Ten Across Conversations

This is the second episode in our limited series about artificial intelligence trends shaping life in the I-10 corridor and beyond. In this episode we chat with experts from the Ten Across cities of Phoenix, Houston and Jacksonville on the power of digital twins to more seamlessly convene stakeholders around shared goals.    As virtual representations of actual places and systems, digital twins at their most advanced can incorporate detailed, live data feeds to model real-time conditions—and their potential. These dynamic tools can produce highly accessible visualizations of data and three-dimensional spaces to enhance users' monitoring, scenario planning, and decision making, thanks to advances in computing power and machine learning.  Listen in as guests Devney Majerle, Satish Tripathi, and Jeffrey Carney discuss the goals behind their respective digital twin initiatives and the current capabilities of the models. Devney explains how a twin is helping Downtown Phoenix leaders and community members coalesce around a strategic development plan. Satish is in the process of developing a digital twin for Houston's vast water system. And Jeff discusses the twins he has helped build for Jacksonville and the State of Florida to scope future-oriented resilience efforts.  Related articles and resources:   Listen to the first episode in our AI Series  Explore the JaxTwin  Read about Downtown Phoenix Inc.'s launch of their twin  Learn about Houston's journey to develop a digital twin of its water system  Credits:  Host: Duke Reiter  Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith  Music by: Helmut Schenker and Lennon Hutton  Research and support provided by: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler  About our guests:  Jeffrey Carney is a professor in the University of Florida School of Architecture and director of the Florida Institute for Built Environment Resilience (FIBER). Jeff is also spearheading the GulfSouth Studio initiative and co-leading the JaxTwin and Florida Digital Twin initiatives to support decision making in the City of Jacksonville and State of Florida. Jeff previously served as director of the Louisiana State University Coastal Sustainability Studio and initiated the Inland from the Coast project which examined flood impacts in Baton Rouge, LA.   Devney Majerle is president and chief executive officer of Downtown Phoenix Inc. She is formerly executive director of the Phoenix Community Alliance, vice president of activation and special events for the Arizona Organizing Committee, and senior director of marketing partnerships activation for the Phoenix Suns. Devney serves on several advisory boards for local businesses and nonprofits in the Phoenix region.  Satish Tripathi is lead water planning engineer for the City of Houston, where he has worked for over 12 years. Prior to his work with the city, Satish was a hydropower engineer for the Government of Nepal. Satish has over 17 years of experience leading major water infrastructure planning efforts and his current work focuses on integrating digital twins, advanced water quality modeling, and artificial intelligence in optimizing utility operations.

As we were publishing this episode, news from The New York Times broke that Jeremy Greenberg, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) disaster command center has left his post, a day after President Trump said he would wind down the federal agency by November. CBS reported that Tony Robinson, regional administrator of FEMA Region 6, which includes Ten Across states New Mexico, Texas, and Louisiana, also intends to step down this week.  Since January, President Trump has talked about his intent to eliminate or severely diminish the role of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, relegating disaster response and recovery to the states. On Tuesday, he reiterated this goal and stated that no major changes would be made until after this year's hurricane season.  The administration's first six months, however, have already brought significant disruption to the agency's operations. One-third of its total staff has been laid off, an acting administrator was abruptly replaced after expressing support for the agency's existence, and nearly all climate resilience grants and training programs directed at state and local preparation have been canceled. While criticism of the agency and calls for its reform are not new, FEMA has been central to U.S. emergency management for decades. Now, at the onset of the 2025 hurricane season, emergency management experts throughout the country are widely reporting concern about the nation's readiness for disaster response.  To help us make sense of these real and proposed changes in this episode, ‘disasterologist' Dr. Samantha Montano returns to the podcast. Samantha will explain the origins of FEMA, valid areas for potential reform, and the issues inherent in turning its responsibilities over to the states— as environmental risks to lives and property in the Ten Across region become more difficult to insure.  Relevant articles and resources:   Listen to our first episode with Samantha  More on the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season and related misinformation  “Trumps says his administration wants to ‘wean' states off FEMA aid after hurricane season” (CBS News, June 2025)  “The dangers of a weakened FEMA ahead of an active hurricane season” (NPR, June 2025)  “FEMA Is Not Prepared” (The Atlantic, June 2025)  “FEMA leader fired after breaking with Trump administration on eliminating agency” (CBS News, May 2025)  “States denied disaster aid as FEMA safety net begins to shrink” (KUOW, May 2025)  Credits:  Host: Duke Reiter  Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith  Music by: Rand Aldo and Lennon Hutton  Research and support provided by: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich and Sabine Butler  About our guest: Samantha Montano is an assistant professor of emergency management at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy and author of Disasterology: Dispatches from the Frontlines of the Climate Crisis. Her research tracks the evolution of emergency management policy and practice, as well as perceptions of emergency management. You can follow her newsletter, Disasterology, here.

Last week, news broke that the depletion of groundwater across the Colorado River Basin has been quietly, rapidly outpacing the more visible decline of the river itself. Even as the seven basin states negotiate reduced consumption of river water—inevitably driving dependence toward local aquifers instead—this newly published research shows that the majority ofmost of the water lost throughout the basin in recent years has been underground. In the Lower Colorado River Basin alone, groundwater has accounted for 71% of total water supply loss.  Jay Famiglietti, a longtime contributor to Ten Across, specializes in the use of satellite data to monitor the world's groundwater mass. His team's new findings focus on the U.S. Southwest—a region at the forefront of the nation's water supply challenges and the complex balances between resource limitations and economic growth.  As states and cities in the Colorado River Basin and elsewhere develop water management strategies to sustain themselves through future constraints, a growing understanding of groundwater supply is key to effective proactive policy. It is increasingly clear that time is of the essence for this uniquely finite resource.   Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter and Jay Famiglietti discuss the concrete findings in this report, the immediate and long-term implications for agriculture in the Southwest, and Jay's motivations for raising awareness of groundwater usage in the Ten Across region and beyond.  Relevant articles and resources:  Read the open access study: “Declining Freshwater Availability in the Colorado River Basin Threatens Sustainability of Its Critical Groundwater Supplies”  Read The Washington Post's analysis  More analysis from The Guardian and Inside Climate News  Catch up on the Colorado River negotiations  Listen to Jay's first podcast appearance  Related headlines:   “ADWR Director Briefs UA Water Resources Research Center Conference on Colorado River Negotiations” (azwater.gov, June 2025)  “It's not just big alfalfa farms. La Paz residents fear groundwater grab by big cities” (Arizona Republic, June 2025)  “Arizona wants this city to cut its groundwater use. Residents want flexibility” (Arizona Republic, May 2025)  “Even in wet years, wells are still dry. Why replenishing California's groundwater is painfully slow” (Cal Matters, February 2025)  “Opinion: Will We Have to Pump the Great Lakes to California to Feed the Nation?” (The New York Times, August 2024)  Credits:Host: Duke ReiterProducer and editor: Taylor GriffithMusic by: Lupus Nocte and TellsonicResearch and support provided by: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler

Last week, we discussed the emerging digital economy and artificial intelligence sector. Fulfilling the long-term potential of such technological advancements will also require innovation in the ways we anticipate, understand and control their potential consequences.  Take, for example, the revolutionary success of Amazon and other online and same-day delivery retailers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for these services boomed. Even as brick-and-mortar stores reopened, consumers continued to rely on the ease of almost anything in the world shipping right to their doorstep at the click of a button.  Unanticipated changes in land use patterns and demands on aging energy, water and transportation infrastructure, however, belie that incredible convenience. How should we reconcile such popular improvements to daily life with the side effects experienced by the communities that find themselves directly in the path of a roaring supply chain?  Our guest this week, Andrea Vidaurre, grew up in California's Inland Empire. This semi-rural metropolitan area located just an hour inland from the critical Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has been fighting a growing wave of pollution and industrial intrusion. Within a fraction of Andrea's lifetime, the Inland Empire's warehouse footprint has grown 90%, starting with a few hundred facilities and today reaching 4,000 (and counting). More than half a million trucks move goods to and from these centers every day, generating 25,000 tons of daily CO₂ emissions and myriad public health risks for the surrounding neighborhoods.  In this discussion, Andrea describes her transformation from concerned community member to award-winning policy analyst and environmental justice advocate who helped pass two landmark air quality regulations in California. Her work near the far western end of the I-10 is challenging conventional priorities for U.S. innovation and influencing more effective energy transition policy structures. Listen until the end for a postscript detailing the latest efforts in the Senate to limit California's regulatory powers in relation to air quality.  Relevant articles and resources:  Follow the People's Collective for Environmental Justice on X, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook  Read Andrea's Goldman Environmental Prize and TIME Magazine recognitions  CARB pulls Advanced Clean Fleets Rule EPA waiver a week after Trump's election  “Senate Fight Over Gas-Powered Vehicles Is Also A Filibuster Showdown” (The New York Times, May 21, 2025)  “Shopping online surged during Covid. Now the environmental costs are becoming clearer” (Politico, 2021)  “E-Commerce Mega-Warehouses, a Smog Source, Face New Pollution Rule” (The New York Times, 2021)  More 10X podcasts on US environmental justice:  “Catherine Coleman Flowers: A National Voice for Rural and Unincorporated America”  “Envisioning a Just Future for All with Dr. Robert Bullard”    “Financing Our Future: Justice 40's Legacy Beyond November”    Credits:  Host: Duke Reiter  Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith  Music by: Helmut Schenker and Hushed  Research and support provided by: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler  About our guest:Andrea Vidaurre is a policy analyst and cofounder of the People's Collective for Environmental Justice. Born and raised in California's Inland Empire, Andrea organized and her organization were instrumental to the California Air Resources Board's passage of two landmark policies directing a comprehensive and timely phase out of diesel infrastructure in the state's trucking and freight industries. For her work, Andrea received the 2024 Goldman Environmental Prize, often referred to as the “Green Nobel,” and in 2025 was named one of TIME Magazine's 100 most influential people.

As artificial intelligence capabilities and related infrastructural demands have exploded in recent years, we have been keeping an eye on the implications for the Ten Across region.  To help kick off our summer podcast series on the subject of AI, Arizona State University's chief information officer Lev Gonick joins us to explore the ways AI is reshaping education, urban development and predictive sciences—as well as its effects on human relationships.  As CIO, Lev leads ASU's AI strategy to stay ahead of the curve for higher ed. ASU was the first university to partner with OpenAI in 2023. Faculty, staff, and students are encouraged to develop and report on innovative uses of AI in their respective work. The university in turn is working to capture and disseminate this fast-developing body of knowledge to advance its own pursuits and those of the greater local and regional economies. As this technology expands its reach, ASU graduates are expected to have a sophisticated understanding of its potential within their chosen fields, and as a result, to have a lasting edge in a competitive job market.  We'll also talk to Lev about his early-2000s success in expanding broadband internet access for urban Cleveland, Ohio, as high-speed internet became necessary for economic mobility. Lev's work informed federal efforts to create equitable technological infrastructure that is needed more than ever in an increasingly digital world, but faces a tough political climate today. Finally, given the serious water and energy tradeoffs associated with this technological leap, this conversation and others in the series will consider the careful balances the Ten Across region needs to strike in creating sustainable economic growth.   Relevant articles and resources:  “U.S. Literacy Rates by State 2024” (usadatahub.com)   “Are Data Centers Depleting the Southwest's Water and Energy Resources?” (APM Research Lab/Ten Across, February 2025)  “The AI Journey” (ASU Enterprise Technology, October 2024)  “The Importance of Place in U.S. Higher Ed with Michael Crow” (Ten Across Conversations, May 2025)  Credits:   Host: Duke Reiter  Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith  Music by: William Claeson  Research and supportive provided by: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler  About our guestLev Gonick is an educator, technologist, and smart city architect. As Arizona State University's chief information officer, Lev leads the design and management of all online infrastructure, including applications, products, service, and analytics. While CIO of Case Western Reserve University from 2001 to 2013, Lev led a Case Connection Zone project connecting underserved Cleveland residents to university internet services, which spurred the Obama-era US Ignite initiative to expand U.S. broadband access. Today, Lev chairs the Sun Corridor Network, which advances connectivity, research, and education in Arizona.

