Cited Podcast

An ecologist in California claimed that the iron laws of nature locked humanity into destroying our environment. This meant that we must take drastic measures to rein in unfettered capitalism and the American habit of overconsumption, lest we deplete our common resources. That argument made Garrett Hardin one of the most influential and celebrated environmentalists to ever live. Yet, he had a tragic view of the world that turned his green dream into a green nightmare.

A former journalist and environmental campaigner named Pan Yue rose through the ranks of the Chinese Communist Party, championing the concept of “ecological civilization.” This green dream combines elements of traditional Chinese culture with eco-Marxism, suggesting a radical reorientation of humanity’s relationship to the natural world. Is the idea a serious alternative to sustainable development, as the CCP claims? Or is it just a cynical cover for eco-authoritarianism?

We're playing FOREST / GARDEN, the first episode of their fourth season. In the late 1970s, there was a radical environmental movement that rejected the idea that agriculture and biodiversity needed to be at odds. They called their movement permaculture. Permaculture dissolved the dichotomy between the natural and the artificial, or between the forest and the garden. However, its advocates didn’t always honour the roots they were pulling from.

We're beginning a mid-season break. If you're new to Cited, this is a good time to explore our large archive. On this episode, we re-post part one of our award-winning series, the (ir)Rational Alaskans.

A cowboy hat-wearing Goldwater conservative named Dave Foreman got religion and then founded the most radical environmental group of recent memory, Earth First! They dreamed of a ‘deep ecology’ that recognized the inherent value of nature, and they committed to protecting that nature at almost any cost. Yet, in putting the earth first, did Dave Foreman relegate humanity to a distant second place?

An Albertan oil man and a socialist policy wonk from Saskatchewan banded together to think up “eco-development,” a precursor to today’s sustainable development. This unlikely duo forged a global consensus at the United Nations, effectively codifying the reigning orthodoxy of liberal environmental governance. They told us that capitalism and sustainability are indeed compatible. Might that be the most utopian of all green dreams?

In the 1970s, Gerard O’Neill drew up detailed plans for large space colonies. The Princeton physicist claimed that these colonies could beam limitless energy back down to Earth, solving all our environmental problems. As climate change accelerates, O’Neill’s once-forgotten green dream has become influential again; many of today’s corporate space evangelists refer to themselves as “Jerry’s Kids.” For solutions to Earth’s problems, should we look to the stars?

Introducing our new season, Green Dreams. Starting September 9, 2025, with weekly episodes through October.

Trump scores big wins by taking cheap shots at experts. Now, some worry he could try to oust Fed Chairman Jerome Powell. The typical centrist position is to defend the supposedly impartial, apolitical expertise of such figures. Yet, we know that is not right. Is there a better way to imagine a better bank?

For much of the 20th century, few economists studied inequality. Today, it's one of the most popular topics there is. Why is inequality back? Just as importantly, how could it have possibly disappeared? We survey the intellectual history of inequality studies in economics.

We're on break this week as everyone gears up for, and puzzles through, the results of this week's US election. However, we have an old Darts & Letters episode that is especially relevant to our ongoing season, the Use & Use of Economic Expertise.

Clinton's Third Way Democrats moved the party away from the unionized industrial labour that typically made up its base. Today, Clintonism is out, and Bidenomics in. Bidenomics was marketed as a political and theoretical break. Yet, beyond November 5th, Bidenomics might too be out. We look at shifting landscape of economic thinking within the Democratic Party.

We tell the story of the invention of the modern economy, or at least the idea of the economy. It starts with one measure: the GDP, or gross domestic product. Today, its a measure that dominates our politics. We have Simon Kuznets to thank for that. Yet, for Kuznets, the GDP was not what he hoped it would be.

In our finale, while the fisherman and fisherwoman of Prince William Sound hope for legal damages stemming from the Exxon Valdez disaster, Exxon fights back. In that fight, they marshal the most-respected psychologist of a generation.

A jury of ordinary Alaskans picks up the Exxon Valdez story. They muddle through the most devastating, and most complicated, environmental disaster in US history. How would they decide the case?

After the unprecedented Exxon Valdez oil spill, a jury of ordinary Alaskans decided that Exxon had to be punished. However, Exxon fought back against their punishment. They did so, in-part, by supporting research that suggested jurors are irrational. This first part, an Alaskan Nightmare, covers the spill and its immediate effects.

