An AI-driven data center boom has led to a global frenzy to find land, power, water, and servers for these digital infrastructures. As the material consequences of this data center race become real, local communities are starting to push back as protests and litigation aimed at local data center projects errupt all over the world. In this podcast series, we unpack commonalities in local data center activism and the problems it confronts: from environmental damage to local nuisance and from the impact on local democracy to effects on local economies. At the same time, we aim to uncover what lessons emerge from these local battles for policymakers and politicians: is there a way to better regulate and manage this sector? In this podcast series, we will speak to crucial voices in this debate: local community activists, researchers, journalists and local policymakers. Our goal is to ensure these local battles in the age of hyperscale get the attention they deserve, to amplify the concern of local communities and see if we can imagine alternative digital futures that keep us within planetary boundaries, in which corporate power is democratically controlled and where all human rights are respected.

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