If you follow the evolution of American education, you are surely aware of Arizona State University's transformation under the leadership of Michael Crow. In a little over two decades, Crow has grown ASU into one of the largest and most influential public universities, in terms of overall enrollment, research expenditures, and the adoption of new technologies. In doing so, he has become an internationally recognized voice in the future of higher education at large. Built on a precise set of guiding principles outlined in his inaugural address, the university consistently garners accolades for community and global impact, environmental sustainability, and graduate employability.  In a field where peer institutions have traditionally competed based on exclusivity, ASU's success is derived from its 2014 Charter, which declared that this university would be "measured not by whom it excludes, but by whom it includes and how they succeed." Crow's New American University model defies the norms of rising tuition, low acceptance rates and inflexible learning pathways, with an aim to prioritize meaningful change in the lives of more students and the communities which it serves.   Ten Across, of course, is itself responsive to ASU's Charter and its design aspirations, particularly its emphasis on place. As a unique subset of ASU, Ten Across strives to deliver outsized impact through intentional networks, education, and media that address high-stakes issues experienced throughout the I-10 region—many of which are exacerbated by climate change.  Listen in as Michael Crow explains why Arizona was the place he chose for the development of this highly inclusive and innovative model of higher education, and the efforts that have gone into transforming ASU from a small state college into a global humanitarian and technological engine generating solutions to some of our most difficult challenges.  Related articles and resources:  Michael Crow explains the “invisible hand” of university research in conversation with Rice University President Reginald DesRoches  “ASU boosts the economic vitality of Arizona” (ASU News, January 2025)   “Why Phoenix is the ‘Most American City' with George Packer” (Ten Across Conversations, August 2024)  “'Evolve Or Die' —Michael Crow's Challenge to U.S. Higher Education” (Forbes, May 2025)  “Democrats need a leader like ASU President Michael Crow to rescue them” (Arizona Republic, January 2025)  Credits:  Host: Duke Reiter  Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith  Music by: Helmut Schenker and Pearce Roswell  Research and support provided: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler

The insurance industry's bottom line offers the clearest, least political evidence that a stable economy and livable communities are increasingly dependent on strategies to address extreme weather impacts. California, Louisiana, and Florida have become harbingers of a spreading issue: disaster-related property losses that continuously exceed underwriting profitability. The resulting gaps in affordability and availability are driving property owners to states' insurer-of-last-resort programs or, more and more often, to forgo coverage for their greatest risks.  As warmer ocean water and sea level rise fuel more destructive Atlantic hurricane seasons, Florida homeowner's insurance costs more than three times the national average, and an estimated 15-20% of property owners are uninsured. In Louisiana, the withdrawal of the insurance industry has caused the state's FAIR plan enrollment to grow 400% in just four years.  Wildfire risk has grown as well. The fires in Los Angeles earlier this year are projected to become the costliest natural disaster in the nation's history, around $50 billion more than the total damages from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Major insurers had already dropped 2.8 million policies in fire-prone areas of the state since 2020. Now, the state's FAIR plan is struggling to bear the weight of its own growing exposure as homeowners find themselves without other options for coverage.  In the Ten Across region and beyond, there is growing interest in insurance mechanisms and governance which, rather than simply reflecting and reacting to risk, can be adapted as tools for better preparation and response.    Carolyn Kousky founded the nonprofit Insurance for Good to meet this need. Listen in to learn more about how Carolyn's work connects local leaders to deep industry knowledge and encourages the industry to participate actively in global climate resilience and energy transition efforts.   About our guest: Carolyn Kousky is the founder of Insurance for Good, a nonprofit focused on improving equity in disaster recovery, accelerating the energy transition, and driving investments in resilience. She is also the author of Understanding Disaster Insurance: New Tools for a More Resilient Future and the Associate Vice President for Economics and Policy at Environmental Defense Fund. Prior to that, Carolyn was Executive Director of the Wharton Risk Center at the University of Pennsylvania. She currently serves on a number of public and private advisory boards, including on the U.S. Treasury's Federal Advisory Committee on Insurance.Related articles and resources: Insurance for Good  Hear from other experts on insurance in the 10X geography: Dave Jones, Latisha Nixon-Jones, Jesse Keenan, Amy Bach  “Improving household and community disaster recovery: Evidence on the role of insurance” (Xuesong You, Carolyn Kousky, Journal of Risk and Insurance, 2024)  “Leveraging insurance for decarbonization” (Carolyn Kousky, Joseph W. Lockwood, Journal of Catastrophe Risk and Resilience, 2024)  “REPORT: The 2024 Miami-Dade Property Insurance Strategy Forum” (The Miami Foundation, 2024)   "FEMA moves to end one of its biggest disaster adaptation programs” (Grist, April 2025)  Credits:Host: Duke Reiter  Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith  Music by: Lennon Hutton  Research and support provided by: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler

Given a looming negotiation deadline and recent changes in federal operations, this is an apt time for us to check back in on how things are going with Colorado River management. Frequent listeners and 10X Summit attendees alike will be well acquainted with how clearly this topic illustrates our collective responsibility to be proactive in the face of the "knowable future".  A 100-year-old miscalculation of water availability and the recent multi-decade drought have put our use of the Colorado River on an unsustainable path. This became apparent in 2021, as critical reservoirs at Lakes Mead and Powell approached a deadpool low-water scenario that would endanger hydropower generation at major dams and water deliveries to users further south. The risk level triggered immediate federal intervention and the renegotiation of a basin-wide agreement for sharing and conserving this vital resource.  Stakeholders now have less than a month to submit a joint management proposal to the Bureau of Reclamation in time to be vetted for a new interstate compact. If this September, 2026 deadline is missed, the cooperative systems and oversight that have protected the Colorado River since 1944 may expire without an immediate replacement.  Meanwhile, major layoffs are planned or underway at the Bureau and the Department of the Interior, and federal funding for river conservation has been frozen. Anne Castle, former U.S. commissioner and chair of the Upper Colorado River Commission is among those employees to have lost their positions in this transition.Three years after their first Ten Across Conversations appearance together, today Anne and fellow renowned Western water policy expert John Fleck revisit the key themes and offer their thoughts on progress toward a positive policy future in the Colorado Basin.  Related articles and resources: Listen to our first episode with Anne and John from 2022  Learn more about the 1994 U.S.-Mexico water treaty in this Ten Across Conversations podcast“Trump admin rejects Colorado River water request from Mexico in first since 1944” (The Hill, March 2025)  “Green Light for Adaptive Policies on the Colorado River” (Anne Castle and John Fleck, 2021) “The Risk of Curtailment under the Colorado River Compact” (Anne Castle and John Fleck, 2019)“Closing the Water Access Gap in the United States: A National Action Plan” (US Water Alliance, 2019)  “Essay: Lessons for the End of the World” (Hanif Abdurraqib, The New Yorker, Feb. 2025)  Credits:  Host: Duke Reiter  Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith  Music by: Lupus Nocte, Tellsonic, and Pearce Roswell  Research and support provided by: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler  About our guests:  Anne Castle is a senior fellow at the Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment at the University of Colorado Law School. She is a founding member of the Water Policy Group and co-founder of the initiative on Universal Access to Clean Water for Tribal Communities. From 2022 to 2025, she served as U.S. Commissioner and Chair of the Upper Colorado River Commission and was Assistant Secretary for Water and Science at the U.S. Department of the Interior from 2009 to 2014.  John Fleck is a writer in residence for the Utton Transboundary Resources Center and professor of practice in water policy and governance at the University of Mexico's Department of Economics. He is also the co-author of Science Be Dammed: How Ignoring Inconvenient Science Drained the Colorado River and author of Water is for Fighting Over and Other Myths about Water in the West. John is the former director of the University of New Mexico Water Resources Program, where he continues to teach and advise graduate students.

During an on-stage conversation between insurance industry leaders at the 2023 10X Los Angeles Summit, former California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones described the need to mitigate the impacts of climate-driven weather in order for the state to remain insurable. His point has been clearly illustrated by news headlines the last couple years since the summit.    Among the greatest risks to homes in California is the surging frequency and intensity of wildfire. Based on recent trends, the cost of recovery from these disasters is continually outpacing the viability of the insurance business. Fifteen of the 20 largest wildfires in California history have occurred since 2000, and the state's record for annual disaster costs has been broken three times over in the last seven years.   Earlier this year, the Palisades, Eaton, and Hurst fires blazed for weeks on the outskirts of Los Angeles and together became the single costliest fire event in state history. Insurer losses are estimated between $28 to $52 billion—but the actual total economic loss is estimated to be around five to nine times that amount.    The record-breaking cost of extreme weather in recent decades has also had regulators in Louisiana and Florida searching for solutions to insurance industry pullbacks in their states—while the country at large watches closely for answers as disaster risks everywhere visibly increase. In this episode, Dave Jones reflects on recent regulatory changes to try to lure major underwriters back into the California market and the potential courses of action for regulators and the industry as climate-driven losses trend upward each year.  Related articles and resources:   Watch Dave's discussion with insurance executives at our 2023 summit in Los Angeles  “Climate change increased the likelihood of wildfire disaster in highly exposed Los Angeles area” (worldweatherattribution.org, Jan. 2025)  “Powell predicts a time when mortgages will be impossible to get in parts of US” (Yahoo Finance, Feb. 2025)  “California's 2018 wildfires caused $150 billion in damages: study” (Phys.org, Dec. 2020)  Related podcasts:  “10X Insurance Series: California Attempts to Reverse Insurer Exodus” (Ten Across Conversations, Oct. 2023)  “10X Insurance Series: Louisiana Grapples with Growing Natural and Financial Risk” (Ten Across Conversations, Oct. 2023) “10X Insurance Series: Retaining Florida's Insurability Has National Implications” (Ten Across Conversations, Oct. 2023)  Credits:   Host: Duke Reiter  Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith  Music by:  Research and support provided by: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler

Place and personal circumstance can play a decisive role in how one perceives the purpose and effectiveness of government. According to a 2021 study, in 2010 an estimated 37% of the U.S. population lived in an unincorporated area—places without municipal government and the services it might provide.     Central Alabama's Lowndes County, for instance, has a population of just under 10,000 people. Sixty-two percent of homes here are in unincorporated areas. A 2023 door-to-door survey led by the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice found 90% of homes in the county dealing with poor or failing sanitation infrastructure.  Catherine Coleman Flowers grew up in Lowndes County. In Holy Ground: On Activism, Environmental Justice, and Finding Hope, she writes about her experience growing up in rural America without the amenities and public services many take for granted in a developed country. Catherine combines personal memoir with historical analysis to trace her ancestral community ties and her own journey from public school teacher and daughter of two civil rights activists to her role today as a highly respected leader of the environmental justice movement and recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant.  Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter and Catherine Coleman Flowers discuss the pursuit of equitable sanitation infrastructure in the U.S., perspectives on democracy, and what causes the extremely divergent qualities of life found in the Ten Across geography.  Related articles and resources:   Holy Ground: On Activism, Environmental Justice, and Finding Hope (Catherine Coleman Flowers, 2025)  Waste: One Woman's Fight Against America's Dirty Secret (Catherine Coleman Flowers, 2020)  “Researchers fear grants for studies on health disparities may be cut in anti-DEI push” (NPR, March 2025)  “'Canary in a Coal Mine': Data Scientists Restore a Climate Justice Tool Taken Down by Trump” (Inside Climate News, Feb. 2025)  “A landmark investigation brings environmental justice to rural Alabama” (Grist, May 2023)  “Filthy Water: A Basic Sanitation Problem Persists in Rural America” (Yale Environment 360, Dec. 2020)  “Hookworm, a disease of extreme poverty, is thriving in the US south. Why?” (The Guardian, July 2017)  “Invisible and unequal: Unincorporated community status as a structural determinant of health” (Social Science & Medicine, Vol. 285, Sept. 2021)  Credits Host: Duke Reiter  Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith  Music by: Gavin Luke  Research and support provided by: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler  

