Flanigan's Eco-Logic

Ted Flanigan

Flanigan's Eco-Logic, hosted by Ted Flanigan, provides cutting-edge information and insights in sustainability and the clean energy space. Episodes address alternative energy -- featuring solar, storage, microgrids, vehicle grid integration, and energy access. In addition, the podcast covers resources issues -- like water and food issues, and even slow fashion. Flanigan’s enthusiasm, vast experience, and deep network in the energy and environmental arena are palpable as he brings exciting and encouraging green developments to the fore, interviewing and engaging leading policy makers and practitioners throughout the United States and in many countries around the world.

  1. Farhad Abasov -- Potash Mining to Feed the World

    2D AGO

    Farhad Abasov -- Potash Mining to Feed the World

    Millennial Potash has a big mission... to feed the world's growing population.  Global population growth is expected to rise from 7+ billion currently to some 12 billion by 2050. Millennial Potash is in the fertilizer business. Potash is a form of potassium - potassium chloride. It is considered the king of fertilizers. It strengthens crop roots, enhances water retention, replenishes the soil, and thus boosts agricultural yields. Potassium is one of the big three chemicals that make up NPK, nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. Today, many countries are classifying it as a critical mineral given its huge importance with agriculture and food production. Farhad Abasov is the Chairman, Director and Co-Founder of Millennial Potash. It's his 8th company. His past works have also been mining ventures, extracting lithium, uranium, and other minerals. Millennial is based in Saskatchewan, but Farhad is based in Dubai and beams in from the the United Arab Emirates for the podcast conversation. He explains that Dubai is strategically located as Millennial's big new venture is developing a potash mine in Gabon, Africa. The mine, known as the Banio project, is 1,238 square kilometers in size, about half the State of Rhode Island. Potash is naturally occurring in soils, and is also found in rich deposits that formed from ancient seas that evaporated over time. Farhad explains that there is a huge amount of potash on the planet... enough for centuries and centuries of production at today's use rates. The challenge, he explains, is that potash reserves are not where potash is used. The biggest users of potash are the United States, China, Brazil, and India, while the largest potash reserves are in Canada, Russia, and Belarus. The Gabon location is strategically located in a politically stable country and along the coast. Millennial is building an export port in the Atlantic to move its material to key global markets. Ted asks about the environmental impacts of potash mining. Is it strip-mined like coal? No, explains Farhad. Instead solution mining used, a process in which water (in this case sea water) is injected into the Earth forcing the mineral to the surface where it is dried and the loaded onto cargo ships for export. There is very little impact on the surface, no underground work, no subsidence or sink holes, the mine appearing more like a natural gas facility than mineral mine. As for the impact of drying the material in a jungle-like environment, Millennial is building a 25 MW natural gas power plant for this function, a relatively small facility given the enormity of the mine that will be Gabon's largest industry and largest employer... and the billions of tons of potash that will be extracted there to feed the world.

