By now, you’ve likely noticed our refreshed look. We’re evolving the show to focus on the inevitable impacts of climate change and the groundbreaking solutions shaping our future. To kick off this next chapter our first guest on Inevitable is Tom Steyer, Co-executive Chair at Galvanized Climate Solutions, a multi-strategy investment firm focused ex…

Climate change is inevitable. It's already here. But at the same time, the energy transition–the rewriting of industries to be cleaner, more profitable, and more resilient–is also inevitable. Join MCJ Managing Partner Cody Simms each week as sits down with experts across sectors to explore the groundbreaking innovations and extraordinary people sha…

Today on My Climate Journey, we’re bringing back a familiar voice: Jason Jacobs, Founder and Venture Partner at MCJ. In this special episode, Cody and Jason reflect on the evolution of MCJ and its mission to drive climate innovation. While this is the last episode under the My Climate Journey name, don’t worry—the show isn’t going away. The format …

Joselyn Lai is the Co-founder and CEO at Bedrock Energy. Bedrock uses geothermal energy to transform the heating and cooling of buildings. We've covered geothermal on the show a few times, but Bedrock brings a unique approach. On one end of the spectrum, we've explored large utility-scale geothermal projects, which aim to drill deep to tap into und…

Erica Nemser is CEO at Ardent, a Series A stage startup that's aiming to help drive industrial decarbonization by developing and selling membranes to perform point source carbon capture. Point source capture differs from direct air capture in that it's focused on concentrated greenhouse gas emissions coming right out of the flue of an industrial sy…

Molly Yang is CEO and co-founder of Hgen, a company that develops clean hydrogen to decarbonize heavy industry. Specifically, they are working on alkaline electrolyzer technology to make it have higher efficiency and higher power density, which they claim will allow them to produce hydrogen with a smaller footprint and lower cost, using a modular, …

Russell Kenneth DeGraff spent 18 years as a staffer on Capitol Hill, including 12 years as the Chief Climate and Technology Advisor to Nancy Pelosi, notably during her second term as Speaker of the House. He was, as they say in the room where it happened when negotiating the landmark climate legislation of the last few years, including the Inflatio…

This My Climate Journey podcast episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the Ion during Houston Energy and Climate Startup Week. Zach Dell is the Co-founder and CEO of Base Power Company. Base aspires to build a reliable and affordable home energy service powered by distributed batteries. Their technology supports the grid during times o…

*This My Climate Journey podcast episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the Ion during Houston Energy and Climate Startup Week. Our guest is, Vicki Hollub, CEO of Occidental Petroleum (Oxy), a century-old oil and gas company employing over 12,000 people globally with a market cap near $50 billion. Recently the company has made signific…

The election cycle can feel overwhelming for the average person who is climate-concerned, but not deeply political enough to understand where and how to plug in. If you have money to give, where should it go? If you have time to contribute, what should you do? We could think of no better group than the experts we have here to help walk us through i…

Doug Bernauer is the CEO and Co-founder of Radiant. Radiant is developing a portable nuclear micro-reactor to replace diesel generators. They raised a $40 million Series B in 2023 led by a16z, after previously raising capital from investors including USV, Founders Fund, and DCVC. They're targeting the development of a portable, mostly self-containe…

Jeff Chapin is the Co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Haven Energy. Haven aims to make it easier for homeowners to install home battery systems, including choosing the right battery, permitting and installation, tax credits, and virtual power plant setup. Haven recently began offering bundled installation of solar and batteries. Jeff has seen …

Matt Soule is the CEO and Co-founder of Parallel Systems. Parallel Systems is re-imagining how goods can be transported via rail by building automated battery-electric freight rail vehicles. These vehicles resemble box cars that can drive independently and form on-the-fly connections with each other to create mini trains. According to Matt, the goa…

Katie Siegel is CEO and Co-founder at Flipturn. Flipturn is an EV charging management platform for fleets and we're diving into the electrification of trucking. At the beginning of 2024, the Advanced Clean Fleets law came into effect in California creating a number of mandates for zero emissions vehicle adoption in the trucking space. And the law i…

Julia Strong is the Executive Director of Symbiosis Coalition. Announced in early 2024, Symbiosis Coalition is an advanced market commitment from Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Salesforce to purchase up to 20 million tons of nature-based carbon removals. The forestry credit space has faced challenges over the last couple of years, prompting interest …

Joe Daniel is a Principal on the Carbon-Free Electricity Team at RMI. Our topic today is coal, specifically the "non-economic dispatch" of coal. This phenomenon occurs when coal-fired power plants deliver power to electricity grids even when their electricity is not the most cost-effective option, thereby disrupting the "merit order" of electricity…

Siva Yellamraju is the Co-founder and CEO at Fourier. Fourier's mission is to make hydrogen universally accessible with on-site and on-demand production. Fourier is not Siva's first startup, it's his fourth. He sold his last company to Apple the one before that to Google and the one before that to Polycom, so he knows a thing or two about entrepren…

