Resources Radio

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Destenie Nock, an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Nock shares insights from a recent paper she coauthored that shows how, on hot days, Black and low-income households wait relatively longer than other households to turn on their air-conditioning units, which puts them at a greater risk of heat-related illnesses. She examines t...

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with two fellows at Resources for the Future: Brian C. Prest and Kevin Rennert. Prest and Rennert, alongside a large team of collaborators, recently released a paper in the journal “Nature” that provides a new estimate of the social cost of carbon—the quantification, in dollars, of the economic damages associated with emitting an incremental ton of c...

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Jennifer Eaglin, an associate professor of history and faculty member in the Sustainability Institute at the Ohio State University. Eaglin discusses the evolution of sugar-based ethanol as a fuel source for transportation and the lessons that governments can draw from that evolution for their own development of alternative energy sources. Eaglin...

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Manuela Andreoni, a writer at the climate desk of the New York Times. Andreoni discusses illegal mining operations in the Brazilian Amazon, why so-called wildcat mining has proliferated in recent years, and how these mining activities affect the environment and Indigenous people. Andreoni and Raimi talk about the measures that governments in Bra...

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Ryan Kellogg, a professor at the Harris School of Public Policy and affiliated faculty at the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. Kellogg discusses why carbon pricing, long the preferred emissions-reduction tool for most economists, actually may not be as efficient as other policy options. Kellogg and Raimi explore how economic...

In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Zia Abdullah, a program manager at the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Abdullah and Hayes discuss what sustainable aviation fuels are made of, how they are refined and manufactured, and how they compare to traditional jet fuel. Abdullah also discusses the challenges in store for the United States in reaching the...

In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Helena Khazdozian, a senior technology manager at the US Department of Energy and program manager for the agency’s Critical Materials Institute. Khazdozian and Hayes discuss why the materials that the institute prioritizes are important to future decarbonization efforts. They also talk about supply chains, research efforts, and breakthroughs ha...

In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Jason Samenow, weather editor for the Washington Post and one of the leaders of the Post’s Capital Weather Gang. They discuss the intersection of climate change and weather, with a particular focus on how meteorologists communicate with the public about climate change in a scientifically rigorous way and how that communication has evolved along...

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Deborah Gordon, a senior principal in the Climate Intelligence Program at RMI and a senior fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University. They discuss Gordon’s new book, No Standard Oil, which elucidates the wide variety of different kinds of crude oils and natural gases and why the differences among tho...

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Beia Spiller, who recently joined Resources for the Future (RFF) as a fellow and the director of RFF’s Transportation Program; she’s also a member of the board of directors at the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. Spiller and Raimi discuss the historical context and current policies related to air pollution exposure in New Yo...

For this week’s episode, we’re mixing things up a bit by introducing not just an individual guest or two, but an entirely new podcast series for our listeners to consider. Just a few weeks ago, one of Resources for the Future’s closest partner organizations in Europe, the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change, launched its own podcast series called “Foresight: Deep into the Future Planet.” W...

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Michael Craig, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan who studies energy systems. Craig and Raimi discuss a recent study coauthored by Craig that explores how energy models can better incorporate variations in weather and climate and why an exchange of data between energy and climate modelers is crucial to helping keep the lights o...

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Dick Schmalensee, a professor emeritus of the MIT Sloan School of Management and a former chair of the board of directors at Resources for the Future. Schmalensee and Raimi cover the takeaways from a recent study on the future of energy storage that Schmalensee coauthored, along with related insights and implications for current and future polic...

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Elke Weber, a social psychology professor at Princeton University who studies how people make choices. Weber and Raimi discuss how people’s choices matter for climate change; the ways that companies, governments, and society shape decisions on energy use and civic engagement; how those decisions get incorporated into policy analysis; and more. R...

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Regan Patterson, an incoming assistant professor at UCLA who recently completed a fellowship as a Transportation Equity Research Fellow at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. Patterson describes how the US transportation system has led to environmental injustice and inequitable access to mobility services. She and Raimi talk about how thi...

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Bobby Tudor, the chair of the Houston Energy Transition Initiative and the founder and former CEO of the Houston-based investment and merchant bank Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. In his new role with the Houston Energy Transition Initiative, Tudor focuses on how Houston can take the lead in the energy transition away from fossil fuels. He and Raim...

This week’s episode is the final installment of a three-part series that celebrates the 70th anniversary of Resources for the Future (RFF). In this episode, host Daniel Raimi looks toward the future of RFF, as seen through the eyes of the organization’s talented and dedicated research analysts and associates. RFF’s research analysts gather and analyze data, review published studies, help write pap...

This week’s episode is the second in a three-part series that celebrates the 70th anniversary of Resources for the Future (RFF). First and foremost, RFF is a research organization—which means that it’s typically the researchers who are the focus of the work and attention at RFF. But on one fateful day, “Resources Radio” podcast hosts Kristin Hayes and Daniel Raimi did something pretty different fr...

This week’s episode is the first in a three-part series that celebrates the 70th anniversary of Resources for the Future (RFF). Over that time span, RFF has had a significant impact on the fields of environmental economics and policy. In this episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Ray Kopp, RFF’s recently retired vice president for research and policy engagement, and Kerry Smith, an RFF university...

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Helima Croft, a managing director and the Head of Global Commodity Strategy and Middle East and North Africa Research at RBC Capital Markets. Croft talks about how the oil market has responded to historical events in the past and how current events have been influencing the oil market today. Croft and Raimi’s conversation ranges from Russia to E...

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Ty Priest, associate professor of history and geography at the University of Iowa. Priest explains the origin, history, and potential future of the Defense Production Act in the context of US energy development. Priest and Raimi discuss how the act has evolved and expanded under different presidential administrations since it was enacted in 1950...

In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Matt Shields, a senior offshore wind analyst at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Among other research projects, the lab conducts offshore wind techno-economic analysis, which involves developing cost models, analyzing market and technology trends, and projecting the future costs of offshore wind. Shields is the lead author of a new stu...

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Erika Wise, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Wise discusses some of her research, which combines tree ring data with historical climate data drawn from artifacts such as ship logs and diaries, to provide insights about the North American climate of the mid-1800s. Wise enumerates the strengths and weaknesses of diff...

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Stefano De Clara, head of secretariat at the International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP), an international forum for governments and public authorities that have implemented (or are planning to implement) emissions trading systems (ETSs). De Clara discusses this year’s status report from ICAP, which provides the latest updates on global ETSs;...

In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Kailin Kroetz, an assistant professor at Arizona State University and university fellow at Resources for the Future. Kroetz discusses some of her research, which takes an empirical look at the scale of seafood mislabeling in the United States. Seafood is the most globally traded food commodity, with supply chains that can be particularly hard t...