If you follow the evolution of American education, you are surely aware of Arizona State University's transformation under the leadership of Michael Crow. In a little over two decades, Crow has grown ASU into one of the largest and most influential public universities, in terms of overall enrollment, research expenditures, and the adoption of new technologies. In doing so, he has become an internationally recognized voice in the future of higher education at large. Built on a precise set of guiding principles outlined in his inaugural address, the university consistently garners accolades for community and global impact, environmental sustainability, and graduate employability.  

In a field where peer institutions have traditionally competed based on exclusivity, ASU's success is derived from its 2014 Charter, which declared that this university would be "measured not by whom it excludes, but by whom it includes and how they succeed." Crow’s New American University model defies the norms of rising tuition, low acceptance rates and inflexible learning pathways, with an aim to prioritize meaningful change in the lives of more students and the communities which it serves.   

Ten Across, of course, is itself responsive to ASU's Charter and its design aspirations, particularly its emphasis on place. As a unique subset of ASU, Ten Across strives to deliver outsized impact through intentional networks, education, and media that address high-stakes issues experienced throughout the I-10 region—many of which are exacerbated by climate change.  

Listen in as Michael Crow explains why Arizona was the place he chose for the development of this highly inclusive and innovative model of higher education, and the efforts that have gone into transforming ASU from a small state college into a global humanitarian and technological engine generating solutions to some of our most difficult challenges.  

Related articles and resources:  

Michael Crow explains the “invisible hand” of university research in conversation with Rice University President Reginald DesRoches  

“ASU boosts the economic vitality of Arizona” (ASU News, January 2025)  

 “Why Phoenix is the ‘Most American City’ with George Packer” (Ten Across Conversations, August 2024)  

“’Evolve Or Die’ —Michael Crow’s Challenge to U.S. Higher Education” (Forbes, May 2025)  

“Democrats need a leader like ASU President Michael Crow to rescue them” (Arizona Republic, January 2025)  

Credits:  

Host: Duke Reiter  

Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith  

Music by: Helmut Schenker and Pearce Roswell  

Research and support provided: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler

The insurance industry's bottom line offers the clearest, least political evidence that a stable economy and livable communities are increasingly dependent on strategies to address extreme weather impacts. California, Louisiana, and Florida have become harbingers of a spreading issue: disaster-related property losses that continuously exceed underwriting profitability. The resulting gaps in affordability and availability are driving property owners to states' insurer-of-last-resort programs or, more and more often, to forgo coverage for their greatest risks.  

As warmer ocean water and sea level rise fuel more destructive Atlantic hurricane seasons, Florida homeowner's insurance costs more than three times the national average, and an estimated 15-20% of property owners are uninsured. In Louisiana, the withdrawal of the insurance industry has caused the state's FAIR plan enrollment to grow 400% in just four years.  

Wildfire risk has grown as well. The fires in Los Angeles earlier this year are projected to become the costliest natural disaster in the nation’s history, around $50 billion more than the total damages from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Major insurers had already dropped 2.8 million policies in fire-prone areas of the state since 2020. Now, the state's FAIR plan is struggling to bear the weight of its own growing exposure as homeowners find themselves without other options for coverage.  

In the Ten Across region and beyond, there is growing interest in insurance mechanisms and governance which, rather than simply reflecting and reacting to risk, can be adapted as tools for better preparation and response.    

Carolyn Kousky founded the nonprofit Insurance for Good to meet this need. Listen in to learn more about how Carolyn’s work connects local leaders to deep industry knowledge and encourages the industry to participate actively in global climate resilience and energy transition efforts.   

About our guest: 

Carolyn Kousky is the founder of Insurance for Good, a nonprofit focused on improving equity in disaster recovery, accelerating the energy transition, and driving investments in resilience. She is also the author of Understanding Disaster Insurance: New Tools for a More Resilient Future and the Associate Vice President for Economics and Policy at Environmental Defense Fund. Prior to that, Carolyn was Executive Director of the Wharton Risk Center at the University of Pennsylvania. She currently serves on a number of public and private advisory boards, including on the U.S. Treasury’s Federal Advisory Committee on Insurance.


