Climate Papa

I wasn't sure if I should put an episode out this week. I feel like at any given moment nearly 100% of my mind and attention and definitely my emotional energy has been on processing the events over this last weekend in Israel. Climate Papa is not a news podcast and certainly not a geopolitical podcast. But this is a personal podcast--it's been a space over the last few months where I've shared a lot about what I'm thinking about and processing. It's a bit of a window into my lens on the world. And this week I’ve been feeling a lot of pain. In this short message I share what I’m feeling and share a poem that struck me.The Diameter Of The Bomb by Yehuda Amichai (1976): The diameter of the bomb was 30 centimetersand the diameter of its effective range about 7 meters,with four dead and 11 wounded.And around these, in a larger circleof pain and time, two hospitals are scatteredand one graveyard. But the young womanwho was buried in the city she came from,at a distance of more than a hundred kilometers,enlarges the circle considerably,and the solitary man mourning her deathat the distant shores of a country far across the seaincludes the entire world in the circle.And I won’t even mention the crying of orphansthat reaches up to the throne of God andbeyond, making a circle with no end and no God. I will return to talking about climate change and technology shortly. Love,Ben

Announcement: It’s PNW Climate Week next week and I’m going to host the first ever Climate Papa meetup! Next Wednesday, September 27th, at 3:30pm at Volunteer Park. Register here! Fall is here—the leaves are changing and it’s back to school season. This time of year always feels like the “real” start to the year. Coincidentally, it’s when the Jewish High Holidays begin, the New Year, Rosh Hashanah, followed by Yom Kippur, and Sukkot. What does this have to do with climate change? Well, Jews have been on an annual rhythm of “repentance, prayer, and charity” for millennia. Perhaps the High Holidays have something to teach us about how to build a pattern of individual and collective assessment, reflection, and action? Ben turns to Tamar, host of a climate Torah Study podcast, to get a High Holidays 101 lesson, and to help unpack the symbolism of the holidays in the context of a climate crisis. They reflect on how holidays can awaken our motivation, how disasters affect communities, and they compare the Book of Life to regular IPCC reports. Tamar Libicki is a mother and fan of green energy, habitat restoration, regenerative agriculture, and Torah study. She hosts the "Ḥoni's Circle" podcast along with Rabbi Paula Rose, which is a project of Congregation Beth Shalom and Ahavat v'Avodat haAdamah.  Referenced in the episode: Climate Papa Meetup - Seattle 9/27 3:30pm Honi’s Circle Future Crunch A Paradise Built in Hell Unetaneh_Tokef Leonard Cohen - Who by Fire If You’re Reading This, You’re Probably ‘WEIRD’ on Ezra Klein Get connected: Ben - ⁠Climate Papa⁠ Feedback? Guest suggestions? Email ⁠ben@climatepapa.com⁠ Music: Slynk & Lazy Syrup Orchestra - Mellow Kinda Hype (Balkan Bump Remix)

Well, we made it ten episodes in before hitting on the most emotionally charged of home appliances—the cooktop. Despite gas stoves not being a significant cause of emissions, they are a clever lock-in device used to drive homeowners to want to keep (or even add) gas hookups to their homes. The plan may ultimately backfire as we all become aware of how terrible it is for our (and especially our kids’) health to be combusting gas inside our homes. Fortunately, there’s a quiet, powerful, and clean alternative — induction cooking. Ben chats with Weldon about the joyous exploration of 2-year-olds as they learn how the world works, including the toilet. They take the same curiosity to unpack the health concerns of burning methane gas in our homes and exploring why induction is going to be the ideal way for most of us to cook in the future. They discuss how Weldon’s new company, Channing Street Copper, is solving the biggest barrier to induction adoption—removing all the complex electrical work. By adding energy storage (a big battery) to the stove it can work with a standard power outlet and even continue to work during power outages. Ben and Weldon wrap up discussing the fundamental optimism needed to be a parent and that choosing to work on climate is just doubling down. Weldon Kennedy is a Co-Founder and CMO of Channing Street Copper. He previously founded and scaled the first Kenya-native running shoe company, Enda, after serving as the Managing Director for Change.org Europe. Referenced in the episode: Ezra Klein: Your Kids Are Not Doomed Get connected: Weldon - LinkedIn | Channing Street Copper Ben - ⁠Climate Papa⁠ Feedback? Guest suggestions? Email ⁠ben@climatepapa.com⁠ Editing help from Stuart at Castos Music: Slynk & Lazy Syrup Orchestra - Mellow Kinda Hype (Balkan Bump Remix) Transition Music: NiNe GriNd by Balkan Bump

