Everybody in the Pool

Three million homes are damaged by natural disasters in the US every year — and with a billion-dollar storm hitting roughly every ten days, that number is only growing. But the system for repairing affected homes is stuck in the past, with mountains of paperwork, fragmented funding, and rampant fraud leaving vulnerable homeowners stranded.

This week on Everybody in the Pool, Molly sits down with Susan Hunt Stevens, the founder and CEO of Tessi, a platform working to fix what she calls the “broken post-disaster home repair system.” Tessi brings homeowners, vetted contractors, insurers, government programs, and other funders onto a single platform that uses AI-driven damage assessments to quickly evaluate a home in the wake of a disaster.

• How Tessi uses AI and aerial imagery to generate damage assessments within 24 hours
• How the surge in natural disasters has made homeowners increasingly vulnerable to contractor fraud
• Why only 4% of homeowners affected by flooding and hurricanes are actually covered by insurance
• How homeowners can use disaster repair as an opportunity to implement climate-adaptive upgrades
• Tessi’s role in a complicated ecosystem where any repair might be funded by a patchwork of insurance, personal savings, home equity loans, government aid, and even GoFundMe
• How Tessi is partnering with volunteer disaster relief organizations to serve socially vulnerable homeowners who fall outside the paid system
• Tessi’s goal of serving 1 million homes within 5 years

• Tessi: https://tessi.ai/
• All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/
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The impacts of climate change are hitting the world everywhere, all at once — making climate adaptation more urgent than ever before.

This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re flipping the script on climate adaption; no longer viewing it as a funding gap, but as an investment opportunity that could bring lots of types of finance to the table for returns and impact. Niall Murphy, co-founder and managing partner of Morphosis, sits down with Molly to discuss how the world can scale solutions for an already-changing climate, and why the private sector needs to get involved in the new “adaptation economy.”

• What living beyond 1.5 degrees means for adaptation
• How 90% of adaptation funding is currently public money, and why that can’t scale to meet the demand
• The case for viewing climate impacts as emerging markets and investment opportunities
• Why insurers’ panic is actually the tipping point we’ve been waiting for
• Real examples of commercially viable adaptation solutions, from solar-filtering polymers to micro-scale desalination
• The policy gaps that are holding back deployment
• How Morphosis aggregates capital to deploy solutions where they're needed most

• Morphosis: https://www.morphosis.solutions/
• All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/
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This week on Everybody in the Pool, another sexy gadget that doubles as a grid asset! We take a field trip to the Berkeley headquarters of Copper, which is reimagining the humble stove as a powerful tool for decarbonization. Their flagship product, Charlie, is a 30-inch induction range with a built-in battery that allows for plug-and-play installation, precise cooking, and the potential to support grid stability.

• How a battery in a stove can reduce the need for electrical infrastructure upgrades
• The magic of induction cooking - safety, precision, and efficiency
• Incentive programs making electrification more accessible
• The potential for appliances to become grid interactive assets
• Copper’s vision for scaling electrification across housing
• Bonus: their in-house chef loves it, too.

• Copper: https://www.copper.com/
• All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/
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Heat pumps are having a moment. Last year, the U.S. passed China to become the world's number one market for heat pumps—and they're not slowing down. But while heat pumps are efficient and effective on paper, they haven't always been objects of desire. Until now.

This week, Molly talks to Paul Lambert, CEO and co-founder of Quilt, about building a heat pump company that's equal parts climate solution and consumer product. Paul explains how his team is reimagining the mini-split heat pump—not just as an HVAC system, but as a piece of technology you're proud to have on your wall.

We dive into:

• How heat pumps work: Why an AC is basically "a half-broken heat pump" that only runs in one direction
• The two types of heat pumps: Ducted systems vs. ductless mini-splits, and why room-by-room control is a game-changer
• Design as climate strategy: How Quilt spent half their initial capital on a domain name and invested heavily in industrial design to create pull, not just policy push
• The installer advantage: Why partnering with contractors (instead of doing it all in-house) unlocked national scale
• Smart grid integration: How Quilt's internet-connected system enables demand response without sacrificing comfort—curtailing load in empty rooms while keeping occupied spaces perfect
• The data center opportunity: How replacing electric resistance heating with heat pumps near data centers can free up 75% of the energy load—without building new generation capacity
• Why incentives help but aren't required: 60% of America is primarily cooling-driven, and heat pumps are just better air conditioners
• Pricing reality: Quilt is competitive with high-end Japanese mini-splits, not luxury-priced like early Nest thermostats or Teslas
• The personal mission: How Paul's Alberta roots in the fossil fuel industry and his commitment to his kids' future drove him to climate tech

Key insight: Space heating and cooling represent half of all home energy use and 70% of fossil fuel consumption in homes—making HVAC the single biggest lever for decarbonizing buildings.

Links:

• Quilt: https://quilt.com
• Find a Quilt installer: https://quilt.com (click "Find an Installer")
• All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/
• Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/
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Buildings account for a third of America's greenhouse gas emissions, yet until recently, we've been flatlined on progress. That's changing—fast. This week, Molly talks to Panama Bartholomy, founder of the Building Decarbonization Coalition, about how an unlikely alliance of utilities, manufacturers, installers, and nonprofits is transforming the way we heat, cool, and power our homes.

Panama explains how finding 80% common ground among competitors created unstoppable momentum—and how the U.S. just became the global leader in heat pump sales for the fourth year running.

