Everybody in the Pool

This week on Everybody in the Pool, EV sales are on the rise again thanks to gas prices (and in some parts of the world, they never slowed down). So this week, we’re talking about a crucial part of the electric vehicle transition: the chargers. Because as EV adoption grows, drivers need more than a place to plug in. They need charging that’s reliable, convenient, and maybe even a little fun. Our guest is Shiri Levi-Laor, CEO of Driivz, a software company working behind the scenes to help charging operators manage their networks and energy costs.Shiri explains why the conversation is shifting from range anxiety to charging anxiety—and why a charger that eventually works isn’t necessarily good enough. We get into the four pieces of the charging profitability puzzle: choosing the right sites and hardware, setting prices, managing energy, and creating an experience that makes drivers want to come back. Plus, why destination charging and a good recommendation can make all the difference.We also talk about the increasingly important role of energy management: balancing limited grid capacity, using batteries and renewable energy, and avoiding expensive peak hours. Shiri shares how data and intelligence can help operators make smarter decisions, what vehicle-to-grid technology could eventually unlock, and what she’s seeing as charging networks expand around the world. It’s a conversation about making the infrastructure behind electrification work better for everyone.Links:Driivz: https://driivz.com/Driivz’s Social Charging Index: https://driivz.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/World-EV-Day-Survey.pdfAll episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/Become a member for the ad-free version of the show: https://everybodyinthepool.supercast.com/Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/2EsDhwQC2z Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on Everybody in the Pool, a returning guest is staying the course on climate tech—even as investors and attention pivot toward AI. Mike Schroepfer, the former Facebook CTO and founder of Gigascale Capital, last joined us in episode 77 to talk about the technology trends making a cleaner future possible. Now he’s back with a new $250 million fund and more evidence for his central thesis: the clean option can also be the cheaper, better option. The challenge is getting it built and into customers’ hands.Schrep explains why factory-built technologies like solar panels and batteries keep getting cheaper, and how those falling costs unlock much more than we initially imagine—from electric trucks that cost less to operate to a more resilient, distributed energy system. We talk about simpler solar installations, cleaner rare-earth processing, next-generation turbines, and fusion, along with the determined founders working to turn those technologies into competitive businesses.We also get into the complicated relationship between AI and climate. The data-center boom creates enormous demand for new power, but the rush to build is driving investment in gas generation before cleaner alternatives are ready at scale. Schrep shares why that timing mismatch worries him—and why accelerating deployment matters so much. Plus, he’s getting into the storytelling game with Field Trips, a new YouTube series taking viewers behind the scenes at labs and factories to meet the people building what’s next. Think fusion, electric trucks, robots, and a microreactor that traveled from Los Angeles to Idaho on a truck. It’s a conversation about grounded optimism, real urgency, and making the clean choice the easy choice.Links:Watch Field Trips: https://www.youtube.com/@watchfieldtripsGigascale Capital: https://gigascale.com/All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/Become a member for the ad-free version of the show: https://everybodyinthepool.supercast.com/Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/2EsDhwQC2z Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on Everybody in the Pool, we talk about one of the most direct climate actions available to all of us: voting. Nathaniel Stinnett, founder and executive director of the Environmental Voter Project, explains why the climate movement doesn’t just have a persuasion problem—it has a turnout problem. Millions of people already care deeply about climate and the environment, but don’t consistently vote, even as elections shape decisions about clean energy, pollution, and the future of climate policy.The Environmental Voter Project identifies these infrequent and non-voters using polling, publicly available voter files, and predictive models, then tests ways to help them show up. Stinnett says the organization identified 11.2 million registered environmentalists who did not vote in the 2024 presidential election. Its nonpartisan approach focuses on behavior change rather than changing minds or promoting candidates: randomized trials help determine which messages and outreach—postcards, calls, canvassing, direct mail, and digital ads—actually increase turnout.Some of the most effective messages are also counterintuitive. Instead of arguing that one vote could decide an election, the project uses social cues, reminders that peers are voting, and