The Hum
The Hum is a podcast hosted by Saul Levin about who controls the future, featuring interviews with people fighting the march of AI and data centers into every aspect of our lives.
The show is created in partnership with Rowhome Productions.
Episodes
18 episodes
“This ton of bricks just fell on us and we do our best”
When Maryland’s governor failed to act on data centers, residents took matters into their own hands. Melissa Emmal of Calvert County, MD and Mike Tidwell of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network talk about how Marylanders were able to win morat...
The Hum Live in Brooklyn at Climate Week
Key elected officials Davante Lewis (Louisiana), Peter Hubbard (Georgia), and Emily Gallagher (New York) chat with Saul live about the challenges, pressures, and opportunities of public service amidst the rapid pace, widespread corruption and s...
"There's no adult in this room"
Data centers can’t be understood without looking beyond borders - not a single US AI data center is made entirely with American parts and labor. Former US Trade Representative and member of the Biden cabinet Katherine Tai and leading national t...
“Everybody should be filing FOIAS”
University of Michigan PhD student Nathan Kim talks about how he and other students discovered that their university’s proposed AI data center was being built to make weapons of war, how they’re fighting back, and the overlaps with his research...
“Children of the Forest Unite”
In Bastrop Texas, 8-year-old twins Oslo and Ivan organized a march against a proposed data center near their school. The twins and their mom Holly call in from their farm to talk about how the poster Oslo drew and put up inspired 100 people to ...
Getting Creative: A Menu of Data Center Policy
Katie Thomas, an energy and climate expert who once led Senator Bernie Sanders’ climate team, walks us through example local policies passing on data centers across the US. Katie shares her tracker and gives a menu of options and ideas so any c...
“Death by a thousand cuts”
Drew Small’s family business running Facebook ads for Nashville musicians from his basement was already being hampered by AI when a data center project was announced in town. We hear Drew’s gripping story of winning a moratorium and protections...
“These sacrifice zones are manufactured”
An interview with Memphis brothers KeShaun Pearson and Rep. Justin J. Pearson Memphis brothers KeShaun and Justin Pearson are community leaders who have become national figures in the movement to stop data centers. They discu...
“We’re in a barn with taxidermy on the wall and you’re talking about proposing an AI cryptomining data center”
CRAN Part 2: A conversation with Kayleigh Henry and Chris SotiroNew Jersey CRAN’s youth leaders have been traversing the state, joining each other in hometowns and rural barns to capture the organic uprising happening in every cor...
“THEY CANCELLED IT”
CRAN Part 1: A conversation with founder Ben DziobekThe Climate Revolution Action Network of New Jersey has grabbed the attention of people all over the country for their huge success fighting AI data centers in the den...
"We're talking about it because the people are talking about it"
An interview with Michigan candidates Abdul El Sayed and William Lawrence. Abdul El Sayed and William Lawrence are running to represent Michigan in the Senate and House, respectively. Both have leaned in hard in their opposi...
“Everybody is blind to partisan lines:” Indiana’s unifying fight against data centers
Facing a tidal wave of AI data center development and complex corporate takeover in Indiana, residents in all corners of the state have come together to notch stunning victories against big tech. Kerwin Olson and Ben Inskeep of the
‘Ask your auntie, not AI’: How Seminole Nation permanently banned data centers
The Seminole Nation in Oklahoma has made international headlines with their unanimously passed ban on AI data centers on their lands. Indigenous organizer Ash Nicole Lamont and Mekusukey Band Representative Chebon Kernell, who introduced ...
“What about the air?”
Taylor Frazier McCollum left her job at a beauty salon in Landover, Maryland after seeing a video about a data center. She organized with her clients and neighbors to win a data center moratorium in her town. Taylor’s story of using the relatio...
“I’m in this fight because I love technology”
Kate Brennan of the AI Now Institute is a leading national expert on the rapid development of AI and data centers and a vocal advocate for regular people to have a say in emerging technology. She talks about her journey as a technology loving G...
They’ll Pave Paradise Just to Put Up a Data Center
Emily Waldron is a social worker and farmer who harvests trees to become telephone poles in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. In our discussion, we explore the home she loves and the reasons she and her neighbors of all ages have banded together...