Sunday Pick: The Data Center Next Door with Dr. Jacoby Wilson | from TED Tech

Summary

TED Talks Daily – “Sunday Pick: The Data Center Next Door” with Dr. Shacoby Wilson | from TED Tech (June 14, 2026)

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Main Theme & Purpose

This episode marks the beginning of a special TED Tech series investigating the real-world consequences of AI’s physical infrastructure—data centers—on local communities, with a focus on race, class, and environmental justice. Host Shirelle Dorsey interviews Dr. Shacoby Wilson, Environmental Health Scientist at the University of Maryland, to explore how the explosive growth of data centers is burdening marginalized neighborhoods, the civil rights issues at play, and actionable policy and community strategies to challenge these trends.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Reality of Data Centers in Local Communities

• Data centers are increasingly found in everyday neighborhoods, consuming vast resources (power, water), causing noise, and raising utility bills—often with little community input.
  • “Imagine if one day your quiet neighborhood came alive with a steady hum and it never went away.” (Elise Hu, 00:04)

2. Data Centers as a Continuation of “Sacrifice Zones”

• Drawing on environmental justice language, Dorsey and Dr. Wilson explain the concept of “sacrifice zones”: neighborhoods, often of color or lower-income, designated to bear environmental hazards for society’s benefit.
  • Peggy Shepherd’s TED Talk is referenced: “Some [communities] are sacrifice zones. Communities living on the front lines of pollution and environmental hazards… Race is the decisive factor.” (Peggy Shepherd, 05:39–06:34)

3. Environmental and Social Impacts of Data Centers

• Air pollution: Combustion byproducts like particulate matter, nitrogen and sulfur dioxide, and volatile organic compounds harm local health.
• Water consumption: Facilities use millions of gallons, impacting both quality (thermal pollution, chemicals) and quantity (competing for supply with residents).
• Economic challenges: Claims of job creation are misleading, as most data center jobs are temporary (construction) or minimal (in operation).
  • “There’s more jobs at your local McDonald’s than is at the data center.” (Dr. Wilson, 15:56)
• Civil rights & governance: Data centers are sited with little transparency, often under NDAs; residents rarely have input—mirroring historic patterns of environmental injustice and disenfranchisement.

4. The Case of Prince George’s County, Maryland

• Plans for a major data center prompted fierce local opposition, including petitions and independent community research.
• Dr. Wilson’s team and local residents (with NAACP support) produced the “People’s Report” to counter the official task force findings, bringing overlooked harms to light:
  • “Residents then partnered with the NAACP to produce the People’s Report, a community driven analysis of the impact of data centers in Prince George’s County.” (Shirelle Dorsey, 10:35)

5. Economic Deception & Power Structures

• The promise of economic development is often hollow; benefits accrue to outside contractors and politicians, not impacted communities.
  • “Economic development. It’s a con job. Because in most cases…in the construction phase, you have a lot of jobs. In the operation phase, you don’t have that many jobs.” (Dr. Wilson, 15:00)
  • “What ends up happening is folks will get a soccer field, they get some T shirts, some scholarships. I call again turkeys and trinkets. They’re not getting real benefits.” (Dr. Wilson, 22:43)

6. The Persuasive Power of Community-Led Science & Advocacy

• Dr. Wilson describes engaging directly with those affected, conducting surveys and listening sessions to ensure genuine community involvement and justice:
  • “There was a lot of engagement that occurred with those frontline fence line organizations, those organizers, the residents who have voiced their concerns about the data center issue…” (Dr. Wilson, 16:35)

7. Recommendations for Other Communities

• Moratoriums on new centers pending regulation.
• Community campaigns for transparent ordinances on siting, size, environmental monitoring, and tax subsidies.
  • “Talk to your mayor, your county executive, the county council, your planning commission has a huge role in pushing these data centers or any type of industrial development through.” (Dr. Wilson, 24:19)
  • “Try to get a moratorium in first and then work…to make sure it’s a data center ordinance…like we do not want hyperscale data centers in our community.” (Dr. Wilson, 24:33)