Related articles and resources:

Insurance for Good  

Hear from other experts on insurance in the 10X geography: Dave Jones, Latisha Nixon-Jones, Jesse Keenan, Amy Bach  

“Improving household and community disaster recovery: Evidence on the role of insurance” (Xuesong You, Carolyn Kousky, Journal of Risk and Insurance, 2024)  

“Leveraging insurance for decarbonization” (Carolyn Kousky, Joseph W. Lockwood, Journal of Catastrophe Risk and Resilience, 2024)  

“REPORT: The 2024 Miami-Dade Property Insurance Strategy Forum” (The Miami Foundation, 2024)  

"FEMA moves to end one of its biggest disaster adaptation programs” (Grist, April 2025)  

Credits:

Host: Duke Reiter  

Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith  

Music by: Lennon Hutton  

Research and support provided by: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler

Given a looming negotiation deadline and recent changes in federal operations, this is an apt time for us to check back in on how things are going with Colorado River management. Frequent listeners and 10X Summit attendees alike will be well acquainted with how clearly this topic illustrates our collective responsibility to be proactive in the face of the "knowable future".  

A 100-year-old miscalculation of water availability and the recent multi-decade drought have put our use of the Colorado River on an unsustainable path. This became apparent in 2021, as critical reservoirs at Lakes Mead and Powell approached a deadpool low-water scenario that would endanger hydropower generation at major dams and water deliveries to users further south. The risk level triggered immediate federal intervention and the renegotiation of a basin-wide agreement for sharing and conserving this vital resource.  

Stakeholders now have less than a month to submit a joint management proposal to the Bureau of Reclamation in time to be vetted for a new interstate compact. If this September, 2026 deadline is missed, the cooperative systems and oversight that have protected the Colorado River since 1944 may expire without an immediate replacement.  

Meanwhile, major layoffs are planned or underway at the Bureau and the Department of the Interior, and federal funding for river conservation has been frozen. Anne Castle, former U.S. commissioner and chair of the Upper Colorado River Commission is among those employees to have lost their positions in this transition.

Three years after their first Ten Across Conversations appearance together, today Anne and fellow renowned Western water policy expert John Fleck revisit the key themes and offer their thoughts on progress toward a positive policy future in the Colorado Basin.  

Related articles and resources:

 Listen to our first episode with Anne and John from 2022  

Learn more about the 1994 U.S.-Mexico water treaty in this Ten Across Conversations podcast

“Trump admin rejects Colorado River water request from Mexico in first since 1944” (The Hill, March 2025)  

“Green Light for Adaptive Policies on the Colorado River” (Anne Castle and John Fleck, 2021)

“The Risk of Curtailment under the Colorado River Compact” (Anne Castle and John Fleck, 2019)

“Closing the Water Access Gap in the United States: A National Action Plan” (US Water Alliance, 2019)  

“Essay: Lessons for the End of the World” (Hanif Abdurraqib, The New Yorker, Feb. 2025)  

Credits:  
Host: Duke Reiter  

Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith  

Music by: Lupus Nocte, Tellsonic, and Pearce Roswell  

Research and support provided by: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler  

About our guests:  

Anne Castle is a senior fellow at the Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment at the University of Colorado Law School. She is a founding member of the Water Policy Group and co-founder of the initiative on Universal Access to Clean Water for Tribal Communities. From 2022 to 2025, she served as U.S. Commissioner and Chair of the Upper Colorado River Commission and was Assistant Secretary for Water and Science at the U.S. Department of the Interior from 2009 to 2014.  

John Fleck is a writer in residence for the Utton Transboundary Resources Center and professor of practice in water policy and governance at the University of Mexico’s Department of Economics. He is also the co-author of Science Be Dammed: How Ignoring Inconvenient Science Drained the Colorado River and author of Water is for Fighting Over and Other Myths about Water in the West. John is the former director of the University of New Mexico Water Resources Program, where he continues to teach and advise graduate students.

During an on-stage conversation between insurance industry leaders at the 2023 10X Los Angeles Summit, former California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones described the need to mitigate the impacts of climate-driven weather in order for the state to remain insurable. His point has been clearly illustrated by news headlines the last couple years since the summit.    

Among the greatest risks to homes in California is the surging frequency and intensity of wildfire. Based on recent trends, the cost of recovery from these disasters is continually outpacing the viability of the insurance business. Fifteen of the 20 largest wildfires in California history have occurred since 2000, and the state’s record for annual disaster costs has been broken three times over in the last seven years.  
 
Earlier this year, the Palisades, Eaton, and Hurst fires blazed for weeks on the outskirts of Los Angeles and together became the single costliest fire event in state history. Insurer losses are estimated between $28 to $52 billion—but the actual total economic loss is estimated to be around five to nine times that amount.    

