Have you ever wondered what might happen if you crossed an agricultural community with the highest form of human technology?

We went to the Valley to find out! In this season of Electric Futures, we describe how the demand for AI is altering the fabric of not only California’s Imperial Valley but of communities across the country.

In this first episode, we catch you up on what’s happening in the Valley and discover the most amazing coincidence that sharpens our interest and brings this season closer to home…

This is Season 3 of Electric Futures: The Data Center Next Door.

You can follow us on Instagram at⁠ ⁠⁠@usc_electricfutures⁠⁠⁠: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/usc_electricfutures

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Electric Futures is an original podcast from the University of Southern California, hosted by me, Charles Zukoski, the Vivian Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and the former USC Provost. This series was executive produced by Allison Agsten, the director of USC’s Annenberg Center for Climate Journalism and Communication.

USC Annenberg professor Mallory Carra is our supervising producer. Natalie Lopez and Spencer Cline are our associate producers. Imperial Valley College student Tahjah Fortune is our production assistant. This episode was directed by Spencer Cline and story edited by Mallory Carra. It was edited and sound designed by Spencer Cline.

Technical supervision was provided by Sebastian Grubaugh, Tom Norris, and S-R Meredith. Video interviews were directed by Makayla Idelburg. With special thanks to USC professors Leslie Berestein Rojas and Edward Lifson.

Our cover art is by Kim Ly. All music and sound effects are used with express permission under unlimited blanket license authority from Epidemic Sound. 

Season three of Electric Futures, the USC energy transition podcast, takes listeners back to California’s Imperial Valley, a region explored throughout season one in connection with the county’s potential for lithium extraction. A lot has changed since then. 

Plans for lithium extraction are stalled due to lawsuits and a new set of developers has come to town: hyperscalers. Host Charles Zukoski, the Robert E. Vivian Professor in Energy Resources and Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and Biomedical Engineering, has been tracking the news since last summer, when word began to circulate that one of the largest data centers in the country might tap into the region’s rich geothermal resources.

Demand for data centers—the physical embodiment of AI —is growing so rapidly that their global electricity consumption will more than double by 2030. But pushback from communities is also growing. Concerned residents worry about rising electricity bills, environmental degradation, and AI itself. Does the benefit of data center development in places like Imperial Valley outweigh the costs?

This special three-episode season takes an intimate look at the impact of the 2025 Los Angeles Wildfires on the USC community. We’ll get to know five USC professors who were displaced as a result of the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires over the course of nine months. 

In this first episode, we go back to the first few nights, when the fires raged all across Pacific Palisades and Altadena. 

You can follow us on Instagram at ⁠⁠@usc_electricfutures⁠⁠: https://www.instagram.com/usc_electricfutures

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Electric Futures is an original podcast from the University of Southern California. This special season is hosted and executive-produced by Allison Agsten, director of USC Annenberg’s Center for Climate Journalism and Communication.

USC Annenberg professor Mallory Carra is our supervising producer. Rhysea Agrawal and Spencer Cline are our associate producers. This episode was written and directed by Rhysea Agrawal and story edited by Mallory Carra. It was edited and sound designed by Spencer Cline. Additional interviews were conducted by Grace Galante and Yana Savitsky.

Victor Figueroa, Sebastian Grubaugh, Tom Norris, and S.R. Meredith provided technical supervision. 

Our cover art is by Rhysea Agrawal with photography by Malcolm Caminero. All music and sound effects used with express permission under an unlimited blanket license authority from Epidemic Sound.

Climate-amplified extreme weather events are rising in frequency and intensity all over the world; yet the emotional impacts of these events, the loss and grief they bring, and the long-lasting impacts they cause for affected people are still understudied and underreported.

In the second episode of this special season, our five USC professors share their emotional journey months after their losses in the 2025 LA wildfires.

You can follow us on Instagram at ⁠⁠@usc_electricfutures⁠⁠: https://www.instagram.com/usc_electricfutures

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Electric Futures is an original podcast from the University of Southern California. This special season is hosted and executive-produced by Allison Agsten, director of USC Annenberg’s Center for Climate Journalism and Communication.

USC Annenberg professor Mallory Carra is our supervising producer. Rhysea Agrawal and Spencer Cline are our associate producers. This episode was written and directed by Rhysea Agrawal and story edited by Mallory Carra. It was edited and sound designed by Spencer Cline. Additional interviews were conducted by Grace Galante and Yana Savitsky.

