Make Water Work Podcast

In this episode of the Make Water Work Catalyst Collab, Isaac Pellerin sits down with Britton Smith, founder and lead artist of Britton & The Sting, who served as a guide at Catalyst 2025 and led one of the most talked-about sessions of the year. They dig into how a commission for a theater on the Hudson turned into Mama, a project built entirely around water as a living, relational force, and what happened when Britton brought that same energy into a room full of water professionals. In this episode, we cover: • How a commission from Little Island, an amphitheater on the Hudson River, turned into Mama, a 16-song project reframing water as alive rather than just a resource • Why Britton calls water "a map into how we should be living our lives more sustainably" • The connection between water justice, environmental racism, and who historically got to live upstream versus downstream • Inside Britton's Catalyst 2025 session: using water as a mirror to ask what parts of ourselves we leave at home, and why that question moved a room of water professionals to tears • Why the "curse of knowledge" is a bigger barrier to public trust than most technical experts realize • Britton's take on storytelling versus facts, and why "whoever tells the best story wins" • Where to catch Britton & The Sting on tour If you work in water communications, community engagement, or utility leadership, this conversation will change how you think about the parts of yourself you bring to the work. Connect with Britton & The Sting: https://www.brittonandthesting.com/ Read more about Britton's work with water: https://www.them.us/story/britton-smith-mama-one-of-them-interview   Learn more about Catalyst 2026: catalysth2o.org Like, subscribe, and drop a comment: what part of yourself do you leave at the door before you walk into work? #MakeWaterWork #Catalyst2026 #WaterCommunication #PublicTrust #WaterIndustry #ArtAndActivism #WaterJustice

Heather Collins set out to work in aerospace. She ended up running water operations for 19 million people, and finishing a term as the 144th President of the American Water Works Association. In this episode, Isaac sits down with Heather Collins, Assistant Chief of Operations at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and immediate past president of AWWA, for a conversation that moves from how water found her to what it actually takes to keep a region's water flowing when everything from cyberattacks to earthquakes is on the table. In this episode, we cover: •How a canceled aerospace internship led Heather into water, and eventually to public health, water quality, and operations at one of the largest water wholesalers in the world •What AWWA actually is, how its 50,000 members and 43 sections work alongside its staff, and why the presidency is a one-year role built on decades of groundwork •Why Metropolitan's century-old, largely gravity-fed system is an engineering marvel and what "manual mode" means for resiliency during cyberattacks and natural disasters •The real relationship between data centers, power, and water demand, and what's misunderstood about it •Why AI and automation are freeing up the workforce for higher-value work, not replacing the human judgment operators bring •Rebuilding public trust in tap water across generations that get their information in completely different ways •What Heather is most proud of from her presidential year, and her advice for the next generation of water leaders Water is easy to take for granted right until it isn't. This conversation is a good reminder of everything standing behind the tap.

In this episode of the Make Water Work Catalyst Collab, Isaac Pellerin and Chelsea Boozer (Executive Director, Rogue Water Lab) sit down with Shannon Kring, Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker, director, and president of Red Queen Media. Shannon's work spans more than 70 countries and includes the feature documentary Nine Little Indians (executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio and Tony Robbins) and End of the Line: The Women of Standing Rock, which follows Indigenous water protectors. She guided a session at Catalyst 2024 and joins us to go deeper into what she's learned filming water stories across rural, tribal, and urban communities nationwide. In this episode, we cover: • Shannon's own water story, from iron-stained well water in rural Wisconsin to unsafe tap water in Honduras to some of the best water in the world in Helsinki • How Indigenous communities across Turtle Island relate to water not as a resource, but as a living relative deserving of care • A hard lesson in cultural intelligence from the San Carlos Apache Reservation, and why "showing up" the right way changes everything • The story behind Lowndes County, Alabama, and how a well-intentioned government visit nearly shut a community's doors before a single conversation happened • Why underneath most customer anger over a water bill is shame, not hostility, and what that means for how utilities should respond • Why accepting a cup of coffee, a cookie, or a small kindness can matter more to trust than any talking point • Shannon's one piece of advice for the water sector: slow down, and just listen If you work in water communications, public engagement, or utility leadership, this conversation will change how you think about who you're serving and how you show up for them. Connect with Shannon Kring: https://www.redqueenmedia.com Connect with Chelsea Boozer / Rogue Water Lab: https://www.roguewaterlab.com Learn more about Catalyst 2026: catalysth2o.org Like, subscribe, and drop a comment: what's your water story? #MakeWaterWork #Catalyst2026 #WaterCommunications #PublicTrust #WaterIndustry #IndigenousWater #WaterIsLife

