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Dr. Melissa Lott

To slow climate change, we need to transform our homes, buildings, cars, and economy quickly. "The Big Switch" explains how to rebuild the energy systems all around us. Dr. Melissa Lott of Columbia University brings together historical examples, current events, and incisive analysis to give listeners a deep understanding of the solutions to climate change.

The Big Switch

Welcome to our first season of "The Big Switch." It's a five-part series that explores how the power grid works, how it's changing, and how those changes can benefit society.
 
Your host is Dr. Melissa Lott of Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy.
 
To slow climate change, we need to transform our buildings, our homes, cars, and the economy as quickly as possible. But how do we do it right? 
 
Subscribe to "The Big Switch" everywhere you find podcasts.

Introducing: The Big Switch

The electric grid is the vast machine that powers everything around us. It’s also the part of the energy system where we're seeing the most dramatic changes as we address climate change.
 
So what are the stakes, solutions and tradeoffs as we move to a net-zero energy system?
 
In our first episode of season 1, Dr. Melissa Lott explores the intricacies of how the grid runs everything around us — and why it’s so vital to decarbonizing our economy.
 
We’ll tell the story by visiting Texas, where the electricity system broke down in a spectacular way in February of 2020. What do the vulnerabilities and failures tell us about how we need to rebuild the grid system in a way that supports decarbonization in a highly-reliable way?
 
Guests: Dr. Emily Grubert, Dr. Varun Rai, and Catherine Traywick.
 
The Big Switch is produced by Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy in partnership with Post Script Media. Our producers are Daniel Woldorff, Dalvin Aboagye and Stephen Lacey. A special thanks to Kirsten Smith, Genna Morton, Artealia Juilliard and Kyu Lee.

The Zero-Carbon Backbone

Building a low-carbon grid is like building a sports team with star players and supporting players. Or, more accurately, it’s like re-building a sports team, where you have to go from underdogs to world champs. 
 
First, you have to retire the under-performers like coal. Then, you have to grow your star players — namely wind and solar. Finally, you have to get your star players to work together with supporting players. 
 
In our second episode of season 1, Dr. Melissa Lott explores the shifting power plant mix through a sports metaphor.
 
We’ll also cut through the confusion and blame in the wake of the Texas grid disaster in February 2020. Why were so many people pointing to renewable energy, when fossil fuels caused the biggest problems?
 
Guests: Erin Douglas and Dr. Joshua Rhodes.
 
The Big Switch is produced by Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy in partnership with Post Script Media. Our producers are Daniel Woldorff, Dalvin Aboagye and Stephen Lacey. A special thanks to Kirsten Smith, Genna Morton, Artealia Juilliard and Kyu Lee.

Building a Zero-Carbon Sports Team

If the grid system is the backbone of a low-carbon economy, then transmission lines are the nervous system.
 
We need a dramatic build-out of the transmission system to connect renewable energy to the places that need it, while managing a wider range of local resources. How do we build it quickly, cheaply, and in a respectful way?
 
In our third episode of season 3, Dr. Melissa Lott explores the role of transmission in decarbonizing the grid system.
 
We’ll explore how Texas used transmission to encourage rapid uptake of wind power, and revitalize rural communities in the process. We’ll also look at the role of the grid system during extreme events, like Texas’ recent winter grid disaster.
 
Guests: Greg Wortham and Cheryl LaFleur.
 
The Big Switch is produced by Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy in partnership with Post Script Media. Our producers are Daniel Woldorff, Dalvin Aboagye and Stephen Lacey. A special thanks to Kirsten Smith, Genna Morton, Artealia Juilliard and Kyu Lee.

Connecting the Zero-Carbon Grid

Matching electricity supply and demand is a high-wire balancing act. As we add more solar, wind and batteries, and shut down thermal generation, it shifts the balance. New kinds of distributed resources can help to balance things out -- but they also make grid management more complex.
 
In our fourth episode of season 1, Dr. Melissa Lott explores the new ways to manage the zero-carbon grid.
 
We’ll revisit the Texas grid disaster of 2021. Why did the electricity system nearly go down for weeks or months? And could we have blunted the outages with different ways of balancing the grid?
 
Guests: Catherine Traywick and Elta Kolo.
 
The Big Switch is produced by Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy in partnership with Post Script Media. Our producers are Daniel Woldorff, Dalvin Aboagye and Stephen Lacey. A special thanks to Kirsten Smith, Genna Morton, Artealia Juilliard and Kyu Lee.

The High-Wire Act of the Distributed Grid

In episode 2, we explored how to build a championship zero-carbon “team” on the grid. We could have the best players in the world — rooftop solar, batteries, net metering, demand response, high-voltage transmission, and so many others — but if the rules prevent these technologies from playing ball, then we won’t be able to decarbonize fast enough. 
 
How do we make sure the rules strike the right balance between innovation and reliability — while making the zero-carbon grid system equitable?
 
In our fifth episode of season 1, Dr. Melissa Lott explores how the rules of the grid impact everyone.
 
We’ll look at how the lack of rules in Texas caused an economic disaster for some consumers during this winter’s blackouts. And we’ll discuss how to reform and refine them to support a fast transition to clean energy.
 
Guests: Deandre Upshaw, Dr. Destenie Nock, and Alison Silverstein.
 