The record-breaking cost of extreme weather in recent decades has also had regulators in Louisiana and Florida searching for solutions to insurance industry pullbacks in their states—while the country at large watches closely for answers as disaster risks everywhere visibly increase. In this episode, Dave Jones reflects on recent regulatory changes to try to lure major underwriters back into the California market and the potential courses of action for regulators and the industry as climate-driven losses trend upward each year.  

Related articles and resources:   

Watch Dave’s discussion with insurance executives at our 2023 summit in Los Angeles  

“Climate change increased the likelihood of wildfire disaster in highly exposed Los Angeles area” (worldweatherattribution.org, Jan. 2025)  

“Powell predicts a time when mortgages will be impossible to get in parts of US” (Yahoo Finance, Feb. 2025)  

“California’s 2018 wildfires caused $150 billion in damages: study” (Phys.org, Dec. 2020)  

Related podcasts:  “10X Insurance Series: California Attempts to Reverse Insurer Exodus” (Ten Across Conversations, Oct. 2023)  

“10X Insurance Series: Louisiana Grapples with Growing Natural and Financial Risk” (Ten Across Conversations, Oct. 2023)

 “10X Insurance Series: Retaining Florida’s Insurability Has National Implications” (Ten Across Conversations, Oct. 2023)  

Credits:   

Host: Duke Reiter  

Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith  

Music by:  

Research and support provided by: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler

Place and personal circumstance can play a decisive role in how one perceives the purpose and effectiveness of government. According to a 2021 study, in 2010 an estimated 37% of the U.S. population lived in an unincorporated area—places without municipal government and the services it might provide.     

Central Alabama’s Lowndes County, for instance, has a population of just under 10,000 people. Sixty-two percent of homes here are in unincorporated areas. A 2023 door-to-door survey led by the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice found 90% of homes in the county dealing with poor or failing sanitation infrastructure.  

Catherine Coleman Flowers grew up in Lowndes County. In Holy Ground: On Activism, Environmental Justice, and Finding Hope, she writes about her experience growing up in rural America without the amenities and public services many take for granted in a developed country. Catherine combines personal memoir with historical analysis to trace her ancestral community ties and her own journey from public school teacher and daughter of two civil rights activists to her role today as a highly respected leader of the environmental justice movement and recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant.  

Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter and Catherine Coleman Flowers discuss the pursuit of equitable sanitation infrastructure in the U.S., perspectives on democracy, and what causes the extremely divergent qualities of life found in the Ten Across geography.  

Related articles and resources:   

Holy Ground: On Activism, Environmental Justice, and Finding Hope (Catherine Coleman Flowers, 2025)  

Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret (Catherine Coleman Flowers, 2020)  

“Researchers fear grants for studies on health disparities may be cut in anti-DEI push” (NPR, March 2025)  

“’Canary in a Coal Mine’: Data Scientists Restore a Climate Justice Tool Taken Down by Trump” (Inside Climate News, Feb. 2025)  

“A landmark investigation brings environmental justice to rural Alabama” (Grist, May 2023)  

“Filthy Water: A Basic Sanitation Problem Persists in Rural America” (Yale Environment 360, Dec. 2020)  

“Hookworm, a disease of extreme poverty, is thriving in the US south. Why?” (The Guardian, July 2017)  

“Invisible and unequal: Unincorporated community status as a structural determinant of health” (Social Science & Medicine, Vol. 285, Sept. 2021)  

Credits

Host: Duke Reiter  

Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith  

Music by: Gavin Luke  

Research and support provided by: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler

Some curse words are used in this discussion.  

In the previous episode, Mitch Landrieu discussed his upbringing, including the impact his father had on race relations in New Orleans and how this informed Mitch’s leadership during some of city’s toughest hours. In the second half of this conversation, we get his unvarnished perspective on changes in the federal approach to the budget, humanitarian aid, and personnel-- matters closely related to his experience in Louisiana state and local government.  

Disasters on the scale of Hurricane Katrina were once relatively rare. Today, they are occurring with greater frequency and intensity. According to Climate Central, the 1980s averaged 82 days between billion-dollar disasters; for the five years between 2019 and 2023, that average gap shrank to just 16 days. The average annual cost of these events has more than tripled— from $28 billion in 1984 to $101 billion today.  

The Palisades, Hurst and Eaton fires in Los Angeles began the 2025 list of devastating national disasters, resulting in over 37,000 acres burned and an estimated $30 to $50 billion in damages. Having worked with the federal government through several recovery processes in his own state, Mayor Landrieu has some concerns with how the delivery of disaster aid was managed for California.  

Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter and Mitch Landrieu discuss the stakes and responsibilities of governing in the face of national disaster and global conflict.  

We’ve taken a new approach with this episode, take a listen and let us know what you think by leaving a review on your preferred podcast platform.   

Related articles and resources:  

Governing Through Times of Crisis and Opportunity with Mayor Mitch Landrieu - Part One

“Americans’ Deepening Mistrust of Institutions” (Pew Charitable Trust, Oct. 2024)  

“Americans agree more than they might think—not knowing this jeopardizes the nation’s shared values” (The Conversation, Nov. 2024)  

“Johnson opens door to linking voter ID to California disaster aid after Trump demand” (The Hill, Jan. 2025)  

“Trump threatens to withhold aid for California wildfires in first TV interview since inauguration” (The Washington Post, Jan. 2025)  

“US stock market loses $4 trillion in value as Trump plows ahead on tariffs” (Reuters, March 2025)

As a native New Orleanian, Mitch Landrieu knows a thing or two about crisis and recovery. He served as the lieutenant governor of Louisiana through Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 and the compounding effects of subsequent storms including Ike and Gustav. In 2010, he was sworn in as mayor of New Orleans—just one month after the Deepwater Horizon explosion undermined the region's efforts to recover from five years of depopulation and economic decline.  

Mayor Landrieu’s experience working for the efficient restoration of New Orleans’s critical infrastructure later led the Biden Administration to appoint him as an advisor on the national implementation of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Otherwise known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), this bill has been the largest long-term investment in U.S. infrastructure since the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. It has prioritized and funded an array of essential, future-oriented projects throughout the country.  

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina demonstrated how the increasing scale of environmental disasters will expose vulnerabilities in the nation's aging infrastructure. Local leaders are thus seeking strategies that balance the needs of growth and economic development with the proactive management of current and future risks.  

The work that Mayor Landrieu, city staff, and community partners undertook to steer New Orleans’s recovery process away from bankruptcy and toward revived communities and a more secure built environment has provided a case study for policymakers and resilience groups around the world.  

In part one of this two-part episode, Mayor Landrieu talks with Ten Across founder Duke Reiter about the personal and professional experiences that have influenced his views on equity and resilience and shaped some of the bold positions he's taken in governing. Part two will delve further into his views and outlook on contemporary governance.  

We’ve taken a new approach with this episode, take a listen and let us know what you think by leaving a review on your preferred podcast platform.   

Related articles and resources:  

“Want to Understand the Future of U.S. Climate Resilience? Look to the Gulf Coast” (Ten Across Conversations podcast, Dec. 2024)  

“Sunk Costs, Sunken City: The Story of New Orleans with Richard Campanella” (Ten Across Conversations podcast, June 2023)  

“DOGE says it’s now saved $65B in federal funds, but that’s still impossible to verify” (ABC News, Feb. 26, 2025)  

“Veteran crisis hotline may be impacted by federal layoffs” (ABC 15, Feb. 24, 2025)

“Angry Over Confederate Flag, Mayor Plans March” (New York Times, March 2000)  

“What is in the just-passed House Republican budget bill? What to know” (USA Today, Feb. 26, 2025)

Phoenix experienced a 113-day streak of temperatures at or over 100 degrees, and an annual average high temperature of 90 degrees in 2024. The city’s extreme heat is the worst in the nation and has equally resulted in staggering increases of climate-related health emergencies and deaths. 

Greater resilience to such rising temperatures requires clear, verifiable information that can guide communities in effective decision-making. Researchers at Arizona State University are working to fill this gap, using the Phoenix metro as a laboratory in which to measure, study and document the complex variables that determine thermal risk or safety for humans.  

Using novel technologies—like ANDI, the only thermal manikin in the world customized for testing outdoor environments—these scientists are building a detailed understanding of how heat affects the human body under a variety of real-world conditions. The results inform local governments' urgent heat risk mitigation work, identifying and prioritizing high-impact opportunities for public cooling center facilities and augmented built or natural shade.  

Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter the award-winning climatologist Jennifer Vanos and human thermoregulation expert Konrad Rykaczewski about progress and direction in this groundbreaking heat research at ASU, and how its results may help other heat-vulnerable cities in the I-10 corridor and beyond.  

