For the next few episodes, we’re digging into the wild world of energy and the aging global electricity grid. This week, we start where reliability begins: utility-scale storage. The grid we have was built for one-way power plants; the grid we need has to juggle rooftop solar at noon, heat waves at 6 p.m., EVs, and data centers galore.

My guest is Tom Sisto, founder & CEO of XL Batteries. His team is commercializing a pH-neutral, aqueous organic flow battery — a non-flammable, salt-water system using carbon-based molecules instead of vanadium. Think: safer, long-life storage you can scale for hours to days, without sulfuric acid or scarce metals.

We get into:

• Why storage is the “time machine” the grid needs (match generation to demand, cut curtailment)
• Flow batteries 101: engine vs. tank, independent power and duration, and why that matters for utilities
• XL’s chemistry: organic charge carriers in neutral saltwater (no vanadium, no acid), designed for long life
• Cost and safety vs. lithium — and why duration + cycle life drive utility economics
• Real-world progress: containerized field unit, EPRI duty-cycle testing, and an industrial pilot at Stolthaven Terminals
• Retrofit potential: turning existing petrochemical tanks into energy storage tanks
• Storage-as-transmission: placing batteries on both sides of a bottleneck to double effective flow
• Reliability + resilience: PSPS/wildfire shutoffs, hurricane backup, and data-center load growth
• Where decentralization fits, and how industrial customers can de-risk adoption on the way to utility scale

• XL Batteries — https://xlbatteries.com/
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• Send thoughts & voice memos: [email protected] — where do you see storage unlocking reliability?
• If you liked this one, share it with a grid geek friend.

• E101 (this episode): Safe, long-duration flow batteries with XL Batteries
• E102 (next): Grid “airbags” — synthetic inertia & fast frequency control with Wärtsilä
• E103 (after that): A rechargeable zinc sponge anode that solves dendrites — Enzinc

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This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re celebrating our 100th episode with a look at what matters most: your actions.

Since this show began a little over two years ago, the goal has been simple — to spotlight innovation, ingenuity, and capital coming together to tackle the climate crisis. Hope is stronger than fear, but hope alone isn’t a plan. This milestone episode is about agency — the choices we make in our own lives, and how together, those choices add up to systemic change.

Listeners wrote in and sent voice memos sharing the climate actions they’ve taken:

• Investing through platforms like Climatize to fund renewable energy projects
• Moving retirement savings and banking into fossil fuel–free funds and community credit unions
• Cutting back on red meat, shifting diets, and sourcing local food
• Tackling food waste with apps like FlashFood and composting with Mill (our presenting sponsor for this week’s episode)
• Retrofitting homes with solar, heat pumps, and energy efficiency upgrades
• Rethinking careers, transportation, and even family planning with the climate in mind

Along the way, we revisit powerful clips from past episodes and highlight the ripple effects of these solutions — from decarbonizing finance to building circular food systems.

Thank you to everyone who has listened, shared, and taken action. This episode is a reminder that we are not helpless — our feedback, votes, purchases, and investments all send signals that drive change. Drops become a flood.

Thanks to Mill for sponsoring this week’s episode! Get $75 off yours with my custom link! https://www.mill.com/lp/mollywood?utm_source=newsletter-sponsorship&utm_medium=partnership&utm_campaign=everbodyinthepool &utm_content=mollywood

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Please subscribe and tell your friends about Everybody in the Pool! Send feedback or become a sponsor at [email protected]!

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This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re diving into ocean intelligence. Despite covering more than 70% of the Earth, the ocean remains one of the least understood parts of our climate system — and that knowledge gap has huge consequences for weather prediction, global commerce, and climate resilience.

Our guest is Tim Janssen, co-founder and CEO of Sofar Ocean, a company building the world’s largest privately deployed network of ocean sensors. Their inexpensive, solar-powered Spotter buoys collect real-time data on waves, weather, and water conditions — information that fuels better climate models, safer shipping routes, and more sustainable ocean economies.

