Ten Across Conversations

Among the diverse professional perspectives featured over the years, few have resonated as consistently with Ten Across participants as those from the field of insurance and reinsurance. Insurance is often underappreciated as a knowledge industry in everyday life—yet serves a powerful translational role, converting detailed observations about the physical world into applied economic signals that s...

As water scarcity intensifies across the Colorado River Basin, public attention has increasingly focused on data centers, AI, and the growing demand for resources in the Sun Belt. But are these technologies really driving the region's water challenges—or is the story more complicated? In this episode of Ten Across Conversations, host Duke Reiter speaks with water policy expert Sarah Porter about t...

As the Colorado River approaches a pivotal moment facing historically low flows and record-breaking shortages, decisions made in 2026 will help determine the future of water, energy, and economic security across the American West. Today, Ten Across Conversations shares an episode from Arizona State University's Labcoat Optional  podcast, featuring Ten Across friend and water law expert Rhett Larso...

As artificial intelligence has grown globally, so has the construction of immense, resource-intensive data centers. The arrival of these projects-- both the facilities and the powerful tech companies behind them-- in communities throughout the U.S. has created some controversy. Ten Across cities like Tucson, El Paso and San Antonio have made headlines recently for community resistance to developme...

As conflict in the Persian Gulf threatens global oil supplies and artificial intelligence drives unprecedented demand for electricity, Texas is in a race to unlock the full potential of its diverse and deregulated grid. The path it chooses may arguably shape the U.S. economy and global energy markets.   In this third episode of our series on Texas water, energy, and growth, host Duke Reiter is joi...

Texas has emerged as a frontrunner in President Trump’s push for U.S. dominance in artificial intelligence and is poised to become the nation’s top data center market. With data centers rapidly scaling across Texas, the state is emerging as a bellwether for the nation—highlighting how rapid, resource intensive AI-driven growth can outpace infrastructure planning and strain limited resources.   In...

Everything’s bigger in Texas, including a water crisis. According to the Texas Water Development Board, population and industrial demand could outpace existing supply by 7 million acre-feet by 2070—an amount equal to the current annual water demand of the entire state of Arizona.   Last November, Texas voters approved the largest investment in water infrastructure in the state’s history: $20 billi...

Ten Across Conversations returns next week with a limited series, a three-part narrative look at key intersections of water and energy in Texas.   What does a severe statewide drought, ambitious industry buildout, and rapid population boom tell us about the future in this part of the country and beyond?   Join us over the next three episodes as we take you from the halls of the Texas legislature,...

This 2025 Ten Across podcast year in review takes a deep dive into the critical issues shaping the future of the Interstate 10 corridor.   We’ve curated a series of interview clips and reflections that will examine contemporary U.S. climate, economic, and governance-related concerns as presented along this transect. From rising risks in insurance markets to the shifting responsibilities for disast...

Economic and social science research suggests climate risks are beginning to inform where people choose to live, raise families, and invest, foreshadowing the decline of a near 75-year trend of domestic migration to the Southern U.S. This is the focus of urban planner and trusted climate adaptation scholar Jesse M. Keenan’s new book, North: The Future of Post-Climate America.   As the costs of env...

Despite more than two years of intense negotiations, the Veterans Day deadline to agree on the allotment of reduced water supplies under the Colorado River Compact passed without a consensus. If the seven states divided into the upper and lower basins of the river cannot put forward a joint proposal by February 14, the federal government will institute its own plan—which will likely result in appe...

In October, stakeholders representing an unusual combination of sectors — public, private, academic, non-profit and journalism — gathered with insurance industry experts at the 10X Convergence in Jacksonville, Florida , to explore solutions to unsustainable insurance and disaster recovery costs throughout the Interstate 10 region. Insurers continue to cancel homeowners policies across California,...

As a prelude to the Ten Across Convergence in Jacksonville coming up on October 22nd—where insurability planning will be a focal topic—we’re sharing a conversation Charlie Sidoti and Stephen Brandt, founders of the nonprofit InnSure. Concerned about the risk protection gap growing with climate change in the U.S., these two have applied their combined decades of insurance industry expertise to form...