Victor Figueroa, Sebastian Grubaugh, Tom Norris, and S.R. Meredith provided technical supervision. 

Our cover art is by Rhysea Agrawal with photography by Malcolm Caminero. All music and sound effects used with express permission under an unlimited blanket license authority from Epidemic Sound. 

It has been a year since the fires, and some of the impacts are only now starting to come into play. Despite efforts from the government and community groups to provide speedy disaster recovery, the road towards recovery appears to be long.

In our final episode, our USC professors catch us up with their lives a year after the disaster. They share with us what recovery has looked like for them and how they are finding ways to approach the rebuilding process as an opportunity.

You can follow us on Instagram at ⁠⁠@usc_electricfutures⁠⁠: https://www.instagram.com/usc_electricfutures

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Electric Futures is an original podcast from the University of Southern California. This special season is hosted and executive-produced by Allison Agsten, director of USC Annenberg’s Center for Climate Journalism and Communication.

USC Annenberg professor Mallory Carra is our supervising producer. Rhysea Agrawal and Spencer Cline are our associate producers. This episode was written and directed by Rhysea Agrawal and story edited by Mallory Carra. It was edited and sound designed by Spencer Cline. Additional interviews were conducted by Grace Galante and Yana Savitsky.

Victor Figueroa, Sebastian Grubaugh, Tom Norris, and S.R. Meredith provided technical supervision. 

Our cover art is by Rhysea Agrawal with photography by Malcolm Caminero. All music and sound effects used with express permission under an unlimited blanket license authority from Epidemic Sound. 

We’ll take you to the Shadow Mountain housing development in Menifee, California. It’s an experimental community outside of Los Angeles where 200 all-electric homes produce and store their own energy, and contribute to a community microgrid. Is this the future of new homes in California and beyond? Could this community demonstrate a better solution to fire protection?  With climate change driving more frequent incidence of extreme fire conditions, can these technologies enable safer communities?

What’s life like, electrified? We hit the road to find out.

You can follow us on Instagram at ⁠⁠@usc_electricfutures⁠⁠: https://www.instagram.com/usc_electricfutures

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Electric Futures is an original podcast from the University of Southern California, hosted by me, Charles Zukoski, the Vivian Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and the former USC Provost. This series was executive produced by Allison Agsten, the director of USC’s Annenberg Center for Climate Journalism and Communication.

USC Annenberg professors Mallory Carra and Megan Donis are our lead producers. Natalie Lopez and Spencer Cline are our associate producers. Rebecca Torres is our production assistant. This episode was directed by Mallory Carra and Spencer Cline. It was edited and sound designed by Spencer Cline.

Our cover art is by Kim Ly. All music and sound effects used with express permission under unlimited blanket license authority from Epidemic Sound. 

We take you through the science of microgrids with UCLA’s Rajit Gadh, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and founding director of Smart Grid Energy Research Center. How does it work exactly? And is it really the technology we’ve been waiting for all along? 

We’ll find out.

You can follow us on Instagram at ⁠⁠@usc_electricfutures⁠⁠: https://www.instagram.com/usc_electricfutures

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Electric Futures is an original podcast from the University of Southern California, hosted by me, Charles Zukoski, the Vivian Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and the former USC Provost. This series was executive produced by Allison Agsten, the director of USC’s Annenberg Center for Climate Journalism and Communication.

USC Annenberg professors Mallory Carra and Megan Donis are our lead producers. Natalie Lopez and Spencer Cline are our associate producers. Rebecca Torres is our production assistant. This episode was edited and sound designed by Spencer Cline.

Our cover art is by Kim Ly. All music and sound effects used with express permission under unlimited blanket license authority from Epidemic Sound. 

It’s January 20th, 2025. Donald Trump’s second term as president. He signs a slew of executive orders, including one called “Unleashing American Energy.”

This order rolled back about a dozen climate change initiatives enacted by Joe Biden’s administration in 2021. Clean energy funding and programs set by 2022’s Inflation Reduction Act…were now halted.

Also hanging in the balance is the Department of Energy’s projects. That includes the one we visited in Menifee during a previous episode, and two other programs we’ll explore in this episode.

How do they work? Why is their role in the energy transition so important? And what’s at stake for these other communities during the second Trump Administration?