Some curse words are used in this discussion.  In the previous episode, Mitch Landrieu discussed his upbringing, including the impact his father had on race relations in New Orleans and how this informed Mitch's leadership during some of city's toughest hours. In the second half of this conversation, we get his unvarnished perspective on changes in the federal approach to the budget, humanitarian aid, and personnel-- matters closely related to his experience in Louisiana state and local government.  Disasters on the scale of Hurricane Katrina were once relatively rare. Today, they are occurring with greater frequency and intensity. According to Climate Central, the 1980s averaged 82 days between billion-dollar disasters; for the five years between 2019 and 2023, that average gap shrank to just 16 days. The average annual cost of these events has more than tripled— from $28 billion in 1984 to $101 billion today.  The Palisades, Hurst and Eaton fires in Los Angeles began the 2025 list of devastating national disasters, resulting in over 37,000 acres burned and an estimated $30 to $50 billion in damages. Having worked with the federal government through several recovery processes in his own state, Mayor Landrieu has some concerns with how the delivery of disaster aid was managed for California.  Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter and Mitch Landrieu discuss the stakes and responsibilities of governing in the face of national disaster and global conflict.  We've taken a new approach with this episode, take a listen and let us know what you think by leaving a review on your preferred podcast platform.   Related articles and resources:  Governing Through Times of Crisis and Opportunity with Mayor Mitch Landrieu - Part One“Americans' Deepening Mistrust of Institutions” (Pew Charitable Trust, Oct. 2024)  “Americans agree more than they might think—not knowing this jeopardizes the nation's shared values” (The Conversation, Nov. 2024)  “Johnson opens door to linking voter ID to California disaster aid after Trump demand” (The Hill, Jan. 2025)  “Trump threatens to withhold aid for California wildfires in first TV interview since inauguration” (The Washington Post, Jan. 2025)  “US stock market loses $4 trillion in value as Trump plows ahead on tariffs” (Reuters, March 2025)

As a native New Orleanian, Mitch Landrieu knows a thing or two about crisis and recovery. He served as the lieutenant governor of Louisiana through Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 and the compounding effects of subsequent storms including Ike and Gustav. In 2010, he was sworn in as mayor of New Orleans—just one month after the Deepwater Horizon explosion undermined the region's efforts to recover from five years of depopulation and economic decline.  Mayor Landrieu's experience working for the efficient restoration of New Orleans's critical infrastructure later led the Biden Administration to appoint him as an advisor on the national implementation of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Otherwise known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), this bill has been the largest long-term investment in U.S. infrastructure since the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1965. It has prioritized and funded an array of essential, future-oriented projects throughout the country.  The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina demonstrated how the increasing scale of environmental disasters will expose vulnerabilities in the nation's aging infrastructure. Local leaders are thus seeking strategies that balance the needs of growth and economic development with the proactive management of current and future risks.  The work that Mayor Landrieu, city staff, and community partners undertook to steer New Orleans's recovery process away from bankruptcy and toward revived communities and a more secure built environment has provided a case study for policymakers and resilience groups around the world.  In part one of this two-part episode, Mayor Landrieu talks with Ten Across founder Duke Reiter about the personal and professional experiences that have influenced his views on equity and resilience and shaped some of the bold positions he's taken in governing. Part two will delve further into his views and outlook on contemporary governance.  We've taken a new approach with this episode, take a listen and let us know what you think by leaving a review on your preferred podcast platform.   Related articles and resources:  “Want to Understand the Future of U.S. Climate Resilience? Look to the Gulf Coast” (Ten Across Conversations podcast, Dec. 2024)  “Sunk Costs, Sunken City: The Story of New Orleans with Richard Campanella” (Ten Across Conversations podcast, June 2023)  “DOGE says it's now saved $65B in federal funds, but that's still impossible to verify” (ABC News, Feb. 26, 2025)  “Veteran crisis hotline may be impacted by federal layoffs” (ABC 15, Feb. 24, 2025) “Angry Over Confederate Flag, Mayor Plans March” (New York Times, March 2000)  “What is in the just-passed House Republican budget bill? What to know” (USA Today, Feb. 26, 2025)

Phoenix experienced a 113-day streak of temperatures at or over 100 degrees, and an annual average high temperature of 90 degrees in 2024. The city's extreme heat is the worst in the nation and has equally resulted in staggering increases of climate-related health emergencies and deaths. Greater resilience to such rising temperatures requires clear, verifiable information that can guide communities in effective decision-making. Researchers at Arizona State University are working to fill this gap, using the Phoenix metro as a laboratory in which to measure, study and document the complex variables that determine thermal risk or safety for humans.  Using novel technologies—like ANDI, the only thermal manikin in the world customized for testing outdoor environments—these scientists are building a detailed understanding of how heat affects the human body under a variety of real-world conditions. The results inform local governments' urgent heat risk mitigation work, identifying and prioritizing high-impact opportunities for public cooling center facilities and augmented built or natural shade.  Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter the award-winning climatologist Jennifer Vanos and human thermoregulation expert Konrad Rykaczewski about progress and direction in this groundbreaking heat research at ASU, and how its results may help other heat-vulnerable cities in the I-10 corridor and beyond.  Related articles and resources  National Centers for Environmental Information Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters 2024 tally  Phoenix Shade Action Plan  “Phoenix closed popular hiking trails for 45 days in 2024. That could rise in 2025.” (Arizona Republic, Jan. 2025)  “Meet ANDI, the world's first outdoor sweating, breathing and walking manikin” (ASU News, May 2023)  “What Some of the Hottest Cities on The 10 Are Doing to Address Deadly Heat” (Ten Across Conversations podcast, Aug. 2024) “Local Experts Answer: Why Are People Still Moving to Phoenix?” (Ten Across Conversations podcast, Feb. 2024)  “Why do Bedouins wear black in the desert?” (The Guardian, Aug. 2012)

New Orleans is an extraordinary place that has experienced more than its fair share of adversity. Living below sea level where the mouth of the Mississippi River meets the Gulf Coast, residents have become adept at mitigating a variety of water-related challenges, from the inundation of tropical storms and subsidence to the scarcity issues of saltwater intrusion.  There's a lot we can learn from the people and leaders of New Orleans. The city's pride in its wealth of culture was on display to the nation recently in the pageantry of Super Bowl LIX. But the spirit of New Orleans may be most evident in the way the city has pioneered a model of urban resilience that addresses future social, economic, and environmental risks.  Future-oriented action, with all its challenges, is the core focus of Ten Across and the focus of today's episode with Greater New Orleans Foundation CEO Andy Kopplin.  To commemorate their 100-year anniversary, the Foundation recently hosted a “Next 100 Years Challenge,” offering a $1.2 million investment in 10 different resilience project proposals across Southern Louisiana. The community has already seen significant returns on this initial investment, offering a compelling example for local and regional support of stronger communities in a changing climate.    Related articles and resources:   “New Orleans Was Called Resilient After Attack. It Didn't Need the Reminder” (The New York Times, January 2025)  “Ideas: Stop Telling New Orleans To Shut Up and Be Resilient” (Time Magazine, January 2025) “Past and Future Resilience Along the Mississippi with Boyce Upholt” (Ten Across Conversations podcast, January 2025)    “Want to Understand the Future of U.S. Climate Resilience? Look to the Gulf Coast” (Ten Across Conversations podcast, December 2024)  “Sunk Costs, Sunken City: The Story of New Orleans with Richard Campanella” (Ten Across Conversations podcast, June 2023)  “Responding to Inevitable Disasters with Juliette Kayyem” (Ten Across Conversations podcast, November 2022)

Compelling communication about risks and necessary actions is of special interest throughout the Ten Across geography. As we continue to follow the course of recent wildfires in the Los Angeles area, we took a closer look at journalism on the ground-- reporters doing their best to convey urgent information at multiple and sometimes personal scales.  On the heels the hottest 12 months in recorded history, parts of the Los Angeles metro burned during most of January. Ten months of abnormally dry conditions in the city were preceded by two very wet winters. Scientists refer to this increasingly common phenomenon as hydroclimate volatility or whiplash. It has been shown to be aggravated by climate change, and in Southern California, it creates the essential ingredients for large-scale wildfire.  As inaugural director of the Annenberg Center for Climate Journalism and Communication at the University of Southern California, Allison Agsten's job is to study how the news media and other communication professionals are informing audiences of climate change risks and impacts. In 2023, we invited her to share this important work and to lead our Climate Communications workshop at our Ten Across Summit in Los Angeles.  Allison is, unfortunately, also a recent survivor of the Palisades Fire conflagration.   As her neighborhood burned and the media converged around her home last month, she conducted some research in real time by asking them whether their reports would cover the ways climate change influenced the disaster. In this episode, we'll hear what they had to say and what Allison believes this means for the future of climate journalism in the U.S.  Related articles and resources: “What I Learned from LA Reporters Covering the Fires” (Allison Agsten, USC Annenberg Center for Climate Journalism and Communication blog) “The media needs to show how the climate crisis is fueling the LA wildfires” (The Guardian Opinion, January 16, 2025)“US Speaker suggests withholding disaster aid over California immigration policies” (9 News, January 23, 2025)  “How partisan news outlets frame vested interests in climate change” (Journal of Environmental Management, February 2025)  “Consuming cross-cutting media causes learning and moderates attitudes: A field experiment with Fox News viewers” (Center for Open Science, 2023)  “What We Can Learn from the LA Fires with Char Miller” (Ten Across Conversations podcast, January 30, 2025)  “Urban Expert Bill Fulton's Perspective of How LA Can Rebuild Following the Fires” (Ten Across Conversations podcast, January 15, 2025)  “NOAA Meteorologists Reflect on This Year's Historic Atlantic Hurricane Season” (Ten Across Conversations podcast, November 22, 2024)

In many ways, modern American engineering was born on the Mississippi. In the early days of westward expansion, the continent's largest river basin presented both a vital resource for transportation, biodiversity and agricultural production and a complicated barrier.  The Army Corps of Engineers was founded in 1802, a year before the Louisiana Purchase. By the mid-1800s, Congress charged the Corps with improving transportation on the river to support the nation's burgeoning steamboat industry and riverine settlements. Military-trained engineers were enlisted to control the river, using brute force technology, into a predictable path to prevent flooding of communities and stabilize water levels for travel.  In the new book, The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi, award-winning investigative journalist Boyce Upholt questions the logic of believing it possible—or ideal—to control one of the world's largest and most powerful rivers for centuries. Taking a holistic and geologic view of the landscape, Boyce describes how the Mississippi River has continually changed paths over millennia and why this is necessary to the health of the entire delta, especially in a changing climate.  The book offers insight into the power and the fragility of many of the ecosystems on which we rely. Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter and Boyce Upholt discuss the intersections of the built and the natural environments, and the complexities of maintaining habitable places within essential yet hazardous geographies.  Relevant articles and resources:  Read more from Boyce:  Southlands newsletter  “Is the ‘Age of the Delta' Coming to an End?” (Knowable Magazine, 2023)  “The Controversial Plan to Unleash the Mississippi” (Hakai + WIRED, 2022)  “A Killing Season” (Winner of the 2019 James Beard Award for Investigative Journalism, The New Republic, 2018)  Learn more about the Mississippi Delta:  “Want to Understand the Future of U.S. Climate Resilience? Look to the Gulf Coast” (Ten Across Conversations podcast, December 2024) “Sunk Costs, Sunken City: The Story of New Orleans with Richard Campanella” (Ten Across Conversations podcast, June 2023)