Early pollsters thought they had the psychological tools to quantify American mind, thereby enabling a truly democratic polity that would be governed by a rational public opinion. Today, we malign the misinformed public and dismiss the deluge of frivolous polls. How did the rational public become the phantom public?

In the late 60s and early 70s, Rochdale College was the heart of Canada's counterculture. It was widely condemned, before an ignominious end. But what really happened in the Hippie High-Rise?

A group of landholding elites waged psychological warfare on the El Salvadoran people, and oppressed them for generations. When a psychologist and Jesuit priest defended the rationality of the people against their oppressors, he paid the ultimate price. 

The psychological establishment has long pathologized diverse forms of sexual identity and gender expression. In the mid-century, a brave movement of gays and lesbians fought back. But in the process, who did they leave behind?

Every protest movement has been dismissed as a mere ‘mindless mob,’ caught in a psychological frenzy. Where did this idea come from, and why does it last?

The Rationality Wars tells stories about the political and intellectual battles to define rationality and irrationality. Behind every definition of rationality, somebody benefits, and somebody is…

Hanford is the most-polluted place in America. On our last episode, you heard about the nuclear plant’s largely-forgotten history–how it poisoned the people living downwind. On our season finale: a nuclear safety auditor tries to get it shut down, the downwinders struggle for justice, and we take you into the plant itself.

Richland, Washington is a company town that sprang up almost overnight in the desert of South Eastern Washington. Its employer is the federal government, and its product is plutonium. Here, the official history is one of scientific achievement, comfortable houses, and good-paying jobs. But it doesn’t include the story of what happened after the bomb was dropped — neither in Japan, nor right there in Washington State. On part one of our two-part season finale, we tell the largely-forgotten story of the most toxic place in America.

At Crosstown Clinic, doctors are turning addiction treatment on its head: they’re prescribing heroin-users the very drug they’re addicted to. This is the story of one clinic’s quest to remove the harms of addiction, without removing the addiction itself.

On a daily basis, we are exposed to thousands of toxic chemicals. This is no accident; it is by design. They are everywhere – coating our consumer products, in our food packaging, being dumped into our lakes and sewers, and in countless other places. However, for the most part, regulators say that we need not worry.

Medical experts are rushing to see which drugs might help treat COVID-19. There are dozens of candidates: Remdesivir, Hydroxycloroquin, Actemra, Kevzara, Favipiravir, the list goes on. They better pick the right one; because billions of dollars of public money is at stake, not to mention 100s of thousands — if not millions — of lives.

The town of Buxton, North Carolina loves their lighthouse. But in the 1970s, the ocean threatened to swallow it up. For the next three decades, they fought an intense political battle over what to do. Fight back against the forces of nature, or retreat? It’s a small preview of what’s to come in a time of rising seas. We team up with 99% Invisible to tell the story

When genetically modified corn was found in the highlands of Mexico, Indigenous campesino groups took to the streets to protect their cultural heritage, setting off a 20-year legal saga.

How the accidental finding of genetically modified corn in the highlands of Mexico set off a twenty-year battle over scientific methods, academic freedom, Indigenous rights, environmental law and international trade. Part one of two.

Expo 1967 was the centrepiece of Canada’s 100th birthday. In a country of only 20 million, 50 million people attended Expo ’67. Amid the crowds and the pageantry, one building stood out. The Indians of Canada Pavilion. This was more than a tall glass tipi. It revealed (at least partly) Canada’s sordid colonial history.

In 2011, an American psychologist named Daryl Bem proved the impossible. He showed that precognition — the ability to sense the future — is real. His study was explosive, and shook the very foundations of psychology.

Growing up, Chris Dum has a morbid fascination with ‘deviant behavior.’ It led him down an unusual career path: he decided to study most reviled people in our society. Sex offenders. But it wasn’t enough to study them from a distance.

Before there was the War on Science, there were the Science Wars. In the 1990’s, the Science Wars were a set of debates about the nature of science and its place in a democratic society. This little-known and long-forgotten academic squabble became surprisingly contentious, culminating in an audacious hoax. Today, some scholars say the Science Wars might just explain how we got our ‘post-truth’ moment. To figure out if they’re right, we go back to the beginning.