Podcasts about Vaclav Smil

All over the world plastics are manufactured using derivatives of crude oil. Along with cement, steel and fertilizer these are what Vaclav Smil refers to as the four pillars of civilization. Modern life couldn't exist without them. Renewables are largely irrelevant to their production. Anybody who studies how we use hydrocarbons must conclude, as we […]

In this reprise episode of Ojai Talk of the Town, we sit down with writer and historian Mark Lewis to explore one of the most unsettling chapters in American cultural history — the Hollywood Blacklist. Mark's feature in the Fall 2015 issue of the Ojai Quarterly dove deep into the fear-fueled politics of the late 1940s and '50s, when actors, writers, and directors were exiled from the entertainment industry for alleged Communist ties.Many of those key figures lived in Ojai - names like Paul Jerrico, Michael Wilson and Dalton Trumbo, where they found a haven and an understanding community.Through richly detailed storytelling and incisive commentary, Mark reveals how the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearings not only destroyed careers but also reshaped Hollywood and American public life. We discuss the rise of informants, the toll on personal lives, and the eerie parallels between that Red Scare era and the social media-fueled cancel culture and political polarization of today.This conversation isn't just a history lesson — it's a warning. As we reflect on the past, we're forced to ask: how do we protect freedom of expression without falling prey to fear and conformity? We did not talk about Vaclav Smil's latest work, impending screw worm disasters or the rise of our new digital overlords.Don't miss this hauntingly timely discussion on art, politics, and the enduring fight for the soul of American storytelling.

Wie die Welt wirklich funktioniert - eine wissenschaftsbasierte Reise durch Zement, Stahl, Kunststoffe und Ammoniak Vor kurzem klebten sich junge Leute vor der Zementfabrik von Heidelberg Materials fest und blockierten mehrere Stunden die Ausfahrt. Die Polizei mußte mit schwerem Gerät anrücken und mit Trennschleifer und Schlagbohrer ein Stück der Straße ausfräsen, um die Einfahrt freizuräumen. Sie wollten gegen die Produktion von Zement protestieren, bei der angeblich zu viel CO2 freigesetzt wird. Vielleicht hätten sie vorher das Buch „Wie die Welt wirklich funktioniert“ von Vaclav Smil gelesen. Er beschreibt, dass die Welt nicht durch Meinungen funktioniert, sondern durch Physik, Chemie und Thermodynamik. Ein kurzer Abriß, warum Verzicht keine Option ist. Motto: Erst verstehen – dann gestalten. Das Buch ist im Buchshop von Tichys Einblick erhältlich. https://live.tichyseinblick.shop/produkt/smil-wie-die-welt-wirklich-funktioniert/

In the 1960s, a deep anxiety set in as one thing became seemingly clear: We were headed toward population catastrophe. Paul Ehrlich's “The Population Bomb” and “The Limits to Growth,” written by the Club of Rome, were just two publications warning of impending starvation due to simply too many humans on the earth.As the population ballooned year by year, it would simply be impossible to feed everyone. Demographers and environmentalists alike held their breath and braced for impact.Except that we didn't starve. On the contrary, we were better fed than ever.In his article in The New Atlantis, Charles C. Mann explains that agricultural innovation — from improved fertilization and irrigation to genetic modification — has brought global hunger to a record low.Today on Faster, Please! — The Podcast, I chat with Mann about the agricultural history they didn't teach you in school.Mann is a science journalist who has worked as a correspondent for The Atlantic, Science, and Wired magazines, and whose work has been featured in many other major publications. He is also the author of 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus and1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, as well as The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow's World.In This Episode* Intro to the Agricultural Revolution (2:04)* Water infrastructure (13:11)* Feeding the masses (18:20)* Indigenous America (25:20)Below is a lightly edited transcript of our conversation. Intro to the Agricultural Revolution (2:04)I don't think that people realize that the fact that most people on earth, almost the average person on earth, can feed themselves is a novel phenomenon. It's something that basically wasn't true since as far back as we know.Pethokoukis: What got my attention was a couple of pieces that you've worked on for The New Atlantis magazine looking at the issue of how modern Americans take for granted the remarkable systems and infrastructure that provide us comfort, safety, and a sense of luxury that would've been utterly unimaginable even to the wealthiest people of a hundred years ago or 200 years ago.Let me start off by asking you: Does it matter that we do take that for granted and that we also kind of don't understand how our world works?Mann: I would say yes, very much. It matters because these systems undergird the prosperity that we have, the good fortune that we have to be alive now, but they're always one generation away from collapse. If they aren't maintained, upgraded and modernized, they'll fall apart. They just won't stand there. So we have to be aware of this. We have to keep our eye on the ball, otherwise we won't have these things.The second thing is that, if we don't know how our society works, as citizens, we're simply not going to make very good choices about what to do with that society. I feel like both sides in our current political divide are kind of taking their eye off the ball. It's important to have good roads, it's important to have clean water, it's important to have a functioning public health system, it's important to have an agricultural system that works. It doesn't really matter who you are. And if we don't keep these things going, life will be unnecessarily bad for a lot of people, and that's just crazy to do.Is this a more recent phenomenon? If I would've asked people 50 years ago, “Explain to me how our infrastructure functions, how we get water, how we get electricity,” would they have a better idea? Is it just because things are more complicated today that we have no idea how our food gets here or why when we turn the faucet, clean water comes out?The answer is “yes” in a sort of trivial sense, in that many more people were involved in producing food, a much greater percentage of the population was involved in producing food 50 years ago. The same thing was true for the people who were building infrastructure 50 years ago.But I also think it's generally true that people's parents saw the change and knew it. So that is very much the case and, in a sense, I think we're victims of our own success. These kinds of things have brought us so much prosperity that we can afford to do crazy things like become YouTube influencers, or podcasters, or freelance writers. You don't really have any connection with how the society goes because we're sort of surfing on this wave of luxury that our ancestors bequeathed to us.I don't know how much time you spend on social media, Charles — I'm sure I spend too much — but I certainly sense that many people today, younger people especially, don't have a sense of how someone lived 50 years ago, 100 years ago, and there was just a lot more physical suffering. And certainly, if you go back far enough, you could not take for granted that you would have tomatoes in your supermarket year round, that you would have water in the house and that water would be clean. What I found really interesting — you did a piece on food and a piece on water — in the food piece you note that, in the 1980s, that was a real turning point that the average person on earth had enough to eat all the time, and rather than becoming an issue of food production, it became an issue of distribution, of governance. I think most people would be surprised of that statistic even though it's 40 years old.I don't think that people realize that the fact that most people on earth, almost the average person on earth, can feed themselves is a novel phenomenon. It's something that basically wasn't true since as far back as we know. That's this enormous turning point, and there are many of these turning points. Obviously, the introduction of antibiotics for . . . public health, which is another one of these articles they're going to be working on . . .Just about 100 years ago today, when President Coolidge was [president], his son went to play tennis at the White House tennis courts, and because he was lazy, or it was fashionable, or something, he didn't put on socks. He got a blister on his toe, the toe got infected, and he died. 100 years ago, the president of the United States, who presumably had the best healthcare available to anybody in the world, was unable to save his beloved son when the son got a trivial blister that got infected. The change from that to now is mind boggling.You've written about the Agricultural Revolution and why the great fears 40 or 50 years ago of mass starvation didn't happen. I find that an endlessly interesting topic, both for its importance and for the fact it just seems to be so underappreciated to this day, even when it was sort of obvious to people who pay attention that something was happening, it still seemed not to penetrate the public consciousness. I wonder if you could just briefly talk to me about that revolution and how it happened.The question is, how did it go from “The Population Bomb” written in 1968, a huge bestseller, hugely influential, predicting that there is going to be hundreds of millions of people dying of mass starvation, followed by other equally impassioned, equally important warnings. There's one called “Famine, 1975!,” written a few years before, that predicted mass famines in 1975. There's “The Limits to Growth.” I went to college in the '70s and these were books that were on the curriculum, and they were regarded as contemporary classics, and they all proved to be wrong.The reason is that, although they were quite correct about the fact that the human race was reproducing at that time faster than ever before, they didn't realize two things: The first is that as societies get more affluent, and particularly as societies get more affluent and give women more opportunities, birth rates decline. So that this was obviously, if you looked at history, going to be a temporary phenomenon of whatever length it was be, but it was not going to be infinite.The second was there was this enormous effort spurred by this guy named Norman Borlaug, but with tons of other people involved, to take modern science and apply it to agriculture, and that included these sort of three waves of innovation. Now, most innovation is actually just doing older technologies better, which is a huge source of progress, and the first one was irrigation. Irrigation has been around since forever. It's almost always been done badly. It's almost always not been done systematically. People started doing it better. They still have a lot of problems with it, but it's way better, and now 40 percent, roughly, of the crops in the world that are produced are produced by irrigation.The second is the introduction of fertilizer. There's two German scientists, Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch, who essentially developed the ways of taking fertilizer and making lots and lots of it in factories. I could go into more detail if you want, but that's the essential thing. This had never been done before, and suddenly cheap industrial fertilizer became available all over the world, and Vaclav Smil . . . he's sort of an environmental scientist of every sort, in Manitoba has calculated that roughly 40 percent of the people on earth today would not be alive if it wasn't for that.And then the third was the development of much better, much higher-yielding seeds, and that was the part that Norman Borlaug had done. These packaged together of irrigation fertilizer and seeds yielded what's been called the Green Revolution, doubled, tripled, or even quadrupled grain yields across the world, particularly with wheat and rice. The result is the world we live in today. When I was growing up, when you were growing up, your parents may have said to you, as they did me, Oh, eat your vegetables, there are kids that are starving in Asia.” Right? That was what was told and that was the story that was told in books like “The Population Bomb,” and now Asia's our commercial rival. When you go to Bangkok, that was a place that was hungry and now it's gleaming skyscrapers and so forth. It's all based on this fact that people are able to feed themselves through the combination of these three factors,That story, the story of mass-starvation that the Green Revolution irrigation prevented from coming true. I think a surprising number of people still think that story is relevant today, just as some people still think the population will be exploding when it seems clear it probably will not be exploding. It will rise, but then it's going to start coming down at some point this century. I think those messages just don't get through. Just like most people don't know Norm Borlaug, the Haber-Bosch process, which school kids should know. They don't know any of this. . . Borlaug won the Nobel Prize, right?Right. He won the Nobel Peace Prize. I'll tell you a funny story —I think he won it in the same year that “The Population Bomb” came out.It was just a couple years off. But you're right, the central point is right, and the funny thing is . . . I wrote another book a while back that talked about this and about the way environmentalists think about the world, and it's called the “Wizard and the Prophet” and Borlaug was the wizard of it. I thought, when I proposed it, that it would be easy. He was such an important guy, there'd be tons of biographies about him. And to this day, there isn't a real serious scholarly biography of the guy. This is a person who has done arguably more to change human life than any other person in the 20th century, certainly up in the top dozen or so. There's not a single serious biography of him.How can that be?It's because we're tremendously disconnected. It's a symptom of what I'm talking about. We're tremendously disconnected from these systems, and it's too bad because they're interesting! They're actually quite interesting to figure out: How do you get water to eight billion people? How do you get . . . It is a huge challenge, and some of the smartest people you've ever met are working on it every day, but they're working on it over here, and the public attention is over here.Water infrastructure (13:11). . . the lack of decent, clean, fresh water is the world's worst immediate environmental problem. I think people probably have some vague idea about agriculture, the Agricultural Revolution, how farming has changed, but I think, as you just referred to, the second half, water — utter mystery to people. Comes out of a pipe. The challenges of doing that in a rich country are hard. The challenges doing a country not so rich, also hard. Tell me what you find interesting about that topic.Well, whereas the story about agriculture is basically a good story: We've gotten better at it. We have a whole bunch of technical innovations that came in the 20th century and humankind is better off than ever before. With water, too, we are better off than ever before, but the maddening thing is we could be really well off because the technology is basically extremely old.There's a city, a very ancient city called Mohenjo-daro that I write about a bit in this article that was in essentially on the Pakistan-India border, 2600 BC. And they had a fully functioning water system that, in its basics, was no different than the water system that we have, or that London has, or that Paris has. So this is an ancient, ancient technology, yet we still have two billion people on the planet that don't have access to adequate water. In fact, even though we know how to do it, the lack of decent, clean, fresh water is the world's worst immediate environmental problem. And a small thing that makes me nuts is that climate change — which is real and important — gets a lot of attention, but there are people dying of not getting good water now.On top of it, even in rich countries like us, our water system is antiquated. The great bulk of it was built in the '40s, '50s, and '60s, and, like any kind of physical system, it ages, and every couple years, various engineering bodies, water bodies, the EPA, and so forth puts out a report saying, “Hey, we really have to fix the US water system and the numbers keep mounting up.” And Democrats, Republicans, they all ignore this.Who is working on the water issue in poorer countries?There you have a very ad hoc group of people. The answer is part of it's the Food and Agricultural Organization because most water in most countries is used for irrigation to grow food. You also have the World Health Organization, these kinds of bodies. You have NGOs working on it. What you don't have in those countries like our country is the government taking responsibility for coordinating something that's obviously in the national interest.So you have these things where, very periodically — a government like China has done this, Jordan has done this, Bolivia has done this, countries all over the world have done this — and they say, “Okay, we haven't been able to provide freshwater. Let's bring in a private company.” And the private company then invests all this money in infrastructure, which is expensive. Then, because it's a private company, it has to make that money back, and so it charges people for a lot of money for this, and the people are very unhappy because suddenly they're paying a quarter of their income for water, which is what I saw in Southwest China: water riots because people are paying so much for water.In other words, one of the things that government can do is sort of spread these costs over everybody, but instead they concentrate it on the users, Almost universally, these privatization efforts have led to tremendous political unhappiness because the government has essentially shifted responsibility for coordinating and doing these things and imposed a cost on a narrow minority of the users.Are we finally getting on top of the old water infrastructure in this country? It seems like during the Biden administration they had a big infrastructure bill. Do you happen to know if we are finally getting that system upgraded?Listen, I will be the only person who probably ever interviews you who's actually had to fix a water main as a summer job. I spent [it at] my local Public Works Department where we'd have to fix water mains, and this was a number of years ago, and even a number of years ago, those pipes were really, really old. It didn't take much for them to get a main break.I'm one of those weird people who is bothered by this. All I can tell you is we have a lot of aging infrastructure. The last estimate that I've seen came before this sort of sudden jerky rise of construction costs, which, if you're at all involved in building, is basically all the people in the construction industry talk about. At that point, the estimate was that it was $1.2 trillion to fix the infrastructure that we have in the United States. I am sure it is higher now. I am delighted that the Biden people passed this infrastructure — would've been great if they passed permitting reform and a couple of other things to make it easier to spend the money, but okay. I would like to believe that the Trump people would take up the baton and go on this.Feeding the masses (18:20)I do worry that the kind of regulations, and rules, and ideas that we put into place to try and make agriculture more like this picture that we have in our head will end up inadvertently causing suffering for the people who are struggling.We're still going to have another two billion people, maybe, on this earth. Are we going to be able to feed them all?Yeah, I think that there's no question. The question is what we're going to be able to feed them? Are we going to be able to feed them all, filet mignon and truffled . . . whatever they put truffle oil on, and all that? Not so sure about that.All organic vegetables.At the moment, that seems really implausible, and there's a sort of fundamental argument going on here. There's a lot of people, again, both right and left, who are sort of freaked out by the scale that modern agriculture operates on. You fly over the middle-west and you see all those circles of center-pivot irrigation, they plowed under, in the beginning of the 20th century, 100 million acres of prairie to produce all that. And it's done with enormous amounts of capital, and it was done also partly by moving people out so that you could have this enormous stuff. The result is it creates a system that . . . doesn't match many people's vision of the friendly family farmer that they grew up with. It's a giant industrial process and people are freaked out by the scale. They don't trust these entities, the Cargills and the ADMs, and all these huge companies that they see as not having their interests at heart.It's very understandable. I live in a small town, we have a farm down there, and Jeremy runs it, and I'm very happy to see Jeremy. There's no Jeremy at Archer Daniels Midland. So the result is that there's a big revulsion against that, and people want to downsize the scale, and they point to very real environmental problems that big agriculture has, and they say that that is reason for this. The great problem is that in every single study that I am aware of, the sort of small, local farms don't produce as much food per acre or per hectare as the big, soulless industrial processes. So if you're concerned about feeding everybody, that's something you have to really weigh in your head, or heavy in your heart.That sort of notion of what a farm should look like and what good food is, that kind of almost romantic notion really, to me, plays into the sort of anti-growth or the degrowth people who seemed to be saying that farms could only be this one thing — probably they don't even remember those farms anymore — that I saw in a storybook. It's like a family farm, everything's grown local, not a very industrial process, but you're talking about a very different world. Maybe that's a world they want, but I don't know if that's a world you want if you're a poor person in this world.No, and like I said, I love going to the small farm next to us and talking to Jeremy and he says, “Oh look, we've just got these tomatoes,” it's great, but I have to pay for that privilege. And it is a privilege because Jeremy is barely making it and charging twice as much as the supermarket. There's no economies of scale for him. He still has to buy all the equipment, but he's putting it over 20 acres instead of 2000 acres. In addition, it's because it's this hyper-diverse farm — which is wonderful; they get to see the strawberries, and the tomatoes, and all the different things — it means he has to hire much more labor than it would be if he was just specializing in one thing. So his costs are inevitably much, much higher, and, therefore, I have to pay a lot more to keep him going. That's fine for me; I'm a middle-class person, I like food, this can be my hobby going there.I'd hate to have somebody tell me it's bad, but it's not a system that is geared for people who are struggling. There are just a ton of people all over the world who are struggling. They're better off than they were 100 years ago, but they're still struggling. I do worry that the kind of regulations, and rules, and ideas that we put into place to try and make agriculture more like this picture that we have in our head will end up inadvertently causing suffering for the people who are struggling.To make sure everybody can get fed in the future, do we need a lot more innovation?Innovation is always good. I would say that we do, and the kinds of innovation we need are not often what people imagine. For example, it's pretty clear that parts of the world are getting drier, and therefore irrigation is getting more difficult. The American Southwest is a primary candidate, and you go to the Safford Valley, which I did a few years ago — the Safford Valley is in southeast Arizona and it's hotter than hell there. I went there and it's 106 degrees and there's water from the Colorado River, 800 miles away, being channeled there, and they're growing Pima cotton. Pima cotton is this very good fine cotton that they use to make fancy clothes, and it's a great cash crop for farmers, but growing it involves channeling water from the Colorado 800 miles, and then they grow it by what's called flood irrigation, which is where you just fill the field with an inch of water. I was there actually to see an archeologist who's a water engineer, and I said to him, “Gee, it's hot! How much that water is evaporated?” And he said, “Oh, all of it.”So we need to think about that kind of thing if the Colorado is going to run out of water, which it is now. There's ways you can do it, you can possibly genetically modify cotton to use less water. You could drip irrigation, which is a much more efficient form of irrigation, it's readily available, but it's expensive. So you could try to help farmers do that. I think if you cut the soft costs, which is called the regulatory costs of farming, you might be able to pay for it in that way. That would be one type of innovation. Another type of thing you could do is to do a different kind of farming which is called civil pastoral systems, where you grow tree crops and then you grow cattle underneath, and that uses dramatically less water. It's being done in Sonora, just across the border and the tree crops — trees are basically wild. People don't breed them because it takes so long, but we now have the tools to breed them, and so you could make highly productive trees with cattle underneath and have a system that produces a lot of calories or a lot of good stuff. That's all the different kinds of innovation that we could do. Just some of the different kinds of innovation we could do and all would help.Indigenous America (25:20)Part of the reason I wrote these things is that I realized it's really interesting and I didn't learn anything about it in school.Great articles in The New Atlantis, big fan of “Wizard and the Prophet,” but I'm going to take one minute and ask you about your great books talking about the story of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. If I just want to travel in the United States and I'm interested in finding out more about Native Americans in the United States, where would you tell me to go?One of my favorite places just it's so amazing, is Chaco Canyon, and that's in the Four Corners area — that whole Four Corners area is quite incredible — and Chaco Canyon is a sign that native people could build amazing stuff, and native people could be crazy, in my opinion. It's in the middle of nowhere, it has no water, and for reasons that are probably spiritual and religious, they built an enormous number of essentially castles in this canyon, and they're incredible.The biggest one, Pueblo Bonito as it's called now, it's like 800 rooms. They're just enormous. And you can go there, and you can see these places, and you can just walk around, and it is incredible. You drive up a little bit to Mesa Verde and there's hundreds of these incredible cliff dwellings. What seems to have happened — I'm going to put this really informally and kind of jokingly to you, not the way that an archeologist would talk about it or I would write about it, but what looks like it happened is that the Chaco Canyon is this big canyon, and on the good side that gets the southern exposure is all these big houses. And then the minions and the hoi polloi lived on the other side, and it looks like, around 800, 900, they just got really tired of serving the kings and they had something like a democratic revolution, and they just left, most of them, and founded the Pueblos, which is these intensely democratic self-governing bodies that are kind of like what Thomas Jefferson thought the United States should be.Then it's like all the doctors, and the lawyers, and the MBAs, and the rich guys went up to Mesa Verde and they started off their own little kingdoms and they all fought with each other. So you have these crazy cliff dwellings where it's impossible to get in and there's hundreds of people living in these niches in these cliffs, and then that blew up too. So you could see history, democracy, and really great architecture all in one place.If someone asked me for my advice about changing the curriculum in school, one, people would leave school knowing who the heroes of progress and heroes of the Agricultural Revolution were. And I think they'd also know a lot more about pre-Columbian history of the Americas. I think they should know about it but I also think it's just super interesting, though of course you've brought it to life in a beautiful way.Thank you very much, and I couldn't agree with you more. Part of the reason I wrote these things is that I realized it's really interesting and I didn't learn anything about it in school.On sale everywhere The Conservative Futurist: How To Create the Sci-Fi World We Were PromisedFaster, Please! is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. 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Joe Jameson delivers an impressive performance of this comprehensive text. AudioFile's Alan Minskoff and host Jo Reed discuss how his pace and cadence work well with this fact-filled audiobook. Smil, an energy expert, has long been a student of the planet's food. He argues astonishingly that with some improvements in diet choices, technology, and wise use of how and where we grow crops, the planet may be able to feed its projected 10 billion inhabitants in 2050. His data-driven focus balances energy needs and real-world preferences for meat with the issues surrounding land use and climate change. Read our review of the audiobook at our website Published by Penguin Audio Discover thousands of audiobook reviews and more at AudioFile's website   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Willkommen zu einer neuen Folge meines Podcasts! In dieser Episode begrüße ich den renommierten Experten Franz Josef Radermacher vor einem besonderen Gast an der Wand: Albert Einstein. Was hat Einstein mit Energie zu tun? Warum ist Energie die Grundlage menschlichen Wohlstands? Und wie gestalten wir eine nachhaltige Zukunft in einer global vernetzten Welt? Dieses Gespräch nimmt uns mit auf eine Reise durch die Geschichte der Energienutzung, die Herausforderungen der Energiewende und die geopolitischen Dimensionen, die oft übersehen werden. Prof. Radermacher ist Vorstand des Forschungsinstituts für anwendungsorientierte Wissensverarbeitung, stellv. Vorstandsvorsitzender von Global Energy Solutions e. V. (Ulm), emerit. Professor für Informatik, Universität Ulm, 2000 – 2018 Mitglied des Wissenschaftlichen Beirats beim Bundesministerium für Verkehr und digitale Infrastruktur (BMVI); er ist Ehrenpräsident des Ökosozialen Forum Europa, Wien, Mitglied des UN-Council of Engineers for the Energy Transition (CEET) sowie Mitglied des Club of Rome, Winterthur. Was hat Einstein mit diesem Gespräch zu tun? Wir beginnen mit der Frage, welche Rolle Energie in unserer Gesellschaft spielt sowie der Tatsache, dass vielen Menschen, vermutlich den meisten, nicht klar ist, was unsere Gesellschaft antreibt? So waren 2023 mehr als 81 Prozent des gesamten weltweiten Energieverbrauchs durch fossile Quellen gedeckt, und die Menge an fossilen Energieträgern wächst ständig. Wie hat Energie die Menschheit geprägt? Welche Energiequellen hatten wir früher und welchen Einfluss hatte die Veränderung der Energieträger auf unsere Gesellschaft und unseren Lebensstandard? Warum dominieren fossile Brennstoffe heute noch? Kann Energie Armut bekämpfen? Ist es Energie, die Wohlstand schafft? Warum sind zwei oft übersehene Parameter von so großer Bedeutung: Energiedichte und Platzbedarf?  Kernkraftwerke benötigen wenig Fläche im Vergleich zu Windrädern oder Photovoltaik:  »Da ist ja ein Faktor 100 dazwischen.« […] »Weil auch Fläche ein extrem knappes Gut ist, ist es problematisch, wenn man eine Energie mit ziemlich niedriger Dichte hat.« Gleichzeitig sind Energie und Emissionen, besonders Treibhausgase, globale Phänomene, die lokal nicht zu lösen sind. »Von 2004 bis 2023 haben die globalen Investitionen in Wind und Solar rund 4 Billionen Dollar ausgemacht, und trotzdem sind die fossilen Energieträger dreimal schneller gewachsen.“ Zudem: „In den großen Industrienationen […] eine Reduktion der CO2-Emissionen, aber gleichzeitig einen Zuwachs in Indien und China, der diese Reduktionen um das Faktor 5 überschattet.«, Robert Bryce Überrascht uns China? China hat mittlerweile die EU auch in den Pro-Kopf-Emissionen überholt. Was passiert, wenn Schwellenländer folgen? »An China kann man erkennen, was passiert, wenn ein armes Land versucht, Wohlstand aufzubauen. Und das geht bis heute nur mit fossilen Energieträgern.« Sind schnelle Lösungen gefährlich? Großinfrastruktur, Energiesysteme sind immer eine Frage von Jahrzehnten. Wenn wir versuchen, Dinge hier über das Knie zu brechen, ist die Wahrscheinlichkeit, dass Sie große und extrem teure Fehler machen, enorm. Außerdem stellt sich die Frage, welche Relevanz Europa überhaupt noch hat? Welche Maßnahmen gegen den Klimawandel könnten erfolgreich sein? Was wurde etwa in Baku beschlossen? Funktionieren Transferzahlungen? Warum scheitert eine Renewables Only Strategie zwangsläufig? »Die Idee, Renewables Only, ist ja eine von Deutschland immer wieder propagierte Idee.[… Es] ist nur eine Methode, [Entwicklungsländer] arm zu halten« Aber was ist die Alternative? Was ist Carbon Capture? Was ist die Rolle von Kernkraft? Welche Mischung verschiedener Verfahren ist sinnvoll? Zuletzt diskutieren wir über Strom vs. Moleküle und den All-Electric-Irrtum. Damit verbunden ist der Irrglaube, Wasserstoff könnte das Renable-Desaster lösen.  Welche geopolitischen Herausforderungen sind mit diesen Themen verknüpft? Ist Prof. Radermacher optimistisch — für Europa, die Welt? Was könnte man jungen Menschen empfehlen? Referenzen Andere Episoden Episode 109: Was ist Komplexität? Ein Gespräch mit Dr. Marco Wehr Episode 107: How to Organise Complex Societies? A Conversation with Johan Norberg Episode 95: Geopolitik und Militär, ein Gespräch mit Brigadier Prof. Walter Feichtinger Episode 94: Systemisches Denken und gesellschaftliche Verwundbarkeit, ein Gespräch mit Herbert Saurugg Episode 86: Climate Uncertainty and Risk, a conversation with Dr. Judith Curry Episode 81: Energie und Ressourcen, ein Gespräch mit Dr. Lars Schernikau Episode 73: Ökorealismus, ein Gespräch mit Björn Peters Episode 70: Future of Farming, a conversation with Padraic Flood Episode 62: Wirtschaft und Umwelt, ein Gespräch mit Prof. Hans-Werner Sinn Prof. Radermacher Forschungsinstitut für anwendungsorientierte Wissensverarbeitung/n Global Energy Solutions Prof. Radermacher im Vorstand der Global Energy Solutions All In: Energie und Wohlstand für eine wachsende Welt, Murmann (2024) Fachliche Referenzen Vaclav Smil, How the World Really Works, Penguin (2022) Vaclav Smil, Net Zero 2050, Fraser Institute (2024) Robert Bryce, The Energy Transition Isn't (2023) Robert Bryce, Numbers Don't Lie (2024)

