If only there were a podcast that broke down all of the ways climate professionals broke into their industry...

Michael Gold is a communications expert and consultant at Word Clouds Consulting and the host of the new podcast, Climate Swings. This show traces guests' stories and explains how they landed a job working on one of humanity's most significant problem sets.

Check out the episode of Climate Swings I did with Michael retelling my odyssey into climate work here! Be sure to subscribe to his show, give it a great rating and review, and send it to a friend trying to come join us.

Also, a special thank you to 9Zero for serendipitously facilitating our connection and to Terra.do for helping Michael do what he does!

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"From PhD Dropout to Carbon Removal Comedian", the episode of Climate Swings I did with Michael

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Sometimes, we skip right over the life stories of guests. Othertimes, it's everything. Today, it's everything.

Returning to the show after several years is Carbon180's Executive Director, Erin Burns.

Erin grew up in a coal mining family in West Virginia, got her start in Joe Manchin's Senate office, and has had a long and impactful career in carbon removal.

Today, Erin (re)explains how the budgeting process works in the United States federal government and how the appropriations process intersects with it. What is the difference, and where can voters get involved?

This is truly an improvised masterclass in civics education. Listen up for what you missed in high school, and how it will impact the future of carbon removal.

This Episode's Sponsors

Offstream

Arbonics

Listen to the RCC episode with Lisett Luik from Arbonics

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Carbon180

Scrip

Company town

"The Appropriations Process: A Brief Overview", a CRS Product

Carbon180's Carbon Removal Funding Tracker

"The Ghost of Tom Joad" by Bruce Springsteen

"Which Side Are You On?" by Pete Seeger

"There is Power in a Union" by Utah Phillips (originally by Joe Hill)

Harlan County, U.S.A.

The clean energy transition sure needs a heck of a lot of mining. What do we do when there are environmental or spiritual costs to getting the materials we need for EVs and batteries?

Ernest Scheyder is a Reuters reporter covering critical minerals, and the author of The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives.

His reporting strives to let audiences draw their own conclusions about where the line should be on environmental extraction, which is a rarer approach than maybe meets the eye.

Tune in to also learn where the political battles of the second Trump Administration over critical minerals in Ukraine and clean energy politics at home may lead, and what we should keep our eyes on in the future.

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Ernest Scheyder's website

Ernest's reporting at Reuters

The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives

The Irresponsible Pursuit of Paradise by Jim L. Bowyer

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Nearly a decade ago, I was introduced to the concept of the Keynesian Beauty Contest. It is one of those concepts that I keep coming back to time and time again.

I recently participated in a two-month Product-Market Fit workshop led by Peter Nocchiero of Alternate Future and Koray Parmaks of Carbon Zero Capital. So I've been living and breathing PMF.

Here is a short monologue bonus video episode where I talk about the Product-Market Fit issues of climatetech and carbon removal, a now-outdated reference to how TSLA bears kept getting crushed, and relate them to my experiences as a founder of the Nori carbon removal marketplace.

Resources

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The Keynesian Beauty Contest on Wikipedia

Peter Nocchiero's Alternate Future

Carbon Zero Capital⁠

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I first heard the idiom "worse things happen at sea" in Monty Python's Life of Brian, and it's true.

Ian Urbina has made a career of telling stories of the ocean. From piracy, illegal fishing, and sea slavery to seasteading and rogue carbon removal experiments, he's covered the gamut.

How does one continuously report on topics of concern to relatively intimidating people? As the old line goes, "Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed; everything else is public relations."

In today's episode, Ian and host Ross Kenyon discuss these topics, but also broader questions of what is happening to journalism in a political environment where retaliation feels very possible.

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The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the World's Last Untamed Frontier by Ian Urbina

The Outlaw Ocean Project

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For fans ages 21 and up!

It's often hard to know how sustainable or ethical an alcoholic drink is. Very little disclosure is required on most labels, and many of the recipes are proprietary. What is a conscientious drinker to do?

Shanna Farrell wrote A Good Drink: In Search of Sustainable Spirits in order to answer this exact question.

She and host Ross Kenyon discuss the strange world of amaros (or "amari" if you're really going for it!), whiskey, agave, and gin, and try to figure out how to even begin approaching this difficult consumptive choice.

N.B. If you really want to nerd out on amaro taxonomy, Brad Thomas Parsons's books on amaro and bitters are both quite useful; linked below.

Resources

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A Good Drink: In Search of Sustainable Spirits by Shanna Farrell

Shanna Farrell's website

Amaro: The Spirited World of Bittersweet, Herbal Liqueurs by Brad Thomas Parsons

Crushed: How A Changing Climate Is Altering the Way We Drink by Brian Freedman

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What is geopolitics, and has it returned? Did it ever really leave? And how will this affect the future prospects of carbon removal?

Today's guest is Sarah Godek, a Washington DC-based international relations researcher. She and Grant Faber co-wrote an article on Carbon-Based Commentary called, "Carbon security and the geopolitics of carbon removal".

We discuss the tension between strategic liberalism and realism, how the world is changing under the second Trump Administration, as well as if and how the Great Game is currently being played and what implications that has for climate change and CDR.

N.B. Regarding the point about Eastern Europe in the introduction, much of my reading on the region has highlighted its former status as a bustling and fervent cultural mixing place. I think I was a bit too subtle in pointing to this understanding. See: A History of Eastern Europe from The Great Courses, or Shtetl by Eva Hoffman.

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"Carbon security and the geopolitics of carbon removal"

Graham Allison's Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides's Trap?

Robert Axelrod's The Evolution of Cooperation

Kevin Rudd's The Avoidable War: The Dangers of a Catastrophic Conflict between the US and Xi Jinping's China

John Pomfret's The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom: America and China, 1776 to the Present

Tencent's CarbonX program

Raj M. Shah & Christopher Kirchhoff's Unit X: How the Pentagon and Silicon Valley Are Transforming the Future of War

Go watch In the Loop, Veep, and The Death of Stalin.

My podcasting editing platform Descript informed me of a new integration with ChatGPT where it would make me a custom video. I complied in perhaps the most annoying and meta way possible.

That video exists at the end of this podcast, but first, I have thoughts I'd like to share on what this process made me feel and think about.

I've heard so many takes on artificial intelligence and art, and I have several of my own that I don't often hear reflected. Mine pertain to the sociological purpose of art, and of developing aesthetic talent on the road to greatness.

Resources

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Use my referral link to become a user of Descript⁠⁠ for podcast editing, transcription, and now AI-generated video content.