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What Next: The Mineral The Future Is Built On

Slate Daily Feed

Slate

News, Business, Society & Culture

3.91.1K Ratings

🗓️ 2 February 2022

⏱️ 23 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Cobalt is the most important mineral of the future. It’s a key part of lithium-ion batteries, which power cell phones and laptops, not to mention electric cars. That demand is giving rise to a mining industry in Idaho, which sits atop a giant cobalt deposit. But the environmental costs of extraction raise questions about what “clean energy” really means. Guest: Michael Holtz, freelance journalist and author of “Idaho Is Sitting on One of the Most Important Elements on Earth.” If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

heard about Magpie, the vegan pie truck that needed a bit of help from GoDaddy.

0:03.3

One day the owners alike, this business hasn't reached this potential

0:07.1

and the other one goes, we need a bigger piece of the pie and then it hits her.

0:11.1

We need GoDaddy. Look, we can get a domain name and create an online store

0:14.8

so we can sell to more customers.

0:16.8

Now they've gone from serving a couple of pies to a vlogging nationwide

0:20.9

and now everyone's like, vegan pies are the new thing around here.

0:25.1

Wait, no me! Take the next step on your business journey with GoDaddy.

0:44.3

Back in August, President Biden hosted a Made for Television event

0:48.4

on the White House lawn. It was about electric vehicles.

0:51.8

Please, everybody sit down. Please, please, please.

0:57.9

The president wore his signature aviator sunglasses as he stepped up to the microphone.

1:03.1

Someone had parked a bunch of trucks behind him for visual interest.

1:07.2

Eventually, he ended up driving an electric Jeep in circles around the White House.

1:12.0

It was hard not to feel like the communications team was working overtime.

1:16.1

Dispark interest in something a lot of Americans are not thinking much about.

1:20.7

Not just electric vehicles, but all of the things that go into building them.

1:26.6

And a key part of the electric vehicle to state the obvious is the battery.

1:30.9

Right now, 80% of the manufacturing capacity for these batteries is done in China.

1:36.0

It was back in August that President Biden announced that by 2030 he wanted half of all

1:44.1

new cars going on the market to be electric vehicles.

1:48.0

But we just have to move. We have to move fast.

...

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