NEW SHOW: America’s Data Center Revolt is JUST BEGINNING – IN YOUR BACKYARD

September 3, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

The Data Center Revolt in Your Backyard

The first episode of In Your Backyard opens with a striking fact: three in five Americans now say they don't want any data center construction in their community—up by double digits since March alone. The backlash has become so culturally visible that Jason Kelce recorded a video encouraging people to mail their urine to help cool AI data centers, a satirical partnership between Liquid Death and Garage Beer that underscores a serious point: these facilities consume millions of gallons of water daily.

Yet President Trump has been unambiguous in his support. On Truth Social, he wrote: "The only reason that communities throughout the USA should not want data centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor. If they want to be successful and rich with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place, let data rain."

The show's host, Luke Radel, sets out to understand what's actually happening on the ground in communities that are living with these facilities—and why the issue is creating unlikely coalitions across political lines.

Memphis: A Cancer Cluster Gets a New Neighbor

Continue reading the full summary in the app — free to try.

Read Full Summary →

Free • No credit card required

Listen to Audio Summary Open in App

Never miss an episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast

Get every new episode summarized in your inbox — free, ~5 minutes to read.

No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.

What you'll learn

1 (06:04) **Show Introduction & The National Data Center Backlash** - Host Luke Radel introduces the new Midas Touch series "In Your Backyard," focused on local issues, and sets up the first topic: the growing national revolt against data centers.
2 (08:26) **Memphis: The Fight Against Elon Musk's "Colossus"** - Latricia Adams of Young Gifted and Green describes how a hyperscale data center from Musk’s XAI (SpaceX) was dropped into her community without local democratic approval.
3 (12:04) **Shared Air, Shared Suffering: Legacy Pollution in Memphis** - Adams explains that air pollution ignores state borders, and the new data centers are compounding a decades-old public health crisis in her zip code.
4 (16:48) **Unlikely Allies: Bipartisan Outrage Over Data Centers** - Despite deep political divides in the region, the data center fight is uniting people across racial and economic lines, creating "partnerships with unlikely allies."
5 (19:22) **Texas: The Epicenter of the Data Center War** - The show moves to Texas, where the issue is defining a major statewide election, and introduces two local activists who have been personally affected.
6 (21:31) **Interview: Gina Hinojosa on Texas as a "Wild West" for Data Centers** - Luke interviews the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, who argues that Governor Greg Abbott has made Texas the "epicenter in the world" for data centers by giving away massive tax breaks with zero protections.
7 (26:46) **Local Control vs. State Mandates** - Hinojosa explains how the data center issue has crystalized a broader anger in Texas over the state government stripping local communities of their power to make decisions.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Guests on this episode

Gina Hinojosa

Show Notes

Welcome to In Your Backyard, the latest show in the MeidasTouch Network. Every two weeks, we'll be unpacking how public policy and political failings are playing out in communities around the country. From data centers to forever chemicals to insane utility costs and more, In Your Backyard host Luke Radel talks to experts, candidates, elected officials, and the real people who are experiencing the very real consequences – and fighting back.

In our inaugural episode, Luke digs into what’s driving the massive pushback to data centers that’s driving a movement throughout the country. As Trump claims we need more Data Centers and that communities rejecting them will end up “backwards and poor,” what do the people on the ground actually think? He hears from individuals on the front lines of fights against Data Centers in Tennessee and in Texas, and interviews Texas gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa about why data centers have become a central issue in her race.

Tell us what you think – and what issues playing out in your backyard you'd like to see covered in a future episode.