8. The Broader Coalition and Hope for Change

• Data center resistance is uniting communities across racial, class, and political lines. Dr. Wilson expresses optimism that this challenge can bridge divides and yield effective action:
  • “Data centers don’t know across racial lines, across class lines…There are folks that fight and data centers all across the country, people are winning.” (Dr. Wilson, 26:18)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “The cloud has an address, which means it has neighbors.” – Shirelle Dorsey (03:15)
• “Now we’re talking about digital sacrifice zones.” – Dr. Shacoby Wilson (11:25)
• “In most cases…there’s more jobs at your local McDonald’s than is at the data center.” – Dr. Shacoby Wilson (15:56)
• “They’re internalizing all the externalities, but they’re not getting any of the benefits.” – Dr. Shacoby Wilson (23:35)
• “We have been here before. Black folk, brown folk have been here before with industrial revolution stuff, with industrial hazards. They don’t want to see it repeated with the…data centers.” – Dr. Shacoby Wilson (19:55)
• “It’s not intergenerational justice, intergenerational economic justice…data centers are part of that because we’re targeting communities for these data centers. They’re the avenue of least resistance.” – Dr. Shacoby Wilson (21:29)
• “That’s the message. I like to leave the audience: coming together…those things are actually things that make us stronger together.” – Dr. Shacoby Wilson (26:51)

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Important Timestamps & Segments

• 00:04 – Elise Hu introduces the theme and context for the episode.
• 03:15 – Dorsey reframes “the cloud” as a physical, local issue.
• 05:39–08:12 – Peggy Shepherd’s segment on sacrifice zones and the history of environmental racism.
• 10:24–11:50 – Dr. Wilson on digital sacrifice zones and the environmental impacts of data centers.
• 14:53 – Dr. Wilson critiques the economic arguments for data center development and explains the real community impact.
• 16:35–17:30 – Community-driven science and the “People’s Report.”
• 19:08–20:12 – NAACP’s role and lessons from partnering in community advocacy.
• 22:13 – Problems with community benefits agreements: “turkeys and trinkets, not real benefits.”
• 24:07–25:59 – Actionable recommendations for local advocacy and policy.
• 26:11 – Dr. Wilson’s message of hope and uniting around advocacy.

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Takeaways

• Data centers are not invisible—they physically and socially impact their neighbors, especially marginalized communities.
• The pattern echoes decades of environmental injustice and lack of community agency.
• Dr. Wilson and community groups are modeling how science, advocacy, and coalition-building can win meaningful protections.
• The fight for fair data center policies is spreading, offering a hopeful blueprint for tech accountability and grassroots power.

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For More Information:

• Download “The People’s Report” and find recommendations at ceejh.org.
• Listen to the rest of the TED Tech data center series for deep dives into other communities’ stories.

Transcript

[A]

Happy Sunday, y'.

[B]

All.

[A]

Elise Hu here. Today we're bringing you a Sunday pick where we share an episode of another podcast from ted, handpicked by us for you. Imagine if one day your quiet neighborhood came alive with a steady hum and it never went away. All throughout the US Data centers are popping up next door and in your backyards. And these buildings guzzle millions of gallons of water, cause noise pollution that doesn't stop, and are raising homeowners utility bills. Today I'm sharing a special episode from the TED Tech Podcast, the first of a four part series happening on TED Tech, where host Shirelle Dorsey talks with scientists, organizers and local leaders to uncover what AI's infrastructure is really doing to our water, our power grid, and the people who are already living with the consequences. In this episode, you'll hear from Environmental Health Scientist Dr. Jacoby Wilson on what happens when data centers infiltrate a neighborhood. They discuss why data centers disproportionately undermine working class communities and how Dr. Wilson is developing ordinances to better regulate data centers and hold planning commissions more accountable. You can hear the other episodes of this series on data centers on TED Tech, wherever you get your podcasts [e-mail] now onto the episode after a short break.