Kohei Saito and Matt Huber discuss degrowth communism, socialist ecomodernism and their respective views on growth, natural limits, technology and progress. --- If you are interested in democratic economic planning, these resources might be of help: Democratic planning – an information website https://www.democratic-planning.com/ Sorg, C. & Groos, J. (eds.)(2025). Rethinking Economic Planning. Competition & Change Special Issue Volume 29 Issue 1. https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/ccha/29/1 Groos, J. & Sorg, C. (2025). Creative Construction - Democratic Planning in the 21st Century and Beyond. Bristol University Press. [for a review copy, please contact: amber.lanfranchi[at]bristol.ac.uk] https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/creative-construction International Network for Democratic Economic Planning https://www.indep.network/ Democratic Planning Research Platform: https://www.planningresearch.net/ --- Shownotes Kohei Saito at University of Tokyo: https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/focus/en/people/k0001_04217.html Saito is chair of the “Beyond Capitalism: War Economy and Democratic Planning” Program at The New Institute: https://thenew.institute/en/programs/beyond-capitalism-war-economy-and-democratic-planning Matt Huber at Syracuse University: https://www.maxwell.syr.edu/directory/matthew-t-huber Saito, K. (2024). Slow Down: How Degrowth Communism can save the Earth. W&N. https://www.weidenfeldandnicolson.co.uk/titles/kohei-saito/slow-down/9781399612999/ Saito, K. (2023). Marx in the Anthropocene: Towards the Idea of Degrowth Communism. Cambridge University Press. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/marx-in-the-anthropocene/D58765916F0CB624FCCBB61F50879376 Saito, K. (2017). Karl Marx's Ecosocialism: Capital, Nature, and the Unfinished Critique of Political Economy. Monthly Review Press. https://monthlyreview.org/product/karl_marxs_ecosocialism/ Huber, M. T. (2022). Climate Change as Class War: Building Socialism on a Warming Planet. Verso Books. https://www.versobooks.com/products/775-climate-change-as-class-war?srsltid=AfmBOop0wE8Ljdd-lZjDF-9-RZ_QvjRz2f3EobOv3AYEVpcqMDssRUd9 Huber, M. T. (2013). Lifeblood: Oil, Freedom, and the Forces of Capital. University of Minnesota Press. https://www.upress.umn.edu/9780816677856/lifeblood/ Matt Huber's and Leigh Philipps's review of Saito's recent work: https://jacobin.com/2024/03/kohei-saito-degrowth-communism-environment-marxism on Huber's critique of degrowth: https://jacobin.com/2023/07/degrowth-climate-change-economic-planning-production-austerity more articles on Jacobin by Huber: https://jacobin.com/author/matt-huber Matt Huber's medium blog: https://medium.com/@Matthuber78 On Ecomodernism: https://thebreakthrough.org/ecomodernism Matt Huber's stance on the term “Ecomodernism”: https://medium.com/@Matthuber78/clarifications-on-ecomodernism-3b159cafb836 on Vaclav Smil: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaclav_Smil chapter on machinery and modern industry in Marx's Capital Vol.1: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch15.htm on Eco-Marxism/Ecosocialism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eco-socialism Reading guide on Ecology & Marxism by Andreas Malm: https://www.historicalmaterialism.org/ecology-marxism-andreas-malm/ on GDP: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_domestic_product Schmelzer, M. (2016). The Hegemony of Growth: The OECD and the Making of the Economic Growth Paradigm. Cambridge University Press. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/hegemony-of-growth/A80C4DF19D804C723D55A5EFE7A447FD on the „Green New Deal”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_New_Deal Pollin, R. (2018) De-Growth vs. a Green New Deal. New Left Review Issue 112. https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii112/articles/robert-pollin-de-growth-vs-a-green-new-deal Hickel, J. (2020). What does degrowth mean? A few points of clarification. Globalizations, 18(7), 1105–1111. https://blogs.law.columbia.edu/utopia1313/files/2022/11/What-does-degrowth-mean-A-few-points-of-clarification.pdf on Malthusianism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malthusianism Harvey, D. (1974). Population, Resources, and the Ideology of Science. Economic Geography, 50(3), 256–277. https://www.uky.edu/~tmute2/GEI-Web/password-protect/GEI-readings/harvey%20population.pdf the „Limits to Growth” report from 1972: https://www.clubofrome.org/publication/the-limits-to-growth/ Hickel, J. (2019) Degrowth: A Theory of Radical Abundance. Real-World Economics Review Issue 87. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59bc0e610abd04bd1e067ccc/t/5cb6db356e9a7f14e5322a62/1555487546989/Hickel+-+Degrowth%2C+A+Theory+of+Radical+Abundance.pdf on Planetary Boundaries: https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries.html Earl C. Ellies: https://ges.umbc.edu/ellis/ on “Decoupling”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eco-economic_decoupling Christophers, B. (2024). The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won't Save the Planet. Verso Books. https://www.versobooks.com/products/3069-the-price-is-wrong?srsltid=AfmBOorFVDdqKegvmh1GA8ku3xla4rBjygkm0iwPL5VXF-BH-O1WOkMo on the Haber-Bosch Process: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haber_process Smil, V. (2004). Enriching the Earth: Fritz Haber, Carl Bosch, and the Transformation of World Food Production. MIT Press. https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262693134/enriching-the-earth/ Smil, V. (2016). Power Density: A Key to Understanding Energy Sources and Uses. MIT Press. https://direct.mit.edu/books/monograph/4023/Power-DensityA-Key-to-Understanding-Energy-Sources on Mining and the Green Energy Transition: https://soundcloud.com/novaramedia/novara-fm-clean-energy-is-already-terraforming-the-earth-w-thea-riofrancos Marx's letter to Vera Zasulich: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1881/zasulich/index.htm Marx's “Preface” to “A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy”: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1859/critique-pol-economy/preface.htm Future Histories Episodes on Related Topics S03E23 | Andreas Malm on Overshooting into Climate Breakdown https://www.futurehistories-international.com/episodes/s03/e23-andreas-malm-on-overshooting-into-climate-breakdown/ S03E03 | Planning for Entropy on Sociometabolic Planning https://www.futurehistories-international.com/episodes/s03/e03-planning-for-entropy-on-sociometabolic-planning/ S03E02 | George Monbiot on Public Luxury https://www.futurehistories-international.com/episodes/s03/e02-george-monbiot-on-public-luxury/ S02E55 | Kohei Saito on Degrowth Communism https://www.futurehistories-international.com/episodes/s02/e55-kohei-saito-on-degrowth-communism/ S02E47 | Matt Huber on Building Socialism, Climate Change & Class War https://www.futurehistories-international.com/episodes/s02/e47-matt-huber-on-building-socialism-climate-change-class-war/ S02E18 | Drew Pendergrass and Troy Vettese on Half Earth Socialism https://www.futurehistories-international.com/episodes/s02/e18-drew-pendergrass-and-troy-vettese-on-half-earth-socialism/ Future Histories Contact & Support If you like Future Histories, please consider supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/join/FutureHistories Contact: office@futurehistories.today Twitter: https://twitter.com/FutureHpodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/futurehpodcast/ Mastodon: https://mstdn.social/@FutureHistories English webpage: https://futurehistories-international.com   Episode Keywords  #MattHuber, #KoheiSaito, #Podcast, #JanGroos, #Interview, #FutureHistories, #futurehistoriesinternational, #FutureHistoriesInternational, #Degrowth, #Socialism, #Capitalism, #GreenNewDeal, #ClimateJustice, #WorkingClass, #PoliticalEconomy, #ClimateCrisis, #FossilCapitalism, #EcoSocialism, #Marx, #DemocraticEconomicPlanning, #Class, #ClassStruggle, #DemocraticPlanning, #DegrowthCommunism, #PostCapitalism, #ClimatePolitics, #RadicalEcology, #JustTransition, #Prometheanism, #Communism, #Progress  

Shan Sinha is confronting the urgent issue of workplace violence in healthcare. Delving into the alarming rise of aggression against healthcare workers, particularly exacerbated by the pandemic, Shan discusses pioneering solutions like Canopy's wearable safety buttons that empower staff with connectivity and protection. Shan shares his extraordinary journey through the fast-paced world of technology and innovation. We embark on a captivating exploration of Shan's upbringing in Texas, his academic pursuit at MIT during the pivotal shift from Microsoft's reign to Google's ascension, and his leap into the startup ecosystem influenced by the dot-com boom. Shan's experiences highlight the challenges and triumphs faced by children of immigrants, shedding light on their vital contributions to technological advancement and healthcare innovation.We trace the transformative evolution of cloud-based collaboration tools, punctuated by the early dominance of Amazon S3 and the emergence of Dropbox and Box. Shan recounts his bold decision to leave Microsoft, paving the way for his startup's critical role in shaping Google Drive, and reflects on Google's prescient embrace of hybrid work and video conferencing well before the pandemic. The journey through Shan's entrepreneurial ventures culminates in a successful acquisition by Dialpad, underscoring the dynamic interplay between technological growth and societal demands.This episode challenges us to rethink how we safeguard our essential healthcare workers, drawing insights from Numbers on't Lie, by Vaclav Smil. It's a thought-provoking book on exponential growth and innovation that offers hope for addressing today's pressing issues, from energy to food waste. Host David E. Williams is president of healthcare strategy consulting firm Health Business Group. Produced by Dafna Williams.

