Everybody in the Pool

This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re talking utilities. We know that one of the big keys to dramatically reducing greenhouse gas emissions and slowing global warming to manageable levels is to transition as quickly as possible to renewable energy and electrify everything. And at the absolute heart of that challenge are utilities—the ones responsible for generating and distributing electricity. Addressing the challenge takes commitment, to start with, and not all utilities are created equal in this regard. The ones who are quickly realized it also takes investment and innovation. Molly talks with Steve Smith, the CEO of National Grid Partners, which is the corporate venture arm of National Grid Group, about the tech needed to modernize the grid ASAP.

RESOURCES & LINKS

• National Grid Partners: https://www.ngpartners.com/
• All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/
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This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re getting a little high-tech. In the climate solutions conversation, people often talk about the need for game-changing innovation. That doesn’t mean giving up on policy and business and energy transition, obviously. But if we’re building a better future for everyone, it’s good to think of the breakthroughs that could not only solve our current crisis, but lay the foundation for all kinds of other breakthroughs, as well. One of those is quantum computing: computing powerful enough to revolutionize materials discovery, battery chemistry breakthroughs, fertilizer production, and who knows what else. Molly talks with Pete Shadbolt, co-founder of PsiQuantum, about the company’s attempts to commercialize quantum computing as soon as possible.

RESOURCES & LINKS

• PsiQuantum: https://www.psiquantum.com/
• Quantum computing, explained: https://www.explainthatstuff.com/quantum-computing.html
• All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/
• Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/
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This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re featuring a panel discussion moderated by Molly at the GreenBiz conference, held in Phoenix, AZ, in February. The conversation blends tech and climate and three amazing professionals talking about how AI (the other hottest topic on the planet, if you’ll pardon the very scary pun) can help with efforts to heal nature and restore biodiversity. Molly spoke with Elizabeth Hunter, co-founder and COO of a robotics and AI biodiversity startup called TreeSwift; Melanie Nakagawa, chief sustainability officer at Microsoft; and Millie Chapman, a postdoctoral fellow at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis and Climate Change AI.

RESOURCES & LINKS

• Video version: https://www.greenbiz.com/events/greenbiz/sessions/ai-nature-climate-and-beyond-how-new-tech-transforming-sustainability
• TreeSwift: https://www.treeswift.com/
• All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/
• Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/
• Become a member and get an ad-free version of the podcast: https://plus.acast.com/s/everybody-in-the-pool

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This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re going a little sci-fi with a startup that spun out of Google and is trying to reinvent urban mobility. And by that I mean they’re developing modular electric tram systems that would take passengers around dense urban areas, hospital or college campuses, or maybe, you know, Google, on a series of cables suspended above buildings and streets. This means reducing the number of cars on the road, sure, but it also means we can build new cities, housing developments, and urban centers that have density without resource-hogging skyscrapers, and which don’t need a ton of extra land for parking and multi-lane highways and such. Wild? Sure. Doable? We’ll see. Interesting? Absolutely. With Swyft Cities founder and CEO Jeral Poskey.

RESOURCES & LINKS

• Swyft Cities: https://swyftcities.com/
• All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/
• Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/
• Become a member and get an ad-free version of the podcast: https://plus.acast.com/s/everybody-in-the-pool

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This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re back to buildings! Buildings and the built environment are responsible for as much as 40 percent of carbon emissions and energy demand. In fact, a UN report from 2022 found that although the buildings and construction industry has done some investing in energy efficiency and more sustainable processes, its emissions hit an all-time high that year, after a brief dip during the pandemic. Solutions lie in more sustainable building practices, denser housing, and better building materials, and this week’s guest is doing all three. Plant Prefab sustainably builds multi-unit housing in super high-tech automated factories. This week’s guest is founder and former CEO Steve Glenn.

