This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re diving into one of the biggest bottlenecks in the clean energy transition: critical minerals—the lithium, nickel, cobalt, copper, and precious metals we need for EVs, batteries, and the grid. The problem isn’t that we’re running out. It’s that extraction and refining are expensive, polluting, and increasingly constrained by geopolitics.

My guest is Adam Uliana, co-founder and CEO of Chemfinity Technologies, a startup spun out of UC Berkeley that’s building a modular “metal-selective Brita filter” for refining. Chemfinity’s system takes messy inputs—like e-waste, catalytic converters, industrial wastewater, and even mine tailings—and separates out high-purity metals one at a time using tunable “nano-sponge” materials. In other words: a potential way to recover critical minerals with dramatically fewer steps, less energy, and a much smaller footprint.

• What “critical minerals” are and why the supply chain is such a vulnerability
• The climate and human costs of mining—and why recycling and recovery matter
• How Chemfinity’s process works (liquify the feedstock, then filter metals out in sequence)
• The real technical unlock: highly selective nanoscale materials that can distinguish near-identical metals
• What scaling looks like: pilots now, modular systems later—including shipping-container deployments at mining sites
• The business model question: when Chemfinity sells equipment vs. when it makes sense to sell recovered metals

• Chemfinity Technologies: https://www.chemfinitytech.com/
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This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re talking about one of the biggest blockers to real climate action: amazing solutions that never scale because no one pays for them. My guest is Grant Canary, founder and CEO of Mast Reforestation, a company rebuilding forests after catastrophic wildfires — and reinventing carbon credits so that reforestation can actually fund itself.

Mast takes the most expensive part of post-fire recovery — dealing with hundreds of dead, unstable, methane-emitting trees — and turns it into a high-integrity carbon removal credit. The fire-killed biomass gets buried in engineered clay “vaults” that lock away carbon for centuries, and the revenue pays for restoring forests with native seed, nursery-grown seedlings, and good old human labor. It’s the super-sexy carbon accounting we desperately need.

• Grant’s origin story: the high-school teacher, the brutally honest friend, and the maggot factory (this is a true story)
• From DroneSeed to Mast: why drones weren’t enough and what really unlocks reforestation
• What high-severity “Mordor” fires do to ecosystems — and why invasives take over
• How biomass burial works: clay soils, lasagna layers, 24/7 monitoring, and 5 different verification processes
• Why high-quality carbon credits are hard — and why they matter
• Who buys these credits (tech, airlines, real estate, Shopify, consulting firms) and the incentives behind each
• Why relying on altruism won’t scale — but pricing ecosystem services will
• How modern carbon accounting sets the stage for the actual holy grail: a price on carbon

• Mast Reforestation: https://www.mastreforest.com/
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This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re starting in full aspirational mode (with one of my least climate-friendly obsessions) — with iconic classic cars rebuilt as state-of-the-art EVs. Think: vintage Porsches, Land Rovers, Pagodas, even a GT40… all stripped to bare metal, fully restored, and reborn as clean-air electric machines. Yeah, I’m dying over here.

My guest is Justin Lunny, founder and CEO of Everrati, a company that electrifies beloved classic cars while also building a cutting-edge EV powertrain platform used by new low-volume automakers around the world.

It’s a story about craft and circularity — giving existing cars a new, zero-emission life — and about how aspiration drives climate adoption. Wealthy early adopters (and their garages) help prove what’s possible, push down cost curves, and build social permission for the EV future.

• How Everrati “redefines” classic cars using full CAD modeling, advanced engineering, and hand-built restoration
• Why their EV powertrains use motors and components normally found in hypercars and Formula E
• The economics: donor cars, bespoke builds, and why the least-loved 964s are perfect candidates
• Why keeping old cars alive — electrically — is a circularity win
• The B2B side: powering new sports cars and specialty vehicles for low-volume OEMs
• Why electrifying halo cars helps drive broader consumer aspiration
• Battery modularity, future upgrades, and designing for long-term sustainability
• Justin’s personal journey from tech entrepreneur to climate-driven car nut

• Everrati: https://everrati.com/
• All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/
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This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re talking about one of the least-visible but largest waste problems in the world: food processing waste. Every time fruits or vegetables are peeled, chopped, juiced, or processed, mountains of perfectly good plant material get thrown out or sold for pennies. It’s expensive, it’s inefficient, and it’s a huge climate problem.

My guest is Michelle Ruiz, founder and CEO of Hyfe, a company unlocking the massive value hidden in this “waste.” Hyfe has developed a clean, water-based technology that can deconstruct food waste into high-value ingredients—like natural antioxidants that can replace carcinogenic petrochemical additives, fibers for gut health, and eventually the bio-based molecules that could power the broader bioeconomy.

Instead of paying to get rid of waste, food processors can turn it into a whole new revenue stream — while reducing emissions and building real circularity into the food system.

• Why food processing waste is one of the biggest untapped feedstocks in the world
• How Hyfe’s process “unlocks” the compounds inside plant material without toxic solvents
• The clean-label antioxidants that can replace petrochemical additives already being banned in multiple states
• Why fibers are booming — and how food companies want cleaner, more functional sources
• How this technology could one day replace a chunk of the petrochemical industry
• The business model: why food processors, not consumers, are Hi-Fey’s real customers
• Michelle’s journey from oil refinery engineer to World Economic Forum Tech Pioneer
• The role of circularity, resilience, and adaptation in the future food system

• Hyfe: https://hyfe.tech/
• All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/
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This week on Everybody in the Pool, more power, right beneath our feet. Even as the United States has been attempting to stop or divest from renewable energy sources, there’s one kind of baseload power that doesn’t make anyone mad: geothermal.

