Cobalt Red
How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives
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Cobalt Red
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Narrated by:
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Peter Ganim
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By:
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Siddharth Kara
About this listen
Long-listed, New York Times Book Review Notable Books of the Year, 2023
Long-listed, New Yorker Best Books of the Year, 2023
This program includes an author's note read by the author.
An unflinching investigation reveals the human rights abuses behind the Congo’s cobalt mining operation—and the moral implications that affect us all.
Cobalt Red is the searing first-ever exposé of the immense toll taken on the people and environment of the Democratic Republic of the Congo by cobalt mining, as told through the testimonies of the Congolese people themselves. Activist and researcher Siddharth Kara has traveled deep into cobalt territory to document the testimonies of the people living, working, and dying for cobalt. To uncover the truth about brutal mining practices, Kara investigated militia-controlled mining areas, traced the supply chain of child-mined cobalt from toxic pit to consumer-facing tech giants, and gathered shocking testimonies of people who endure immense suffering and even die mining cobalt.
Cobalt is an essential component to every lithium-ion rechargeable battery made today, the batteries that power our smartphones, tablets, laptops, and electric vehicles. Roughly 75 percent of the world’s supply of cobalt is mined in the Congo, often by peasants and children in sub-human conditions. Billions of people in the world cannot conduct their daily lives without participating in a human rights and environmental catastrophe in the Congo. In this stark and crucial audiobook, Kara argues that we must all care about what is happening in the Congo—because we are all implicated.
A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.
©2023 Siddharth Kara (P)2023 Macmillan AudioListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
2024, Pulitzer Prize - Finalist
2023, New York Times Book Review Notable Books of the Year: Long-listed
2023, New Yorker Best Books of the Year: Long-listed
"Cobalt Red is a riveting, eye-opening, terribly important book that sheds light on a vast ongoing catastrophe. Everyone who uses a smartphone, an electric vehicle, or anything else powered by rechargeable batteries needs to read what Siddharth Kara has uncovered."—Jon Krakauer, author of Into Thin Air
"Meticulously researched and brilliantly written by Siddharth Kara, Cobalt Red documents the frenzied scramble for cobalt and the exploitation of the poorest people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”—Baroness Arminka Helic, House of Lords, UK
“With extraordinary tenacity and compassion, Siddharth Kara evokes one of the most dramatic divides between wealth and poverty in the world today. His reporting on how the dangerous, ill-paid labor of Congo children provides a mineral essential to our cellphones will break your heart. I hope policy-makers on every continent will read this book.”—Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold's Ghost
What listeners say about Cobalt Red
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- Paul - Johannesburg
- 15-07-24
Cobalt Red - Read it!
A harrowing tale of exploitation and sacrifice - the Democratic Republic of Congo deserves greater Global attention, education for its children, far more support from the worlds tech companies and a ‘brighter future’ - worth devoting your time to reading or listening to this excellent book.
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- Ellpeas
- 10-05-23
Devastating but vital book
It feels wrong to say I enjoyed this book because the subject matter is so devastating but I did very much enjoy the writing, the pace and the depth. I also enjoyed the narration. I do highly recommend this book - everyone should read this, it should be mandatory in secondary schools. The world needs to know what’s happening in the Congo.
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- Heidi Thompson
- 24-05-24
Harrowing and educational
I can’t believe that slave labour in appalling conditions and to children and the vulnerable natives of DRC have to endure this.
A very brave thing to do.
Harrowing bit could not stop once I started
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-09-23
An important piece of journalism and advocacy
A really impressive piece of work highlighting a contemporary human rights catastrophe.
Hopefully it will be a significant enough call to action to enough people to make progress on the issue.
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- Claire Burnell-Anderson
- 24-02-23
Everyone should read this book
Oh my days … absolutely appalling I cannot believe how cruel and greedy the elites actually are … and how naive I have been … NO EV car is coming in our household … so glad I have read this book so I can tell everyone I know about the people in Congo … this needs stopping … thank you for being this to our attention, fantastic book .
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- johnny
- 08-07-23
A hard eye-opening listen
an horrific onngoing story told from many angles all leading to the same outcome.
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- Fred
- 24-12-23
Eye opening book
I believe everyone should read this book. It is an eye opening account of what is happening in DRC and not much covered by mainstream media. I would like to thank the author for his reporting and writing of this book.
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- Persephone
- 25-07-23
A dollar bag of heterogenite, the price of the life of a Congolese Child
‘…. We work in our graves..’
These words and the genuine testimonies of people in the copper zones of the Congo will leave you sobbing openly, and making you want to throw your rechargeable gadgets out of the closest window.
An eye-opening book that captures only a fraction of the corruption of the Congolese people and the degradation of their children, their land, and everything they hold sacred, just so we in the west can have our rechargeable technologies and enjoy opulent lives at the expense of those less fortunate.
This book should be mandatory for everyone over the ages of 10 in order that we all rise up and speak out to defend and save our brothers and sisters of the Congo who have no other hope than Us.
If you are sceptical about purchasing this book I implore you not to look away.
It is well narrated and excellently written, and slowly introduces you to what cobalt is, how it is used, the means by which it is purchased and sold, and how it gets to the market.
It’s gradually gets more serious as we become more familiar with the substance and its uses.
It’s culminates in the testimonies of those suffering the most, making you unable to look away or stop listening, it’s grotesque horror leaving you sobbing openly no matter where you are or what you are doing.
Furthermore the irony of fact that I am bearing witness to all these nightmares via the very same gadget that causes these atrocities will definitely not be lost by the readers
And finally I will never not ever in my entire life, be able to walk past a thorn bush without remembering the little girl and her baby sitting under one, both having passed away, having escaped the unspeakable injustices perpetrated against them, finally returned to their Merciful Home.
Lord Have Mercy on our Pitiful Souls.
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- Benjamin Reeve
- 21-09-23
Don’t shy away, a must read for all.
Everyone who owns a rechargeable device should read this. It’s uncomfortably eye opening, and shakes you to the core. What is happening right now in the Congo really is unimaginable in modern day society and we ALL need to know about it. Very well written and narrated. I hope this book leads to an awakening by all and with in the industry and change for the good.
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- Zakk & Susan
- 18-11-24
Telling, brutal yet hopeful
Really enjoyed the book putting names and faces to the trade we know about but pretend we don’t. Which the stories shared are brutal and cruel finished the book with a sense of hope that things can and will be different if each of us makes a noisr
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