RESOURCES & LINKS

• Plant Prefab: https://www.plantprefab.com/
• All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/
• Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/
• Become a member and get an ad-free version of the podcast: https://plus.acast.com/s/everybody-in-the-pool

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This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re exploring a topic that once seemed fanciful, unlikely at best, and even slightly controversial: carbon removal. Literally, taking carbon dioxide out of the air and storing it so it doesn’t keep warming the planet. In fact, in 2022, the UN released a report that essentially said developing carbon removal technology is not optional, in addition to cutting emissions, if we want to keep warming to manageable (ie, not catastrophic) levels. So this week, we’re talking with one of the most promising players in the space, Spiritus, whose CEO Charles Cadieu details the novel material they’ve invented that will eventually become orchards of carbon-absorbing “fruits.”

RESOURCES & LINKS

• Spiritus: https://spiritus.com/en
• All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/
• Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/
• Become a member and get an ad-free version of the podcast: https://plus.acast.com/s/everybody-in-the-pool

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Welcome back to Everybody in the Pool. This week: how to get to the major breakthroughs that a lot of people think are necessary if we’re going to stop or even reverse the worst effects of human-caused climate change. Breakthroughs take money, yes, and they also take brilliant people, full stop! Scientists, inventors, wild-eyed optimists—the people who have ideas and need support, training, funding, and encouragement to see them through or come up with other brilliant ideas. Enter Activate, a nonprofit fellowship that provides all of that to scientist-entrepreneurs, in hopes of making sure there are more of them in every room where decisions are being made. This week, Molly talks with Activate’s new CEO, Cyrus Wadia. Enjoy!

RESOURCES & LINKS

• Activate: https://www.activate.org/
• All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/
• Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/
• Become a member and get an ad-free version of the podcast: https://plus.acast.com/s/everybody-in-the-pool

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Welcome back to Everybody in the Pool in 2024! We’re getting a bit of a late start this year because Molly was at CES in Las Vegas last week, which turned out to be a stealth sustainability show. On this week’s episode, we caught up with Stefan Solyom, CTO of Pebble, which is making a completely electric travel trailer—think RV—that can sustain itself off the grid for up to a week, power your home like a giant backup battery, back up and park itself, and has tech built inside that puts all other glamping to shame. Plus, flying cars. No, really. Lots of them! Welcome back and happy New Year!

RESOURCES & LINKS

• The Pebble RV: https://pebblelife.com/
• From the newsletter: Is it the age of EVTOLs?
• All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/
• Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/
• Become a member and get an ad-free version of the podcast: https://plus.acast.com/s/everybody-in-the-pool

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This week on Everybody in the Pool, it’s almost the end of 2023 and this little podcast just finished its first year of existence! Aww! Thanks to everyone who came on this ride and came on this show! This week, we’re doing a little retrospective to look at some of the fun, adoptable solutions we highlighted (from wrapping paper to repairing your phones and keeping them longer), all the way to the mind-blowing inventions that have us genuinely hopeful about the future. Shout-out Shiki Wrap, Kyle Wiens, Ridwell, Mill, Universal Hydrogen, Magrathea Metals, Anuma Aerospace, and more. Happy New Year!

RESOURCES & LINKS

• All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/
• Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/
• Become a member and get an ad-free version of the podcast: https://plus.acast.com/s/everybody-in-the-pool

Please subscribe and tell your friends about EITP! Send feedback or become a sponsor at [email protected]!

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This week on Everybody in the Pool, we are once again thinking big when it comes to the energy transition. If last week was about electrifying whole fleets of cars, this week is about electrifying entire towns! Dan Bridleman of KB Home and Matt Brost of Sunpower join Molly to talk about how they’ve teamed up on a big experiment in southern California: a planned community of more than 200 net zero homes, all-electric, with smart thermostats and plugs and energy meters, with solar and whole-home batteries, that will also be connected with a community battery and a microgrid that will send power back to the utility to help keep the lights on when needed and give power back to the utility when they need it. Cool, right? Let’s move there!

RESOURCES & LINKS

• Shadow Mountain at Menifee: https://www.kbhome.com/new-homes-california/menifee
• All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/
• Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/
• Become a member and get an ad-free version of the podcast: https://plus.acast.com/s/everybody-in-the-pool

Please subscribe and tell your friends about EITP! Send feedback or become a sponsor at [email protected]!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.