It's the middle of August. For most of us, this is a hot and humid time of year--especially with heat waves raging across much of the world. To deal with more extreme temperatures we're going to need effective cooling, and a lot of it, quickly. Fortunately, we have the right device that can suck heat out (or push it into) our homes — heat pumps. Ben chats with Bill to get to the bottom of how heat pumps work their magic. They unpack how ductless systems make sense as the "platform of the future" for the ideal experience and why we're now at the product and UX optimization moment for heat pumps. They talk about the work Bill is doing at Quilt to make this ideal product a reality and how Bill went from a product leader working on Gmail and ad analytics products to explaining heat pump phase changes. Bill leads Quilt’s product and go-to-market efforts. Previously, he led teams developing energy efficiency technology for Google’s real estate footprint, and earlier worked on products like Gmail and Google Analytics. His family heats and cools their home with a ductless heat pump, and he’s passionate about building a much better product and adoption experience to help leave his two sons a more sustainable world. For future episodes, subscribe in your podcast app and here for broader Climate Papa updates. Referenced in the episode: Electrify: An Optimist's Playbook for Our Clean Energy Future Bill Gates' How to Avoid a Climate Disaster Get connected: Bill - Quilt | LinkedIn Ben - ⁠Climate Papa⁠ Feedback? Guest suggestions? Email ⁠ben@climatepapa.com⁠ Music: Slynk & Lazy Syrup Orchestra - Mellow Kinda Hype (Balkan Bump Remix)

Ben and Erika Reinhardt hop on post-bedtime to trade stories about their 5 and 2.5 year olds and make bathtub greenhouse gas analogies. Erika has made it her, and Spark Climate’s, mission to find and invest in the solutions we are likely or possibly going to need in the future that are, today, woefully behind. This has led to a focus on methane–currently responsible for 0.5°C of warming. Despite methane being a leading cause (and the biggest lever) to impact near-term warming, we don’t have a plan for eliminating enteric methane or any options for atmospheric methane removal. They talk about the problems with units and goals that only optimize for 2100, the need for non-profits to stand up systems that correct for market failures, and why it’s important to get to the ground truth on the state of climate solutions. Erika reflects on why it might be that both her and her partner, Peter, are drawn towards these frontier problems–and how it feels for their kids to comprehend their parents’ role in “getting rid of bad gasses.” Erika co-founded Spark, and leads the organization. Her background is in leading product engineering groups at high-growth software companies, with an impact orientation. Previously, she started and co-led U.S. Digital Response's work to provide local election offices across the country the products and technical expertise they needed to run a smooth election, led the Payments Experience engineering group at Stripe, served as the Director of Engineering at OpenAI, and was the Director of Product Engineering at Planet Labs after being an early engineer there. Erika studied computer science, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering at MIT. She lives in San Francisco with her young family. For future episodes, subscribe in your podcast app and here for broader Climate Papa updates. Referenced in the episode: Spark Climate Erika’s personal climate action plan Reading list on near-term warming Tracking Clean Energy Progress 2023 – Analysis - IEA Chompers | Gimlet Get connected: Erika - Twitter Ben - ⁠Climate Papa⁠ Feedback? Guest suggestions? Email ⁠ben@climatepapa.com⁠ Music: Slynk & Lazy Syrup Orchestra - Mellow Kinda Hype (Balkan Bump Remix)

Jessyn Farrell, Director of Seattle’s Office of Sustainability and Environment, sits down in her living room to chat with Ben about all of Seattle’s decarbonization plans. But first, two of Jessyn’s kids express their lukewarm feelings about podcasting and begrudgingly kick off the show. They cover Jessyn’s love of cities, transit, and orca whales. This opens up into a broad conversation covering all of the things we need to do to decarbonize Seattle and the amazing future that’s in reach if we push to quickly upgrade our homes, neighborhoods, and city. They cover why the local health impacts are just as key to focus on as the global ones, and the fundamental importance of this being an urgent, equitable, and just transition away from fossil-fuels. They highlight potential product collaboration for folks in the tech industry listening: Giving cities insight into transportation data to help make improved planning decisions. Effectively distributing incentives, especially to SMB drayage truck drivers. Moving to a more effective, scaled decarbonization effort for homes*. Building financing products for residential decarbonization upgrades and giving additional visibility for home fossil-fuel consumption. Jessyn wraps up reflecting on the awareness her kids have about her work on climate. Prior to her role leading Seattle’s OSE, Jessyn served as a member of the Washington House of Representatives representing the 46th district from 2013 to 2017 and was a major transit advocate as Executive Director of the Transportation Choices Coalition. *As mentioned in the episode, Ben will be sharing more about a proposal for building a “decarbonization factory” for the hundreds of thousands of homes. To see the proposal when it is shared subscribe to Climate Papa updates. Referenced in the episode: Seattle’s Office of Sustainability & Environment New Building Performance Standards Clean Heat Upgrade Program The “Electric Bank Account” from Rewiring America Low pollution neighborhoods Get connected: Jessyn - OSE Ben - ⁠Climate Papa⁠ Feedback? Guest suggestions? Email ⁠ben@climatepapa.com⁠ Special thanks to Anna Shwab Eidelson for editing assistance. Music: Slynk & Lazy Syrup Orchestra - Mellow Kinda Hype (Balkan Bump Remix)