We talk about:

• The massive “ocean data gap” and why it hinders weather and climate forecasting
• How Sofar’s 2,500+ Spotter buoys are creating the largest private ocean sensor network
• Wayfinder, Sofar’s “Google Maps for ships,” and how it saves fuel and cuts emissions
• Why more ocean intelligence is critical for industries from aquaculture to shipping
• Partnerships with researchers, governments, and nonprofits to democratize ocean data
• The bigger vision: turning ocean information into a foundation for climate solutions

From global trade to Pacific Island communities, ocean intelligence has the potential to save money, reduce emissions, and protect vulnerable coastlines. Janssen explains why data may be the most important climate solution of all.

• Sofar Ocean: https://www.sofarocean.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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This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re talking ocean tech — in a slightly roundabout way. Nano-bubbles are a tiny but powerful technology that’s helping to make a big climate impact across wastewater treatment, irrigation, aquaculture, and more.

Our guest is Nick Dyner, CEO of Moleaer, a company that manufactures systems to produce nano-bubbles — microscopic bubbles that can enhance chemical, physical, and biological processes. The applications range from improving crop yields to cleaning food without chemicals, reducing energy use in wastewater treatment, and even building a nearly chlorine-free Jacuzzi.

We talk about:

• How nano-bubbles work and why they stay in water for weeks or months
• The potential to cut energy use in wastewater aeration, which consumes 2% of global electricity
• Using nano-bubbles to boost irrigation efficiency, reduce chemicals, and increase yields
• Applications in aquaculture, from improving salmon welfare to remediating ocean floors
• Surprising future possibilities — from replacing soap to targeted cancer treatments
• Why this “new class of science” is already deployed in more than 4,000 systems worldwide

From salmon farms in Norway to backyard spas, Nick explains how nano-bubbles could be a critical tool for climate solutions today — and the sci-fi breakthroughs of tomorrow.

• Moleaer: https://www.moleaer.com/
• 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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This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re kicking off a mini-series on the ocean — the world’s largest carbon sink, a source of food for nearly half the global population, home to 80% of animal life on Earth, and heating faster than expected. It’s also a climate tech category full of untapped investment opportunities.

Our guest is Kate Danaher, Managing Director at S2G Investments, where she co-leads the firm’s oceans and seafood strategy. S2G is a growth-stage investment firm focused on food and agriculture, clean energy, and the ocean economy — and Kate’s work connects all three for maximum systems-level impact.

We talk about:

• 🚢 Why the ocean is more than a philanthropic cause — and how multi-trillion-dollar industries depend on it
• 🌬 Decarbonizing the maritime industry, which moves 80–90% of global goods and emits 3% of total greenhouse gases
• ⚡️ The technologies gaining traction fastest: route optimization, air lubrication, wind-assisted propulsion, and batteries
• 📡 Building better ocean intelligence with satellites, sensors, and unmanned vessels — and why balancing proprietary data with the public good is tricky
• 🐟 How aquaculture can take pressure off wild fisheries, and the tech making it cleaner and more efficient
• 🌍 Why global regulation (with or without the U.S.) is creating momentum for change

From high-tech sails ⛵️ to land-based fish farms 🏭🐠, Kate shares how aligning economic value with ocean health could unlock massive climate impact.

• S2G Investments: https://www.s2ginvestments.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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This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re continuing Storyteller Summer with a stand-up comic who proves you can turn any job into a climate job — even one that usually involves jokes about socks.

Our guest is Stuart Goldsmith, a veteran stand-up comedian and host of The Comedian’s Comedian podcast, who now focuses almost entirely on the climate crisis. But instead of lectures or charts, Stuart brings humor, humility, and a healthy dose of self-deprecation to a topic that’s often overwhelming.

We talk about:

• The long, strange road from Covent Garden street performer to climate comedy evangelist
• Why “the problems are the material” — especially when it comes to eco-anxiety
• The art of bombing (a lot) while trying to make ocean acidification funny
• Making your own hypocrisy the butt of the joke
• Why climate storytelling needs more action and less guilt

Also: sticky jokes, snow leopards, tariff metaphors, LinkedIn mic drops, and the surprisingly dark comedy of unaffordable insurance premiums.

This is climate storytelling at its smartest and most disarming. (And if you’re hiring a climate comic, please drop this man a line — his American clients have all fled!)

