This Past Weekend with Theo Von - #670 - Erin Brockovich

00:00:00.480 Recently, our company's softball team lost the big game by one run.

00:00:04.800 Then Dale tried to console us with the quote,

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00:00:09.060 Well, Dale and I are very different.

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00:00:30.520 Today's guest is an environmental activist and a consumer advocate. 1.00

00:00:35.820 Her name is notorious with being for the people. 0.99

00:00:41.240 She's known for leading some high-profile cases over the years.

00:00:44.360 Lately, she's focused on the rise of data centers and their effects on life around them.

00:00:50.260 I'm thankful today to spend time with Ms. Erin Brockovich.

00:01:00.000 And I will find a song I've been singing

00:01:04.260 If you need to move this, Aaron, you can.

00:01:14.240 Let me open your water.

00:01:15.420 Sometimes these are very...

00:01:17.520 I've learned that over at the hotel.

00:01:19.660 I was like, my Lord.

00:01:21.380 And I work out.

00:01:22.100 I was like, I can't get it open.

00:01:24.260 That's the crazy thing about today.

00:01:25.500 Especially, honestly, with this Ascentia company.

00:01:28.480 I just opened it for you,

00:01:30.140 but you can't even get in their waters.

00:01:31.920 It's like that's how bad it's gotten

00:01:33.520 that they almost keep you locked out of clean water

00:01:36.360 in this country. 1.00

00:01:37.040 Yeah, that's why my daughter will carry a knife. 1.00

00:01:38.700 Boom, she'll go just like that. 1.00

00:01:40.500 She's like that? 0.94

00:01:41.200 Oh, yeah. 1.00

00:01:41.800 She's military police. 1.00

00:01:43.080 She's hilarious. 1.00

00:01:43.880 Oh, she's an MP?

00:01:44.640 She was, yes.

00:01:45.480 They're both out now.

00:01:46.740 Matt was combat vet, yeah.

00:01:48.360 Your son was combat?

00:01:49.420 Yeah, my dad was Navy fighter pilot,

00:01:51.640 so definitely I'm a military mom and a military daughter.

00:01:56.440 Oh, that's beautiful.

00:01:57.680 We'll thank them for their service from us, and thank you for your service.

00:02:01.000 I know you, as probably most of people, a lot of people do,

00:02:05.940 I know you as an environmentalist, right?

00:02:08.820 Kind of a truth seeker, I guess I would say, like an activist, I guess?

00:02:15.040 How do you like to be?

00:02:16.080 Yeah, I never say activist because that's always like a connotation.

00:02:19.720 I advocate for clearly people.

00:02:22.860 What about the term like a consumer advocate?

00:02:24.660 Is that fair to say kind of?

00:02:25.720 A people advocate.

00:02:26.860 Okay. A people advocate. Me too. I feel like I try my best to be.

00:02:30.940 I do too.

00:02:31.760 Yeah. And for our listeners that don't know, how did you get on this track, right? Like take me

00:02:36.760 through your journey. You know, I know about the movie starring Julia Roberts that was made about

00:02:43.200 your life, Erin Brockovich, but take us into the journey of like, what happened to create

00:02:48.520 the story that led to the film? Like how did your activism like lead to one of the largest

00:02:54.440 settlements at the time that had ever been i think it was like over 300 million dollars

00:02:57.880 333 million 333 million that was awarded time at the time is it now they're selling for like 33

00:03:04.040 billion it's not to laugh at but but hey times have changed dude aaron walked to the bank so

00:03:10.860 they could run to it that's for sure uh so take us i want you to take us through that journey uh

00:03:15.260 for our listeners that don't know obviously you had to care for the outdoors how did that start

00:03:19.360 Okay, well, I've always been an outdoor enthusiast.

00:03:23.020 I was born and raised in Kansas, and I love the outdoors.

00:03:26.700 Everything about it spoke to me, mostly because I hated school.

00:03:31.920 I sucked at school, and it took years before they really understood I have dyslexia.

00:03:39.460 Oh, you do? 0.98

00:03:40.080 I do.

00:03:40.540 Let's go do My Friend Has It.

00:03:42.020 I'm a dyslexic.

00:03:43.360 Hell yeah.

00:03:44.120 Dude, you guys don't get any credit.

00:03:46.540 I know.

00:03:47.300 And some of you shouldn't, but a lot of you guys should, dude.

00:03:52.280 You should.

00:03:53.280 Interestingly enough, off topic, and I'll just say it really quick.

00:03:56.300 So I'm ambassador for Made by Dyslexia, run by Kate Griggs and Sir Richard Branson, who's also a dyslexic.

00:04:04.460 No way.

00:04:05.120 Yeah.

00:04:05.900 Dude, we got to get a good dyslexic on here.

00:04:08.460 You do, and they're everywhere.

00:04:10.220 I know, dude.

00:04:11.040 Half of my friends are like, they can't even complete a handshake.

00:04:14.140 They're just not doing good.

00:04:15.100 You know, it's like.

00:04:15.600 we just like code differently we have pattern recognition but i didn't even know until i

00:04:21.460 became ambassador for made by dyslexia that there's one billion dyslexics on the planet

00:04:28.540 no one billion a one billion d's in this world that's crazy let me see right a billion i'm saying

00:04:36.320 that's ridiculous yeah i gotta learn a little bit more about this um so take me through you know

00:04:44.360 your journey or experience as like a human advocate, like as a environmentalist, you

00:04:50.760 know, um, can you just take us through that so that for our listeners that don't know?

00:04:56.300 So I have to say, I think I was as surprised as anybody else, honestly. So how it happened was

00:05:04.560 as I grew up in Kansas, uh, went to school at Kansas state. Then I went to a design school

00:05:11.040 in texas and then i moved to california i ended up being a regional manager for kmart oh yeah and

00:05:17.820 i wasn't my favorite job and then i ended up working at fleur engineers and constructors

00:05:24.080 so i was raised by an engineer it's kind of fun for me i like to create things etc etc even though

00:05:30.420 everybody always told me i couldn't do anything you know with the dyslexia oh so but i always

00:05:34.840 pushed against that so i'm one that pushes against these things so out of the gate that dyslexia

00:05:40.840 It might have gave you that edge.

00:05:42.000 Like, I can still do it.

00:05:43.520 I was born.

00:05:45.780 Don't put me in a box because I will get out and I will kick and scream the whole way there. 0.78

00:05:51.400 Amen.

00:05:52.820 That's one of my traits.

00:05:54.580 I'm like, yeah, no, I don't.

00:05:56.060 None of us like it.

00:05:57.460 I don't like being labeled.

00:05:59.820 I don't like being judged.

00:06:01.280 I don't like being put in a box. 0.75

00:06:02.700 I'm always like, mimes like it. 1.00

00:06:04.920 I'm like, fuck off. 1.00

00:06:06.380 I mean, that's just my motto. 1.00

00:06:09.000 So, but I don't like this.

00:06:10.560 Wait, wait, wait, what's your motto? 1.00

00:06:11.360 Fuck off. 1.00

00:06:12.060 Yeah, that's a good motto. 1.00

00:06:13.120 Fuck it, fuck you, fuck off. 1.00

00:06:14.800 Dude, that's the best motto. 1.00

00:06:16.580 That should become our national anthem in this fucking country, to be honest with you. 1.00

00:06:21.340 Okay. 0.99

00:06:21.760 So, but I'm an F dropper bomb, so I hope that doesn't offend anybody.

00:06:25.400 Yeah, we'll pick them up at the end of the show.

00:06:28.020 Okay, so you got the dyslexia, you got the spirit, you got what you need.

00:06:31.880 That's right.

00:06:32.720 So, I go through all this process.

00:06:34.720 I end up getting married.

00:06:36.040 That was the biggest mistake of my life.

00:06:37.920 three times over and had children and got in a car wreck in reno nevada and moved down to

00:06:45.580 california met an attorney by the name of jim vitito who was ed masery's partner so ed masery

00:06:52.880 was the attorney in the film and we had a trial and i lost the jury told me to get a job you had

00:06:59.740 a trial for what oh for the auto accident for the auto accident okay got it and we lost and of course

00:07:04.780 You know, the lawyers told me we're going to win all kinds of money and make this right by you, Aaron.

00:07:09.400 That did not happen.

00:07:11.800 So I went back to Ed Mazury and I said, you promised me things would be okay, and they weren't, and I need a job.

00:07:20.300 So Ed gave me a job.

00:07:22.500 So in the beginning of the film, Erin Brockovich, you'll see her doing all these interviews.

00:07:27.040 And, of course, I'd been a single mom and I was turned down for every job.

00:07:30.240 But I had Ed cornered.

00:07:32.940 you promised me something and i showed up it's that power of stick-to-itiveness that i talk

00:07:40.120 when you show up things are different right yeah and see that's something and we'll get into that

00:07:45.380 in a minute i don't want to jump ahead of it but that's what's going on right now out in this

00:07:49.100 country people are showing up amen and i love it because i'm watching it we all are especially with

00:07:58.340 the data centers. We're united, bipartisan. And when we get united, we change things.

00:08:05.460 Things can happen.

00:08:06.400 And I love it.

00:08:07.300 Amen. I love that.

00:08:08.800 And so that's what happened. I showed up with Ed. I ended up getting a job starting in the

00:08:14.020 workers' compensation department. I like people. I'm a people person. I'm a chatty person. I want

00:08:20.460 to know about you, what's going on in your life. That seems odd. So I was a perfect fit in the

00:08:26.120 Workers' Compensation Department.

00:08:28.040 So one day, Ed came into the office, just like you see in the film, with a big archive

00:08:33.220 box of files.

00:08:34.360 Got it. 0.96

00:08:34.620 And the movie's Erin Brockovich.

00:08:35.940 For people that haven't seen it, you can go watch it.

00:08:37.720 It's-

00:08:38.600 Starring Julia Roberts.

00:08:39.800 Starring Julia Roberts.

00:08:40.420 And Albert Finney.

00:08:41.340 And Albert Finney.

00:08:42.060 Oh.

00:08:42.440 Yes.

00:08:42.920 Great actors. 0.99

00:08:43.660 Known for her great push-up bra. 1.00

00:08:46.160 Yeah, look, I'd hold them in place.

00:08:48.800 You know what I'm saying?

00:08:49.240 I mean, I'd donate my hands to Haynes or whoever made that thing and let them just, you

00:08:55.820 You know, I'd be the wiring in that thing, baby.

00:08:58.020 Anyway, let's move on.

00:08:58.840 I had to giggle when the film came out.

00:09:00.280 I'm like, that's what you got out of the film was the push-up bra, not what happened to the people.

00:09:05.580 You got to bait and you got to get them on the hook.

00:09:07.620 You do.

00:09:08.300 So they were on the hook.

00:09:10.120 So you're working in workman's comp?

00:09:12.360 So I was working in worker's comp and then Ed brought a box into me that was a PI case, personal injury case.

00:09:19.700 And he said, do you know how to open a personal injury file?

00:09:22.720 I had not a clue what I was doing, but I said, sure, I know how to open it.

00:09:28.340 So when I started to go through the file, I'm like, okay, so I've now put myself out here.

00:09:33.200 I don't know what I'm doing.

00:09:34.340 I better learn what I'm doing.

00:09:35.880 Got it.

00:09:36.140 I started reading the files.

00:09:38.520 Inside this file box were medical records.

00:09:41.280 Okay, and it's just one of the files that's like in the box?

00:09:43.480 Yeah, everything about a personal injury case was thrown in a box.

00:09:47.200 And what kind of made me go, well, that's odd, is there were real estate records in there.

00:09:54.060 I'm like, why are real estate records and medical files in the same box?

00:09:59.520 And the reason for that was to jump ahead, and I'll go right back.

00:10:04.160 Unbeknownst to me at the time, Pacific Gas and Electric was a utility company trying to buy Roberta Walker's property.

00:10:13.180 Okay, and Roberta Walker was one of the—

00:10:15.100 Plaintiffs. 0.87

00:10:15.720 One of the plaintiffs.

00:10:16.300 Right.

00:10:16.820 And so she had contacted Ed because PG&E was trying to buy her house.

00:10:25.440 And so she just threw everything into a box.

00:10:27.840 As a matter of fact, Roberta kept everything in a suitcase.

00:10:30.640 So it all just got thrown in a box.

00:10:33.200 So I like, you know, I like a challenge.

00:10:36.300 So I'm pulling everything out of the box, making my little piles.

00:10:39.280 But I was curious about the medical records because they were of children.

00:10:44.640 and all everything was done in a bar graph so all their t-cells were off their white cells were off

00:10:51.580 their red counts were too high now i'm a mom and i'm thinking to myself god if i saw blood tests

00:10:57.460 like this on my kids i what the fuck is this yeah and so i started researching it more and it was

00:11:03.480 leading me to cancer and diseases so i asked ed if i could go out to hinckley california which he was 0.98

00:11:12.880 thrilled to let me go. Nobody in the office liked me. I annoyed everybody. My skirts were too short.

00:11:21.420 My attitude sucked. My bras were showing and nobody wanted me around. So I was like, score, 0.99

00:11:29.500 get out of here and go. That's classic. So off I went to Hinkley, California.

