What you’ll hear in this episode:

- John’s Kenya-to-Austin journey: national schools, Alliance High, early web days, UT, and Harvard MPA/ID

- The mentor chain that changed John’s life (Rick; African Leadership Bridge) and why mentors who “want you to win” matter

- Building clean-energy mini-grids (PowerGen) serving ~250k people—and what reliable power unlocks

- A data-driven case for bottom-up solar across Africa and why it’s accelerating without central coordination

- Energy as the true base layer: how cheap energy collapses costs for water (desal), fertilizer, and industry

- Real-world grid fragility (Sierra Leone’s rental power-ship; Texas near-miss) and how we get to abundance

- Energy ↔ Intelligence: near-free energy enabling near-infinite cognition—and AI diagnostics outpacing doctors

- Open source AI, geopolitics, and why “race to the top” beats zero-sum fear

- Inside UATX: pedagogy focused on how to think, not what to think—and why that matters now

About Love Conquers Fear:

In an era of exponentially evolving AI and robotics, one question looms: Will humanity make it? Love Conquers Fear is where leadership meets love, technology serves humanity, and vision becomes action. Host, Brett Alexander Hurt, tech entrepreneur and investor, sits down with some of the world’s most influential people to ask: Will we unite to create the Age of Abundance for All? 

Love Conquers Fear on Youtube: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@LoveConquersFear2025⁠

Love Conquers Fear on Spotify: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/6wngdSw7FmdibLC9mu300q⁠

Love Conquers Fear on Apple: ⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/love-conquers-fear/id1841734456⁠

About John Kidenda:

John Kidenda is a Kenyan-born energy executive and technologist focused on expanding access to clean, reliable power across Africa. He serves as Chief of Utility Operations at PowerGen Renewable Energy, where he leads the development and operation of distributed renewable mini-grids serving hundreds of thousands of people. Previously, John was a Senior Consultant at Dalberg Global Development Advisors and held roles at The Advisory Board Companyin Austin, Texas. He holds an MPA/ID from Harvard Kennedy School and a B.S. in Finance and Computer Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, and sits on the board of the African Leadership Bridge.

John on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnkidenda/

Article mentioned: https://share.google/D8fy1ukuqdH57Wv1E

Timestamps:

00:00 – Preview

05:50 – Introducing John Kidenda

09:10 – John’s early years: Nairobi → Mombasa; Kenya’s 8-4-4 system; national schools & Alliance High

13:30 – Early web work (Three Mice), Dreamweaver days → admits to UT Austin

16:20 – UT memories; mentors; Rick & African Leadership Bridge origin story

18:55 – Post-UT path: Advisory Board Company → Harvard Kennedy School MPA/ID 1

20:50 – Highlights: Africa Development Conference; Cameroon trip; President of Niger keynote; 7am Africa talks

28:30 – PowerGen mini-grids; 250k people served; Chief of Utility Operations

42:24 – Bottom-up solar boom in Africa; Chinese imports; decentralized adoption; policy “despite” dysfunction

50:21 – Energy unlocks water, fertilizer, productivity: “the price of everything is energy”

52:20 – Energy as the base of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs; from fire → fertilizer → fossil → solar

56:50 – Sierra Leone’s rented power-ship; fragility of grids without independence

57:34 – When energy becomes (nearly) free: from café Wi-Fi to negative power prices

1:02:32 – Texas grid scare → solar surge; imagining a nearly unlimited energy future

1:06:40 – Energy ↔ intelligence: AI diagnostics surpassing doctors

1:15:23 – AlphaFold analogy, materials breakthroughs & the solar curve

1:19:20 – Risks vs doomsaying; quiet builders; Africa’s demographics

1:34:35 – Geopolitics & AGI: race dynamics, why open-source matters, humanizing across borders

1:54:07 – University of Austin (UATX): inside the first cohort