Japan is important to consider on the global energy stage. The country’s emissions footprint is considerably smaller than China and the U.S. While Japan's energy footprint isn't growing as rapidly as India's, it’s still the fifth-largest emitter of any country globally, with emissions representing roughly three to 4% of the global total. Japan's en…

Max Jamilly, CEO and Co-founder at Hoxton Farms. And today, we're talking about fat. Hoxton Farms, a London-based startup, grows and sells animal fats without animals. They aspire to be an ingredients provider; cultivating fats via bioreactors and selling cruelty-free and sustainable fats to other food brands, starting with meat alternatives. It's …

Julia Reichelstein is the CEO and Co-founder at Vaulted Deep, a carbon removal company that injects carbon-rich waste slurries deep underground into permanent geologic storage. They've come onto the scene quite fast recently securing just north of a $58 million order from Frontier to sequester over 152,000 tons of carbon between now and 2027, which…

Mish Thadani is the CEO and Co-founder of Rhizome. Rhizome helps utilities plan for resilience. It's an AI-powered software platform that helps electric utilities identify vulnerabilities from climate threats to quantify risk and to measure the economic and social benefits of grid enhancing investments. In our discussion, we delve into how utilitie…

Today's conversation is all about how the US is trying to onshore manufacturing of key clean energy supply chains, things like EV, battery metals, and the like. Giulia Siccardo is the Director of the US Department of Energy's Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains or MESC. We start out with a bit of a history lesson on why manufacturing s…

Dr. John Wagner is the President of Battelle Energy Alliance and Director of the Idaho National Laboratory or INL. INL is one of 17 national labs in the United States and leads the nation in work on advanced nuclear research. INL boasts a rich legacy in the narrative of nuclear energy, marked by its pivotal role in producing the inaugural usable el…

Christina Yagjian leads global renewable energy strategy and origination at Cargill. According to Forbes, Cargill is the largest private company in the USA by revenue with $177 billion in the fiscal year ending in May, 2023. Before Cargill, Christina managed the renewable energy footprint at Meta, the parent company to Facebook and Instagram and on…

Cyrus Wadia is the CEO of Activate, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that empowers scientists to bring their research to market. Having supported nearly 200 scientists in founding around 150 companies, including notable names like Fervo, Twelve, Sublime Systems, and Antora Energy, Activate offers selected fellows a unique blend of financial suppo…

Dr. Seonghoon Woo is CEO and co-founder at Amogy. Amogy is building technology to unlock ammonia's potential as a clean energy fuel source for transportation and beyond. About a year ago, they raised a Series B of funding led by SK Innovations, with backers including Temasek, Aramco Ventures, Mitsubishi, DCVC, Amazon Climate Pledge Fund, Mitsui OSK…

Adam Stein is the Director of Nuclear Energy Innovation at the Breakthrough Institute, where he focuses on the technology, policy, risk and economics of nuclear energy. The Breakthrough Institute is a global research center that identifies and promotes technological solutions to environmental and human development challenges. Among its many project…

In today's episode, recorded live during San Francisco Climate Week, we delve into the critical intersection of climate policy and carbon removal. Joining us are two distinguished guests: California Senator Scott Wiener, the author of the recent landmark climate legislation known as California's SB 253 or the Climate Corporate Data Accountability A…

Dr. Sarah Kapnick serves as the Chief Scientist at NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which plays a critical role in understanding and predicting changes in climate, weather, oceans, and coasts. Bringing a unique mix of science and finance to NOAA, Dr. Kapnick's background includes a stint as a senior climate scientist at JP…

Ning Mosberger-Tang is the founder and president at 1.5 Climate Strategies Group, alongside a host of other climate and civic organizations. As one of the pioneering female engineers at Google, Ning played a crucial role in the development of Google's initial advertising platform. Transitioning from Google in 2006, her focus shifted towards combati…

Dr. Peter Fiske is the Executive Director at the National Alliance for Water Innovation or NAWI. NAWI is a collection of 19 universities, four national labs and 190 plus US water companies committed to developing new technologies to enable distributed desalination and water reuse. They're a five-year, $110 million research program supported by the …

Eric Law is the CEO and co-founder of Urban Machine. Urban Machine develops robotics and AI to reclaim lumber from construction and demolition for re-use. They claim that 37 million tons of wood goes into landfills annually, and much of that wood could be reused. Their robotic machines specialize in the necessary steps to prep wood for reconditioni…

Brandon Hurlbut, our guest on this episode, wears multiple hats. He's co-founder at Boundary Stone Partners, a climate change focused government affairs firm created in 2013 that operates at the intersection of technology, finance, and policy. He's also co-founder of Overture, an early stage climate tech venture capital firm that recently announced…

Kim Stanley Robinson, renowned science fiction author, is our guest on this episode of MCJ. He is the author of the Ministry for the Future, a novel which outlines humanity's attempts to navigate climate change in the coming decades. Former President Barack Obama named the Ministry for the Future as one of his favorite books of 2020. The work has b…

