Everybody in the Pool

This week on Everybody in the Pool, EV sales are on the rise again thanks to gas prices (and in some parts of the world, they never slowed down). So this week, we’re talking about a crucial part of the electric vehicle transition: the chargers. Because as EV adoption grows, drivers need more than a place to plug in. They need charging that’s reliable, convenient, and maybe even a little fun. Our guest is Shiri Levi-Laor, CEO of Driivz, a software company working behind the scenes to help charging operators manage their networks and energy costs.

This week on Everybody in the Pool, a returning guest is staying the course on climate tech—even as investors and attention pivot toward AI. Mike Schroepfer, the former Facebook CTO and founder of Gigascale Capital, last joined us in episode 77 to talk about the technology trends making a cleaner future possible. Now he’s back with a new $250 million fund and more evidence for his central thesis: the clean option can also be the cheaper, better option. The challenge is getting it built and into customers’ hands.

Schrep explains why factory-built technologies like solar panels and ba...

This week on Everybody in the Pool, we talk about one of the most direct climate actions available to all of us: voting. Nathaniel Stinnett, founder and executive director of the Environmental Voter Project, explains why the climate movement doesn’t just have a persuasion problem—it has a turnout problem. Millions of people already care deeply about climate and the environment, but don’t consistently vote, even as elections shape decisions about clean energy, pollution, and the future of climate policy.

The Environmental Voter Project identifies these infrequent and non-voters using polling, publicly available voter files...

This week on Everybody in the Pool, let’s talk about the grid—the biggest machine in the world, which we are asking to do a whole lot more than it was built to do. Rooftop solar sends power back. Electric vehicles create sudden spikes in demand. Heat pumps, factories, and AI data centers need more electricity. And the poles and wires in the middle? We can’t exactly unplug them and start over.

My guest is Luca Mezossy-Dona, co-founder and chief growth officer of IONATE, which is building hardware and software to give the grid a brai...

This week on Everybody in the Pool, would you drink a beer made from somebody else’s shower water? I did.

They cleaned it! Like, a lot. But the beer is just the attention-grabbing headline for a much bigger climate solution: capturing the water our buildings use, treating it, and using it again instead of sending it down the drain.

My guest is Aaron Tartakovsky, co-founder and CEO of Epic Cleantec, which puts water recycling systems into large buildings. Aaron explains how the technology works, why drinking-quality water doesn’t need to be used...

This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re heading to Governors Island in New York Harbor, where a new anchor institution for climate solutions is taking shape. The New York Climate Exchange is a nonprofit backed by a coalition of universities, community organizations, corporations, and the City of New York, all working to make the city a front door for climate action and innovation.

My guest is Shaina Horowitz, Director of Program Innovation and Acceleration at the New York Climate Exchange. Shaina explains how the Exchange is building both a physical climate campus and a year-round pl...

This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re talking about batteries — one of my favorite topics — but not the expensive, contractor-installed, whole-home kind that requires permits, electrical-panel upgrades, and homeownership. Pila Energy is building a plug-in, modular battery system designed to bring backup power, bill management, and grid flexibility to renters, condo owners, small businesses, and basically anyone with a wall outlet.

Founder and CEO Cole Ashman, who previously worked on Tesla Powerwall and led product at Span, explains how Pila’s battery “nodes” can sit next to the appliances that matter most — a fridge, Wi-Fi router...

This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re talking about solar: already the cheapest and fastest-growing source of energy on the planet, and still very much a frontier for innovation. Swift Solar is working on next-generation solar technology called perovskite-silicon tandems, which stack two different solar materials to capture more of the sun’s energy and push panels past the efficiency limits of conventional silicon.

Founder and CEO Joel Jean explains why even “solved” climate technologies still need to get better, how perovskites could make solar panels more efficient, cheaper, lighter, and easier to deploy, and why Swif...

This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re going way back in time to a company we first interviewed way back in 2024 — it was futuristic then, and still is. Swyft Cities is a startup that spun out of Google and is trying to reinvent urban mobility. And by that I mean they’re developing modular electric tram systems that would take passengers around dense urban areas, hospital or college campuses, or maybe, you know, Google, on a series of cables suspended above buildings and streets. This means reducing the number of cars on the road, sure, but it also m...

This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re revisiting one of the most interesting and impactful tools in the individual and corporate arsenal! The bummer news: your bank deposits could be funding the climate crisis? But we’d never give you bummer news without a solution! This week, Molly Wood speaks with Paul Moinester, founder of Topofinance, who reveals the shocking climate impact of conventional banking. Discover how just $10,000 in a major bank generates emissions equivalent to driving 10,000 miles yearly, and why moving your money to climate-friendly banks might be the easiest climate action you've never considered. Paul expl...

