Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth

In Oklahoma, the term "earthquake swarm" was coined in 2010. In the same year, a man who was formally just the menial forestry minister of the small country of Equatorial Guinea won a massive auction of Michael Jackson artefacts, including his famous crystal-encrusted white glove, for more than $1 million. Additionally, when Ukrainian rebels broke into the palace of their deposed ruler in 2014, they discovered a floating restaurant designed like a Spanish galleon, gilded restrooms, and a peacock zoo. Despite how unlikely it may seem, there is a connection running across these incidents, and Rachel Maddow tracks it back to its dishonest origins: the very profitable but equally corrupt oil and gas sector.

Maddow takes us on a switchback trip across the world with her signature dark humour, exposing the greed and ineptitude of Big Oil and Gas along the way and coming to a startling conclusion about why the Russian government stole the 2016 U.S. election. She skillfully demonstrates how Russia's abundant oil reserves have paradoxically slowed down its economic development, driving Putin to spread Russia's decay to its neighbours, rivals, the United States, and the most significant Western allies. Chevron, BP, and many other industry players—including ExxonMobil and the surprisingly composed Rex Tillerson—get their day in the spotlight. The oil and gas sector has poisoned rivers and seas, strengthened autocratic thieves and murderers, and undermined democracy in both developed and developing nations. However, Maddow argues that being upset by it is "like being indignant when a lion takes down and eats a gazelle." The lion isn't really to blame, actually. It is who she is.

Blowout is an appeal to rein in the lion, to stop feeding the world's richest companies with subsidies, to fight for openness, and to restrain the power of the most damaging enterprise on the planet and those who support it. Never before have the stakes been greater. "Democracy either wins this one or disappears," as Maddow puts it.