Latest Episodes
Episode #14 Ashvin Dayal: We Need to Redefine Energy & Development Progress
May 10 | 31min
Dayal, Senior Vice President of Power & Climate and The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet at The Rockefeller Foundation, discusses how he got into working on energy, why he believes in raising the definition of energy access, and the power of philanthropy.
Episode #13 Moussa Blimpo: Energy is Not the Answer to Everything
April 21 | 35 mins
Blimpo, Senior Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Munk’s School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, discusses his experiences turning policy into real-world impact, his evolving views on dominant development narratives, and what climate justice means to him.
Episode #12 Uzodinma Iweala: Climate Justice Demands New African Narratives
April 6 | 39 mins
Iweala, CEO of The Africa Center, discusses the experiences and identities that led him to narrative work, how narratives are formed and how we can shape them in the development and climate justice realm, and what his definition of climate justice means for Africa.
Episode #11 Jay Taneja: Using Machine Learning to Inform Energy Access Solutions
March 23 | 29 mins
Taneja, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, discusses his work on creatively accessing data in data-poor environments, the challenges in electrification via grid connections, and his work as an engineer and professor in the development sector.
Episode #10 Katie Hill: The First Pillar of Decarbonization Needs to be Green Growth
March 8 | 26 mins
Hill, Partner & Associate Director at Boston Consulting Group, talks about the future of African cities, the imperative for green growth in low-income countries on the global path to net zero, and her outlook on scaling enterprise and service delivery in Africa.
Episode #9 Sudeshna Ghosh Banerjee: Decarbonization is a Very Long Game
February 28| 30 mins
Banerjee, practice manager in the Energy and Extractives Global Practice at the World Bank Group, talks with Katie and Rose about whether net zero makes sense for Africa, what development organizations get wrong about energy access & women, and why hydrogen could be the next solar.
Episode #8 Damilola Ogunbiyi: Putting People at the Center of Energy Transitions
January 31 | 29 mins
The CEO of Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) on whether the international community is failing on SDG7, what she thinks net zero means for Africa & how she challenges the stereotype of what an African leader looks like.
Episode #7 Rebekah Shirley Lukera: Small Island Nations are Hypervisible & Hyper Invisible
July 6 | 26
mins
The director of research, data & innovation for WRI Africa talks with Katie & Rose about climate justice and building resilient energy infrastructure in small island developing states, why climate finance pledges don’t always translate to reality, obstacles to electrical vehicle uptake in Africa, and Nairobi’s reggae scene.
Episode #6: Arvind Subramanian: We Have to Fight Carbon Imperialism
June 21 | 33
mins
The former chief economic advisor to India’s government on how climate policy has become disconnected from energy needs of poorer countries, the politics of India’s electrical tariffs and why he thinks renewable energy has yet to be proven economically viable there.
Episode #5 Ken Caldeira: Let’s Align Self-Interest with Global Climate Interest
June 7 | 28 mins
One of the world’s most visionary climate scientists tells Katie & Rose why he thinks nuclear energy is key to quelling climate change and delivering prosperity to the developing world, why he’s gone all-positive on Twitter, why considering solar geoengineering won’t stop us from addressing climate change, and what he learned from pumping crocodile stomachs as a grad student.
Episode #4 Mimi Alemayehou: Climate Justice Means Africa Needs More Energy Investment
May 24 | 26 mins
The former OPIC, African Development Bank and Black Rhino Group official tells Katie & Rose why she’s frustrated with energy and climate finance double standards for Africa, how she would advise President Biden on climate & Africa, & why it’s unethical to argue Africa must stay poor to reduce climate change impacts. Plus: Katie tells Rose why she’s Amped Up about Richard Branson’s Global Cooling Prize.
Episode #3 Rachel Pritzker: Poverty is Not My Favorite Climate Change Solution
May 7 | 26 mins
The globally recognized climate & energy philanthropist on loving cities, funding overlooked technologies & why optimism is the best approach to tackling climate change.
Episode #2 Zainab Usman: What Does Net-Zero Mean for Africans?
April 26 | 36 mins
The new director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Africa Program on why resource curse thinking is wrong, politics is integral to policy & we should stop saying “leapfrogging.”
Episode #1 Mohamed Rali Badissy: Power-Sector Transparency & Energy Access
April 26 | 42 mins
Mohamed explains why transparency is an overlooked issue in addressing energy poverty, why he thinks decarbonization will increase public demands for more energy transparency, and the one crucial thing about energy poverty nobody’s talking about.