Everybody in the Pool

This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re going full sci-fi. And when we say full sci-fi, we mean back to science that was conceived in the 17th century and is only now being perfected by a startup that’s trying to bring back lighter-than-air ships (blimps and aerostats) in the hopes of eventually moving cargo around in a zero-emissions and possibly even carbon-negative way. Diana Little of Anuma...

This week on Everybody in the Pool, it’s funny how we keep talking about climate solutions and haven’t gotten to the big ball of free energy in the sky yet. Maybe it’s because everybody thinks solar is “solved,” or it’s old tech, or it’s boring. But actually, solar adoption is lagging, and that’s a problem, because as we electrify everything, we need lots more renewable energy to meet the demand,...

This week on Everybody in the Pool, more hard problems! Today we’re talking to a startup focused on buildings and the carbon emissions that get literally built into them. That comes from construction materials like walls and flooring and yes, concrete, and even windows and the steel used to support them. Increasingly, developers and builders are on the hook for measuring and reducing what’s known...

This week on Everybody in the Pool, sometimes you just need to know that people are out there working on solving hard problems—like cement, which has roughly the same global CO2 emissions as … well, cars. It’s a big problem, it’s basically been made for the same way for 150 years, and it’s the single most-consumed human-made material on earth. So a few years ago, Cody Finke, a chemist, was looking...

This week on Everybody in the Pool, a two-fer of artist-activists who are both advocating for a world without fossil fuel-derived plastics and also working to portray that world in film and TV. Dianna Cohen is the founder and CEO of the Plastic Pollution Coalition, and Nada Djordjevich is an independent filmmaker, and both are trying to change the story—or at least make it represent real life. RES...

This week on Everybody in the Pool, we respectfully thank you very, very much for carrying a reusable water bottle and refilling it instead of buying plastic water bottles. And also, sadly, we’re going to have to do a lot more than that to get rid of disposable beverage containers. This week’s entrepreneur, Manuela Zoninsein, is building a whole bottling plant the size of a vending machine that pl...

This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re diving into a topic that has many people afraid of the deep end: should you go vegan to reduce your greenhouse gas emissions? Like many things you maybe don’t want to do, the answer is unequivocally yes, at least from a climate standpoint. But I hear you, it’s tough. So this week, we’re asking our new favorite vegan, Jessica Resler, to address some of the...

This week on Everybody in the Pool, I got to spend a little extra time with the rest of the team at Mill, to find out how they ended up working in climate tech, how they found their way to that company, and the origin stories that put them on this path. In this week’s episode, a sort of extended version of the Job Board takes us from the Obama White House to the search for just the right kind of c...

This week on Everybody in the Pool, sometimes tackling the climate crisis means starting at home, with the things you love. Meagan Downey had a long career in nonprofit work and was looking for a way to have climate impact. She landed on one of her favorite things: giving and wrapping beautiful gifts. She’s now the founder of Shiki Wrap, reusable gift wrap that, if we all got in the pool, could ke...

This week on Everybody in the Pool, a climate entrepreneur and tech veteran solving big climate problems in unexpected ways. Matt Rogers is the co-founder of Mill , a kitchen appliance that turns food waste into dried, odorless grounds that consumers drop in the mail and that get upcycled into chicken feed. And Matt just happens to have also co-founded a little company called Nest, which has been...

This week on Everybody in the Pool, prepare for a bit of a tone shift. We’re talking with climate futurist Alex Steffen, author of The Snap Forward podcast and newsletter , who’s been covering climate and climate solutions as a journalist for decades, and now tries to prepare people and businesses as a futurist. The over-arching lesson from this episode? The future we tried to avoid for 30 years i...

This week on Everybody in the Pool, one of the most common things people say to me is: “recycling isn’t real, right?” It’s complicated, but it could definitely be better. And services and startups are stepping in to fill the void—like Ridwell , which is a super cheerful pickup service that takes plastic, batteries, light bulbs, old clothes, styrofoam, and “surprise” categories once a month to trus...

This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’ve got a double whammy of solutions. We know that to transition our economy away from fossil fuels as quickly as possible, we need to deploy as much renewable energy as fast as we can (and yes, interconnect it, I know). Also, renewable energy deployment is a huge investment opportunity that’s mostly unavailable to you and me, even though these are projects th...

This week on Everybody in the Pool, it’s playtime. Obviously, global warming and the climate crisis are intimidating topics. But this week’s guest has built an entire career out of play. Jenny Gottstein is a game-maker, previously of Go Games and IDEO, and a few years ago, she created a game called Beat! That! Heat! , a climate action game show. Molly and Jenny talk about how play can create an ac...

This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re going big. Like, air travel big. Green hydrogen (that is, hydrogen produced using only renewable energy) is a super promising solution for powering rockets and airplanes, but one thing holding it back is a lack of infrastructure. As in, there aren’t hydrogen “gas stations” in every airport yet. This week’s guest is Paul Eremenko, the co-founder and CEO of...

This week on Everybody in the Pool, the best possible climate solution for the lazy among you: just never get rid of your stuff. Molly talks with Kyle Wiens of iFixit , the how-to and repair manual site that teaches you how to fix and restore everything from laptops to phones to wigs to purses and shoes. Kyle is also the de facto leader of the Right to Repair movement , which is pushing to undo ac...

This week on Everybody in the Pool, the climate crisis is already costing you money. Whether it’s higher prices at the grocery store, skyrocketing home insurance, replacing furnishings and infrastructure after an extreme weather event, or the declining value of your stock portfolio and its fossil fuel investments, personal finance and global warming are on a collision course. That’s how this week’...

This week on Everybody in the Pool, enough coddling the next generation. They’re filthy trash-generating beasts, and while you might think they’re going off to college to learn and become productive citizens, they’re really just generating waste at a colossal scale, and on-campus dining is at the core of a ton of it. Actually, lots of tons of it. But you know me, I’m not here for problems. I’m her...

This week on Everybody in the Pool … my absolute favorite thing: a super boring-sounding topic! In this case, your 401k. Turns out our retirement plans are how we are unknowingly funneling at least a trillion dollars into fossil fuel companies, and there’s a growing social movement for employees to demand greener options in their benefits portal. This week, I’m talking with a serial entrepreneur w...

This week on Everybody in the Pool … we’re shopping! Consumer goods and the food we eat account for about a third of global carbon emissions, and everything we buy has what I like to call a True Cost. There’s what the thing actually costs, but there’s also the cost that went into producing it, shipping it, packaging it, and disposing of it. This week’s show has a little explainer about how all tha...

Don’t kid yourself: we’re in the climate economy now. Extreme weather, drought, fire, floods—all of it means adapting to a changing climate, and that adaptation process will touch just about every business. This week, we’re looking at two businesses in particular: real estate, and interior design. I asked a real estate agent and a kitchen and bath designer what shoppers are asking for, how climate...

Welcome to the first episode of Everybody in the Pool! This week’s climate solution has to do with where and how you invest, and how new companies like Fennel Markets are coming along trying to give you even more power to use your dollar and the voice that goes with it. Plus: the first edition of The Job Board! This is our segment that features people who want to pivot into a new career in climate...

Introducing Everybody in the Pool, a podcast about climate solutions, hosted by longtime journalist and climate tech investor Molly Wood. New episodes every week, starting May 17, 2023! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.