Electric Ladies Podcast

"(B)efore we're even thinking about AI, it's actually thinking about how are we using our technology effectively and is it part of our processes? Does it complicate things or does it simplify things? And the advice that I always give them is like, before you start bringing in new technology and new processes and having to train people and doing their job in a different way and adding complication first, look at what you're doing and…pair back the stuff that doesn't need to be there anymore. And then think about technology." Nikki Greenberg on Electric Ladies Podcast Cities are in transformation mode – between affordability and housing challenges, the need to be resilient to climate's impacts, and yet maintain the vibrancy that draws billions of people to cities. How can they do that? What role does technology play – and does AI change everything? Listen to architect and urban designer, Nikki Greenberg, CEO of Real Estate of the Future and an advisor on urban innovation, in this fascinating conversation Electric Ladies Podcast host Joan Michelson had with her at the 2025 Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. You'll hear about: ● How cities can be hubs of "soft diplomacy" as city leaders across the globe share best practices, tips and strategies to make their cities better, more affordable and more climate-resilient. ● First things first: The first things she counsels city leaders to do before thinking about technology, including A.I. ● How climate change has affected city building codes: From the type of energy systems to have to where to locate them, to designing flexibility into building structures. ● Plus, insightful career advice: "You can't stop learning and you can't be complacent. And yes, you might have time constraints. Yes, you might have disadvantages. Yes, you may have been in your career and been very good at it for a very long time, but it doesn't mean that you can sit still and stop learning.…The advantage that you have is that you have experience, you have professional networks, you know how to hold down a job….But you have to get behind the new technology and learn how to use it because that's the tools that we're using moving forward." Nikki Greenberg on Electric Ladies Podcast Read Joan's Forbes articles here. You'll also like: · Urban Climate Actions at the 2025 Smart City Expo World Congress: Listen to Joan's panel with three extraordinary urban women leaders from across the globe who are using creative strategies to address climate issues. · Using Climate Modelling – with Maria Caffrey, Ph.D., UK National Physical Laboratory, on how climate modelling works and how best to use it most effectively · How Cities Can Thrive Through Polycrises – With Lauren Sorkin, Resilient Cities Network, on the range of crises cities are facing all at once today and how to manage them, at Smart City Expo World Congress 2024. · How to Rebuild After Disaster – With Majora Carter, Urban Revitalization Expert and CEO of the Majora Carter Group · Predicting Climate Impacts In Neighborhoods – with Jessica Filante Farrington, AT&T's Director of Global Sustainability Subscribe to our newsletter to receive our podcasts, blog, events and special coaching offers. Thanks for subscribing on Apple Podcasts or iHeartRadio and leaving us a review! Follow us on Twitter @joanmichelson

