The Ghost in Your Phone

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NPR

Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 16.4K Ratings

🗓️ 1 June 2023

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It's hot. A mother works outside, a baby strapped to her back. The two of them breathe in toxic dust, day after day. And they're just two of thousands, cramped so close together it's hard to move, all facing down the mountain of cobalt stone.

Cobalt mining is one of the world's most dangerous jobs. And it's also one of the most essential: cobalt is what powers the batteries in your smartphone, your laptop, the electric car you felt good about buying. More than three-quarters of the world's cobalt supply lies in the Democratic Republic of Congo, whose abundant resources have drawn greed and grifters for centuries. Today on the show: the fight for control of those resources, and for the dignity of the people who produce them.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	A quick heads up before we get started.
0:02.4	There are references to violence in this episode
0:05.0	that some listeners might find disturbing.
0:24.2	You and I, people listening to this conversation,
0:29.7	we cannot function for 24 hours without cobalt.
0:46.7	Because it's in our smartphone, our tablet, our laptop,
0:49.7	and our electric vehicles.
0:59.7	What's going on?
1:03.2	The ultra-fits are just normal.
1:06.2	Stay in your hotel, into a giant hotel room.
1:14.2	When you wake up, like I do,
1:17.2	I'll start swiping just like you,
1:19.2	and checking how much charge I have and so on.
1:23.7	Get that very moment, when you click over to social media.
1:27.7	There'll be a mother with a baby strap to her back.
1:32.2	And she will be hacking at the earth
1:35.7	under a scalding sun without any reprieve,
1:40.2	trying to fill up a sack desperately,
1:43.2	bent over,
1:45.2	scrounging away,
1:47.2	releasing toxic puffs of cobalt dust into her lungs and her baby's lungs.
1:53.2	Because cobalt is toxic.
	...

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