• 30 minutes 35 seconds
    E91 RE-AIR: Saving Federal Climate Data with Jonathan Gilmour

    This episode is a re-air of Molly’s conversation with Jonathan Gilmour about the urgent effort to preserve federal climate data—and why that data matters even more as climate risks, public health threats, and climate tech needs keep growing. Since our last conversation, Jonathan and team have launched a nonprofit called The Impact Project, and possibly inspired the folks at climate.us to rebuild what used to be the federal government’s home for climate data and resources.


    In this episode, we cover:

    • Why federal climate data is essential infrastructure for researchers, startups, insurers, policymakers, and communities
    • How government datasets help predict extreme weather, track public health risks, and guide climate resilience planning
    • What happens when long-standing climate data infrastructure is defunded, removed, or made harder to access
    • Jonathan Gilmour’s work with a team racing to preserve vulnerable datasets and keep them available for public use
    • Why protecting climate data is not just an academic concern, but a practical necessity for building climate solutions


    Links:

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

    20 August 2026, 12:00 pm
  • 32 minutes 44 seconds
    E99 RE-AIR: Mapping the Ocean Economy with Tim Janssen

    This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re revisiting a conversation about ocean intelligence — especially relevant in light of the US’s recent attempts to dismantle hundreds of ocean sensors around the world. 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.


    Links:


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

    13 August 2026, 12:00 pm
  • 34 minutes 13 seconds
    E68: RE-AIR: Pro Athletes Advocating for Greener Sports

    To kick off our summer vacation, we’re revisiting a conversation with Chris Dickerson, co-founder of Players for the Planet, discusses his journey from being a professional athlete to becoming an advocate for environmental awareness in sports. He shares insights on the impact of sports on the environment, the importance of community engagement, and the need for systemic change in how sports organizations handle waste and sustainability. The conversation highlights the evolution of Players for the Planet, the challenges faced in promoting climate action, and the innovative solutions being explored to create a more sustainable future in sports.


    Links:


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

    6 August 2026, 12:00 pm
  • 36 minutes 39 seconds
    E145: How Much of the Great Wealth Transfer Could go to Climate?

    Philanthropic director Abby Axelrod-Wunderman of Fiduciary Trust International joins Molly Wood to talk about the overlooked role of philanthropy in funding climate solutions. Even though only a tiny share of global giving currently goes toward climate, Abby explains why that definition is expanding to include health, resilience, infrastructure, food systems, education, and community well-being—and how younger donors and the great wealth transfer could shift priorities. They dig into donor-advised funds, private foundations, unrestricted giving, climate as a lens across issue areas, and why philanthropy can act as catalytic capital by taking early risks that government and business often can’t.


    In this episode, we cover:

    • Why climate philanthropy still receives only a small fraction of total global giving, even as climate impacts touch nearly every other issue area
    • How wealth advisors help donors connect their values to climate-related giving through health, education, food, agriculture, resilience, and infrastructure
    • Abby’s path into climate philanthropy through a family foundation in South Florida, where the conversation has shifted from “is climate change real?” to which solutions can scale
    • Why philanthropy cannot solve the climate crisis alone, but can act as catalytic capital by piloting ideas, funding advocacy, and taking early risks
    • How donor values, timelines, resources, and risk tolerance shape philanthropic strategy
    • Fundable climate strategies Abby sees gaining traction, including clean energy, batteries, methane, food systems, conservation, restoration, resilience, public engagement, and education
    • Why younger generations are often initiating climate giving conversations—and how those interests can pull older generations into the work
    • How donor-advised funds work, why they can be simpler than private foundations, and why some donors value the ability to give anonymously
    • The debate over whether donor-advised funds can become “holding cells” for charitable money—and how education and advising can help move funds out the door
    • The difference between restricted and unrestricted grants, and why flexibility and long-term support are especially important for climate-vulnerable regions
    • How modern philanthropy may be moving toward a hybrid model that combines rigorous due diligence and metrics with trust-based, flexible giving
    • Why the great wealth transfer, AI wealth creation, and a new generation of donors could create a major opportunity to move more money into climate solutions
    • How to tell the broader climate story: climate is not a niche issue, but a lens through which to understand health, education, infrastructure, migration, air quality, heat, and community resilience