This episode is a re-air of Molly’s conversation with Jonathan Gilmour about the urgent effort to preserve federal climate data—and why that data matters even more as climate risks, public health threats, and climate tech needs keep growing. Since our last conversation, Jonathan and team have launched a nonprofit called The Impact Project, and possibly inspired the folks at climate.us to rebuild what used to be the federal government’s home for climate data and resources.

In this episode, we cover:

This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re revisiting a conversation about ocean intelligence — especially relevant in light of the US’s recent attempts to dismantle hundreds of ocean sensors around the world. Despite covering more than 70% of the Earth, the ocean remains one of the least understood parts of our climate system — and that knowledge gap has huge consequences for weather prediction, global commerce, and climate resilience.

Our guest is Tim Janssen, co-founder and CEO of Sofar Ocean, a company building the world’s largest privately deployed network of ocean sensors. Their inexpensive, solar-powered Spotter bu...

To kick off our summer vacation, we’re revisiting a conversation with Chris Dickerson, co-founder of Players for the Planet, discusses his journey from being a professional athlete to becoming an advocate for environmental awareness in sports. He shares insights on the impact of sports on the environment, the importance of community engagement, and the need for systemic change in how sports organizations handle waste and sustainability. The conversation highlights the evolution of Players for the Planet, the challenges faced in promoting climate action, and the innovative solutions being explored to create a more sustainable future in sports.

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Philanthropic director Abby Axelrod-Wunderman of Fiduciary Trust International joins Molly Wood to talk about the overlooked role of philanthropy in funding climate solutions. Even though only a tiny share of global giving currently goes toward climate, Abby explains why that definition is expanding to include health, resilience, infrastructure, food systems, education, and community well-being—and how younger donors and the great wealth transfer could shift priorities. They dig into donor-advised funds, private foundations, unrestricted giving, climate as a lens across issue areas, and why philanthropy can act as catalytic capital by taking early risks that government and business often ca...

Climate resilience planner and Earthworks host Marina Psaros joins Molly Wood to talk about why the old climate communication playbook—scary charts, technical jargon, and doom-heavy messaging—so often fails, and how creative mediums can help people imagine and build better futures. They dig into Marina’s work with the King Tides project, tabletop games, virtual reality, video games, and artists who are using beauty, play, and storytelling to make climate action feel more tangible, less overwhelming, and maybe even fun.

In this episode, we cover:

Energy Peace Partners co-founder and managing director Sherwin Das joins Molly Wood to explain how renewable energy can do more than cut emissions—it can also support peace, security, and economic opportunity in some of the hardest places in the world to build. They dig into the links between fossil fuel dependence and conflict, why clean power matters differently in parts of Africa where electricity access is still limited, and how a new kind of renewable energy credit is helping unlock investment for solar mini-grids, run-of-river hydro, streetlights, hospitals, and jobs.

In this episode, we...

Climate Cabinet founder and executive director Caroline Spears joins Molly Wood to explain why some of the most important climate decisions in America are happening far below the level of Congress—in mayor’s offices, public service commissions, land commissioner races, county commissions, state legislatures, and even obscure budget committees. They dig into how Climate Cabinet uses data science, AI, and on-the-ground intelligence to find and support overlooked state and local climate champions, and why data centers have suddenly become the hottest local energy-policy fight in the country.

In this episode, we cover:

This week, in honor of the July 4 holiday and a commitment to the importance of free speech, activism, and the power of a citizenry to determine its own future, I want to revisit a conversation from way back in season 2, with Dana R. Fisher. Fisher is the author of “Saving Ourselves: From Climate Shocks to Climate Action,” and in this conversation, we talked about the importance of activism in addressing the climate crisis. She explains that while the state and the market have not been able to solve the crisis, civil society has a crucial role to play. Fisher high...

Utah Clean Energy climate scientist and energy analyst Logan Mitchell joins Molly Wood to explain how a deeply conservative state can still become a proving ground for clean energy—by focusing on affordability, reliability, and coalition-building. They dig into the rapid rise of next‑generation geothermal in Utah (including the DOE’s FORGE project and private-sector follow‑on development), why geothermal could deliver clean firm power faster than new gas turbines or nuclear, and why this is one of the rare climate technologies with real bipartisan momentum.

In this episode, we cover:

In part two of my two-part field trip to Livermore, California, I sit down with Inertia Enterprises’ third co-founder — Annie Kritcher, the chief scientist at Inertia and a longtime physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Annie was the lead designer behind the December 2022 National Ignition Facility (NIF) shot that achieved ignition — a self-heating fusion “burning plasma” that produced more fusion energy out than was delivered to the target. In this episode, Annie walks us through what it took to get there (spoiler: not one magical breakthrough), what “the ignition cliff” actually means, and why Inertia is betting that m...