So this week we’re talking not just geothermal, but next-generation geothermal.

My guest is Cindy Taff, CEO of Sage Geosystems, a company developing flexible, modular geothermal systems that can provide both baseload renewable power and incredible long-duration energy storage—all using the existing skill sets and drilling expertise of the oil and gas industry.

• Why geothermal is finally ready for prime time—thanks to new drilling techniques, better geologic modeling, and the lessons of shale
• Sage’s “heat harvesting” approach that works in far more places than conventional geothermal
• How their Geopressured Geothermal System doubles as ultra-affordable long-duration energy storage
• Why geothermal could be the clean firm power the grid desperately needs
• The role the oil and gas workforce can play in building the energy transition
• What it will take to finance and deploy geothermal at utility scale

• Sage Geosystems: https://www.sagegeosystems.com/
• All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/
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This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re examining the seemingly humble—but absolutely critical—piece of hardware that could accelerate electrification, unlock virtual power plants, and save homeowners thousands of dollars: the electrical panel.

My guest is Arch Rao, founder and CEO of Span, a company building smart electrical panels that replace your old breaker box with real-time power management, whole-home circuit-level visibility, and the ability to electrify without a costly service upgrade.

If you’ve ever been told you need a new 200-amp panel before installing a heat pump, EV charger, induction stove, or home battery… Span thinks you don’t. And utilities are starting to agree.

• Why most of America’s 100-amp homes don’t actually need expensive utility upgrades
• How Span’s digital panel manages loads in real time—throttling certain appliances for a few minutes a year to avoid tripping limits
• What changes when every circuit in your house is visible and controllable (down to the second)
• Span as grid infrastructure: how utilities like PG&E see smart panels as a cheaper alternative to billions in grid upgrades

• Span: https://www.span.io/
• All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/
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This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re rethinking how clothes, shoes—and even car interiors—get made without plastic. My guest is Maria Intscher-Owrang, CEO and co-founder of Simplifyber. Her innovation takes plant fibers + water, then forms finished 3D shapes in a single step—skipping spinning, weaving, cutting, and sewing. 

• What’s broken about fossil-based textiles (cost curves, subsidies, and why polyester took over)
• How Simplifyber’s cellulose slurry + compression molding works—and why it cuts waste dramatically
• Early results: an LCA showing up to 30× lower impact for shoe uppers vs. standard construction
• Performance and durability (including why these parts can survive sun/heat/humidity in car interiors)
• Unit economics: cost parity at scale via tooling (and why higher volumes matter)
• Beachhead products: GANNI “moon shoe” uppers and a Kia EV2 concept interior, now moving toward production
• What this could mean for labor, local supply chains, and using regional feedstocks (cellulose everywhere)

• Website Simplifyber: https://www.simplifyber.com/
• LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/maria-intscher-owrang-3278a07/
• All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/

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This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re talking about one of the biggest hurdles in the clean energy transition — how to make electric vehicles as fast and easy to refuel as gas cars.

Our guest is Will Fitzhugh, co-founder and CEO of Adden Energy, a Harvard spinout developing self-healing solid-state lithium metal batteries that could charge fully in under ten minutes. These next-generation batteries promise longer range, faster charging, and safer performance — all using existing manufacturing lines. It’s a fascinating look at the next leap in energy storage — and what it’ll take to make 10-minute charging a reality.

• What makes solid-state lithium metal batteries different from lithium-ion
• How Adden’s “self-healing” separator prevents the failures that have held this technology back
• Why faster charging could finally electrify drivers who can’t charge at home
• How the company plans to use existing gigafactory infrastructure to scale production
• What this breakthrough could mean for everything from EVs to robotics and aviation

• Adden Energy: https://www.addenenergy.com/
• All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/
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This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re talking water — and the invisible pollutants hiding in it. Microfibers from textiles are one of the biggest sources of microplastics in our oceans, choking marine ecosystems and undermining the ocean’s role as the planet’s carbon sink.

Our guest is Adam Root, founder and CEO of Matter, who shares his insane founder story, from £250 and a shed to a budding Japanese street food empire to Matter, which is helping major textile manufacturers keep millions of liters of water cleaner every day. It’s an epic founder story with big implications for clean water and healthy oceans.

• How washing machines and textile factories shed microfibers at massive scale
• Why current filtration is wasteful — and how Matter’s regenerative filters solve it
• The founder story that went from Japanese street food stalls to the G7 stage
• What this means for oceans, sludge management (yes, really), and circular materials in the future

• Matter Industries Website: https://matter.industries/
• Adam Root LinkedIn
• All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/
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This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re geeking out on money. Because even the best climate solutions won’t scale without serious capital behind them.

Our guest is Dawn Lippert, founder of Elemental (a nonprofit investor) and founding partner of Earthshot Ventures (a venture fund). She’s basically building an all-terrain vehicle for climate finance — covering philanthropic, project, and venture capital — to bridge the “valley of death” that stops too many good ideas from reaching the market.

We talk about:

• Why “first-of-a-kind” projects are so hard to fund
• The $150 billion capital gap that’s holding back climate solutions
• How philanthropic dollars can be recycled like sourdough starter
• The rise of AI in climate investments (and where it’s actually useful)
• Dawn’s own journey from sea turtle conservation to DOE policy to climate finance

• Elemental Impact: https://elementalimpact.com/
• Dawn Lippert LinkedIn
• All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/
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• Please subscribe and tell your friends about Everybody in the Pool!
• Send feedback or become a sponsor! [email protected]

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