Waste Not WHY Not – Details, episodes & analysis

One fine day in December 2018, Nate Maynard and Emily Y. Wu met over a coffee in downtown Taipei. The two talked about podcasting and sustainability. By Christmas, Nate, Emily, and Emily (Pearson) had recorded the first episodes of “Waste Not Why Not”. 

“Waste Not Why Not” - a sustainability podcast - was the first original show from Ghost Island Media. It debuted on Earth Day in 2019. Since then, it’s been a media partner at the 2020 AAAS Annual Meeting (American Association for the Advancement of Science), a program partner of the American Institute in Taiwan, and received support from Cypress River Advisors. 

We remember interviewing incredible guests:

Season One included Daniel Vickery, then-head of engineering of batteries and energy systems at Gogoro (maker of the world’s first nation-wide electric grid for electric vehicles); Sam Kimmins, then-head of RE100 from The Climate Group; Taiwanese youth climate activist Liang-Yi Chang; and Dr. Nebojsa Nakicenovic (IIASA) on radical change. 

Season Two included Dr. Jane Lubchenco, former head of NOAA; Professor Stephan Lewandowsky of the University of Bristol on science denial and disinformation; Christine Bader, former head of CSR at Amazon and BP; and Dr. Enric Sala, National Geographic explorer-in-residence. 

We visited a food lab (thank you, Mattson in California!), a coral lab (thank you Shashank Keshavmurthy at Academia Sinica in Taiwan!), a batteries R&D center (thank you, Antonio Baclig at Stanford University!), a garage of new electric dirt bikes (you rock, Azizi Tucker!).

In Season Three and Four, we walked about solar energy, climate simulation, sustainable menstrual products, green buildings, COP, and we even did a game show.

Thank you to all our listeners and supporters who rooted for us in the past five years. Waste Not Why Not has come to an end (for now!)

Nate Maynard now continues his podcasting career at NETTING ZEROS, a new project Nate launched with David Green. Here’s the show on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/netting-zeros/id1739098029

Here’s the show on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7uEIMDGgCduymAekSiV7zD

Check them out on Substack: https://nettingzeros.substack.com/about

As for Ghost Island Media, we continue producing podcasts and publishing. Please check out our other shows at www.ghostisland.media

EPISODE CREDIT

Host: Nate Maynard (Nature 8, @N8May), a sustainability consultant working on energy, ocean and waste.

Producer: Emily Y. Wu (@emilyywu), executive producer and founder of Ghost Island Media.

Audio Packaging by Wayne Tsai
Show logo by Southwicks Graphics
Theme tune by Dac Chang
A Ghost Island Media production (@ghostislandme)

Support the show: https://patreon.com/wastenotwhynot

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For this final part of our COP28 mini-series, Nature N8 attends his last day at COP28. He chats with Tanmatra Bhanti, Manager of Policy & Partnerships at Rare, and Alfredo M Coro II, Municipal Mayor of the Municipality of Del Carmen, Siargao Islands in the Philippines.

Nature N8 gives his final thoughts at COP. What is it for, who is it for, what's achieved there, and what's greenwashing in today's climate conversations?

This is Waste Not Why Not, a climate podcast from Ghost Island Media. Debuted on Earth Day in 2019, it's hosted by Nature N8 (Nate Maynard), a sustainability consultant working on energy, ocean and waste.

Support us on Patreon: http://patreon.com/wastenotwhynot
Follow us on Twitter @wastenotpod

EPISODE CREDIT
Nate Maynard (@N8May), Host
Gerald Williams, Audio Editing
Show logo by Southwicks Graphics
Theme tune by Dac Chang

A Ghost Island Media production (@ghostislandme)

Support the show: https://patreon.com/wastenotwhynot

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Double Dribble is a fashion & accessories brand that upcycles basketballs. The founders come from product design, but they’re now trying to design a new system for upcycling sports waste.

Today, we bring you “The Incinerator” - a game show where a circular economy startup goes in front of a panel and gets their ideas burned and turned into better ideas. (Cheat sheet: Circular Economy = Environmental Impact + Business)

Contestant today is Roy Huang, co-founder of Double Dribble, based in Taiwan.

Panelists: 

Aining Ouyang, COO of REnato Lab, a circular economy consultancy based in Taiwan. Luke Martin, Cultural Affairs Office at the American Institute in Taiwan, responsible for educational and cultural programming. And Nate Maynard (Nature N8), an environmental consultant focusing on waste, ocean, and energy.

We have a prize for one lucky listener! 

That’s right we are giving away a prize, it’s like we are rewarding you for listening to our podcast! Name another podcast that does that! Here is what you do: 

Go on Instagram - to Double Dribble’s page at @2doubledribble (https://www.instagram.com/2doubledribble/)

Share the design you want.

Tag Ghost Island Media (@ghostislandme), AIT (@ait_taipei), and Double Dribble (@2doubledribble). 

Write “I heard about this on the Waste Not Why Not podcast.”

Good Luck!