The Member for Shortland, Pat Conroy (pictured), most certainly got the memo. He parrots the words "keeping Australians safe" but then does nothing practical, other than talking the talk, about keeping Australians safe from the impacts of climate change. "Almost 100 including Briton killed in flash floods in Spain"; "At least 95 people dead in Spain's worst floods in three decades"; "Death toll from Spain's devastating flash floods rises to 158"; "Spain floods: Death toll surpasses 150 as more soldiers join rescue efforts"; "Planet-warming pollution is growing at the fastest rate in history, scientists say"; "A Pivotal Choice: Trump vs. Harris on Climate Change"; "Unprecedented floods claim at least 158 lives in Spain"; "Free Electricity, Anyone? Britain Tries New Tricks to Green Its Grid."; "The world needs $700bn a year to restore nature. But where is the money coming from?"; "Why were the floods in Spain so bad? A visual guide"; "Unintended consequences of using maps to communicate sea-level rise"; "Pioneering Clean Energy at Netflix — and Across the Entertainment Industry"; "Six Building Blocks to Prepare the Grid for EVs"; "'Waste of time': Papua New Guinea will boycott the world's most important climate summit"; "Individual action on climate was tarred as greenwashing or virtue signalling. But it still has a place"; "Spotlight on a Researcher: Belay Gulte Mino"; "12 economic growth myths and how to counter them"; "5 things you can do to end the biodiversity crisis as the world talks about it at COP16"; "Let's be clear, Peter Dutton's energy plan is more focused on coal and gas than it is on nuclear power"; "Solar is helping schools save big. Your district could be next."; "A New Trilemma Haunts the World Economy"; "‘We were trapped like rats': Spain's floods bring devastation and despair"; "Australia is already 1.5 degrees hotter"; "Free Electricity, Anyone? Britain Tries New Tricks to Green Its Grid."; "'Uniquely vulnerable' Australia faces tough battle to avert climate crisis"; "Humans Are Speeding Extinction and Altering the Natural World at an ‘Unprecedented' Pace"; "Australia one of the biggest producers of a climate change 'supercharger', new report says"; "A Pivotal Choice: Trump vs. Harris on Climate Change"; "Australia to start November with a heatwave as La Niña chances dwindle"; "How the fast-track saved New Zealand coal"; "Abandoning Bass Strait oil and gas structures would breach international law, expert warns"; "English and Regional Media Coverage of the 2022 Heatwave in India"; "Santos sued by its own shareholder in world-first greenwashing case"; "The Times view on planning red tape: Powering Ahead"; "Hedgehogs ‘near threatened' on red list after 30% decline over past decade"; "Governor Hobbs Announces Extreme Heat Preparedness Plan"; "2023: A historic year of U.S. billion-dollar weather and climate disasters"; "Energy expert Vaclav Smil on how to feed the world without trashing it"; "New Reports Ahead of COP29 Show The World Is Spinning Its Wheels on Climate Action"; "Qua

This is again an exceptional conversation. For a long time, I looked forward to speaking with Prof. David Edgerton. He is currently a Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin and Hans Rausing Professor of the History of Science and Technology at King's College London.  He is a noted historian of the United Kingdom as well as historian of technology and science. In the latter field he is best known for the book “Shock of the Old” which has been translated into many languages.  He is also known in the UK for his commentaries on political and historical matters in the press.  He is also a Fellow of the British Academy. I read this book some years ago, and it left quite an impression on me. We talk about technology, or rather, why the word should not be used, about progress and stagnation; what role technology plays in societal change, if we really live in an age with an unseen pace of innovation, and much more. We start with the question of how the book title “Shock of the Old” came about. What does the term “technology” mean, how does it relate to other terms like “technium” or the German terms “Technologie” and “Technik”, and why is it a problematic term?  “Technology is a very problematic concept, and if I would write the book again, I would not use the term. […] Technology is a concept that macerates the brain as it conflates multiple concepts.” What is creole technology? Did we experience 50 years of unseen progress, or rather stagnation? How can we understand the reference of David Deutsch comparing the Solvay Conference 100 years ago with the current state of physics? Are we rather experiencing what Peter Kruse compares to a crab basket: “There's always a lot of momentum in a crab basket, but on closer inspection, you realise that nothing is really moving forward.”, Peter Kruse Can the 20th century be considered the playing out of the 19th century? What about the 21st century? Is technological change the driver of all change, or is technical change only one element of change in society? Does the old disappear? For instance, Jean-Baptiste Fressoz describes the global energy consumption in his book More and More and More. “There has not been an energy transition, there has been a super-imposition of new techniques on old ones. […] We are living in the great age of coal.” What is the material constitution of our world today? For example, Vaclav Smil makes it apparent, that most people have a quite biased understanding of how our world actually works. How can change happen? Do we wish for evolution, or rather a revolution? “The world in which we find ourselves at the start of the new millennium is littered with the debris of utopian projects.”, John Gray Can technological promise also be a reason for avoiding change? “Technological revolution can be a way of avoiding change. […] There will be a revolution in the future that will solve our problems. […] Relying only on innovation is a recipe for inaction.” Do technologists tend to overpromise what their technology might deliver? For instance, the trope that this new technology will bring peace can be found over centuries. Is maintenance an underestimated topic in out society and at universities? What role does maintenance play in our modern society in comparison to innovation? For example, Cyrus W. Field who built the first transatlantic cable between the US and UK proclaimed in an address to the American Geographical and Statistical Society in 1862 “its value can hardly be estimated to the commerce, and even to the peace, of the world.” What is university knowledge, where does it come from, and how does it relate to knowledge of a society? How should we think about the idea of university lead innovation? “There is a systematic overestimation of the university.” Is there a cult of the entrepreneur? Who is actually driving change in society? Who decides about technical change? Moreover, most innovations are rejected: “We should reject most of innovation; otherwise we are inundated with stuff.” Are me even making regressions in society — Cory Doctorow calls it enshittification? “We're all living through a great enshittening, in which the services that matter to us, that we rely on, are turning into giant piles of shit. It's frustrating. It's demoralising. It's even terrifying.”, Cory Doctorow What impact will artificial intelligence have, and who controls the future?  “Humans are in control already. The question is which human.” References Other Episodes other English episodes Episode 107: How to Organise Complex Societies? A Conversation with Johan Norberg Episode 100: Live im MQ, Was ist Wissen. Ein Gespräch mit Philipp Blom Episode 92: Wissen und Expertise Teil 2 Episode 80: Wissen, Expertise und Prognose, eine Reflexion Episode 91: Die Heidi-Klum-Universität, ein Gespräch mit Prof. Ehrmann und Prof. Sommer Episode 88: Liberalismus und Freiheitsgrade, ein Gespräch mit Prof. Christoph Möllers Episode 71: Stagnation oder Fortschritt — eine Reflexion an der Geschichte eines Lebens Episode 45: Mit »Reboot« oder Rebellion aus der Krise? Episode 38: Eliten, ein Gespräch mit Prof. Michael Hartmann Episode 35: Innovation oder: Alle Existenz ist Wartung? Episode 18: Gespräch mit Andreas Windisch: Physik, Fortschritt oder Stagnation Dr. David Edgerton... ... at Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin ... at King's College London ... at Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine ... at the British Academy Personal Website ...  on X David Edgerton, The Shock Of The Old: Technology and Global History since 1900, Profile Books (2019) Other References David Graeber, Peter Thiel David Deutsch Peter Kruse, next practice. Erfolgreiches Management von Instabilität. Veränderung durch Vernetzung, Gabal (2020) Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, More and More and More: An All-Consuming History of Energy, Allen Lane (2024) Vaclav Smil,  John Gray, Black Mass, Pengui (2008) Ainissa Ramirez, A Wire Across the Ocean, American Scientist (2015) Thomas Sowell,  Peter Thiel Fellowship Cory Doctorow, ‘Enshittification' is coming for absolutely everything, Financial Times (2024)

Robert Warren is the author of The Bitcoin Miner's Almanac: Where Code Meets Business and Everything in Between, published 2024. We discuss the book, which gives an excellent overview of what Bitcoin mining is and the operational considerations, as well as fascinating case studies of the different business models and types of mining operations. Alongside this we discuss energy and the electrical grid more broadly as well as how to communicate Bitcoin mining and the importance of maintaining the grid and producing energy for human flourishing. --- Links: [BUY] The Bitcoin Miner's Almanac: Where Code Meets Business and Everything in Between by Robert Warren - ⁠⁠https://amzn.to/4hcwHWQ⁠ Robert Warren on X - ⁠https://x.com/BikesandBitcoin⁠ Fossil Future: Why Global Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas - Not Less by Alex Epstein - ⁠https://amzn.to/4eTQbxV⁠ Energy and Civilization: A History by Vaclav Smil - ⁠https://amzn.to/4fh0Rqe ‍--- Connect with The Transformation of Value X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/TTOVpodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Nostr at: https://njump.me/npub1uth29ygt090fe640skhc8l34d9s7xlwj4frxs2esezt7n6d64nwsqcmmmu Or send an email to hello@thetransformationofvalue.com and I will get back to you! Music by Simon James French - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.simonjamesfrench.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ --- Support The Transformation of Value: Bitcoin tip address: bc1qlfcr2v73tntt6wvyp2yu064egvyeery6xtwy8t Lightning tip address: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠codyellingham@fountain.fm If you send a tip please email or DM me so I can thank you! ---

