Climate Papa

Jessyn Farrell, Director of Seattle’s Office of Sustainability and Environment, sits down in her living room to chat with Ben about all of Seattle’s decarbonization plans. But first, two of Jessyn’s kids express their lukewarm feelings about podcasting and begrudgingly kick off the show. They cover Jessyn’s love of cities, transit, and orca whales. This opens up into a broad conversation covering...

Ben catches up with long-time friend Noaa. They quickly establish that Ben would not be a very effective sports podcaster. They dive into Noaa’s transition from building cloud data platforms to building energy marketplaces and explore the challenge and importance of measuring impact in climate companies. Halfway through, Noaa flips the script and pushes Ben on what he’s doing with his career. They...

Ben realizes Father’s Day is coming and that he didn’t want any of the stereotypical Father’s Day gifts. The team at Rewiring America agrees. It turns out a lot of dads would actually prefer we focus on improving our climate outcomes, address wildfire smoke, electrify our homes, and much, much more. 20 dads and kids send in their Father’s Day wishes. We stitch them together into this special editi...

Ben dives in with Julia, a psychotherapist, and Asa’s mom (Asa was the 7-year-old star of Episode #4). After a false start leads to a parenting reflection, they dive into the psychology of thinking and working on climate change. As wide ranging as the conversation was with Asa on the external world, Julia and Ben explore the internal. They hit on fundamental tensions–how do we engage without being...

Ben dives deep with 7-year-old, Asa, on all things climate. In a wide ranging conversation they cover the basics of climate change, the work of Rewiring America, Indigenous practices, regenerative farming, and how to MacGyver hydropower and wind power. The deepest insights come in exploring what we leave for future generations and the role kids can play in impacting policy and those around them. T...

Ben urgently calls on Bill Clerico, founder of Convective Capital, to help make sense of the wildfires and smoke pillaging the East Coast. Meanwhile, Bill is out visiting Boston with his one year old and navigating the AQI. After tackling flying with babies, they explore the relationship between wildfires, climate change, and the tools needed to improve our collective resilience. They also talk ab...

Ben chats with Dan Lindquist, a fellow papa and product leader, about what motivates them to work on climate, how to pick your lane among the many interesting avenues in the space, the role of software as a friction reducer, and the uniquely collaborative and open dynamic in the budding climate tech community. They explore use of generative AI, large language models, and probabilistic and non-prob...

Welcome to Climate Papa! Ben and Arthur verbally process the impetus for this podcast and what motivates their work on climate (hint: it’s their kids and it isn’t), and set an intention for the creative act of this project. They also talk about Barbies, getting screamed at by our kids above 93 decibels, throwing pottery, and meditating to Rick Rubin.  Reading  The Creative Act by Rick Rubin The Wi...