Our examination of the conditions that exacerbated the Los Angeles wildfires earlier this month continues today with perspective from author and environmental historian Char Miller.  Southern California received some much-needed rain over this past weekend, allowing firefighters to better contain the Palisades, Eaton, and Hughes fires. At the same time, the burned hillsides now bear much greater risk of mudslides and floods.  These communities and individual residents must make complicated decisions about how to securely rebuild for the future.  California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass have both advocated for eliminating some regulatory hurdles to help fast-track the reconstruction of Pacific Palisades and Altadena.  Having carefully studied California's fire history, Char argues that haste could lead to repeats of the same land use, zoning, and construction mistakes that have increased residential fire risk across the state to begin with.  Climate change aside, land use policies that discount long-term environmental awareness are common contributing factors in nearly every type of disaster risk found in the Ten Across geography. Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter talks with Char Miller about the developing events in Los Angeles and how they relate to many other risk and adaptation stories across Interstate 10 in recent history.  Related articles and resources:  Books by Char Miller referenced in this discussion:  Burn Scars: A Documentary History of Fire Suppression from Colonial Origins to the Resurgence of Cultural Burning  West Side Rising: How San Antonio's 1921 Flood Devastated a City and Sparked an Environmental Justice Movement  Not So Golden State: Sustainability vs. the California Dream  Ten Across Conversations podcasts referenced in this discussion:  “Urban Expert Bill Fulton's Perspective of How LA Can Rebuild Following the Fires” (Ten Across Conversations podcast, January 15, 2025)  “State Preemption is on the Rise: What it Means for Cities” (Ten Across Conversations podcast, April 6, 2023)  “Leading the Country's 2nd Largest City with LA Mayor Eric Garcetti” (Ten Across Conversations podcast, November 17, 2022)  Other:  The Fragmented Metropolis (Robert M. Fogelson, 1993)

In the hottest year in recorded history, extreme heat corresponded to several notable weather events and ongoing public health impacts in the Ten Across geography. Evidence shows warming ocean temperatures were behind an especially destructive Atlantic hurricane season for the Gulf. Nearly all states along this transect saw their rates of private insurance nonrenewal increase among the most at-risk communities, as a result of storms, wildfires and other extreme weather. Lastly, all but four US cities that saw the most significant jump in their number of extremely hot days last year are along Interstate 10.  It would not be unreasonable to feel some uneasiness and uncertainty as the new year begins. We are living in a fast-paced, highly connected period of volatility for humanity at large. And many of the decisions and actions taken now will have more immediate consequences here in the Ten Across geography, where the evidence of climate change is felt most profoundly.  A loss of insurance or homeownership; loss of recreation or thermal comfort due to extended heat waves; or loss of communities as we once knew them from disaster, places a significant mental toll on those in the immediate and surrounding environment, as well as observers. However, a study by George Mason University finds most Americans (65%) ‘rarely' or ‘never' talk about the topic of climate change with friends or family.    In this episode, Ten Across founder Duke Reiter and Dr. Sophie Nicholls, principal investigator for the Feeling Planet research study, discuss the importance of naming and reflecting on difficult feelings about our environment. Sophie's study seeks to demonstrate how this process is critical in tending to ourselves and others, and for generating action and hope for the future.  Related resources and articles:  Download Feeling Planet workshop materials and read more about the study HERE.  “LA-area wildfires taking toll on mental health of disaster survivors” (NPR, January 14, 2025)  What If We Get it Right?: Visions of Climate Futures, written by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson  The Weight of Nature: How a Changing Climate Changes Our Brains, written by Clayton Page Aldern  

The events of the past year have reinforced the logic of the Ten Across initiative. In the context of the hottest year in recorded history, the Ten Across geography witnessed ongoing drought, a supercharged Atlantic hurricane season, devastating wildfires, and a significant loss of homeownership or insurance safety nets for its residents.  As we enter 2025, with staggering urban wildfires still raging in the Los Angeles area and a new federal administration soon to be sworn in; it is evident that this year will be a complex, unpredictable, if not historic year. This underscores the urgency of continuing our dialogues and collaborations on climate resilience. We believe the Ten Across region holds critical insights to understanding our present challenges and the foreseeable future as a nation as climate change and other global forces converge.  In this episode, we contextualize major issues surfaced in 2024 and their significance within our region to set the stage for conversations in the year ahead. While we cannot highlight every guest and topic, we would like to sincerely thank all who engaged with us and shared their insights last year. We hope this summary will inspire you to revisit and share some of your favorite conversations of the show, so that we may connect with more of you in the new year.  Thank you for listening along and stay tuned for more!  Featured podcasts by order of appearance in this recording:  “Why Phoenix is the ‘Most American City' with George Packer”  “How the 10X Region Can Plan for Climate Migration with Abrahm Lustgarten” “Future Cities: How Mayors Are Leading U.S. Progress with Clarence Anthony”   “James Fallows on How the News Media Influence U.S. Democracy and Elections”  “New America's Anne-Marie Slaughter on the Importance of Local and Regional Governance”  Related articles and resources:  Link to subscribe to the Ten Across newsletterGeorge Packer on Washington Week with The Atlantic, 12/27/24   “As a Climate Scientist, I Knew It Was Time to Leave Los Angeles” (Peter Kalmus, NYTimes Opinion, January 10, 2025)  “The Great Climate Migration Has Begun” (Abrahm Lustgarten, New York Times Magazine, July 23, 2020)  Our Towns Civic Foundation  New America's Co-Governance Project

On January 10, a sudden urban fire began in Los Angeles's Pacific Palisades neighborhood, immediately scorching 200 acres. Two hours later, evacuations were ordered for the 23,000 people in the community. By morning, all Los Angeles firefighters were called to duty, prepared for the worst as 50 to 80-mph winds began to pick up and carry embers from the fire for miles.  Then the worst happened—firefighting aircraft became grounded due to the strong Santa Ana winds and hydrants, not designed for a fire of this scale, ran dry after constant use for 24 hours leaving homes and first responders defenseless. Within a short period of time, the Palisades fire razed 5,000 structures and counting to the ground.  A little over a week since the blaze began, the Palisades and nearby Eaton fire in the Angeles National Forest, remain largely uncontained. Smaller fires in the conflagration—including Hurst and Kenneth on the northeast side of LA—are nearly or 100% contained. However 90,000 residents remain under evacuation orders and another 84,000 are under a warning. Life has come to a standstill in this portion of the nation's second largest city and the path to recovery is uncertain.  For years, the insurance industry has been anticipating an event like this. In fact, just last summer, 70% of Palisades residents had their home policies dropped because companies determined wildfire rebuilding cost would be insurmountable. The absence of private insurance coverage, and the speed with which the fire consumed billions of dollars' worth of property, has raised urgent questions about how and where we will choose to develop housing, businesses, and necessary institutions in a climate changed world.  In this timely episode, Ten Across founder Duke Reiter and Bill Fulton, the former mayor of Ventura, California and former director of planning and economic development for the City of San Diego, discuss the future of homeownership, insurance, and residential development in Los Angeles while this singularly tragic event continues to play out.  Related articles and resources:   “As L.A. considers rebuilding, here's what people say they're willing to change” (The Washington Post, Jan. 15, 2025)  “How climate change is reshaping home insurance in California—and the rest of the U.S.” (NPR, Jan. 14, 2025)  “We Will All Be Paying For L.A's Wildfires” (The Lever, Jan. 14, 2025)

"It's not just trust, it's agency. Going back to this election—that anger is so often connected to people who feel like they are at the mercy of forces they cannot control." —Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO of New AmericaAs we enter 2025, perspectives increasingly diverge on issues of the economy, national and international politics, energy and artificial intelligence, and management of the environment. The greatest uncertainty may be whether the world at large will rally to the urgency of climate change. Yet in the face of such complex, large-scale challenges, effective local action remains as one of the most important determinants of our collective future.  Washington, D.C.-based New America, a “think-and-action tank,” was founded in 1999 on the belief that the nation needed research and policy recommendations that could better support the more mobile and informed American public of the digital age. Their work elevates the stories of people closest to the public problems they seek to solve; investing in the next generation of leaders; and intentionally engaging with local perspectives. The organization has generated guidance and driven activity toward building resilience and public trust at all levels of government, serving as a platform for emerging social, technological and political thought leaders including Abrahm Lustgarten and Jeff Goodell.  Under the leadership of Anne-Marie Slaughter, a renowned international law scholar and former first woman director of Policy Planning for the U.S. State Department, New America has infused these areas of study and problem-solving with an increasingly global outlook.  Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter and Anne-Marie Slaughter reflect on the evolution of New America's role in helping to provide evidence-based ideas, policies, and solutions to help inform governmental response to the future and to external conflict. They also explore the local, state, and regional leadership alternatives available in the Ten Across geography if the global community cannot effectively collaborate on mitigating climate change impacts in 2025.Relevant links and resources:  Anne-Marie is also the author or editor of nine books, including... A New World Order… The Idea that Is America, and… most recently...Renewal: From Crisis to Transformation in Our Lives, Work, and Politics.   Friends or fellows of New America that have also been on the podcast:  “James Fallows on How the News Media Influence U.S. Democracy and Elections”  “How the 10X Region Can Plan for Climate Migration with Abrahm Lustgarten”  “10X Heat Series: Covering Climate Change as it Unfolds with Jeff Goodell” “State Preemption is on the Rise: What it Means for Cities”  Guest Bio: Anne-Marie Slaughter is a global leader, scholar, and public commentator. She is currently CEO of New America, a think and action tank dedicated to renewing the promise of America in a period of rapid demographic, technological, and global change. She previously served as a professor of international, foreign, and comparative law at Harvard Law School; dean of the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, and as the director of policy planning for the United States Department of State.  

Louisiana's coast sits at the mouth of the Mississippi River. The largest discharge basin in the United States, the Mississippi collects runoff from 41% of the nation's rivers and delivers it into the Gulf of Mexico. Where this freshwater meets the ocean, randomly deposited mounds of river sediment form a large, well-inhabited delta that is constantly reordering itself.   To assert permanence upon this fluid landform and to stop severe flooding of riverine communities, the US Army Corps of Engineers introduced the Mississippi River Tributaries Program in 1927. Over the course of four decades, a labyrinth of concrete levees, floodways, reservoirs and pumping stations were constructed in an attempt to control the river.    Today, these interventions along the Mississippi are inadvertently leading to greater flooding by preventing the natural process of sediment flow and the formation of new wetlands. Faced with this challenge, as well as the fastest rate of climate-induced sea level rise in the world—the Louisiana delta is quickly receding. In fact as Beaux Jones, president and CEO of The Water Institute shared, the state “loses roughly the equivalent of a football field every 100 minutes.”  This land loss is so great, that the nation's first official climate refugees hail from a now-deserted island in southern Louisiana: Isle de Jean Charles. Louisiana resident and writer Nathaniel Rich recently commented in The New York Times that evidence suggests New Orleans may not be far behind.  The urgent challenge of protecting the habitation of Louisiana's coast reminds us that climate change impacts are not a far-off abstraction or that resilience is a distant need; it is a daily reality for those in Gulf Coast.  Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter and Beaux Jones, president and CEO of The Water Institute, explore how this Baton Rouge-based research center is gathering the best coastal hydrologic data and experts, and sharing their methodologies with the US Army Corps of Engineers and many impacted communities in the I-10 corridor to assist them in critical decision making and resilience planning.  Relevant links and resources:  Learn more about how The Water Institute is helping the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers update their benefit-cost analysis for climate adaptive infrastructure.  Resilient Jacksonville: the award-winning resilience plan from the City of Jacksonville, with research support provided by the Institute  Learn more about The Water Institute's work at the forefront of quantifying the impacts of compound flooding.

