The Keep Cool Podcast

Discover how Atmos, a climate tech company that looks like a bank, is revolutionizing fintech infrastructure to make climate-positive lending solutions available to consumers (and banks!) across the world.  Ravi Mikkelson, CEO of Atmos, joins the ‘Keep Cool Show’ to discuss his mission of making the transition to clean energy affordable and accessible for everyone. Learn about Atmos’ innovati...

Carbon capture technology is a divisive technology in decarbonization debates. Oft touted by some companies, and with technology that’s existed since the 90s, a pernicious question persists – why hasn’t it scaled significantly?   In this episode of the Keep Cool Show, Nick chats with Adam Goff, Head of Strategy at 8 Rivers, to discuss the challenges and opportunities in scaling carbon capture, as...

Curious about the emerging field of soil carbon and its role as a climate solution?  Join Chris Tolles, CEO and co-founder of Yard Stick PBC, as he discusses the challenges and opportunities inherent to soil carbon, the soil carbon management space, and the market for nature-based solutions as a whole. Discover how Yard Stick uses innovative technology to measure soil carbon and helps farmers, ran...

What exactly is the future of carbon removal? What is the role of government, and why is the need for industry collaboration key to driving its success? And how can an all-hands-on-deck approach help to achieve ambitious climate goals by 2030? Giana Amador, Executive Director of the Carbon Removal Alliance, joins Nick to discuss all of the above as well as the importance of policy, infrastructure,...

Discover how Mast Reforestation (formerly Drone Seed) is revolutionizing reforestation efforts to combat climate change.  In this episode, Matthew Aghai, VP of R&D Mast Reforestation, explores the company's mission to scale reforestation and reestablish the reforestation supply chain, all while expanding the variables used to evaluate successful ecosystem stewardship. You’ll learn about their...

Discover the future of ecosystem regeneration and biodiversity work as Nick sits down with Colin Averill, CEO and Founder of Funga, to discuss their groundbreaking approach to reforestation.  By harnessing and unlocking fungal biodiversity insights, Colin's team introduces diverse fungal and bacterial communities to the reforestation process, helping to revitalize degraded soil microbiomes by esta...

In this week’s pod, Nick chats with Sam Wevers, the Head of Software Product for Lunar Energy, as they dive into the heart of Lunar Energy's mission to revolutionize global home energy. Sam unveils how Lunar's state-of-the-art home electrification system seamlessly melds solar technology with home batteries, transcending analytics to offer customers deep insight into their home's energy rhythms an...

It may sound like something straight out of science fiction, but hyperspectral satellites have been around for decades, measuring the spectral profile of things like methane gas and other things that are otherwise out of view from the human eye. In this week’s podcast, Nick chats with Dan Katz, CEO and co-founder of Orbital Sidekick, about how the company is turning hyperspectral satellites into a...

Meet the man trying to make electric vehicle charging stations more accessible, affordable, and reliable than ever before.  Quincy Lee is a former mechanical engineer at SpaceX turned fast-charging renegade. He understands the importance of the EV revolution to make a positive environmental impact, and the key challenges facing the EV industry today.  His mission? To accelerate the decarbonization...

On this week’s pod, Nick sits down with Agilitas Energy’s CEO and President, Barrett Bilotta to chat about the state of grid-connected battery energy storage in the U.S.  What are the challenges facing energy storage development, and how do energy storage developers and operators manage to balance the needs and concerns of countless stakeholders, ranging from regulators to utilities?  Barrett also...

On this week’s pod, Nick’s sitting down with Ample co-founder and president John de la Souza to chat about the future of modular battery-swapping technology for EVs.   By swapping rather than charging an electric vehicle’s battery, Ample can deliver a 100% charge in 5 minutes or less — and with considerable other benefits for the grid.  Is this a push that will help accelerate EV adoption and addr...

Meet the company trying to make use of wasted food: Divert.  Determined to create a zero-waste future, Divert’s CEO Ryan Begin sits down to chat with Nick about how the company utilizes advanced technology to turn wasted food that would turn into methane in a landfill into renewable energy instead. How do they have the confidence that their solution is truly a climate-positive solution for waste?...