The Ten Across Resilience Network convened in Jacksonville, Florida , in April to share strategies from their communities—the hottest in the nation—for mitigating the mortality and economic loss caused by extreme heat, and to identify common obstacles to both long-term planning and immediate response. Representatives from the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) joined the exercise to discuss a...

The human interventions intended to make Louisiana's coastline habitable and productive over the past century have contributed to the region's most existential threats. Without redress, displaced river sediment, compromised wetlands, and land subsidence will increasingly expose the state to extreme storm surge and sea level rise.   In 2007, following the devastating impacts of Hurricanes Katrina a...

Negotiators representing seven states, 30 tribes, and Mexico are running out of time to agree on new rules to guide sharing of Colorado River water before a federally mandated deadline next fall. Failure to do so would forfeit water allocation authority to the Bureau of Reclamation , and costly state and tribal litigation would be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court.   Potable water supply for mu...

Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast from Florida to Louisiana in 2005 and is still the costliest disaster in U.S. history . New Orleans, a city resting below sea level, is uniquely dependent on engineering for its safety. On August 29th, nearly every defense seemed to fail, allowing storm surge to flood 80% of the city.   As terrible as the storm itself, arguably, were the human failures t...

Twenty years ago this week, Hurricane Katrina—still the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history—made landfall in New Orleans. Many mark the storm as the transition point to a new age of extreme weather impacts. The Federal Emergency Management Agency more than tripled the size of its Disaster Relief Fund going forward as a result of Katrina and two other major hurricanes in 2005.   Yet two deca...

Recent Ten Across Conversations episodes have considered how current changes in staffing, research, and responsibilities within federal agencies like FEMA and NOAA may affect disaster readiness and response at the local level. Many cities find themselves pressed to rethink how their own limited resources might secure the information and support necessary to address the growing risks they face.   C...

Local broadcast meteorologists have become more vocal about the evidence of climate change in their communities’ weather in recent years. While some have encountered dramatic pushback , others have found audiences that are eager to understand the causes of recent record-breaking disturbances in familiar weather patterns.   In Phoenix, meteorologist Amber Sullins— formerly a climate skeptic, hersel...

The global climate has undoubtedly changed. Earlier this year, Copernicus, one of the most trusted weather models in the world, calculated that global average temperatures have increased by 1.4°C (2.5°F) since the start of the Industrial Revolution. This seemingly slight increase has had an outsized effect on weather patterns, challenging our ability to predict and prevent disasters resulting from...

This episode deals with some mature topics. Listener discretion is advised.   This week, we’re bringing you the second half of our discussion with author E.A. (Elizabeth) Hanks about her new book, The 10: A Memoir of Family and the Open Road . Elizabeth undertook her journey along the iconic Interstate 10 transect to better understand herself and the nation we inhabit—and her experience is a perfe...

Earlier this year, E.A. Hanks—also known as Elizabeth—made her literary debut The 10: A Memoir of Family and the Open Road. Considering its framing, it is no surprise that the book was recommended to Ten Across by many. The 10 documents Elizabeth's re-creation of a fraught childhood road trip taken with her mother in 1996, traveling Interstate 10 from end to end. In retracing her mother’s path, sh...

Previous episodes in our AI series have focused on the evolving features of artificial intelligence itself: its potential to democratize education and to improve city planning and weather forecasting . In this final installment, we examine its costs: the accelerating resource demands of AI and other data-intensive technologies.   Maya Chari, this year’s Ten Across + APM Research Lab data journalis...

Over the course of a calendar year ending in May 2025, the United States absorbed nearly $1 trillion in damages due to extreme weather . This amount, representing 3% of U.S. gross domestic product, was driven by rising insurance costs and a series of disasters primarily concentrated in the Ten Across geography, such as Hurricanes Helene and Milton and the fires in Los Angeles.   More than ever bef...