In this episode of the Catalyst Collab, hosts Isaac Pellerin and Chelsea Boozer (Rogue Water Lab) sit down with Ameerah Palacios, APR, Director of Engagement for STV's National Water practice. Ameerah has spent more than two decades helping utilities and public agencies build trust, navigate crisis, and turn complex infrastructure work into real community connection — and she pulls back the curtain on what actually separates authentic engagement from checking a compliance box. In this episode, we cover: • The real difference between compliance-driven outreach and authentic community engagement • Inside the "Underwater" crisis simulation Ameerah built for Catalyst 2025 — and what it revealed about how utilities respond under pressure • Why transparency means being honest even when you don't have all the answers yet • Lessons from working in communities navigating deep, long-term water challenges, including Jackson, Mississippi • Why she says "failing infrastructure," not "aging infrastructure" — and how word choice shapes public trust • Message frequency, saturation, and why utilities have to keep reminding people of progress on decades-long programs like lead service line replacement • How to leave a community "better than you found it" beyond the technical scope of a project If you work in utility communications, public engagement, or infrastructure leadership, this conversation will change how you think about trust, transparency, and what it really means to listen. 🔗 Connect with Ameerah: linkedin.com/in/ameerah 🔗 Learn more about STV: stvinc.com This episode is part of the Catalyst Collab, a special series featuring speakers and guides connected to Catalyst — the immersive water communications event happening August 31–September 3, 2026, in San Diego. Learn more and register at https://roguewaterlab.org/events/catalyst-2026/. 👍 If this conversation resonated, like, subscribe, and drop a comment — what's one thing you'd rethink about how your organization communicates with its community? #WaterIndustry #PublicTrust #CrisisCommunications #WaterUtilities #CommunityEngagement #Infrastructure #StrategicCommunications #MakeWaterWork #CatalystCollab #Catalyst2026

No one wants a water main. They want clean water. No one needs a highway. They need to get their kids to school safely. In this episode of the Make Water Work Catalyst Collab, Isaac Pellerin and Chelsea Boozer (Executive Director, Rogue Water Lab) sit down with Dr. Shalini Vajjhala, Executive Director of PRE Collective, to talk about the messy, unglamorous early stage of infrastructure work that most projects skip, and why skipping it is exactly how communities end up with a bigger pump instead of a better outcome. In this episode, we cover: • How working in Cairo, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro during architecture school first showed Shalini that water touches everything, even when it's not the headline • What "predevelopment" actually means, and why it gets treated like a soft cost instead of the thing that determines whether a project succeeds • The Hoboken story: how reframing a flood resilience ask turned a $5 million pump request into a $100 million community park • Why asking "what would it take for you to support this?" gets further than presenting a finished plan • A masterclass in plain language, including how Shalini explained carbon sequestration to her grandmother using a coal stove and a bucket of smoke • Why trust is built through underpromising, overdelivering, and simply telling people the truth about how long things will take • What's ahead at Catalyst San Diego, August 31–September 3, 2026, where Shalini will be guiding a session If you work in water infrastructure, community engagement, or utility leadership, this conversation will change how you think about the first conversation you have on your next project. Connect with Shalini Vajjhala: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shalinivajjhala/ Learn more about PRE Collective: precollective.org Learn more about Catalyst 2026: catalysth2o.org Like, subscribe, and drop a comment: what's your water story? #MakeWaterWork #Catalyst2026 #WaterInfrastructure #CommunityEngagement #ClimateResilience #WaterIndustry #PublicTrust #Predevelopment