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bflanigan2026-07-13 08:00:362026-07-14 07:17:52Human Nature Gets in the Way of Solving Big Problems
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bflanigan2026-07-13 08:00:362026-07-14 07:17:52Human Nature Gets in the Way of Solving Big Problems
The Urgent Need to Fix Our Relationship with Mother Earth
From his regenerative farm in Denmark, Tim Chistophersen works with many of the 200,000 companies that are Salesforce clients, teaching them how to modify their supply chains in line with regeneration and restoration. He's just released a book titled "Generation Restoration" which provides a roadmap, and conditional optimism, for fixing our relationship crisis with Mother Nature.

Etelle Higonnet – An Ambassador For Better Coffee Production
Etelle Higonnet is Founder and Director of Coffee Watch whose mission is to promote and secure coffee that is grown ethically and sustainably. She makes it clear that while drinking coffee is a morning ritual for many of us, coffee production comes with profound social and environmental impacts that must be addressed.

Great Runners Are Faster Wearing Shoes Made With Recycled Foam
Stuart Jenkins is Founder and CEO of Blumaka, which manufactures long-lasting insoles and shoes for high-performance athletes. As a marathon competitor, Stuart was frustrated not to be able to access high performance running shoes, so he designed and now manufacturers his own line. Blumaka built, owns, and operates a factory in China that manufactures its products without the cocktail of chemicals used by major brands and suppliers—using a fraction of the water.

Holy Cross Energy Running on 100% Renewables in March 2026
Bryan Hannegan is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Holy Cross Energy (HCE). He reports on the remarkable accomplishment that HCE operated with 100% renewable energy in the month of March 2026. Bryan describes this accomplishment as an intermediate step toward HCE's larger goal which is to deliver clean energy every hour of every day by 2030, and he envisions a world where every home, building, and vehicle is producing as well as consuming electricity.

Excellent Returns Available Investing In Cruelty-Free and Plant-Based Funds
Claire Smith, based in Geneva, Switzerland, is the CEO of Beyond Investing and Chief Innovative Officer for Beyond Impact. These two ventures work in concert, one providing impact investing, the other advancing startups for plant-based and cruelty-free businesses. The Exchange Traded Fund which she and her colleagues created, in aggregate over seven years, is almost 3% ahead of the S&P 500.

Driving Down Business Energy Costs with Gareth Evans
Gareth Evans is the founder and CEO of Veckta, an energy consulting firm that advises businesses on how to take control of their energy costs. What Gareth has realized since founding Veckta in 2019, is that companies need a playbook. Far from taking passive positions, and given rising energy costs, he encourages businesses to explore their options using tools such as onsite energy production, energy efficiency, and energy storage.

Major League Sports Venues Embracing New Sustainability Programs
Allen Hershkowitz PhD is an environmental scientist who has worked at the confluence of climate and sports for 25 years. He notes that today nearly every major sports league and each venue has a sustainability plan but points squarely to the current rollback in federal support for greening which has retarded progress and made his work more difficult. A recent success was getting the Yankees management to host the United Nations at its stadium and to pledge ongoing support for the Paris Accords.

Jon Edlin – Tornado Preparedness and Survival
Jon Edlin, his wife, and two small children survived an EF-3 tornado that swept through their suburb of Nashville, Tennessee in March 2020. The tornado that night left a 63-mile swath of destruction... killing 25 people. Within months of the tornado, Jon formed Edlin Tornado Solution. He wrote a guide book, developed a backpack with essentials, and began to lecture on preparedness. He has become an important messenger of the realities of tornadic activity.

Laura Deehan – The State of California’s Environment
Laura Deehan has been the State Director for Environment California since 2021. Environment California is particularly focused on areas that have widespread support as well as areas where it can activate Californians to effectively take a stand. She makes it clear that there are serious issues to address such as air quality, water pollution, the big impacts of climate change but also notes that California is a leader in solving problems and that the public is engaged and aware and that there is lot of support for solutions - like investing in clean energy and electric vehicles.

Amber Sparks and Emily Hazelwood – Oil Rigs to Reefs
Blue Latitude co-founders, Amber Sparks and Emily Hazelwood, describe their 10+ year endeavor repurposing retired offshore oil rigs into reefs, maintaining highly enriched ecosystems for fisheries and marine life. Instead of removing offshore oil rigs when their oil is exhausted, this episode focuses on how they are being repurposed for multiple benefits.

Rei Vardi – Eon EV Car Rentals
Rei Vardi is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Eon, a car rental company that is "building a mobility platform." The company only rents privately-owned electric vehicles. Owners put their cars on the platform and specify the terms they want. After eight years developing and scaling the model, Rei and his colleagues have over 3,000 cars in their network, with business activity in 50 cities. Eon boasts that its network now is the easiest way to rent a car.

Sam Teicher – Coral Reef Restoration
Sam Teicher is the Co-Founder and Chief Reef Official for Coral Vita which he formed to scale coral reef restoration efforts. Sam makes clear that fully half of all coral reefs have been killed, and 90% are expected to perish by 2050 without concerted global interventions.

Hugh Broadhurst – Rare Earth Elements Enabling Sustainability
Hugh Broadhurst is the Chief Operating Officer for Aclara Resources, a company focused on sustainable mining of rare earth minerals for electric vehicles, wind turbines, submarines, drones, robotics, and more. Hugh begins with an explanation of how rare earth minerals are used in EV motors to maintain their magnets' strength at temperatures above 100 degree Celsius.