The U.S. Atlantic hurricane season has changed. A recent study by Climate Central found that over the last six years, manmade warming amplified the average Atlantic hurricane's strength by as much as 18 miles per hour. For context: it only takes an increase of 16 miles per hour to advance a hurricane from "minimal" Category 1 to "major" Category 3 — but the difference in damage is 140 times greater. Evidence of such a potent connection between climate-warmed ocean temperatures and the energy of tropical cyclones has many meteorologists raising alarms.  In May, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration published their ‘most aggressive season outlook' ever, according to the Washington Post. The agency projected 17 to 25 named storms, up to 13 of which were likely to strengthen into hurricanes. Of those, it was predicted that four to seven would rank as Category 3 or above. With just a week left in the standard June-through-November hurricane season, the forecast has proven devastatingly accurate.  The southeastern portion of the Ten Across geography and north into Central Appalachia saw the greatest human and property loss this season from one Category 4 and two Category 5 storms that rolled into the Gulf Coast region.  This episode of the podcast discusses the greatest impacts from these events, as well as the advances that NOAA, the National Weather Service, and National Hurricane Center are making to limit harm from extreme weather as much as possible during both hurricane season and the rest of the year.  Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter talks with National Hurricane Center Director Michael Brennan and the National Weather Service's Southern Region Director Michael Coyne to explore the evolving responsibilities of meteorologic sciences and communications in a changing climate landscape. 

Extreme heat, when compared to other natural disasters, can be slow-moving and hard to observe. There aren't homes to repair or debris to clear following a heat wave, but the devastation is revealed in the rising number of heat-related fatalities and declining public health measures across many vulnerable populations within Ten Across communities like Phoenix, Los Angeles, Tucson and San Antonio.  Rising temperatures already pose a risk to this region's critical physical infrastructure, as reported by nonprofit Climate Central: the US experienced 60% more hot season power outages during the last 10 years than in the period from 2000 to 2009. And the risk of heat-related grid failures across California, Arizona, Nevada, and Texas is expected to grow quickly, according to findings released earlier this year by global advisory firm ICF.  Federal, state, and local leaders are now focused on mitigating the most severe outcomes for heat-vulnerable communities. This summer the Biden Administration hosted the first ever White House Summit on Extreme Heat, pulling together more than 100 experts on the cutting edge of heat research and adaptation to develop shovel-ready resilience projects. Topping the list of priorities were long-term interventions like improved tree canopy and installation of cooling infrastructure in the most at-risk cities and suburbs.  In this episode, Ten Across founder Duke Reiter speaks with Dr. V Kelly Turner, assistant professor of urban planning at the University of California, Los Angeles, who participated in the White House Summit and has been a leading voice in reimagining the built environment for a hotter climate.   Earlier this year, Kelly was appointed director of the National Integrated Heat Health Information System's (NIHHIS) Center for Heat Resilient Communities. The Center will begin accepting applications on November 20, 2024, from communities in need of technical assistance to determine the best locally tailored heat solutions.  Listen in as Duke and Kelly discuss what these strategies might look like and why they are so immediately needed in the Ten Across region.  Relevant links and resources:  Information for cities and tribes to apply for heat mitigation grant technical assistance (APPLICATIONS DUE January 24, 2025): https://cpo.noaa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/CHRC-Application-Supplement-10-31-2.pdf “New climate projections show rising exposure to extreme heat in disadvantaged communities” (ICF, May 2024)  “What Some of the Hottest Cities on The 10 Are Doing to Address Deadly Heat” (Ten Across Conversations, August 2024)  “10X Heat Series: Covering Climate Change as It Unfolds with Jeff Goodell” (Ten Across Conversations, July 2023)

The cost of housing has risen nationwide, but this change has been particularly acute in the Ten Across geography. With the exception of California, the Sun Belt has been known for decades to offer abundant and affordable housing, attracting young families and retirees alike.  However, development of new single-family housing has shown more hesitancy since the 2008 housing bubble collapse, and proposed multifamily properties can be deterred by NIMBY (Not in My Backyard) attitudes. Both factors have contributed to a significant housing shortage in Arizona and its neighboring states, according to report by ARCHES, the Arizona Research Center for Housing Equity and Sustainability. Further compounding the issue, the recent growth in domestic migration to the region has outpaced this weaker rate of real estate development.  Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the median home price in Arizona surged 50% to $470,000 and nearly half of all renters are considered cost-burdened, meaning they are spending more than 30% of their income on housing. Local land use policies have overwhelmingly favored single-family development, so much so that it represents nearly 78% of all housing units built in Arizona since 2000.  Today, lacking a diverse stock of housing options, service industry workers, teachers, first responders and other professionals earning less than $60,000 a year are struggling to find affordable places to live. Researchers warn that such an unbalanced mix of housing opportunities leads to economic instability, poorer health outcomes and social division over time. Rising rates of homelessness tend to be an early warning sign, and in 2023 homelessness in Arizona reached its highest recorded level since 2010.  Housing is a universal need. To thrive, communities need to become better at cultivating a sufficient and diverse inventory. In this episode, ARCHES housing researchers Alison Cook-Davis and Kristi Eustice discuss the findings and recommendations contained in their center's first report as a HUD-funded resource for furthering housing equity in the U.S. Southwest.    Relevant links and resources:   2024 State of Housing in Arizona Report (Arizona Research Center for Housing Equity and Sustainability at the Morrison Institute for Public Policy, August 2024, PDF file) “Housing is Health Care” (Morrison Institute for Public Policy, May 2021, PDF file)  “America's housing problem—and what to do about it” (Harvard Magazine, November-December 2024)  “Why Phoenix is the ‘Most American City' with George Packer” (Ten Across Conversations, August 2024)  “Local Experts Answer: Why Are People Still Moving to Phoenix?” (Ten Across Conversations, February 2024)  “Understanding Housing and Homelessness in America with Gregg Colburn” (Ten Across Conversations, December 2022)

On October 10th —25 days ahead of the 2024 presidential election—Ten Across founder Duke Reiter and veteran political correspondent James Fallows sat down to discuss journalism's role in American democracy today. Fallows has been a notable observer of this dynamic since at least 1996, when he published Breaking the News, a book which described the origins of the public's mistrust of the news media.  Fallows believed as much then as now that most political journalism is a source of entertainment focused on the gamesmanship of policymaking, rather than practical information for civically engaged citizens. This disconnect has only grown as many local news publications have proven unable to adapt to the digital age, leaving many communities to become ‘news deserts.' Together with his wife Deborah, both have sought to alleviate distrust of the media and the related knowledge gaps by reporting from small towns in their book and HBO documentary Our Towns. Their work has led them to conclude that the national media lacks sufficient capacity or interest to provide a platform for all the complexity and ideological nuance found among the voting populace. They now operate the Our Towns Civic Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to uncovering stories of civic renewal and local success.  In this live conversation recorded at the Arizona State University campus in Tempe, Duke Reiter and James Fallows discuss how the imperfect barometer of national-scale journalism can shape citizen behaviors and tensions between the major parties, especially in an election year.  WATCH THIS DISCUSSION on the Ten Across YouTube channel.Fact check of today's episode:The Barry Goldwater Range Complex located in Arizona's Gila Bend is incorrectly referred to as the John McCain Bombing Range in this discussion.  Relevant links and resources:  James Fallows | Substack: Breaking the News  Breaking the News (Fallows, 1996)  Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey Into the Heart of America (Fallows, James and Deborah Fallows, 2018)  “A Kansas town offers transportation for voters but many are unaware” (NBC News, 2018) “Why Phoenix is the ‘Most American City' with George Packer” (Ten Across Conversations, 2024)

In the last month, the Ten Across Conversations podcast has explored a variety of influences on modern U.S.-Mexico relations, including a lack of cooperation on immigration policy, climate change impacts on transboundary water-sharing and the outsized role Mexico plays in the recent revitalization of North American manufacturing. For the final episode of this limited series on the border, we'll examine major political considerations as both nations prepare to transition presidential administrations and then to renegotiate the critical United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement in 2026.  This conversation draws on the perspective of Tony Payan, executive director of Rice University's Baker Institute Center for the U.S. and Mexico. The Center publishes an annual Mexico Country Outlook report that provides insights for business leaders, policymakers and the public with regard to the state of affairs within the country and how these trends may impact its relationship with the U.S.  Their 2024 Outlook, published in January, anticipated many challenges within Mexico's democracy, infrastructure and energy security, but also significant economic opportunity as the U.S. evolves its own industrial policy in support of nearshoring its supply chain.  Ten Across founder Duke Reiter discusses these implications with Tony Payan, paying particular attention to policy changes anticipated with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum's recent election and the implications for the current U.S. presidential candidates' respective platforms.  Relevant links and resources:  The Baker Institute's Mexico Country Outlook 2024  Border Series Episode 1: “Why U.S. Immigration Reform is Critical to Our Future with Dr. David Shirk”  Border Series Episode 2: “Climate-Induced Drought Tests U.S.-Mexico Water-Sharing”  Border Series Episode 3: “Perspectives From a Binational Trade and Economic Development Hub”

Culture, finances and people have always moved with fluidity across boundaries within the binational, three-state metropolitan region known as ‘the Borderplex.' Together, Las Cruces, El Paso, and Ciudad Juarez are an economic powerhouse with a combined population of 2.7 million and the largest bilingual and binational workforce in the Western Hemisphere.  After the North American Free Trade Agreement was reached in 1994, Borderplex assets—including its urbanization and industrialization—exploded for decades. The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement updated NAFTA commitments in 2018, realigining regional trade in a way that paid off as COVID-19 brought volatility to global commerce for years to come. With instabilities persisting today in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Asia, the appeal of an international supply chain physically closer to U.S. markets has only grown.  Connected to the greater U.S. by Interstates 10 and 25, The Borderplex is a growing arterial for international trade and is further optimized by collaborative economic planning between leaders in all three of its cities. As a result of all of these and other factors, last year, Mexico surpassed China as the top importer to the U.S.-- a position China had held since 2009.  The Hunt Institute for Global Competitiveness at the University of Texas at El Paso and The Borderplex Alliance are two prominent organizations supporting the assets and relationships that make The Borderplex so critical to the U.S. They each provide expert analysis and guidance to companies and individuals interested in engaging this regional binational economic hub.  In this episode, Jon Barela, CEO of the Borderplex Alliance, and Mayra Maldonado, executive director of the Hunt Institute, offer their perspectives on these exchanges and what it means to be a binational region within the current political climate.  Fact check of today's interview:  In this interview, a guest refers to El Paso, Texas, as the second safest city in the US with a population of half a million or more. Although this distinction appears to have been given in 2017 and is not the city's current ranking, El Paso consistently ranks as one of the safer cities in the US for its population size.  Relevant links and resources:  Episode one of the series: “10X Border Series: Why U.S. Immigration Reform is Critical to Our Future with Dr. David Shirk”  Episode two of the series: “10X Border Series: Climate-Induced Drought Tests U.S.-Mexico Water-Sharing”  “The Transformative Power of Reduced Wait Times at the US-Mexico Border” (joint report between the Hunt Institute, Atlantic Council and El Colegio de la Frontera Norte)  Hunt Institute's overview of the Paso del Norte Region