• The coalition model: How businesses, government, and nonprofits work together through "shuttle diplomacy"
• Why buildings matter: They represent ~33% of U.S. emissions and are the largest source of air pollution in California's worst air basins
• The heat pump revolution: How the U.S. went from third place to global leader in just five years—heat pumps now outsell furnaces
• The gas infrastructure trap: Why we're spending $50 billion annually on aging pipes while gas bills rise twice as fast as electric rates
• Neighborhood-scale solutions: How utilities are offering $35,000 checks to electrify entire neighborhoods instead of replacing gas pipelines
• "Stove Gate" as a paradigm shift: How controversy over gas stove safety created "sticky facts" that changed public perception
• What "pollution" means: Why language matters—moving from "decarbonization" to a term everyone understands
• The path forward: Why installers are the real heroes, and what political will looks like in action
• Key stat: Space heating and water heating represent 90% of building emissions—and heat pumps can do both jobs 2-4x more efficiently than gas?

• Building Decarbonization Coalition: https://www.buildingdecarb.org/
• BDC's 2025 Wrapped Report: https://buildingdecarb.org/2025-wrapped-decarb-edition
• All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/
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What if the solution to our energy challenges isn't building more—but applying new thinking to the grid we’ve already got? This week, Molly talks to Quinn Nakayama, the senior director at PG&E’s Grid Research Innovation and Development, also known as GRID, division. (Clever, right?)

After years of controversy over wildfires that led to the utility’s eventual bankruptcy, PG&E is moving forward with dedicated R&D, pitch competitions, and monetary investment to figure out how to use new technologies to meet growing demand without compromising California’s clean energy goals.

• The massive energy demands from data centers and electrification
• Innovative strategies to manage load growth without building massive infrastructure
• How electric vehicles and smart charging can actually reduce electricity rates
• California's unique challenge of meeting net-zero goals while supporting economic growth
• Creative solutions like using data center backup generators as temporary grid support

In upcoming episodes, we’ll talk with some of the startups PG&E has identified as particularly promising reinvention partners!

• PG&E’s GRID initiative: https://www.pge.com/en/about/pge-systems/research-and-development.html?vnt=innovation
• All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/
• Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/
• Become a member for the ad-free version of the show:
• https://everybodyinthepool.supercast.com/
• Visit our sponsor, Climatize, and get $50 in investment credits when you create a profile!

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This week on Everybody in the Pool, we're diving into the world of protein production — in reverse. Recently, the USDA released a new food pyramid that controversially places red meat and dairy at the top. That, combined with the global and particularly American obsession with protein, make it a great time to talk to Ross Milne, CEO of Leaft Foods. Leaft is developing a groundbreaking technology that extracts protein directly from alfalfa leaves, potentially reducing emissions by 97% compared to traditional animal agriculture.

Leaft Foods isn't just creating a protein alternative - they're reimagining the entire food production system. By isolating RuBisCO, the most abundant protein on the planet, they've developed a nutritional powerhouse that outperforms eggs, whey, and beef in amino acid profile. Their first product, LeafBlade, packs 18 grams of protein and 58% of daily iron intake into a tiny 100ml pouch.

• How extracting protein directly from leaves could transform agriculture
• The nutritional superiority of RuBisCO protein
• Why efficiency matters in solving the climate crisis
• How this technology could improve both human nutrition and animal farming
• The potential for scaling a more sustainable protein production method

• Leaft Foods: https://www.leaftfoods.com/
• All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/
• Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/
• Become a member for the ad-free version of the show:
• https://everybodyinthepool.supercast.com/

Visit our sponsor, Climatize, and get $50 in investment credits when you create a profile!

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Here’s a bonus episode for you to kick off 2026. Back in episode 97, we interviewed Kate Danaher of S2G Investments about investing in the ocean economy. S2G are actually investors in a few of the companies we’ve had on Everybody in the Pool, including Matter, Moleaer, and Sofar Ocean. So this week, we’re featuring one of their interviews as they prepare to launch their new season.

The S2G Podcast is hosted by the team at S2G Investments, and looks at what it will take to scale the food and agriculture, oceans and energy transitions. Episodes launch every two weeks with a range of guests, including company leaders, innovators, investors, and policy experts. Season 3 starts on January 15 and you can find the S2G Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

• S2G Episodes: https://www.s2ginvestments.com/insights/podcast
• Subscribe to the S2G Podcast: https://www.s2ginvestments.com/podcast
• All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/
• Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/
• Become a member for the ad-free version of the show:
• https://everybodyinthepool.supercast.com/

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This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re starting the year with an audacious question: what if we reinvented one of the most basic materials in the world?

Decarbonizing the built environment means tackling the stuff we use everywhere — wood, concrete, and steel — at the same time we’re trying to build millions of new homes, strengthen supply chains, and reduce our exposure to geopolitical and climate risk. That’s a tall order. But it’s also unavoidable.

My guest is Nathan Silvernail, co-founder and CEO of Plantd, a company building a tree-free, carbon-negative alternative to engineered wood. Designed as a drop-in replacement for OSB (oriented strand board), Plantd’s material looks and behaves like conventional wood — but without cutting down trees. And they’re not stopping at the material itself: Plantd is building the machines, manufacturing process, and agricultural supply chain needed to produce it at scale.

• Why “sustainable wood” isn’t always as sustainable as it sounds
• Why trees can’t scale fast enough to meet demand and climate goals
• What it takes to replace a commodity material without asking builders to change how they build
• The co-benefits: turning waste into biochar and high-purity carbon for adjacent industrial markets
• The hard realities of scaling hardware, agriculture, and manufacturing at the same time

• Plantd: https://www.plantdmaterials.com/
• All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/
• Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/
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• https://everybodyinthepool.supercast.com/
• Visit our sponsor, Climatize, and get $50 in investment credits when you create a profile!

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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/
• All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/
• Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/
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• https://everybodyinthepool.supercast.com/

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