Home Podcasts Material Crimes

Material Crimes

Material Crimes 8 Episodes Aug 20, 2026

Material Crimes investigates how infrastructure projects such as mines, roads, and prisons can be considered criminal. The podcast explores the connections between everyday physical sites and global histories of conquest, resource extraction, profit-making, and resistance. Each episode examines the hidden stories behind the built environment and its impacts on communities. The show also provides a website and social media channels for further engagement.

Episodes

[S2: E1 Re-release] Murder in Melville (Nicky Falkof) with Surviving Society Productions Aug 20, 2026 1:10:23 On New Year’s Eve 2019, a drive-by shooting took place in the popular Johannesburg suburb of Melville. Two people were killed and six injured in this shocking and as-yet-unsolved case. Almost unheard-of in this crime-ridden city, the drive-by horrified local communities, provoking surging anxiety in everyone from middle class home- and business owners to student renters and informal workers. To un

[S1: E4 Re-release] The White Elephant (Mor Cohen) with Surviving Society Productions Aug 13, 2026 50:25 *This episode first aired in 2022 before the Israeli state began committing genocide against the Palestinian people.* What on earth can a central bus station have to do with racial capitalism and settler-colonialism? This week’s host, Mor Cohen, tells the story of the Central Bus Station (CBS) in the Tel Aviv neighbourhood Neve Sha’anan. Talking to activist Shula Keshet and academic Sharon Rotbart

“He Fell from a Piece of Soap”* (Robyn Gill-Leslie) Aug 10, 2026 45:45 *TW: This episode contains descriptions of state torture and murder that some listeners may find disturbing*On 27th  September 1969, a healthy man supposedly falls down a set of stairs in police custody, and dies a few days later. But these aren’t just any stairs, and this isn’t just any man. Imam Abdullah Haron was an anti-apartheid activist, arrested by South Africa’s notorious security ser

[S1: E3 Re-release] Leaking Guantanamo (Shereen Fernandez) with Surviving Society Productions Aug 6, 2026 55:43 *TW: This episode contains discussions of torture that some listeners may find disturbing*Guantanamo Bay prison leaks. Parts of it are overgrown with weeds. And yet, as of today, 36 detainees still remain imprisoned within its leaking walls.* How did the United States of America come to erect this gruesome, derelict prison on Cuban soil? In this episode, Shereen Fernandez, tells the story of how t

Ghosts of a Military Road (Evelina Gambino and Elisabed Gedevanishvili) Aug 3, 2026 36:57 There is a road that crosses the Caucasus Mountains at an altitude of 2,379 metres. This road connects Georgia's capital Tbilisi to Vladikavkaz in the Russian Federation. Built in the 18th century, it pushed the Russian Empire’s boundaries southward. Over two centuries, it has been endlessly remade: extended, widened, cut and diverted. Today it forms a key artery of the North-South Corridor linkin

[S1: E2 Re-release] A Train to Nowhere (Sharri Plonski) with Surviving Society Productions Jul 30, 2026 52:19 *This episode first aired in 2022 before the Israeli state began committing genocide against the Palestinian people.*When Israel’s HaEmek railway reopened in 2016, it served only nine stations and stopped 4km shy of the Jordanian border. Far from more spectacular sites of violence, the train’s inauguration fell below most people’s radar. In this week’s episode, Sharri Plonski tells the story of th

Location, Location, Location (Ari Jerrems) Jul 27, 2026 45:06 Modular housing units sit among decaying workers’ blocks on a quiet street in the remote town of Port Hedland in Western Australia. The Pilbara region where the town is located is at the centre of Australia’s booming iron ore industry yet sits at a remote edge of its territory. As Ari Jerrems discovers, distance is at the core of what makes this place work. Ari investigates how the violence of imm

[S1: E1 Re-release] A Very British Massacre (Daniel Selwyn and the London Mining Network) with Surviving Society Productions Jul 23, 2026 49:46 **TW: This episode contains discussions of state violence that some people might find disturbing**On the 10th anniversary* of the massacre of 34 striking mine workers at Lonmin platinum mine in Marikana, our host for this episode, Daniel Selwyn, investigates the transnational complicity of state and corporate actors, while amplifying voices from the ongoing struggles for justice and reparations. F

Stop that Train (Dom Davies) Jul 20, 2026 49:52 “But didn’t colonialism give them railways?” The “Cape-to-Cairo” railway was meant to stretch from Africa’s southern tip to Egypt in the north. It was the unrealised fantasy of an unruly cast of imperial hustlers, including most infamously Cecil Rhodes. As Dom Davies traces the legacy of this unfinished railway across Africa, he finds that tracks of colonial plunder, resource extraction, and white

Season 3 Trailer Jul 8, 2026 2:09 This season on Material Crimes...How can infrastructure be criminal? How does a road, a train or even a piece of real estate become a perpetrator of violence? Listen to Season three of material crimes as we try to answer these questions. Out 21st July! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Material Crimes

Episodes

Recommended