Alongside immigration, there is another issue testing diplomacy between the U.S. and Mexico in 2024. Increasingly unpredictable weather patterns in combination with growth in both population and industrial demand have made it difficult, if not impossible, for the two nations to meet the obligations defined by their 1944 U.S.-Mexico Water Treaty.  The Tijuana, Rio Grande, and Colorado Rivers have long supported the growing border region. However, like the Colorado River Compact between U.S. states, the 1944 international treaty was developed during a 30-year period of unusual regional water abundance--extremely disparate from today's climate and demand. Intense strain is already being felt by water users on both sides of the border, and the future will be increasingly difficult if aging policies and infrastructure cannot be quickly brought up-to-date.   The International Boundary and Water Commission (“Comisión Internacional de Límites y Aguas”) is the binational governmental agency that administers this expansive treaty. Beginning in 2021, the Commission worked with experts to adjust the treaty's terms to 21st-century constraints. Though the team was unable to meet a target date to complete renegotiation in December 2023, increased activity in domestic legislation and binational research have since demonstrated growing motivation to master the availability of water resources in the region.     To help us understand this complex issue, Ten Across founder Duke Reiter speaks with two renowned transborder experts, Francisco Lara-Valencia and Stephen Mumme. Francisco and Stephen were among those who answered the IBWC's request for expert policy recommendations in 2021. Together, they'll discuss a confluence of factors requiring the IBWC to modernize transboundary water governance, and what this means for the Ten Across region.  Relevant links and resources:   Episode one of our ‘Border Series': “10X Border Series: Why U.S. Immigration Reform is Critical to Our Future with Dr. David Shirk” (Ten Across Conversations, 2024)  “Managing Groundwater on the US-Mexico Border is Challenging—But Vital” (APM Research Lab/Ten Across, 2024)  “Water treaty between Mexico and U.S. faces biggest test in 80 years” (NPR, 2024)  “Water Management on the U.S.-Mexico Border: Achieving Water Sustainability and Resilience through Cross-Border Cooperation” (Lara-Valencia, Francisco, Irasema Coronado, Stephen Mumme, et al. 2023)  Border Water: The Politics of U.S.-Mexico Transboundary Water Management, 1945-2015 (Mumme, Stephen, 2023)  “Alternative Visions of the U.S. Southern Border Yesterday, Tomorrow, and Today” (Ten Across Conversations, 2023)

For more than a decade, the topic of immigration has remained at the center of national debate in the U.S. and has become an unfortunate source of rancor between the two major political parties. As a result, efforts to reform an aging and ineffective immigration system have been largely unsuccessful. Meanwhile, pressures on the U.S.-Mexican border continue to grow.  A convergence of factors, including climate change and a rise in organized crime and authoritarian leadership, is forcing desperate families from Central and South America and other parts of the globe to seek refuge in the U.S. Many experts point to these externalities and the expiration of Trump-era asylum restrictions as the combined cause for the Border Patrol's record-breaking numbers of migrant encounters in the second half of 2023.  In response to this surge and a growing backlog of asylum and immigration cases, Congress attempted to pass historic bipartisan reform under the Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act in February 2024. The bill would have increased support for border security efforts and the immigration court system. Like many previous attempts at reform, it succumbed to politics.  Why has the U.S. dragged its feet on improving immigration processes and monitoring for more than 20 years? What does this mean for frontline communities in the Ten Across region as global trade becomes more regionalized, and climate and political tensions intensify? Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter and U.S.-Mexico border relations expert David Shirk explore these questions, as well as the history of this fraught political boundary, from its establishment to its significance to modern American isolationism.  Relevant links and resources:  justiceinmexico.org  “Takeaways from the Texas Tribune-Associated Press report on 24 hours along the Texas-Mexico border” (The Texas Tribune, 2024)  “How the 10X Region Can Plan for Climate Migration with Abrahm Lustgarten” (Ten Across Conversations, 2024)  “10X Trendline: Unprecedented Migration Patterns Are Testing U.S. Diplomacy in the Ten Across Region” (Ten Across Blog, 2024)“Alternative Visions of the Southern U.S. Border Yesterday, Tomorrow, and Today”  (Ten Across Conversations, 2023)

Whether humid or arid, summer heat indexes from Southern California to Florida have become increasingly fatal when people lack access to air conditioning or some form of cooling. Last year in Arizona's Maricopa County, alone, almost 25% of the more than 600 heat-related deaths were people who had been sheltered indoors, but with broken or insufficient air conditioning.    Most AC units are still highly energy inefficient and can be prohibitively expensive to use. What's more, most also rely on chemical refrigerants that are atmospheric pollutants. The resulting energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions contribute to a feedback loop, further warming the planet and our region.  In 2022, Ten Across began partnering with Clean Cooling Collaborative, an initiative of the ClimateWorks Foundation, on a regional student competition seeking environmentally friendly cooling solutions for underserved populations along Interstate 10. Over 700 colleges and universities throughout the Ten Across region were invited to submit engineering, design, policy, health or finance innovations that could increase access to low-carbon, artificial cooling.   Five finalist teams advanced through a rigorous application and stakeholder engagement process to participate in an online fast-pitch event this past March. Their proposed solutions were each adjudicated by a panel of five heat resilience experts in front of a live online audience of supporters and peers. The student teams with their faculty and community partners all took home grants of varying sizes to support continued development of their experience in climate innovation.   In this episode, Ten Across founder Duke Reiter narrates and explores the rationale, process, and outcomes of the inaugural 10X Prize, featuring perspectives from the competition sponsor, two jurors, a student competitor and their community partner.  Relevant links and resources:  Learn more about the competition and our sponsor: 10X Prize website  cleancoolingcollaborative.org  Learn more about heat resilience or the urban heat island effect:   “What Some of the Hottest Cities on The 10 Are Doing to Address Deadly Heat”“10X Heat Series: Covering Climate Change as It Unfolds with Jeff Goodell”  Learn more about cooling associated emissions:  “10X Heat Series: Solving the Cooling Paradox” (with Ankit Kalanki) “Rethinking How We Cool Buildings with Dr. Alexandra Rempel and Christiana Moss”

Many scholars, energy experts, and federal politicians agree the U.S. electric grid is antiquated and increasingly ineffective at meeting the demands of the 21st century. Power demand over time, or “load growth,” has reached historic heights with the expansion of artificial intelligence, electric vehicle ownership, and American manufacturing. As a result, utilities like Arizona Public Service have warned they may run out of transmission capacity by the end of the decade.  Real and imagined climate-fueled energy disasters such as 2021's Winter Storm Uri or a recent hypothetical model of a summertime blackout scenario in Phoenix, have heightened our awareness of grid-related risks. Whether the focus is climate adaptation or mitigation, our success depends on an increased and secure energy supply.    Michael Skelly, founder and CEO of Grid United, U.S. wind energy pioneer, and the protagonist of the 2019 book Superpower: One Man's Quest to Transform American Energy, first recognized and began addressing this dilemma decades ago.  Through more than 10 years of developing wind projects, Michael encountered firsthand the limits of renewable energy potential within the existing grid. Solar and wind are intermittent and regionally specific energy resources. Current infrastructure does not allow pathways for these abundant and inexpensive supplies to reach the entirety of the nation. His company Grid United is hoping to change that, with strategic grid-to-grid transmission development projects.  Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter and Michael Skelly discuss an emerging joint effort between the public and private sectors to revolutionize transmission planning and development and realize the U.S. electric grid of tomorrow.  Relevant links and resources:  “FERC Issues Order No. 1920 To Accelerate Regional Transmission Planning” (Inside Energy & Environment, 2024)  “UK and Denmark launch Viking Link underwater cable project” (Euro News, 2024)  “What Will We Do With Our Free Power?” (The New York Times, 2024)   “Why the U.S. Electric Grid Isn't Ready for the Energy Transition” (The New York Times, 2023)“Explained: Why perovskites could take solar cells to new heights” (MIT News, 2022)  

In this episode, Ten Across Conversations revisits a 2022 interview with Arizona State University Professor of Practice David Orr to coincide with the release of Orr's new book Democracy in a Hotter Time: Climate Change and Democratic Transformation and his recent two-day symposium at ASU covering related topics. Ten Across founder and executive director Duke Reiter helped author this book along with 21 other leading scholars, public intellectuals and political leaders, including ASU President Michael Crow.  On August 27th and 28th, seven of the book's co-authors gathered with ASU graduate students and national experts in law, international politics and communications to share insights into how democracy must evolve to meet the demands of a changing climate. The event was keynoted by a conversation between Orr and Crow on the role of universities in advancing democracy and our understanding of the planet. You can read more about that discussion here.  On the concluding day, Reiter and a panel of five postgraduate students of geographical sciences, urban design and architecture discussed how the building sector—and the public demand and policies that guide it—need to be more attuned to extreme heat and resource depletion worldwide. The discussants agreed that while technical solutions may already exist, the political will to implement them is often lagging.  The intersection of American democracy and climate change is a compelling and urgent topic. Listen in as Duke Reiter and David Orr reflect on the need to strengthen political discourse and creativity so that future climate deadlines can be met with more meaningful action.  Relevant links and resources:  The Oberlin Project website  “Heat Pumps for Peace and Freedom” (The Crucial Years, February 2022) “Real Knowing: John Wesley Powell's Prophetic Vision for the American West” (Ten Across Conversations, November 2021)  Democracy Unchained (Orr, et al., 2020)  Dangerous Years (Orr, 2018)

Extreme heat poses the greatest risk of all climate hazards in the Ten Across region today. Heat is estimated by the National Weather Service to be two times deadlier than hurricanes and tornadoes combined.  New research published this week based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows a 117% increase in U.S. heat-related deaths over the last 24 years. Unprecedented heat conditions ground flights and rescue helicopters and compromise roads, bridges, and rail systems, while demand for cooling strains energy grids.  The change in temperature puts millions of people at heightened risk and exacerbates existing health vulnerability, especially given that cities are still lacking sufficient response systems, infrastructure and access to federal disaster aid.  These risks continue to be illuminated this summer, which is on track to be the second hottest since record-keeping began in the mid-1800s—surpassed only by last year's temperatures. This July, parts of Los Angeles County experienced unprecedented daily highs and a record number of consecutive days over 110 degrees. San Antonio beat its highest previous heat index value, set last year, in early June of this year.  Rising heat has limited activity and endangered the health of residents of the South and Southwest, and has been moving northward into other regions of the U.S. As places throughout the U.S. struggle to plan for harmful temperatures, Ten Across cities are at the forefront in developing a framework and resources for effective responses.  Leaders like Marta Segura, chief heat officer and director of Climate Emergency Mobilization for the City of Los Angeles, and Doug Melnick, San Antonio's chief sustainability officer, are among the nation's first class of public officials dedicated to heat mitigation.  Listen in as Rae Ulrich, senior director for Ten Across and facilitator of the Ten Across Resilience Officers Network, talks with Marta and Doug about the strategies their cities are testing and implementing to protect residents from heat, and how collaboration above and beyond city limits can improve resilience for all.    News clips included in the episode intro courtesy of: ReutersKTLA 5 NewsKVIA ABC-7 News  Related links:  “Can chief heat officers protect US cities from extreme heat?” (Grist, August 6, 2024)  “Becerra says extreme heat emerging as a ‘public health crisis'” (The Hill, August 8, 2024)

The role of mayor is uniquely important in U.S. government, as an elected arguably closest to the results of governance in the everyday lives of constituents. Considering the influential power of cities in innovation, economic growth and sustainable development, mayors are also often required to navigate politics and publicity at national and international levels—even as they rise above political polarization and focus on practical solutions for the wellbeing of their communities.  Over the past decade, the City of Mesa, like several of its mid- to large-sized peers throughout the Ten Across region, has been remarkable for its ongoing growth and transformation. Complexities of climate change, natural resources, and both domestic and international migration notwithstanding, Mesa has attracted billions of dollars in private sector investments and has outgrown Miami, FL, and Atlanta, GA, in population size.  Mayor John Giles has led Mesa since 2014, and in his current, final term as mayor, has redoubled his work to further the city's national visibility and appeal as an affordable, livable hub for recreation and economic opportunity.  At least as noteworthy, however, may be Mayor Giles's ability to defy political partisanship—as evidenced most recently by the national news of his endorsement, as a Republican, of Vice President Kamala Harris's candidacy in the 2024 presidential election.  Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter and Mesa Mayor John Giles reflect on the mayor's ten years of service and his hand in Mesa's transformation from a humble desert suburb into a burgeoning tech and climate innovation hub.  *Note this episode was recorded prior to Vice President Kamala Harris' selection of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate.  Related 10X podcasts and links:  Mayor John Giles 2024 State of the City Decarbonizing Our Transportation System with Gabe Klein & Michael Berube  Future Cities: How Mayors Are Leading U.S. Progress with Clarence Anthony  “Opinion: There's no ‘invasion' at our southern border. I know. I design ports of entry” (Arizona Republic, May 24, 2024)

In a hotter world, places like Phoenix, Arizona, will continue to present the rest of the nation with captivating examples of the potential—or limits—of human ingenuity, collaboration and political will. The Atlantic, with its July/August 2024 cover story, goes so far as to suggest that Phoenix provides a particularly important view of the future of American civilization.  In more than 20,000 words—the second-longest story the magazine has printed in the last 40 years—ten chapters and an epilogue describe the recent growth and political stratification of one of the nation's more environmentally threated cities today. Its author, staff writer George Packer, seems equally inspired and alarmed throughout by the readiness of the metro's residents and leaders to face the challenges ahead.  Mr. Packer's analysis complements the work of Ten Across stakeholders positioning Phoenix and its neighboring I-10 cities at the center of such nationally important conversations. Because these southernmost major metros find themselves on the frontlines of intense changes in the U.S., their experiences of anticipating, mitigating and adapting to the future offer valuable insight at a uniquely polarizing time for the country at large.  Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter talks with author George Packer about his provocative profile of Phoenix and about key themes from his latest book, Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal.  Read George's article:  “The Valley: Searching for the future in the most American city” (The Atlantic, July/August 2024)  Check out our other podcasts on Phoenix growth and sustainability this year:  Understanding Arizona's Past Present, and Future with Tom Zoellner  Local Experts Answer: Why Are People Still Moving to Phoenix?