On October 13, SpaceX and Elon Musk successfully launched their Starship rocket into low-Earth orbit. Then, in a milestone moment for space technology, they successfully captured the rocket's Super Heavy booster with “chopstick” arms on the launch tower upon reentry, marking the first time a booster was ever caught in mid-air.The achievement is a mind-blowing feat of human engineering — one that hasn't gotten nearly the recognition that it deserves. Today on Faster, Please! — The Podcast, I talk with must-read space journalist Eric Berger about the role of SpaceX in the new, 21st-century Space Race, the significance of the company's achievements, and our potential to become a spacefaring, inter-planetary species.Berger is the senior space editor at Ars Techica, and is the author of both Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days that Launched SpaceX and his most recent excellent book, Reentry: SpaceX, Elon Musk, and the Reusable Rockets that Launched a Second Space Age.In This Episode* Starship's big reentry (1:43)* Race (back) to the moon (8:54)* Why Starship? (11:48)* The Mars-shot (18:37)* Elon in the political area (22:10)* Understanding SpaceX (24:06)Below is a lightly edited transcript of our conversationStarship's big reentry (1:43)James Pethokoukis: After the launch tower caught that booster stage of the rocket, I saw someone on Twitter a day later say, “Hey, do you guys remember over the weekend when SpaceX sent a Statue-of-Liberty-sized object to space and then caught it when it came back down? That was amazing!”So two things: First, as a space guy, what was your reaction? Two, beyond the sheer coolness of it, why was this an important thing to happen?It seemed inconceivable a few years ago, but now, all of a sudden, it's the future of rocketry, just like that.Eric Berger: Just from a space perspective, it's epic to see, to use your adjectives, the Statue of Liberty comparison. I mean, it's a small skyscraper, but they essentially launch that thing to space at thousands of miles per hour, then it slows down, it comes back right where it took off from, hovers, and it falls precisely into these two arms that are designed to catch it. The cool thing is that we'd never seen anything like that before. It seemed inconceivable a few years ago, but now, all of a sudden, it's the future of rocketry, just like that.the significance of this, of course, is SpaceX has shown that with the reusability of the Falcon 9 rocket, it can really change the economics of launch. This year they've launched 101 times. No country had ever done that many launches before in a year. They're going to launch 95 percent of all the mass into orbit this year with primarily the Falcon 9 Rocket, and all that's because the first stage is entirely reusable, they're flying them more than 20 times now, and so they're just taking that and scaling it.What was amazing about the tower catch this weekend was the fact that it really removes the need for landing legs. You may think, “Well, what's the big deal about that?” Well, there's a lot of mass involved with those landing legs: You need powerful actuators to drive them, you need hydraulic fluid, and that's a lot of dead mass in the vehicle. Also, it's not insignificant to transport the rocket from wherever it lands, either on a boat or on land, to the factory and to refurbish the rocket and launch again. Ideally, with this step, they're eliminating days from that process of reuse and ideally, in the future, they're literally going to be catching the rocket, setting it back on the launch mount and then potentially flying again.So it's not just the Starship, right? So for the other launches, is this is going to become the landing procedure?No, it will be just for Starship. They will continue to fly Falcon 9 as is. That's a mature product, everyone's pretty comfortable with that vehicle. But, look, other companies have tried different things. When Rocket Lab was trying to reuse its small Electron vehicle, its plan was to have the first stage come back under a parachute and then basically swoop in with a helicopter and catch it so that the rocket didn't fall into the ocean. That ended up not working.It seems very whimsical.Well, it made sense from an engineering standpoint, but it was a lot more difficult to snag the rocket than they ended up finding out. So, up until now, the only way to get a rocket back vertically was on a drone ship or landing straight up, and so this is a brand new thing, and it just creates more efficiencies in the launch system.What is the direction now, as far as launch costs and the continued decline of launch costs if this will be the new landing procedure for Starship?It's impossible to say that, of course. We can look to a Falcon 9 for an analog. SpaceX sales started out selling Falcon 9 for $60 million, it's upped that price to about $67 or $68 million — still the lowest-cost medium-lift launch vehicle in the world, but that's the price you or I or NASA would pay for a rocket. Internally, the estimate is that they're re-flying those vehicles for about $15 million. So, in effect, SpaceX has taken the cost of the lowest-price vehicle on the market and divided it by four, basically.Starship, of course, can lift much more payload to orbit than Falcon 9. By some measures, five to 10 times as much, eventually. And so if they can get the cost down, if they can make the first and second stage reusable, I think you're talking about them bringing the cost down potentially another order of magnitude, but they've got a lot of work to get there.I think the second most common comment I saw on social media — the first one being like, “This is amazing, I'm crying, this is so cool” — the second one is, “Why is NASA not using this Starship to get to the moon?” It seems like progress is being made quickly, and you mentioned the costs, I think people are just befuddled. It's a question you must get a lot.The reality is that if we want to go to the moon before 2030, we probably need to do it with a combination of NASA's Space Launch System rocket and Starship. It's a complicated answer, but the reality is that NASA, in conjunction with Congress, has basically, over the last quarter of a century, pivoted away from reusable launch vehicles, and at one point in the early 2000s, they were actually funding three different reusable launch vehicles. The most famous of those, of course, was the Space Shuttle. It stopped funding the Space Shuttle in 2011 and it went back to developing this large, expendable rocket called the Space Launch System. That was the tried and true pathway, and no one really had faith in what SpaceX is doing. And so now here we are, almost 15 years later, and SpaceX has gone out and proved it with the Falcon 9, the Falcon Heavy, and now Starship.The reality is that if we want to go to the moon before 2030, we probably need to do it with a combination of NASA's Space Launch System rocket and Starship. In 2021, NASA did select Starship as its lunar lander. So Starship is a critical part of the architecture. Probably the most challenging part, actually, is getting down to the lunar surface and then getting back up reliably. And so Starship plays a key role, and I just really think that it's inevitable that Starship and potentially Blue Origin's architecture will be how humans get to the moon and back, but we're kind of in an interim period right now.Is it just sort of too late to switch?Yeah, it is. It's too late to switch. You could conceive of scenarios in which humans launch in Crew Dragon, transfer over to a Starship, and then come back in Crew Dragon, but even then you've got some challenges. And the problem — problem is the wrong word, but one of the major issues with Starship is that it has no redundancy when you come back and land. It has got to nail the landing or people inside of it die. So you're going to want to see hundreds of Starship launches and many, many successful landings in a row before you put people on the vehicle. And to have the idea of launching humans from Earth to the moon at this point, we're pretty far from that. I would think a decade from now, at least, and by then China will be on the moon. And so it's really a matter of, do you want to sort of continue to delay the human return of the moon, or do you want to take the tools that you have now and make your best run for it?Race (back) to the moon (8:54)Since you brought it up, are we going to beat China to the moon with the SLS?Very much an open question. The SLS Rocket is basically ready. In its current form, it performed very well during Artemis I. It's obviously super expensive. You may have seen the Europa Clipper launch on Monday of this week, that launched on a Falcon Heavy. For almost a decade, Congress mandated NASA that it launched on the SLS rocket, and that would've cost 10 times as much. NASA paid about $200 million for the Clipper launch on Falcon Heavy, SLS would've been in excess of $2 billion, so it's a very expensive rocket, but it does work, it worked well during Artemis I. The best way we have right now, Jim, to get astronauts from Earth out to lunar orbit is SLS and the Orion deep spacecraft vehicle. That will change over time, but I think if we want to put humans on the moon this decade, that's probably the best way to do it.Is it going to be a close call? I don't want to overemphasize the competition aspect, but I guess I would like to see America do it first.It's going to be close. NASA's current date is 2026 for the Artemis III moon landing. There's no way that happens. I think 2028 is a realistic no-earlier-than date, and the reality is SpaceX has to make a lot of progress on Starship. What they did this past weekend was a great step. I think the key thing about the fact of this weekend's launch is that it was a success. There were no anomalies, there's going to be no investigation, so SpaceX is going to launch again. As long as they continue to have success, then they can start popping these off and get to some of the really key tests like the in-space propellant transfer tests, which they hope to do sometime next year.[W]hen you're on the moon, there's no launch tower, there's no launch crew, you've just got the astronauts inside Starship, and if that vehicle doesn't take off on the moon, the crew's going to die. So it's got to work.What Starship will do is it'll launch into low-earth orbit, and then it'll be refueled, and it'll go to the moon, and you need lots of launches to refuel it. And then really the key test, I think, is landing on the moon, because the South Pole is pretty craterous, you've got to have high confidence in where you land, and then the big challenge is getting back up to lunar orbit safely.Think about it: When you watch any rocket launch, you see this very detailed, very intricate launch tower with all these umbilicals, and all of these cables, and power, and telemetry, and stuff, and humans are looking at all this data, and if there's any problem, they abort, right? Well, when you're on the moon, there's no launch tower, there's no launch crew, you've just got the astronauts inside Starship, and if that vehicle doesn't take off on the moon, the crew's going to die. So it's got to work. And so that's really a big part of the challenge, as well, is getting all that to work. So I think 2028, for all that to come together, is a realistic no-earlier-than date, and China's pretty consistently said 2030, and they're starting to show off some hardware, they recently demonstrated that suggests they have a chance to make 2030.On sale everywhere The Conservative Futurist: How To Create the Sci-Fi World We Were PromisedWhy Starship? (11:48)What is the commercial case for Starship, assuming that these next launches continue to go off well? What is it supposed to be doing here on Earth and in Earth orbit?The next big race is to deliver internet, not to a dish that you set up, but actually to your mobile phone. It's called direct-to-cell, and you need much bigger satellites for this. And so SpaceX needs the Starship to launch these satellites, so that will really be the commercial use case for Starship in the near term.Its primary function, and I think the most important function for SpaceX in the near term, is launching these much larger Starlink satellites. I think it's been pretty well proven that there's a large demand for broadband internet from low-earth orbit. Starlink has now up to four million customers and they're actually signing almost at an exponential rate. Then growth, the business is profitable. So that's been super impressive. The next big race is to deliver internet, not to a dish that you set up, but actually to your mobile phone. It's called direct-to-cell, and you need much bigger satellites for this. So SpaceX needs the Starship to launch these satellites, so that will really be the commercial use case for Starship in the near term.I think once the vehicle starts flying reliably, we're going to see where the commercial customers go because we've never really been in a launch environment where you're not really constrained by mass and, more importantly, by volume. You can just build bigger, less-efficient things. Instead of hyper-managing your satellite to be small, and light, and compact, you can kind of make trades where maybe you have a lower-cost vehicle that's bigger. The capability of Starship with its voluminous payload fairing and being able to lift a hundred or more tons to low-earth orbit for low cost — entirely new regime. And so I think it's a case of Field of Dreams, “If you build it, they will come,” and in the near term, Starship will be the business case, and longer-term we'll see some unique opportunities.You've been covering this for quite a while, documenting, books, including your most recent book. Really an amazing ride as a space journalist for you here.I've been covering space now for two decades, and really with a focus on commercial space over the last decade because I think that's where a lot of the excitement and innovation is coming from. But the reality is that you've got this whole ecosystem of companies, but the 800-pound gorilla is SpaceX. They're the company that has consistently had success. They are the only provider of crew transportation services for NASA, still, even five years after their initial success, and they're the only provider right now that's launching cargo missions to the space station. They've got huge Starlink satellites, constellation. As a journalist, you really want to understand the biggest, most dominating force in the industry, and that's clearly SpaceX, and so that's why I've chosen to dedicate a lot of time to really understand where they started out and how they got to where they are, which is at the top of the heap.The story that you lay out in your book, which came out last month — Reentry: SpaceX, Elon Musk, and the Reusable Rockets that Launched a Second Space Age — to me, it's still a story people mostly don't know, and one that I think a lot of non-space reporters don't understand. What are some common misunderstandings that you come across that make you feel like you need to tell this story?I think, until recently, one of the things that people might say about SpaceX is, “Well, what's the big deal? NASA's launched humans to orbit in the past, NASA's launched cargo, they had a reusable space vehicle in the Space Shuttle.” What's different is that SpaceX is doing this at scale, and they're building for a long-term plan that is sustainable.I'll give you an example: The Space Shuttle was reusable. Everything was reusable except the external tank. However, you needed a standing army of thousands of people to pour over the Space Shuttle after it came back from space to make sure that all of its tiles and every piece of equipment was safe. Now, when it was originally sold to Congress back in the 1970s, the program manager for the space shuttle, George Mueller said that the goal was to get the cost of payload-to-orbit for the Space Shuttle down to $25 a pound, which sounded great because then they were saying dozens of people could fly on the vehicle at a time. Well, of course, at the end of the day, it only ever flew at a maximum of seven people, and the cost of payload-to-orbit was $25,000. So yes, it was reusable, but it was the kind of thing that was super expensive and you couldn't fly very often. You could do limited things.It's really the first vehicle we ever developed to go to Mars. SpaceX is doing some of the same things that NASA did, but it's doing them better, faster, and a lot cheaper.SpaceX is proposing kind of an order-of-magnitude change. We went to the moon in the 1960s with the Lunar Module, and everyone remembers it carried two astronauts down to the lunar surface. And that whole thing launched on a giant stack, the Saturn V rocket. So if you were to take the Lunar Module and replace the astronauts and just use it to deliver cargo to the moon, it could take five tons down to the lunar surface. Starship, in a reusable mode, can take a hundred tons. If you send an expendable version of Starship, it's 200 tons. And oh, by the way, even if you're not bringing that Starship back, you're getting the whole first stage back anyway.And so that's really the promise here, is you're building a sustainable system in space where it doesn't cost you $6 billion to go to the moon, it costs you half a billion dollars or to go to the moon, and you can then go on and do other things, you can fill your Starship up with methane repellent and go further. It's really the first vehicle we ever developed to go to Mars. SpaceX is doing some of the same things that NASA did, but it's doing them better, faster, and a lot cheaper.That $25-a-pound number you gave for Space Shuttle, where are we with SpaceX? Where is SpaceX, or where are they and what's their goal in that context?They're getting down in a couple of thousand dollars a pound with a Falcon 9, and the idea is, potentially, with Starship, you get down to hundreds of dollars a pound or less. They have a big challenge too, right? They're using tiles on Starship as well. They showed some of them off during the webcast this weekend, and I think we have yet to have any kind of information on how reusable, or how rapidly reusable Starship will be, and we'll have to see.The Mars-shot (18:37)To the extent the public understands this company — this is my understanding — the point here is to build Starship, to further this satellite business, and then that satellite business will fund the eventual Mars mission and the Mars colonization. I think that's the public perception of what is happening with this business. How accurate is that? Is that how you look at it? I mean, that's how I look at it from my uninformed or less-informed view, but is that really what we're talking about here?Yeah, fundamentally, I think that is accurate. There is no business case right now to go to Mars. AT&T is not going to pay $5 billion to put an AT&T logo on a Starship and send a crew to Mars. There are no resources right now that we really can conceive of on Mars that would be profitable for humans to go get and bring back to Earth. So then the question is: How do you pay for it?Financially, the business case for Mars is not entirely clear, so you've got to figure out some way to pay for it. That was one reason why Elon Musk ultimately went with Starlink. That would pay for the Mars vision.Even when settlers went to the New World in the 1500s, 1600s, in United States, they were exporting tobacco and other products back to Europe, and there's no tobacco that we know of on Mars, right? Financially, the business case for Mars is not entirely clear, so you've got to figure out some way to pay for it. That was one reason why Elon Musk ultimately went with Starlink. That would pay for the Mars vision.I think that's still fundamentally the case. It's effectively going to be paying for the entire development of Starship, and then if it becomes highly profitable, SpaceX is not a public company, so they can take those revenues and do whatever they want with them, and Elon has said again and again that his vision is to settle Mars, and he's building the rockets to do it, and he's trying to find the funding through Starlink to accomplish it. That is the vision. We don't know how it's all going to play out, but I think you're fundamentally correct with that.I think when he mentions Mars, there are some people that just give it a roll of the eye. It just sounds too science fictional, despite the progress being made toward accomplishing that. It sounds like you do not roll your eyes at that.Well, it's interesting. He first really talked publicly about this in 2016, eight years ago, back when there was no Starship, back when they just were coming off their second Falcon 9 failure in about a year, and you kind of did roll your eyes at it then . . . And then they got the Falcon 9 flying and they started re-flying it and re-flying it. They did Falcon Heavy, and then they started building Starship hardware, and then they started launching Starship, and now they're starting to land Starship, and this is real hardware.And yes, to be clear, they have a long, long way to go and a lot of technical challenges to overcome, and you need more than just a rocket in a spaceship to get to Mars, you need a lot of other stuff, too: biological, regulatory, there's a lot of work to go, but they are putting down the railroad tracks that will eventually open that up to settlement.So I would not roll my eyes. This is certainly the only credible chance, I think, for humans to go to Mars in our lifetimes, and if those early missions are successful, you could envision settlements being built there.Elon in the political arena (22:10)Given SpaceX's accomplishments and their lead, is that company politics-proof? Obviously there's always going to be controversy about Elon, and Twitter, and who he gives money to, and things he says, but does any of that really matter for SpaceX?I think it does. We've already seen a couple examples of it, especially with Elon's very public entree into presidential politics over the last several months. I think that does matter. In his fight with Brazil over what he termed as free speech, they were confiscating Starlink, and so they were trying to shut Starlink down in their country, and that directly affects SpaceX. In California, over the last week we have seen a commission vote to try to limit the number of launches Falcon 9 launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base, and they clearly did that because they were uncomfortable with Elon's behavior publicly. So yeah, this is going to bleed over.Now, in the near term, there will be limited impacts because the US Department of Defense clearly needs SpaceX rockets. They need SpaceX's Starlink, they use a branded version of it called Starshield for military communications. The launch and Starlink capabilities are essential for the military. NASA is even more reliant on SpaceX for the International Space Station and beyond; the entire moon program runs through Starship, so it's not going to change in the near term, but longer term you could see this having impacts, and it's not clear to me exactly what those would be — I don't think you could really nationalize SpaceX, and I think if you did try to nationalize SpaceX, you would sort of destroy its magic, but I do think there will ultimately be consequences for the Elon's political activity.Understanding SpaceX (24:06)About Reentry, is there a particular story in there that you think just really encapsulates, if you want to understand SpaceX, and what it's doing, and where it's come from, this story kind of gets at it?The point of the book was to tell the story behind the story. A lot of people knew, generally, what SpaceX has accomplished over the last decade, or the last 15 years, but this really takes you behind the scenes and tells the stories of the people who actually did it.It's a company that's moving so fast forward that, like I said, there are all these challenges they're facing and they're just tackling them one-by-one as they go along.I think one of the best stories of the book is just how they were making this up as they went along. The very first time they were going to try to land on the barge was in January of 2015, the drone ship landing, and the night before that barge was going to set out to sea, the guy who had developed the barge realized that, wait a minute, if we come back with a rocket this week, we have nowhere to put it in the port of Jacksonville, because they were staging out of Jacksonville at the time. And there had been this whole discussion at SpaceX about where to put these pedestals, but no one had actually done it. That night, he and another engineer stayed up all night drinking red wine and CADing out designs for the pedestals, and they met the concrete pores the next morning and just built these pedestals within 24 hours. It's a company that's moving so fast forward that, like I said, there are all these challenges they're facing and they're just tackling them one-by-one as they go along.Elon has spoken about there's sort of this window of opportunity open for space. In the United States, at least, it was open and then it kind of closed. We stopped leaving Earth orbit for a while, we couldn't even get our people into Earth orbit; we had to use another country's rockets.Is this window — whether for space commerce, space exploration — is it sort of permanently open? Are we beyond the point where things can close — because satellites are so important, and because of geopolitics, that window is open and it's staying open for us to go through.I think he's talking about the window for settlement of Mars and making humans a multi-planetary species. And when he talks about the window closing, I think he means a lot of different things: One, the era of cheaper money could end — and that clearly did happen, right? We've seen interest rates go way up and it's been much more difficult to raise money, although SpaceX has been able to still do that because of their success. I think he's thinking about his own mortality. I believe he's thinking about a major global war that would focus all of our technological efforts here on planet Earth trying to destroy one another. I think he's thinking about nuclear weapons — just all the things that could bring human progress to a screeching halt, and he's saying, “Look, the window may be 100 years or it may be 20 years.” So he's like, “We should seize the opportunity right now when we have it.”Faster, Please! is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Micro Reads▶ Economics* Larry Summers on the Economics of AI - Conversable Economist* Landing Softly Is Just the Beginning - San Francisco Fed* More Babies Aren't the Only Solution to Falling Birthrates - NYT Opinion* Generative AI at work: Survey evidence from three Central Banks - SSRN▶ Business* Nvidia Chief Makes Case for AI-First Companies - WSJ* Apple Intelligence Isn't Very Smart Yet—and Apple's OK With That - WSJ* Andreessen Horowitz Backs Infinitus to Bring AI to Medical Calls - Bberg* Breaking Up Google Is a Fool's Game - WSJ Opinion▶ Policy/Politics* The US is the world's science superpower — but for how long? - Nature* Can A.I. Be Blamed for a Teen's Suicide? - NYT* Former OpenAI Researcher Says Company Broke Copyright Law - NYT* The tragedy of a 50-50 America - FT Opinion* Both Harris and Trump pose problems for U.S. energy producers. - AEI* Why Harris and Trump Are Pandering to Crypto Plutocrats - NYT Opinion* Trump's Tariffs and Economic Risk - WSJ Opinion* China asks: what is an e-bike? - FT Opinion* This Startup Shows Why the U.S. CHIPS Act Is Needed - Spectrum▶ AI/Digital* Big frontier AI systems will emerge from global, distributed efforts, not just big tech: Meta's Yann LeCun - Techcircle* Does ChatGPT Have a Poetic Style? - arXiv▶ Biotech/Health* Danes to Use New Nvidia AI Supercomputer for Drug Discovery - Bberg▶ Clean Energy/Climate* Averting Climate Catastrophe Requires Economic Growth - PS* The Energy Transition We Really Should Be Focusing On - RealClearScience* To Fight Climate Change, Clean Up Carbon Markets - Bberg Opinion* A Mexican Electric Car? Only If Private Firms Lead the Way - Bberg Opinion▶ Robotics/AVs* Crop-spraying robot is designed to reduce emissions and use less herbicide - Atlas▶ Space/Transportation* Beetlejuice, Betelgeuse, Betelbuddy? Astronomers Find Something Unexpected Orbiting Infamous “Doomed Star” - Debrief▶ Up Wing/Down Wing* Meet Hollywood's AI Doomsayer: Joseph Gordon-Levitt - WSJ* Here's What the Regenerative Cities of Tomorrow Could Look Like - Wired* Archimedes Rediscovered: Technology and Ancient History - JSTOR Daily* Energy expert Vaclav Smil on how to feed the world without trashing it - NS▶ Substacks/Newsletters* Yes, You're Still Imagining a Migrant Crime Spree - Alex Nowrasteh's Immigration Insights and Other Deep Dives* How long can we sustain economic growth? - Noahpinion* What is Anthropic's AI Computer Use? - AI Supremacy* An AI intern in your pocket - Exponential View* Industrial Policy's Inescapable Uncertainty Problem - The Dispatch* NEPA Nightmares IV: Tule Wind - Breakthrough Journal* When you give a Claude a mouse - One Useful Thing* Larry Summers on the Economics of AI - Conversable EconomistFaster, Please! is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit fasterplease.substack.com/subscribe