    34 min
  2. Sammy Roth -- Climate-Colored Goggles

    JAN 26

    Sammy Roth -- Climate-Colored Goggles

    Sammy Roth is a diligent investigator and journalist who has established himself as one of California's leading climate columnists. He explains that he has used the power of the media for his entire career, since elementary school. From an early age he recognized the big voice that one could have as a journalist reaching the masses. He began to focus on the environment and sustainability when he was a student at Columbia University studying sustainable development. Ted met Sammy ten years ago when he was the Desert Sun's energy reporter, covering California's Coachella Valley, based in Palm Springs. There he reported on the conflicts and controversies surrounding desert solar and wind projects, raising awareness of the tradeoffs between development of renewables and wildlife habitat and conservation. He also researched and wrote extensively about water issues in the West. Then he moved back to his home town of Los Angeles where he worked for the LA Times, writing 1 -2 articles a week in addition to producing a blog and podcast called The Boiling Point. Sammy clearly has a reputation as a hard-hitting environmental reporter. Ted asks him about how he has been able to balance the interests of his readers and whether he has had to walk a fine line. No, he replied, he has always been able to tell it like he sees it, noting the unwavering support of his colleagues, editors, and readers. His guiding principle has been to dig in and find the story, reveal what's accurate, and to report on what's going to make the world work better. It's all about advancing solutions and fixing problems, he states. When asked about the results of his reporting, he bifurcates results: First is raising awareness which he explains is really hard to measure. Second is creating impact. He discusses raising awareness about how oil companies sponsor sports... like Union 76 being a major sponsor of his beloved LA Dodgers. Then he shifts to Disneyland and discusses his reporting about a ride at Tomorrowland... where he raised awareness about polluting engines powering cars in Autopia. His articles caused Disneyland to pledge to switch to electric vehicles... much more in line with current times. Clearly Sammy has melded his interests with his journalism, something he wants to amplify in his new pursuit, his independent work with Climate-Colored Goggles. The conversation shifts to his reporting on the Ivanpah solar concentrating power plant that millions of motorists see each year on their way to Las Vegas. The pronounced three towers surrounded by fields or mirrors was a potent symbol of the future of solar. But Sammy supported the plant's closure, as its largest off-taker, Pacific Gas and Electric, wanted. But despite bird deaths, operational deficiencies, and the rise of more cost-effective, utility-scale photovoltaic plants, California regulators insisted on keeping Ivanpah operational despite its operating deficiencies... resulting in Sammy's article that he titled "The Solar Stupidity is Blinding." The conversation shifts to water, its shortage in the West and its overlap with energy. Drought not only crimps water supply in the Colorado River basin, but affects hydroelectric production. Agrivoltaics is another nexus between energy and water, the potential to reduce evaporation and the amount of water needed for crop yields, while generating electricity. And while nearly every part of California is out of drought conditions thanks to good rainfall and a robust snowpack, the snowpack in the Rockies which supplies the Colorado River is below average. No, he noted, we are not out of the woods. Ted asks about the solution. Sammy makes clear that everyone in the seven-state watershed (30 million people and 5 million acres of farmland) needs to use less water, a challenging scenario indeed. Sammy left the LA Times towards the end of 2025 after seven years in what he called a great niche, to do his own thing, namely writing a blog called Climate-Colored Goggles, a subscription-based venture. In his eyes, everything is a climate issue. It's not just relegated to policy and politics. Climate change is ubiquitous... intertwined with entertainment, media, sports, music, etc. He explains that he was ready for a change and ready for even greater independence as a journalist... stretching his creativity, reporting in new formats and new frequencies. While he misses his colleagues at the LA Times, Climate-Colored Goggles is where he is focused now. Check him out at ClimateColoredGoggles.com.

    36 min
  3. Bill McKibben -- Here Comes the Sun

    JAN 19

    Bill McKibben -- Here Comes the Sun

    Bill McKibben is an author and activist who Ted met in 1990 after the release of Bill's New York Times best seller, The End of Nature. In that book, he raised awareness about the reality and perils of global warming, now known as climate change. Since then, Bill has written 20 books and has earned over 20 honorary doctorates from colleagues and universities. He also is a recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, considered the alternative Nobel Peace Prize, and the Gandhi Peace Prize. The conversation begins with a discussion of his most recent book, Here Comes the Sun. Without question, emphasizes Bill, the time has come for solar to power our global society. Despite recent setbacks by the current United States presidential administration, Bill cites the remarkable rise of solar worldwide. China, for instance, has been adding solar at a rate of 3 GW a day. In 2023, solar became the cheapest and fastest-growing source of power. But in that same year, our climate was heated to record levels. We have reached 430 parts per million CO2 in the atmosphere, well above the 350 limit  that climate scientists warned us about. But there is more good news, even in California, despite its political leaders attempts to limit solar, natural gas use is down 40% just in the past few years. Bill co-founded 350.org nearly 20 years ago to raise awareness about climate. Since then 350.org has organized over 20,000 rallies, protests, and other events in every country except North Korea. It continues to engage and raise alarms about catastrophic environmental degradation. He talks about SunDay and its 500 events in 2025. Recently, Bill founded Third Act, an organization group led by "elders" such as he in their Third Acts that promotes clear energy solutions and defends democracy. Just like the third act in a theater production, this is the time and chance for resolution of a number of subplots. He insists that there is still time to fully utilize the giant solar reactor in the sky, some 93 million miles away. And he notes that solar provides a great opportunity for our global civilization to unify around a mission, much like we did in the United States with the moonshot in the 1960s.