This is Waste Not Why Not, a climate podcast from Ghost Island Media. Debuted on Earth Day in 2019, it's hosted by Nature N8 (Nate Maynard), a sustainability consultant working on energy, ocean and waste. Check out our digital library at wastenotwhynot.com/#library

+ Follow us on Twitter @wastenotpod

** Today’s episode is sponsored by American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). Check out our full-length bonus video interview about its LEED Silver certified green building in Taipei. WATCH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5PPlzYFa78&list=PLZzATvbhwVo_a0vn1oydVOXDzoccyaECY&index=2 **

EPISODE CREDIT

Host is Nate Maynard (@N8May)
Audio editing by Yu-Chen Lai (@aGuavaEmoji)
Produced by Emily Y. Wu (@emilyywu)
Production assistant Gerald Williams
New show logo by Southwicks Graphics
New theme tune by Dac Chang
A Ghost Island Media production (@ghostislandme)

Support the show: https://patreon.com/wastenotwhynot

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The ocean temperature is rising, and that’s killing corals. But scientists are finding out that some corals can resist climate change. So if we wanted to make sure that at least some corals survive in the future, which species should we save? 

We are at a coral lab to speak to Shashank Keshavmurthy at the Biodiversity Research Center at Academia Sinica in Taiwan. He’s setting up an experiment to stress test corals in a lab, and trying to figure out how resilient corals can be to temperature changes. 

Welcome to Waste Not Why Not, a climate podcast from Ghost Island Media. Debuted on Earth Day in 2019, it's hosted by Nature N8 (Nate Maynard), a sustainability consultant working on energy, ocean and waste.

Check out our digital library at wastenotwhynot.com/#library

Follow us on Twitter @wastenotpod

Today’s episode is sponsored by American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). Check out our full-length bonus video interview with AIT on their LEED Silver green building. WATCH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5PPlzYFa78&list=PLZzATvbhwVo_a0vn1oydVOXDzoccyaECY&index=2 

EPISODE CREDIT

Host is Nate Maynard (@N8May)
Audio editing by Yu-Chen Lai (@aGuavaEmoji)
Produced by Emily Y. Wu (@emilyywu)
Our intern is Gerald Williams
New show logo by Southwicks Graphics
New theme tune by Dac Chang
A Ghost Island Media production (@ghostislandme)

www.ghostisland.media

Support the show: https://patreon.com/wastenotwhynot

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A new, knowledge-filled, episode on corals is coming your way, but to prepare you for it, we bring you an old episode to catch you up to speed. Happy World’s Ocean Day!

Corals are dying. By 2050 we probably won’t have any corals left in our oceans. So scientists around the world are trying to figure out how to regrow coral reefs, and some have even turned to 3D printing for coral restoration. But is this possible? Can technology save corals? 

View show notes. 
Follow us on Twitter @wastenotpod.
A Ghost Island Media production
www.ghostisland.media 

Support the show: https://patreon.com/wastenotwhynot

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Solar is - in some places in the world - the cheapest energy, even cheaper than coal and oil with fossil fuel subsidies. Solar is inexpensive, inoffensive, inexpensive. But it wasn’t always this easy. Investing in solar used to be risky business. What happened?

Welcome to class SEI101: Solar Energy Investment.

Today, we speak to Mark Oei, an investor of real estate and clean energy. He’s founding partner at Redwood Coast Capital and a lecturer at the Kellogg School of Management.

We also catch up with Calvin Cheng, co-founder of the solar developer PGE in Taiwan. Cheng tells us it’s much easier to get financing now than ever.

By 2030, 1 in 7 American homes are expected to have solar panels. And by 2050, it’s to become up to 45% of the U.S. electricity supply. Over here in Taiwan, clean energy accounts for just 5% of our energy supply. Taiwan wants to raise that number to 20% by 2030. (Fun fact - Taiwan was an early manufacturer of the world’s solar panels.)

** Today’s episode is sponsored by American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) - who has a focus on climate-related initiatives. Check out our full-length bonus video interview with Lee Carnell, facilities manager at AIT who takes care of its new campus, a LEED Silver certified green building. WATCH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5PPlzYFa78&list=PLZzATvbhwVo_a0vn1oydVOXDzoccyaECY&index=2 **

Welcome to Waste Not Why Not, a climate podcast from Ghost Island Media. Debuted on Earth Day in 2019, it's hosted by Nature N8 (Nate Maynard), a sustainability consultant working on energy, ocean and waste. This season, we're onto green buildings, electric vehicles, coral, renewable energy investments, and the circular economy.

https://wastenotwhynot.com

+ Check out our digital library at wastenotwhynot.com/#library
+ Follow us on Twitter @wastenotpod

EPISODE CREDIT

Host is Nate Maynard (@N8May)
Audio editing by Yu-Chen Lai (@aGuavaEmoji)
Produced by Emily Y. Wu (@emilyywu)
Our intern is Gerald Williams
New show logo by Southwicks Graphics
New theme tune by Dac Chang
A Ghost Island Media production (@ghostislandme)

www.ghostisland.media

Support the show: https://patreon.com/wastenotwhynot

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From building dirt bikes to supercars, to something that may or may not be on Mars right now, Azizi Tucker has done it all. Being environmentally conscious has been a theme of his career, but his real focus? It’s been about making better products. But his products have a side effect of massively reducing pollution.

