Memphis vs. Musk, With Representative Justin J. Pearson
“No matter how many billions you have, you don’t have enough to buy our lives.”
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Memphis vs. Musk, with Rep. Justin J. Pearson | A People’s Climate
Host Shilpi Chhotray is joined by Tennessee State Representative Justin J. Pearson, a fierce advocate taking on corporate power — from Big Oil to Big Tech. You may know him as one of the two Black representatives who was expelled for demanding gun reform on the House floor after The Covenant school shooting in Nashville. But long before becoming one of the youngest members of the Tennessee legislature, Rep. Pearson was on the frontlines in South Memphis, organizing against a crude oil pipeline that threatened his hometown.
Now, in Rep. Pearson’s district, Elon Musk’s xAI project is expanding its empire with massive, unregulated data centers that pollute the air, threaten their water, and undermine hard-won environmental protections. This conversation is about fighting against entrenched corruption, unchecked corporate and political power, and billionaires who put profit over people’s health and future.
Key Topics Covered:
- Defeating the Valero / Plains All American Byhalia Pipeline
- The rise of Elon Musk’s xAI data center in Memphis and the environmental toll of artificial intelligence
- Money in politics: How corporate lobbying and billionaires shape elections and policy
- Civil disobedience: The role of protest, direct action, and speaking truth to power
- Keeping people power alive in the face of corruption and broken systems
- Proximity to the fight: Understanding your local representatives, connecting local struggles to federal policies, and focusing energy where it can make the most impact
Resources
- Memphis Community Against Pollution
- Rep. Justin J. Pearson’s Speech on the House floor before being expelled
- “How Long, Not Long” Martin Luther King Jr. speech after marching from Selma to Montgomery
- NAACP and Advocacy Groups Appeal Permit for xAI’s South Memphis Data Center
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Host Shilpi Chhotray is joined by Tennessee state Representative Justin J. Pearson, a fierce advocate of taking on corporate power—from Big Oil to Big Tech. You may know him as one of the two Black representatives who was expelled for demanding gun reform on the House floor after the Covenant school shooting in Nashville. But long before becoming one of the youngest members of the Tennessee legislature, Representative Pearson was on the front lines in South Memphis, organizing against a crude-oil pipeline that threatened his hometown.
Now, in Representative Pearson’s district, Elon Musk’s xAI project is expanding its empire with massive, unregulated data centers that pollute the air, threaten their water, and undermine hard-won environmental protections. This conversation is about fighting against entrenched corruption, unchecked corporate and political power, and billionaires who put profit over people’s health and future.
Key Topics Covered:
- Defeating the Valero / Plains All American Byhalia Pipeline
- The rise of Elon Musk’s xAI data center in Memphis and the environmental toll of artificial intelligence
- Money in politics: How corporate lobbying and billionaires shape elections and policy
- Civil disobedience: The role of protest, direct action, and speaking truth to power
- Keeping people power alive in the face of corruption and broken systems
- Proximity to the fight: Understanding your local representatives, connecting local struggles to federal policies, and focusing energy where it can make the most impact
Resources
NAACP and Advocacy Groups Appeal Permit for xAI’s South Memphis Data Center
Memphis Community Against Pollution
Rep. Justin J. Pearson’s Speech on the House floor before being expelled
“How Long, Not Long” Martin Luther King Jr. speech after marching from Selma to Montgomery
Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/subscribe.
The Nation Podcasts
Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.
Reframing Resistance (Live from NYC Climate Week) | A People’s Climate
For this special season finale, recorded live during NYC Climate Week, host Shilpi Chhotray convenes a powerful storytelling event with three frontline media makers: Chantel Comardelle, Alexandra Norris, and B. Preston Lyles.
This is more than a conversation about films or campaigns — it’s an intimate window into the lived realities of climate and environmental injustice. From Indigenous land loss in Louisiana, to the ongoing fight against the petrochemical buildout in Cancer Alley, to exposing the violence of toxic prisons, this discussion centers the human stories too often sidelined in mainstream climate narratives.
Our guests speak candidly about their experiences, what sustains them in the face of systemic harm, why frontline voices must lead solutions, and how storytelling itself becomes a vital tool of resistance, survival, and collective power.
This live storytelling event was made possible in partnership with Dr. Margot Brown, Senior Vice President of Justice and Equity at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and the Frontline Resource Institute. Special thanks to Chess Jakobs, Counterstream Media’s Impact Producer, who produced this event.
Key Topics
- Frontline climate and environmental justice: Stories from communities directly impacted by the climate crisis and extractive industries.
- Indigenous displacement: The Isle de Jean Charles Choctaw Nation and climate-driven migration.
- Sharon Lavigne’s fight against petrochemical expansion in Cancer Alley
- Toxic prisons: The intersection of mass incarceration, environmental harm, and systemic injustice.
- How spiritual grounding and faith sustains organizing. Using film and media to reclaim narratives and highlight underrepresented stories.
- Narrative power: How media shapes perception, policy, and the climate movement’s priorities.
Resources
Isle de Jean Charles Choctaw Nation
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