Exploitation Nation, The Podcast, with Brittany Friedman

“Extinction is a Choice”

In a single week this past March, federal courts saved the Florida panther’s habitat and restored the Endangered Species Act (ESA), after seven years of litigation. The very next day, a panel of federal cabinet officials called the “God Squad” voted unanimously to exempt the entire Gulf of Mexico oil and gas industry from that same law, citing “national security.” This month we tell both stories. The wins: a federal appeals court blocking a 10,264-acre development on top of panther habitat, the ESA getting most of its legal teeth back, anti-wildlife riders stripped from the 2026 funding bill, and the slow recovery of the North Atlantic right whale after years of advocacy. The exploitation: $8 million in oil industry lobbying, 17 anti-wildlife riders that did make it into law, a 26% gutting of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and a Gulf whale species with fewer than 100 left on Earth currently fighting for its life. We close with a discussion of what the concept of “shifting baselines” means for how environmental degradation becomes normalized over time within each subsequent human generation. Co-producers: Brittany Friedman and Olivia Aminatta Jobe Resources: “We Won Back Endangered Species Act Protections” [https://earthjustice.org/brief/2026/court-restores-endangered-species-act-protections-to-pre-trump-era] “U.S. exempts oil industry from protecting Gulf animals, for ‘national security’” [https://www.npr.org/2026/03/30/nx-s1-5745926/endangered-species-committee-hegseth-security] “North Atlantic ‘right whale’ population shows recovery” [https://us.whales.org/2025/10/21/north-atlantic-right-whale-population-shows-recovery/] “Lawsuit Seeks to Protect Endangered Florida Panthers From Massive Development” [https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/lawsuit-seeks-to-protect-endangered-florida-panthers-from-massive-development-2026-04-08/] “The shifting baseline syndrome as a connective concept for more informed and just responses to global environmental change” [https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/pan3.10473] Thanks for listening to Exploitation Nation, The Podcast! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit captivemoneylab.substack.com [https://captivemoneylab.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

“Urban Farming w/ Crop Swap LA”

In this episode, our host, Dr. Brittany Friedman, sat down with Crop Swap LA’s founder & executive director, Jamiah Hargins, to discuss the intersections of urban farming, food insecurity, and sustainability. The two discuss Crop Swap LA initiatives to address food insecurity and provide healthy food options for LA neighborhoods. In the Truth in 10, our correspondent, Olivia, takes us IRL to one of Crop Swap LA’s volunteer events on an early March Sunday morning. We hear from some volunteers about what inspired them to volunteer and, of course, answer the hard-hitting question: What’s your favorite fruit or vegetable? Co-producers: Brittany Friedman and Olivia Aminatta Jobe Resources: https://www.cropswapla.org/ https://www.ronfinley.com/ https://civileats.com/2018/06/04/a-reparations-map-for-farmers-may-help-right-historical-wrongs/ Reparations & Rematriation Mapping Tool [https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?ll=40.604072549190256%2C-79.89249229375001&z=6&mid=1YvB3PuH8jeR_yoFCLvrKOTQQ3p_5NmkK] https://blackfoodjustice.org/ https://dornsife.usc.edu/news/stories/food-and-nutrition-insecurity-linger-in-la-county/ Thanks for reading Exploitation Nation! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit captivemoneylab.substack.com [https://captivemoneylab.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

“What We’re Reading: The Prison Industry by Bianca Tylek”

In the second installment of our “What We’re Reading” series, we examine the political economy of confinement as seen through incarceration and immigration detention and the expanding role of private prison corporations contracting with government agencies–a multi-billion dollar industry. Drawing on abolitionist policy frameworks, this conversation features an interview with Bianca Tylek, author of “The Prison Industry: How It Works and Who Profits,” and Founder and Executive Director of Worth Rises. We break down recent data showing dramatic year-over-year profit increases for major contractors, explore ongoing legal disputes shaping forced labor and modern-day slavery, and what you can do to support campaigns to abolish the prison industry. Co-producers: Brittany Friedman and Olivia Aminatta Jobe Resources: https://worthrises.org/ [https://worthrises.org/] https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2025.html [https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2025.html] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/supreme-court-rules-against-private-prison-firm-alleged-to-have-forced-immigrant-detainees-to-work-for-1-a-day [https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/supreme-court-rules-against-private-prison-firm-alleged-to-have-forced-immigrant-detainees-to-work-for-1-a-day] https://theconversation.com/we-study-mass-surveillance-for-social-control-and-we-see-trump-laying-the-groundwork-to-contain-people-of-color-and-immigrants-221073 [https://theconversation.com/we-study-mass-surveillance-for-social-control-and-we-see-trump-laying-the-groundwork-to-contain-people-of-color-and-immigrants-221073] https://abolitionistfutures.com/latest-news/practising-everyday-abolition [https://abolitionistfutures.com/latest-news/practising-everyday-abolition] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit captivemoneylab.substack.com [https://captivemoneylab.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

“What We’re Reading: How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell”

What if “doing nothing” isn’t being lazy or apathetic, but an intentional political practice? In this episode, we unpack Jenny Odell’s How to Do Nothing and place it in conversation with Black feminist thinkers like Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, and bell hooks. We explore attention as a site of extraction and what it means to resist productivity, visibility, and constant availability in a world that profits from all three. We ask how care, slowness, and most importantly, unavailability can be tools for survival and imagining something more sustainable and authentic. For “The Truth in 10,” Olivia walks us through Black, queer, and POC independent booksellers around the country that you must visit. Resources: https://www.standwithminnesota.com https://www.immigrantdefenseproject.org http://www.ilrc.org/community-resources/ [http://www.ilrc.org/community-resources/] https://nipnlg.org Co-producers: Brittany Friedman and Olivia Aminatta Jobe This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit captivemoneylab.substack.com [https://captivemoneylab.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

"When Silence is Profitable"

What do the cases of Sean “Diddy” Combs and Jeffrey Epstein reveal about power, silence, and cover-ups? In this episode, we break down how allegations of sexual and gender-based violence can circulate for years without consequence, how institutions conceal harm until they are forced to be accountable, and why such violence is publicly exposed only when silence is no longer profitable. We also discuss the new Netflix documentary series executive-produced by 50 Cent about “Diddy,” its social media reception, and how the series shines a light on the mechanisms of complicity that allow exploitation to persist for several decades. For “The Truth in 10,” Olivia walks us through the top things she learned from this new documentary. Co-producers: Brittany Friedman and Olivia Aminatta Jobe This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit captivemoneylab.substack.com [https://captivemoneylab.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]