• Website: https://www.stuartgoldsmith.com
• Instagram: @stuartgoldsmithcomedy
• LinkedIn: Stuart Goldsmith (but only if you’re a decision-maker!)
• 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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This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re diving into the power of convening — and what happens when global climate leaders, local food producers, indigenous communities, philanthropists, and data nerds get in the same room... and then go mountain biking together.

Our guest is Aimée Christensen, a longtime climate champion and founder of Christensen Global, the Sun Valley Forum, and the Sun Valley Institute for Resilience. From negotiating clean energy deals at the Department of Energy to putting Google on the path to carbon neutrality, Aimée has worked at the highest levels of policy, law, business, and philanthropy.

She’s now focused on making an impact both globally and in her hometown of Sun Valley, Idaho — where she’s built a powerful hub for innovation and resilience. We talk about:

• Her remarkable journey from the Earth Summit in Rio to Google.org and beyond
• The origins and goals of the Sun Valley Forum
• Why gathering people is a critical tool in solving the climate crisis
• The incredible ripple effects of partnerships and solutions born at the Forum
• Building resilient communities through food, energy, and investment

Don’t miss the short clip from this year’s Forum to see how nature quite literally stole the show.

• Website: https://www.christensenglobal.com
• LinkedIn: Aimée Christensen
• 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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This week on Everybody in the Pool, we explore the pioneering world of rare earth metal recycling with Ahmad Ghahreman, CEO and co-founder of Cyclic Materials. This is a a technology with big environmental implications, and a whole lot of geopolitical ones also. Rare earth metals are used to make magnets that are part of electric motors and wind turbines, on the clean tech side, but also kind of everything else electronic, including things like laser guidance systems, missiles, and jet engines. And China controls pretty much the entire market — and, since April, has stopped almost all shipments of metals and magnets!

Discover how Cyclic Materials addresses the critical challenge of recycling rare earth metals—essential for a sustainable, electrified future. Ahmad shares his journey from hydrometallurgy to developing innovative processes that extract high-value metals from discarded goods. As electrification accelerates demand, understand why recycling these metals is both an environmental imperative and an economic necessity.

• Recycling Importance: Emphasizing the need to recycle rare earth elements like neodymium and dysprosium, critical for manufacturing electric motor magnets.
• Technical Challenges: Unpacking the complexities of extracting these metals and how Cyclic Materials develops solutions to overcome these hurdles.
• Geopolitical and Supply Chain Insights: Ahmad’s perspective on the implications of locally producing these critical metals in North America and Europe, enhancing supply chain resilience.

• Visit Cyclic Materials
• Connect with Ahmad Ghahreman on LinkedIn
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Help us spread the word about sustainable solutions!

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Explore how innovative recycling solutions are vital for a cleaner, sustainable future. Tune in for valuable insights and engaging conversations.

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This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re sticking with the theme of climate storytelling and climate communication with a well-known activist and advocate for justice, climate action, equity, and getting out the vote. Rev Yearwood is the president of the nonprofit Hip Hop Caucus, which works to engage young people around voting and community service, and he also advises the Bloomberg Foundation on climate storytelling projects. He and Molly talk about putting the climate crisis in a language everyone can understand, why there aren’t any hip hop songs about climate change (yet?), and how Earth is like a spouse we need to stop taking for granted.

• Hip Hop Caucus
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Please subscribe and tell your friends about Everybody in the Pool! Send feedback or become a sponsor at [email protected]!

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This week on "Everybody in the Pool," we are on one last week of summer vacation but we didn’t want to leave you without anything to listen to any longer! One of Molly’s other projects is a podcast called Futureverse, where she and co-host Ramanan Raghavendran interview authors of climate fiction, to try to understand how fiction and science fiction imagine a present or a future in the world of a changing climate. Recently, they interviewed the Harvard professor and scientist Naomi Oreskes. She is known for her climate change activism, for nonfiction works on coordinated disinformation, and for trying to communicate science to the masses — which led her to co-author a work of fiction called The Collapse of Western Civilization. We spoke with her about knowing what’s coming, how to stop it, how to win people to your side, and how sometimes fiction can tell better stories than science.

• The Futureverse podcast
• Naomi Oreskes
• The Collapse of Western Civilization
• 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 at [email protected]!

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