[C]

Somewhere in your city, or maybe just outside of it, there's a building you've probably never thought about. No windows, no sign. And inside, no people. No traces of life. Instead, this building houses rows and rows of servers stretching ceiling to floor, cooled by enough water to serve thousands of homes. It pulls power from the grid 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And every time you run an AI query, stream a movie, or send a message to a friend, that building wakes up a little more. Lately, more and more of us have been waking up to an uncomfortable truth. The cloud isn't just an intangible product of the digital age. In fact, the cloud has an address, which means it has neighbors. And it's time we meet them. This is TED Tech, a podcast from ted. I'm your host Shirelle Dorsey. We talk a lot about AI here on TED Tech, but this month we're looking at the physical house AI lives in, the data center. Data centers have been around as long as the Internet itself, but they've never garnered this much attention or this much controversy. We've seen the headlines. Your neighborhood data center will impact your electric grid, your water system, your utility bill. And yet, with the rise of AI, this is what it takes to maintain the technology that has made an irreversible impact on the way we live and work, even as the cost gets heavier and heavier. This is a story about AI infrastructure, but really it's a story about who decides the price of innovation and who ends up paying it. This month, TED Tech is traveling across the country to learn about what's happening on the ground as data centers expand, entering more communities. We'll look at power, literally and figuratively. What happens when electric grids can't keep up? What can communities do about a crisis they didn't create? We'll also hear about potential solutions and explore what those possibilities can look like. Let's get into it. Prince George's County, Maryland. Majority black, One of the wealthiest black communities in the country. Tree lined streets, good schools, people who built something here and have been fighting to protect it. On the edge of the Beltway, there's an empty lot where a mall used to be, 90 acres. The county approved plans to turn it into a massive data center complex without community input. So residents pushed back. A petition gathered more than 22,500 signatures. Dozens rallied at the site. County Executive Aisha Braveboy convened a task force. That task force published its findings in November 2025. Residents said it buried the real story, the air quality, the water, the energy costs, the civil rights implications. So they wrote their own report, titled the People's Report. The site's fate is still unresolved. The activism on display from PG county residents reminds me of a TED talk from environmental activist Peggy Shepherd. Peggy is co founder and executive director of the not for Profit, we act for Environmental Justice. She's seen stories like this unfold time and time again in communities of color across the country.

[D]

It should be no surprise that every community should have a right to a clean environment. Yet some are sacrifice zones. Sacrifice zones. Communities living on the front lines of pollution and environmental hazards. Now this is a story about communities in crisis. Mostly these are communities of black and brown and indigenous peoples. It's often a story of low income communities, but. But race. Race is the decisive factor. Now studies show that an average middle income black family with an $87,500 income is likely to live with more pollution than a White family making $22,500 a year. Now my organization, we act for Environmental justice, works within a movement of hundreds of environmental justice groups here and abroad to address the disproport, disproportionate impact of pollution borne by our communities. So I'm talking about environmental justice, which is a civil rights and a human rights analysis of environmental decision making with a focus on the Permitting. The permitting process that gives polluters permission to pollute within a regulatory standard for air, water, and soil. Now, these permits, they're an allowance that sacrifices the health of community residents.

[C]

Peggy gave this talk at TED Countdown way back in 2022. This was long before data centers took over the headlines. But what stuck with me is this phrase she keeps using, sacrifice zones. And like Peggy said, not everyone experiences this equally.

[D]

Communities experience environmental hazards and pollution exposure in diverse ways. In urban areas, mobile sources, contaminated sites, they're really the challenge. And local governments generally manage the infrastructure of pollution. But in smaller cities and rural areas, industrial and oil refineries, landfills, and incinerators, they're usually the problem. And in places like Texas and California, there may be no zoning laws that separate industrial facilities from residential backyards.