In the first days of his term, President Joe Biden signed Executive Order 14008 on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, introducing the Justice40 initiative and setting important climate priorities for the nation. Built upon principals of the U.S. environmental justice movement begun by Dr. Robert Bullard four decades prior, Justice40 set a goal that 40% the overall benefits of federal climate and affordable housing investments must flow to historically disadvantaged communities.  As with any ambitious government spending plan, Justice40 has been subject to scrutiny of the administration's ability to deliver on its intentions. Since January of 2024, the initiative has faced criticisms for its difficult grant application process and inconsistent tracking of where associated benefits and dollars are touching ground in the U.S.  Other developments over the summer of 2024 have also undermined public confidence in Justice40. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court's overturn of the Chevron doctrine with its Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo decision introduced doubts by eliminating a forty-year-old precedent of deferring to agency interpretations of ambiguous federal laws. President Biden's subsequent withdrawal from the presidential race in July has added to the uncertain outlook.  With Vice President Kamala Harris as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, it remains to be seen whether Justice40 in its current form will carry over among a new administration's priorities.  Environmental justice will remain a critical focus for many Ten Across communities whether Justice40 is renewed or not. And though there may be room for improvement, the initiative increased federal support where it has long been needed most and drew national attention to important climate and equity issues.  Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter talks with Chitra Kumar, a former director in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, about her observations of renewed vigor for environmental justice across federal agencies and the internal culture shift that resulted from the work of the Justice40 Initiative.  *Note: In this discussion, the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool is sometimes referred to by its acronym, “CJEST.”*  Articles/resources referenced in this discussion:   Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool  “Strengthening Justice40” (Chitra Kumar, The Equation, April 25, 2024)  “Why the White House's Justice40 is an Important Tool to Build On” (Chitra Kumar, The Equation, April 25, 2024)

Ten Across makes the future visible through examinations of communities in the southernmost U.S., which are often on the front lines of climate change. This applies especially to the engineering, design and politics surrounding intersections of our built and natural environments—where the development of more resilient and equitable infrastructure has proven to be an important theme.   Ten Across Conversations with Dr. Robert Bullard and Megan Kimble have offered a thorough look at the impacts of interstate highways on human health. However, we've rarely had the opportunity to explore another trade-off often demanded by these structures—one with tremendous implications for the future.  According to environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb, no human activity kills more animals than driving does. Collisions with vehicles have been responsible for a loss of 60% of the world's animal population since 1970, Ben reports. Further, human infrastructure has massively disrupted wild animals' habitats, health, and abilities to migrate for food and reproduction. Salmon and other migratory fish populations, for one newsworthy example, have rapidly declined due to the effects of mega-dams, culverts, chemicals from car tires, and rising heat from carbon emissions.  Biodiversity is essential to the systems that support life on Earth, and its decline contributes to worsening cycles that threaten ecological, climate and agricultural systems—as well as human health and wellbeing. But there is cause for hope: research provided by road ecologists—including many working along the I-10 transect—is beginning to inform selective redesigns of roadway infrastructure in ways that will protect wildlife.  Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter and author Ben Goldfarb discuss this extraordinary field—its mission, observations of human and animal behavior, and ideals for the future. Together they discover a vision of design that is inclusive of the natural world and may help us both to reach our climate targets and maintain the beauty of the native environment.

When Henry Ford streamlined vehicle manufacturing in the 1920s, he vaulted the U.S. to its status as a global economic leader. Soon after, the passage of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 and its establishment of the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) affirmed private automobiles as Americans' preferred method of travel. Federal and state departments of transportation have since dedicated vast sums of money and public land to roadway projects and maintenance, and comparatively little to public transit or housing development.  The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) represents the largest surge in federal transit funding ($20.5 billion) to date, but it is still small compared to the additional $118 billion allocated by Congress to keep the HTF solvent. A similar budget pattern appears at the state and local levels with an average 6% of general funding going toward highways and roads, compared to the 2% spent on housing and urban development, according to the Urban Institute.  Now, a growing coalition of freeway fighters is pushing back against the nation's largely unquestioned prioritization of roads, claiming that this paving of the nation to support vehicle travel has come at the expense of human and environmental wellbeing. They further point to evidence that the expansion of highways does little to address congestion or route efficiency for drivers.   This is particularly true in Texas, a state at the heart of Megan Kimble's new book City Limits: Infrastructure, Inequality, and the Future of America's Highways. Here, widening of the I-10 from eight to 22 lanes through a busy part of Houston came at a cost of $2.8 billion and 20 city blocks' worth of existing and potential development. Though the project aimed to address congestion, it actually increased rush hour travel times by 33%.  Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter and author Megan Kimble explore the history of community and economic trade-offs in our ever-expanding network of Texas and U.S. roads-- why it becomes more difficult to sustain and what alternatives there may be for the future.

The administrative and financial costs of disaster recovery have increased in recent years, exacerbated by the changing climate. The 122 separate billion-dollar disasters occurring between 2016 and 2022 in the U.S. represented more than $1 trillion in damages and claimed 5,000 lives. A significant portion of that expense was incurred by seven Category 4 and 5 hurricanes that made landfall in the Ten Across region or along the Atlantic Coast.  Yet this figure doesn't begin to encapsulate the full range of climate-related losses in the U.S., nor the less visible but steadily accumulating costs of adapting infrastructure to withstand more frequent and destructive weather events.   Federal legislation has moved toward addressing these potential risks to the built enviornment, human health, and the economy. The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and 2022 Inflation Reduction Act represent the largest surge in climate action funding in U.S. history. Combined, they account for a trillion dollars of investments over ten years. The funding incentivizes all sectors to build climate security by scaling up the clean energy economy and redressing environmental and economic injustices, past and present.    Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter and Xavier de Souza Briggs, a senior fellow at Brookings Metro and member of the Biden-Harris transition team, discuss the strategy behind these dollars and what gaps remain to be addressed to ensure greater climate resilience and equity within this corridor and the nation.  Articles/sources referenced in this podcast:  “Community Development in the Critical Climate Decade” (Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 2024, Briggs and Donovan)  “America is witnessing the birth of a new industrial policy. Here's how to make sure it benefits workers and entrepreneurs across the country, not just a handful of superstar urban regions” (Fortune Magazine, September 2022, Briggs and Muro)   “Arizona Voters' Agenda: Voters Want to Protect Environment, Addressing Forest Fires and Air Quality Among Priorities” (Center for the Future of Arizona, June 2022) “A More Democratic Federalism?” (Democracy Fall 2021 issue, Briggs and Rogers)  The Geography of Opportunity: Race and Housing Choice in Metropolitan America (2005) by Xavier de Souza Briggs

Insurer vacancies resulting from recurring natural losses in California, Florida, and Louisiana point to the fact that climate change is among the greatest threats to companies' bottom lines within the coming years and decades. As a result, investors want greater transparency when it comes to the environmental risks of publicly-traded organizations.  A recent decision from the Securities and Exchange Commission addresses this investor demand. In March, the SEC adopted a new rule mandating that companies disclose how climate change has affected or is affecting their strategies, finances, and organizational outlook. This legislation is scheduled to go into effect later this month.  Last fall, California passed similar but more thorough disclosure requirements in the form of two laws. The Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act requires companies operating in the state with $1 billion or more in annual revenue to disclose both direct and indirect emissions associated with their operations. The Climate‐Related Financial Risk Act requires companies exceeding $500 million in revenue to report their climate-related risks every other year. In February, this legislation became the subject of a lawsuit brought against the state by the California Air Resources Board.  Listen to this first installment in the 10X “Financing our Future” series— an ongoing investigation into the ways in which markets and governments are adapting to climate impacts in the I-10 corridor and beyond. In this episode, Ten Across founder Duke Reiter speaks with Steven Rothstein, Managing Director of the Ceres Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets, about the lead up to and intended results of this national and state climate legislation which his organization helped craft. Articles/sources referenced in this podcast:   Arizona lawmaker calls climate research ‘anti-God,' pushes to ban it at state universities (AZCentral, March 2024)  Americans overwhelmingly support mandatory climate disclosure for US companies (Ceres, February 2022)  Jamie Dimon fears for the future of the free world and US debt (CNN, April 2024)  Ceres Accelerator webpage  Ceres Roadmap 2030  Freedomtoinvest.org  

The Ten Across geography reveals many aspects of the entire nation's future, particularly the ways climate change will reshape where we choose to live and why. This southernmost tier of the country is a natural focus for examinations of climate trendlines and the tipping points for human habitability.The residents of Louisiana's Isle de Jean Charles are often cited as the first community in the nation to be entirely displaced by coastal inundation and land loss. Recent satellite data analysis by The Washington Post aligns with many previous studies suggesting that such retreats from rising water may be required of communities throughout the Gulf Coast in years to come.  In the west, states like California, Nevada, and Arizona still face the consequences of ongoing megadrought and heat, challenging agricultural output and hydropower systems, while increasing wildfire risk and the need for power-hungry air conditioning technology. Even the extreme weather and floods in California in late 2023 and early 2024 have not affected long-term drought conditions in the region.  Clearly, climatic conditions along the I-10 transect are changing, and with this level of risk to property has also increased. Last fall on the podcast, we covered the impacts of climate on insurance availability in California, Louisiana, and Florida. The unprecedented insurer vacancies and soaring premiums suggest subtler, economic challenges to habitability within this region.  In his new book, On the Move: The Overheating Earth and The Uprooting of America, esteemed environmental reporter Abrahm Lustgarten explores how these conditions are changing our sense of which parts of the world as really habitable, and for how long.  Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter and Abrahm talk before a live audience at Changing Hands Bookstore in Phoenix, Arizona, about past and present forces driving our responses to climate risk in the Ten Across geography and beyond.  

A note to listeners who may be sensitive to the subject matter: This episode contains brief descriptions of death and distress caused by climate events.  With a widescale and urgent phenomenon like climate change, there are innumerable ways to imagine communicating its impacts through articles, film, or television. That said, given the immensity of this subject within our minds and environment, certain audiences may be unwilling or unprepared to interact with the challenging realities of manmade warming.  Emmy-winning filmmakers Greg Jacobs and Jon Siskel needed to overcome exactly this difficulty when directing their latest documentary, The Here Now Project. Luckily, through their previous projects documenting harrowing events such as Hurricane Katrina in their film Witness: Katrina (2010) and the September 11th attacks in 102 Minutes That Changed America (2008), the team behind Siskel/Jacobs Productions has become skilled at using film to memorialize and give context to communal grief at the site of disaster.  Like these previous documentaries, The Here Now Project combines amateur and professional videos captured by eyewitnesses to convey the lasting social impact of its subject—namely, climate change. Through thoughtful editing and compilation of this primary source footage, the film provides the viewer an intimate experience of over 200 climate-related events that took place in 2021, including the 180 simultaneous wildfires that burned around the globe that summer.  Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter and Greg Jacobs, co-director of The Here Now Project and co-founder of Siskel/Jacobs Productions, discuss the directorial process behind this latest film, how the Ten Across geography is present within it, and why this kind of climate storytelling is necessary today.  The Here Now Project will premiere before select audiences at the Toronto Hot Docs Festival, April 26 and May 1. Stay up to date on timing for its wider release by visiting herenowproject.com.