Azizi Tucker is a tinkerer, racer, engineer, and entrepreneur. Tucker raced mountain bikes competitively as a youth in California, worked on secret projects while at NASA, and was one of the first 100 employees at Tesla and had a heavy hand in figuring out its supply chain right here in Asia.

That's when Tucker realized that Taiwan was the perfect place for manufacturing and R&D. Since then, he's co-founded an EV company in Taiwan making electric supercars and solving electrification for the world's commercial and industrial vehicles. He's now founder of Graft EV where he will now make electric recreational vehicles right here in Taiwan. That’s dirt bikes, ATV, maybe your snowmobile in the future.

Today, we find out just how diverse the field of electric vehicles is, and see an example of how Azizi’s continued to learn, and innovate, and make fast breakthroughs.

Graft EV - http://www.graft-ev.com

** Today’s episode is sponsored by American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) - who has a focus on climate-related initiatives. Check out our full-length bonus video interview with Lee Carnell, facilities manager at AIT who takes care of its new campus, a LEED Silver certified green building.

WATCH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5PPlzYFa78&list=PLZzATvbhwVo_a0vn1oydVOXDzoccyaECY&index=2 **

+ Check out our digital library at https://wastenotwhynot.com/#library
+ Follow us on Twitter @wastenotpod

EPISODE CREDIT

Host is Nate Maynard (@N8May)
Audio editing by Yu-Chen Lai (@aGuavaEmoji)
Produced by Emily Y. Wu (@emilyywu)
New show logo by Southwicks Graphics 
New theme tune by Dac Chang
A Ghost Island Media production (@ghostislandme)

www.ghostisland.media

Support the show: https://patreon.com/wastenotwhynot

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What does “good” look like? And what does “wonderful” look like? What does a “wonderful green building” look like? How do they make us happier? 

We call up Professor Vivian Loftness, former head of the School of Architecture at Carnegie Mellon University, National Board of the US. Green Buildings Council, the American Institute of Architects, and International Living Futures Institute.

We then go see a man who manages a green building. His name is Lee Carnell, facilities manager at American Institute in Taiwan. (A bonus full-length interview with Lee will be on our YouTube soon: https://gimpod.me/wnwn-youtube)

Welcome to a new season at Waste Not Why Not, a climate podcast from Ghost Island Media. Debuted on Earth Day in 2019, it's hosted by Nature N8 (Nate Maynard), a sustainability consultant working on energy, ocean and waste.

Additional links and resources: 

+ “Accelerating Decarbonization of the U.S. Energy System,” a report from the National Academy of Sciences to US President Biden on policy blueprint outlining critical near-term actions to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050: https://www.nap.edu/resource/25932/interactive/

+ Professor Loftness co-wrote this Encyclopedia for Sustainable Built Environments: https://link.springer.com/referencework/10.1007/978-1-4614-5828-9 

+ Check our digital library at wastenotwhynot.com/#library

** Today’s episode is sponsored by American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) - who has a focus on climate-related initiatives. Check out our full-length bonus video interview with Lee Carnell, facilities manager at AIT who takes care of its new campus, a LEED Silver certified green building.

WATCH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5PPlzYFa78&list=PLZzATvbhwVo_a0vn1oydVOXDzoccyaECY&index=2 **

–
Follow us on Twitter @wastenotpod.
Send questions to ask@wastenotwhynot.com

EPISODE CREDIT
Host is Nate Maynard (@N8May)
Audio editing by Yu-Chen Lai (@aGuavaEmoji)
Produced by Emily Y. Wu (@emilyywu)
New show logo by Southwicks Graphics 
New theme tune by DAC

A Ghost Island Media production (@ghostislandme)
www.ghostisland.media

Support the show: https://patreon.com/wastenotwhynot

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Taiwan's seeing an uptick of COVID the past two weeks. And while that's happening, our new season launch is pushed to May 3. In today's home recording, Nate reflects the past 3 years of the podcast and of his own work. 

For our sister shows in our network, search Ghost Island Media.

Support “Waste Not Why Not” on Patreon https://patreon.com/wastenotwhynot
Follow us on Twitter @wastenotpod

Support the show: https://patreon.com/wastenotwhynot

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As promised, we’ve new episodes coming to you, starting April 22, Earth Day, aka our third anniversary! Get ready for a 5-part mini series with the American Institute in Taiwan. 

It’s a really fun mini series. The Waste Not Why Not team visited a green building. I got to test drive an electric dirt bike. We saw a coral being stress tested in a lab. We talk to solar and money people. These are entrepreneurs, researchers, and just generally, doers. 

Oh, and also, look out for a new theme tune!

Support the show: https://patreon.com/wastenotwhynot

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.