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What can a close encounter with a nine-foot shark teach us about business, community, and the future? At Grist’s recent 10th anniversary event of their 50 Fixers list, Steph explores what becomes possible when we choose collaboration over competition, build unlikely coalitions, and share value with the communities we serve. The same shift in perspective can change how we think about climate solutions, infrastructure, and even the stories we tell about the natural world. Because the goal isn’t simply to survive. It’s to create a future where we can thrive together — by caring for one another, being good neighbors, and, instead of swimming away from each other, swimming toward each other.

Right now, humanity puts billions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year. This has real, negative impacts on environmental and human health. Clean energy and the updated infrastructure that it demands are steps towards a healthier future. If that’s well known, why aren’t we building more? In this episode of Future in Bloom, Steph sits down with Jackie Wong, Senior Vice President of Climate and Energy at the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the largest environmental advocacy groups in the country. Together, they talk about why imperfect climate solutions are needed and how policymakers, businesses, and communities can all evaluate the trade-offs that come with them. — Subscribe to Our Substack: https://substack.com/@futureinbloom —

In the past 50 years, the cost of generating solar power has dropped by 99%. That’s largely due to economics: when more solar generators get made, the cheaper it is to make more. This isn’t unique to solar power; in the right circumstances and with enough time, these economics play out with many new technologies. But the climate crisis is here, now, so how much longer can we wait? In this episode of Future in Bloom, Steph sits down with Eric Rubenstein, co-founder of New Climate Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm investing in new climate technologies. He answers questions about what founders and investors should know about each other, how venture capital can accelerate the energy transition, and how data centers might be a bigger force for good than you imagine. — Subscribe to Our Substack: https://substack.com/@futureinbloom

Most Americans support solar. Most are interested in it. But most people can’t afford it because of cost. And 63% of renters say the only reason they don’t have it is that they’d have to go through their landlord. Balcony solar, also called plug-in solar, is solving both of those problems. In this episode of Future in Bloom, Steph sits down with Cora Stryker, co-founder of Bright Saver, a non-profit organization seeking to expand access to clean energy by paving the way for a low-cost, renter-friendly, plug-in solar energy solution. She answers questions about how to reduce the cost of solar options in the US, where balcony solar is expanding, and why she wants members, not just customers. — Subscribe to Our Substack: https://substack.com/@futureinbloom

Supply chains are made up of thousands of interconnected pieces, each with their own customers, suppliers, and responsibilities. In a global economy, how can any one company, let alone one person, understand where a product is really coming from? In this episode of Future in Bloom, Steph sits down with Peter Swartz, co-founder and Chief Science Officer of Altana, an AI-powered platform that provides governments and companies with visibility deep into their supply chains, for a conversation about the ever-complex trade system, the disruptions it’s experienced, and how generative AI is making an impact. — Subscribe to Our Substack: https://substack.com/@futureinbloom

Most climate solutions don’t fail because the science is wrong. They fail because the market around them doesn’t get built. So, who is building more markets, and how? In this episode of Future in Bloom, Steph sits down with Brandon Middaugh, General Manager of Microsoft’s Sustainable Markets and Climate Innovation Fund, for a conversation about climate investing and community-first AI. From measuring blades of grass in a marsh to leading one of the largest climate finance initiatives in the world, Brandon talks about the importance of data-driven decision-making in every aspect of her career. She answers questions about how and when to invest, how to work meaningfully with communities, and how to support the organizations who are building solutions for the future. Subscribe to Our Substack: https://substack.com/@futureinbloom

7 out of 10 Americans don’t want a data center in their backyard, and it’s hard to blame them. But we’re also seeing backlash increase against clean energy infrastructure, which is definitely hurting our ability to transition off of fossil fuels. Columbia’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law found 498 contested renewable energy projects in 2025, a 32% increase from the prior year. They also found a 16% increase in local laws restricting renewable energy development. Resistance has been at the heart of every environmental movement. You look at the history, you understand the harm, and you fight to make sure it doesn’t repeat. But building the clean energy we desperately need takes something resistance alone can’t deliver. It takes openness to the still-imperfect solutions that represent a huge improvement over the status quo for planetary health. Building climate tech means understanding multiple truths. No development should harm. But no development at all means we fail to address climate change urgently. My guest today, Dawn Lippert, has protected the environment for decades and understands industrial tradeoffs. Now she’s calling for an environmentalism which centers on innovating and building faster.

Jeff Coleman woke up one morning and realized he was running a different kind of company than he started. What began as a software platform to help homeowners access clean energy incentives became a product with a much harder problem to tackle: a fintech company speeding up the rebate turnaround between utilities, governments, and contractors. In this conversation, Eli’s founder shares the truth about scaling a company rooted in clean energy through a political reversal, why the path to energy upgrades is paved with paperwork for contractors, and why he believes leaning into the “boring” parts of climate tech is crucial to expanding clean energy access.

On this episode of Future in Bloom, Steph Speirs speaks with Etosha Cave, co-founder and Chief Science Advisor at Twelve. Twelve is discovering new ways to recycle CO2 and transform it into the things we use in our everyday lives. Etosha discusses her journey from grad school, realizing nature doesn’t treat CO2 as waste, so why should we? She dives deep into the story of how she helped build a company that mimics photosynthesis to turn captured carbon and water into fuels and everyday products. Along the way, they discuss why CO₂ is such a “stubborn molecule,” how Twelve chose what to make from sixteen possible options, the role the Inflation Reduction Act played in their pivot to sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), and why the company can now produce jet fuel almost anywhere in the world. It’s a conversation about science, commercialization, and the belief that waste and pollution are design choices we can make differently.

