The Most Important Question

It’s always worth revisiting the inarguable fact that our country was designed to be inequitable.

And while much progress has been made over time, the powers that be continued to imagine and design new ways of marginalizing, at best, Black, Brown, Asian, and Indigenous people throughout our society and economy.

But who will tell their story? And who should?

Local news has all but disappeared. Meanwhile, the communities most marginalized and least covered by mainstream publishers continue to struggle.

It’s important we help them tell their stories, not only so we are – very simply – more aware and educated about lived experiences different from our own, but so we can understand the specific mechanics behind the systems oppressing them, where their organizing has been successful, and where it hasn’t, and why.

And finally, how best to help.

We need new models of local and regional and even national news, where the news and stories are more accessible, more a product of relationships inside those communities, and more impactful, to improve daily outcomes, and to prepare us for an even more volatile future.

My guest today is Adam Mahoney.

Adam is a national climate and environment reporter at Capital B, a first-of-its-kind Black-led nonprofit local and national news organization committed to news that centers Black voices and experiences to act as a catalyst for meaningful change and beat back against mistruths targeted at Black people. 

In his reporting, Adam covers issues involving environmental racism, the ways communities are fighting climate change, and how the climate crisis is disproportionately impacting communities of color. 

Prior to joining Capital B, Adam covered policing in Chicago and was a reporter covering environmental justice and investigations at Grist, where he was also an environmental justice fellow.

Since joining Capital B, Adam has conducted numerous investigations tied to environmental justice and telling the underreported ways climate change is impacting Black Americans.

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Climate change is a touchy topic in farm country. But one third of greenhouse gas emissions come from food and agriculture, so it’s crucial that the industry becomes part of the climate change solution. 

For years almost all the action on climate change centered on energy – solar and wind and electric vehicles taking on coal and gas and oil. But now Washington is suddenly buzzing about “climate-smart agriculture,” and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack is in the middle of the action. He just announced $3 billion in grants for “climate-smart commodities.” The Inflation Reduction Act is sending the USDA $20 billion for climate-smart projects. It’s incredible how quickly the food and climate issue has moved to the center of the plate.

This week, Mike and Tamar welcome Secretary Vilsack as their first Climavores guest. They dig in on everything from regulating farmers to regenerative agriculture to subsidies as a bridge to market solutions. And of course Mike pushes the Secretary on his favorite topic –  biofuels. 

Have a question about food and climate change for Mike and Tamar? Leave a message on the Climavores hotline at (508) 377-3449. Or email us at [email protected]. We might feature your question on a future episode. 

Climavores is a production of Post Script Media. 

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Throughout history, kings, queens, governments, churches, and donors have funded contests and awarded prizes for solving the most difficult problems of the day.

Today, as we stand on the precipice of huge problems and opportunity, with everyone looking around going “What can I do?” the utility and relative inclusivity of prizes like these remains compelling.

And there’s one group that’s driving them more than anyone – XPRIZE.

My guest today is Dr. Marcius Extavour.

Marcius is the Chief Scientist & Executive Vice President of Climate and Energy at XPRIZE.

Marcius moved to XPRIZE after over a decade of working at the intersection of science,  policy, education, and technology development. He served as Director of Government and Corporate Partnerships in the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Extavour is active in science and energy policy more broadly, having held positions at the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resource as the OSA/SPIE/AAAS Congressional Science & Technology Policy Fellow, and at the Council of Canadian Academies, a science policy consultant to the Government of Canada.

The beauty of a problem like climate change, COVID, or antibiotics is that it affects everyone on the planet. We’re all invested in the outcome whether we’re actively participating or not.

The beauty of a contest like XPRIZE is the goal is clear and measurable, but the “how we get there” is not. It seeks active participants from likely players and the most unlikely of sources, dreamers of every kind who want to help in a very specific way, and to put a dent in the universe, odds be damned.

Marcius’s passion for bridge-building and problem-solving are evident in our conversation, and his work and team-building incredibly inspire me. We have to imagine a better future, and then take our best shot at it.

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Let's talk robots.

But first: There’s a very particular bottleneck where groundbreaking science is more applicable than ever but inaccessible to many. 

The tools are unaffordable to the schools and groups who could use them to hook kids right when they’re most excited, kids with a huge variety of lived experienced, who have grown up in the climate era, and in the COVID era, who see and want to solve problems they can touch and feel – but because of costs and access, they never get to try.

Or the bottleneck presents as being frustratingly inefficient, to the labs who actually do this stuff every day, the ones who see a peer’s research and try to replicate it, but don’t have the funding or people or bandwidth or all three to spend time filling test tubes.

Building better processes isn’t the sexiest science you can do, but the science doesn’t happen, or nearly enough of it, or fast enough, without the help of someone who’s been affected by these inefficiencies.

Someone who can see the whole journey and identify areas where existing ways of doing things and tools for doing things can be made more reliable, more useful, and more affordable, to more people.

Enter: automated synthetic biology. Or, robots!

Roya Amini-Naieni is my guest today, straight from her robot lab.

This is another in our series of conversations with 776 fellows, a two-year program for young people who want to build a better future.

Roya is not only a 776 fellow but also the co-founder and CEO of TriloBio, where she’s working on revolutionizing synthetic biology by changing the way synthetic biologists do science.

Roya’s had an incredible journey so far, the child of Iranian immigrants, the child of engineers, and the apprentice to so many mentors who have seen her ambition and seem to understand that Roya has identified a way to stand up for better access to the tools of the future, and along the way, maybe even put a dent in the universe.

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How lucky are we?

How lucky are we that we live in a time of such great opportunity – when, yes, we’re teetering on the edge of a global climate calamity, still reeling from a pandemic, knowing that our problems and challenges are not only enormous, but systemic, all-encompassing, and often linked together.

How lucky are we to be able to say – look at all of this opportunity, look at all of the ways I could have an impact, need to have an impact, right now?

How lucky are we that so many people, both scared for their futures and emboldened by a feeling of having both nothing to lose, and everything, all at the same time – that they are choosing not to go trade derivatives or build more ad tech, but instead dream?

People, and especially young people, dreaming and actually designing, building, and testing innovative, groundbreaking solutions.

This episode is another in our series of conversations with 776 Foundation fellows and I’m so excited to share it.

Part of the reason I left California was because of the fire risk, to my home and family, the smoke risk, and the drought. I was lucky to be able to leave, but so many can’t. 

Over and over we have been forced to confront fires that are burning bigger and hotter in drier vegetation, closer to where people live. Fires fought by exhausted, underpaid firefighters.

We need reinforcements, we need better ideas, and they need help.

We need people like Valkyrie Holmes.

Valkyrie is the co-founder of Project Firefly, a new company supported by the 776 Foundation that combines drone technology with pressurized air cannons to better contain wildfires. Yes, you heard that right.

In her brief but wildly impressive time as a professional, she’s worked as an intern at SpaceX and in various roles at MIT, NASA, Google, and more. We get at everything from self-confidence to heat signatures and what the hell vortex cannons do – and how they could help alleviate the enormous strain drought and fire are putting on resources the world over.

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What we can do

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Action Steps

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