Vi er i kontemplativt modus etter en uke i London, hvor vi spiste kake, gikk på Champions League-kamp og presenterte forskningen vår for bærekraftsdirektøren i FA - det engelske fotballforbundet, på storstuen Wembley Stadium. En bisetning han sa i møtet, om å være "intellektuelt ærlig", leder oss inn i en prat om hvordan jobbe med bærekraft i en verden som er som den er. Sveinung føler seg som en molbo, vi er overveldet av de store mengdene folk overalt (bortsett fra på Tyinkrysset, hvor det bare er noen geiter). Vi forteller om samtalene med bærekraftsdirektøren og kollegaen hans fra avfallshåndteringsselskapet Veolia. Det engelske fotballforbundet er kanskje bare en konsertarrangør som av og til arrangerer en fotballkamp, for her går det fra 500000 Taylor Swift-fans fra hele verden, via Dua Lipa og til Coldplays bærekrafts-rider. Vi blir fortalt den fascinerende historien om de tre Wembley-gressmattene som til enhver tid dyrkes utenfor London, vi spiser kake både her og der og blir tatt med på en department store, som også får oss til å tenke på skalaen på bærekraftsproblemet. Tottenhams nye stadion blir nevnt, vi snakker om LCA-analyser for gjenbrukskopper versus resirkulerte kopper, Lars Jacob tror at han har klart å uttale Vaclav Smil sitt navn, men roter det til igjen når han skal si det vanskelige ordet "innkjøp". Han er også redd for å havne i slåsskamp med en kylling, tatt i betraktning hvor skarpe nebb de har, mens Sveinung er helt opphengt i å snakke om gjess. Men er Lars Jacob egentlig ungarsk? Han har kanskje et alter ego som lever mer bærekraftig enn han gjør? Vi snakker om den siste kommentarartikkelen vår i Teknisk Ukeblad, trekker strukturelt avfall opp av hatten og har lyst til å leve i en verden med meningsløse men gøye ting. Vi er slik sett realistiske, optimistiske og resignerte om hverandre, og snakker mye om hvordan drive med bærekraftsarbeid innenfor rammene av de varene og tjenestene som faktisk tilbys. Alternativet er jo forbud, og da vil "eskapismen" som tilbys på Wembley neppe være innafor. Nok å bite i der altså. Vi avslutter med en appell til Brede Hangeland og konkluderer med at det er paradokser nok til alle. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we're rebroadcasting an episode from the Resources Radio archive while the team is on a break through the rest of August. We'll be back in September with new episodes; in the meantime, enjoy this throwback and poke around the archive at Resources.org for more topics you might be interested in. In this week's episode rerun, host Daniel Raimi talks with Kelly T. Sanders, an associate professor at the University of Southern California. With her coauthors, Sanders published a series of studies on air-conditioning use in southern California, with a focus on who does (and does not) have access to cooling on hot days. This work, which touches on issues of energy and environmental justice, has big implications for managing climate change in the decades to come. References and recommendations: “Utilizing smart-meter data to project impacts of urban warming on residential electricity use for vulnerable populations in Southern California” by Mo Chen, George A. Ban-Weiss, and Kelly T. Sanders; https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab6fbe/meta “Growth: From Microorganisms to Megacities” by Vaclav Smil; https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/growth “These Truths: A History of the United States” by Jill Lepore; https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393357424

On this episode of the Energy Security Cubed Podcast, we feature the second part of an extensive interview with Hal Kvisle about how climate and energy policy has evolved in Canada, and how the energy industry has shifted to meet these constraints. // For the intro session, Kelly and Joe discuss Glencore's decision to reverse its planned exit from coal mining, and the question of how rosy Canada's economy actually is. // Guest Bio: - Hal Kvisle is Board Chair of ARC Resources, Board Chair of the nascent South Bow Corporation, and a Director of Finning International. Over a long career, Hal has served in senior positions for several major Canadian energy companies, including TC Energy and Talisman Energy. // Host Bio: - Kelly Ogle is Managing Director of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute - Joe Calnan is a Fellow and Energy Security Forum Manager at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute // Book Recommendations: - "Russka: The Novel of Russia", by Edward Rutherfurd: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B005FH04A4?ref=KC_GS_GB_CA - Books by Jim Harrison: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jim-Harrison/author/B000AQ7642 - Books by Vaclav Smil: https://vaclavsmil.com/category/books/ // Interview recording Date: July 24, 2024 // Energy Security Cubed is part of the CGAI Podcast Network. Follow the Canadian Global Affairs Institute on Facebook, Twitter (@CAGlobalAffairs), or on LinkedIn. Head over to our website at www.cgai.ca for more commentary. // Produced by Joe Calnan. Music credits to Drew Phillips.

This week we look at how misinformation and lies have become the common currency of contemporary society - especially amongst those who claim to be against misinformation!   We look at Climate Change and Vaclav Smil's 'How the World Really Works';  Scottish Railways; Olympic intolerance, lies and spin; Far Left attacks on French rail; Adam Peaty's faith; Country of the Week - Venezuela; Weirdness and the US Democrats; Did Trump announce no more elections?  Trump lies;  Google manipulation; Fired by Forbes; the death and influence of John Mayell; Israel assassinates Hamas leaders; The Guardian and Kemi Badenoch; Christian Teacher fired; a Scottish Islamic Island?;  and Habbakuk.   With music from Buffalo Springfield, JJ Cale,  Radiohead, John Mayell, Andy Stewart, Crowded House, 

Bill Gates is sucking a lot of oxygen in the Energy Transition. Is he a force for good, or a nuisance? What is his thesis and where does it come from? And is the thesis still valid in 2024 or obsolete?In this episode, we will not analyse Breakthrough Energy Ventures, his VC fund celebrating its 10th anniversary. That will be the topic of Episode 144, next week.Laurent, Gerard and Michael are going to analyse Bill Gates fascination for Vaclav Smil and David MacKay.  We will dissect how their theories have been consequential in the shaping of Bill Gates' vision.We will delve into Smil's errors, namely the Primary Energy Fallacy, the refusal to consider wind, solar and batteries as viable alternatives and the impact they have had on Bill Gates thinking, and - probably worse - investments.We will discuss how the Oil Industry has found an ally (probably unwilling, but certainly powerful) in their quest for immobility. Elon Musk might be controversial, but at least he has made the journey in practice, not in theory.A very heated discussion. And we are not going to make friends here. That's OK. Country above Party. Bill Gates on Smilhttps://www.gatesnotes.com/Numbers-Dont-Lie  

Vedran Bajer je country manager Microsofta Hrvatska, no njegova karijera uključuje više voditeljskih pozicija u MojPosao i VIDI, te vođenje više business development odjela u Googleu. Posao ga je vodio diljem svijeta, a dovoljno je dugo vremena proveo u Singapuru i Švicarskoj da se tamo osjeća kao doma. Osoba je vrlo širokih interesa, kao najveće kvalitete ističe radoznalost, spremnost na učenje, čitanje knjiga, te sportu. S Vedranom smo pričali o dojmovima koje je skupio o svijetu i karijeri, razlikama Singapura i Hrvatske, te kakva nam budućnost predstoji s AI alatima, osobito Microsoftovom Copilotu. Pričali smo i o možda najvažnijoj temi - tko sve može imati koristi od Copilota i integracijama AI-a u svakodnevno poslovanje, te što je sve trenutno moguće. Vedran preporučuje knjige: Material World: A Substantial Story of Our Past and Future, Ed Conway (pijesak, sol, bakar, željezo, nafta, litij) The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage, and Fear in the Cyber Age, David Sanger (cyber) This Is How They Tell Me The World Ends, Nicole Perlorth (cyber) The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-First Century's Greatest Dilemma, Mustafa Suleyman (o revoluciji u kojoj smo sada) Off Menu: The Secret Science of Food and Dining, Nell McShane Wulfhart (samo Audible, jako zanimljivo za ekipu koja voli klopati) Dosta Adam Granta - Originals, Think Again (broadly, leadership) How the World Really Works: How Science Can Set Us Straight on Our Past, Present and Future, Vaclav Smil (facts, facts, facts :)) Chip War: The Quest to Dominate the World's Most Critical Technology, Chris Miller (a must za svakoga u tehnologiji) Never Finished: Unshackle Your Mind and Win the War Within, David Goggins (možda malo granična, ali jako dobra priča o pomicanju ljudskih granica, iako David Goggins ima jaaaaako puno problema kao osoba) Flying Blind: The 737 MAX Tragedy and the Fall of Boeing, Peter Robison (za napraviti Boeing 737 treba manje od 9 dana, a random fact, izvrsna knjiga o promjeni kulture i utjecaju toga; imam puno tih povezanih s avijacijom, tehnologijom etc, ali ova je nekako poslovno zanimljiva također) Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity, Peter Attia MD, Bill Gifford (najdraža mi knjiga 2023.) The Culture Map, Erin Meyer (za increasingly global way of working, the business book koju mislim da svatko treba imati, poklonio sam ih barem 30 ljudima) A General Theory of Love, Thomas Lewis, Fari Amini (divna, jedina ovdje koja ima veze sa neuroznanoscu, da ne gnjavim previse) Podcasti: Another Podcast, Ben Evans (geek, ultra mega pametan) Prof G pod, Scott Galloway (tu i tamo, uglavnom jer pratim tržista kapitala) Acquired (duboke, duboke price o raznim biznisima, fascinantno - epizode o npr. Nvidia, Nike, Microsoft) Huberman Lab (sve su top) Epizodu je sponzorirao Microsoft Hrvatska. Citat dana: Freedom means the opportunity to be what we never thought we would be.Daniel J. Boorstin Tri načina kako slušati podcast Kako slušati podcast u autu koji nema Mp3 player Top lista najslušanijih epizoda

Mike says the capital gains tax increase reveals the political divisions in Canada. Brian Gitt asks if realism is finally coming to the energy debate, and one of Canada's most celebrated thinkers, Vaclav Smil, says even Josef Goebbels would be surprised by our public discussions in the Quote of the Week. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Anastasia has been reading Vaclav Smil's Energy and Civilization, so we decided to sit down for a meta conversation about petroleum, prime movers, and geopolitics. This solo chat ties together a bunch of the conversations we've had on the show in the last year about climate, technology and the energy transition. Historically, we've been pretty skeptical when people start banging on about the need to transition to a completely electric grid, but Smil makes a really compelling point - all human endeavors depend on motive power. We go further to consider the downstream consequences of the prime movers we rely on, the risk of this being the last civilization for the next 20 million years, and the strange software called "progress" that was installed in humans when we departed from our primate roots. Sign up for our Patreon and get episodes early + join our weekly Patron Chat https://bit.ly/3lcAasB00:00 Go! 00:03:34 Material supplies do run out: assumption#1 00:09:38 Oil production going down or no? 00:15:38 If we run out, do we go back to horse & buggy times? 00:20:08 Why can't nuclear save the day? 00:24:47 The actual electric universe 00:29:00 Lucius Appeleus 00:39:14 Population & growth fears 00:43:48 Who or what are the barriers to Electricland 00:49:47 Diesel's failed vision 00:54:15 Why are we racing toward the future? 00:57:57 Relief of sufferring at the cost of all else 01:03:07 Calhoun & density epibehavior 01:06:51 Godlike machine future 01:10:49 Does AI threaten meaningful life? 01:18:56 Convenience v. painlessness 01:26:35 Solution set is in sight #Transhumanism #Humanity #Technology #Ethics #Philosophy #Evolution #SciencePolicy #Longevity #Intelligence #Wellbeing #Progress #Tradition #HumanNature #TechnologicalSingularity #Posthumanism #Enhancement #BottomUpEvolution #TopDownControl #HumanTechnology #Futurism #TranshumanCriticism #longformpodcast Check our short-films channel, @DemystifySci: https://www.youtube.com/c/Demystifyin... AND our material science investigations of atomics, @MaterialAtomics https://www.youtube.com/@MaterialAtomics Join our mailing list https://bit.ly/3v3kz2S PODCAST INFO: Anastasia completed her PhD studying bioelectricity at Columbia University. When not talking to brilliant people or making movies, she spends her time painting, reading, and guiding backcountry excursions. Shilo also did his PhD at Columbia studying the elastic properties of molecular water. When he's not in the film studio, he's exploring sound in music. They are both freelance professors at various universities. - Blog: http://DemystifySci.com/blog - RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/2be66934/podcast/rss - Donate: https://bit.ly/3wkPqaD - Swag: https://bit.ly/2PXdC2y SOCIAL: - Discord: https://discord.gg/MJzKT8CQub - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Demys... - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DemystifySci/ - Twitter: https://twitter.com/DemystifySci MUSIC: -Shilo Delay: https://g.co/kgs/oty671

On this episode, Nate is joined by ER doctor, nuclear power advocate, and podcast host Chris Keefer for a broad ranging conversation including the basics of nuclear energy, how he engages with opposing opinions, and hypotheticals for a future medical system. Coming from a broad background, Chris understands what it means to have a human to human conversation and put together the pieces of our systemic puzzle in a clear and compelling way. What role could nuclear play for our future energy needs - and how are different countries making use of it today? How can we prioritize the health and safety of people under energetic and resource constraints? Most of all, how do we listen to others that we don't agree with - regardless of the issue - to foster the diverse perspectives necessary to navigate the coming challenges of the human predicament?  About Chris Keefer: Chris Keefer MD, CCFP-EM is a Staff Emergency Physician at St Joseph's Health Centre and a Lecturer for the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto. He is also an avid advocate for expanding nuclear power as the President of Canadians for Nuclear Energy and Director of Doctors for Nuclear Energy. Additionally, he is the host of the Decouple Podcast exploring the most pressing questions in energy, climate, environment, politics, and philosophy. PDF Transcript Show Notes  00:00 - Chris Keefer works + info, Decouple Podcast, Canadians for Nuclear Energy 04:45 - Egalitarian hunter gatherer society, infant mortality 05:12 - Bow drill fire 07:10 - Yukon 07:30 - Humans and livestock outweigh wild mammals 50:1, not in the Yukon 08:10 - Dr. Paul Farmer 08:45 - Most humans use to work in agriculture, ~15% now involved in healthcare 10:56 - Ontario nuclear power, one of lowest electric grid in the world 12:01 - Justin Trudeau 12:24 - Simcoe Clinic, Canadian Center for Victims of Torture 14:01 - World population over time 14:36 - Paleodemography 14:59 - Degrowth 15:19 - Infant mortality in developed countries 15:55 - Tight link between energy, materials and GDP 20:54 - Duck and Cover Drills 21:05 - Environmental Movement and Nuclear 21:21 - Nagasaki bomb radiation injuries 21:49 - High dose radiation is deadly, low dose radiation less so 21:05 - Strontium-90 found in the teeth of babies 21:10 - Atmospheric weapons testing ban 22:33 - Fukushima meltdown, health impacts are negligible 23:09 - 20,000 people died from the Fukushima earthquake and following tsunami  23:47 - Fukushima contaminated water has been filtered out and is safe 24:24 - How radiation is measured 26:02 - Health effects from alcohol 26:16 - Drinking culture in the U.S. 27:22 - Nuclear energy density, land footprint 28:23 - Best nuclear applications and limitations 30:01 - Those who live in nuclear powered areas fare better 30:33 - Price of nuclear energy over the lifetime 30:45 - Nuclear power in France 31:18 - Canada energy history, center for nuclear research outside of the Manhattan Project 32:23 - 1000 people die prematurely every year due to coal 33:25 - Ontario population 33:38 - Candu Reactors 34:15 - Levelized cost of electricity, skewed with renewables 37:01 - Lazard Graphs 38:09 - Mark Jacobson 41:07 - Carbon emissions by power source 41:23 - Lifespan of nuclear plants 43:11 - Land use change impacts 43:31 - Nuclear and job creation 46:05 - US spending on military vs healthcare 48:49 - Meiji Restoration 49:33 - Vaclav Smil 50:42 - AI electricity demands 50:55 - AI risks 51:29 - Meredith Angwin  52:42 - Nuclear fuel 53:10 - 46% of uranium enrichment happens in Russia 54:15 - Known Uranium Reserves 54:25 - Haber Bosch  54:55 - Breeder Reactors 55:42 - Uranium in seawater 56:14 - Slow vs Fast Neutrons, fertile elements 57:04 - Sodium Fast Reactor 58:45 - China built a nuclear reactor in less than 4 years 1:00:05 - Defense in depth 1:01:11 - EMP, solar flare 1:01:30 - HBO's Chernobyl, wildlife thriving in chernobyl area 1:03:13 - Death toll from radiation in Chernobyl 1:05:13 - Scientific literature and confirmation bias 1:08:12 - Chernobyl Children's International 1:08:44 - Genome sequencing of highest exposures to radiation from chernobyl 1:09:09 - Germline mutations if the father smokes 1:10:02 - The Great Simplification animated video 1:10:32 - Peak Oil 1:12:10 - Complex 6-continent supply chains 1:12:30 - I, Pencil 1:15:19 - Nuclear Fusion 1:16:24 - Lawrence Livermore 1:17:45 - Tomas Murphy, Galactic Scale Energy 1:18:11 - Small Modular Reactor 1:19:26 - Cost saving in nuclear comes from scaling 1:19:34 - Wright's Law, economies of multiples 1:23:33 - Biden administration policies and advances on nuclear 1:24:00 - Non-profit industrial complex 1:24:24 - The size of the US non-profit economy 1:24:44 - Sierra Club, anti-nuclear history 1:25:14 - Rocky Mountain Club 1:27:15 - Hans Rosling 1:27:32 - Somalia infant mortality rate 1:27:42 - Cuba 1990s economic shock and response 1:27:42 - Vandana Shiva + TGS Episode 1:30:27 - Cognitive Dissonance 1:31:45 - Jonathan Haidt + TGS Podcast, Righteous Mind 1:32:48 - Fatality and hospitalization statistics for COVID for first responders 1:33:22 - Truckers protest in Ottawa 1:34:15 - The problem with superchickens  1:36:54 - How social media tries to keep you online 1:37:12 - Paleopsychology 1:37:55 - Tristan Harris and Daniel Schmachtenberger on Joe Rogan 1:39:45 - John Kitzhaber + TGS Episode, Robert Lustig + TGS Episode 1:39:55 - US healthcare 20% of GDP, 50% of the world's medical prescriptions are in the US  1:41:55 - Superutilizers 1:42:37 - Cuban medical system, spending, life expectancy, infant mortality 1:43:06 - Cuban export of pharmaceuticals 1:44:08 - Preventative medicine, chronic disease management 1:44:25 - Cuban doctor to person ratio, rest of the world 1:48:47 - Social determinants of health 1:49:20 - Cement floor reducing illness in Mexico 1:50:03 - Hygiene hypothesis 1:50:28 - Zoonotic disease and human/animal cohabitation 1:50:50 - Roundworm life cycle 1:52:38 - Acceptable miss rates 1:53:16 - Cancer screening effectiveness  1:53:58 - Drugs produced from nuclear plant byproducts 1:58:18 - Timothy O'Leary 2:02:28 - Superabundance 2:02:40 - Julian Simons and Paul Ehrlich bet 2:02:15 - Malthusian 2:06:08 - Pickering Plant Watch this video episode on YouTube

