Three podcast episodes on energy and climate change
I co-host a podcast with Luca Righetti called Hear This Idea, aiming to showcase “new thinking in philosophy, the social sciences, and effective altruism”.
Over the last few months we put out a ‘mini series’ of episodes about climate change on energy. I thought I should share them here, along with small summaries, in case people are interested.
Isabelle Boemeke on Nuclear Power and Science Communication
Isabelle Boemeke is a model, digital fashion designer, and the world’s first (and only) nuclear power influencer. She makes educational videos as Isodope.
I loved this conversation. We talked about science communication in the age of social media influencers, ‘de-growth’ environmentalism, and why nuclear power is (tragically) underrated.
Armond Cohen on Climate Change and the Clean Air Task Force
Armond Cohen is the executive director of the Clean Air Task Force. CATF has been rated as the most cost-effective climate change charity, including by organisations such as Founder’s Pledge, SoGive, and Giving Green.
In this episode we talked about the history of (effective) climate advocacy in the U.S., the importance of being a “fox” rather than a “hedgehog” on solving practical problems, the gaps in Africa and Asia for NGOs focused on climate technologies and policy, and reasons to be optimistic about green tech.
Matthew Ives on Solar Power and Experience Curves
Dr Matthew Ives is an economist and complex systems modeller currently working at Oxford University on the Oxford Martin Post-Carbon Transition Programme.
In this episode we talked about the idea of “sensitive intervention points”, why “experience curves” explain how solar PV keeps getting cheaper faster than naive forecasts predict, industrial policy versus carbon pricing, and what big climate models don’t predict.
I hope you find these episodes valuable if you do end up listening to them!
If you have constructive feedback, you can leave a comment, send me a message on the forum, email us at feedback[at]hearthisidea[dot]com, or use our anonymous feedback form. Thanks.
I thoroughly enjoyed all three of these—in particular getting a crisper picture of what CATF actually does, and why it’s awesome. Thanks for all the work!
Agreed: I also started with the CATF episode today, and look forward to moving on to the 80K, GWWC, and Singer episodes in the weeks to come!