The Big Switch is produced by Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy in partnership with Post Script Media. Our producers are Daniel Woldorff, Dalvin Aboagye and Stephen Lacey. A special thanks to Kirsten Smith, Genna Morton, Artealia Juilliard and Kyu Lee.

Why the Rules Matter

We have a whole year of episodes coming up.
 
In the first five episodes of The Big Switch, we talked about cleaning up our electricity system--the power grid.
 
Next, host Dr. Melissa Lott will talk with experts about how to transform every other sector of the economy, including transportation, industry and buildings.
 
To slow climate change, we need to transform our buildings, our homes, cars, and the economy as quickly as possible. But how do we do it right? 
 
Subscribe to The Big Switch everywhere you find podcasts.

The Big Switch is Coming Back

In the first five episodes of this show, we talked about cleaning up our electricity system—the power grid.

 
In upcoming episodes, we're going to explain how to make that Big Switch in every other sector of the economy—everything from cars and heavy trucking to industrial heat and buildings. 

 
It's a lot to cover, and so we need a roadmap. In this episode, we're doing just that. Our host, Dr. Melissa Lott, talks to energy system modeler Amber Mahone about what those sectors are what we need to do to decarbonize them.
 
 What are the key strategies in each one of those sectors? What are the equity implications and tradeoffs for the strategies?
 
But first, Kirsten teams up with the producers to hijack Melissa's road trip to an energy conference. We take a peek into the hidden energy embedded in our everyday lives.
 
Guests: Kirsten Smith of Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy and Amber Mahone of Energy and Environmental Economics.
 
The Big Switch is produced by Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy in partnership with Post Script Media. This episode was produced by Daniel Woldorff and co-hosted by Kirsten Smith. A special thanks to Genna Morton, Artealia Gilliard, Natalie Volk and Kyu Lee. Our executive editor was Stephen Lacey.

Roadmap to the Net-Zero Economy

In the next five episodes, we'll take a deep dive into decarbonizing the entire transportation sector -- everything from bulldozers and planes to ships and trains.
 
In this episode we start with cars. How do we switch the world's over 1 billion fossil-fuel-powered cars to zero-carbon alternatives, and fast? 
 
Dr. Melissa Lott explores the most promising pathway -- electrification -- with Dr. Sonia Yeh of Chalmers University. What kind of infrastructure and technology do we need to scale up electric cars? And why aren't there more electric vehicles on the roads right now? 
 
We'll also tell the story of Tim Treuer, who put his EV to the test on 7,600-mile road trip, risking jail time in the process. 
 
 Guests: Tim Treuer, a biologist, journalist and cross-country EV adventurer. Dr. Sonia Yeh is Professor in Transport and Energy Systems in the Department of Space, Earth and Environment at Chalmer University in Gothenburg, Sweden.
 
The Big Switch is produced by Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy in partnership with Post Script Media. This episode was produced by Daniel Woldorff and Alexandria Herr. Theme music and mixing by Sean Marquand. A special thanks to Natalie Volk, Kirsten Smith and Kyu Lee. Our executive editor was Stephen Lacey.

Decarbonizing Cars

Electric autonomous vehicles shuttle us to high-tech mass transit hubs. Our fare system is contactless. We’ve already paid via a customized, equitable subscription model. All the trains and buses are on time. And we don’t have to wait in traffic. This is a world in which we can hop in a car to get somewhere, but we don’t have to.
 
In this episode, the second in our five-part series on transportation, Dr. Giovanni Circella paints a picture of a net zero world in which public transportation improves our quality of life, while also reducing carbon emissions. 
 
What will it take to get there?
 
Dr. Circella and Dr. Melissa Lott talk about electrifying transit, coordinating autonomous vehicles for the public benefit, land use planning, fare pricing, and why so many in developing countries aspire to car ownership. 
 
And we tell the story of TransMiCable, an electric cable car system in Bogotá, Columbia, and the researchers who are tracking the impact on the long commutes and air quality for residents of some of its poorest neighborhoods.
 
Guests: Dr. Giovanni Circella directs the 3 Revolutions Future Mobility Program at UC-Davis and is a Senior Research Engineer at Georgia Tech. Dr. Olga Lucia Sarmiento is a Professor of the Department of Public Health at the School of Medicine at Universidad de los Andes. Brett Marsh is a journalist and photographer based in Oakland, CA. 
 
The Big Switch is produced by Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy in partnership with Post Script Media. This episode was produced by Daniel Woldorff and Alexandria Herr. Theme music and mixing by Sean Marquand. A special thanks to Natalie Volk, Kirsten Smith and Kyu Lee. Our executive editor was Stephen Lacey.

Trains, Buses and Cable Cars

This is the third episode of a five-part series exploring the lithium-ion battery supply chain. If you haven’t listened to the first two episodes, we recommend you start there.
 
 Batteries can replace gasoline in our cars, or diesel in our generators, with electricity. But batteries and petroleum-based fuels share something in common: they both rely on energy-intensive processes to turn extracted materials into something useful.
 
 The middle stage of the lithium-ion supply chain is called processing – and it's a critical one. To make lots of affordable batteries, we have to process a lot of materials. It’s a big, lucrative business with real impacts to local communities and the environment.
 
 In this episode, we dig into step two of the supply chain: processing all those minerals into usable ingredients for batteries.
 
 Why are countries so keen on building giant processing facilities? And can we process all the minerals we need to fight climate change in a responsible way?

Part 3: The High Stakes for Battery Ingredients

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