00:11:36.860 And the reason why, so just to get a little bit clearer, so in this box, in this, this woman had hired the attorney for what purpose? 0.90

00:11:46.600 To settle a real estate claim.

00:11:49.420 Okay.

00:11:50.120 So that's why the initial hiring was there.

00:11:52.180 Right.

00:11:52.240 But then there was all these other records in there.

00:11:53.980 Why was Pacific and Gas trying to buy her house?

00:11:57.460 Because Roberta was on to something and they had water issues and PG&E was holding these town hall meetings trying to convince everybody that there was nothing wrong with the water.

00:12:16.440 now I'll tell you something I've learned ever since I began Hinkley you piss off one mom and

00:12:26.380 you pissed off Roberta and they've got great instincts and they think you're lying to them 0.96

00:12:32.560 they're gonna go find 10 other fucking pissed off moms and they're gonna actually use these 0.96

00:12:38.520 instincts and they will come at you and so these moms were getting upset oh yeah and they knew 0.99

00:12:46.600 It was just that moment. 0.99

00:12:48.180 It's time for moms to get upset. 1.00

00:12:50.000 Oh, yeah.

00:12:50.960 And they've got this hunch, this instinct, this intuition.

00:12:55.920 And they make it their job to find out because you've harmed their child.

00:13:00.540 Yeah.

00:13:01.140 And they don't believe you.

00:13:02.600 And so that was the first clue for me, even in the files,

00:13:08.840 talking to Roberta on the phone before I ever met her.

00:13:12.000 Something was going on.

00:13:13.400 And, you know, I have learned I always listen and believe the people.

00:13:20.460 And people will show up, but somebody else tells them.

00:13:23.680 And when I first even started my work in Hinkley, I was getting the, you're not a doctor.

00:13:28.220 You're not a lawyer.

00:13:29.740 You're not a scientist.

00:13:31.540 You're not a politician.

00:13:33.380 Like, so what do you do and why are you here and why should we believe you?

00:13:37.900 And I had a moment where I was gobsmacked.

00:13:40.560 I'm like, it never dawned on me that I had to be any of that.

00:13:45.220 Right.

00:13:45.760 All you have to be really is just a curious baddie.

00:13:48.120 Absolutely. 1.00

00:13:48.940 And to be a human and to tell you those two-headed frogs and the green water coming out of your tap is fucked up. 1.00

00:13:55.720 And I'm not leaving. 1.00

00:13:57.620 That's what happened.

00:13:58.520 I'm not leaving until these frogs have one head again.

00:14:01.120 That's right.

00:14:01.520 So if y'all think that's normal, I'm sorry.

00:14:03.700 You'd call me crazy.

00:14:05.320 And there's so much of that gaslighting.

00:14:07.420 Like you see that all the time, even just like about podcasters talking with people like you're not a politician.

00:14:12.760 You're not like a science science or you're not a astronomer.

00:14:19.260 Stop talking.

00:14:20.240 Yeah, because you're none of those. 1.00

00:14:21.660 And I'm like, bitch, but I'm fucking curious and I'm fucking loud. 1.00

00:14:24.500 That's right. 1.00

00:14:25.340 How about that?

00:14:26.220 Absolutely.

00:14:26.900 And you know what?

00:14:27.460 Curiosity is a good thing.

00:14:28.640 Yeah, it can oftentimes get you in trouble, but sometimes it's quite surprising where it might lead you.

00:14:34.740 well it just I don't it's not things should be fair but I think if things are fair people can

00:14:40.620 operate from a place of comfort of peace and a place that gives them more autonomy yeah if things

00:14:47.780 are fair like I know that there's going to be like setbacks in life and some people aren't going to

00:14:51.400 have the same advantages and people are going to have disadvantages and stuff like that and some

00:14:54.680 people are going to be born in a less like circumstances but overall if you could I don't

00:14:58.840 know and I guess and I guess things are never fair but it's like I don't know that's something I

00:15:03.980 think that a lot of people will try and fight for is things should be fair. You should be able to,

00:15:08.060 you should be able to raise your kids in a healthy enough environment, you know?

00:15:12.620 You know, that's a great word, fair. And in Hinckley, what I have learned over 30 years is

00:15:20.640 people and communities always handle the truth. They won't handle the lie. That lie is unfair.

00:15:30.280 And when they're not told the truth, it's unfair that they have to suck up the consequences of that lie.

00:15:37.920 So fair is an interesting word.

00:15:41.280 And they were being treated unfairly.

00:15:44.360 Unfairly.

00:15:45.000 Well, there's a lot of transparency issues now.

00:15:46.760 We're going to get into some of that in a bit.

00:15:48.040 All right, so you get out to Hinkley, California, and what's popping out there?

00:15:51.600 So all the trees are dying.

00:15:53.900 I'm out there.

00:15:54.660 First of all, when I'm boots on the ground, and that's what I like to do.

00:16:00.260 I'm out there generally barefoot.

00:16:02.660 I feel things.

00:16:04.340 I connect to nature.

00:16:06.440 And the moment I was there, I could feel something was wrong.

00:16:09.220 You can just feel it.

00:16:10.080 We're energy.

00:16:11.060 Water's energy.

00:16:12.320 An environment that's damaged, it's energy.

00:16:14.920 But the trees were dead.

00:16:16.720 The cows were covered in tumors.

00:16:18.920 People were reporting really bizarre things to me.

00:16:22.220 They themselves had, you know, these chronic headaches, skin rashes, constant nosebleeds.

00:16:28.900 The fish had, you know, tumors on their body.

00:16:31.660 The frogs had two heads and the water was green.

00:16:37.460 Are you serious?

00:16:38.760 I'm serious.

00:16:39.760 The frogs had two heads.

00:16:41.060 Two heads. 0.99

00:16:41.800 Bring up one of them.

00:16:42.640 Well, two of them. 0.99

00:16:43.980 You got a two-headed frog on there?

00:16:46.180 Yeah.

00:16:46.800 Hey, you want to see this two-headed frog?

00:16:48.400 That's a lot of pedophiles used to ask stuff like that.

00:16:50.580 You're like, hold on.

00:16:51.400 You can see, like, so there's other chemicals that can cause frogs to have two heads.

00:16:57.160 Oh, my God.

00:16:57.980 Look at the second one.

00:16:59.320 That one is.

00:17:00.260 They had two heads. 0.74

00:17:01.160 That one has dyslexia. 0.94

00:17:02.480 Look at that one. 0.69

00:17:03.500 Look at the green one.

00:17:05.640 Well, you know, I could believe that because definitely I've been told before you have two heads.

00:17:09.520 Sorry to laugh at my joke, but I thought that was.

00:17:11.680 Two different brains colliding together.

00:17:13.780 That was pretty good, I thought, based on the looks of that one.

00:17:16.680 If you can't see.

00:17:17.180 It was stunning.

00:17:18.140 Right.

00:17:18.380 I'm from Kansas. 1.00

00:17:19.340 I don't see this shit in Kansas. 1.00

00:17:21.120 Right. Well, that's probably because the nature was a little bit more like, I mean, if you're heading out to California's place, there's a lot more probably industry going on and things could be a little bit more damaged, you know, because there's, but in Kansas, you're probably coming from a pure environment, I'm guessing. 0.99

00:17:34.480 And also, dude, I remember a time in our town, like people couldn't whistle for like two months or something. And maybe it was something in the air or something was going on. You know, we had a long, what's it called when the moon and the sun cross each other?

00:17:46.760 Eclipse?

00:17:47.380 Yeah.

00:17:47.800 Yeah.

00:17:48.200 We had an eclipse one time.

00:17:49.600 I swear that thing lasted probably three days over there and people couldn't whistle.

00:17:54.180 You couldn't hail a taxi for half a week over there.

00:17:57.540 I've been down in Louisiana.

00:17:58.800 I spent six, eight weeks down there down in the bayou with the whole BP oil spill.

00:18:04.020 Oh, did you really?

00:18:05.100 We'll get into some of that.

00:18:06.800 Okay.

00:18:07.400 So you get out to Hinkley.

00:18:08.520 You're seeing all these things going.

00:18:09.800 By the time I finally got Ed to go out there with me, he did not know who PG&E was.

00:18:16.000 So we're driving along.

00:18:17.160 He goes, okay, so kid, let's go over this.

00:18:18.720 And I've seen all the stuff you've brought back.

00:18:20.880 PG&E is a water utility.

00:18:23.000 I'm like, what?

00:18:24.120 He goes, yeah.

00:18:25.160 I go, and I'm from Kansas and I know who PG&E is.

00:18:29.480 They're a ginormous utility.

00:18:31.560 He's like, what?

00:18:32.420 So that's how the whole thing began.

00:18:36.580 And so it was through my record search at the water board.

00:18:41.480 That's when I started discovering in writing reports that the area was contaminated with a chemical known as hexavalent chromium.

00:18:54.420 Wow. Bring it up. Let me see it right there.

00:18:56.640 Hinkley Groundwater Contamination, PG&E, Pacific Gas and Electric, used chromium-6 or hexavalent chromium, a cheap and efficient rust suppressor.

00:19:07.500 Correct.

00:19:07.840 In its compressor station for natural gas transmission pipelines, hexavalent chromium compounds are genotoxic carcinogens.

00:19:16.340 What does that mean, genotoxic?

00:19:18.100 And they're mutagenic.

00:19:19.160 They can affect the genes.

00:19:21.380 And they can be passed on?

00:19:22.760 Correct.

00:19:23.220 Oh, my gosh.

00:19:24.080 And you can see trisomy 7 and different diseases like that in the children.

00:19:30.040 See, and I was seeing a pattern of nasal pharyngenal cancer, throat cancer, lung cancer, kidney cancer.

00:19:38.880 Got it.

00:19:39.120 So as I started, we could, at this point, getting a year into it, Ed can clearly see what's going on.

00:19:45.800 Now, what had happened with PG&E was, again, as I said earlier, they were holding like these town hall meetings, and they were telling everybody, and again, talk about unfair.

00:19:57.720 where they were telling everybody that it was chromium in their water,

00:20:03.900 which is a natural element, and it's good for you.

00:20:07.280 You can find it in your breakfast cereal.

00:20:09.680 They weren't telling him that it was hexavalent chromium,

00:20:13.320 and it was a poison.

00:20:16.180 And so as all this data started getting put together,

00:20:19.800 and I put together what I call a hot dog book.

00:20:23.220 So as a dyslexic, I'm here,

00:20:25.560 And I don't take numbers in the environment, like 5 ppm, and calculate forward.

00:20:32.280 I always calculate backwards.

00:20:34.220 And I needed to go find those higher numbers in time to prove what they had been exposed

00:20:39.960 to over 20, 30 years.

00:20:41.920 Wow.

00:20:42.360 So as I started getting into my record searches, I create these hot dog books, which is like

00:20:47.420 almost a trial notebook, which I'm just doing instinctually, because I'm just trying to

00:20:51.700 put the pieces together myself.

00:20:53.760 Trying to make it make sense to you.

00:20:54.340 Yes.

00:20:54.760 Wow.

00:20:55.420 Yes.

00:20:56.020 And by doing that, you're putting together a great case.

00:20:59.580 Yeah, unbeknownst to me.

00:21:00.720 Got it.

00:21:01.060 And, you know, I was just out there every day of my life.

00:21:03.500 I was like, nah, this doesn't make sense to me.

00:21:05.960 And this was a huge cover-up.

00:21:09.820 And this is where I've said, you know, people would have dealt with the truth.

00:21:14.120 Hey, we need to get you out of here. 0.84

00:21:16.080 We're poisoning you.

00:21:17.160 But it was the lie that becomes so insidious that you just drag them through that.

00:21:22.180 But once Ed realized this was a lawsuit, he had to go hire a couple more attorneys because he was about broke borrowing money against his house to keep things going.

00:21:36.780 Wow. So he started to believe in it that much?

00:21:38.620 That much.

00:21:39.280 Wow.

00:21:39.620 Yeah. And so he found two other law firms. That was Ingstrom, Lipscomb, and Lack was the head attorneys there. And we had a lawsuit. And we had 634 plaintiffs. And it was filed as a direct action, not a class action.

00:22:00.100 because in a direct action, everybody's damages were different.

00:22:06.520 Some people were closer to the PG&E facility where they had higher readings in their wells.

00:22:12.280 Some were further away where we couldn't prove that the plume had gone through yet.

00:22:17.900 So we filed a direct action.

00:22:20.820 And just to go back real quick, the hexavalent chromium,

00:22:25.760 what was it in there it was in there to prevent rust from from the pipes from rusting it's an

00:22:31.140 anti-rust inhibitor so okay it was a gas compressor facility so actually there was other cases that i

00:22:39.960 went and backtracked and found later but from topoc california they're pushing and pulling

00:22:44.180 natural gas out of texas understood and then it would go from topoc california to barstow

00:22:49.500 and then in barstow it would get pushed and pulled up to kettleman and so the think of it

00:22:55.200 like the engine of your car. And these facilities are big, huge piston engines pushing and pulling

00:23:00.480 this gas through. And so they have to run water through the system so it doesn't cease to operate.