Related articles and resources  

National Centers for Environmental Information Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters 2024 tally  

Phoenix Shade Action Plan  

“Phoenix closed popular hiking trails for 45 days in 2024. That could rise in 2025.” (Arizona Republic, Jan. 2025)  

“Meet ANDI, the world’s first outdoor sweating, breathing and walking manikin” (ASU News, May 2023)  

“What Some of the Hottest Cities on The 10 Are Doing to Address Deadly Heat” (Ten Across Conversations podcast, Aug. 2024)

 “Local Experts Answer: Why Are People Still Moving to Phoenix?” (Ten Across Conversations podcast, Feb. 2024)  

“Why do Bedouins wear black in the desert?” (The Guardian, Aug. 2012)

New Orleans is an extraordinary place that has experienced more than its fair share of adversity. Living below sea level where the mouth of the Mississippi River meets the Gulf Coast, residents have become adept at mitigating a variety of water-related challenges, from the inundation of tropical storms and subsidence to the scarcity issues of saltwater intrusion.  

There’s a lot we can learn from the people and leaders of New Orleans. The city's pride in its wealth of culture was on display to the nation recently in the pageantry of Super Bowl LIX. But the spirit of New Orleans may be most evident in the way the city has pioneered a model of urban resilience that addresses future social, economic, and environmental risks.  

Future-oriented action, with all its challenges, is the core focus of Ten Across and the focus of today’s episode with Greater New Orleans Foundation CEO Andy Kopplin.  

To commemorate their 100-year anniversary, the Foundation recently hosted a “Next 100 Years Challenge,” offering a $1.2 million investment in 10 different resilience project proposals across Southern Louisiana. The community has already seen significant returns on this initial investment, offering a compelling example for local and regional support of stronger communities in a changing climate.    

Related articles and resources:   

“New Orleans Was Called Resilient After Attack. It Didn’t Need the Reminder” (The New York Times, January 2025)  

“Ideas: Stop Telling New Orleans To Shut Up and Be Resilient” (Time Magazine, January 2025)

“Past and Future Resilience Along the Mississippi with Boyce Upholt” (Ten Across Conversations podcast, January 2025)    

“Want to Understand the Future of U.S. Climate Resilience? Look to the Gulf Coast” (Ten Across Conversations podcast, December 2024)  

“Sunk Costs, Sunken City: The Story of New Orleans with Richard Campanella” (Ten Across Conversations podcast, June 2023)  

“Responding to Inevitable Disasters with Juliette Kayyem” (Ten Across Conversations podcast, November 2022)

Compelling communication about risks and necessary actions is of special interest throughout the Ten Across geography. As we continue to follow the course of recent wildfires in the Los Angeles area, we took a closer look at journalism on the ground-- reporters doing their best to convey urgent information at multiple and sometimes personal scales.  

On the heels the hottest 12 months in recorded history, parts of the Los Angeles metro burned during most of January. Ten months of abnormally dry conditions in the city were preceded by two very wet winters. Scientists refer to this increasingly common phenomenon as hydroclimate volatility or whiplash. It has been shown to be aggravated by climate change, and in Southern California, it creates the essential ingredients for large-scale wildfire.  

As inaugural director of the Annenberg Center for Climate Journalism and Communication at the University of Southern California, Allison Agsten’s job is to study how the news media and other communication professionals are informing audiences of climate change risks and impacts. In 2023, we invited her to share this important work and to lead our Climate Communications workshop at our Ten Across Summit in Los Angeles.  

Allison is, unfortunately, also a recent survivor of the Palisades Fire conflagration.   As her neighborhood burned and the media converged around her home last month, she conducted some research in real time by asking them whether their reports would cover the ways climate change influenced the disaster. In this episode, we’ll hear what they had to say and what Allison believes this means for the future of climate journalism in the U.S.  

Related articles and resources:

 “What I Learned from LA Reporters Covering the Fires” (Allison Agsten, USC Annenberg Center for Climate Journalism and Communication blog)

 “The media needs to show how the climate crisis is fueling the LA wildfires” (The Guardian Opinion, January 16, 2025)

“US Speaker suggests withholding disaster aid over California immigration policies” (9 News, January 23, 2025)  

“How partisan news outlets frame vested interests in climate change” (Journal of Environmental Management, February 2025)  

“Consuming cross-cutting media causes learning and moderates attitudes: A field experiment with Fox News viewers” (Center for Open Science, 2023)  

“What We Can Learn from the LA Fires with Char Miller” (Ten Across Conversations podcast, January 30, 2025)  

“Urban Expert Bill Fulton’s Perspective of How LA Can Rebuild Following the Fires” (Ten Across Conversations podcast, January 15, 2025)  

“NOAA Meteorologists Reflect on This Year’s Historic Atlantic Hurricane Season” (Ten Across Conversations podcast, November 22, 2024)