In this episode of Future in Bloom, host Steph talks with Dr. Lea Winter, a chemical and environmental engineering professor at Yale, to explore how we can redesign the basic chemistry of our economy and actually reuse CO2. Lea breaks down why carbon isn’t just a pollutant to get rid of but an essential building block of our everyday lives. Her lab is developing ways to take CO2 from the atmosphere or industrial emissions and convert it into fuels, chemicals, and materials using reactions that could one day replace fossil-fuel-based manufacturing. Lea also explains how synthetic fertilizer enabled the population boom of the 20th century, but at a steep cost: massive fossil fuel dependence, significant CO2 emissions, and widespread nitrogen contamination of groundwater and ecosystems. Her lab is pursuing green ammonia pathways that use only air, water, and renewable electricity. Together, Lea and Steph discuss her work on transforming wastewater into a resource recovery opportunity, converting nitrogen contaminants into ammonia for fertilizer. Lea shares her vision of a truly circular chemical economy, one designed to eliminate waste, increase resilience, and expand access to essential resources for communities around the world.

What if the best thing a foundation could do was plan its own ending? In this episode of Future in Bloom, Steph Speirs sits down with Santhosh Ramdoss, President & CEO of Gary Community Ventures, to explore a radical idea that could reshape philanthropy: Impermanence. By 2035, Gary will have spent every dollar of its assets in service of Colorado kids and families, which intentionally departs from how most foundations operate. Santhosh shares the founding vision behind Gary’s sunset, why traditional endowments behave more like dams than rivers, and how his team is working to transform institutional wealth into community well-being. He also opens up about his own journey, what nature can teach all of us about letting go, and how to leave the world better than we found it.

What if one of the most powerful climate solutions wasn’t something we needed to build, but something the Earth has been doing for billions of years? In this episode, Steph Speirs sits down with Dr. Noah Planavsky, a geochemist at Yale University and one of the world’s experts on enhanced rock weathering. They explore how crushing silicate rocks like basalt and spreading them on farmland can accelerate a natural process that pulls CO₂ from the atmosphere and locks it in the ocean for thousands of years. All this both improves soil health and boosts crop yields. Dr. Planavsky breaks down the science, explains why farmers already understand soil chemistry better than most academics, and makes the case that carbon removal should benefit the communities where it operates. He shares his choice to co-found two carbon removal companies and then walk away from any financial stake so he could advocate for transparency and sound science.

Charles Hua, founder of Powerlines and former US Department of Energy strategist, makes the case that America’s energy affordability crisis is a regulatory problem. With 80 million Americans struggling to pay their utility bills, and rates rising at the fastest pace in a generation, Charles points out the real power to control consumer prices resides with Public Utilities Commissioners, roughly 200 people he calls “The Supreme Court Justices of Energy.” This small group controls more than $200 billion a year in utility spending. This, all within a system designed almost a century ago. Steph and Charles discuss why the grid runs at just 50% efficiency, how “capex bias” rewards utilities for building new infrastructure instead of optimizing what already exists, what the rise of data centers could mean for your power bill, and the inexpensive and solutions we could implement quickly if they get the greenlight from regulators. Whether you’re in climate tech, policy, or just nervous to open your electric bill lately, this episode will open up a world we don’t see or think about that often, happening behind every flip of a lightswitch.

Aliya Haq has been involved in the environmental movement since she was eight years old, protesting an incinerator in her rural hometown. Over 25 years she’s led policy at Greenpeace, Breakthrough Energy, and now the Clean Economy Project. In this conversation, she tells Steph Speirs why the old playbook of “stop bad things” no longer meets the moment, and what it takes to actually build a clean economy fast enough to matter. Aliya and Steph dig into the practical questions facing every climate tech founder and investor right now: Why does clean energy need policy to exist? How do permitting reform, transmission, and interconnection actually get unstuck? And how do companies navigate a moment where wealthy funders are backing away from climate, and federal policy feels like quicksand? It’s a candid and clearsighted conversation about what it means to shift from activist to builder–and why the economics of clean energy are already winning, if we let them.

The aviation sector has an emissions problem. Convincing people to fly less won’t cut it: The answer is fundamentally reinventing the fuel itself. In this episode of Future in Bloom, host Steph Speirs sits down with Dr. Staff Sheehan, a computer scientist-turned-chemist and five-time entrepreneur, to unpack sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs). Staff breaks down what’s blocking cheap, abundant, clean electricity. He shares how this problem led him to co-found his fifth company, a nuclear energy startup called Project Omega. He makes the case that nuclear is the safest, most space-efficient, and most reliable baseload energy source available, and that its bad reputation is largely driven by misinformation and resistance from the fossil fuel industry. Along the way, Staff and Steph tackle greenwashing in aviation, the ethanol industry as a blueprint for SAF adoption, U.S. vs. EU policy approaches, the geopolitics of energy independence, the air quality crisis near airports, and why fossil fuel incumbents “play dirty” to maintain the status quo.