Flanigan's Eco-Logic

Tim Christophersen has just released a book titled "Generation Restoration" that provides a roadmap, and conditional optimism, for fixing our relationship crisis with Mother Nature. Its forward by Jane Goodall provides guiding perspectives such as how our global society has shifted from taking resources as we "need" them to "greed" and over use. Goodall also posits that while humans may be the mos...

Etelle Higonnet is the Founder and Director of Coffee Watch. She was born and raised in France, earned her undergraduate degree and law degree from Yale, worked around the world on human rights issues, before pivoting her focus to environmental issues with Greenpeace, the Rainforest Action Network, and others. She is currently based on Copenhagen, Denmark.  In this episode Etelle makes it painfull...

Stuart Jenkins is the founder and chief executive officer of Blumaka, a company that manufactures insoles and shoes for high performance athletes. As a marathon competitor, Stuart was frustrated not to be able to access high performance running shoes, so he designed and now manufacturers and sells his own line. Blumaka also sells its insole technology to Fleks shoes, one of Oprah's top product pic...

Bryan Hannegan is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Holy Cross Energy (HCE), an electric cooperative in the mountains of Colorado. He appeared on the podcast in 2021 talking about how to create the utility of the future. Now he reports on results and the remarkable accomplishment  that HCE operated with 100% renewable power in the month of March 2026. The conversation begins by digging...

Claire Smith, based in Geneva, Switzerland, is the CEO of Beyond Investing and Chief Innovative Officer for Beyond Impact. These two ventures work in concert, one providing impact investing, the other advancing startups for plant-based and cruelty-free businesses.  Claire describes her journey... how she melded two major aspects of her life: her vegan path with her 30-year career in conventional f...

Gareth Evans is the founder and CEO of Veckta, an energy consulting firm that advises businesses on how to take control of their energy costs. Far from taking passive positions, and given rising energy costs, he encourages businesses to explore their options using tools such as onsite energy production, energy efficiency, and energy storage. Veckta develops custom solutions and then employs its pl...

Allen Hershkowitz PhD is an environmental scientist who joined Ted for an update conversation. Allen has worked at the confluence of climate and sports for 25 years. He first recorded on Flanigan's Eco-Logic in March of 2022 highlighting his early influences and early career... including 28 years at the Natural Resources Defense Council. There he met the actor Robert Redford who encouraged him to...

Jon Edlin, his wife, and two small children survived an EF-3 tornado that swept through their suburb of Nashville, Tennessee on a dark night in March 2020. Jon had grown up in Kansas, was used to hearing tornado reports, thought little of them, but quickly ushered his family into their "safe space" when meteorologists' alerts of a tornado on the ground in his neighborhood came through his cell lin...

Laura Deehan has been the State Director for Environment California since 2021 and part of the public interest network since 2021. Ted asks her right up front: What is the state of California's environment? Laura starts with her love of California, the beauty of the state, its wonderful coastline, mountains, deserts, and great valleys. Having grown up in Scotland, she marvels at the weather and ou...

This episode is about repurposing retired offshore oil rigs into reefs, maintaining highly enriched ecosystems for fisheries and marine life. Instead of removing offshore oil rigs when their oil is exhausted, this episode focuses on how they are being repurposed for multiple benefits. Blue Latitude co-founders, Amber Sparks and Emily Hazelwood, join Ted in describing their 10+ year endeavor doing...

Rei Vardi is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Eon, a car rental company that is "building a mobility platform."  Rei explains the genesis of his business and what can now be seen as an exciting, disruptive business model: He was a college student in Boston. When his father planned to turn in the family Tesla, Rei was determined to keep it and pledged to make the payments. To do so, he re...

Sam Teicher is the Co-Founder and Chief Reef Official for Coral Vita, a company he and a graduate school colleague formed in 2015 given their great concerns with coral reef decline. Sam makes clear that fully half of all coral reefs have been killed, and 90% are expected to perish by 2050 without concerted global interventions. Sam and his colleague, Gator Halpern, decided to take action and to bu...