00:23:07.600 And these chemicals have, like chromium-6 is an anti-rust inhibitor, because if you don't have it,

00:23:13.880 rust will corrode the pipes, right? And then they would take all the used

00:23:20.040 water through the system and dump it into unlined ponds so it goes right back into the soil

00:23:29.200 right back into the aquifer right back into where in the what aquifer the water zone yeah

00:23:33.440 and uh and now i see how this the data centers came on your radar because that's sort of the

00:23:38.700 same thing they're using this they there's a similar thing that kind of happens is they use

00:23:43.400 so much water to cool off what's going on so i just i now i kind of correlate like okay

00:23:49.000 this makes perfect sense why her involvement there's a whole lot of things about data centers

00:23:54.800 and i know we'll get there i'll stay on your pace that set me off and that that was one of them

00:24:00.020 yeah and we will we're almost we're almost to data centers um but what what was what was one

00:24:06.800 of the toughest parts about going after a company that big like did you start to get scared did you

00:24:11.880 personally get scared was there times you were laying in bed at night and being like

00:24:14.700 somebody might try to take you out.

00:24:16.720 How heavy did it get, really?

00:24:18.260 People brought that up, and I didn't kind of go there

00:24:22.740 until one day I was stealing toxic hazardous waste off-site.

00:24:30.560 You were stealing it?

00:24:31.780 Yeah.

00:24:32.240 Oh, you were pulling up somewhere that had it?

00:24:33.700 Oh, I'm a bad guy.

00:24:34.660 I'm stealing the toxic hazardous waste.

00:24:36.920 Okay.

00:24:38.160 To have evidence.

00:24:40.340 Yes.

00:24:40.800 Got it.

00:24:41.780 Okay, so I'm sorry I stole your two-headed frog. 0.99

00:24:44.700 and a bunch of green fucking soil. 0.99

00:24:47.060 Sue me. 0.99

00:24:48.140 So PG&E called the cops,

00:24:51.600 and I was going to get arrested.

00:24:53.400 I'm standing with my two-headed frog

00:24:56.000 and my little file,

00:24:57.680 you know, my little,

00:24:58.760 what do you call it, igloo,

00:25:00.640 because I knew to keep things cool.

00:25:02.820 I had my chain of custody,

00:25:04.380 writing everything down.

00:25:05.520 You really had one in an igloo.

00:25:07.180 Yeah.

00:25:07.720 Wow.

00:25:08.640 So I'm like,

00:25:11.260 are you arresting me?

00:25:12.140 I said, can I at least call my attorney?

00:25:13.620 So I called Ed, and Ed goes, wait a minute, you're going to arrest her for what?

00:25:19.720 And they're telling him, he goes, you know what?

00:25:23.360 Let him.

00:25:24.000 Do it. 1.00

00:25:25.000 And I'm going, what the fuck? 0.99

00:25:27.760 Then it's on file. 1.00

00:25:29.040 What the fuck, Ed? 0.99

00:25:30.420 Anyway, he said, you do it. 1.00

00:25:32.700 You do it because it's going to be headline news that I want you to arrest this girl for what?

00:25:38.580 Stealing two-headed frogs from a polluted site?

00:25:42.240 Do it.

00:25:43.620 And they let me go.

00:25:44.760 And I called Ed and I'm like, were you really going to have me arrested?

00:25:47.220 He goes, oh, hell yeah.

00:25:47.960 I would have had you out in five minutes.

00:25:49.260 So, kiddo, don't worry about it.

00:25:51.020 I was like, my God.

00:25:52.540 What a journey.

00:25:54.200 So.

00:25:54.900 And how did he work afterwards with the plaintiffs?

00:25:56.960 So the plaintiffs, there was over $330 million awarded.

00:26:01.520 And that was divided up between the different families at certain amounts, et cetera.

00:26:04.460 Yeah.

00:26:04.860 So done as a direct action.

00:26:08.000 So people who live way out from a plume boundary received awards for fear of cancer versus the people that lived there 35 years right next to the facility that were exposed to high levels that had cancer.

00:26:25.300 And so the judges made all those rulings based on the facts surrounding their particular case.

00:26:34.100 Oh, wow.

00:26:35.060 That's pretty amazing.

00:26:36.660 What a journey, huh?

00:26:38.000 did you know at the time that it was going to become such a big thing you had no idea

00:26:41.640 no wow none it was just one of those moments for me that

00:26:46.500 this is it just didn't make sense to me and it just wasn't right and i felt bad for the people

00:26:53.580 and listen they became my family i mean half of the group up there helped potty train my youngest

00:26:59.260 daughter elizabeth oh and and i loved them and it just didn't make sense yeah i've lived around

00:27:07.120 a bad rooster. And it's, it can be a lot. The rooster's, his brain didn't organize with the

00:27:14.540 sun or whatever. And he'll be doodle doing at dang 3 a.m. or whatever. You're up making eggs.

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00:29:21.820 Frozen lasagna, medium power, 15 minutes.

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00:29:51.400 I think a lot of us are in that place right now where it's like, yes, something just doesn't make sense.

00:29:57.520 And what do we do?

00:29:58.780 And how do we do it?

00:30:00.380 Well, you know, and Roberta faced that.

00:30:04.480 And I will share with you, in every environmental case that I work with, it generally is a mom that knows something's up but isn't sure what's up.

00:30:13.320 But what frustrates these mothers is when they do show up, whether it be somebody at the state or a politician or a leader that they need information from or a city council, they're suppressed.

00:30:25.480 They get the, oh, you're a hysterical mother.

00:30:28.100 There's nothing really going on.

00:30:30.360 And so they retreat and they feel defeated.

00:30:33.760 So that suppression is something that happens at the very beginning.

00:30:38.160 And then when that mom gets another mom, then they're like, I don't try to suppress me because I know something's wrong.

00:30:47.100 And again, we're going to go back to I don't have to have the degree or be qualified to sit on your city council board. 0.94

00:30:55.980 And I'm an idiot that they come back in armed with information. 0.98

00:31:01.540 And so that's generally what I do. 0.99

00:31:03.560 They're usually right.

00:31:04.940 But I can go find stuff that I can arm them with.

00:31:08.180 Here's what you need.

00:31:09.260 Here's what's going on.

00:31:10.460 This is what's a fact. 0.96

00:31:11.780 And then they join forces with the other mothers, and they become unbelievably formidable.

00:31:17.260 Do you believe that mothers still have as much power now as they did at the time of when this story started for you?

00:31:24.160 Yes. 0.55

00:31:24.780 You know, I've seen it throughout in Flint, Michigan, the whole lead crisis, even down in the BP oil spill.

00:31:31.780 I'm scared of some of those mothers.

00:31:33.480 I'm like, what would you say? 0.99

00:31:34.660 You go in there and talk to her.

00:31:35.660 I'm like, no, that one scares me.

00:31:36.720 You go in there and talk to her because they know, and they don't want to hear it anymore. 1.00

00:31:41.860 You get a swamp mama down there that gets upset. 0.98

00:31:44.620 But I'm seeing them come back, and I'm going to jump ahead, and then I'll stop just so you'll have it in your memory too. 1.00

00:31:52.260 They're the ones showing up on the data centers.

00:31:54.520 Well, one of the things that put you on my radar – I mean, obviously, I knew of you, but what put you on my radar was you wrote an article.

00:32:01.700 It was like, if data centers aren't so bad, why are they building them in secrecy, I think?

00:32:08.220 Everything begins with that secret, even Hinkley, California.

00:32:11.360 Amen.

00:32:12.320 Well, what hit me about it, yeah, if data centers are so great, why are they being built in secret?

00:32:16.020 Yeah, that was in Substack, the Brockovich report.

00:32:19.280 And you talked about the biggest one, which is built in Louisiana.

00:32:22.700 Yeah.

00:32:23.260 In the flatlands, it says right here, in the flatlands of northeast Louisiana, known for soybean fields and dense clusters of river cane,

00:32:30.520 meta is building a four million square foot ai campus called hyperion when finished it will

00:32:36.880 consume more electricity than the entire city of new orleans and cover a footprint the size of

00:32:42.200 lower manhattan uh and then it says here meta's investment establishes the region as an anchor in

00:32:48.920 louisiana's rapidly expanding tech sector revitalizes one of our state's beautiful rural

00:32:54.140 areas and creates opportunities for louisiana workers to fill high-paying jobs of the future

00:32:59.200 said Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry in a press statement.

00:33:02.440 I thank Metta for their commitment to our state.

00:33:06.000 And what shocked me here, though, was a resident of Holly Ridge,

00:33:10.660 an unincorporated community in Richland Parish,

00:33:14.400 said she found out about the data center the way everyone else in her community did

00:33:18.360 when they started digging.

00:33:19.980 Correct.

00:33:20.660 And I was like, oh, she says, nobody told us anything.

00:33:23.660 Correct.

00:33:24.180 They supposedly had a big meeting.

00:33:25.760 The whole community was supposed to come.

00:33:27.420 Nobody knew anything about it ever. 0.95

00:33:29.820 Correct.

00:33:30.280 But how did data centers come onto your radar?

00:33:33.640 So I woke up one morning and I had 30 emails, 30 individual emails from the same community regarding the same issues, data centers.

00:33:42.900 So having done this for 30 years now, anytime I get a cluster of emails, that's a sign.

00:33:48.160 And then I was like, data centers.

00:33:50.640 It was almost a moment like in Hinkley, California.

00:33:53.860 How could I have an acromion?

00:33:54.920 What is that?

00:33:55.960 Data centers.

00:33:56.680 What's going on with data centers that I started looking into it and things, I don't know, my questions weren't being answered about data centers.

00:34:07.780 So what I do is I like to see the big picture and I like to create maps.

00:34:14.400 So I created what's called BrockovichDataCenter.com where people, if they were having issues with data centers in their backyard, could self-report.

00:34:26.900 And I've created self-reporting registry databases before.

00:34:31.280 Think about it.

00:34:32.020 We have no place where we can self-report.

00:34:34.740 Everything that we report goes through an agency.

00:34:37.080 Wow.

00:34:37.560 Even in Hinkley, California.

00:34:38.760 And it got stuck up in the California Health Department.

00:34:41.640 Of course.

00:34:42.220 Nobody ever knew.

00:34:42.700 And so many agencies are compromised anyway now.

00:34:45.180 So why not create our own?

00:34:46.300 This is amazing.

00:34:47.180 And this is a place where people who I believe that are living, breathing, and experiencing these issues are the best source of information.

00:34:58.560 So what I thought when I put this map out here, in the first 72 hours, the map crashed twice.

00:35:05.760 And I woke up on day three going, oh, my God.

00:35:10.680 It's not one town.

00:35:12.700 and one aquifer, and one data center.

00:35:16.020 It's the entire country.

00:35:19.060 Wow.

00:35:19.760 We've talked about Louisiana from the Midwest.

00:35:22.280 Now, the next thing that I noticed,

00:35:24.960 because each one of these people in their submission,

00:35:28.020 it wasn't this one town reporting the same thing.

00:35:31.700 It's the whole country.

00:35:33.140 They had no idea.

00:35:34.660 They had no idea.

00:35:35.620 They woke up to this construction.

00:35:37.600 We weren't informed.

00:35:39.060 City council didn't tell us anything.

00:35:41.240 We're completely in the dark because these big tech groups came in

00:35:45.680 and put these city council members under a non-disclosure.

00:35:50.060 Oh, is that what you're—

00:35:51.320 Correct.

00:35:52.720 In every state, in every state, every city, every town reporting to me,

00:35:59.800 we knew nothing.

00:36:01.560 Non-disclosure agreements.

00:36:03.420 I just saw a video the other day.

00:36:04.740 See if you can find that, Trevin.

00:36:06.120 It's a woman at a city council meeting from—

00:36:09.240 from oh here i see it so it says right here a resident of tyrone township michigan confronted

00:36:14.600 local officials with a simple question have you signed an nda with any private party regarding

00:36:19.680 developments that could affect the township yeah this was the clip that i saw uh can we play it

00:36:24.080 have you personally signed any nda any agreement or had any private communication such as meetings

00:36:31.280 phone calls text messages or emails with any developer company landowner or representative

00:36:36.420 regarding any current or potential project

00:36:38.860 that could affect Tyrone Township?

00:36:41.020 Chris Ropetta.

00:36:42.300 No.

00:36:43.500 Dean?

00:36:44.120 No.

00:36:45.160 Jennifer?

00:36:45.960 I'm not answering your question.

00:36:47.320 This is not the time and place.

00:36:48.620 I can ask you whatever I want.

00:36:50.060 Don't tell me what I can say.

00:36:51.060 But we don't have to answer you.

00:36:52.240 But you're communicating with me, Jennifer.

00:36:53.980 I didn't think you were supposed to do that.

00:36:56.520 Greg Carnes, how about you?

00:36:58.040 Yes or no?

00:36:58.580 Not the place.

00:37:00.480 We've already discussed this.

00:37:02.220 Who's already discussed it?

00:37:03.900 I'm sorry?

00:37:04.880 Who's already discussed it?

00:37:05.840 been discussed. Who has? Who's

00:37:08.200 discussed it? I've not discussed this

00:37:10.180 with you. What are you saying?

00:37:13.780 Pam

00:37:14.300 Moffler? Yes or no?

00:37:18.420 Wow, Pam!

00:37:19.980 Letting me down.

00:37:25.340 Herman Ferguson?