Ben catches up with long-time friend Noaa. They quickly establish that Ben would not be a very effective sports podcaster. They dive into Noaa’s transition from building cloud data platforms to building energy marketplaces and explore the challenge and importance of measuring impact in climate companies. Halfway through, Noaa flips the script and pushes Ben on what he’s doing with his career. They end up reflecting on climate anxiety, the existential, and the need to surrender to the present while staying focused on the work ahead. Referenced in the episode: Guide to Software in Climate Tech Delta Air Lines faces lawsuit over $1bn carbon neutrality claim ⁠Speed & Scale⁠ Catalyst Podcast No Rules Rules Drawing Lines in the Climate Sand Climate Shocks Are Making Parts of America Uninsurable. It Just Got Worse. Get connected: Noaa - LinkedIn, InRange Ben - ⁠Climate Papa⁠ Feedback? Guest suggestions? Email ⁠ben@climatepapa.com⁠ Special thanks to Arthur Shwab & Anna Shwab Eidelson for editing assistance. Music: Slynk & Lazy Syrup Orchestra - Mellow Kinda Hype (Balkan Bump Remix)

Ben realizes Father’s Day is coming and that he didn’t want any of the stereotypical Father’s Day gifts. The team at Rewiring America agrees. It turns out a lot of dads would actually prefer we focus on improving our climate outcomes, address wildfire smoke, electrify our homes, and much, much more. 20 dads and kids send in their Father’s Day wishes. We stitch them together into this special edition of Climate Papa. To see the full video and more information about the #ElectrifyFathersDay campaign go to climatepapa.com/fathers-day Music: ⁠Mellow Kinda Hype (Balkan Bump Remix) ⁠ Get connected:  Ben - ⁠Climate Papa⁠ Feedback? Guest suggestions? Email ⁠ben@climatepapa.com⁠ Special thanks to Ian M, Joel, Bradley, Matt, Dimitry, Aaron, Ian W, Haggai, George, Marc, Dave, Bruce, Jeremy, The Cook Family, Alex, Arthur, and the crew of kids for sending in their Father’s Day wants. Thanks to Rewiring America for collaborating on this campaign.

Ben dives in with Julia, a psychotherapist, and Asa’s mom (Asa was the 7-year-old star of Episode #4). After a false start leads to a parenting reflection, they dive into the psychology of thinking and working on climate change. As wide ranging as the conversation was with Asa on the external world, Julia and Ben explore the internal. They hit on fundamental tensions–how do we engage without being overwhelmed, how do we trade off our basic desires with long term planning, and do we focus on me and mine vs. the collective good. As is often the source of truth in parenting and life, they find that Daniel Tiger is full of deep wisdom that you can be and feel more than one thing at the same time. They discuss the importance of building up internal scaffolding to be able to ride the complex waves of engaging with climate change. Referenced in the episode: ⁠Personal Infrastructure vs. Behavior (A Matter of Degrees)⁠ ⁠The Opposite of Spoiled⁠ Rewiring America ⁠The Uninhabitable Earth⁠ ⁠Speed & Scale⁠ ⁠Daniel Tiger - Mixed Feelings⁠ Julia’s leisure picks: Top Chef Great British Bake Off ⁠Alone⁠ Music Mellow Kinda Hype (Balkan Bump Remix)  Get connected:  Ben - Climate Papa Julia - Send Ben a message to pass along. Feedback? Guest suggestions? Email ben@climatepapa.com Special thanks to Julia for recording a second session and to Arthur Shwab for editing assistance.

Ben dives deep with 7-year-old, Asa, on all things climate. In a wide ranging conversation they cover the basics of climate change, the work of Rewiring America, Indigenous practices, regenerative farming, and how to MacGyver hydropower and wind power. The deepest insights come in exploring what we leave for future generations and the role kids can play in impacting policy and those around them. They leave grown-ups with some recommendations and Asa inspires Ben to match his donation. Referenced in the episode: Rewiring America Camp Casey Asa’s Recommendations Magic School Bus Rides Again Dancing with the Birds Giving Thanks a Native American Good Morning Story Music: Mellow Kinda Hype (Balkan Bump Remix)  Get connected:  Ben - Climate Papa Asa - Send Ben a message to pass along! Feedback? Guest suggestions? Email ben@climatepapa.com