Everybody in the Pool

This week on Everybody in the Pool, new ways to make old stuff! The materials, creation, transport, and disposal of furniture all generate lots of greenhouse gases, and manufacturers have been exploring ways to make furniture production greener, including overhauling the entire manufacturing process by 3D printing beautiful furniture from biodegradable and carbon-neutral materials. This week, Molly talks with Phillip Raub of Model No. about sustainable design, hyperlocal manufacturing, and turning waste into super beautiful chairs and planters.

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This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re going up a level, from the entrepreneurs inventing solutions to the climate crisis to an investor who’s keeping an eye out for the next big thing. But this isn’t just any venture capital fund—Fifth Wall is a massive investment fund that gets a lot of its money from the property and real estate industry. So, obviously, climate was an inevitable part of its investment thesis, since the built environment is a huge contributor to climate change, and an industry desperately in need of innovative solutions. Molly talks with Greg Smithies, co-head of the climate practice at Fifth Wall.

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This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re going back to the topic that first got Molly interested in climate solutions: adaptation and resilience. Or, put simply, how we survive the worsening climate crisis. This week, we’re talking with Emilie Mazzacurati, who’s been working on getting attention, money, and data on this part of the conversation for over a decade. She’s now founded Tailwind Climate, an organization designed to encourage, incubate and fund solutions that help us survive—and thrive—the changes all around us.

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This week on Everybody in the Pool, alchemy! Just kidding, it’s science. I’m talking to a cleantech entrepreneur who has co-invented a new way to make magnesium metal out of seawater, in a process that’s specifically designed to use renewable energy. That’s a big deal because magnesium is an alloy in all kinds of metals we need, like aluminum, steel, and titanium, and right now it’s almost all coming from China or Russia and it’s made with coal. An abundant supply of domestic lightweight metal leads to, among other things, EVs that go farther on a charge, and could just replace dirtier aluminum altogether. With Alex Grant, co-founder and CEO of Magrathea Metals.

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This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re always looking to national governments and multinational corporations to make big changes, but a lot of times, the real impact is local. The LA Cleantech Incubator is a super interesting example of an organization that used support from the city to raise private dollars and start a fund to support entrepreneurs building cool climate solutions. And with the Olympic Games coming to town in 2028, it’s an organization on a mission to decarbonize the city before they get there. Who doesn’t love a deadline, right?

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