"One of the other important things about tech humanism to me is that the three-way relationship between business humans and tech is primarily about the relationship between business objectives and human outcomes and using technological capability to amplify that alignment, as opposed to using technology to amplify only the business objective side of that relationship. So really trying to think about how does a business meet the humans that it serves, and then how can technology be part of making that more effective and more successful so the business can succeed and the humans can have a better experience on the other side of that success." Kate O'Neill on Electric Ladies Podcast Technology has infiltrated every aspect of our lives, yet do we really understand its relationship with humans? Everybody's talking about and wrestling with understanding artificial intelligence – AI – in their business, governments and lives, but not everyone understands the intersection between technology and the human experience. How can we maximize it? Listen to self-described "tech humanist" Kate O'Neill, CEO of KO Insights and an advisor on these issues, including to the United Nations AI Advisory Board, in this fascinating conversation with Electric Ladies Podcast host Joan Michelson at the 2025 Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. You'll hear about: ● Why humans are at the core of everything: "You're never more than a degree away from people downstream of the decisions that you're making." ● Questions matter: What are the questions boards and leaders should be asking instead of just collecting data and making decisions as if humans are not affected? ● How can we leverage AI to address climate change? It's about a range of factors, both impact of the technology itself and how it can be leveraged to help humans. ● Plus, insightful career advice: "It's anybody's guess, on some level, what the next set of jobs that AI implementations will displace are going to be. But what I think we can feel fairly confident about for the time being is that soft skills, the soft skills that we've all been told are those we need to cultivate. Like context intelligence, emotional intelligence, good judgment, communication, those kinds of things are incredibly important no matter what. And the great thing about this for the question that you ask, is that women have been socialized to be stronger in those skills in general. So we already have an advantage when it comes to that." Kate O'Neill on Electric Ladies Podcast Read Joan's Forbes articles here. You'll also like: · Urban Climate Actions at the 2025 Smart City Expo World Congress: Listen to Joan's panel with three extraordinary urban women leaders from across the globe who are using creative strategies to address climate issues. · "Technology is Not Neutral": with Stephanie Hare, Ph.D., author of "Technology is Not Neutral," Researcher and BBC Broadcaster · Leveraging A.I. For Sustainability: with Mandi McReynolds, Chief Sustainability Officer at Workiva, software infrastructure company · Using Climate Modelling – with Maria Caffrey, Ph.D., UK National Physical Laboratory, on how climate modelling works and how best to use it most effectively · Predicting Climate Impacts In Neighborhoods – with Jessica Filante Farrington, AT&T's Director of Global Sustainability Subscribe to our newsletter to receive our podcasts, blog, events and special coaching offers. Thanks for subscribing on Apple Podcasts or iHeartRadio and leaving us a review! Follow us on Twitter @joanmichelson

The World Bank reports that, "today, more than half of the world's population – over 4 billion people – lives in cities." It also estimates that this shift is going to continue, in fact to DOUBLE to nearly 70% – or 7 out of every 10 people will live in cities by 2050. That's only 25 years away. At the same time, extreme weather events are increasingly devastating cities – we have all witnesses how Hurricane Melissa decimated Jamaica last week, for example, destroying home and businesses, schools, houses of worship, government buildings, everything. So what can, should and ARE cities doing to keep their people and economies safe and climate resilient? What's working and what can we learn from them? Today we're going to find out from four extraordinary women from across the globe." Joan Michelson's Introduction to the Panel at Smart City Expo 2025 We need to share what works in cities across the globe, and that's exactly what my esteemed panel did recently at the Smart City Expo World Congress 2025 in Barcelona, Spain. Here is the recording of Electric Ladies Podcast host Joan Michelson's panel which includes three women from three countries: Japan, Bolivia and Argentina, as well as Joan from the U.S. Listen to hear fascinating ideas and stories from these women: You'll hear from: ● Nidya Pesántez is UN Women for the Americas and the Caribbean Representative in Bolivia, where she also coordinates the Environmental Strategy for a Just Transition in Latin America and the Caribbean. ● Sofía María Galnares Giagnorio Cámara is Provincial Deputy of Santa Fe Deputy, Argentina, and the youngest elected provincial deputy in Santa Fe province. She also serves as President of the Commission on Environment and Natural Resources in the Legislature. ● Asuka Ito is an international advisor to the Government of Japan's Cabinet Office on the Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP). She serves on the International Advisory Board for the Phase-3 "Smart Mobility Platform" initiative in Japan. ● Plus, questions from the audience Read Joan's Forbes articles here. You'll also like: · Predicting Climate Impacts In Neighborhoods – with Jessica Filante Farrington, AT&T's Director of Global Sustainability · The Politics of Climate & Energy – with Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan, Co-Chair, Bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus · AI and Climate Solutions – with Stephanie Hare, Ph.D., Researcher, Author of "Technology Is Not Neutral" and BBC Broadcaster · Climate Policy & the Economy – with Gina McCarthy, White House National Climate Advisor, Biden Administration, and former EPA Administrator under President Obama Subscribe to our newsletter to receive our podcasts, blog, events and special coaching offers. Thanks for subscribing on Apple Podcasts or iHeartRadio and leaving us a review! Follow us on Twitter @joanmichelson

"Your job isn't to know the answer. Your job is to ask all the right questions of where the business is going and…Don't be afraid…(Align) with people who could see the possibility of (your) experience…Take that stretch job and just remember you're in the room to ask different questions, and that's perfectly fine. So, take the stretch and then lean into your experience that allows you to have a different lens and a different perspective." Mandi McReynolds, Chief Sustainability Officer at Workiva on Electric Ladies Podcast When the economy feels tough or you feel like things are spiraling, it's a good time to remember that you have agency. You can control what you think about, focus on and even your emotions – yes, you can. This is one of our periodic career collage episodes with valuable reminders from five extraordinary women who were interviewed on Electric Ladies Podcast over the past year. Listen up and let us know what resonates with you, texting it to us @joanmichelson on social media. You'll hear advice from: · Ann Canela, Head of Niagara Cares and Director of Corporate Giving at Niagara Bottling, the largest bottler in the U.S. · Mandi McReynolds, Chief Sustainability Officer at software conglomerate Workiva. · Silvia Bastante de Unverhau, of LGT Private Bankers International, including on how women see and allocate their wealth. · Yvonne Burton, President of Burton Consulting International, focused on technology and international relations. · Page Motes, Chief Compliance and Sustainability Officer at Hertz on the reinvention of the car rental business, including with a focus on sustainability. Read Joan's Forbes piece on Career Advice For Difficult Times, and more of her articles here. Elevate your career with expert coaching and ESG advisory with Electric Ladies Podcast. Unlock new opportunities, gain confidence, and achieve your career goals with the right guidance. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive our podcasts, articles, events and career advice – and special coaching offers.. Thanks for subscribing on Apple Podcasts or iHeartRadio and leaving us a review! Don't forget to follow us on our socials Twitter: @joanmichelson LinkedIn: Electric Ladies Podcast with Joan Michelson Twitter: @joanmichelson Facebook: Electric Ladies Podcast

"(Climate modelling)…it's being used in things like insurance companies. It's being used by companies for their ESG assessments. So, when you get your insurance premium at the end of the year, there is some kind of climate model that has said something about the risk of your house to flood. It has said something about your risk to fire. And so that might be driving up your insurance premium…And so it's being involved in your lives in many different ways. The food you consume, those grocery bills, there's prices behind it that are being driven by people using climate models saying something about the supply chain." Maria Caffrey on Electric Ladies Podcast Climate modelling is the foundation of a lot of planning and equations that so much of our economy and policy is based on. So, how does it work and how reliable is it? How can they tell? Listen to Maria Caffrey, Principal Scientist at the UK's National Physical Laboratory in this fascinating conversation with Electric Ladies Podcast host Joan Michelson. You'll hear about: ● How climate modelling actually works, and who uses it and why. ● How climate modelling measures risk and how reliable it really is – especially at a time of geological and weather patterns never seen before. ● What the economic and social impact is of how climate modelling is used today. ● Plus, career advice, such as: Read Joan's Forbes articles here. You'll also like: · Predicting Climate Impacts In Neighborhoods – with Jessica Filante Farrington, AT&T's Director of Global Sustainability · The Politics of Climate & Energy – with Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan, Co-Chair, Bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus · AI and Climate Solutions – with Stephanie Hare, Ph.D., Researcher, Author of "Technology Is Not Neutral" and BBC Broadcaster · Climate Policy & the Economy – with Gina McCarthy, White House National Climate Advisor, Biden Administration, and former EPA Administrator under President Obama Subscribe to our newsletter to receive our podcasts, blog, events and special coaching offers. Thanks for subscribing on Apple Podcasts or iHeartRadio and leaving us a review! Follow us on Twitter @joanmichelson