[C]

Peggy's framing doesn't come from a think tank or a policy paper. It comes from decades of watching the same decisions get made over and over again in communities that never got a seat at the table.

[D]

So environmental racism and injustice results from a complex legacy of housing segregation, land use and zoning discrimination, and from unequal enforcement and. And policies. Now, decades ago, policies such as redlining denied home loans to people of color into certain communities. And this government policy reinforced racial segregation in cities and diverted investments away from those communities, creating large disparities in home ownership as well as urban heat environments, a few trees, and no open space. So today, we're still living out the legacy of those racist policies.

[C]

In 2026, that legacy looks a little different. No smokestacks this time, no rail yard. Just a building drawing power and water around the clock to keep the AI economy running, implemented by a powerful new industry. But ultimately, the behavior is the same. Powerful business interests taking advantage of historic disenfranchisement to quietly implement their agenda. Communities within 1 mile of data centers tend to be disproportionately communities of color, according to the Environmental Justice Data and Governance Initiative. They also face levels of particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, and diesel pollution above the national median. Nearly half of all data center facilities nationally are located in census tracts where poverty is above the national median. Understanding this context, the headlines coming out of Prince George's county seriously caught my attention. This is the latest place to be facing this possibility, but they're also fighting against it. So to better understand what's going on, I reached out to someone who is watching this issue unravel in real time.

[E]

Hi, I'm Dr. Shakoby Wilson. I'm a professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Health I'm an environmental health scientist and I do science that serves the people, other people, for the people and by the people.

[C]

Dr. Wilson and his colleagues did something that almost never happens in these fights. They showed up early, collected rigorous data that confirmed concerns of environmental harm, and handed that research back back to the community. Residents then partnered with the NAACP to produce the People's Report, a community driven analysis of the impact of data centers in Prince George's County. The document was released in March, and it's a counter to the county's own findings, which residents say buried the true environmental costs of data centers. The fight continues to unfold in PG county and the stakes will remain high. So I started our conversation by asking Dr. Wilson what a sacrifice zone looks like in 2026.

[E]

Now we're talking about digital sacrifice zones. Okay? We're talking about digital sacrifice zones. So when you think about the, what are the impacts, the externalities that people are experiencing? So you think about air quality. When you have a gas turbine being used as a, you know, the power source, you're, you have, that's methane, you're burning gas, you got combustion byproducts like particulate matter, dust in the air, you have volatile compounds. So you think about, you got your new carb, the new car smell. I always tell people, don't hold your breath. VOCs, right? You're not supposed to breathe that stuff in. You have sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide. All these pollutants are harmful to your health. Particular matter by itself can elevate your blood pressure, impact birth, so outcomes. So infant mortality, birth defects, low birth weight, babies, right? That whole complex of pollution can impact health. Then you have the water quality impacts. They're using millions of gallons of water to cool these facilities. You have thermal pollution, you have chemical contaminants. And then you also have this fight between local residents and the data centers for water. So it's just not a water quality issue. It's a water quality issue. Okay, Then you have the issues of energy justice. You got folks in this country right now who had to choose between paying for their energy bill, paying for the medicine, paying for their food. They're dealing with energy poverty. Now we subsidize these data centers, they get in corporate welfare, right? We subsidize them, bring them in, and then as a rate payer, if they're on your grid, we're subsidizing them on the grids, they get double welfare.

[B]

What is emerging from this topic at large is this proliferation that you've described as also a civil rights issue. How do you go from, you know, server racks that are powering our day to day technology use into this now being a civil rights issue. Just I want to connect the thread.