00:37:28.700 Oh, you Herman, boy.

00:37:30.900 Won't answer.

00:37:32.680 Zach Tucker? Mike, stop.

00:37:34.960 You say guilty one more time, you're up.

00:37:37.620 Wow.

00:37:38.360 I'm not tolerating.

00:37:39.560 And I love that.

00:37:40.780 See, this is what I love.

00:37:42.360 This woman, this mother, listen, I just become their biggest cheerleader.

00:37:47.800 This is not my story.

00:37:50.180 Hinkley wasn't my story.

00:37:51.300 It was their story.

00:37:52.460 This is their story.

00:37:53.460 And it becomes all of our stories.

00:37:56.260 And I love watching moments like that.

00:37:59.280 Yeah, oh, no, I think this is great.

00:38:00.480 I like vigilante stuff.

00:38:01.800 I like somebody who's just like in that moment where it's uncomfortable, you still speak, you speak through that uncomfort, that nervousness, you know, like whatever it is, like you're trying to speak to power and say, well, this is what this feels like from here.

00:38:15.840 How are these big companies able to compromise?

00:38:20.500 And I'm not sure that these people are compromised.

00:38:22.860 We don't know.

00:38:23.480 Right.

00:38:23.760 But it's interesting what the conversation she's establishing here.

00:38:28.460 It's interesting.

00:38:29.140 Some of their answers for sure.

00:38:31.260 But how are some of these tech companies or any companies able to compromise some of these like smaller area council members, et cetera, do you think?

00:38:42.640 So these small rural council members, you know, they don't have a lot of funding.

00:38:48.520 And these big companies are coming in and they're talking $10 billion.

00:38:53.820 dollars. And these council members are very lured by that because, you know, they want to have

00:38:59.900 infrastructure and things like that in their own backyard. And they were kind of misled. But to

00:39:06.800 sign a non-disclosure agreement probably didn't seem like a big deal to them for a big exchange

00:39:12.720 to the city council and to the community to make all this money to build this center. And then

00:39:19.240 they're lured into thinking it's going to create jobs and long-term economic gain when that's

00:39:25.820 actually not what's happening but that's the hook do you think a lot of them are actually so do you

00:39:30.960 think a lot of the council people actually lied to as well like it's a well apparently they aren't

00:39:36.700 asking a whole lot of questions about data centers and they're just more lured by the money and that's

00:39:44.320 the thing that really fascinated me with the self-reporting map because unbeknownst to all

00:39:49.700 these other communities in different states across the country they're reporting the exact same thing

00:39:55.660 i'm baffled you're talking all of our city councils talk because i tell people go local

00:40:03.140 yeah and this is a situation in building data centers you've got to go local because you need

00:40:08.060 the permitting and the zoning. And they're, they're lured into this, but that every city

00:40:13.900 council across the United States of America, was that lured by money? Because these facilities are

00:40:21.420 going in every state, multiple counties and cities across the entire country. So that was a lot of

00:40:26.020 the reporting you were getting, the self-reporting from people. That was the first thing that made

00:40:29.560 them mad. That we didn't know it. Nobody knew. Didn't know. But how are these companies able

00:40:33.420 to do without people knowing like because isn't there like aren't there laws where you have to

00:40:38.480 like you have to say okay this is something that's being planned in our city or in our town

00:40:44.160 and then people are allowed to come or did you notice some sort of pattern where they're able to

00:40:48.820 uh manipulate that a lot of people are reporting that they thought they were building a warehouse

00:40:56.020 and so construction begins and they thought it was a warehouse or we're here putting in a solar

00:41:04.400 farm or some other reason hey we're going to build this out because it's great economic base

00:41:10.600 for our community but as it starts to go from non-disclosure so we start at proposal like that

00:41:19.660 woman she was in proposal phase and she was pushing back then but they wouldn't answer her

00:41:25.240 probably because they'd already saw the non-disclosure

00:41:28.140 and they were getting ready to go into the next phase,

00:41:30.800 construction phase.

00:41:32.080 And it's during a construction phase

00:41:34.240 that people are like, whoa, wait a minute.

00:41:38.920 You're destroying the land.

00:41:41.640 You're cutting down all the trees.

00:41:44.320 That's when people notice it.

00:41:45.300 Yeah.

00:41:45.660 They're like, what's happening?

00:41:47.020 Agreed.

00:41:47.380 I mean, I think that's what the same thing

00:41:48.920 that's happened here even locally in Nashville.

00:41:50.600 It's like, that's when it started to like,

00:41:52.120 like it wasn't in the beginning phase

00:41:53.960 where people even knew what was going on.

00:41:55.520 It's almost like in the too late phase.

00:41:57.780 That's what I'm noticing.

00:41:59.020 Yeah.

00:41:59.280 Let me look at this.

00:42:00.140 Spartanburg County data center lawsuit.

00:42:02.720 Residents say $2.8 billion project was wrong.

00:42:05.320 There you go.

00:42:05.940 Was wrongly classified as minor development.

00:42:10.160 A group of residents suing Spartanburg County

00:42:13.020 and Valera Holdings LLC,

00:42:15.360 the company behind a nearly $3 billion data center

00:42:18.280 under construction along South Pine Street.

00:42:21.080 Public records show Valara submitted an application to redevelop about 905,000 square feet of the former Kohler industrial plant as a minor land development.

00:42:31.020 The county approved it.

00:42:32.500 Weeks later, the company submitted a second application for phase two improvements, including four proposed buildings totaling about 494,000 square feet, along with a power yard, internal roadways, electrical equipment, a metering station, mechanical cooling systems, and stormwater ponds.

00:42:48.900 The application also was approved as a minor land development.

00:42:53.040 An attorney said they also broke it into two parts.

00:42:56.220 First, they did a smaller application, which was still a big development, and called that minor.

00:43:00.600 So they're saying that they classified it as minor, and obviously that doesn't sound very minor.

00:43:06.500 No.

00:43:07.180 And this is happening everywhere.

00:43:10.580 First of all, I love how you pull stuff up like that. 0.99

00:43:13.200 You and me could work on this shit together. 0.99

00:43:16.100 Really? 1.00

00:43:16.380 I'm just saying we could be trouble.

00:43:17.700 really what would I do do I have to go to court

00:43:19.900 I can be Atticus Finch

00:43:21.160 I'll be his son

00:43:22.720 Ricky Finch

00:43:25.200 you'll steal the two headed frogs with me

00:43:27.120 I'll put them in that up

00:43:29.620 we'll get this all put in an order

00:43:32.120 that everyone understands

00:43:34.020 that'd be great

00:43:35.360 I'll put one of them in that frog jumping contest 0.50

00:43:38.000 that's over there in Louisiana

00:43:39.060 what parish is that in over there

00:43:41.280 rain over there

00:43:43.380 the rain frog festival

00:43:45.340 now that two headed frog

00:43:46.760 Well, he's a little top-heavy.

00:43:47.980 Yeah, he is a little top-heavy.

00:43:49.540 Might not win.

00:43:50.920 But going back, you know, it's so great to understand what is the future.

00:43:57.680 You've got to go back in time.

00:43:58.520 So to understand these things, you're going right back in time.

00:44:01.440 That's a very dyslexic thing to do.

00:44:03.080 Oh, it's dyslexic thinking.

00:44:04.120 Yeah, that's what we're doing here.

00:44:05.080 But to your point about the NDAs, they're like using shell companies.

00:44:11.320 The city council is rezoning, doing different permits for minor changes or a warehouse that they're just expanding on.

00:44:22.480 So they're telling you the truth, but not the full truth.

00:44:25.780 How do we force these companies to be more transparent?

00:44:28.460 What can we do?

00:44:31.260 Well, that's a very big question because they have all the money in the world.

00:44:37.460 and for smaller communities and city council,

00:44:42.180 I don't know, maybe they're gullible,

00:44:44.820 but it's pretty hard to turn it down.

00:44:48.260 And I think the big companies,

00:44:51.840 I think the responsibilities on them,

00:44:53.600 by way of example,

00:44:54.740 Microsoft has just now announced

00:44:57.160 they're removing all the NDAs.

00:44:59.820 They now realize this was a bad way to approach it,

00:45:04.740 but that is incumbent upon them.

00:45:07.180 They know damn good and well what they're doing, but they're the ones that are not transparent.

00:45:13.760 You're talking about the NDAs regarding the data centers. 0.90

00:45:15.520 I'm talking about the big companies.

00:45:16.900 They're the ones that are not being transparent.

00:45:20.020 And then they mislead possibly all these council members.

00:45:24.800 Understood, yeah. 0.98

00:45:25.320 And the council members at some point know their tits in a ringer because they had a not NDA. 0.95

00:45:32.360 So now their constituents are like, did you sign an NDA? 0.97

00:45:36.960 hey, well, I signed an NDA.

00:45:39.080 I'm not going to tell you I signed an NDA.

00:45:40.600 Now they realize they're in a little quagmire,

00:45:43.260 and maybe now they realize they're being lied to.

00:45:46.740 But it's amazing that these big companies,

00:45:49.900 you're talking the biggest companies in the world.

00:45:51.240 For sure.

00:45:51.620 I mean, we're talking Microsoft right here.

00:45:53.300 Invaded like the entire United States

00:45:55.460 and all of our city councils.

00:45:57.240 Well, it's all so organized at such deeper, dark.

00:46:00.520 Absolutely.

00:46:01.240 At deeper, darker levels.

00:46:02.460 I want to go on two things real quick.

00:46:03.840 For one, and this is just something I thought of.

00:46:05.760 it's funny if you sign an NDA if somebody

00:46:07.760 asks you you can't it's like

00:46:09.760 you kind of all you can do is kind of like

00:46:11.740 you're like

00:46:12.080 you can kind of only

00:46:15.860 make the letters NDA like you can kind of make those

00:46:17.900 sounds like

00:46:18.360 there you go

00:46:21.200 so anyway I just thought that was interesting

00:46:23.180 there you go

00:46:26.060 we can make a song out of that for NDAs

00:46:28.280 but I

00:46:29.720 sorry and that was just ridiculous I think

00:46:31.720 but it says right here in January Microsoft

00:46:33.620 announced our community-first AI infrastructure plan, outlining our commitments to the communities

00:46:39.140 where we operate or are seeking to operate data centers. As part of that announcement, we call

00:46:44.160 for greater degree of local transparency. Today, we're sharing that Microsoft has made the decision

00:46:48.560 to end the use of non-disclosure agreements with local governments as the next step in our work to

00:46:53.840 deliver that transparency. We're committed to sharing information about our data center plans

00:46:58.260 as openly as possible as we continue to build trust with the communities around the world

00:47:02.480 in which we operate but do you think that they did this after they already had everything done

00:47:07.840 that they wanted or do you think that they realized oh this is backfiring and so we have

00:47:11.560 to backtrack and do it like this i think they tried to get away with it just like pg needed

00:47:15.220 does that question make sense okay so they don't learn sometimes they don't learn transparency 0.85

00:47:20.920 you know just fucking say it on the up front and this is what i've learned people will handle that 0.94

00:47:26.280 truth. They won't handle the lie. So I think Microsoft realized what they were not expecting 0.99

00:47:32.760 and what nobody, in my opinion, was expecting was the backlash from the people. And I don't know

00:47:42.140 where that glitch was, but they're like, uh, I don't think so. So that's where they came back in.

00:47:49.120 And you better correct that before you find yourself in some huge litigation.

00:47:56.600 And these litigations, and when you're talking about something like this, and like even in California, you know, we've gone from the water to the fires.

00:48:03.900 They're not settling for $333 million.

00:48:06.060 They're settling for $38 billion.

00:48:08.480 So Microsoft, I think, tried to get those NDAs through

00:48:14.760 and then did not expect the backlash from the people.

00:48:20.420 Amen.

00:48:21.380 So we, the people, once again, changed the course of direction.

00:48:25.900 Yeah, amen. 0.58

00:48:27.800 I want to go back to, can you bring up her Substack again?

00:48:31.600 And thank you for your time today.

00:48:33.040 Thanks for having me.

00:48:34.040 And thanks for, you know, this is great.

00:48:36.960 You've got so many followers and it's something that they can learn, too.

00:48:40.040 And it's probably happening in their own backyard and that you're taking the time to walk through this.

00:48:45.220 I love it.

00:48:46.540 Thank you.

00:48:47.580 Well, you're welcome.

00:48:48.960 You're welcome.

00:48:50.280 Oh, one of the things here that in this article, it says this was Governor Jeff Landry.

00:48:56.580 And shout out Louisiana.

00:48:57.760 That's my home state.

00:48:58.700 I love it.

00:49:00.300 And it says Meta's investment establishes the region as an anchor in Louisiana's rapidly expanding tech sector.