Dive into the electrifying world of lithium stocks! This dive explores lithium market trends, spotlights industry leader Albemarle, and especially promising small-cap stock Arcadium Lithium. There's great long-term potential for this critical small provider of the resource for the EV revolution, and power efficiency as a whole. Nick and Kasey discuss the upside, but also risks investors need to weigh. Article by Vaclav Smil: https://spectrum.ieee.org/electricity-its-wonderfully-affordable-but-its-no-longer-getting-any-cheaper

"Bitcoin is those last five puzzle pieces we're waiting for to achieve incredible quality of life." - Harry SudockMy guest today is Harry Sudock. Harry is the Chief Strategy Officer at Griid, a purpose-built American-based infrastructure company operating bitcoin mining facilities since 2019 utilizing low-cost, low-carbon energy, and a partner at Bitcoin Park, a community supported campus in Nashville focused on grassroots freedom tech adoption and a home for bitcoiners to work, learn, collaborate, and build. In this episode we discusses Bitcoin mining's role in expanding renewable energy, reducing emissions, and empowering communities. Harry explains Bitcoin's proof-of-work mechanism, addresses common misconceptions, and highlights how Bitcoin mining incentivizes clean energy solutions through free market dynamics.Harry's book recommendation, Energy and Civilization: A History, by Vaclav Smil. https://www.amazon.com/Energy-Civilization-History-MIT-Press/dp/0262035774Follow Harry on X and nostr You can find Trey on nostr, X, and via the pod's social channelsEXCLUSIVE SPONSORS:ZEUS is an open-source, self-custodial Bitcoin wallet that gives you full control over how you make payments. Head to Zuesln.com to learn more and download. Save 5% on LSP fees by using code ‘TPB' in the access code under LSP settings.BitBox: Get the open-source Bitbox02 Bitcoin only edition. It's my favorite bitcoin hardware wallet for you to take self-custody of your bitcoin and keep your private keys safe in cold storage. Use promo-code TPB during checkout at https://bitbox.swiss/tpb to get 5% off your purchase.You, our listener! Thank you to our supporters. To support The Progressive Bitcoiner and access rewards, including our new TPB merch, head to our geyser page: https://geyser.fund/project/tpbpodPROMO CODES:Sazmining: Hosted Bitcoin mining made easy, using 100% cheap and renewable energy. Get $50 off the purchase of a miner using the following link: https://app.sazmining.com/purchase?ref=byyhN2mCGXluLightning Store: Head to https://lightning.store/ and use promo-code ‘TPB' to get 20% off all products.To learn more, visit our websiteFollow the pod on X | Nostr | Bluesky | Instagram | Threads | Facebook | LinkedIn | TikTokJoin in on the conversation at our Progressive Bitcoiner Community telegram group!The Team: Producer/Editor: @DamienSomerset | Branding/Art: @Daniel | Website: @EvanPrim Get full access to TPB Weekly Digest at progressivebitcoiner.substack.com/subscribe

En este nuevo episodio, recibimos nuevamente a un gran invitado que sabemos que te encanta: Rodrigo Pacheco, quien nos acompaña para adentrarnos en el mundo de la inteligencia artificial. Rodrigo comparte su perspectiva sobre el momento actual en la adopción de la inteligencia artificial, destacando el valor que esta tecnología genera. Sin embargo, también exploramos los riesgos asociados, como el potencial mal uso de la tecnología y la creciente dificultad de discernir entre la realidad y la información falsa. Además, conversamos sobre las oportunidades que la inteligencia artificial ofrece, como el acceso a una "mente privilegiada" disponible las 24 horas del día. Los desafíos inherentes a esta tecnología también ocupan un lugar destacado en nuestra conversación, incluyendo el riesgo de desempleo estructural y la posibilidad de aumentar la desigualdad. En cuanto al futuro, Rodrigo enfatiza la dificultad de prever qué sucederá, pero resalta la importancia de mantenernos alerta y buscar soluciones para mitigar los impactos negativos, al mismo tiempo que aprovechamos las oportunidades que la inteligencia artificial nos brinda. Para cerrar, Rodrigo nos recomienda dos libros: "The Coming Wave" de Mustafa Zuleyman y "How the World Really Works" de Vaclav Smil. Esperamos que esta conversación te sorprenda y enseñe tanto como a nosotros. ¡Nos vemos en el siguiente episodio!

In this episode, William Green chats with Bryan Lawrence, a highly successful hedge fund manager who runs an investment firm called Oakcliff Capital. Bryan almost never gives interviews, so this is a rare opportunity to hear him speak in depth about the advantages of a concentrated value strategy, how he finds new investments, what 6 questions he asks when analyzing any stock, what he's learned from Buffett & Munger, & how to build a happy life. IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL LEARN: 00:00 - Intro 05:42 - What Bryan Lawrence learned from his hugely successful father. 16:30 - What Charlie Munger taught Bryan.  33:07 - How Shelby Cullom Davis turned $200,000 into $800 million. 39:14 - How Bryan has consciously built an investing edge. 43:25 - What he learned from meeting Warren Buffett. 47:15 - Why Bryan looks for three specific characteristics in any business. 59:18 - How to beat the market by making infrequent bets.  1:08:19 - Why he's obsessed with identifying where he's wrong. 1:10:17 - How he searches for new investment ideas. 1:14:32 - How he structures his day. 1:44:20 - How to think rationally about fossil fuels & climate change. 1:49:1 - How to build a happy life & great relationships. Disclaimer: Slight discrepancies in the timestamps may occur due to podcast platform differences. BOOKS AND RESOURCES Bryan Lawrence's investment firm, Oakcliff Capital. Check out Poor Charlie's Almanack. Dean Ornish & Anne Ornish's book Undo It. Robert Cialdini's book Influence. Alain de Boton's book The Consolations of Philosophy. Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, & Sheila Heen's book Difficult Conversations. John Rothchild's book The Davis Dynasty. Vaclav Smil's book How the World Really Works. David Mackay's book Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air. Gillian Zoe Segal's book Getting There. William Green's podcast interview with Chris Davis | YouTube Video William Green's book, “Richer, Wiser, Happier” – read the reviews of this book. Follow William Green on X. Check out all the books mentioned and discussed in our podcast episodes here. Enjoy ad-free episodes when you subscribe to our Premium Feed. NEW TO THE SHOW? Follow our official social media accounts: X (Twitter) | LinkedIn | | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok. Browse through all our episodes (complete with transcripts) here. Try our tool for picking stock winners and managing our portfolios: TIP Finance Tool. Enjoy exclusive perks from our favorite Apps and Services. Stay up-to-date on financial markets and investing strategies through our daily newsletter, We Study Markets. Learn how to better start, manage, and grow your business with the best business podcasts.  SPONSORS Support our free podcast by supporting our sponsors: River Toyota Meyka AT&T Vacasa Fidelity Monarch Money Yahoo! Finance Long Angle Public USPS American Express Shopify HELP US OUT! Help us reach new listeners by leaving us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts! It takes less than 30 seconds, and really helps our show grow, which allows us to bring on even better guests for you all! Thank you – we really appreciate it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm

Vaclav Smil is often described as a polymath. His website says he does interdisciplinary research in the fields of energy, environmental and population change, food production, history of technical innovation, risk assessment, and public policy. He is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba. I first came across his books when Bill Gates described […]

Schneider, Wolfgang www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de, Lesart

Schneider, Wolfgang www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de, Lesart

Elértük a 1.5 fok felmelegedést és tele vagyunk illúziókkal: hogy meg tudjuk oldani, valahogy majd megússzuk, minket nem fog érintetni. Vagy hogy legalább mi, egyéni szinten meg tudjuk oldani. De amíg nő a gazdaság (a teljes bolygóra vetítve az összgazdaság), amíg nő a GDP, addig az anyaghasználat is nőni fog, és így az üvegházhatású gázok kibocsátása is. Valamint minden más is, ami a növekvő GDP-vel jár: az anyaghasználat, a talajerózió, az óceánok szennyezése, a mikroműanyagok koncentrációja. Mi lehet a megoldás? A körforgásos gazdaság? A technológia? Vagy valami mással van a gond? Az egész rendszerrel? Pogátsa Zoltánnal beszélgettünk. 00:39 - Pogátsa Zoltán közgazdásszal beszélgetünk 1:11:27 - podcast ajánlás ℹ️ SHOWNOTES ℹ️ • Pogátsa Zoltán közgazdász: https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pog%C3%A1tsa_Zolt%C3%A1n, • Pogátsa Zoltán, Új Egyenlőség: https://ujegyenloseg.hu/author/pogatsa_zoltan/ • A nemnövekedés szükségességéről, PogiBlog: https://pogi.merce.hu/2020/11/27/a-nemnovekedes-szuksegessegerol/ • IPCC — Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: https://www.ipcc.ch/ • Vaclav Smil, wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaclav_Smil • Az ENSZ új jelentése szerint a világ közel 3 Celsius-fokos felmelegedés felé tart, ecolounge.hu: http://ecolounge.hu/nagyvilag/az-ensz-uj-jelentese-szerint-a-vilag-kozel-3-celsius-fokos-felmelegedes-fele-tart • ENSZ-klímajelentés: túlélési útmutató az emberiségnek, euronews.hu: https://hu.euronews.com/2023/03/20/ensz-klimajelentes-tulelesi-utmutato-az-emberisegnek • World on track for nearly 3C of warming under current climate plans, UN report warns, euronews.com: https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/11/20/world-on-track-for-up-to-29c-of-warming-under-current-climate-plans-un-report-warns • Nemnövekedés: a kevesebb több, de nem a keveseknek!, ujegyenloseg.hu: https://ujegyenloseg.hu/nemnovekedes-a-kevesebb-tobb-de-nem-a-keveseknek/ • Gelencsér András: Összeomlás vagy fájdalmas kényszerleszállás vár a világra, Pannon Egyetem: https://uni-pannon.hu/hirek/news-fenntarthatosag/a-valosag-nem-ellenseg-osszeomlas-vagy-fajdalmas-kenyszerleszallas-var-a-vilagra • Jonas Edward Salk, wikipedia: https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonas_Edward_Salk • Tokamak, wikipedia: https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokamak • Mégis háromsávos lesz az M1-es autópálya, vezess.hu: https://www.vezess.hu/hirek/2024/02/03/m1-autopalya-budapest-bicske-harom-sav-bovites/ • Az M1-es autópálya bővítése helyett vasúti fejlesztésre van szükség, kozlekedotomeg.hu: https://www.kozlekedotomeg.hu/vasut/az-m1-es-autopalya-bovitese-helyett-vasuti-fejlesztesre-van-szukseg/ • Nilakantan RS: SOUTH vs NORTH : India's Great Divide: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/62821791

Andrew, Matt and Claude discuss Adrad Holdings, Vaclav Smil's latest paper and the implications for net zero, Dubber's CEO being issued a travel ban by ASIC, as well as some news from Xref and Cettire. Follow us on Twitter: @BabyGiantsPodSubscribe to our channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSXgHHJ4XjWK-r1k4O0pj1g-----1:13 - Good News10:09 - The Reinhart-Rogoff error12:56 - Macro News14:36 - Adrad Holdings (ASX: AHL)26:02 - Vaclav Smil and Net Zero36:06 - Dubber Corporation (ASX:DUB) CEO banned from leaving Australia42:52 - Xref (ASX:XF1)45:19 - Cettire (ASX: CTT)48:37 - Gratitude

Luís Guimarãis é doutorado em Fusão Nuclear pelo Instituto Superior Técnico, onde foi investigador durante vários anos. Actualmente é sénior data Scientist numa empresa de telecomunicações e professor convidado na NOVA SBE. É ainda colunista na CNN e co-fundador do polo português da WePlanet, uma organização ambientalista que defende soluções baseadas na Ciência para as alterações climáticas e a biodiversidade, e que se destaca pela defesa do nuclear. -> Ouve o Teorias da Conspiração aqui _______________ Índice: (4:48) A enorme dimensão do desafio da Transição Energética | Electricidade vs energia | Vaclav Smil e as quatro indústrias essenciais do Mundo moderno. | Our World in Data | Processo de Haber-Bosch | Associação WePlanet |  (18:29) Como se resolve a Transição Climática? Conter o Aquecimento Global em 1.5º já é impossível? | TED talk: Are we the last generation — or the first sustainable one? | Compromisso da COP28 sobre o nuclear | Energia hídrica | Energia geotérmica  (27:41) Energia Nuclear (de fissão) | Que países estão a construir reactores? | Livro: The Population Bomb, de Paul R. Ehrlich | Acidente de Three Mile Island | Argumentos contra: riscos, custo, demora a construir | Plano Messmer | Complexo de Cassandra | Reactores modulares. | Previsões da AIE (1:13:03) Como lidar com os resíduos nucleares? Vídeos Youtube (um, dois) | Reactor com 2 mil milhões de anos | Terrapower (1:22:22) Problemas / desafios das renováveis: intermitência, baterias, matérias-primas | Potencial do nuclear: curto prazo vs longo prazo (1:34:32) Vamos ter nuclear de fusão? Livros recomendados: Vaclav Smil (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim) _______________ No último episódio, com o João Pedro Gouveia prometi-vos que ia publicar vários episódios sobre temas relacionados com ambiente e transição climática. Vão ser uns 4 ou 5 no total, cobrindo diferentes aspectos, desde o desafio da transição energética aos nossos hábitos individuais. Vou lançá-los ao longo dos próximos meses, intercalando com outros temas (para não vos cansar!). No episódio de hoje, vamos abordar um tema que me tinha deixado a pensar no episódio anterior: energia nuclear. Especificamente: qual é o papel do nuclear (de fissão) na transição energética?  Quem não esteja familiarizado com o debate sobre o nuclear ficaria surpreendido com a polarização e tribalismo das opiniões (que faz lembrar algumas discussões políticas mais fracturantes!). De um lado, há quem diga “nuclear nunca”, ou no máximo muito pouco, seja porque é perigoso ou porque é mais caro (pelo custo de construir um reactor) do que as renováveis -- e é nestas que está a solução. Do outro lado, estão os defensores do nuclear, que argumentam que é, na verdade, a fonte de energia segura de todas e a fonte de energia limpa (i.e. que não produz CO2) mais testada e mais fiável -- pelo deve ter um papel igual ou até superior às renováveis na transição energética.  O convidado deste episódio, Luís Guimarãis, está assumidamente neste último campo.  Pessoalmente, devo dizer -- e os ouvintes mais antigos sabem disso -- que sempre tive uma visão benévola em relação ao nuclear, e sempre me pareceu precipitado descartar um soldado com este potencial numa luta contra o tempo e em várias frentes como é a transição climática. No entanto, ao longo da nossa conversa procurei, como de costume, também desafiar as opiniões do convidado; até porque eu próprio, na investigação que fiz, fui percebendo que persistem ainda muitas incógnitas, quer sobre o nuclear quer sobre as renováveis. Começámos por falar da enorme dimensão do desafio da Transição Climática que temos pela frente; falámos de vários tipos de energia, da fóssil às renováveis, passando pela hídrica e a geotérmica; e, claro, o grosso da nossa conversa foi dedicada ao papel que o nuclear deve ter na transição energética. Falámos da História do nuclear, das principais vantagens e também dos argumentos contra mais comuns, desde os riscos, o custo e o tempo que demora em construir um reactor ao desafio de lidar com os resíduos. No final, visto que o Luís trabalhou nessa área, perguntei-lhe também sobre o potencial do nuclear de fusão, a alternativa risco zero e ainda mais poderosa ao nuclear de fissão que parece há décadas adiada, mas que tem tido alguns progressos promissores nos últimos anos. ______________ Obrigado aos mecenas do podcast: Francisco Hermenegildo, Ricardo Evangelista, Henrique Pais João Baltazar, Salvador Cunha, Abilio Silva, Tiago Leite, Carlos Martins, Galaró family, Corto Lemos, Miguel Marques, Nuno Costa, Nuno e Ana, João Ribeiro, Helder Miranda, Pedro Lima Ferreira, Cesar Carpinteiro, Luis Fernambuco, Fernando Nunes, Manuel Canelas, Tiago Gonçalves, Carlos Pires, João Domingues, Hélio Bragança da Silva, Sandra Ferreira , Paulo Encarnação , BFDC, António Mexia Santos, Luís Guido, Bruno Heleno Tomás Costa, João Saro, Daniel Correia, Rita Mateus, António Padilha, Tiago Queiroz, Carmen Camacho, João Nelas, Francisco Fonseca, Rafael Santos, Andreia Esteves, Ana Teresa Mota, ARUNE BHURALAL, Mário Lourenço, RB, Maria Pimentel, Luis, Geoffrey Marcelino, Alberto Alcalde, António Rocha Pinto, Ruben de Bragança, João Vieira dos Santos, David Teixeira Alves, Armindo Martins , Carlos Nobre, Bernardo Vidal Pimentel, António Oliveira, Paulo Barros, Nuno Brites, Lígia Violas, Tiago Sequeira, Zé da Radio, João Morais, André Gamito, Diogo Costa, Pedro Ribeiro, Bernardo Cortez Vasco Sá Pinto, David , Tiago Pires, Mafalda Pratas, Joana Margarida Alves Martins, Luis Marques, João Raimundo, Francisco Arantes, Mariana Barosa, Nuno Gonçalves, Pedro Rebelo, Miguel Palhas, Ricardo Duarte, Duarte , Tomás Félix, Vasco Lima, Francisco Vasconcelos, Telmo , José Oliveira Pratas, Jose Pedroso, João Diogo Silva, Joao Diogo, José Proença, João Crispim, João Pinho , Afonso Martins, Robertt Valente, João Barbosa, Renato Mendes, Maria Francisca Couto, Antonio Albuquerque, Ana Sousa Amorim, Francisco Santos, Lara Luís, Manuel Martins, Macaco Quitado, Paulo Ferreira, Diogo Rombo, Francisco Manuel Reis, Bruno Lamas, Daniel Almeida, Patrícia Esquível , Diogo Silva, Luis Gomes, Cesar Correia, Cristiano Tavares, Pedro Gaspar, Gil Batista Marinho, Maria Oliveira, João Pereira, Rui Vilao, João Ferreira, Wedge, José Losa, Hélder Moreira, André Abrantes, Henrique Vieira, João Farinha, Manuel Botelho da Silva, João Diamantino, Ana Rita Laureano, Pedro L, Nuno Malvar, Joel, Rui Antunes7, Tomás Saraiva, Cloé Leal de Magalhães, Joao Barbosa, paulo matos, Fábio Monteiro, Tiago Stock, Beatriz Bagulho, Pedro Bravo, Antonio Loureiro, Hugo Ramos, Inês Inocêncio, Telmo Gomes, Sérgio Nunes, Tiago Pedroso, Teresa Pimentel, Rita Noronha, miguel farracho, José Fangueiro, Zé, Margarida Correia-Neves, Bruno Pinto Vitorino, João Lopes, Joana Pereirinha, Gonçalo Baptista, Dario Rodrigues, tati lima, Pedro On The Road, Catarina Fonseca, JC Pacheco, Sofia Ferreira, Inês Ribeiro, Miguel Jacinto, Tiago Agostinho, Margarida Costa Almeida, Helena Pinheiro, Rui Martins, Fábio Videira Santos, Tomás Lucena, João Freitas, Ricardo Sousa, RJ, Francisco Seabra Guimarães, Carlos Branco, David Palhota, Carlos Castro, Alexandre Alves, Cláudia Gomes Batista, Ana Leal, Ricardo Trindade, Luís Machado, Andrzej Stuart-Thompson, Diego Goulart, Filipa Portela, Paulo Rafael, Paloma Nunes, Marta Mendonca, Teresa Painho, Duarte Cameirão, Rodrigo Silva, José Alberto Gomes, Joao Gama, Cristina Loureiro, Tiago Gama, Tiago Rodrigues, Miguel Duarte, Ana Cantanhede, Artur Castro Freire, Rui Passos Rocha, Pedro Costa Antunes, Sofia Almeida, Ricardo Andrade Guimarães, Daniel Pais, Miguel Bastos, Luís Santos _______________ Esta conversa foi editada por: Hugo Oliveira  