[E]

So environmental justice movement is a child of civil rights movement. So we're talking about people's rights when it comes to decision making, right? So when you're making decisions about where a data center goes, just like we make decisions on where the incinerator went, where the power plant went, where the new highway is going to go, in many cases, those who are most impacted are not in the room making decisions. So they may have been elected officials who are making decisions on behalf of the citizenry. What's happening in the space, Data center space. A lot of these folks are signing NDAs. So mayors, county officials, they're signing NDAs. And the part of this, okay, we want to make sure proprietary information about the data center and the type of technology being used is protected. But at the same time it creates a lack of transparency. Right? You as a legislator, as a county official, as a mayor, you, you represent the people, not the industry. But with these NDAs and lack of transparency, we're violating the right of representative justice to make sure the community's voice is heard in decision making. So this all connects back to civil rights. This all connects to the rights of the people. This all connects back to how a democracy is supposed to work. And it's undemocratic if you have a lack of transparency and decisions being made by those who will be most impacted. Decisions have no idea what's happening. Then all of a sudden there's a new data center that's been built their neighborhood and they had no voice in the process.

[B]

So I want to dive into the people's report. Can you tell us about the people's report and why this research actually needed to exist?

[E]

I was part of a team that helps to write the people's report. So the people's report was developed in response to the task force reports, the county task force on data centers. So in that task force report, they made its data center sound like they'll be great. And part of the playbook is when you think about any type of industrial development, they always lead with there's gonna be so many jobs produced, right? And I say it's economic development. I always say capitalize the con. Economic development. It's a con job. Because in most cases when you think about the jobs, it's in the. We had a data center discussion. We actually had folks who actually helped to build hyper scale data centers. Who were talking, it was great to really learn about how they really built this whole process. But what was said it was. And as I was stating, in the construction phase, you have a lot of jobs. In the operation phase, you don't have that many jobs. And one person at the data center meeting that I attended said it compared to McDonald's, there's more jobs at your local McDonald's than is at the data center. That was pretty powerful. What it means is there's not a lot of economic revenue, there's not a lot of jobs, there's not a lot of living wage jobs that are coming to the community. So that's why the report was developed, to be really in response to fill the gaps and what was missing or excluded from the task force report.

[B]

And to that end, Dr. Wilson, I'd like to learn a little bit more around how you all conducted the research. You know, who you spoke with, data that you gathered. How did you really make sure that the community's voice shaped some of the findings of the report rather than sort of just appearing in the footnotes?

[E]

Yeah. So part of environmental work, for those of you who know that the framework is really make sure that the people's voice, right. Representative, justice, community, speak with their own voice. So there were listening sessions surveying that that occurred to really engage those residents who are most impacted, working with coalition members, you know, organizers, to really make sure that we develop the right questions and, you know, that would really be responsive to the gaps, but responsive to the concerns of the community. So there was a lot of engagement that occurred with those frontline fence line organizations, those organizers, the residents who have voiced their concerns about the data center issue and being caught off guard by it. Again, you know, this came out of nowhere and folks were really shocked by it. Right. So we engaged those people on the ground and the leadership, the community leadership, to make sure that the report was more responsive than the initial task force report.

[B]

And what were some of the aspects of the report that really surprised you? Was there certain numbers that stood out, certain patterns that stood out, or any stories that emerged that kind of stopped you in your tracks?

[E]

I think some of the concerns that folks raise, I think were very interesting concerns. People don't want data centers. I think what came out of that is folks are not just worried about the, like the environmental impacts or the externalities, but they're also concerned about, you know, living in a digital sacrifice zone. They're also concerned about the security state, the monitoring state, like George Orwell's 1984, you know, big Brother, how and how that could impact them. I think there's some larger concerns about AI in general and folks concerned about AI. That's the whole connection to AI and generative AI, some of the algorithm stuff. So I think that's an undercurrent as well. People's concern about AI and technology kind of running amok. Getting back to the economic argument, this is. There's this concern that if we have more data centers to support AI then we're just accelerating job loss because we've heard from the tech bros that AI is going to change the way we work, right? There's going to be fewer jobs, there's going to be more automation in general. We see more automation in our factories. It's going to be less needed for certain sectors, certain occupations. So folks are also concerned about that. Right. So I think you have all that kind of baked in to some of the concerns that, that were captured and just some of the general concerns that people have about data centers.

