Gefühle am Ende der Welt | Folge 16: HITZE

The temperature is rising, and currently, the demand for cooling far exceeds the available capacity. HEAT is created when things come into motion and enter into an uncontrollable friction with one another. This can be observed in thermodynamic laws as well as in societies whose antagonisms can no longer be smoothed over. HEAT is threatening and soothing, intimidating and sexy, and thus equally longed for and feared. As the most primordial surplus of labor, it confronts us in various forms within overheated systems— AI data centers that must be cooled at enormous expense, as well as the heated tempers of political debates. Yet heat, as the most palpable feature of global warming, is also quite literally the backdrop to wars and displacement. As Europe begins, both ecologically and politically, to relinquish its existence in the temperate zone, we discuss the things that keep us warm and those we remain cold towards. How can social and planetary overheating be cooled down, or how can cold chambers be maintained where things seem less dire? How should the radiance of fascist heat be assessed? What are, from a historical and philosophical perspective, the effects of heat on earthly coexistence?