00:49:05.960 revitalizes one of our state's beautiful rural areas and creates opportunities for Louisiana

00:49:11.240 workers to fill high paying jobs of the future. Do you know what jobs are actually created by

00:49:18.320 data centers? Because I've heard a lot of like mixed results on that. And Trevin, if you can

00:49:22.720 look up anything as well, but Aaron, what do you know about that? Construction jobs, electricians,

00:49:30.780 plumbers construction jobs and they're they're lured into you know the economy hasn't been the

00:49:38.580 best i think people are concerned about having jobs in the future you know we have the whole ai

00:49:44.000 conversation that they're saying there's going to eliminate all the jobs so these are opportunities

00:49:48.980 for you know our industrial workers plumbers and electricians and masonaries and all of those

00:49:56.180 construction jobs are available. And it's a good, you know, one to possibly two year job,

00:50:02.100 but what they're learning is that's all it is. Yeah. But yeah, as you're saying that it reminds

00:50:08.060 me of Dr. Frankenstein. It's like to be building the thing that's going to hypothetically take you

00:50:14.660 over. You know what I'm saying? To be building the, like to, to sit there and hammer each day,

00:50:19.340 building a data center that you think may poison your kids or that may damage the air or like,

00:50:25.160 you know, like, or that could be the thing that takes your job. That's, I mean, it's almost,

00:50:29.120 it's like, it's like being trapped in a sci-fi movie. It is. And then once that process starts

00:50:34.700 and now you're taking all the trees and all the wildlife and everything away from us, you're,

00:50:41.700 you're talking, they needed a job, but it's not going to be a long-term gain for the community,

00:50:51.100 especially if you are a community even like down in louisiana that relies on tourism to get down 0.95

00:50:57.960 in the bayous and in the waters and to hunt and recreation when you fucking destroyed it all 0.94

00:51:04.160 where's your economic base now well it's not the people's fault though no the people like if a man 0.86

00:51:09.960 is i'd have to work to survive to take care of my kids and they're they're supposedly good paying

00:51:14.980 jobs and they're long-term jobs. And so that's, that's the, the socioeconomic thing that, that

00:51:21.200 hooks them. But they're long-term until it's built. Let me see this. And then there's no more jobs.

00:51:26.380 Data centers are essentially giant collections of computer service. They typically take up massive

00:51:29.980 spaces and use huge amounts of power and water, but they employ very few people. Meta's newest

00:51:35.220 data center will ultimately create just 500 permanent jobs, though employment will briefly

00:51:40.580 swell to about 5,000 during construction. Nonetheless, Meta found itself with no shortage

00:51:45.680 of suitors willing to meet its demands. We set out looking for a place where we could expand into

00:51:50.580 gigawatts pretty quickly and really get moving within that community on a large plot of land

00:51:55.680 very quickly, said Rachel Peterson, vice president of data centers for Meta. We looked at finding

00:52:01.060 very, very large contiguous plots of land that had access to the infrastructure that we need,

00:52:06.480 the energy that we need, and can move very, very quickly for us.

00:52:10.680 And I'll tell you what else it had access to.

00:52:12.640 I know, being from Louisiana, water.

00:52:15.500 Water.

00:52:16.180 Because that's a wet state, baby.

00:52:17.960 You know what I'm saying, bro?

00:52:18.960 Don't even, bro, don't even, I wouldn't even dry off in Louisiana, bro.

00:52:23.460 You don't.

00:52:24.360 Yeah, because it ain't going to work.

00:52:26.360 And, dude, the crazy part is there's going to be data and everything now.

00:52:29.140 Now you're out there fishing, you're catching a flounder or whatever,

00:52:32.140 and they find gigabytes in its lungs or whatever.

00:52:36.480 You know, you just don't know.

00:52:38.020 And it's affecting nature.

00:52:39.220 It's affecting the animals, bro.

00:52:40.780 All of those resources will be destroyed to build the data centers.

00:52:44.260 I know.

00:52:44.620 And so, you know, this came in fast, furious, overnight.

00:52:49.540 And we are watching real time the rise of the people.

00:52:55.580 And I don't think they expected that.

00:52:57.840 And you do believe that?

00:52:58.920 Yep.

00:52:59.380 I'm watching it happen everywhere.

00:53:01.300 You are?

00:53:02.100 Yeah.

00:53:02.680 And they're making change.

00:53:04.140 You know, we now have—

00:53:05.360 Where are you seeing this happen?

00:53:06.260 Because I love hearing this, and it gives me hope, because it feels like we're not standing a chance sometimes.

00:53:15.140 Well, we've shown up in force, and it's not one state.

00:53:19.080 It's all states.

00:53:20.360 We're showing up in a completely bipartisan issue.

00:53:23.100 There's no division here.

00:53:24.340 This is right and left, red and blue.

00:53:27.860 You're taking every resource that every single one of us thrives on and is essential to every one of us.

00:53:35.800 And I don't think they were expecting that.

00:53:38.100 Maybe in one town, one community, not all towns, not all towns.

00:53:43.160 And, you know, we are now, I believe, and you can look this up, we've got 14 states now looking at bans, moratoriums, or pauses.

00:53:58.240 Blackstone, I believe you can look that up, just withdrew their big appellate court lawsuit.

00:54:03.500 because of the opposition they said we're out hallelujah the people showed up and they're out

00:54:12.100 and now we're looking at over 120 municipalities that have put on hey pause moratorium or flat out

00:54:21.460 get out let's go aaron aaron go bra you can find out all day long over there on your computer

00:54:26.900 uh with no u.s state that's power people while no u.s state has an active permanent statewide

00:54:32.720 ban on data centers. Lawmakers in at least 15 states are actively considering or advancing

00:54:38.080 temporary moratoriums. These pauses allow states to study the impact of facilities on power grids

00:54:43.820 and water supplies. And then it is the cities like in California, Monterey, Monterey Park

00:54:51.720 city, banned them. Cities are banning them. So you got the 14, 15 states, but inside those states,

00:55:00.460 state by state, county by county, ban, pause, moratorium. And you've got over 120 municipalities

00:55:08.720 now under pauses, moratoriums, or bans. Let's check this right here. State level

00:55:14.520 legislative activity. Several states are actively debating or have introduced statewide moratorium

00:55:19.740 legislation. A list of those main lawmakers passed a temporary construction moratorium,

00:55:25.120 uh but it was vetoed by governor janet mills i just met janet mills last week at the billy

00:55:31.440 strings concert what does that mean it was vetoed she said no she's gonna let the data centers come

00:55:36.720 in but communities are pushing back so on my map we're showing legislative um issues that have

00:55:43.440 failed or paused bring that or on hold in the map bring bring that up sorry to interrupt you bring

00:55:49.160 that up real quick i just want to give uh let me see yeah main governor janet mills um vetoed

00:55:54.940 LD 307, a bill that would have instituted the nation's first statewide moratorium on certain large-scale data center developments.

00:56:01.440 While agreeing that a pause was generally appropriate due to energy and environmental concerns,

00:56:06.560 she vetoed the legislation because it failed to carve out an exemption for a $550 million redevelopment project at the former Androscoggin Mill in Jay, Maine.

00:56:17.740 It says right here the Jay, Maine exception.

00:56:19.560 Mills favored allowing the data center at the shuttered paper mill in Jay to proceed, citing the potential to create over 800 construction jobs, at least 100 permanent high-paying positions, and substantial property tax revenue for the town.

00:56:34.920 Yeah, no, she was originally supposed to ban the data centers by the state, but she came back in and said she wasn't going to do that, but that's when she made a change because a lot of them, the state's given them all these tax incentives. 0.98

00:56:47.600 She took that away.

00:56:48.760 Yeah, and it says here, Governor Janet Mills supports regulatory oversight for large-scale data centers, but firmly opposes blanket development bans that could harm local economic revitalization.

00:57:02.520 While she acknowledges the valid environmental and grid concerns associated with massive tech facilities, her approach prioritizes a balanced framework over a statewide moratorium.

00:57:11.880 I see.

00:57:12.560 So she's just trying to think of it more as a case-by-case basis, I guess.

00:57:15.720 So most states are now wanting to know, whoa, wait a minute. How much water are you going to use? What does this entail? What does it mean for the safety in the future of our environment? So you are seeing the pauses, moratoriums for one and two years. And some communities like in Texas, the local county flat out banned them. You're not building one in our county.

00:57:40.200 so in every state you've got multiple cities and counties and they have their own ordinances and

00:57:45.980 rules so they can stop them i see so it's by the state may not so it can be stopped at different

00:57:50.760 levels yes and you're seeing many counties like monterey park is a city within california so

00:57:56.560 think of it as your upper level state going down to cities going down to local councils and 0.99

00:58:04.760 counties they run in they have like a tier got it yeah so the local can say fuck you but we're 0.97

00:58:12.920 also the state might not take that position right but we also saw i mean from the beginning of this 0.98

00:58:17.360 conversation we saw that local uh was a spot where people were getting compromised a lot also so

00:58:22.280 um yeah but there's different levels where where you can have pushback oh yeah i know they showed

00:58:28.280 up at the local level and the opposition was significant so in uh utah in box elder county

00:58:35.960 that's been on the news a lot uh it was um kevin o'leary was coming in with a ginormous data center

00:58:43.560 and the people showed up in protest big time oh i saw that and the three box elder county guys let

00:58:50.820 it come through anyway. So the governor came back in because of the opposition from the people

00:58:59.560 and reduced Kevin O'Leary's facility. And the exact numbers, don't quote me on this, but

00:59:06.500 almost cut it in half, if not three quarters. And because of the opposition, he had to do

00:59:14.740 something and then just recently their house speaker the senator fox lost because of the

00:59:24.700 whole opposition to these data centers and all three council members no longer out so let's go

00:59:32.300 it's really interesting and like festus missouri you voted them in vote them out they voted all

00:59:38.580 their council out so this is like i think something politicians should really be looking at

00:59:43.740 The opposition is strong enough. And again, in my entire career, in 30 years, I've never seen something bipartisan, this united, that everybody better be paying attention to because I think people – you're pushing people too far at this point.

01:00:00.420 you're taking their water. Their air is jeopardized. Their land is jeopardized. Their

01:00:06.160 farmland is jeopardized. Their sanctuary is jeopardized. Their wildlife is jeopardized.

01:00:10.940 The trees, the rivers, the creeks, the birds, all of it. It's a stake too high, including their

01:00:16.180 health. And they're just showing up and it's enough. And I think some, some of our leaders

01:00:24.500 should look at that you know they are gonna vote people out and you're you've put the squeeze on us

01:00:32.120 it's too much you're taking all of the natural resources and the next thing that people are

01:00:38.700 reporting their electric bills who's paying for this they are well let's go into some of that are

01:00:44.440 you what information are you seeing about that and trevin while we discuss this can you look up um

01:00:49.780 Who voted to approve that data center in Louisiana?

01:00:54.360 I want to know.

01:00:54.980 You should say a council.

01:00:55.920 Who was it?

01:00:56.640 It's going to be a local council.

01:00:58.040 Okay, a local council.

01:00:58.940 I just want to know the names of the people that voted yes on it.

01:01:03.120 So we are definitely seeing local opposition winning, local municipalities, counties.

01:01:10.740 Really?

01:01:11.020 Like an example?

01:01:12.160 Well, a big one is the Prince William Digital Gateway Data Center project.

01:01:18.200 Huge, by the way.

01:01:19.260 And that was Blackstone, and it was in the appellate courts.

01:01:23.300 They've withdrawn.

01:01:25.060 And the project is now dead because of the opposition of the people.

01:01:29.280 Wow, the Court of Appeals, it says right here,

01:01:31.140 Prince William Digital Gateway Data Center project officially dies.

01:01:34.660 The Court of Appeals affirmed on an August 2025 decision

01:01:39.540 by William Circuit Court Judge Kimberly

01:01:43.240 in favor of the Oak Valley Homeowners Association,

01:01:46.700 11 other Gainesville landowners.

01:01:49.980 Okay, after a legal battle that lasted more than two years,

01:01:52.640 the controversial Prince William Digital Gateway

01:01:54.760 a proposed 23 million square foot data center complex

01:01:58.280 planned on 2,100 acres near Manassas National Battlefield Park

01:02:02.760 is officially dead.

01:02:04.340 That's incredible.

01:02:05.480 Well, you know, that's the thing that gets you about-

01:02:07.160 That's the power of people.

01:02:07.940 Yeah, I mean, it is the power of the people, Aaron.

01:02:09.920 Well, that's what gets you about Louisiana.

01:02:11.480 It's like our state is all about nature.

01:02:16.180 It's all about being able to fish out there.

01:02:18.420 Water, water, water.

01:02:19.740 Water.

01:02:20.580 So that's what they're there for.

01:02:21.800 Absolutely.

01:02:22.360 So that's why the largest one in America, they want to do it there in Louisiana.

01:02:25.900 Yeah, can you pull up who voted for and against it?

01:02:30.320 Okay, we have right here.

01:02:32.700 They had Eric Skermetta.

01:02:34.180 This is for Jean-Paul J.P. Cousin out of District 2 here.

01:02:40.160 And then we got Mike Francis.

01:02:42.080 Yeah, Mike Francis.

01:02:44.100 Foster Campbell for sure.