Fusion has been “ten years away” for decades — but one corner of the field just crossed a line that changes the conversation. In December 2022, Lawrence Livermore National Lab’s National Ignition Facility achieved ignition: a self-sustaining fusion reaction that produced net energy. And they’ve repeated it.

So what happens when you take the only fusion approach that’s proven to work, and focus less on new physics… and more on building the industrial supply chain to do it again and again, cheaply and reliably? You get a field trip!

In part one of a two-part field...

If you’re on a mission to make your home greener, solar panels might seem like an obvious place to start. But for renters, apartment dwellers, and homeowners who can’t afford a traditional rooftop solar installation, solar has long been out of reach — until now.

This week on Everybody in the Pool, Molly talks with Cora Stryker, co-founder of Bright Saver, about a simple climate technology that's already taken Europe by storm: plug-in solar.

Also known as balcony solar, these small solar systems can be installed without contractors, plugged directly into a standard outlet...

We need to triple global energy production by 2050. Renewables are scaling fast, but the real wild card that could change everything might just be fusion. The physics and engineering are closer than ever, but there’s a critical materials problem standing between us and unlimited clean energy.

This week on Everybody in the Pool, Molly speaks with Dr. John Elling, a Los Alamos chemist turned serial entrepreneur who’s working on a solution that he believes will change the world. Both fusion and next-generation fission reactors rely on enriched lithium isotopes, and existing enrichment methods are slow...

You’re doing all the right things to make your home greener: you switched to solar and induction, you remember your reusable bags, and you always compost your scraps. But some of the biggest climate impacts of the building you live or work in? They were locked in the day it was built — in the concrete, the steel, the glass. And that matters, because the built environment accounts for roughly 42% of global emissions.

This week on Everybody in the Pool, Molly sits down with Ben Stapleton, the CEO at the U.S. Green Building Council of Cali...

Home batteries are having a moment, but for years, getting one meant cobbling together a solar panel from one company, an inverter from another, a smart panel from a third, and hoping they'd all play nice. This week on Everybody in the Pool, Molly takes a field trip to Mountain View, California, to visit Lunar Energy, where founder and CEO Kunal Girotra has built the fully integrated solar-plus-battery ecosystem he always wished existed.

Plus: a tour of Lunar's working showroom, where we flip a breaker, watch the app react in real time, and find out what happens...

Washington and the COP conferences get all the headlines, but some of the most creative and effective climate action in the world is emerging from city halls — and Denver's Office of Climate Action is one of the best examples of what's possible.

This week, Molly zooms in on the Mile High City as she talks with Chelsea Warren, Marketing and Communications Manager for Denver’s Office of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resiliency.

Chelsea has spent years building one of the country's most effective city-level climate communications programs, making the case that local government is where clim...

Trillions of dollars worth of goods move around the planet every year, and a shocking amount is lost, spoiled, or discarded. That wasted food, medicine, and equipment isn’t just a business problem; it’s a massive, underappreciated climate problem.

This week on Everybody in the Pool, Molly talks with Krenar Komoni, CEO and founder of Tive, a supply chain visibility company that helps businesses track and monitor shipments in real time. What started as a GPS tracker for his father-in-law's trucking company has grown into one of the fastest-growing companies in supply chain tech. Tive’s small...

Data centers don't exactly have a reputation for being climate heroes… but what if they could be? This week on Everybody in the Pool, Molly sits down with Jasper de Vries, co-founder and CEO of Lucend, to talk about the surprisingly wild world of data center optimization — and why the industry has been leaving billions of dollars and millions of megawatt hours on the table.

In this conversation, Jasper explains how Lucend’s platform uses machine learning and sensor data to make data centers dramatically more efficient. He also lays out a vision for the industry’s future...

Less than 2% of all philanthropic giving goes to climate, and a big reason why is something Greg Rock calls "donor paralysis." People care, but the landscape is so complex that many well-meaning donors don’t take action.

This week on Everybody in the Pool, Molly sits down with Greg Rock, Executive Director of 1.5°Climate, a free national donor collaborative that's borrowing the energy of VC pitch competitions to make climate philanthropy more accessible, more exciting, and more impactful. With 600+ members and $35 million moved to over 100 organizations, 1.5°Climate is proving that you don’t have to be a billio...

There’s no shortage of stats to demonstrate the sheer magnitude of our food waste problem: A whopping 40% of food grown for human consumption goes to waste; $400 billion worth of food gets thrown away every year in the U.S — roughly 1.5% of GDP; Food waste is responsible for 8-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Must we go on?

That’s why, after building the Nest Thermostat, Harry Tannenbaum and Matt Rogers turned their attention to our kitchens. They created Mill, a sleek appliance that quietly turns your food scraps into an odorless, coffee-ground-like material, and in the proces...

