Who's Saving the Planet? – Details, episodes & analysis

What happens when disaster strikes, a hurricane or fire, and communities are left stranded without power, water, or basic medical needs? Generally we rely on shipping in fuel to power generators, but that's not always an option, and certainly an imperfect one- burning the same fossil fuels which helped propogate the disaster in the first place.

Sesame Solar has a solution. Today CEO and co-founder Lauren Flanagan joins us today to discuss her all in one solution for a mobile disaster relief unit powered by, you guessed it, solar.

But that's not all Lauren brings to the table. From a lifetime of working in tech, she shares with us the teachings from working alongside none other than Steve Jobs.

Ted is famously known for their captivating talks on how to change our perception of, well, everything. But what comes next? How do we translate that attention into action? Lindsay Levin has a plan. Lindsay is in charge of partnerships and impact at TED, her mandate is to mobilize the global platform beyond the role of educator to catalyst for action. We discuss how she sees how role of storytelling can unite disparate communities through a collective action platform, what challenges lay ahead in our fight against climate change, and how you can get involved.

Tim Hade is the COO and Co-Founder of Scale Microgrid Solutions. He founded Scale Microgrid Solutions to build distributed energy systems for businesses and electric vehicle transit fleets throughout the country. Before joining the cleantech industry, Tim served on Active Duty as an officer in the United States Air Force. His time in the military taught him how to achieve an objective, but when he became a civilian he found it virtually impossible to get the government to do anything about climate change.

Tim believes that the public sector is broken when it comes to climate change. He stresses we need to hold our leaders accountable for the dire future we are leaving to our children while also getting to work and taking matters into our own hands to create change.

Sameera delves into her work at the UNDP, which supports countries to transition toward low-emission and climate-resilient sustainable development. She discusses the critical work that the UNDP does globally, like Mission 1.5 and how her work supports the most vulnerable of communities, whose problems are exacerbated by the effect of climate.

WSTP travels (via Zoom) to the historic Vino Nobile district in the southeastern Siena province of Tuscany. There, we speak to Michele Manelli — the man behind Salcheto Wine. The word ‘salcheto’ comes from the stream that runs through the town of Montepulciano and is the boundary of their organic winery. The willow trees are still planted at the winery and form a part of their logo to show their commitment towards environmental sustainability. The winery is a proud member of Alliance Vinum and also won the Sustainable Winery of the Year 2014 by Gambero Rosso. Their mission is to do quality work in both the vineyards and the cellar to make the best possible wines. Tune in to learn all about Michele's mission, and how he transformed a classic farm into a modern winery famous for its technology and making the most eco-friendly vino available on the market.

Not satisfied to keep his sustainability goals contained in Salcheto, Michele is a co-creator of the Equalitas certification. Through their 8 step process they evaluate every aspect of a wineries impact on the earth, from practices in the vineyard, winery, through to the packaging and distribution. A true champion the palate and the planet, we raise a glass to you Michele!

Alice Min Soo Chun is an architect who is used to overseeing large-scale projects, but her greatest design is an item that weighs just over two ounces. After the catastrophic 2010 earthquake that hit Haiti, the Columbia University professor set out to invent something that could be used to help the victims who were left in the dark. The effort eventually culminated with the launch of Solight Design, a New York-based startup known for its origami-inspired "SolarPuff" lantern. Made out of a sturdy, waterproof cloth that folds flat and pops open to emit light from its solar-powered LEDs, SolarPuffs have be sent around the globe to aid impoverished areas. Solight officially took off in 2015 with a KickStarter program that yielded unprecedented results. Alice also went on to win numerous awards including the US Patent Award for Humanity and her products have been exhibited at MOMA, the Modern Museum of Art in New York City. She is also featured in "The Book of Gutsy Women" by Hillary Clinton. And she's still inventing! With the current pandemic still disrupting everyday life, Alice is hard at  work devising a new type of mask that can help prevent the spread of Covid-19. 

Throughout the pandemic, including the cresting of the first wave in New York City, Dr. Khullar has been on the front lines caring for patients at Weill Cornell Medicine. All the while, he chronicled his experiences in a series of dispatches for the New Yorker, offering a rare glimpse into the emotional, mental and physical toll the Coronavirus has taken on patients, families, and the healthcare workers providing life-saving medicine, or at times, the life's final moment of compassion. 

In this episode of Who's Saving the Planet Dhruv takes us into the hospital to provide a firsthand account of how the practice of medicine has evolved and in response to Covid and he provides advice to doctors in other cities who are in the throws of what New York overcame in April. We also take a step back and look at the larger picture of how society has responded to this health crisis- rooted in science- and what it can teach us about how society can and will respond to the other science based crisis of our time, climate change. Covid and Climate Change share many similarities: a time delay between knowledge of the threat and the effects on our day to day lives, the solutions have more to do with changing our behavior than any single technological or biological silver bullet, and in order to overcome the worst we'll have to sacrifice individually for the collective good. 

This week, Lex and Tony head into "the lab" with the brilliant Naz Shams as their guide. Hear how this fellow New Yorker took a chance, changed careers and embarked on a mission to ethically — and sustainably — create beautifully crafted clothes. DAYWEARLAB is the place to go for "elevated classics with a twist." Not only that, the company is dedicated to making sure your closet is climate friendly. According to Naz, more than half of the environmental impact of her company’s clothing happens at the raw material stage. All of the mills DAYWEARLAB works with have taken “significant steps to reduce their water, energy and chemical footprint.”  So alleviate your daywear distress! Tune in to Naz and hear her story. 

How do we alter our perception of the world in ways so subtle we don't realize it's happening? To quote Morpheus from the Matrix, "what you know you can't explain, but you feel it...." (yes, we're nerds here on this podcast) 

Angela Spangler, Director from the WELL Building Institute, joins us to explain how subtle, but intentional, shifts in our environment can have profound effects on our emotional, mental, and spiritual wellbeing. In what she describes as "Second Wave Sustainability," our understanding of how the environments we spend time in, like schools, offices, and our homes, is undergoing of renaissance. She walks us through the science of the relationship between humans and our spaces can impact our productivity, engender a more sociable atmosphere, effect or mental health, and more, all through subtle manipulations of the seemingly mundane.

Sound like dark arts? I thought so too. But these forces when used for good can make for a healthier, happier world. 

Would you wear a t-shirt made from milk? You might soon enough. Two years ago, Robert Luo visited his uncle's dairy farm and was shocked to see buckets and buckets of sour and spoiled milk just sitting there. Food and money gone to waste — a common problem among farmers! (see past episodes FoodMaven and Milk Marketing King) After returning home, Robert started researching ways to solve this problem. His solution is Mi Terro. The startup is devoted to making sure our dairy waste never goes to landfills again. Instead, they become our pajamas... our underwear... all for a better tomorrow!