    Links:

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

    30 July 2026, 12:00 pm
  • 27 minutes 37 seconds
    E144: Climate Storytelling Through Games, Art, and Joy

    Climate resilience planner and Earthworks host Marina Psaros joins Molly Wood to talk about why the old climate communication playbook—scary charts, technical jargon, and doom-heavy messaging—so often fails, and how creative mediums can help people imagine and build better futures. They dig into Marina’s work with the King Tides project, tabletop games, virtual reality, video games, and artists who are using beauty, play, and storytelling to make climate action feel more tangible, less overwhelming, and maybe even fun.


    In this episode, we cover:

    • Why one-way climate communication, especially heavy science and “bummer” messaging, can shut people down instead of moving them to act
    • How the King Tides project helped people see sea-level rise in their own communities through citizen science and local photography
    • Why climate models can be useful but incomplete—and how community observations can help validate and improve them
    • What tabletop games, classroom projects, and immersive experiences can teach us about making climate resilience more understandable
    • Marina’s work at Unity Technologies, including funding games and projects that used real-world action, climate data, and storytelling
    • How games like Pokémon Go, Ahi Kaa Rangers, Fathomverse, Minecraft climate challenges, and other playful tools can connect digital worlds with real-world conservation and climate action
    • Why “not being cringe” matters when adults try to reach younger audiences through games and popular culture
    • Marina’s podcast Earthworks, which highlights creatives using art, games, music, painting, and storytelling for climate solutions
    • Why joy, beauty, nature, and creativity can sustain climate work when business and government fall short
    • The case for valuing breathable air, weird animals, and a livable world without needing to justify them through a business rationale



    Links:

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

    23 July 2026, 12:00 pm
  • 30 minutes 35 seconds
    E143: Renewable Energy as a Tool for Peace

    Energy Peace Partners co-founder and managing director Sherwin Das joins Molly Wood to explain how renewable energy can do more than cut emissions—it can also support peace, security, and economic opportunity in some of the hardest places in the world to build. They dig into the links between fossil fuel dependence and conflict, why clean power matters differently in parts of Africa where electricity access is still limited, and how a new kind of renewable energy credit is helping unlock investment for solar mini-grids, run-of-river hydro, streetlights, hospitals, and jobs.


    In this episode, we cover:

    • Why fossil fuels and conflict are so often connected—from global wars and supply shocks to local fuel supply chains controlled or taxed by armed groups
    • Energy Peace Partners’ focus on countries with low electrification, high climate vulnerability, and conflict risk, including South Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria, Chad, Uganda, Ethiopia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo
    • How renewable energy can improve safety, extend business hours, power hospitals, and create alternatives to joining armed groups
    • The Peace Renewable Energy Credit, or P-REC: a high-impact renewable energy credit designed to help finance clean power in places traditional REC markets have overlooked
    • Why off-grid and distributed renewable energy systems in Africa needed a new approach to verification, financing, and impact measurement
    • How corporate buyers including Microsoft and Google have helped unlock more than $1.6 million through P-REC purchases so far
    • The new P-REC Aggregation Facility, backed by the African Development Bank and Nordic Development Fund, and its goal of supporting dozens of new projects and first-time electricity access for hundreds of thousands of people
    • How Energy Peace Partners measures peace impact using community-level data, baseline surveys, and the Positive Peace Framework
    • Why renewable energy success should be measured not just in megawatts and carbon avoided, but also in safety, income, jobs, health, education, and stability


    Links:

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

    16 July 2026, 3:49 pm
  • 32 minutes 55 seconds
    E142: The Hidden Climate Power of Local Politics

    Climate Cabinet founder and executive director Caroline Spears joins Molly Wood to explain why some of the most important climate decisions in America are happening far below the level of Congress—in mayor’s offices, public service commissions, land commissioner races, county commissions, state legislatures, and even obscure budget committees. They dig into how Climate Cabinet uses data science, AI, and on-the-ground intelligence to find and support overlooked state and local climate champions, and why data centers have suddenly become the hottest local energy-policy fight in the country.