[B]

And can you talk a little bit about maybe how that partnership came together? Like why did it make sense for the NAACP to get involved?

[E]

Progress we make in this country is always on the backs of black and brown folks, right? And so they as an organization has been at the forefront of that fight for justice and civil rights, voting rights, environmental justice. And so they were brought in to provide some support on this in this effort to fight the data center. Because we've been working with them to fight data centers in other parts of the country. And we've been working together since last summer to do air quality monitoring and advocacy work around the Colossus Data Center, Axi Data Center, Elon Musk Facility, Colossus 1, which is in Southwest Memphis and Colossus 2 which is in South Haven, Mississippi. Colossus Data center in southwest Memphis is in a zap primarily black community. You see all this stuff in the news about what's happening with the redistricting and the gerryman and that fight. So that's what you see in South. So LOCP has been part of that fight. So they've been a partner. So they were brought in to help us with this report and help us raise these issues nationally. It's a framework show how we should move forward by having authentic and meaningful engagement, authentic and meaningful involvement of those residents who've been most impacted. We already, we've seen this story before. We have been here before. Black folk, brown folk have been here before with industrial revolution stuff, with industrial hazards. They don't want to see it repeated with the with data centers, please kind

[B]

of help us to understand. The NAACP is kind of, you know, coming in, you know, from the civil rights perspective, addressing these like zoning, economic development issues. What does this tell us about how power is operating here?

[E]

It tells us that power is operating the way it always operates. Right. In my opinion, I would say that you have a, you know, it's always this kind of jobless environment argument. Right? Oh, we are a poor community. We need jobs. And the people you elect, they have these people who come to them about these opportunities and they start whispering sweet nothings in their ear. It's the same old, same old. And then the community gets a. Get sold a bill of goods. Oh, you can get all these jobs in the end because they have a weak community benefits agreement. That's not real jobs. They. It's not living wage jobs. It's not jobs going to address the wealth gap. Right. It's not jobs that's going to create opportunity. It's not jobs. You're going to be able to have real air property, gift to your kids. Right. So your kids can be better than you. So it's not intergenerational justice, intergenerational economic justice. Right. So you have that. So it's the same thing that happens time and time again. And I think folks are just over it. And I mean, you think about where we are in the country right now, the erosion of, you know, the American Dream data centers are part of that because we're targeting communities for these data centers. They're the avenue of least resistance.

[B]

No, I really appreciate that. I think especially because we do know that businesses, but particularly sometimes the tech industry can respond with this idea that community benefit agreements or promises around energy efficiencies or workforce development programs sort of trump potentially some of the issues that might be associated with these facilities.

[E]

But respond to that real quick before you go on. If you are bringing in outside workers, right. That's not from the local community. You got to train them first. So to do that work. So you're not going to train those folks you're bringing outside. So for example, I mean, this just a separate example. My father, who's passed. My father was a pipe fitter. Right. So when I was looking at the public health impacts of fracking in Maryland, We've been fracking in Maryland. Some years ago, I was in West Virginia doing research on the environmental impacts of fracking and the social impacts of fracking. My dad was in the man camp building a pipeline. Wow. Was that money stay in West Virginia? No, I'M from Mississippi, y'. All that money was sent back home in Mississippi. But it's similar. You bring these folks in with expertise to build the operation facility and they. And it's built and then that's construction phase, then they leave. That money doesn't cycle 20, 30 times in that community. So that's part of the law that's been sold to politicians and what in the process of selling it to the residents. And also on the community benefits agreement, what ends up happening is folks will get a soccer field, they get some T shirts, some scholarships. I call again turkeys and trinkets. They're not getting real benefits. Right. So that's both. A representative justice issue in this discussion we're talking about is also a distributional justice. You know, we want to minimize the harms and maximize the benefits. The most of the benefits are going to the politicians. Some benefits may be going to the counties, but limited benefits go to the actual defense line community. Who's hosting operation, who's been impacted by air pollution, who's being impacted by the water pollution. Right. So they're internalizing all the externalities, but they're not getting any of the benefits. So that's a distributional justice issue again.

