exist in places ->>>

What Justice on a Burning Planet? Join Andreas Malm, Wim Carton, @triofrancos.bsky.social, and @learning2live.bsky.social for an urgent conversation on climate catastrophe and the left. With @versobooks.bsky.social. Friday, Dec 19th at 12PM ET RSVP: events.haymarketbooks.org/events/hayma...

I’m hosting this one week from today!

Looking forward to this...

Really enjoying this!

Thea Riofrancos @ IECS / U of Toronto. If you happen to be in the city for MLA, join us! www.eventbrite.ca/e/extraction...

Join Earthworks for an illuminating book talk with @triofrancos.bsky.social, author of Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism. 📅 Wednesday, December 17 ⏰ noon PT / 3 pm ET 🌎 Virtual on Zoom 🔗 Register now ➡️ bit.ly/extractionbooktalk 📖 Buy the book ➡️ bit.ly/extractionbook

Why are minerals so central to geopolitics? How green are electric cars? Why is anti-mining protest increasing? Can the inequalities of the global economy be transformed? @triofrancos.bsky.social takes on these topics in her new book EXTRACTION: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism.

Winning livable just futures must engage in *infrastructure politics*: democratically led efforts to guide development towards prosocial ends. “We can start by demanding supply chains organized around justice for everyone they touch, rather than profits for just a few.” — @triofrancos.bsky.social

Looking forward to this! For an insightful response to @triofrancos.bsky.social book Extraction, read this essay on Actions Lab: thirdact.org/actions-lab/...

Tascha didn’t just build a volunteer team of more than 100,000 people, she built a community across our city. And there’s no one better suited to tell you how she did it than her. thedigradio.com/podcast/thre...

On Fri. 12/19 I'll join Andreas Malm and Wim Carton to discuss our new books, the deadly combination of accelerating global warming and stalling political action, and what is to be done from a left perspective. Moderated by @learning2live.bsky.social via @haymarketbooks.org & @versobooks.bsky.social

NEW: The Pentagon has brought back Cold War-era stockpiling, taking vital resources from the energy transition. Our analysis shows that the Pentagon’s planned cobalt and graphite stockpile is large enough to produce 100,000 electric buses. transitionsecurity.org/mining-for-war/

This episode was sooo good, in part because it contains the clearest discussion of good dependency theory I've heard in a minute.

when will we see Tr*mp take equity stakes in OpenAI and the data center ecosystem? been reading @advaitarun.bsky.social's piece on data centers & @iliasalami.bsky.social's piece on imperial state capitalism & @triofrancos.bsky.social's beautiful book extraction & this is the end result, right?

Join Verso and @haymarketbooks.org on Dec 19 @ 12pm (EST) for a virtual conversation about climate catastrophe and the left, featuring: Andreas Malm, Wim Carton, @triofrancos.bsky.social, and Wen Stephenson. RSVP at the link below!

I'm excited to be hosting this urgent, deeply necessary conversation. Andreas, Wim, and Thea are three of the best thinkers we've got on the climate crisis and the left - and not just the "climate left." Climate catastrophe won't be siloed. Thanks to @haymarketbooks.org for pulling it together.

Excellent analysis from @advaitarun.bsky.social that gives us some ideas about how to hedge against the potential bubble burst of AI. Been looking forward to reading this for a couple weeks and it didn't disappoint.

Seriously, the article mentions 11 people killed on or by ebikes and emotorcycles over the course of a few years. Cars kill over 40,000 people in the US each year, including people on ebikes.

Really good interview if you’re on the climate left.

New @thedigradio.bsky.social, the left communist-democratic socialist synthesis you’ve been waiting for: it’s my ecumenical and anti-sectarian interview with Malcolm Harris on his lovely book What’s Left. www.thedigradio.com/podcast/what...

I loved this episode of @thedigradio.bsky.social with @triofrancos.bsky.social so much! Incredibly insightful and intellectually courageous discussion of the geopolitics of the green transition and the tough trade-offs it involves - and an excellent reminder that technology *is* material.

The State is back. But not disciplining capital,empowering workers or coordinating green.Instead,a "unravelling of the US-led world order,a decaying neoliberalism & reinvigorated imperial & “sub-imperial” scrambles across continents" transitionsecurity.org/imperial-sta... bsky.app/profile/trio...

ditto, just read this great essay by @iliasalami.bsky.social, this quote pulled it all together ⬇️ "the new state capitalism resonates with a much older phenomenon, the chartered "company-states” which acted as vanguards of global capitalism and European imperialism in the 17th & 18th centuries"

New #RhodesCenter #podcast: The extraction industry powering the green transition — @mkblyth.bsky.social and @triofrancos.bsky.social break down lithium’s outsized role in the green transition and global politics.

Thea Riofrancos' Extraction is thoughtful, rigorous, engaged, and unafraid to look at the international demands made of us here in the US. It's a model of political logic and solidarity. Buy www.theariofrancos.com/extraction then listen: thedigradio.com/podcast/extr...

Essential essay by @iliasalami.bsky.social on new configurations of state ownership + state investment funds being deployed in the race for military, AI, and energy supply chain dominance. The trend rhymes with earlier eras of Great Power conflict but updated for a networked global economy.

And now..in our regular discussion of how climate change is really geopolitics...I give you @triofrancos.bsky.social and her fabby new book: player.captivate.fm/episode/16cc... In other words - The new Rhodes Center Podcast is up...

this one is really good; check it out