A note to listeners who may be sensitive to the subject matter: This episode contains a brief discussion of suicide risk among construction workers.  The work of decarbonizing our communities and cities has never been more critical than it is today. Countless observers of climate change are warning the world that our window to drastically reduce or eliminate fossil fuel use and avoid 1.5°C or more of global warming is narrowing with each year.  We know that nearly 40% of global emissions come from the construction and operation of buildings. For the last 30 years, the U.S. Green Building Council has been focused on remediating this critical aspect of the global warming picture. Their Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building rating system is the world's most widely used framework for green design, augmented by LEED credentialing for professionals in sustainable design, construction, and operations.  The USGBC operates through a network of 75 local chapters nationwide. Last week, six chapters in California announced they are combining their regional expertise and expanding their efforts under one inclusive statewide nonprofit, known as USGBC-California. In this interview, we'll learn more about the goals of the merger, and how the Los Angeles chapter was particularly instrumental in this effort to engage more communities and professionals working toward an energy transition.  Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter and USGBC-California Executive Director Ben Stapleton discuss solutions for decarbonizing the built environment, ideals for the future of city health and design, and how California is currently leading the way in many U.S. climate efforts.  Other articles referenced in this episode:  “Arizona lawmaker calls climate research ‘anti-God,' pushes to ban it at state universities” (The Arizona Republic, March 14, 2024)  “DeSantis bans local governments from protecting workers from heat and limits police oversight boards” (NBC Miami, April 14, 2024)

Gensler began as a corporate interior design firm in the 1960s. Today, it is the world's largest architecture firm in terms of revenue and staff. In 2023, Gensler employed 6,000 professionals across 53 offices globally, reaching 3,500 clients in more than 100 countries.  The influence of this firm within the building and design industry cannot be overstated. Given its reach, it is encouraging that Gensler consistently demonstrates concern over its global corporate responsibility. In the last 20 years, Gensler's co-CEOs Andy Cohen and Diane Hoskins have become notable figures for their talent in design and business leadership, but also for their thoughtful consideration of the company's climate and equity impacts. Accordingly, they have been asked to speak many times before the United Nations and other global audiences.  Earlier this year, Andy and Diane accepted new roles as Gensler's global co-chairs. Marking this transition, they have recently published what could be considered a culminative reflection of their time at the firm thus far, including the two decades they spent as co-CEOs. “Design For Radically Changing World” explores the potential within the design sector to address some of the world's most pressing issues, from significantly reducing carbon emissions to reconnecting and uplifting historically disinvested communities.  In this episode, Ten Across founder Duke Reiter talks with Andy Cohen and Diane Hoskins about findings in this latest book, comparing the efficacy of Gensler's design forecasts from 10 years past, and traveling through more than 40 years of the firm's history. As industry pioneers, they help us imagine the characteristics of the future city, specifically through the lens of innovative architecture and urban design.

Artificial intelligence is advancing and intersecting with nearly all professional sectors today, including local government. However, without much AI-specific policy yet established at the federal or state levels, many cities are learning to navigate this emerging technology on their own.  A combination of public policy and residents' openness to new ideas in the Phoenix metropolitan area has made it an ideal place for the launch of pioneering technologies like autonomous vehicles. Now, cities here are considering ways that AI can be applied to local needs—applications such as fast and accurate updates on local water supply and improved traffic safety measures.  Considering the recent expansion of US-based AI firms and a boom in semiconductor manufacturing, it seems there is no longer a question of whether AI will become a routine part of our lives—it is a matter of when. If this proves to be the case, governments at all levels will need to become familiar with all the risks and advantages of this quickly evolving technology to ensures its thoughtful and equitable use.  AI and the future of the city was a central theme of this year's Smart Region Summit, convened by Arizona State University and partners. In this Ten Across Conversations episode, you will hear highlights from two discussions at this event, moderated by Ten Across founder and executive director Duke Reiter.  Listen in as Duke explores the incorporation of artificial intelligence at the city level with Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego and three information technology experts from Phoenix and Tempe, Arizona, and Cleveland, Ohio.

Arizona's unique natural beauty and lingering "Wild West" spirit often charm outside observers. That allure may waver when closer examination reveals realities of extreme temperatures, extended drought, and what author Tom Zoellner refers to as a "transient" community fabric.  In his 2023 book, Rim to River: Looking into the Heart of Arizona, Tom's collection of essays details his one-man pilgrimage across the state to better understand its history and its enduring appeal—even in a warming world. His multidimensional perspective offers further context for our recent podcast episode on sustainability in Arizona, and for the complex factors that drive migration here and throughout the Ten Across region.    In this episode, Ten Across founder Duke Reiter and Tom Zoellner unpack important themes found within Tom's recent New York Times editorial, “Don't Flee the American Southwest Just Yet”, and his book of Arizona essays. Through salient points in the state's history—from its unsavory beginnings in the Indian Wars to the post-war residential and agricultural booms to the current evolution of the state's Republican party—this conversation explores how history reverberates today in the legislature, at the border, and in environmental priorities.

In part one of our interview with Brookings Metro fellow Tracy Hadden Loh, we discussed lasting influences of post-pandemic work trends on urban design and governance. Although it is the most recent example, the COVID-19 pandemic is not the first major disruptor of economic activity within major U.S. metros, and it certainly will not be the last. A century earlier, the widespread adoption of automobiles changed the way metropolitan areas function to this day, allowing for mass migration to the outlying suburbs of once-booming central cities. Knowing that perennial industrial and population growth is a fickle thing to maintain, more city leaders, developers, and urban planners are re-acquainting themselves with the idea of ‘placemaking' as a method for creating a resilient community culture. Popularized in the mid-twentieth century by pioneers like Jane Jacobs and William H. Whyte, the placemaking movement in the U.S. has long lauded the potential for urban living to foster human connections. Placemaking has since seen a twenty-first-century revival that has gained renewed energy as urban advocates aim to recover city life that was lost during the pandemic—with new insights into the values of equity and sustainability. In this second and final half of their discussion, Tracy Hadden Loh and Ten Across founder Duke Reiter will discuss the ambitions of the placemaking movement, and how it can improve the urban issues that were covered in the previous episode. Articles and sources referenced in this episode by order of appearance: “New census estimates show a tepid rise in U.S. population growth, buoyed by immigration” (Brookings, January 2023) Hyperlocal: Place Governance in a Fragmented World (Vey, S. Jennifer; Storring, Nate, 2022) “How a ‘Golden Era for Large Cities' Might Be Turning Into an ‘Urban Doom Loop'” (The New York Times, November 2022) “The Perfect Height for Urban Buildings” (Next City, February 2024) “Opinion: A Life Without a Home” (The New York Times, February 2024) “Homelessness in US cities and downtowns” (Brookings, December 2023) “AG suing Arizona landlords for ‘corrupting' market, colluding to keep rents high” (12News, February 2024)

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent rise in remote work sent a ripple through most U.S. cities. Heavy office districts became ghost towns, public transit services struggled, and downtown brick and mortar retail spaces emptied in response to a sudden drop in foot traffic. During this period, there was also a significant migration of remote workers from more crowded and expensive cities like New York or San Francisco to the suburbs and more affordable metros in the I-10 corridor. Some have referred to this rapid rearrangement of Americans, which has slowed a bit in the years since the pandemic began, as the ‘Great Reshuffle.' From 2020 to 2021, Los Angeles saw a net loss of 175,000 residents, who left the city for surrounding suburbs like Riverside or smaller metros in the Sun Belt. Over this same period, Dallas, Phoenix, Houston, and Austin were major metros that saw the greatest population gains in the nation. With the location of work becoming less of a requirement or priority for people's choice to live in a city, how can public and private sector leaders ensure economic and cultural resilience within their communities? How can its zoning, hard infrastructure, and building stock become more adaptable to a constantly changing world? Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter and Brookings Metro fellow Tracy Hadden Loh discuss these questions and more, in this first half of a two-part discussion on the urban planning evolution taking place within the Ten Across region and beyond. Articles referenced in this episode: “Myths about converting offices into housing—and what can really revitalize downtowns” (Brookings, April 2023) “The geography of crime in four U.S. cities: Perceptions and reality” (Brookings, April 2023) “Ensuring the intertwined post-pandemic recoveries of downtowns and transit systems” (Brookings, August 2023) “Metro Phoenix is in dire need of apartments. Here's how developers are getting it done” (AZCentral, January 2024)

The responsibility of U.S. mayors expanded dramatically at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, as cities of all sizes were forced to reckon with aging infrastructure, dated public health procedures, and a dramatic drop in revenue and activity within their urban cores. This historic disruption in communities compounded upon many other issues which local leaders in the 10X region and beyond have been grappling with in recent years, including increased climate risk, homelessness, and immigration.In short, the work of operating a city has never been more complex or crucial than it is today. Therefore, local leaders need the requisite amount of government and community support to be able to build more adaptable, inclusive, and resilient communities. However, there are barriers to this goal which will need to be addressed. In 2023, more than 650 state preemption bills were introduced to attempt or successfully prohibit local policies regarding education, housing, workforce standards and rights, public safety, and LGBTQ+ protections. The National League of Cities (NLC) also found that 81% of public servants surveyed in 2021, reported experiencing some form of harassment from their constituents since the start of the pandemic. With 2024 being a presidential election year, much of the public's attention on U.S. politics will be directed away from cities and toward the federal government. As critical as this decision will be, this conversation between Ten Across founder and NLC CEO and Executive Director Clarence Anthony is a helpful reminder of the influence local leaders have on the trajectory of the nation, as they are the ones closest to the reality and needs of their constituents.Check out Clarence's CitiesSpeak podcast!Articles referenced in this episode:“Why state and local relationships matter to national prosperity: A case for economic collaboration” (Brookings, January 2023) “The Changing Landscape of Preemption” (The National League of Cities, February 2022) “On the Frontlines of Today's Cities: Trauma, Challenges and Solutions” (The National League of Cities, November 2021) “Metro Phoenix is in dire need of apartments. Here's how developers are getting it done” (The Arizona Republic, January 2024)

Phoenix, Arizona has seen meteoric population growth since 2010. Now the nation's fifth largest city, its population increased by around 12% over the course of a decade. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, this highly-engineered metropolis has continued to expand at the second fastest rate in the nation between 2021 and 2022. Counterintuitively, the region has experienced an escalation of extreme heat and drought risk. The summer of 2023 was the hottest globally since NASA's records began in 1880 by 2.59 degrees Fahrenheit. This significantly contributed to the deadliest heat wave for Phoenix, with 579 fatalities attributed to the elevated temperatures. Since August 2021, Phoenix has been grappling with federally declared shortages on the Colorado River, which has historically accounted for 38% of its overall water supply. To keep the river stable, the city recently agreed to a 30% reduction of this allocation over three years—enough to supply 450,000 households for year— in exchange for $60 million in water infrastructure improvements. Statistics such as these are what have catapulted Phoenix to the top of many national and global climate resilience conversations. Reported figures are also what inspired our colleagues at Climate Now to seek our collaboration to reach experts on the ground in Phoenix and get at a better understanding of how the city has been able to maintain such steady population and industrial growth, despite perceived and actual risks. This special long-form episode combines conversations with climate experts and business leaders closely involved in the state's adaptation and sustainability efforts. Through their discussions, a clearer picture of why Phoenix is a coveted destination for many and how it plans to remain as one well into the future, appears. The moderators are Duke Reiter (Ten Across founder) and James Lawler's (Climate Now founder).