[B]

Now, Dr. Wilson, if a community somewhere else in this country is watching data center proposals start to move to their local government right now, what should they be doing this week to get organized or to be ready to ask critical questions?

[E]

Yeah, I think they should look at the. Our joint report with nwcp. Our data center report will be great. You can go to ceejh.org to download the report. There's a number of recommendations about, you know, related to air quality, water quality, energy issues. But I would say talk to your mayor, your county executive, the county council, your planning commission has a huge role in pushing these data centers or any type of industrial development through. So I would say try to get a moratorium in first and then work with the folks in leadership to make sure it's a data center ordinance and make sure that ordinance covers the types of data centers that you want to bring in. The size of data centers. Like we do not want hyperscale data centers in our community. So you have some framework, some restrictions, some boundaries on the types of data centers. There's setback distances, right. The type of water they use, ensuring that they use renewables, making sure they're not going to add to the heat issues so any climate impacts, make sure they also have monitoring, addressing tax subsidy reform that they shouldn't. They cannot tax breaks, you know, subsidizing them. So there's a number of things you can do to, to put into the ordinance or into the county's development plan. This, maybe even put this in the comprehensive plan, in the master plan for your county or your city. Having some language in the code about data centers, so baking it in. So if there's another center that comes in that you don't, you're not going to get caught off guard. So just to recap, talk to your local officials, making sure they know what you want to see. Having a moratorium, developing the ordinance and adding some language in your comprehensive plan or, or your master plan that pertains to development around data centers and also holding your planning commission accountable. Because a lot of these behind door deals and the lack of transparency happens because of the planning commission in your community.

[B]

You know, as we close, you know, you spent your career at this intersection of science and policy as well as community advocacy. What gives you hope that this fight is winnable?

[E]

Oh, yeah, thanks. That's a great question. I know I talked about environmental justice in this conversation. I talked a lot about these issues from a perspective. Perspective, respect of black folk, brown folk. I do a lot of work, look, you know, supporting communities of color and doing empowerment science, liberation science, right, that focuses on those populations. But data center fight, you know, data centers don't know across racial lines, across class lines, you know, religious lines, political lines. There are folks that fight and data centers all across the country, people are winning. I mean, you got to celebrate the fact that people are organizing and coming in together around data centers. It's an issue that, it's a bridge issue and is a great organizing issue. It's a great issue to get people out the vote and show like the power of your vote. So that's what gives me hope that folks are fighting back. People are winning against data centers around the country. And we can use this as a tool, as an opportunity to show what America is really about. Coming together, regardless of your race, your class, your creed, your religion, your language, all those things that divide us, those things are actually things that make us stronger together. So that's the message. I like to leave the audience.

[B]

We are so grateful to have you in this conversation and to have your expertise also here at the table and on the TED Tech podcast. And we are looking forward to just continuing to see how this storyline continues to expand. So thank you for your time.

[E]

Thank you.

[C]

That was Dr. Shacobi Wilson, Director of the center for Engagement and Environmental justice and Health at the University of Maryland. This is the first episode in our special series on data centers, the physical infrastructure powering the AI economy and the communities being asked to host it. Next week, we're heading to Memphis, Tennessee, where residents are fighting a different version of the same fight. That's our show. Thanks for listening. TED Tech is a podcast from ted. This episode was produced by Rahima Nassa. Our editor is Alejandra Salazar, and the show is Fact Checked by Julia Dickerson. Special thanks to Constanza Gallardo, Daniela Bella Reso, Maria Ladias, Tanzika Sangmanivan and Roxanne. Hi Lash. If you're enjoying the show, make sure to subscribe and leave us a review so other people can find us too. I'm Sherrell Dorsey. Let's keep digging into the future. Join me next week for more.

[E]

It.