    In this episode, we cover:

    • Why state and local offices are often the real bottleneck for clean energy deployment
    • Climate Cabinet’s “Moneyball” approach to climate politics: finding overlooked races and candidates with data science, AI, and local intelligence
    • The climate power of local offices people may not think about, from municipal utility mayors and public service commissions to land commissioners, state legislatures, and budget committees
    • How Climate Cabinet helps climate and clean-energy champions run, win, and govern with better policy support once they are in office
    • The data center explosion: rising electricity demand, possible cost-shifting to families and businesses, opaque deals, and lawmakers signing NDAs with developers (yes, REALLY!)


    The big picture:

    The future of U.S. climate policy may depend less on the headline fights in Washington, D.C., and more on the overlooked people and rooms where energy, transportation, land use, housing, insurance, and infrastructure decisions actually get made.


    Links:

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

    9 July 2026, 12:00 pm
  • 32 minutes 52 seconds
    July 4 re-air: E55 and the power of climate activism

    This week, in honor of the July 4 holiday and a commitment to the importance of free speech, activism, and the power of a citizenry to determine its own future, I want to revisit a conversation from way back in season 2, with Dana R. Fisher. Fisher is the author of “Saving Ourselves: From Climate Shocks to Climate Action,” and in this conversation, we talked about the importance of activism in addressing the climate crisis. She explains that while the state and the market have not been able to solve the crisis, civil society has a crucial role to play. Fisher highlights the role of the radical flank, which engages in attention-getting actions to raise awareness and expand the movement (like throwing orange cornstarch on Stonehenge).


    She emphasizes that these actions are nonviolent and aim to draw more people who are sympathetic to the cause. Fisher also discusses the need for a mass movement that pushes back against fossil fuel interests and works through various channels, including the electoral process and lobbying. And we discuss what it takes to turn attention-getting actions into mass mobilization.


    Links:


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

    2 July 2026, 12:00 pm
  • 35 minutes 10 seconds
    E141: How Utah Might Crack Next-Generation Geothermal

    Utah Clean Energy climate scientist and energy analyst Logan Mitchell joins Molly Wood to explain how a deeply conservative state can still become a proving ground for clean energy—by focusing on affordability, reliability, and coalition-building. They dig into the rapid rise of next‑generation geothermal in Utah (including the DOE’s FORGE project and private-sector follow‑on development), why geothermal could deliver clean firm power faster than new gas turbines or nuclear, and why this is one of the rare climate technologies with real bipartisan momentum.


    In this episode, we cover:

    • Why Utah has become a surprising clean-energy leader (and why “business-friendly” permitting can accelerate deployment)
    • How Utah Clean Energy works in practice: intervening in utility regulatory dockets, stress-testing long-term resource plans, and advocating for an affordable, reliable, clean power mix
    • The grid value proposition: geothermal as clean firm power that complements wind/solar—especially during “quiet, cold” post-storm stretches when both wind and solar can underperform
    • A plain-English breakdown of key grid terms:
    • Baseload: power that runs steadily
    • Dispatchable: power you can ramp up/down when needed
    • Why geothermal may become more dispatchable (turn pumps off midday, produce more during high-price evening hours)
    • Why Utah is the current hotspot:
    • Public-private knowledge transfer from DOE’s FORGE research site to nearby commercial projects
    • Streamlined, iterative permitting that reduces uncertainty for first-of-a-kind projects
    • Strong geothermal resources across Utah and the broader West
    • The scale and speed: a first ~100 MW phase expected to come online quickly, with expansion potential that rivals the footprint of major fossil plants—plus transmission constraints as the near-term limiter
    • The politics: geothermal’s appeal across the aisle—jobs, energy security, reliability, and domestic know-how—and why keeping it “above the partisan fray” matters
    • The workforce bridge: geothermal as a near 1:1 skills match with oil & gas subsurface expertise—extracting heat instead of hydrocarbons


    Why this matters (big picture):

    Next‑gen geothermal offers a credible path to fast, scalable, cost-competitive clean firm power—potentially filling the reliability gap that makes high-renewables grids harder to manage, while staying politically durable in places where climate language alone doesn’t land.


