In this episode, Paola Subacchi is joined by Nicolas Niarchos to explore the growing global race for critical metals, especially those powering the batteries behind our digital and green transitions. They unpack the supply chains at the core of modern life and ask a tough question: are richer economies simply exporting pollution to poorer countries?

Focusing on metal-rich nations, they examine how years of neglect, state fragility, and predatory lending have left these countries unable to turn resource wealth into sustainable development – and what it would take to change that.

Hosts & Guests

Paola Subacchi is Professor and Chair in Sovereign Debt and Finance at Sciences Po, and Professor of Political Economy of Europe at the University of Bologna. She is also a partner at Essential Economics, a London-based consultancy that advises governments, international organisations, and private companies.

 Nicolas Niarchos is a journalist whose work focuses on energy, war, and migration. He is the editor and co-founder of Now Voyager, a new magazine of international affairs. He has been a contributing writer at the New Yorker since 2014, where he initially started as a fact-checker. His reporting has also appeared in the Nation, the New York Times, and the Guardian.

He is the author of The Elements of Power: A Story of War, Technology, and the Dirtiest Supply Chain on Earth (Penguin Press).

Production Paola Subacchi

Coordination Nathalie Corvée

Musique Nils Bertinelli

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