Hugh Broadhurst is the Chief Operating Officer for Aclara Resources, a company focused on sustainable mining of rare earth minerals, followed by the separation of ionic clays laced with rare earth minerals, and selling these to a host of users, notably electric vehicle makers and others in need of high intensity magnets. Applications for the 17 rare earth elements include electric vehicles, wind t...

Matt Harper is the President of Invinity Energy Systems, the maker of vanadium-flow batteries. Matt was on the podcast in 2022 and now provides an update. A strong alternative to lithium-ion batteries, the benefits of flow batteries produced by Invinity are numerous: "Unlimited cycling" (30-year lifetimes with 20,000+ cycles); they can discharge 8 - 10 hours every day; they have zero fire risk; an...

Chéri Smith heads up the Alliance for Tribal Clean Energy. She'd been on the podcast in 2022 explaining the Alliance's operation then. She and Ted discuss the change in presidential administrations and its affect on tribes. While the Alliance is 100% supported by philanthropies, purposefully exempt from the volatility of changing administrations, the tribes that the Alliance supports were heavily...

Ben Lochtenberg came to solar for good reason: He sees solar as an elegant energy solution, one that will keep on giving for years. His mission as the Founder and Managing Director of Xero Solar is to tap solar as a "perpetual" energy source and to promote a transition to a more resilient world. Xero is working to create a brighter future for all, through residential solar services as well as prog...

According to David Kilzer, the fusion of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics is the biggest leap for mankind since fire! David has seen dramatic evolution in automation in his 50-year career... influenced by the rise of personal computers, the internet, smart phones, and now AI. He believes that AI-power humanoid robots are a huge game changer, and one that will increase the quality of life...

Ebenezar Wikina lives in Rivers State, Nigeria. His father's love of books and magazines coupled with his early career in journalism are the roots of his thirst for learning and his dedication to reform government policies. His passion is taking national, long-term goals and bringing them to success in local governments... the six Nigerian states and their subregions. This, he believes, is where c...

Ben Airth is the Policy Director for Freedom Forever, the largest residential solar company in the country. Freedom Forever installs solar systems in 30 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. For Freedom Forever's management, Ben tracks state regulations, state legislation, and federal policies to guide program development and sales. The conversation begins with a discussion of the...

Dr. Bonnie Nixon is the Sustainability Director for the Long Beach Container Terminal (LBCT), one of the world's busiest and greenest ports. The terminal handles 3.5 million, 20-foot containers annually. Its 4,200 foot long wharf can unload three of the largest container ships in the world at once. Air quality is an issue that drives Bonnie. She grew up in an industrial community in Northern New J...

After growing up in England and Egypt, and a 25-year stint in Australia, Nigel Mason moved to Bali, Indonesia. There he met his wife, they ran a restaurant and a rafting company, and became highly concerned about the plight and extinction of Sumatran Elephants. Visiting Sumatra, seeing the gross attack on its forests, the dire consequences of deforestation for palm oil that displaced elephants, or...

Richard Savoie is the CoFounder and CEO of Adiona Tech, a high-tech logistics company that helps suppliers of both B2B and B2C -- business and consumer services -- optimize the efficiency of their delivery fleets. Richard's passion for and contribution to sustainability is pronounced. Since 2021, his firm has enabled delivery fleet operators to save millions of miles of travel, hundreds of thousan...

Millennial Potash has a big mission... to feed the world's growing population.  Global population growth is expected to rise from 7+ billion currently to some 12 billion by 2050. Millennial Potash is in the fertilizer business. Potash is a form of potassium - potassium chloride. It is considered the king of fertilizers. It strengthens crop roots, enhances water retention, replenishes the soil, and...

Sammy Roth is a diligent investigator and journalist who has established himself as one of California's leading climate columnists. He explains that he has used the power of the media for his entire career, since elementary school. From an early age he recognized the big voice that one could have as a journalist reaching the masses. He began to focus on the environment and sustainability when he w...

Bill McKibben is an author and activist who Ted met in 1990 after the release of Bill's New York Times best seller, The End of Nature. In that book, he raised awareness about the reality and perils of global warming, now known as climate change. Since then, Bill has written 20 books and has earned over 20 honorary doctorates from colleagues and universities. He also is a recipient of the Right Liv...