Helen Thompson: "The Complex History of Energy & Geopolitics"

The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens

Nate Hagens

Science, Earth Sciences, Natural Sciences

4.8 • 553 Ratings

🗓️ 15 November 2023

⏱️ 120 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this episode, political economist Helen Thompson and Nate discuss how energy and geopolitics have interconnected over the past century, building to the entangled political relationships we see around us today. The dynamics of power on a global scale are complex - stemming from access to energy, financial control, military strength, credibility/trust, and much more - yet we can understand these a bit better by learning the history that shaped them. How have geologic provinces of energy dense carbon created inherent hot spots on the geopolitical playing field? How has the global monetary system and debt evolved to strengthen the power of a select few countries and how difficult is it to break from this system? Do our leaders have the capability/knowledge to connect energy and geopolitical policy in order to guide us through a future of declining energy availability?

About Helen Thomspon:

Helen Thompson is Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge since 1994. Her current research concentrates on the political economy of energy and the long history of the democratic, economic, and geopolitical disruptions of the twenty-first century. She is a regular panelist on Talking Politics and a columnist for the New Statesman. She is a co-presenter of UnHerd's podcast, These Times and recently published Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century.

For Show Notes and More visit: https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/98-helen-thompson

To watch this video episode on Youtube → https://youtu.be/FQbdNXQcT3E

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to The Great Simplification with Nate Higgins.
0:06.0	That's me.
0:07.8	On this show, we try to explore and simplify what's happening with energy, the economy, the
0:14.3	environment, and our society.
0:17.6	Together with scientists, experts, and leaders, this show is about understanding the bird's-eye view of how everything fits together, where we go from here and what we can do about it as a society and as individuals.
0:32.9	Today's guest is Professor Helen Thompson.
0:36.8	Helen works at Cambridge University where she researches the political economy of energy
0:43.1	and the long history that underpins the democratic, economic, and geopolitical disruptions that we're seeing now in the 21st century.
0:53.1	Her most recent book, Disorder, Hard Times in the 21st Century, is kind of a political
1:00.6	science mirror twin of the logic of the great simplification.
1:07.0	Today we talk about the history of the United States in the Middle East, Israel and Hamas and Qatar, Ukraine and Russia, the importance of energy in the history of the world, and some speculation on what's ahead.
1:24.9	Please welcome Professor Helen Thompson.
1:40.4	Hi, Helen.
1:41.3	Hi, Helen. Great to see you.
1:43.7	Although we've never met in person, maybe I should call you Professor Thompson.
1:48.0	No, call me Helen.
1:50.0	So you have an impressive economic, political, science background covering history, energy, economics, politics, and much more.
2:02.0	Can you just give a brief introduction and how did you first get interested in these topics,
2:07.7	all the way back to college or high school, or what was your path?
2:11.7	Not at all really.
2:13.8	I basically got seriously interested in energy in, I think, 2013.
2:22.0	And I came at it via really the monetary environment of the post-2008 world.
	...

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