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Introduction
Thomas Meaney
‘Culture has been bound up since the beginning with extraction.’
The editor introduces the issue.
Wagner in Africa
James Pogue
‘Many people in the country seem happy to accept mercenaries in exchange for stability.’
James Pogue on the Wagner Group in the Central African Republic.
Prairie Dogs
Benjamin Kunkel
‘After making sure our guests all had the drinks and/or drugs they required, I put on a Sun Ra record.’
A short story by Benjamin Kunkel.
Working the Soil and the Cloud
Danny Franzreb & Atossa Araxia Abrahamian
‘Like all money, Bitcoin is valuable only to the degree that people believe in its value.’
Photography by Danny Franzreb, introduced by Atossa Araxia Abrahamian.
Where the Language Changes
Bathsheba Demuth
‘I am on the hunt for the Russian Empire, or what traces might still exist of its colonial enterprise.’
Bathsheba Demuth travels the Yukon river, following the history of the fur trade and the Nulato massacre.
The Extracted Earth
Thea Riofrancos & Thomas Meaney
‘It’s perhaps hard to imagine a country with abundant mineral or oil reserves simply leaving that wealth underground. But there are precedents here, historical and contemporary.’
Thomas Meaney interviews Thea Riofrancos.
Monkey Army
Eka Kurniawan
‘He did what people told him to do. He was a machine.’
A short story by Eka Kurniawan, translated by Annie Tucker.
The Last Freeminers of England
William Atkins & Tereza Červeňová
‘It is a principle of freemining that you leave nothing of value on site, nothing other than the mine itself, which is of value only to a freeminer.’
William Atkins visits the Forest of Dean, with photography by Tereza Červeňová.
Drone Wars for Mexico’s Gold Mountains
Anjan Sundaram
‘More than 111,000 people have gone missing in Mexico in the past six years.’
Anjan Sundaram on cartels, conflict and the rate of disappearances in Mexico.
The True Depth of a Cave
Rachel Kushner
‘When you live underground, among the things you discover is that you are not alone.’
Fiction by Rachel Kushner.
Death by GPS
Salvatore Vitale
‘The old romantic warning not to trust a machine more than one’s own intuition has renewed urgency in the digital age.’
Photography by Salvatore Vitale, introduced by Granta.