    Links:

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

    26 June 2026, 12:00 pm
  • 29 minutes 20 seconds
    E140: Inertia Enterprises (Part 2) — Annie Kritcher and the night ignition happened

    In part two of my two-part field trip to Livermore, California, I sit down with Inertia Enterprises’ third co-founder — Annie Kritcher, the chief scientist at Inertia and a longtime physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.


    Annie was the lead designer behind the December 2022 National Ignition Facility (NIF) shot that achieved ignition — a self-heating fusion “burning plasma” that produced more fusion energy out than was delivered to the target. In this episode, Annie walks us through what it took to get there (spoiler: not one magical breakthrough), what “the ignition cliff” actually means, and why Inertia is betting that manufacturing and economics — not brand-new physics — is the fastest path to commercial fusion.


    We talk about:

    • Annie’s path from nuclear engineering + plasma physics to becoming NIF’s lead designer on ignition platforms
    • Why the historic ignition shot was the result of years of iteration (and a few duds along the way)
    • The “pancake” shot (and the lab’s surprisingly extensive breakfast-food vocabulary for failed plasmas)
    • What it felt like to get the 3:00am text — “I think we got ignition” — and why relief came before celebration
    • Why many in the field had nearly given up on laser fusion ignition — and how close the NIF campaign came to being cut
    • Why other fusion companies pursued different approaches: history, uncertainty, and the (very real) cost problem for lasers + targets
    • The core commercialization challenge: scaling to high-repetition-rate shots (think “engine cycles”) and producing targets cheaply enough to fire millions per day


    Links:


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

    18 June 2026, 12:00 pm
  • 46 minutes 42 seconds
    E139: Make fusion energy, then repeat. Inertia Enterprises, Part 1

    Fusion has been “ten years away” for decades — but one corner of the field just crossed a line that changes the conversation. In December 2022, Lawrence Livermore National Lab’s National Ignition Facility achieved ignition: a self-sustaining fusion reaction that produced net energy. And they’ve repeated it.

    So what happens when you take the only fusion approach that’s proven to work, and focus less on new physics… and more on building the industrial supply chain to do it again and again, cheaply and reliably? You get a field trip!

    In part one of a two-part field trip to Livermore, California, Molly visits Inertia Enterprises’ “House of Fusion” to meet two of the company’s co-founders:


    • Jeff Lawson (yes, that Jeff Lawson — founder of Twilio and majority owner of The Onion) on the business case for commercializing ignition, and why Inertia thinks the economics are finally ready.
    • Mike Dunne, former Lawrence Livermore power-plant designer and Stanford professor, on what it takes to turn a lab breakthrough into a power plant — from a gigawatt-scale “engine” that can follow renewables on the grid, to building a million precision fuel targets a day.


    We talk about:

    • What “ignition” actually means — and why it’s different from “fusion someday”
    • Why Inertia is starting with the only physics regime that’s been proven to produce net fusion energy
    • The two big bottlenecks: high-power diode lasers and mass-manufactured fusion targets
    • How scaling semiconductor manufacturing could drive laser costs down (and why “1,000x” matters)
    • What a fusion target is: a tiny fuel capsule inside a miniature “oven” (and why lead beats gold for economics)
    • Why a fusion plant looks more like a high-RPM engine than a one-off experiment — and how that changes everything
    • Potential early markets beyond electricity: high-temperature process heat for steel, cement, and fertilizer
    • What it looks like to build a fusion company in Silicon Valley: Apple/Waymo-style process engineers, high-end metrology, and a Nerf gun used as a stand-in for high-speed target tracking
    • Thunderdome. Yes, really.


    Links:

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

    11 June 2026, 5:15 pm
  • More Episodes? Get the App