AI Summary
5 min read🎙️ The Speakers & Context
- The Format: Host-led narrative with expert interviews and on-location reporting.
- The Key Players:
- Grayselyn Baskerin: Director, Critical Minerals Security Program at CSIS; mining economist with global rare earth expertise, including fieldwork in mines.
- Daniel Immerwahr: Historian and author of How to Hide an Empire; credible on U.S. territorial expansion via bases and purchases.
- Christian Keltson & Sarah Olswijk: Greenland locals (non-indigenous and indigenous Inuit perspectives); provide on-ground cultural/economic context.
- Hosts Sarah Gonzalez & Mary Childs: NPR Planet Money journalists; blend economic history, geopolitics, and accessibility.
- The Vibe: Investigative and reflective; skeptical of bombast, focused on pragmatic history over hype.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00) **🎙️ Introduction: Gracelyn Baskerin**
- 2 (02:13) **Trump's Push for Greenland**
- 3 (05:14) **Life and Land in Greenland**
- 4 (07:44) **Greenland's Rare Earth Potential**
- 5 (09:18) **US's Historical Retreat from Rare Earths**
- 6 (10:28) **China's Creep into Greenland**
- 7 (12:02) **Why US Doesn't Need to Buy Greenland**
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
Book tour and ticket info here.
Greenland has said it is not for sale. Denmark has said it can’t even legally sell Greenland. And at a security conference in Munich over the weekend, U.S. lawmakers spent a lot of time trying to walk back some of President Trump’s recent threats to try to buy, or even take over, the territory.
But whether Trump can or will or should try to control or purchase a territory that doesn’t want to be sold is not the interesting question. What is interesting is how we got to this moment. And, how we might gracefully get out of it.
Greenland is valuable for its minerals and because of its physical location in the world. (It’s easy to keep an eye on other countries from Greenland).
Our latest: How the U.S. dropped the ball on the rare earths race. And one way the U.S. gets strategic locations without threatening to buy or take over an entire territory.
Further listening:
- Is Greenland really an untapped land of riches?
- Add to cart: Greenland
Pre-order the Planet Money book and get a free gift. / Subscribe to Planet Money+
Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.
Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.
This episode was produced by Willa Rubin with help from Sam Yellowhorse Kesler. It was edited by Marianne McCune. Fact-checking help from Sierra Juarez. It was engineered by Kwesi Lee and Robert Rodriguez. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.
Music: Universal Music Production - "The Attraction,” “Carnivore,” and “Walls Come Out.”
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy
Greenland has said it is not for sale. Denmark has said it can’t even legally sell Greenland. And at a security conference in Munich over the weekend, U.S. lawmakers spent a lot of time trying to walk back some of President Trump’s recent threats to try to buy, or even take over, the territory.
But whether Trump can or will or should try to control or purchase a territory that doesn’t want to be sold is not the interesting question. What is interesting is how we got to this moment. And, how we might gracefully get out of it.
Greenland is valuable for its minerals and because of its physical location in the world. (It’s easy to keep an eye on other countries from Greenland).
Our latest: How the U.S. dropped the ball on the rare earths race. And one way the U.S. gets strategic locations without threatening to buy or take over an entire territory.
Further listening:
- Is Greenland really an untapped land of riches?
- Add to cart: Greenland
Pre-order the Planet Money book and get a free gift. / Subscribe to Planet Money+
Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.
Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.
This episode was produced by Willa Rubin with help from Sam Yellowhorse Kesler. It was edited by Marianne McCune. Fact-checking help from Sierra Juarez. It was engineered by Kwesi Lee and Robert Rodriguez. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.
Music: Universal Music Production - "The Attraction,” “Carnivore,” and “Walls Come Out.”
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy
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