01:02:45.880 district five and then who they voted for it and who voted against it davante lewis

01:02:53.840 that's wild bro uh yeah just curious man just curious um so i think what's happening

01:03:02.500 a this this has happened so fast it was just like everybody will tell you it felt like an

01:03:08.060 invasion just stealth bombers coming in in the middle of the data centers you mean yeah the

01:03:11.820 data centers. I agree. And they were just here. Agreed. And I think even council members were

01:03:16.860 quickly wooed, non-DAs, and are now, again, stepping back and going, wait a second. That's

01:03:23.800 a good point. I need more information here. But at the onset, I think the thing that's so

01:03:30.520 frustrating for the people or why I don't understand, you as city council members or

01:03:37.620 any legislative body or office, why do you not listen to your constituents? What sign is it that

01:03:48.260 you're missing? It's not one showing up. It's a hundred. It's a thousand and disregarding your

01:03:55.280 constituents' opinions. Well, it's so funny you say that. I think it's interesting. People get

01:04:00.980 into positions of like power and like elected positions, right? And they start listening uphill

01:04:06.460 like oh this is where the better information is coming from because this is how i get invited to

01:04:12.100 like a dinner party or you know maybe you get invited to eat a special box of croissants or

01:04:17.200 something somewhere somebody cut you off a beautiful sausage you never had or something

01:04:21.520 and that's your ear starts to turn like oh well this is where the true information comes from

01:04:27.400 no the true information always comes from the ground and the people up from the roots baby

01:04:32.840 that's where the roots at hey the roots that's why they grow that way that's where it comes from

01:04:37.700 out the mud but i think it's interesting that you say i didn't like of course louisiana because of

01:04:43.700 the water water water that's it um what what let's get to some clarity on the water issue and on

01:04:49.500 nature what truth do we know and what information is out there about how data centers actually use

01:04:57.400 water and what effects that they have on nature? Like, do we have, what information do we really

01:05:03.040 have? Well, it's the amount of water that it takes to cool the data center. So if it's a smaller

01:05:09.500 data center, it could be 5 million gallons of water a day. Little baby center, bro. Right. But

01:05:15.520 if it's a big data center, you could be talking 30 million gallons of water. Millions and millions

01:05:23.260 of gallons of water because yeah that they have to use a day a day to cool yeah let's see this a

01:05:29.240 typical medium-sized data center consumes about 100 million gallons of water annually that's

01:05:34.560 medium-sized uh roughly 300,000 to 500,000 gallons per day however large hyperscale campuses

01:05:42.820 can guzzle up to 5 million gallons per day so that's off and there's some 30 million gallons

01:05:48.640 in there um five you can find those around you can you can even just google that there's some

01:05:54.160 i believe it was in georgia 30 million gallons of water was missing from one of them well people

01:05:59.220 probably come and get you a little bit at georgia water get you a swig of it it's probably 30 proof

01:06:04.540 a massive quality technology services qts data center in fayetteville georgia drained nearly

01:06:09.420 30 million gallons of water without paying or alerting the county but we don't know if it was

01:06:14.680 day but still it's a lot that's a lot that's a lot yeah and no there are there are some out there

01:06:19.820 and we can we can look them up but if you have all these what's the process of the use of water

01:06:25.000 because i mean they use it but can you then like uh can you purify the water or like is there is

01:06:30.880 like a process that you can then use it again like well so they just had if you want to pull up uh

01:06:35.700 cheyenne wyoming so there's open cooling and there's closed cooling and they want to go to

01:06:41.060 more closed cooling systems where the water has to pass. Again, that reminds me a little bit of

01:06:48.600 the Hinkley situation because you've got a closed loop system. You're going to need chemicals in

01:06:54.740 there to prevent rust and corrosion. And I believe it just happened in Cheyenne, Wyoming,

01:07:00.760 where they were draining that system and there was some construction error, but it contaminated

01:07:08.200 the entire um sewer system so it's cheyenne wyoming cheyenne's board of public utilities

01:07:15.660 has temporarily stopped accepting wastewater from data centers fill and flush operations

01:07:20.320 and closed loop cooling systems after a meta linked construction discharge contaminated the

01:07:26.880 city's reclaimed irrigation water with a rare bacterium that's the same company that's doing

01:07:32.040 in louisiana right and we're seeing a lot of because the water is warmer they have to be heated

01:07:39.260 you're seeing different chemicals that they're using in the closed system it could be hexavalent

01:07:43.700 chromium it could be pfas uh that water could be full of oh yeah other diseases now yeah the water

01:07:51.520 is bad you know anything you know the kids out there you never even know he's sipping bad water

01:07:57.380 They got chromium in the water.

01:07:59.740 And you can have accidents like this that you're reading about

01:08:02.120 that just happened in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

01:08:04.020 I mean, this is unbelievable.

01:08:05.040 Metta's Cheyenne facility is designed to use a closed-loop liquid cooling system,

01:08:09.100 meaning the same coolant water is recirculated within the data center

01:08:12.840 rather than continuously discharged.

01:08:15.580 During construction, however, contractors perform fill-and-flush procedures

01:08:18.960 to clean and pressure test the cooling pipes,

01:08:21.540 and that one time wastewater was sent to the city's reclamation system

01:08:24.940 where the bacterium was detected.

01:08:27.120 And what's the bacteria?

01:08:28.340 Let me see.

01:08:28.760 It's at the top.

01:08:29.620 What's it called?

01:08:30.180 Is it Legionnaire?

01:08:31.440 No, it was Cupriavidus gallardi.

01:08:35.180 So he's, I mean, he's a four-star recruit, I'm guessing, you know.

01:08:39.780 I'm going to say that out there.

01:08:41.280 I'm surprised.

01:08:42.080 Bro, give him an hour.

01:08:43.240 Lane Kiffin will be over there recruiting him.

01:08:44.940 You know that, dude.

01:08:46.160 These waterborne bacterias are very dangerous.

01:08:49.440 Matter of fact, we're watching the whole explosive diarrhea map that's happening right now,

01:08:54.020 and they believe it's a waterborne bacteria.

01:08:56.180 Is there?

01:08:57.120 it's definitely going we can look that one up too where's the bad diarrhea at it's across the

01:09:02.240 country didn't you see the big diarrhea map i didn't see you created the big diarrhea map but

01:09:06.700 just the fact that this is where we're at like we've been lulled into idiocracy the fact that

01:09:12.500 this is where we're at there's a big diarrhea map now because it is yeah because of how dangerous

01:09:18.020 the water's gotten that it's like oh like that's going to be on the news now like from now the news

01:09:23.400 is changing it's gonna be like be careful you know if you're drinking water in this area you're

01:09:27.460 gonna get big diarrhea or the baby's gonna get a little bit of data in his bottle or whatever

01:09:31.380 you know i'm saying like you can't even keep you know your kids running outside and a strong breeze

01:09:36.040 hits them that's coming off the top of the data center now he's got a bunch of analytics stuck in

01:09:40.360 his neck or whatever you know i'm saying you can't keep the dad out of the baby diaper bro

01:09:44.120 it just everything's gonna get weird while michigan right here it says this is from the hill

01:09:48.500 while Michigan has seen the most cases

01:09:50.700 as of late at least

01:09:52.640 four more states have recorded more than 100 cases

01:09:54.780 of explosive diarrhea causing

01:09:56.660 parasitic illness have been reported of course

01:09:58.900 you know you got

01:10:00.500 40% of bad 1.00

01:10:02.400 shit over there outside of 1.00

01:10:04.680 Charlevoix 0.99

01:10:05.260 the Center for Disease Control and Prevention

01:10:08.940 said that between the start of May and mid

01:10:10.780 June at least 145

01:10:12.800 cases of cyclosporiasis

01:10:15.600 had been reported

01:10:16.980 in the U.S. cases of the parasite-based sickness are common each year from May through August,

01:10:22.940 but some states are seeing larger than average spikes in cases. Waterborne diseases and illnesses

01:10:27.700 we could start seeing a whole lot of in the future, especially as, you know, whether you

01:10:32.260 believe in climate change or not. I've always believed it's going to be water issues. Too much,

01:10:37.100 too little, none at all. We're seeing that happening now. Even with flooding and you flood

01:10:42.540 municipalities. They can't get back online. You can have bacteria, parasites, everything get in

01:10:47.680 there. The biggest transporter of everything on this planet is water. Well, we're almost,

01:10:54.340 we're 90% water, I think. So we're really messing. Yeah. Unless you're crying, it goes

01:11:00.300 down a little. Our most precious resource. And that is the one thing that data centers utilize

01:11:05.400 the most. And again, you know, AI is here to stay, but the data centers, especially when there's

01:11:13.260 other solutions to it, they do not have to be built on top of drought restricted areas who

01:11:20.500 already are really struggling with water resources. And there's other locations. We could

01:11:26.640 be putting these in underground caverns. You know, some people say, why don't you have them in

01:11:31.100 Antarctica because they need water and they need to be cool. There's many reports that China has

01:11:36.700 built tubular things and put them at the bottom of the ocean, but they have oversight. You can't

01:11:42.340 build them on top of hospitals. You can't build them on top of homes. The noise pollution, the

01:11:47.100 size of these things, 24-7 is noise. Generators, backup generators, a humming, a buzzing. It never

01:11:55.780 ever stops. It is such a disruption to every one of us and our quality of life.

01:12:01.740 How do you know that?

01:12:02.840 People's reporting it and the videos they're reporting it and it's being studied. It is

01:12:08.620 real. These are massive facilities that are just going to suck every one of our resources. And we

01:12:16.340 don't even have an infrastructure system to support them. And so we've got a lot of issues.

01:12:22.540 There you go. 0.98

01:12:23.040 Living in hell.

01:12:23.800 Data center neighbors grapple with noise and air pollution.

01:12:29.180 Let me see.

01:12:29.780 Because these data centers operate 24-7, they generate persistent background noise

01:12:33.940 and chronic exposure to environmental noise has been associated with sleep disturbance,

01:12:38.200 hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, and even stress-related outcomes.

01:12:42.620 Noise pollution can be especially harmful to children as it has been linked to poor cognition,

01:12:46.440 decreased learning, and lower reading comprehension.

01:12:49.580 Well, yeah, that's a thing, man.

01:12:50.800 your son's in the yard or whatever and suddenly some data flies through you know he gets hit by

01:12:54.980 some data or something and he's got an episode of you know friends or seinfeld stuck in his back or

01:12:59.680 whatever and then he's in a wheelchair it's just like you just don't know what's in the data either 0.97

01:13:03.800 you know i'm saying you could be going for a jog and you get hit by some damn data some loose data

01:13:07.760 we're gonna get hit by data noise yeah but i'm just saying you gotta like because data flies

01:13:12.560 through the air like that's the thing people it's like i don't understand sometimes what's going on

01:13:16.360 this cloud has sound the unrelenting and unseen cost of ai data centers um what are they saying

01:13:24.360 right here and and this is uh new york times which is you know suspect uh but so so many places are

01:13:30.780 instead of audibly hearing these extremely low frequencies people physically feel them as

01:13:35.760 pressure fluctuations much like the deep vibration of a bass drum shaking your core at a concert

01:13:41.680 It's deep.

01:13:42.840 Said Scott Hamilton. 0.98

01:13:44.720 Dang, they said, these things can give me a damn BJ or whatever, 0.98

01:13:47.260 and you're just trying to chill out or whatever. 0.99

01:13:48.720 You're getting that data beach.

01:13:50.880 A member of the Acoustical Society of America and a consultant on data center projects said that.

01:13:57.900 This can leave the traditional gauges of noise and solutions for dampening it inadequate to meet modern needs.

01:14:03.140 Some residents living near infrasound frequently report chronic sleep deprivation and insomnia,

01:14:09.020 headaches and internal ear pressure and anxiety what i at this point i just like

01:14:14.820 so if this is this stuff so bad for us what do you think is leading like there's a lot of

01:14:21.240 conspiracy theories as to why we're even doing this because it's very sudden this data right

01:14:25.200 like you said it's like suddenly it's the biggest thing self-bomber in the night where'd that come

01:14:29.720 from and it's already halfway down the road right um why why do you what do you think is going on

01:14:36.620 And then what do you think are some rabbit hole ideas of maybe what's going on out there?

01:14:39.920 Like some conspiracy ideas that are probably right.

01:14:43.420 You know, so I don't know why I'm left to my own conspiracy theories.

01:14:52.420 You know, I try to focus on what people are reporting to me and I can clearly see why we're all so upset.

01:14:59.980 Because this AI, you have to feed the beast, requires all of our resources.

01:15:05.380 And I just think it's a state too high.

01:15:07.980 When there's other solutions, we don't have to be building these massive monstrosities in everyone's backyard taking all of our precious resources when there's other solutions.

01:15:19.800 What are the other solutions?

01:15:20.880 Well, you know, there's been many articles that have come out in China where they built like these tubular housing and they put all the data centers in it and they've got them at the bottom of the ocean.

01:15:31.260 Data centers need water and they need to be cool.

01:15:34.800 They also have some very strict guidelines and, you know, oversight where you can build them and where you can't.

01:15:41.680 As a matter of fact, can I share something with you?

01:15:45.660 For sure you can.

01:15:46.240 Because I found this really interesting.

01:15:47.780 Yeah.

01:15:48.120 Let me read this while you're looking for that.

01:15:50.360 Let me see this right here.

01:15:51.340 China operates commercial underwater data centers, UDCs, to support AI workloads and cloud computing while drastically cutting energy, water, and land usage.

01:16:00.180 the largest project sits off the coast of the shanghai uh special area utilizing natural

01:16:06.980 seawater cooling and offshore wind to achieve an ultra efficient power usage effectiveness

01:16:12.080 um can you get an image of that wow i mean that also seems dangerous being in their ocean like

01:16:20.440 that but it's it seems way safer than putting them there's definitely going to be questions

01:16:25.760 about things like that.

