World Changing Ideas

Hey everyone, as part of our continuing summer series, we’re looking back on some of our previous episodes. Last year, Talib sat down with Lia Diagnostics co-founders Bethany Edwards and Anna Couturier to discuss how they decided to revolutionize the home pregnancy test.

As part of our continuing summer series, we’re looking back on some of our previous episodes. Last year, Talib talked with Adam Cronkright about of by for*, a non-partisan, non-profit organization he co-founded, which aims to replace politicians with everyday people.

We're taking a look back at some of our favorite moments over the past year and a half. This week we're going back to our conversation with Jelani Memory, the founder and CEO of A Kids Company About. Memory first wrote about his own experience with racism for his kids and then turned that into a multimedia business.

We're taking a look back at some of our best moments over the past year and a half. This week we're going back to our conversation with Beyond Meat Founder and CEO Ethan Brown about why he wants to see more people embracing a plant-based diet.

We're taking a look back at this season's innovations and ideas on climate change. Let us know which ones were your favorites!Also, don't lose hope! There are a few simple things we can all do on an individual basis to help curb climate change. Dr. Emily Fischer helped found Science Moms, an organization geared toward informing moms about what climate change is and how they can pitch in to help stop it from getting worse. Their advice isn't just for moms though, it can help guide anybody who's feeling lost by the misinformation and disinformation out there. Stay cool this summer and we'll see you again in the fall!

We’ve talked about oceans and plastic pollution before but today we’re going to explore an unlikely connection between those two topics, and something that often gets overlooked: laundry. It might seem like a strange link to climate change because, you know, who really cares about laundry? But about 50 percent of the total greenhouse gas emitted over the course of a life of a tee shirt, for example, comes from the laundry room. The vast majority of that is simply heating water to wash in hot. Hanesbrands Chief Sustainability Officer Chris Fox explains how the underwear giant has paired up with Tide to encourage people to wash with cold water. Then Dr. Andrea Huvard of California Lutheran University delves into the impact that laundry has on our sea life, specifically from the microfibers released.Resources: https://www.greenmatters.com/p/what-are-microfibershttps://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2020-07/documents/article_2_microfibers.pdf

How does one become an organic dairy farmer? Well, sometimes you just happen to stumble into it. Donald De Jong is the CEO of Natural Prairie Dairy and he was more surprised than anyone else when he delved into the world of organic dairy farming.

It’s World Oceans Day! And we’re celebrating our blue planet by talking about coral reefs. Coral bleaching events are like 100-year flood events: ideally they're only supposed to happen once every 100 years but that's not the reality. In 2005, the U.S. lost half of its Caribbean coral reefs in one year due to a major bleaching event and this past March the Great Barrier Reef experienced its sixth mass bleaching event on record. But there is some good news!We talked with James Robinson, a research fellow at Lancaster University in the U.K, who recently found that bleached corals could actually provide sustenance to local coastal communities. Sam Teicher is the co-founder of Coral Vita, a company that grows corals to restore our world's dying reefs. They are not only restoring coral that's been lost but also helping support local economies that rely on coral reefs.

Renewable energy comes in many forms: solar, wind, hydroelectric, biomass, geothermal, and wave energy.On this episode, we're focusing on solar energy and how more communities can gain access to and benefit from it. Clearloop Co-founder and CEO Laura Zapata talks about how she got involved in cleaning up the electricity grid in the U.S.Then we learn how solar can help generate a green form of hydrogen. Bill Gross is the founder and CEO of Heliogen, a company that uses computer science and engineering to make renewable energies more of a reality.

As a follow-up to our episode on transportation, we're revisiting a conversation with Jennifer Wong, the head of sustainability at Convoy. The company is working on improving efficiency in the trucking business by saving money for shippers and increasing earnings for truck drivers, while also helping eliminate carbon waste.