practical information that makes voting feel easier. Stinnett shares the group’s reported turnout gains in presidential, statewide, and local elections, why local races can have major consequences for climate policy, and how a consistent electorate can signal to politicians that climate leadership matters. We also talk about barriers to voting, the value of showing up in every election, and how listeners can volunteer to help turn climate concern into political participation.Links:Environmental Voter Project: https://www.environmentalvoter.org/Register to vote: https://vote.gov/All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/Become a member for the ad-free version of the show: https://everybodyinthepool.supercast.com/Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/2EsDhwQC2z Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on Everybody in the Pool, let’s talk about the grid—the biggest machine in the world, which we are asking to do a whole lot more than it was built to do. Rooftop solar sends power back. Electric vehicles create sudden spikes in demand. Heat pumps, factories, and AI data centers need more electricity. And the poles and wires in the middle? We can’t exactly unplug them and start over.My guest is Luca Mezossy-Dona, co-founder and chief growth officer of IONATE, which is building hardware and software to give the grid a brain. Its Hybrid Intelligent Transformer takes a familiar, century-old building block and adds the ability to see what’s happening around it and adjust voltage in real time. Luca explains how combining a traditional transformer core with precise power electronics can help grid operators handle the peaks and valleys of modern electricity use—and how a network of these devices can make the whole system more flexible and resilient.We also get into the climate payoff: in IONATE’s modeled grid studies, the technology enabled an average of 33 percent more distributed energy resources to connect, 25 percent more power through existing poles and wires, and a 6 percent reduction in losses compared with traditional technology. The idea is to connect more clean energy and electrified demand, waste less power, and get more out of the infrastructure we already have instead of rebuilding everything on day one. Plus, how a neuroscientist became a grid nerd—and why none of our shiny new technologies work if you unplug them.In the second half, we talk about deployments with utilities in Europe and industrial customers like General Motors, why factories and data centers are essentially mini grids behind the meter, and the difference between seeing a problem and having the tools to respond. We also explore the business case for smarter transformers, what cascading blackouts tell us about resilience, and why the equipment we install today will shape the grid for the next generation. Grid operators don’t necessarily have to buy IONATE’s technology—but they do have to do something.Links:IONATE: https://www.ionate.energy/About IONATE and the team: https://www.ionate.energy/aboutAll episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/Become a member for the ad-free version of the show: https://everybodyinthepool.supercast.com/Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/2EsDhwQC2z Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on Everybody in the Pool, would you drink a beer made from somebody else’s shower water? I did. They cleaned it! Like, a lot. But the beer is just the attention-grabbing headline for a much bigger climate solution: capturing the water our buildings use, treating it, and using it again instead of sending it down the drain.My guest is Aaron Tartakovsky, co-founder and CEO of Epic Cleantec, which puts water recycling systems into large buildings. Aaron explains how the technology works, why drinking-quality water doesn’t need to be used to flush toilets or cool office towers, and how Epic’s system at San Francisco’s Salesforce Tower recycles about eight million gallons of water a year. We also get into the company’s unlikely origin story—from a high-tech pooper scooper to the Gates Foundation’s Reinvent the Toilet Challenge—and how Shower Hour IPA and Laundry Club Kölsch became tasty tools for getting people past the “yuck factor.”In the second half, we talk about what it takes to make water reuse standard equipment: why new construction is easier than retrofitting existing buildings, where retrofits already make sense, and how water and sewer bills can drive adoption. Plus, the policies helping this technology spread, the resistance from some utilities, and what the history of elevators, air conditioning, and rooftop solar can teach us about turning an unfamiliar technology into something we wonder how we ever lived without.Links:Epic Cleantec: https://epiccleantec.com/Shower Hour IPA and Laundry Club Kölsch: https://epiccleantec.com/recycled-water-beersWatch Molly try the shower beer on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mollywoodpro/All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/Become a member for the ad-free version of the show: https://everybodyinthepool.supercast.com/Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/2EsDhwQC2z Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.