Joseph Costello

Joseph Costello has spent more than four decades at the crossroads of

politics, communications, economics, and energy—fields where power

is contested and reshaped every day. He began his career on campaigns

from city council races to the presidential level, including serving as

Communications Director for Jerry Brown’s 1992 presidential run,

where he helped redefine political messaging and fundraising. He later

advised Governor Howard Dean’s groundbreaking 2004 campaign,

bringing digital tools into American politics at scale.

Beyond electoral politics, Costello has organized coalitions of

energy companies and environmental groups to advance renewable

energy in California, helping the City of Santa Monica’s electricity

supply to be the first in the US to be 100% powered by renewable

generation. He worked with Mitchell Kapor and others on the politics

of the internet. He represented Mikhail Gorbachev’s environmental

NGO at the 2002 United Nations Summit on Sustainability in

Johannesburg, South Africa. He worked on three presidential campaigns in Africa,

two in Nigeria and one in Tanzania.

Drawing on this lifetime of experience, Costello wrote "The Politics

of Ape and Machine" to explore how political and economic systems

succeed, fail, and can ultimately be reformed through both individual

will and collective action. He has written two previous books: "Of By

For: The New Politics of Money, Debt, and Democracy" (2012) and "The Politics

of Technology" (2016).