In this episode we discuss How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going by Vaclav Smil. Next time we will discuss Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology by Neil Postman.

In this episode, William Green chats with famed investor Bruce Berkowitz, whose Fairholme Fund has beaten the S&P 500 by 529 percentage points over 23 years. Bruce, who was named Morningstar's Domestic Stock-Fund Manager of the Decade in 2009, talks here about the ups & downs of his volatile career, how he changed his investment strategy after three costly losses, why he likes cash as a kind of “financial valium,” & why 80% of his fund is riding on one stock. IN THIS EPISODE, YOU'LL LEARN: 00:00 - Intro 04:44 - What Bruce Berkowitz learned about odds by working as a bookmaker. 06:26 - What his stint as a broker taught him about how not to invest. 34:18 - Why he makes huge bets on a tiny number of stocks. 41:53 - How he's riding a multi-decade wave of migration to Florida. 48:57 - How he justifies betting 80% of his fund on one stock. 54:59 - How he's playing long-term trends in the energy sector. 56:56 - Why he's changed the way he invests. 59:08 - Why he's acutely wary of bank stocks. 59:20 - What he learned from losing big on Sears, Fannie Mae, & Freddie Mac. 1:17:53 - Why he views cash as a valuable form of “financial valium.”  1:28:51 - How he assesses the investment threat of global warming. 1:33:50 - Why he operates as a lone wolf, not part of a team. 1:39:53 - What he's tried to teach his three children. 1:45:31 - How he handles setbacks. Disclaimer: Slight discrepancies in the timestamps may occur due to podcast platform differences. BOOKS AND RESOURCES Bruce Berkowitz's investment firm, Fairholme Funds. Vaclav Smil's book How the World Really Works. Vaclav Smil's book Energy & Civilization. William Green's book, “Richer, Wiser, Happier” – read the reviews of this book. Follow William Green on X (AKA Twitter). Check out all the books mentioned and discussed in our podcast episodes here. NEW TO THE SHOW? Follow our official social media accounts: X (Twitter) | LinkedIn | | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok. Browse through all our episodes (complete with transcripts) here. Try our tool for picking stock winners and managing our portfolios: TIP Finance Tool. Enjoy exclusive perks from our favorite Apps and Services. Stay up-to-date on financial markets and investing strategies through our daily newsletter, We Study Markets. Learn how to better start, manage, and grow your business with the best business podcasts.  SPONSORS Support our free podcast by supporting our sponsors: River Toyota Linkedin Marketing Solutions Fidelity Efani Shopify NDTCO Fundrise Wise NetSuite TurboTax Vacasa NerdWallet Babbel HELP US OUT! Help us reach new listeners by leaving us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts! It takes less than 30 seconds, and really helps our show grow, which allows us to bring on even better guests for you all! Thank you – we really appreciate it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode we discuss A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through? by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith. Next time we will discuss How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going by Vaclav Smil.

Catherine Sheridan, an engineer and systems thinker who after 20 years working on water, roads, energy is focussed on a tiny powerful magic little molecule: Hydrogen.We talk 5th year Physics experiments, making the world a fairer place, why the poetry of Robert Graves and the short stories of David Foster Wallace can teach us about the maths of molecules, why we need silver shrapnel rather than silver bullets, a little plug for mygug a magic egg made in cork that turns your food waste into heat and why we need to start hiring carbon accountants.You can find her on all the socials and catherinesheridan.ie. If H2 is your thing and let's face it, it is whether you like it or not, she's the woman to go to. She mentions one book I'm definitely going to read: How the world really works by Vaclav Smil.

On this episode of The Global Exchange, Colin Robertson is joined by Ted Bilyea Doug Hedley and Al Mussel to discuss the role of Canadian agriculture and energy on global food security. Participants' bios - Ted Bilyea is a Distinguished Fellow of CAPI, and a member of the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame. - Doug Hedley had a long career as a senior executive in Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and also member of the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame. - Al Mussel is the Research Director at the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute. Host bio: Colin Robertson is a former diplomat and Senior Advisor to the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, www.cgai.ca/colin_robertson Read & Watch: - UN FAO Publications: https://www.fao.org/publications/home/fao-flagship-publications/en - "Energy in Nature and Society: General Energetics of Complex Systems", by Vaclav Smil: https://www.amazon.ca/Energy-Nature-Society-General-Energetics/dp/0262693569 - "How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen", by David Brooks: https://www.amazon.ca/How-Know-Person-Seeing-Others/dp/059323006X - "Agricultural Domestic Support Under the WTO: Experience and Prospects", by Lars Brink and David Orden: https://www.amazon.com/Agricultural-Domestic-Support-Under-International/dp/1316514056 - "Death Followed Us Home", by J.S. Rioux: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/204879849-death-followed-us-home Recording Date: January 11, 2023. Give 'The Global Exchange' a review on Apple Podcasts! Follow the Canadian Global Affairs Institute on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (@CAGlobalAffairs) and Linkedin. Head over to our website www.cgai.ca for more commentary. Produced by Joe Calnan. Music credits to Drew Phillips.

On this special episode of The Global Exchange, Colin Robertson is joined by the Honourable Jean Charest, Honourable Peter MacKay and the Honourable John Manley. Participants' bios - The Honourable Jean Charest served as premier of Quebec from 2003 to 2012, as well as deputy prime minister under Prime Minister Kim Campbell - The Honourable John Manley served as deputy prime minister of Canada from 2002 to 2003, as well as portfolios including Industry, Foreign Affairs and Finance - The Honourable Peter MacKay served as minister for Atlantic Canada Opportunities, Foreign Affairs, Defence, Justice and as Attorney General Host bio: Colin Robertson is a former diplomat and Senior Advisor to the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, www.cgai.ca/colin_robertson Read & Watch: - "Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World", by H.R. McMaster: https://www.amazon.ca/Battlegrounds-Fight-Defend-Free-World/dp/0062899465 - "Red Line Podcast": https://www.theredlinepodcast.com/episodes - "How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen", by David Brooks: https://www.amazon.ca/How-Know-Person-Seeing-Others/dp/059323006X - "How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going", by Vaclav Smil: https://www.amazon.ca/How-World-Really-Works-Science/dp/0593297067 - "Tom Lake", by Ann Patchett, audiobook voiced by the spectacular, luxurious tones of Meryl Streep: https://www.amazon.com/Audible-Tom-Lake-A-Novel/dp/B0BPZYH97W Recording Date: January 9, 2024. Give 'The Global Exchange' a review on Apple Podcasts! Follow the Canadian Global Affairs Institute on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (@CAGlobalAffairs) and Linkedin. Head over to our website www.cgai.ca for more commentary. Produced by Joe Calnan. Music credits to Drew Phillips.

“Modern economies will always be tied to massive material flows, whether those of ammonia-based fertilizers to feed the still-growing global population; plastics, steel, and cement needed for new tools, machines, structures, and infrastructures; or new inputs required to produce solar cells, wind turbines, electric cars, and storage batteries. And until all energies used to extract and process these materials come from renewable conversions, modern civilization will remain fundamentally dependent on the fossil fuels used in the production of these indispensable materials. No AI, no apps, and no electronic messages will change that.” Welcome back to another episode of Made You Think! In this episode, we're delving into the intricate layers of How the World Really Works by Vaclav Smil. From dissecting the dynamics of energy to unraveling the building blocks of our material world, this episode takes us on a journey through the realms of numbers, magnitudes, and the underpinnings that shape our daily existence. Get ready to expand your mind and question the fabric of the world around us! We cover a wide range of topics including: The four foundational products of civilization Why our food and nutrition isn't the same anymore Intricate steps and nuances in global energy creation What may be on the horizon for crypto this year How much diesel is embedded into the production of a tomato? And much more. Please enjoy, and make sure to follow Nat, Neil, and Adil on Twitter and share your thoughts on the episode. Links from the Episode: Mentioned in the Show: Preorder Crypto Confidential (0:03) Solana Mobile (1:28) Outside the System (16:12) The Joe Rogan Experience - White Oak Pastures (18:52) Oatly (27:48) SpaceX (29:47) Terraform Industries (31:29) Helion Energy (38:01) Inflation Reduction Act (38:53) Monsanto (52:04) Kraken (57:00) The White Pill (1:00:19) Age of Miracles (1:02:17) Hardcore History 59 The Destroyer of Worlds - Dan Carlin (1:12:40) Cuban Missile Crisis Books Mentioned: How the World Really Works Energy and Civilization (7:18) (Book Episode) (Nat's Book Notes) Where Is My Flying Car (7:32) (Book Episode) What Your Food Ate (20:44) (Book Episode) How to Avoid a Climate Disaster (54:02) Project Hail Mary (1:05:20) Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1:06:01) Straw Dogs (1:06:02) Superintelligence (1:06:24) People Mentioned: Vaclav Smil Joe Rogan (18:51) Bill Gates (48:40) Greta Thunberg (54:37) Nick Bostrom (1:06:10) Dan Carlin (1:08:35) Show Topics: (0:00) The news is out - Nat's new book Crypto Confidential is available for preorder! We open the episode by talking about crypto, AI coins, and how BTC and ETH have established themselves in the world of crypto. (6:53) In today's episode, we're discussing How the World Really Works by Vaclav Smil. We draw some similarities from some previous reads in the podcast such as Where Is My Flying Car? and another great from Smil, Energy and Civilization. (10:20) Adil highlights some of the key points from the book, including the four fundamental products—ammonia, cement, plastic, and steel—that shape our modern world, shedding light on challenges in essential industries. (14:19) Because we're so disembodied with how things are built and how people are fed, we're able to indulge in things as a society that are not necessarily realistic in terms of decarbonization. (19:34) Discussing nutrition deficiencies, we explore the disconnect between the food we eat and its nutritional value, raising questions about our reliance on technology over essential fields like soil science and food production. (22:31) The impact of fertilization, nutrition deficiencies, and current farming practices. Nat, Neil, and Adil discuss alternatives for a healthier, more sustainable future. (28:13) While more and more attention goes into technology rather than food science and soil science, we have seen an increased interest in nuclear energy. For many decades, we've been so highly focused on software rather than hardware. Are we due for a shift? (31:21) We delve into a discussion on carbon capture, Bitcoin mining's energy-efficient possibilities, and cost-effective energy production. (37:58) The life cycle of oil, Department of Energy's investments into different forms of energy, and the efficiency of gasoline vs. electric. (42:01) In the book, Smil dives into the crude oil consumption per pound of different things you eat throughout its entire life cycle. From chicken to tomatoes, and seafood, too.  (48:22 Is meat actually destroying the environment? It all depends on what you're replacing it with. (53:57) Discussing Bill Gates' environmental ideals, we explore his support for climate-friendly technology and its potential to compete with fossil fuels (57:14) Is there room for more crypto exchange platforms, and what else is on the horizon for this year in crypto? (1:02:48) Similarly, what is the future when it comes to the world of energy and our country's investment into it? Technology is often the cause of all problems in science fiction settings, whereas more positive sci-fi could help paint a better picture around technology and its future. (1:05:59) Down the line for Made You Think, we'll have episodes on Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Straw Dogs. Make sure to grab a copy of those books before these episodes come out and read along with us! (1:13:17) The Goldsboro B-52 crash led to the accidental release of two nuclear bombs. The incident raised concerns about the safety of nuclear weapons and the potential catastrophic consequences of accidents involving such powerful devices. (1:17:14) That wraps up this episode, thanks for listening! Stay tuned for our upcoming episodes, leave a comment or review, and preorder your copy of Crypto Confidential. If you enjoyed this episode, let us know by leaving a review on iTunes and tell a friend. As always, let us know if you have any book recommendations! You can say hi to us on Twitter @TheRealNeilS, @adilmajid, @nateliason and share your thoughts on this episode. You can now support Made You Think using the Value-for-Value feature of Podcasting 2.0. This means you can directly tip the co-hosts in BTC with minimal transaction fees. To get started, simply download a podcast app (like Fountain or Breez) that supports Value-for-Value and send some BTC to your in-app wallet. You can then use that to support shows who have opted-in, including Made You Think! We'll be going with this direct support model moving forward, rather than ads. Thanks for listening. See you next time!

The acclaimed enviromental scientist Vaclav Smil is criticizing climate activists shunning media, and stepping back just when we need him most

How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going by Vaclav Smil (2022) VS The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet by Jeff Goodell (2023)

Anil Patel talks about his new book, The Bitcoin Handbook. There are many different fields of study Bitcoin touches that it can be difficult for people to grasp all the complexity in harmonizing concepts that are happening on this protocol. In this interview, Anil went on an intellectual journey simplifying and stitching it all together.IN THIS EPISODE, YOU'LL LEARN:00:00 - Intro01:15 - What was Anil trying to accomplish with the book?06:59 - Of all the mental models and paradoxes mentioned in the book, what does Anil find the most profound?12:22 - What is Jevon's Paradox?23:39 - Network Effects.29:52 - Reflexivity and how it applies to Bitcoin.32:56 - Why are the laws of Thermodynamics important?38:25 - Gall's Law.43:44 - What is the intransigent minority and why is it important53:31 - What is something the Bitcoin community could do better?57:50 - Anil's favorite books.01:00:09 - Why is it hard to be a Bitcoiner?BOOKS AND RESOURCESAnil's Twitter.Anil's book, The Bitcoin Handbook.How Innovation Works by Matt Ridley.Energy and Civilization: A History by Vaclav Smil.NEW TO THE SHOW?Check out our We Study Billionaires Starter Packs.Browse through all our episodes (complete with transcripts) here.Try our tool for picking stock winners and managing our portfolios: TIP Finance Tool.Enjoy exclusive perks from our favorite Apps and Services.Stay up-to-date on financial markets and investing strategies through our daily newsletter, We Study Markets.P.S The Investor's Podcast Network is excited to launch a subreddit devoted to our fans in discussing financial markets, stock picks, questions for our hosts, and much more! Join our subreddit r/TheInvestorsPodcast today!SPONSORSInvest in Bitcoin with confidence on River. It's the most secure way to buy Bitcoin with 100% full reserve custody and zero fees on recurring orders.Easily diversify beyond stocks and bonds, and build wealth through streamlined CRE investing with EquityMultiple.Join over 5k investors in the data security revolution with Atakama.Make connections, gain knowledge, and uplift your governance CV by becoming a member of the AICD today.Enjoy flexibility and support with free cancellation, payment options, and 24/7 service when booking travel experiences with Viator. Download the Viator app NOW and use code VIATOR10 for 10% off your first booking.Send, spend, and receive money around the world easily with Wise.Choose Toyota for your next vehicle - SUVs that are known for their reliability and longevity, making them a great investment. Plus, Toyotas now have more advanced technology than ever before, maximizing that investment with a comfortable and connected drive.Apply for the Employee Retention Credit easily, no matter how busy you are, with Innovation Refunds.Support our free podcast by supporting our sponsors.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Topics: Neighborhood report, Esposito's closing, electronic recycling event, trip to Philadelphia, Adventure Aquarium, Citizens Bank Park, Monk's Cafe, Ed Sheeran at Kings Theatre, O'Keefe's Bar on Court Street, trip to Baltimore, National Aquarium, Camden Yards, Baltimore Light RailLink, I Get Wild shows, John and Peter's in New Hope, The Falcon in Marlboro, Dream House Quartet at Town Hall, The Walkmen at Webster Hall, Bono at the Beacon Theatre, The Hold Steady, The New Pornographers, Scott McMicken and the Ever Expanding, Deerhoof, Kevin Rowland, Feist, Kara Jackson, Xylouris White, Dream House Quartet, Tim Hecker, William Tyler, Ed Sheeran, Gord Downie, Fred Again and Brian Eno, Rose City Band, The National, Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson, Numbers Don't Lie by Vaclav Smil, Stay True by Hua Hsu.