You can follow us on Instagram at ⁠⁠@usc_electricfutures⁠⁠: https://www.instagram.com/usc_electricfutures

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Electric Futures is an original podcast from the University of Southern California, hosted by me, Charles Zukoski, the Vivian Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and the former USC Provost. This series was executive produced by Allison Agsten, the director of USC’s Annenberg Center for Climate Journalism and Communication.

USC Annenberg professors Mallory Carra and Megan Donis are our lead producers. Natalie Lopez and Spencer Cline are our associate producers. Rebecca Torres is our production assistant. This episode was edited and sound designed by Spencer Cline.

Our cover art is by Kim Ly. All music and sound effects used with express permission under unlimited blanket license authority from Epidemic Sound.

We talk to two expert journalists about what’s next for the U.S. Department of Energy programs and green energy during the second Trump administration. 

In the first half of the episode, you’ll hear the rest of my conversation with Ivan Penn from the New York Times. Then in the second, I’ll be joined by USC Journalism Professor of Professional Practice Christina Bellantoni to contextualize the politics and policies that could impact the electric future. 

Lastly, we’ll get an update from Kristi and Jerry in Shadow Mountain.

You can follow us on Instagram at ⁠⁠@usc_electricfutures⁠⁠: 

Electric Futures is an original podcast from the University of Southern California, hosted by me, Charles Zukoski, the Vivian Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and the former USC Provost. This series was executive produced by Allison Agsten, the director of USC’s Annenberg Center for Climate Journalism and Communication.

USC Annenberg professors Mallory Carra and Megan Donis are our lead producers. Natalie Lopez and Spencer Cline are our associate producers. Rebecca Torres is our production assistant. This episode was edited and sound designed by Spencer Cline.

Our cover art is by Kim Ly. All music and sound effects used with express permission under unlimited blanket license authority from Epidemic Sound.

Brief description: 

Before fires scorched Los Angeles in January of 2025, the Electric Futures team began exploring a new neighborhood in Southern California that was built with climate disasters in mind. This community and other building projects like it generate and store their own energy, bypassing the electric grid – and blackouts. What happens now that federal support for these initiatives is starting to dry up? Can America still electrify? Our host, Chip Zukowski, finds out in Your Community, Electrified, season two of Electric Futures. 

Long description:

The USC Annenberg Center for Climate Journalism and Communication is pleased to announce the launch of season two of Electric Futures, a podcast that focuses on the people and communities on the frontlines of the energy transition. In Your Community, Electrified, the four-episode arc dropping on June 25, 2025, host Chip Zukoski explores a new neighborhood in Southern California that was built with climate disasters in mind. This community and other building projects like it generate and store their own energy, bypassing the electric grid – and blackouts. What happens now that federal support for these initiatives has dried up? Can America still electrify? To find out, we speak to experts like: 

- Ivan Penn, New York Times energy correspondent

- Dr. Rajit Gadh, UCLA Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science and the founding director of the UCLA Smart Grid Energy Research Center

- Christina Bellantoni, USC Annenberg School for Journalism Professor of Professional Practice, political pundit and former longtime political journalist and editor

- Ram Narayanamurthy, Deputy Director of the Building Technologies Office at the U.S. Department of Energy

Additional highlights include:

• Insights from Indiana and Washington, where we learn about other projects that bypass the grid.

• The science behind the electric grid, how microgrids work, and the state of grids in the U.S. 

Season one of the acclaimed podcast, launched in 2024, explored narratives from the Imperial Valley in Southern California, an area rich with community – and critical minerals – on the brink of an energy transformation so big, it has potential to completely change the lives of residents. Accolades for season one include:

• 2025 LA Press Club SoCal Journalism Awards finalist, Limited Series Podcast

• 2024 Quill Podcast Awards nominee, Best Science and Medicine Podcast

• Charted on the Top 50 Science Podcasts chart on Spotify and Apple Podcasts

• Featured in the LA Times, La Opinion, and NPR's KCRW

Listeners can find both seasons of Electric Futures on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. Follow along on Instagram at @usc_electricfutures. For further information, email [email protected].

The Electric Futures team recently collaborated with the independent media outlet "Feet in Two Worlds" to highlight stories around the nexus of immigration and climate change. Here's an episode from our friends at the "Home Interrupted" podcast.