Subodh Kulkarni is CEO and President at Rigetti Computing, and our topic in this episode is quantum computing and its implications for our changing planet. Rigetti Computing, a publicly listed company, builds quantum computers and superconducting quantum processors. It also provides cloud-based access to quantum computing for both commercial and re…

This episode is part of our Skilled Labor Series hosted by MCJ partner, Yin Lu. This series is focused on amplifying the voices of folks from the skilled labor workforce, including electricians, farmers, ranchers, HVAC installers, and others who are on the front lines of rewiring our infrastructure. Eric Letvin serves as the Federal Emergency Manag…

Dr. Britt Wray is a science communicator and the author of two books. Her latest is Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Anxiety, which is a national bestseller. Dr. Wray is also the director of CIRCLE (Community-minded Interventions for Resilience, Climate Leadership, and Emotional wellbeing) at Stanford Psychiatry, a research an…

On this episode of My Climate Journey, we have two guests: Susan Schofer and Po Bronson. Susan is partner at SOSV and Chief Science Officer at Hax, which is SOSV's initiative around hard tech. She has a PhD in chemistry from Caltech, and most recently spent eight years at Modern Meadow, a growth stage startup in the bio leather space. Po is general…

Dan Yates is the CEO and Chairman of Dandelion Energy, a Series B Stage startup deploying solutions for residential geothermal energy. As Dan explains it, residential geothermal distinguishes itself from utility-scale geothermal by not aiming to exploit a scarce, underground heat source for electricity generation through turbines. Instead, the proc…

Today’s guests are Dr. Melissa Burt and Dr. Emily Fischer, who are part of a group called the Science Moms. The Science Moms are a consortium of climate scientists who are also mothers and who are, in their words, working to give our children the planet they deserve. They aim to demystify climate science and motivate everyday moms to demand climate…

Prakash Govindan is COO and Co-founder at Gradiant. Gradiant is a Series D stage company that develops technology for industrial wastewater treatment. They work with Fortune 500 clients across a range of industries, including semiconductor fabrication, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, mining, and more, to help them reuse water in their operation…

Ben Hubbard is CEO and Co-founder at Nexus PMG, an infrastructure advisory and project development organization dedicated to reducing carbon intensity and enhancing resource efficiency. Ben co-founded Nexus PMG in 2013 after multiple years of working on complex metal refining facilities in locations including Mongolia and Saudi Arabia. In this epis…

This episode is part of our Skilled Labor Series hosted by MCJ partner, Yin Lu. This series is focused on amplifying the voices of folks from the skilled labor workforce, including electricians, farmers, ranchers, HVAC installers, and others who are on the front lines of rewiring our infrastructure. Roy Mittleider is the director of training for Ca…

Dr. Denise Baden is Professor of Sustainable Business at the University of Southampton and founder of Green Stories. At Green Stories, Dr. Baden has run 16 writing competitions since 2018, focused around sustainability and storytelling. She is herself also the author of multiple eco-fiction novels, including Habitat Man and is the editor of a colle…

Sarah Lamaison is the CEO and Co-founder of Dioxycle. Dioxycle is developing technology to produce sustainable ethylene from recycled carbon emissions. Ethylene is the world's most used organic chemical and it's a precursor to many everyday products including construction materials, plastics, and textile fibers. Indeed, it's a core feedstock for po…

This episode is part of our Capital Series hosted by Jason Jacobs. This series explores a diverse range of capital sources and the individuals who drive them. From family offices and institutional LPs to private equity, government funding, and more, we take a deep dive into the world of capital and its critical role in driving innovation and progre…

Scott Gale is Executive Director at Halliburton Labs. Halliburton is a complex company. It’s a 100-year-old oil field services giant, known for its extensive fracking operations and infrastructure expertise in the oil and gas sector. It is not an oil and gas distributor like Chevron or Exxon, but it is a powerhouse nonetheless. With their Halliburt…

Eloa Guillotin is the Co-founder and CEO of Beyond Aero. The topic of aviation emissions is complex. Flying is in many ways a crucial part of our global society, and although COVID lockdowns temporarily reduced frequent flying, the reliance on air travel in modern society is indisputable. Aviation accounts for over 2% of global emissions. Lithium-i…

Barbara Burger is the former president of Chevron Technology Ventures and describes herself as a "corporate graduate." She now spends her time advising and helping startups and venture funds working on the energy transition, including Greentown Labs, Energy Impact Partners, Emerald Technology Ventures, Syzygy Plasmonics, Heliogen, and many more. In…

This episode is part of our Skilled Labor Series hosted by MCJ partner, Yin Lu. This series is focused on amplifying the voices of folks from the skilled labor workforce, including electricians, farmers, ranchers, HVAC installers, and others who are on the front lines of rewiring our infrastructure. Chris Higgins works for the city of Vancouver, Br…