CONTINENTAL SHIFT (4/4): Extraction North of Empire
In Canada, intensive resource extraction has long been baked into the country’s political economy and, arguably, to nation-building itself. Resource booms and policy choices have opened landscapes and livelihoods to large-scale mining and fossil fuel extraction, producing harms that are inseparable from the country’s colonial history.
Today, as supply chains are restructured around critical minerals and trade regimes are overhauled, Canada faces urgent questions about sovereignty, consent, and justice: can extraction be reimagined in ways that respect Indigenous rights and ecological limits? Or will new geopolitical pressures and rising tensions with countries like the United States simply deepen old harms?
To explore these questions, we spoke with Jess Dempsey, a professor at UBC, and Jamie Kneen of MiningWatch to get to grips with the state of Canada’s extractive industries. Later, we were joined by Tara Marsden, an independent consultant from the Lax Ganeda (Frog) Clan of the Gitksan peoples, who has spent 30 years advancing sustainable development and operationalizing free, prior and informed consent, and who spoke to us about how the history and shifting terrain of extraction in Canada has been shaped by the struggle for Indigenous sovereignty.
Continental Shift is made possible by support from the Public Scholars Initiative at the University of British Columbia.
23 Jul 2026
CONTINENTAL SHIFT (3/4): Extractivism in Mexico
The ratification of NAFTA—the North American Free Trade Agreement—in 1994 transformed Mexico in profound ways. Over the next thirty years it deepened and expanded the resource frontier across the country, disproportionately benefiting national and global elites. Mining activity exploded, and with it the socio‑ecological violence that follows large‑scale extraction. Anti‑extractivist struggles cannot be ignored—especially as Morena, the self-proclaimed progressive political party that holds power in Mexico after breaking seven decades of political duopoly in 2018, tries to navigate competing pressures.
Morena’s landmark program—the so-called “Fourth Transformation"—frames greater state involvement and control over strategic resources and royalties as a means to fund social programs and reclaim national sovereignty, though its policies and outcomes remain uncertain.
This episode offers a closer look at extractivism in Mexico, tracing developments from the colonial silver boom to state‑led industrialization and from neoliberal open‑pit expansion to present-day state-led extractivism. Darcy Tetreault and Sol Pérez Jiménez join us from Mexico to offer granular historical knowledge and field‑based evidence, mapping how policy and capital have reshaped labor, land and water regimes. We discuss the deepening of resource frontiers, the persistence of elite mining interests, and the complex, contested forms of resistance—from legal reforms to grassroots refusal and struggle for territorial autonomy.
16 Jul 2026
CONTINENTAL SHIFT Episode 2: A (Not So) New Gold Rush
The term “critical minerals" suddenly seems to be all over the headlines. Securing access to this group of commodities, from familiar metals like lithium and copper to more obscure “rare earth elements” like yttrium, appears to be a growing priority of world leaders—particularly for those who consider China, currently the world's main producer of most critical minerals, a threat.
But what exactly what makes these commodities so “critical” in the first place? Who defines them as such, and who benefits from that decision?
In fact, whether a mineral is “critical” depends on who you ask, and what their strategic priorities are—whether that's producing electric vehicles, fighter jets, or AI infrastructure.
Importantly, extracting these minerals has profound human and ecological impact. This is what makes their governance so challenging: because even in many green utopian visions of the future, with a world powered by renewables and running zero carbon transit, there’s no side-stepping either the need for these minerals, or some of the harms involved in their extraction. What, then, can be done?
How should we understand the sudden push to control critical mineral supply chains? What is their role in competing visions of the future? How might we reduce the harms of extraction? And can there ever be an approach to extraction that is genuinely just or “sustainable”?
To answer these questions, in this episode we're joined by Thea Riofrancos and Emily Iona-Stewart.
Thea Riofrancos is Associate Professor of Political Science at Providence College and author of Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism.
Emily Iona-Stewart is Head of Policy and Advocacy at Global Witness.
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
4.5 / 5
2 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
22 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 44 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
60
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
71
Contact geopolitical ecology
Guest appearances
Books guests
Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.
Host of geopolitical ecology?
Claim your podcast to manage its listing and keep your show details accurate.
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
Explore this show Podcast research with Pod Engine