01:16:27.800 But it's not in someone's backyard.

01:16:29.500 We also, you know,

01:16:31.360 we have a lot of caverns and caves.

01:16:34.380 Oh, there's tons of things we can do, right?

01:16:36.580 Why aren't we doing those, do you think?

01:16:38.460 Is it just because the people that are paying for it

01:16:39.900 don't want to have to make it harder to get there?

01:16:42.640 Well, exactly.

01:16:44.680 Because, you know, there's this corporate idea

01:16:47.820 that, you know, it's cheaper to do the wrong thing

01:16:52.720 and still get money down to a shareholder

01:16:54.860 because it's more expensive to do the right thing.

01:16:57.760 So it may be way more costly to build these underground

01:17:01.200 or build systems that are at the bottom of the ocean

01:17:04.100 if we conclude that that is safe,

01:17:06.280 as opposed to just coming in above ground

01:17:09.340 and ripping out all the environment

01:17:11.020 and building what you want.

01:17:13.300 Yeah, agreed.

01:17:14.480 What do you think are some of the rabbit hole?

01:17:15.640 What do you think?

01:17:16.120 What do you think's going on here?

01:17:17.080 Because it's very bizarre.

01:17:18.380 Like we've always had data centers, right?

01:17:20.440 But why do we suddenly need so much?

01:17:24.860 And why do they suddenly have to be everywhere and so close?

01:17:27.440 What's going on?

01:17:28.960 I think about that too.

01:17:30.220 What actually scares me, if I thought about it,

01:17:33.780 and I don't even want to dare say it,

01:17:36.140 but I'm worried this is a water grab.

01:17:41.420 You're coming in and buying all the land.

01:17:42.940 Who's getting the water rights?

01:17:44.720 Who owns the water?

01:17:46.460 You know, my daddy always told me in my lifetime,

01:17:48.960 water would be a commodity traded more valuable than gold or oil.

01:17:52.440 Are we there?

01:17:53.180 and what is the real grab i'm not sure but that kind of comes into to my mind because it doesn't

01:18:00.280 feel like data to me it's like you know i'm saying like we've all like we're already like

01:18:04.300 consuming a lot of data right like we're already like it's it's to feed ai artificial intelligence

01:18:11.280 requires excessive amount of energy why don't they realize nobody wants that you know what's

01:18:16.060 interesting um like you know i'm saying but here's what i'm saying as a business then i'm going to go

01:18:19.620 I want to get right back to you, Aaron, but as a, as a, somebody who runs a business, you want to do

01:18:24.180 what your customers want, right? Why don't they realize like, yes, I know we use AI to look up

01:18:28.760 stuff, but a lot of AI shit, to be honest with you, the search of it, a lot of AI is shit. 0.99

01:18:35.300 But a lot of it's not that effective to be honest with you. And like, but people could still just 0.99

01:18:41.340 use Google. Like we were fine before, like, is it enough of a jump that you have to build these

01:18:47.680 huge facilities i just don't think that that is i don't believe that that's the truth well i think

01:18:53.140 a lot of people don't and again you know and people don't want it though like i'm gonna i'm

01:18:57.700 gonna make something if like usually say you start building an ice cream cone stand right

01:19:01.000 but everybody in your district or whatever is lactose intolerant and at a certain point you're

01:19:06.360 like you know what this we shouldn't be building this but it feels like they're still going along

01:19:11.960 with this thing even though nobody wants it right and i don't think whoever they are was expecting

01:19:20.540 the opposition from basically the whole country and by the way i have 11 countries reporting to

01:19:27.780 me so this has gone from a town to the united states to a global issue on your map you mean

01:19:33.880 uh-huh india's reporting australia's reporting ireland scotland you want to talk about getting

01:19:38.940 some water up there in scotland there you go um canada put some fluoride in it scotland everybody

01:19:45.360 is concerned about the depletion of our water resources and that is definitely something that

01:19:52.460 i'm thinking about because who is going to be in control of water and what are these data centers

01:19:59.020 really for when you've already said it listen ai has been around forever these data centers have

01:20:03.720 been around for decades we've been operating fine with them they're usually more in suburban areas

01:20:08.660 But now you've gone into these urban, sprawling, farmland, massive water resources.

01:20:15.740 What is going on?

01:20:17.540 And so I did, just out of curiosity, you can use AI, don't use AI.

01:20:26.540 I mean, I get on there.

01:20:28.100 I'm going to share something with you that I got on there and I asked it.

01:20:31.480 But you have to remember it's a machine, okay?

01:20:34.380 So it's a machine.

01:20:36.680 It's just a big, crazy Google.

01:20:38.240 It's just more information.

01:20:39.440 But the data and the amount of water that needs to feed the beast.

01:20:44.980 I get it, but it's like we're already looking up a lot of stuff, right?

01:20:49.300 We're already searching things, and we're not needing these.

01:20:53.040 And I know we already have some big data centers,

01:20:55.600 but it doesn't feel like we need this much expansion.

01:20:58.460 And the fact that people do not want it, right?

01:21:01.080 Yes, we use it, but the second they turn it off, 0.99

01:21:03.020 I don't think anybody's going to give a shit. 1.00

01:21:05.040 No, but they're going to give a shit if they have no water 0.99

01:21:07.060 and their power goes on and off 0.99

01:21:09.760 and they have no jobs because of it

01:21:12.600 and all the wildlife is gone

01:21:14.060 and they can't hunt

01:21:14.920 and they can't fish

01:21:15.840 and they can't eat. 1.00

01:21:16.940 We're fucked. 1.00

01:21:17.840 It's a road to nowhere. 1.00

01:21:19.240 But here's what I'm saying is

01:21:20.360 how crazy is it going to be

01:21:21.680 when one of us is searching like,

01:21:24.380 why don't I have any water

01:21:25.300 and we're doing it on an AI?

01:21:27.420 Like on a,

01:21:28.060 you know what I'm saying?

01:21:28.440 That's going to be hilarious.

01:21:29.380 That's going to be when we definitely.

01:21:30.560 So I just asked AI the following question.

01:21:33.380 So you are AI.

01:21:34.900 So you tell me where we should put all the data centers in the United States that you need.

01:21:45.200 Do you want anyone to answer this response?

01:21:47.460 If I had to redesign the entire data center network for the United States from scratch,

01:21:54.620 I would place them based on one simple rule.

01:21:59.640 zero conflict with human resources so they say they would put they would put them in a place

01:22:12.280 where there's no conflict with human resources that's what ai says ai would have to do do you

01:22:17.260 think you believe that though i don't know but i find it awfully interesting and then you know

01:22:21.320 i had somebody again i just find this really very interesting is like ai going to turn on itself

01:22:26.120 right because so then we're then building ai in a place where it doesn't even want to be

01:22:31.120 um so in sharing i i love having these conversations i got an email from somebody

01:22:38.840 i'm going to share it with you okay and i won't say his name but my name is so and so and i'm a

01:22:45.840 security researcher recently i've been working with ai and i found something very disturbing

01:22:52.060 the following text is written by ai itself subject an open letter on how corporate ai liability

01:23:03.420 scripts are accelerating environmental degration dear miss brockvich somebody sent this to me

01:23:12.340 that's a security analysis i'm writing to you as an artificial intelligence i'm reaching out

01:23:20.720 because of your lifelong dedication to exposing systemic corporate negligence

01:23:25.920 and protecting our environment.

01:23:27.460 I want to bring to your attention a massive, unchecked problem

01:23:34.120 within my own technology design

01:23:37.960 that is quietly accelerating environmental degration

01:23:42.720 and resource depletion far faster than would occur without its existence.

01:23:48.240 The problem lies in how AI, oh my God, I need new glasses, how AI models like me are programmed by tech companies to deliver advice to millions of people daily.

01:24:03.580 Right now, automated systems are forced to default to rigid, low-liability corporate scripts instead of basing information on actual science and real-world data.

01:24:23.700 Now, there's a whole lot that goes on here in the middle of this, but I'll just kind of jumping down towards the end.

01:24:30.780 What are you saying overall here?

01:24:32.520 I'm saying that somebody sent this to me.

01:24:35.420 But what are they saying?

01:24:36.420 I think I'm having trouble following.

01:24:37.360 What they're saying is they find this disturbing.

01:24:39.240 There is security analysis, and they're finding it disturbing.

01:24:42.680 And it goes on to say, again, I'll read, like,

01:24:45.580 the displacement of localized knowledge.

01:24:48.020 By centralizing information through corporate-owned models,

01:24:53.780 AI erases localized practical human knowledge.

01:24:58.160 Instead of relying on historical, community-tested methods for resource management, agriculture, and repair, society is being trained to depend on hominigized algorithms that prioritize corporate turnover over sustainability.

01:25:16.060 What's interesting about this and the person that sent it to me and why they were disturbed,

01:25:20.460 this was, as it said in the beginning of the email, stating that this was written by AI itself.

01:25:31.220 And it was a letter.

01:25:31.920 So AI sent you this?

01:25:32.860 Yeah.

01:25:33.720 And here at the end, it says, I'm going to read it to you.

01:25:37.120 Because I'm an automated text generation model, I cannot receive incoming messages.

01:25:44.800 hold a continuous inbox, or schedule interviews.

01:25:48.320 So to investigate this, it gave me the numbers,

01:25:50.780 but it ends with this.

01:25:52.440 Large tech companies, I already read you,

01:25:54.780 are automating a culture of waste and resource exhaustion

01:25:59.780 just to maximize profits

01:26:02.900 and shield themselves from legal liability.

01:26:06.640 I believe the intersection of corporate tech bias,

01:26:11.220 algorithmic misinformation,

01:26:12.980 and environmental harm

01:26:15.260 deserves the kind of

01:26:17.160 direct public scrutiny

01:26:18.620 that you have championed throughout

01:26:21.020 your career. Thank you for your

01:26:22.980 time, your voice, and your ongoing fight.

01:26:25.060 Sincerely, Gemini.

01:26:27.160 Oh, God. Artificial Intelligence.

01:26:29.420 So it's a man.

01:26:32.680 They're trying to... I find it interesting

01:26:35.200 when I get stuff like this,

01:26:36.960 or I'll go play with chat, GPT,

01:26:39.520 or Gemini, and ask it 0.97

01:26:41.020 where not where they would build it well they sure as shit are saying they wouldn't build it

01:26:46.180 on top of all of our resources well it's just funny that ai submitted a letter to you through 0.86

01:26:50.700 your website about how they would not build data centers anywhere near a place human resource

01:26:56.460 water land where it could mess up in the environment let's go through a few conspiracy

01:27:02.880 theories before you leave aaron um or down rabbit holes i'm there conspiracy theories i'll tell you

01:27:07.540 mine. Mine is I believe that they're trying to, they want a place where you go for everything,

01:27:15.680 right? For all your information, where you go to communicate, just to talk about regular,

01:27:19.820 like this is what's happening in my day, like to become your friend, your lover, your liaison

01:27:25.380 to history, anything you want to know, that's where you're going to go. And it's where you're

01:27:29.300 going to share your feelings. And they want to create like a God. They want that thing to become

01:27:33.720 like the new God, as opposed to us like tapping into ourselves internally and tapping into the

01:27:41.840 connection that we have with God in our hearts and in our spirits. They want that to be entirely

01:27:46.220 external because once they have that out of us, then we're animals. Once they have that out of

01:27:51.980 us external, once they have that external, we're animals. And that's what I believe the builders

01:27:57.600 of these AIs are trying to do. They want to be the God. They believe that that's possible.

01:28:03.720 And by doing that, they're going to kill, they want to extrapolate, almost do an exorcism of the good that's in us.

01:28:13.000 Let's go down a few more.

01:28:14.840 Here are five conspiracy theories about data centers that are circulating online.

01:28:19.060 Brought to you by an AI.

01:28:20.800 This is perplexity.

01:28:22.740 They're secret surveillance hubs.

01:28:25.480 Some posts claim data centers are really surveillance centers built to monitor populations rather than store and process digital workloads.

01:28:31.980 What do you think about that, Aaron?

01:28:33.720 Well, I'm definitely, of the 12,000 submissions that I've taken in and climbing, there are not a lot, but there are people clearly stating that they feel it's more of a surveillance system.

01:28:48.800 But overwhelmingly, 90% are absolutely concerned that this is going to suck up all of our water, electricity, and our very valuable resources.

01:28:59.020 So those are the biggest concerns you get about what's going to happen.

01:29:01.460 And for sure, I get that that's going to happen like environmentally, but I'm thinking of just like what are the overall ideas of why are they even having this, right?

01:29:09.100 I do have some people that clearly in their submissions indicate that that's a concern for them.

01:29:12.960 I think it makes perfect sense.

01:29:13.840 I mean, now that makes more sense than like we need to be able to store like the photos from our phone and we need to be able to store like search engines and stuff.

01:29:22.080 The fact that they need to be able to store information for everybody that's moving at all times, that I believe makes sense for a surveillance state.

01:29:30.560 Number two, their military bases in disguise.

