In this episode of the DePOT Podcast, host Adna Camdzic speaks with cultural geographer and social theorist Leila Dawney about her in-depth research in Visaginas, Lithuania — a town built around the now-closed Ignalina nuclear power plant. Through long-term collaboration with photographers Laurie Griffiths and Jonty Tacon, Dawney explores what it means for a community to live through the slow, complex process of nuclear deindustrialization.

Far from the usual narratives of decline and abandonment, this conversation highlights how care, memory, and everyday practices sustain community life after closure. Dawney reflects on the emotional and social attachments people maintain to the place, the transformation of labor from generation to generation, and how residents navigate the enduring legacies of Soviet industrial planning and post-Soviet marginalization.

The episode offers a nuanced look at how people endure — and even reimagine — life in a decommissioned town, challenging assumptions about what happens after industrial futures fade.

We have a special episode today from DePOT affiliates at the University of Luxembourg examining the steel crisis in Luxembourg in the 1970s and the deindustrialization of East Germany's steel sector after 1990. Stefan Krebs, the head of the project Confronting Decline (CONDE) is joined by two PhD students, Zoé Konsbruck and Nicolas Arendt to discuss their research into the impacts industrial closure had on steel towns, with a particular emphasis on transnational comparisons.

In this episode, Andy Clark of Newcastle University discusses his research on aging under deindustrialization in Britain. Utilizing an existing birth cohort study and an oral history approach, Andy explores questions of health impacts, social gerontology, and economic change. Part way through his oral interview process, Andy shares his preliminary findings, some of which challenge assumptions about getting older in the aftermath of closure.