Food shortage as policy - fake food as the cure: vertical integration and fascism's next business model. When they read about the EU destroying 3,000 farms and banning those farmers from ever again applying their generational wisdom to grow food, how many people think “it cannot possibly be true that the EU intends to create a food shortage.” These people probably think, “we have evolved as a species, we would never do what Mao did when he starved 30 million people to death” (that is, if hey have ever heard of Mao as anything other than a hero). Perhaps these people tell themselves, “we aren't like Stalin, he was an evil maniac starving people in Ukraine to death, no one like that exists today expect for Donald Trump and Elon Musk.” These thoughts, of course, are folly. The same human sin problems that created these famines exist today as do the same evil spirits who prey upon people's brokenness. Still, many people will not believe what is clear to see: Bill Gates and others in the fake food business are using the same lies they did with so-called “transgenderism” and Covid to force people to eat their fake foods. Build a product-demand-category based on fear--”your kid will commit suicide unless you mutilate them” and “you are literally killing your kids by not getting injected”--fill the demand--”here, have some hormones and surgery and a fake penis” and “here, have a fake vaccine but real gene hijacking device”, then vertically integrate the markets: buy up gender clinics, invest in surgical gear and drugs. Now, it's food: create a product category based upon fear and then vertically integrate. Once we open our eyes to the ongoing sin problem in people and how Satan leverages it, events in the past we excused because “people would never do that” begin to take on different aspects because, dear friends, apart from God, people will do anything. What does God's Word say? Jeremiah 23:1-4 “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: “You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord. Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord.Proverbs 29:12 If a ruler listens to falsehood, all his officials will be wicked.Proverbs 16:12 It is an abomination to kings to do evil, for the throne is established by righteousness.1 Timothy 3:1-5 The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?Episode 821 LinksFrom the NIH's Website: China's great famine: 40 years later; Vaclav Smil, distinguished professor . . . interesting, because the NIH is a big fan of the EU and Bill GatesChina's Great Leap Forward … you know, like a Great ResetHow Joseph Stalin Starved Millions in the Ukrainian Famine; Cruel efforts under Stalin to impose collectivism and tamp down Ukrainian nationalism left an estimated 3.9 million deadEU approves scheme to close 3,000 Dutch farms and permanently ban owners from farming elsewhereVegetable grower fears €120,000 tax bill after his farm land was rezoned for housing; New land levy aimed at fixing the housing crisis could apply to farmers and put them out of businessExclusive: FBI Agents Accuse CIA of 9/11 Coverup; Previously unreported interviews filed in court claim CIA is hiding information relating to a failed 'recruitment' effortGlenn Beck highlights the fact that it has now been revealed from sworn declaration that two of the Saudi 9/11 hijackers were recruited by the CIA and they knew they were in the country at the time and wanted to work with them.This is an incredible red pill.Have you heard anyone in the mainstream media report this bombshell because I haven't? We are getting to the heart of so many issues right now: Epstein, 9/11, Biden treason. Spicy. Former Attorney General Bill Barr: "The people on the right are not actually the threat to the democratic system...I thought January 6th was a clown show...The thing was a joke."This is a criminal threat to the safety of Supreme Court justices. Why are U.S. Marshals being instructed not to make arrests? - Answer: because the people who run Joe Biden want so-called conservative justices to be afraid and would be happy if one got murdered. Whistleblower Alleges FBI, DOJ Have Proof of ‘Criminal Scheme Involving Then-VP Biden' - “Based on those disclosures, it has come to our attention that the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) possess an unclassified FD-1023 form that describes an alleged criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions.”

Josh Raglin has dedicated over 25 years in the fields of conservation, forestry, and environmental stewardship. As chief sustainability officer at Norfolk Southern, he leads efforts to transform the company's sustainability strategy. He champions initiatives that integrate sustainability practices into daily operations to achieve efficiencies, control costs, generate revenue, and reduce environmental impacts. These efforts include close collaboration with department leaders company-wide, along with external stakeholders such as customers, investors, regulators, and communities. Josh Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: Advancing efficiency of rails including the Locomotive Modernization program The economic and environmental benefits of shipping by rail, and the feasibility of making the switch to rail Benefits to customers from Norfolk Southern's carbon calculator  Norfolk Southern's five pillars of sustainability, specifically nature-based solutions Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Josh's Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? I would say network. You can't know too many people. The more you network, the more connections you make. Not only internally within your company but externally as well. That's going to increase your knowledge base. Many of our customers have just started their sustainability programs in the last three or four years, and so I can be a resource for them in helping them start their journey, and I really enjoy doing that. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? I think it's the excitement, the corporate commitment that you're seeing, and where we've gone in such a short period of time. And it's voluntary. We're getting the support of all of our stakeholders. It's important to our customers, our investors, our regulators, and it's important to our employees as well. What is one book you'd recommend sustainability professionals read? It's actually one I just completed. It's called How the World Really Works, and it's by an energy scientist Vaclav Smil. He's written a number of books over the years, and he's not a pessimist, he's not an optimist, he's a scientist. He really does a great way of explaining the science, particularly when it comes to energy. I really highly recommend that to anyone. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? I would say probably my engagement with outside groups. I really enjoy engaging with conservation related groups or environmental groups and understanding our natural environment more and how Norfolk Southern can be a part of that. Whether it's employee engagement, whether it's financial support, or volunteering. A number of our employees, we volunteer on boards, we attend events, and it's not just about doing railroading, but it's also about how we can engage with the community to really make a difference. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the sustainability work being done at Norfolk Southern? I'm on LinkedIn, so if you look up Josh Raglin Norfolk Southern, you'll find me pretty easily. And our website is http://www.nscorp.com/betterplanet.

Alexis Normand is the Co-founder & CEO of Greenly, a carbon accounting and management platform enabling companies to measure and reduce their emissionsCarbon accounting has grown from a niche practice only a few years ago to a widely adopted business practice with 18,700 public companies now disclosing their emissionsBy measuring their emissions, companies can then define climate targets with ~2,200 companies having set a net zero science-based target to date, a number that has grown exponentially over the last yearsYet, much remains to be done with 17,000 public companies still failing to disclose their emissions and - while science-based target set a high bar for climate ambition - greenwashing and dubious climate claims remain rampant in the corporate worldLaunched less than 4 years ago in Paris, Greenly aims to democratize carbon measurement to enable companies of all size to measure their impact and take climate action. Greenly has already convinced 1,000 customers across Europe and the US, from one-person shops to large companies such as banking giant BNP Paribas.In this episode, we talk with Alexis about:how Alexis' interest in technology and tracking health data brought him to carbon accountinghow can we measure carbon emissions from company's datawhich climate commitments can corporates take and what is the difference between carbon neutrality and net zero science-based targetshow can Greenly software platform scale to companies of all sizes globally and become a standard like any financial accounting system but for carbonEnjoy the show!To learn more about carbon accounting and emission reduction:The Net-Zero standard for Corporates (report, ~65 pages)Energy: A beginner's guide, Vaclav Smil (book)How to avoid a climate disaster, Bill Gates (book)Speed & Scale, an action plan for solving our climate crisis, John Doer (book)Drawdown: the most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming, Paul Hawken (book)World without end, Jean-Marc Jancovici (comics)

“In today's world, even a non-Stagnated version, the flying car is not a replacement for the car; it is a replacement for the airplane. A reasonably well-designed convertible could fit right in to today's airspace system; it would fit right into our road system as well. Without the Stagnation there might well be a 50,000 airplane per year market, and enough licensed pilots to buy them. Remember, average family income would be well into six figures. In 1950, about one quarter of one percent of Americans were licensed pilots; that percentage today amounts to over three quarters of a million, which is market aplenty, for a start.” Welcome back to another episode of Made You Think! In this episode, we discuss Where Is My Flying Car? by J. Storrs Hall who calls out the stagnation of productivity since the 1970s and gives us a glimpse of what our future could be if we strive for it. We cover a wide range of topics including: Why growth has slowed since the 1970s What's possible with nuclear energy and nanotech? The zero sum way of thinking How our tolerance for risk has changed over time The progression of aviation from the early 1900s to now And much more. Please enjoy, and make sure to follow Nat, Neil, and Adil on Twitter and share your thoughts on the episode. Links from the Episode: Mentioned in the Show:  Kardashev scale (35:02) Israel's Iron Dome (44:40) AVE Mizar - Flying car prototype (47:46) Joby Aviation (54:04) Osprey military helicopter (55:07) Tesla plunges off a cliff (1:01:17) Interstellar (1:19:59) Space elevator (1:25:37) Popular Mechanics (1:26:51) Books Mentioned: The Three-Body Problem (9:55) (Nat's Book Notes) Dune (10:33) Foundation (10:34) Zero to One (13:57) (Nat's Book Notes) The Comfort Crisis (14:18) (Book Episode) Energy and Civilization (33:59) (Book Episode) (Nat's Book Notes) Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. (37:22) Project Hail Mary (56:52) The Martian (56:55) (Nat's Book Notes) The Time Machine (1:07:14) The Fourth Turning (1:14:19) (Book Episode) The Art of Doing Science and Engineering (1:32:19) The Making of the Prince of Persia (1:32:40) The Dream Machine (1:33:51) Scientific Freedom (1:34:02) People Mentioned: Dan Carlin (0:56) Vaclav Smil (33:57) Ron Chernow (37:23) Andy Weir (56:53) David Foster Wallace (1:06:25) Paul Graham (1:29:58) Show Topics: (0:36) Podcast analytics: What are the listening behaviors and demographics of our listeners? (4:35) The explanation behind the spy balloons and other UFOs.  (9:52) Nat, Neil, and Adil talk about some book recommendations they've received and books they'd recommend to others. (11:56) One takeaway from the book is that we don't tend to work on things that feel impossible. Much of what we've accomplished is what feels safe and what we know we'll see success in. (17:42) The book we're discussing today is Where Is My Flying Car? The book talks about the stagnation of the physical world because we didn't invest as much as we could have in nuclear energy, nanotech, and aviation.  (22:14) Some of the different technologies that have been idealized feel fictional and out of reach. However, we're much further than we know in understanding the technical part of it and these ideas may not be all that unattainable.  (26:44) Early on, the book emphasizes the flying car, then goes to explain that you can't get the flying car without better energy policies and nanotech.  (30:05) The cost efficiency of nuclear fuel.  (32:03) The Henry Adams curve. How do we make the shift from creating more energy to using the energy more efficiently? The amount of energy your civilization harnesses is indicative of your wealth and quality of living. (35:39) The ‘zero sum' way of thinking and how it impacts moral behavior. If you don't have economic growth, you can't sustain democracy in the long run. (38:09) What would good regulation look like? How the atomic bomb changed the progress and power of countries. (44:45) Climate change and the argument of CO2 as an enemy. If CO2 did increase, it would be beneficial to plants but harmful to humans.  (46:55) Aviation from the 30's and 40's and the stagnation over the past few decades in air travel. While we made progress after the first aircraft was made and through WW1 and WW2, the progress since is seemingly slow.  (52:23) The distinction between leading edge vs. depth and the importance of computing progress in space travel.  (58:29) Before the era of computing, many things were controlled by pumps and levers. Our risk tolerance is much different than it once was.  (1:04:40) We have different ideas of what risk is now. We still have the instinct to make progress in society, but it has been redirected towards other things. (1:11:16) The 5 levels of transportation and how your wealth determines your level. There are millions of people who can't afford shoes, yet people in higher socioeconomic classes can afford cars. Both are vehicles for transportation. (1:16:42) What will good tech look like in 50 years? We've progressed in telecommunication with audio, video, tv, podcasts, instant messaging, etc. A lot of science fiction is pessimistic about humanity.  (1:22:48) Nanotech and the capabilities you can achieve with it.  (1:30:58) Have you ever read a book and wished it was longer or shorter? (1:42:02) That concludes this episode! Next up, we're reading Peloponnesian War and will get to The Three-Body Problem trilogy down the road. Make sure to pick up a copy if you want to follow along with us! If you enjoyed this episode, let us know by leaving a review on iTunes and tell a friend. As always, let us know if you have any book recommendations! You can say hi to us on Twitter @TheRealNeilS, @adilmajid, @nateliason and share your thoughts on this episode. You can now support Made You Think using the Value-for-Value feature of Podcasting 2.0. This means you can directly tip the co-hosts in BTC with minimal transaction fees. To get started, simply download a podcast app (like Fountain or Breez) that supports Value-for-Value and send some BTC to your in-app wallet. You can then use that to support shows who have opted-in, including Made You Think! We'll be going with this direct support model moving forward, rather than ads. Thanks for listening. See you next time!

The inside of the earth's pretty hot. How hot? As hot as the surface of the sun. Seriously.  That heat could generate unbelievable amounts of clean geothermal energy to power our civilization—if we could reach all the way down there. You see, to get to fossil fuels like oil and gas, we only need to drill down a couple kilometers. In places that have volcanoes, like Iceland, you can fairly easily reach down into hellish parts of the earth to harness geothermal energy, but most human populations tend not to be crowded around active volcanoes for obvious reasons.  In the places where power plants typically exist—near human civilization—we'd need to drill more like 10-20 kilometers down, which just isn't really possible with conventional drilling techniques.  Enter Quaise Energy, a four-year-old startup that's raised $70 million so far to drill deeper than humans have ever gone. Their plan isn't to use mechanical drill bits, which are limited in their utility at such deep depths, but rather to vaporize rock using microwaves.  Their plan is as bold as it is simple: Drill thousands of these eight-inch-wide but super-deep holes right next to existing power plants. That way, the plants can run on geothermal energy and stop using coal to create the energy we all use daily.  If it works, it's a rapidly scalable solution to quickly slash our fossil fuel use and avert the most catastrophic climate scenarios. Our guest in this episode is Quaise Energy's CFO, Kevin Bonebreak, a guy who spent most of his career in the conventional energy investment world, and is now working to bring about a cleaner, safer, and saner way to power human civilization.  Discussed in this episode Kevin recommends books by Vaclav Smil, including his works on energy Kevin also recommend reading Loonshots MIT on Quaise's holes Bloomberg on Quaise's gameplan Quaise's latest (2022) financing round of $52 million More about Kevin Bonebrake Kevin Bonebrake is the CFO of Quaise Energy. He joined the startup from Lazard, where he was a Managing Director in the financial advisory business focused on the energy industry. Prior to joining Lazard in 2017, Bonebrake was a Managing Director in Morgan Stanley's Global Natural Resources investment banking practice and was a Vice President with Citigroup's Global Energy, Power and Chemicals investment banking team. Bonebrake completed his graduate research in industrial laser applications in the Naval Architecture department at the Helsinki University of Technology and was a member of the intellectual property licensing team at Delphi Automotive.

In this episode, we discuss metaverse, deep fakes, and the displacement problem. What it means to make and consume art has always changed as technology advances. With the arrival of AI art generators, that change might be more aggressive than anyone can anticipate. Change isn't inherently bad, except we live in capitalism. So…universal basic income?## Summary:00:35 Intro02:54 Thanks to our supporters! (https://moneygrab.bscotch.net)03:19 MetaverseOther things mentioned:Book: How the World Really Works by Vaclav Smil (https://bit.ly/3VBUrsF)To stay up to date with all of our buttery goodness subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcasts (apple.co/1LxNEnk) or wherever you get your audio goodness. If you want to get more involved in the Butterscotch community, hop into our DISCORD server at discord.gg/bscotch and say hello! Submit questions at https://www.bscotch.net/podcast, disclose all of your secrets to podcast@bscotch.net, and send letters, gifts, and tasty treats to https://bit.ly/bscotchmailbox. Finally, if you'd like to support the show and buy some coffee FOR Butterscotch, head over to https://moneygrab.bscotch.net. ★ Support this podcast ★

I'll cut right to the chase. This week's episode features a deep and very fun chat with none other than Tony Fadell. Widely known for being the man behind several game-changing products (like the iPod, the iPhone, and the Nest thermostat), Tony recently debuted his book "Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making". If you're making something or are part of a team that makes something, the book is a patient and thoughtful collection of lessors and considerations that Tony learned from his mentors and his own life experience. It's funny, insightful and full of interesting stories from Tony's time in Silicon Valley. With Jack as a co-host, we get into a handful of my questions about Build, how some of the lessons can apply to watches, and even the watch-focused way in which Tony celebrated the release of the book. I hope you enjoy the episode, and please consider picking up a copy of the book. All proceeds are being matched 5x by Tony before being added to the Build Climate Fund which seeks to invest in companies that are focusing on solutions for the ongoing global climate crisis.  ---Show Notes: 00:05 Hodinkee Insurance 00:30 Tony Fadell 2:10 Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making 11:15 Nest 13:52 MB&F 13:53 Ressence 21:13 Tony On The Tim Ferris Show 23:48 Patek Nautilus Perpetual Calendar 5740 28:00 The Pocket Crystal 44:36 Impossible Foods 44:53 Diamond Foundry 47:45 Gravity Sketch 48:10 "How The World Really Works: How Science Can Set Us Straight On Our Past, Present, and Future" by Vaclav Smil 51:28 "The Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail" by Ray Dalio