Matt Harper – Flow Battery Progress
Matt Harper is the President of Invinity Energy Systems, the maker of vanadium-flow batteries. Matt was on the podcast in 2022 and now provides an update. A strong alternative to lithium-ion batteries, the benefits of flow batteries produced by Invinity are numerous: 30-year lifetimes with 20,000+ cycles; they can discharge 8-10 hours every day; and they have zero fire risk. Invinity's flow batteries have the lowest lifecycle MWh delivered cost for energy storage.

Chéri Smith – Tribal Clean Energy Update
Chéri Smith heads up the Alliance for Tribal Clean Energy. She is of My'kyma descent, a tribe from Northern Maine and the Canadian Maritimes. She makes clear how profound the political changes have been to the tribes. The cancellation of many projects, and the loss of tax credits and other support programs, has eroded trust that had been building - necessary to develop large-scale projects that can boost economic development on tribal lands.

Ben Lochtenberg – Xero Solar’s Business and Contribution
Ben Lochtenberg sees solar as an elegant energy solution, one that will keep on giving for years. His mission as the Founder and Managing Director of Xero Solar is to tap solar as a "perpetual" energy source and to promote a transition to a more resilient world.

David Kilzer – The Future with AI-Powered Humanoid Robotics
According to David Kilzer, the fusion of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics is the biggest leap for mankind since fire! His bold predictions: AI-power robotics will be prevalent in industry this decade, and will likely be ubiquitous in homes in the 2030s.

Ebenezar Wikina – Sustainability Policy Shapers in Rivers State, Nigeria
Ebenezar Wikina lives in Rivers State, one of six states in Nigeria. His passion is taking national, long-term goals and bringing them to success in local governments where, he believes, change takes root. He formed Policy Shapers to empower young people with knowledge, skills, and tools to engage in public policy.

Ben Airth – Solar and Storage Policies for Homeowners
Ben Airth is the Policy Director for Freedom Forever, the largest residential solar company in the country. Freedom Forever installs solar systems in 30 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. For Freedom Forever's management, Ben tracks state regulations, state legislation, and federal policies to guide program development and sales.

Dr. Bonnie Nixon – Decarbonizing the Long Beach Container Terminal
Dr. Bonnie Nixon is the Sustainability Director for the Long Beach Container Terminal (LBCT), one of the world's busiest and greenest ports. The terminal handles 3.5 million, 20-foot containers annually. Its 4,200 foot long wharf can unload three of the largest container ships in the world at once. In 2030 Bonnie completed a net zero strategy for LBCT with a $250 million price tag.

Nigel Mason – The Rescue and Care of Sumatran Elephants
After growing up in England and Egypt, and a 25-year stint in Australia, Nigel Mason moved to Bali, Indonesia where he and his wife created an elephant park for rescued Sumatran elephants that would have lived 3 - 7 years in captivity in Sumatra but now may live for 50 - 60 years. Over a seven-year period the park has rescued 27 elephants at a time when there are less than 1,000 Sumatran elephants left in the wild.

Richard Savoie – Super-Efficient Delivery Logistics
Richard Savoie is the CoFounder and CEO of Adiona Tech, a high-tech logistics company that uses machine learning, and artificial intelligence to help businesses optimize the efficiency of their delivery fleets. Since 2021, his firm has enabled delivery fleet operators to save millions of miles of travel, hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel, and avoid 7.2 million kilograms of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere.

Farhad Abasov – Potash Mining to Feed the World
Farhad Abasov is the Chairman, Director and Co-Founder of Millennial Potash which is developing mines to supply potash to the global market. Potash is a form of potassium - potassium chloride - considered the king of fertilizers. Millennial Potash has a big mission... to feed the world's growing population.

Sammy Roth – Climate-Colored Goggles
Sammy Roth is a diligent investigator and journalist who has established himself as one of California's leading climate columnists. From an early age he recognized the big voice that one could have as a journalist reaching the masses. He began to focus on the environment and sustainability when he was a student at Columbia University. His guiding principle has been to dig in and find the story, reveal what's accurate, and to report on what's going to make the world work better. It's all about advancing solutions and fixing problems,

Bill McKibben – Here Comes the Sun
Bill McKibben co-founded 350.org nearly 20 years ago to raise awareness about climate. He has written 20 books and earned over 20 honorary doctorates from colleagues and universities. He also is a recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, considered the alternative Nobel Peace Prize, and the Gandhi Peace Prize. This conversation begins with a discussion of his most recent book, Here Comes the Sun. He emphasizes that the time has come for solar to power our global society.
Alix Lebec – Scaling Innovative Finance for Sustainability
Alix Lebec is the Founder and CEO of Lebec Consulting whose mission is to democratize access to capital, opportunity and knowledge. Alix explains that its three pillars are its strategic advisory services, managing its own boutique investment fund, and making funders, non-profits and others aware of innovative finance. Its women-led team has grown into a platform to mainstream and scale innovative finance.
The 250-Episode Milestone
250. A big number. A lot of podcast episodes! Flanigan's Eco-Logic hit this major milestone in December. Sierra Flanigan and Skye Flanigan, Ted's daughters host this milestone edition. They draw out the good, the breadth of topics and featured guests... and even some of the biggest blunders!