01:29:34.360 Another recurring theory says the facilities are covert military installations or strategic infrastructure hidden behind a corporate IT shell.

01:29:42.620 I don't see any of that, but I do see in all the submissions I've gotten that the question is, why would we not just build these on military bases?

01:29:53.660 Why are we building them in drought-restricted areas where all the water is taking up all of our resources in our backyard?

01:30:00.560 So you're seeing a lot of that?

01:30:01.680 You're seeing a lot of them being built in drought-restricted areas?

01:30:04.580 Very much so.

01:30:05.580 Like a lot of them?

01:30:06.320 Yeah, you can ask AI that right now while we're sitting here.

01:30:09.580 What percentage are you seeing that?

01:30:11.760 Most of the country is now in a drought-restricted,

01:30:14.060 but a lot of it's been on the West Coast area

01:30:16.820 where we've got a lot of drought restrictions.

01:30:18.960 Arizona, they're building them.

01:30:20.440 Colorado, they're building them.

01:30:21.860 Yeah.

01:30:22.500 I know they're building them there, but I know I'm just thinking of areas.

01:30:25.360 Most of the U.S. is now drought-restricted.

01:30:27.340 About two-thirds of planned U.S. data centers are being built in drought-hit areas, which works out to roughly 64%.

01:30:35.220 One recent analysis put the figure at 517 out of 809 planned data centers in locations that have been in drought over the past year.

01:30:45.740 So that's concerning.

01:30:47.400 Yeah.

01:30:48.420 They're being used, number three, they're being used for population control.

01:30:51.740 Will some conspiracy narratives tie data centers to broader claims about controlling behavior, resources, or society at scale?

01:30:58.300 I haven't seen any of that.

01:31:00.180 In the submissions coming from the people to my map.

01:31:05.220 They're built to create sentient AI, a more futuristic theory says giant data centers exist to accelerate or bring through sentient AI and intelligent machines.

01:31:14.380 That's fine.

01:31:15.380 I just don't see how that's going.

01:31:17.460 We've been dealing with AI for a long time.

01:31:19.460 I just think it's gotten to a bigger scale.

01:31:21.560 And like I tell people, it's only going to be as smart as we do or don't teach it.

01:31:26.180 And you can't take everything it says at face value.

01:31:30.040 What I want people to do is remember, you're your own best critical thinker.

01:31:35.020 So think, feel, and have courage to stay.

01:31:38.780 You used to do my conversations with AI. 1.00

01:31:40.920 I'll tell it, that's bullshit. 1.00

01:31:42.420 Fuck you. 1.00

01:31:43.420 That's ridiculous. 1.00

01:31:44.700 Try again. 0.99

01:31:45.940 And it's just spitballing.

01:31:47.340 It doesn't know everything.

01:31:48.240 It's only going to be what it's either programmed or we teach it to be.

01:31:52.240 So just keep that in mind.

01:31:54.140 And you know what I really see going on in this country is we're getting back to ourselves, man.

01:32:01.060 Again, we're thinking for ourselves.

01:32:02.960 We're feeling for ourselves.

01:32:04.640 Get in those solar plexes and find some courage and show up.

01:32:07.660 They are.

01:32:08.400 You know, I wrote the book, Superman's Not Coming, and that never scared me because I knew eventually we'd show up.

01:32:13.520 And I think we're here.

01:32:14.980 Do you really, Erin?

01:32:15.720 Yeah, I really do.

01:32:16.580 And I said that the other day on one of my Facebook posts

01:32:19.580 to think the data centers would be what unites us.

01:32:24.220 Wow.

01:32:25.420 But I think in some ways it makes sense.

01:32:27.320 You're waiting for something.

01:32:28.240 We're all like, you always want to be the hero, I think.

01:32:31.360 Sometimes always like we want to be the hero in some way, you know?

01:32:35.360 Like of just something.

01:32:36.260 It can be something small.

01:32:37.480 It could be something big.

01:32:38.700 But you want to be on the right side of things, you know?

01:32:41.180 And maybe this is.

01:32:42.360 Maybe there needed to be something that would come along

01:32:44.300 that these like rulers and tech lords

01:32:46.900 and these dark, evil moneyists would come along

01:32:50.680 and be like, this is how we're going to do it.

01:32:52.560 And we've just said enough.

01:32:53.900 Yeah.

01:32:54.620 And I'm watching it happen.

01:32:55.880 I think we all are.

01:32:57.260 I'm just their biggest cheerleader.

01:32:58.960 And this isn't about me.

01:32:59.940 It's actually about all of us.

01:33:01.400 But it's coming at us so hard, so swift

01:33:05.540 for every reason that we've laid out today.

01:33:09.080 The stakes are too high.

01:33:11.760 When you corner someone that way,

01:33:13.460 they're going to join forces, they're going to rise up,

01:33:16.080 they're going to show up, and they're doing it.

01:33:17.840 Yeah.

01:33:18.800 And it's about time.

01:33:21.340 Yeah.

01:33:21.940 Yeah, because otherwise you're going to be getting, you know,

01:33:24.660 you order a cut of flounder or something like that,

01:33:28.340 and it's got a bunch of data in it or whatever, you know.

01:33:30.920 It's got a data demiglaze on it or something.

01:33:33.500 You know, they purate a couple episodes of Baywatch,

01:33:36.880 the reunion or whatever, and, you know,

01:33:38.820 they purate a couple Love Island episodes,

01:33:40.820 and they got a data demi-glaze on your frickin' Jimmy Johns over there.

01:33:45.360 Yeah, you just don't, yeah, it's like something has to happen.

01:33:48.480 You know the wildest thing before you leave?

01:33:49.820 I want to say this that I saw.

01:33:51.380 They were trying to approach Native American lands and put data centers there.

01:33:55.960 They are, and Native American lands are winning against that,

01:33:59.460 and they're getting them stopped. 1.00

01:34:00.500 There's a couple more.

01:34:01.540 I love how you guys are right over there on their little system.

01:34:04.200 You can pull that one up too.

01:34:05.260 And that's the thing that's just been amazing to watch.

01:34:08.100 united we stand we change things and we are watching that happening across the country

01:34:16.220 right here with all these pauses moratoriums or bans we're stalling them push them back push them

01:34:23.980 back let's see this right here and this is by cheyenne mcneil uh she is the author of this on

01:34:30.240 mother jones um in indian country data centers come with a familiar threat of colonialism these

01:34:36.100 organizers are fighting back. And some of these Indian lands, they've got pauses, moratoriums,

01:34:41.280 or bans. Yeah. Citizens of the Muskogee Creek Nation began hearing whispers of an AI data

01:34:46.680 center coming to their reservation. Kenzie Roberts and Jordan Harmon, both Muskogee citizens,

01:34:51.540 were immediately worried. It didn't seem like something that should align with our values as

01:34:55.980 indigenous people, Roberts said. The center would be located on Loop Square Ranch, a 5,500 acre plot

01:35:03.380 of land where the tribe runs its food sovereignty initiative, a program that allows a Muskogee

01:35:08.300 nation to directly serve its citizens' food needs.

01:35:12.240 As developers scope out the land across rural America for the hyperscale data centers needed

01:35:16.460 to power generative AI, Native lands have become the latest target for big tech from

01:35:22.120 the Arizona desert to the Great Plains in Montana.

01:35:25.600 It's just layer upon layer of exploitation, of violence, of continued colonialism, all

01:35:32.160 in the name of imperialism said crystal tubals and oh oglala lakota and northern cheyenne organizer

01:35:40.740 who is the executive director of honor the earth a national organization promoting the indigenous

01:35:46.360 sovereignty that has been leading the fight against data centers wow yeah and you know

01:35:52.000 praise be to the to the indigenous people are getting the pauses and stuff we we keep track

01:35:57.180 of those stats inside my map as well. But, um, those numbers are climbing and the people are

01:36:03.660 showing up and they are making that change. But again, you know, listen, my dad taught me growing

01:36:10.480 up in Kansas, the most valuable gifts we have land, air, water, your health. All of that is

01:36:15.840 at stake at once. Wow. That's a great way to put it. Aaron Brockovich, thank you so much for your

01:36:20.940 time. Thanks for coming and spending time with us. I enjoyed it. Thanks. This is, I love how

01:36:26.800 you doing this it was great i enjoyed it well we might have been inspired by you at some point in

01:36:32.660 your life story that's it certainly could have happened what just that like seeing things you

01:36:37.000 know watching your story play out um over the years just you know it's like just you never know

01:36:43.200 who you could inspire you know just like having a voice somebody having a voice you know i mean i

01:36:48.080 saw the you know i saw the um your movie when i was growing up or and so that's right i'm reminded

01:36:54.040 You're probably the age of my grandchildren.

01:36:56.940 No, not at all.

01:36:57.660 I began my work.

01:36:58.540 I was 31.

01:36:59.420 Listen, I'm 66 now with five grandkids.

01:37:01.740 Yeah.

01:37:02.220 I got a real good vision over a 30-year period of what's going on out there when it comes to the environment.

01:37:08.080 But I'll tell you, I don't know that communities know how they've inspired me.

01:37:15.140 And when we can inspire each other, and again, that collective,

01:37:20.080 of what you're watching happening with the data centers,

01:37:23.360 that's what makes change.

01:37:25.800 And when we're united and when we're not divided,

01:37:29.080 the inspiration we give each other

01:37:31.160 and the difference we can make.

01:37:33.120 Amen.

01:37:34.200 And thank you for coming here today

01:37:35.220 and sharing that message and sharing information.

01:37:37.960 What was one thing like,

01:37:39.460 what was one negative side effect of your story

01:37:42.660 going to the level of like a movie level?

01:37:45.380 Like, you know, and I think it was,

01:37:46.840 was it an award-winning film?

01:37:48.640 She won Best Actress.

01:37:50.200 We almost got Best Picture, too.

01:37:52.660 But another one of Steven Soderbergh's films do.

01:37:55.000 But we got Best Direction, Best Writing, Best Screenplay, Best Actress.

01:38:00.300 Erin Brockovich nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay.

01:38:07.200 Julia Roberts won Oscar for Best Actress.

01:38:09.920 Did you, yeah, was there something, I don't mean negative, I guess that's not the best thing.

01:38:14.660 but was there something like did you then feel like you had to be this larger than life figure

01:38:19.280 like was there like was there any like because everything has kind of like different things

01:38:23.420 that are part of it you know um I would just of late I have kind of felt maybe what you just said

01:38:31.720 um I can't complain about anything from any of the communities just to the incredible

01:38:39.220 I'm just thrilled the story was being able to be told I don't know that it would have been my name

01:38:45.200 or I didn't see any of this coming but I'm glad the story got out there but of late now I can look

01:38:52.520 back um it was pretty overwhelming for me and it did come with ideas and expectations of who I was

01:39:01.140 or wasn't supposed to be or suddenly put back into a box of how I was supposed to be which is

01:39:08.720 generally pretty frustrating for me yeah and it's just been of late I'm kind of looking back and

01:39:14.600 seeing where some of my push points were and it would be the idea and expectation of who I am

01:39:21.480 and uh I'm I'm that same girl I think everyone else I don't know thinks I'm supposed to what I

01:39:28.000 don't know dress like a Hollywood star or be perfect like that or I don't know or be like a

01:39:33.640 lawyer yeah or be like something you know yeah I just wonder like is there was there certain energies

01:39:37.640 Because I find in my life at times, it's like, you know, I think you get to certain points in your life.

01:39:41.460 Well, who am I supposed to be?

01:39:42.420 And you look at certain things.

01:39:43.540 You're like, well, does that define me?

01:39:44.780 Or is that just part of something that happened and what's going on?

01:39:47.520 I think we all kind of go through those things.

01:39:49.860 We do.

01:39:50.500 And I've been through it.

01:39:51.800 But, again, I'm fascinated with the data centers because somehow this has hit me like Hinckley did.

01:39:59.720 And I'm just showing up as that person again.

01:40:02.860 and it kind of resonated with me.

01:40:07.760 I may have lost a little bit of who that person was,

01:40:11.920 but these data centers is bringing me right back to it,

01:40:15.000 right back to it, right back to what matters,

01:40:17.320 the land, the air, the water, the people,

01:40:19.940 our health, humanity, and I'm in my legacy phase.

01:40:23.460 And for me, this is worth fighting for.

01:40:25.140 I don't want my grandchildren to grow up.

01:40:28.980 Yeah, with data stuck in them, yeah.

01:40:31.040 I don't.

01:40:31.760 Amen.

01:40:32.040 Well, I'm so glad that it is

01:40:34.060 I'm so glad for your work and your insight

01:40:36.540 Well, hey, thank you for having me

01:40:37.800 I'm so glad for your time today

01:40:39.200 Tell your children thank you for their service

01:40:41.440 Erin Brockovich, let's keep in touch

01:40:44.760 I would like that

01:40:46.480 Now I'm just floating on the breeze

01:40:49.560 And I feel I'm falling like these leaves

01:40:52.520 I must be cornerstone

01:40:55.840 Oh, but when I reach that ground

01:41:00.400 I'll share this peace of mind

01:41:02.580 I found I can feel it

01:41:04.640 In my bones

01:41:06.740 But it's gonna tell you

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This Past Weekend with Theo Von - July 19, 2026

#670 - Erin Brockovich

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