TED: Turning Conversations into Action

What happens when disaster strikes, a hurricane or fire, and communities are left stranded without power, water, or basic medical needs? Generally we rely on shipping in fuel to power generators, but that's not always an option, and certainly an imperfect one- burning the same fossil fuels which helped propogate the disaster in the first place. Sesame Solar has a solution. Today CEO and co-founder Lauren Flanagan joins us today to discuss her all in one solution for a mobile disaster relief unit powered by, you guessed it, solar. But that's not all Lauren brings to the table. From a lifetime of working in tech, she shares with us the teachings from working alongside none other than Steve Jobs.

Ted is famously known for their captivating talks on how to change our perception of, well, everything. But what comes next? How do we translate that attention into action? Lindsay Levin has a plan. Lindsay is in charge of partnerships and impact at TED, her mandate is to mobilize the global platform beyond the role of educator to catalyst for action. We discuss how she sees how role of storytelling can unite disparate communities through a collective action platform, what challenges lay ahead in our fight against climate change, and how you can get involved.

When we last spoke to Sanchali Pal she was the CEO of Juro. Today, Juro is called Commons, and she has $10,000,000 reasons to be more optimistic about the future of personal carbon accountability. Commons is an app that allows you to track your credit card spend and then offset your carbon footprint, a simple and elegant means of self-accountability. They've also partnered with pre-vetted businesses to offer more sustainable options to the products you purchase regularly. Since we last spoke with Sanchali she's raised a Series A round from Sequoia Capital, the founders of Afterpay and the one and only Jay-Z. We dig into how she was able to achieve that milestone and what's in the store for the future of Commons.

What if recharging your EV was as easy as swapping out the batteries in your flashlight? That's exactly the future Ample is building. In this episode we sat down with Ample president John de Souza to discuss the future of electric mobility, fighting entrenched legacy energy in the halls of congress, what it means to be an entrepreneur and more.

Understanding a forest has long been a marriage of art and science, but without the technology to scale. Earthforce is determined to bring forestry into the 21st century so we might better prepare for natural disasters while protecting one of most important natural resources. In addition to being as serial entrepreneur, Justin Dawe is also a native Hawaiian. Here are a few of the charities working to support fire relief efforts in Maui. Maui Strong Fund Kokua Restaurant and Hospitality Fund Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement

Europe has long been more aggressive in how it deploys legislation and regulatory agency to push for a more climate positive future from large corporate interests. Still with me? Great, you'll love this episode. Joost Walterbos is a dear friend, accomplished climate entrepreneur, wildly chill guy, and possessor of great foresight when it comes to translating the transformation we're seeing in Europe to future action in the US. His firm, Hedgehog, works with companies large and small based both in the US and Europe, so he has a uniquely broad perspective in how climate is finding its way onto balance sheets and into five year plans.

It's morning, you walk into your backyard, stroll over to the Maple by the fence, and have a conversation about the weather. That, my friends, is exactly how the team at ePlant imagines your day will start, and sooner than you think. On today's episode we sit down with ePlant.bio founder and CEO Graham Hine about the company he's built that allows us to, literally, commune with nature. Combining a custom built sensor that can measure tree growth, precipitation, humidity, and more, with cutting edge AI that leverage large language models, Graham and his team have built a means of bridging the gap between humans and nature through natural, everyday conversation. This was a wild, fascinating, thought provoking and inspiring conversation, hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

What if you could build a virtual environment, a la Sim City, but with real world inputs about product pipelines, energy sources, construction cap ex, and environmental impact? That's exactly what Actual is building. Tune in to this episode's interview with Actual President and co-founder Karthik Balakrishnan, and start planning for a better future.

Artificial Intelligence will reshape our future in ways we haven't yet imagined. Electric Vehicles will transform our relationship with transportation. Today we're talking with Jason Koeller, the man who is at the collision point of AI and the batteries that will power the EV transformation. Chemix is making EV batteries more sustainable and higher-performing by using artificial intelligence to optimize battery chemistries. As a result, the company is able to limit or even eliminate controversial scarce elements such as cobalt or nickel, all while developing highly specialized, efficient, and optimized batteries in a virtual environment before any machines (the physical kind) get to work. ⁠Jason Koeller the co-founder and CTO of Chemix, has 6+ years of experience in the battery and machine learning industries. He has a PhD in Physics from UC Berkeley and may, just may, be the next Elon Musk. Today's episode is sponsoered by See Change Sessions. Learn more about their upcoming event, Sept. 12-15 in Vermont, at www.seechangesessions.com

Jay Kapoor is the General Partner of VSC Ventures, an offshoot of the internationally lauded PR firm VSC. As a seasoned investor Jay, who spent the last decade advising teams and athletes in the NFL, NBA and other major US sports, is now entrenched in the climate world- he hosts the climate pod Climb which you can check out here. Money is important to building a sustainable solution. So is policy, advocacy, corporate responsibility, personal accountability, technology, and collaboration. No one solution or tactic will provide a silver bullet to creating a sustainable solution. The unifying thread that binds them all together, and makes the sum greater than the parts: storytelling. Jay works with his companies to develop a narrative that will supercharge their ability to attract and enrapture customers. By leveraging their PR prowess VSC is able to provide exposure, craft narratives, and make the problem of climate change feel personal through the companies they support. Todays episode is sponsored by See Change Sessions: Join a global crew of adventurous minds to solve some of the worlds biggest problems . For more information about their upcoming session in Vermont, September 12-14, check out their website here: https://www.seechangesessions.com/