The grid is getting smarter, cleaner, and infinitely more complicated all at once. Enter Gridmatic, a company using artificial intelligence to do what old-school grid modeling can’t: predict when the wind will blow, when prices will spike, and exactly when to charge or discharge a battery.

This week on Everybody in the Pool, Molly is joined by David Miller, Chief Commercial Officer at Gridmatic, to nerd out about why managing a grid full of renewables is so much harder than managing one full of coal and gas, and what it actually takes to make renewable en...

Let's be honest: the climate conversation is having a bit of a PR crisis. The word ‘climate’ itself has become politically charged, federal funding is under threat, and media coverage has gone quiet. But the technologies are still working, the solutions are still scaling, and the people building them haven't gone anywhere. So how do you keep telling that story?

This week on Everybody in the Pool, Molly sits down with Josh Garrett, CEO and co-founder of Redwood Climate Communications, a specialty PR and strategic communications firm that works exclusively with climate tech companies and climate-focused nonp...

What if solar panels on your roof, a home battery in your garage, and the EV in your driveway could together make you money — while simultaneously solving the grid capacity crisis?

This week on Everybody in the Pool, Molly sits down with Marco Krapels, SVP and Chief Marketing Officer of Enphase Energy, to discuss what surging data center energy demand means for the future of residential clean energy — and why Enphase thinks the answer is turning millions of American homes into a distributed, AI-optimized virtual power plant.

We talk about:

American businesses waste 25-35% of the energy they use. So why aren’t more business owners doing something about it? For most, the problem is too complex and too expensive — there’s no single fix, there are 30 or 40, and calculating the ROI on all of them is no easy task.

That’s where Budderfly comes in. Budderfly is an energy-as-a-service company with a beautifully simple premise: they take over a business’s energy bill entirely — funding all the upgrades at their own risk, and pocketing a margin on the savings. It’s a win-win-win situation for the company, t...

99% of registered fleets belong to small and mid-size businesses — but the EV industry wasn't built for them. High upfront costs, years-long waits for grid access, and charging solutions designed for large operators have left the backbone of the American economy behind.

This week on Everybody in the Pool, we meet a founder who’s changing that. Galina Russell, co-founder of Mitra EV, built a turnkey solution that bundles electric trucks and vans with charging infrastructure, so plumbers, electricians, and delivery companies can electrify their fleets without the logistical headache.

We talk abou...

Three million homes are damaged by natural disasters in the US every year — and with a billion-dollar storm hitting roughly every ten days, that number is only growing. But the system for repairing affected homes is stuck in the past, with mountains of paperwork, fragmented funding, and rampant fraud leaving vulnerable homeowners stranded.

This week on Everybody in the Pool, Molly sits down with Susan Hunt Stevens, the founder and CEO of Tessi, a platform working to fix what she calls the “broken post-disaster home repair system.” Tessi brings homeowners, vetted contractors, insurers, government programs, and other funder...

The impacts of climate change are hitting the world everywhere, all at once — making climate adaptation more urgent than ever before.

This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re flipping the script on climate adaption; no longer viewing it as a funding gap, but as an investment opportunity that could bring lots of types of finance to the table for returns and impact. Niall Murphy, co-founder and managing partner of Morphosis, sits down with Molly to discuss how the world can scale solutions for an already-changing climate, and why the private sector needs to get involved in t...

This week on Everybody in the Pool, another sexy gadget that doubles as a grid asset! We take a field trip to the Berkeley headquarters of Copper, which is reimagining the humble stove as a powerful tool for decarbonization. Their flagship product, Charlie, is a 30-inch induction range with a built-in battery that allows for plug-and-play installation, precise cooking, and the potential to support grid stability.

We talk about:

Heat pumps are having a moment. Last year, the U.S. passed China to become the world's number one market for heat pumps—and they're not slowing down. But while heat pumps are efficient and effective on paper, they haven't always been objects of desire. Until now.

This week, Molly talks to Paul Lambert, CEO and co-founder of Quilt, about building a heat pump company that's equal parts climate solution and consumer product. Paul explains how his team is reimagining the mini-split heat pump—not just as an HVAC system, but as a piece of technology you...

Buildings account for a third of America's greenhouse gas emissions, yet until recently, we've been flatlined on progress. That's changing—fast. This week, Molly talks to Panama Bartholomy, founder of the Building Decarbonization Coalition, about how an unlikely alliance of utilities, manufacturers, installers, and nonprofits is transforming the way we heat, cool, and power our homes.

Panama explains how finding 80% common ground among competitors created unstoppable momentum—and how the U.S. just became the global leader in heat pump sales for the fourth year running.

We dive into: