Sea Change Radio Alex Wise

Election season is still a few months away, but the scent of it is already on the wind. There is a lot at stake in the presidential election, of course, but that's not the only issue for voters in November. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with Daniel Nichanian of Bolts Magazine to get a deeper understanding of the importance of the many down-ballot races on which Americans will be casting votes this fall. We examine state Supreme Court elections in Arizona and North Carolina, and discuss how abortion may affect various swing state races in places like Florida.

Narrator | 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise.

Daniel Nichanian (DN) | 00:15 - Trump named the federal justices that overturned Roe. And then the Governor DeSantis signed the law that is now at issue in Florida. So the dots very much connect to Republicans who are already, you know, being put on a defensive on these issues. Whether that actually translates into the presidential race being more competitive, that might be a stretch. We'll see.

Narrator | 00:39 - Election season is still a few months away, but the scent of it is already on the wind. There is a lot at stake in the presidential election, of course, but that's not the only issue for voters in November. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with Daniel Nichanian of Bolts Magazine to get a deeper understanding of the importance of the many down-ballot races on which Americans will be casting votes this fall. We examine state Supreme Court elections in Arizona and North Carolina, and discuss how abortion may affect various swing state races in places like Florida.

Alex Wise (AW) | 01:30 - I am joined now on Sea Change Radio by Daniel Nichanian. He's the founder and editor of Bolts Magazine. Daniel, welcome back to Sea Change Radio.

Daniel Nichanian (DN) | 01:41 - It's great to be back. Thanks for having me.

Alex Wise (AW) | 01:43 - So, when we first spoke, you were just launching Bolts. Before we dive into all the, the nuts and bolts of this upcoming election, tell us what the mission of the organization is and how it's been evolving since we last spoke a couple years ago.

Daniel Nichanian (DN) | 01:59 -Um, yeah, so it's, it's really great to be back after a few years of having Bolts in the world. Now, Bolts… the idea behind Bolts is that for a lot of the big issues that people are interested in or care about, the federal government, just as a very small slice of what's important, of what's happening, it's very important to be aware of the ways in which counties, municipalities, state are also very, very important when it comes to matters linked to civil rights, voting rights, and, and so on. And, and what Bolts does is on the themes we cover, which are really focused on criminal justice on one hand and, and vote voting rights on the other, um, we, we really pay, pay attention to what's happening around the country at these levels, at the local level, at the municipal level, at the county level, at the state level. And we try to connect the dots for people because, you know, there's, uh, a lot of states, a lot of cities, a lot of towns in, around, around the country. And, it's easy to miss the forest for the trees. And it's been great, you know, there's been a lot of interest, um, in the past few years at what's happening with prosecutors, with judges, with sheriffs, with election officials, uh, and the laws that are changing in blue states and red states that are sort of going in in different ways. And it's been great to have this platform to cover all of these issues. 

AW | 03:19 - And when somebody watches cable news on election night, that's maybe the first time that they'll look at down-ballot races for the year or for the cycle. I think it's really important to be a part of the Democratic process 24 7, and that's what Bolts is designed to do.

DN | 03:39 - Yeah, and I think sometimes it may seem esoteric, uh, or it's,

When it comes to energy transitions, marine vessels tend to get overlooked, even though they are some of the worst polluters of our oceans and air. The heavy duty diesel fuel used by most ships presents serious problems for the planet. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with Maria Gallucci, a Senior Reporter at Canary Media, who describes efforts being made to transform boats and ships into zero emission marine fleets. We look at a project to electrify tugboats in San Diego, a cutting-edge hydrogen ferry about to launch in San Francisco, and innovations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the international cargo shipping space.

Narrator | 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio, covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise.

Maria Gallucci (MG) | 00:17 - When we think about the effect that these vessels have, yes, they are certainly contributing to climate change in a very real way. They're also directly spewing pollution into these communities as well.

Narrator | 00:30 - When it comes to energy transitions, marine vessels tend to get overlooked, even though they are some of the worst polluters of our oceans and air. The heavy duty diesel fuel used by most ships presents serious problems for the planet. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with Maria Gallucci, a Senior Reporter at Canary Media, who describes efforts being made to transform boats and ships into zero emission marine fleets. We look at a project to electrify tugboats in San Diego, a cutting-edge hydrogen ferry about to launch in San Francisco, and innovations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the international cargo shipping space.

Alex Wise (AW) | 01:30 - I am joined now on Sea Change Radio by Maria Gallucci. Maria is a senior reporter for Canary Media. Maria, welcome to Sea Change Radio.

Maria Gallucci (MG) | 01:43 - Hi. Thanks for having me.

Alex Wise (AW) | 01:45 - Why don't you first tell us about Canary Media. You just recently celebrated your third anniversary, correct?

Maria Gallucci (MG) | 01:51 - Yes, we did. So, Canary Media is a nonprofit newsroom covering the clean energy transition. We are a fully independent outlet, and we focus primarily on the United States, but kind of hoping to expand globally because obviously this is an issue that affects everywhere.

AW | 02:07 - When we think about energy transitions, we're often thinking about getting an electric vehicle or making a change to our electric grid. But one of the more global issues is ocean transport. And you've written a few pieces on how maritime vessels are trying to electrify. Why don't you first kind of give us an overview of some of the industry's problems that they're facing and, and what the solutions could be on the horizon? 

MG | 02:36 - Sure. So globally, the International Shipping Sector accounts for about 3% of greenhouse gas emissions every year. That includes cargo ships, harbor crafts, and all types of vessels that serve this massive multi-trillion dollar industry. And there are kind of many ways to go about tackling the problem of, one of which is, is developing greener fuels to go in these cargo ships. Another is electrifying, uh, especially the smaller vessels like tugboats and ferries. Still complicated and expensive to do, but, uh, we're starting to see a lot of progress on harbor craft and particular that operate close to ports close to communities. And so it's not just a solution for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but also kind of these toxic air pollutants that concentrate in communities. 

AW | 03:28 - So these harbor craft, let's focus on those a little bit more. It makes a lot of sense. These are kind of the low hanging fruit for transitioning to electrification, right? You can recharge them pretty frequently because they're not out to Sea for two or three days. 

MG | 03:43 - Exactly. Uh, ferries especially, and even tugboats, they kind of have a home base. They'll go out, they'll do the run, they'll come back,

California is famous for its picturesque sunsets, year-round mild weather, excellent surf, and largely progressive politics, including forward-thinking greenhouse emission policies. This week on Sea Change Radio, however, we learn about a less pleasant claim to fame for the golden state. Today we're speaking with two scientists from Johns Hopkins University who are working to uncover the mysteries behind a dangerous greenhouse gas: sulfuryl fluoride. One such mystery is why so much of this harmful atmospheric compound originates from Southern California. Dylan Gaeta and Scot Miller walk us through changes in termite-eradication practices, how termites are not all alike, and what needs to happen in the nation's most populous state and elsewhere to solve the problem.

Narrator | 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise.

Dylan Gaeta | 00:20 - These sort of policies mandate emissions reductions of greenhouse gases across the board, but in all of these cases, sulfuryl fluoride isn't included in that list of greenhouse gases that require emissions reductions. So in, in that sense, it's sort of slipping through the cracks or under the radar, and are greenhouse gas emissions accounting.

Narrator | 00:40 - California is famous for its picturesque sunsets, year-round mild weather, excellent surf, and largely progressive politics, including forward-thinking greenhouse emission policies. This week on Sea Change Radio, however, we learn about a less pleasant claim to fame for the golden state. Today we're speaking with two scientists from Johns Hopkins University who are working to uncover the mysteries behind a dangerous greenhouse gas: sulfuryl fluoride. One such mystery is why so much of this harmful atmospheric compound originates from Southern California. Dylan Gaeta and Scot Miller walk us through changes in termite-eradication practices, how termites are not all alike, and what needs to happen in the nation's most populous state and elsewhere to solve the problem.

Alex Wise | 01:35 - I am joined now on Sea Change Radio by Dylan Gaeta and Scot Miller Dylan is a PhD candidate at Johns Hopkins School of Environmental Engineering, and Scot is an assistant professor there. Scot, Dylan - welcome to Sea Change Radio.

Dylan Gaeta | 01:57 - Yeah, thank you for having us. Yeah, thanks. It's great to be here.

Alex Wise | 02:01 - So, Dylan, you are the lead on this study that is just getting published entitled, California Dominates US Emissions of the Pesticide and Potent Greenhouse Gas, sulfuryl fluoride. Explain the genesis of your research and why people should be aware of this.

Dylan Gaeta | 02:23 - I hadn't heard of sulfuryl fluoride until I, until I came to Hopkins and started my PhD here. And this was around 2020 and I started working with Scot. And so Scot had been in contact with a colleague from the NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratories, who was sort of at the end of his career and had started looking at this gas around 2015. NOAA started, no, no, global Monitoring Laboratory started making these measurements and sort of pass it on to Scot as to say like, well, I'm out of time to, to look at this myself, but maybe this would be a good, um, topic to look into further. And so, so I, um, we started digging into where the SC is emitted in the world and like what, what, what it's used for, um, how it's been accumulating in the global atmosphere. Um, and when we started looking at those measurements, we sort of found, um, a sort of striking lack of information about the global distribution of this gas and where it's being used and what it's being used for and where, how much is being emitted in different parts of the world. And so what we did in our research study is that we, we used atmospheric measurements that were collected by our colleagues over at the, the NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory. And we started and we used those atmospheric measurements to,

Legacy students, applicants whose families attended the school, comprised 36 percent of Harvard's class of 2022. Notably, 77% of students admitted to Harvard via legacy preference are white. These days, however, the practice of giving legacy applicants a competitive edge over their peers in college admission decisions has come under fire. Last week on Sea Change Radio, we spoke with Law Professor John Brittain, from the University of the District of Columbia, who made the case for ending legacy preference in college admissions, asserting that it preserves wealth, power, and privilege. This week, we speak to Rod Graham, a sociology professor at Old Dominion University, who offers a contrasting perspective. Graham explains why he believes that legacy preference admissions should just be considered another factor that admissions officers should be free to consider, similar to how they may weigh an applicant's geography, race, athletic prowess, and other factors.

Narrator | 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio, covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise.

Rod Graham (RG) | 00:19 - So we have what looks like a meritocracy because those kids earned their way there by doing the things to get there. But the people who went to the Ivy League schools in the seventies and eighties are sending their kids to Ivy League schools now, who will then send their kids to Ivy League schools later.

Narrator | 00:38 - Legacy students, applicants whose families attended the school, comprised 36 percent of Harvard's class of 2022. Notably, 77% of students admitted to Harvard via legacy preference are white. These days, however, the practice of giving legacy applicants a competitive edge over their peers in college admission decisions has come under fire. Last week on Sea Change Radio, we spoke with Law Professor John Brittain, from the University of the District of Columbia, who made the case for ending legacy preference in college admissions, asserting that it preserves wealth, power, and privilege. This week, we speak to Rod Graham, a sociology professor at Old Dominion University, who offers a contrasting perspective. Graham explains why he believes that legacy preference admissions should just be considered another factor that admissions officers should be free to consider, similar to how they may weigh an applicant's geography, race, athletic prowess, and other factors.

Alex Wise (AW) | 01:55 I am joined now on Sea Change Radio by Rod Graham. He is a sociology professor at Old Dominion University. Rod, welcome back to Sea Change Radio.

Rod Graham (RG) | 02:12 - Hey, Alex. It's nice to be back.

Alex Wise (AW) | 02:14 - I've missed you, my friend. And I wanted to discuss a piece that you wrote on your medium site. It was entitled, why I Support Legacy Admissions in Universities Instead of Me summarizing it. Why don't I first let you have the podium and explain the thinking behind this piece?

Rod Graham (RG) | 02:34 - Yeah, sure. Well, I, I think that institutions, uh, particularly educational institutions should have some leeway in building the student body that they think fits their mission. Um, it's not absolute, but some leeway, right? So if it, if it is the case that, an institution says, look, you know, there are reasons why we need to have legacy admissions. I'm for that. It's the same reason actually why I'm for affirmative action, or I think in the piece, uh, that you mentioned, the example I gave was my university, which doesn't have to worry about legacy admissions really, uh, or affirmative action or any of those things. But we do have a large military, uh, presence in the community, and it's in our best interest to, in effect, have preferences for, uh, military affiliate affiliated people, veterans or active or even their, their family members. And so I think it's a good idea within reason for an institution to have military preferences, affirmative action, and then also legacy, uh, preferences.

Longtime listeners know that Sea Change Radio is not a debate format - we do not generally provide a platform for climate change deniers or other purveyors of disinformation. But when it comes to certain topics, we do believe there is room for spirited discourse. Next week's guest will argue in favor of preserving legacy preferences in college admissions. In preparation for that conversation, and to provide context and a counterpoint, this week we are dipping into the Sea Change Radio archives to revisit our 2017 discussion with Prof. John Brittain.

The official subject matter of Sea Change Radio is environmental sustainability. This week, however, we are deviating from that to talk about a topic that we believe is inextricably linked to sustainability: stratification in education. We are talking with law professor, civil rights advocate, and educational diversity expert, Prof. John C. Brittain, about educational practices that perpetuate social, racial, and socioeconomic exclusiveness. Elite private schools were once restricted to wealthy white young men. Since the 1960s we have seen some progress at these schools – they all admit women, most have scholarship programs to make room for the non-wealthy, and they generally boast of need-blind admissions practices. But there is one hidden practice, often overlooked, which runs counter to all of that progress: the practice of legacy admissions. That is, giving preference to applicants who have a family connection to the school. The majority of elite educational institutions in this country do this. For example, in 2017, a full 41% of Harvard’s incoming freshman were legacies. Logic tells us that generation after generation, this sort of admission preference can’t be doing much for these schools’ demographic diversity. Professor Brittain and host Alex Wise discuss how legacy admission practices serve as affirmative action for the privileged, the irony that the practice thrives in the United States which holds itself up as a model meritocracy and how schools’ justifications for the ongoing use of legacy preferences don’t hold up to a reasoned analysis.

Narrator | 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise. 

John Brittain (JB) | 00:17 - At many elite post-secondary educational institutions, applicants with an alumni parent are accepted at two to three times the rate of those without leading one commentator to label legacy preference as the biggest affirmative action program and American higher education.

Narrator (2024)| 00:41 Longtime listeners know that Sea Change Radio is not a debate format. We don't generally provide a platform for climate change deniers or other purveyors of disinformation, but when it comes to certain topics, we do believe there's room for spirited discourse. Next week's guest will argue in favor of preserving legacy preferences in college admissions in preparation for that conversation and to provide context and a counterpoint, this week we're dipping into the Sea Change Radio archives to revisit our discussion with Professor John Brittain.

Narrator (2017) | 01:18 - The official subject matter of Sea Change Radio is environmental sustainability. This week, however, we're deviating from that to talk about a topic that we believe is inextricably linked to sustainability stratification in education. We're talking with law professor, civil rights advocate, and educational diversity expert John Brittain about educational practices that perpetuate social, racial and socioeconomic exclusiveness. Elite private schools were once restricted to wealthy white young men. Since the 1960s, we've seen some progress at these schools. They all admit women most have scholarship programs to make room for the non wealthy, and they generally boast of need blind admissions practices. But there is one hidden practice often overlooked, which runs counter to all of that progress, the practice of legacy admissi

According to Reuters, electric vehicle sales leapt 50% in the US in 2023, and are expected to grow by another 30% in 2024. But driving around your city or town, you'll probably still see a lot more gas stations than electric charging stations. This week on Sea Change Radio, we learn the ins and outs of electric vehicle infrastructure from Nicole Voudren, an engineer, educator and consultant in the EV charging space. We look at how private industry, public utilities, and governmental agencies are all converging in this new vital area of the economy to help Americans transition away from internal combustion engine vehicles and get electrified. Voudren talks about the Tesla supercharging network, free, ad-based charging initiatives like Volta, and other ways that technologies are improving to help allay the range anxiety that many EV owners experience.

Narrator | 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise.

Nicole Voudren (NV) | 00:15 - The industry's a bit of a wild west right now, and we need lots of talent to get where we need to go.

Narrator | 00:25 - According to Reuters, electric vehicle sales leapt 50% in the US in 2023, and are expected to grow by another 30% in 2024. But driving around your city or town, you'll probably still see a lot more gas stations than electric charging stations. This week on Sea Change Radio, we learn the ins and outs of electric vehicle infrastructure from Nicole Voudren, an engineer, educator and consultant in the EV charging space. We look at how private industry, public utilities, and governmental agencies are all converging in this new vital area of the economy to help Americans transition away from internal combustion engine vehicles and get electrified. Voudren talks about the Tesla supercharging network, free, ad-based charging initiatives like Volta, and other ways that technologies are improving to help allay the range anxiety that many EV owners experience.

Alex Wise (AW) |1:30 - I'm joined now in Sea, Change Radio by Nicole Voudren. She's an engineer who provides education about EVs electric vehicles and the EV charging industry. She also works at a startup called Better Together Brain Trust. That's BT two Energy, which focuses on turnkey EV charging assessments and installation. Nicole, welcome to Sea Change Radio. 

Nicole Voudren (NV) | 01:55 - Excellent. Thank you so much, Alex. I'm delighted to be here. 

Alex Wise (AW) | 01:58 - Well, it's a pleasure to speak with you. We've done many pieces over the years about electric vehicles, and as a subset of that, we often talk about the infrastructure and the charging and range anxiety and some of these elements. But since the last time we did a piece on EVs, I became an electric vehicle owner. So I have a new perspective on the ins and outs of what it takes to drive around and what it means to be an electric vehicle owner these days in terms of charging. So what are some of the, the most exciting projects that listeners should be aware of in terms of populating this vast road network that we have in the United States with the ability to power an entire country that could someday run on electricity? 

NV | 02:51 - I think the most exciting is the, the funding coming through from various sources. You know, the federal government is all in on the electrification of transportation, and they're providing, uh, significant grants and funding to states and localities. The local utilities, at least in the northeast where I live, and I know across the United States, are very supportive of EV charging infrastructure deployment and have various funding mechanisms for the capital expense. Because when you are changing from the current fueling infrastructure that we have to an electrified fueling infrastructure, there are a lot of industries that are at play. You have the transportation, the automotive, commercial real estate, utilities, um, you have private businesses, et cetera.