What does a model-and influencer-turned-activist have to do with nuclear energy, and why should we care? As it turns out, quite a lot, and she has plenty of data, insight, and wisdom to impart when it comes to advocating for nuclear energy as a climate solution.  Isabelle Boemeke, founder of the Isodope brand, drops in to chat with Nick about the common misconceptions surrounding nuclear energy an...

Has anyone ever told you to be more mindful of your waste?    Meet the man who believes that waste isn’t just waste— and why he feels that humans have a lot to learn from mother nature.    Michael Place, CTO of Chapul Farms, stops by the studio to talk about how regenerative insect agriculture is redefining how we think of waste disposal. After witnessing a hoard of black soldier fly larvae making...

How does a theoretical physicist studying black holes and the nature of spacetime find his way to the field of artificial intelligence and battery manufacturing?   In this week’s episode, Nick sits down with Chemix cofounder Jason Koeller, an AI researcher working to revolutionize the battery industry. After realizing that energy storage was in desperate need of better technical solutions, Jason s...

Carbon removal wasn’t even in our vocabulary a few years ago. But now, thanks to companies like Climeworks, direct air capture technology is being brought to the forefront of climate change technology.   CMO of Climeworks, Julie Gosalvez, sits down to chat with Nick about how direct air capture works by capturing CO2 particles from the air, why it’s critical to use the technology as we race to con...

The energy transition is in full swing, find out how Tyler Lancaster is helping lead the way as an investment partner in innovative climate tech startups. Tyler is a partner at Energize Ventures, a leading investor in capital-light climate tech solutions , partnering with best-in-class innovators to accelerate the energy transition. Nick and Tyler discuss how even in the last five years climate te...

How do you measure the impact of net zero targets and climate change on large corporations? Step forward Shanu Mathew. Shanu is Senior Vice President, Portfolio Manager/Analyst - US Sustainable Equity at Lazard Asset Management. Nick and Shanu get into how to catch the inflection points in innovation and rapid growth in markets, how these impact climate tech investments, and  what role ESG and oth...

Tim is Managing Partner at Mercy Corps Ventures: The unique investment fund ploughing hundreds of thousands of dollars into innovative startups. Helping the most vulnerable communities become more resilient to climate and financial change, Tim works throughout South East Asia and LatAm and West Africa. Nick and Tim get into why he has a particular passion for agriculture, how to use Web3 to create...

Earth’s resources are running low, so how do you choose the smart software and digital investments that maximize productivity and deployment of climate technologies? Micah Kotch is an investor at Blackhorn Ventures, the early-stage venture capital firm investing in digital solutions that accelerate the energy transition and tackle other problems, too. . Nick and Micah talk grid resiliency and alte...

It’s easier than ever to launch a climate tech startup. But getting noticed can be harder. Meet the investor who’s allocating capital and helping businesses tell their story. Jay Kapoor is General Partner at VSC Ventures, the award-winning comms firm that also invests at Seed and Series A stage and tells the stories of climate tech startups and their exceptional founders. Nick and Jay discuss topi...

Measuring and tracking emissions is a great start, but how do companies make long term plans for effective change?  They require more sophisticated modeling technology as well as policy expertise. Ela leads Actual’s efforts in the areas of policy, industry affairs, and research at Actual, supplementing the company’s state-of-the-art modeling software and ESG strategies across industries with deep...

How do you gather drone data at scale? You leverage crowddroning. Markku Koivisto explains how. Markku is Chief Business Development Officer at Globhe, the Crowddroning platform coordinating sophisticated drone operators globally to collect high-resolution earth observation data for businesses, organizations and researchers. Nick and Markku discuss why crowddroning is a win-win-win situation for o...

How is Ali Javidan staging an electric revolution in the trucking industry? It’s not easy. Hear how the Range Energy founder’s tip toeing into an electric future. Ali is Founder and CEO of Range Energy, the company producing powered trailers for the heavy-duty truck market. Nick and Ali unpack why trailer electrification has been left behind in terms of green innovation, how to convince a skeptica...

Dana Gibber is the former lawyer, turned tech entrepreneur, turned climate tech founder. Discover how Flowcarbon is changing the carbon credit marketplace. Flowcarbon is the tech company bringing carbon offset credits on chain, leveraging blockchain technology to accelerate the innovation and scale of climate change solutions. Nick and Dana get into conversation discussing how to incentivize commu...