Everybody in the Pool

This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re rethinking how clothes, shoes—and even car interiors—get made without plastic. My guest is Maria Intscher-Owrang, CEO and co-founder of Simplifyber. Her innovation takes plant fibers + water, then forms finished 3D shapes in a single step—skipping spinning, weaving, cutting, and sewing. 

We get into:

• What’s broken about fossil-based textiles (cost curves, subsidies, and why polyester took over)
• How Simplifyber’s cellulose slurry + compression molding works—and why it cuts waste dramatically
• Early results: an LCA showing up to 30× lower impact for shoe uppers vs. standard construction
• Performance and durability (including why these parts can survive sun/heat/humidity in car interiors)
• Unit economics: cost parity at scale via tooling (and why higher volumes matter)
• Beachhead products: GANNI “moon shoe” uppers and a Kia EV2 concept interior, now moving toward production
• What this could mean for labor, local supply chains, and using regional feedstocks (cellulose everywhere)

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This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re talking about one of the biggest hurdles in the clean energy transition — how to make electric vehicles as fast and easy to refuel as gas cars.

Our guest is Will Fitzhugh, co-founder and CEO of Adden Energy, a Harvard spinout developing self-healing solid-state lithium metal batteries that could charge fully in under ten minutes. These next-generation batteries promise longer range, faster charging, and safer performance — all using existing manufacturing lines. It’s a fascinating look at the next leap in energy storage — and what it’ll take to make 10-minute charging a reality.

We talk about:

• What makes solid-state lithium metal batteries different from lithium-ion
• How Adden’s “self-healing” separator prevents the failures that have held this technology back
• Why faster charging could finally electrify drivers who can’t charge at home
• How the company plans to use existing gigafactory infrastructure to scale production
• What this breakthrough could mean for everything from EVs to robotics and aviation

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This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re talking water — and the invisible pollutants hiding in it. Microfibers from textiles are one of the biggest sources of microplastics in our oceans, choking marine ecosystems and undermining the ocean’s role as the planet’s carbon sink.

Our guest is Adam Root, founder and CEO of Matter, who shares his insane founder story, from £250 and a shed to a budding Japanese street food empire to Matter, which is helping major textile manufacturers keep millions of liters of water cleaner every day. It’s an epic founder story with big implications for clean water and healthy oceans.

We cover:

• How washing machines and textile factories shed microfibers at massive scale
• Why current filtration is wasteful — and how Matter’s regenerative filters solve it
• The founder story that went from Japanese street food stalls to the G7 stage
• What this means for oceans, sludge management (yes, really), and circular materials in the future

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This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re geeking out on money. Because even the best climate solutions won’t scale without serious capital behind them.

Our guest is Dawn Lippert, founder of Elemental (a nonprofit investor) and founding partner of Earthshot Ventures (a venture fund). She’s basically building an all-terrain vehicle for climate finance — covering philanthropic, project, and venture capital — to bridge the “valley of death” that stops too many good ideas from reaching the market.

We talk about:

• Why “first-of-a-kind” projects are so hard to fund
• The $150 billion capital gap that’s holding back climate solutions
• How philanthropic dollars can be recycled like sourdough starter
• The rise of AI in climate investments (and where it’s actually useful)
• Dawn’s own journey from sea turtle conservation to DOE policy to climate finance

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This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re heading to Napa Valley... sadly not literally. This time, anyway! David Pearson, president of Joseph Phelps Vineyards, has spent his career in wine, but he’s now leading a transformation that’s as much about climate solutions as it is about Cabernet. It’s a story about farming, philosophy, and, yes, some really good wine.

We dig into:

• What regenerative farming really means — and why it’s not just a buzzword
• How microbes, fungi, and “living soils” can make better grapes (and better wine)
• Why this approach is also climate adaptation in a warming world
• The surprising connection between soil health, nutrient density, and taste
• How big players like Moët Hennessy are backing the shift

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