    33 min
  4. Alix Lebec -- Scaling Innovative Finance for Sustainability

    JAN 12

    Alix Lebec -- Scaling Innovative Finance for Sustainability

    Alix Lebec is the Founder and CEO of LEBEC. She grew up in Paris, then her family moved to South Korea and China. She was educated in Paris and in London, and now lives in Miami. Ted notes at the onset, "You are truly a global citizen." She and her colleagues are working on global solutions. Her specialty is innovative finance for sustainable development. LEBEC's mission is to democratize access to capital, opportunity and knowledge. The women-led team has grown into a platform to mainstream and scale innovative finance. Alix explains that its three pillars are its strategic advisory services, managing its own boutique investment fund, and making funders and non-profits and others aware of innovative finance. At its core is blending forms of finance and bringing together different capital tools. Her firm is expert at using philanthropy to catalyze initiatives, to de-risk them, then bringing in institutional and larger investors to scale initiatives. Alix's work is sector agnostic. She and her colleagues are advising clients and raising funding across sectors including water, energy, agriculture and food, affordable housing, and health. It's all about scaling solutions by using an innovative finance playbook to shape a resilient and healthy economy and climate. For the past five years, LEBEC has worked with families, foundations, corporations, and banks, all looking to put capital to work in more impactful ways. At the other end of the process are recipients: The firm is supporting socially responsible entrepreneurs. Ted asks for a few examples and Alix presents four: She began developing the innovative financing model working with Water Equity, an organization founded by Gary White and actor Matt Damon. Its mission was to help women and their families get small loans to access drinking water, originally in India and Bangladesh. They began by using private sources of capital to provide micro-financing for water taps into main lines. Based on a track record of consistent repayments, they effectively de-risked larger investments of more conventional grants and loans from major organizations. Ultimately, the initiative secured $5 billion in capital for a range of water infrastructure and sanitation projects scaled up on several continents. Seeing that "financing playbook" work so well encouraged Alix to launch LEBEC. Other consulting works, included working with a Fortune 500 company that required strong returns for its investments, but that also wanted to have greater societal impact. Alix helped the company mix its financing tools, strategically blending its philanthropic endeavors with more conventional financial instruments. For the Miami Foundation, Alix built an innovative for affordable housing and environmental protection in Florida, using its philanthropic activities to prove the model and then seed conventional financing. LEBEC also works with non-profits and entrepreneurs with sourcing capital and using limited funds for the greatest impact. The conversation shifts to Alix's assertion that the world is falling short some $5 trillion in funding for the new economy - investments in low-carbon, climate-resilient solutions. "Clean energy is the future," she says, things like scaling solar-powered water pumping. Closing the funding gap is critical to enhancing food production for a growing population. There is also a huge need for health care and education. While some think that foundation grants and program-related investments will be sufficient, Alix believes that philanthropy has to be leveraged to tap into larger sources of financing, like big banks such as JP Morgan. Another key driver, she asserts, is proper valuation of climate risk. As the insurance industry forces us all to get real on these risks, capital will flow to help close the multi-trillion-dollar gap. Ted closes with asking Alix where she got the passion for her work. She responded that early exposure to different cultures, growing up abroad, and traveling across the Southeast Asia region, opened her eyes. Her first job, working on a documentary in Sudan, reinforced her sense of need and direction. Then working for The World Bank, she saw first-hand the struggles of underserved communities, and the disparity with people who have so much. This rooted her passion and LEBEC's important drive to democratize access to capital, opportunities, and wealth.

    34 min
  5. The 250-Episode Milestone

    JAN 5

    The 250-Episode Milestone

    250. A big number. A lot of podcast episodes! Flanigan's Eco-Logic hit this major milestone in December. Sierra Flanigan and Skye Flanigan, Ted's daughters host this milestone edition. They draw out the good, the breadth of topics and featured guests... and even some of the biggest blunders! "So what does this milestone mean to you Dad?" Ted thanks his daughters for urging him to shift from publishing a monthly newsletter -- which he did for 40 years -- and to create a podcast. "After all Dad, you love to talk, you are full of BS, and you know so many professionals in this space! If you can just get to 10 podcasts, you'll be off and running," they said then. No one imagined hitting the 250 mark! Ted talks about how the podcast has enriched his life. Yes, it takes a lot of work, but how amazing it is to have the privilege to interview and network with so many inspired and inspiring individuals... over 200 great guests with valuable perspectives all.  Skye notes that the podcast has featured quite a number of "big wigs" Yes, notes Ted. It's been an honor to converse with so many chief executive officers, executive directors, a mayor, a U.S. Representative... even a Chinese billionaire. Featured guests include Gina McCarthy, Mary Nichols, Mike Peevey, Denis Hayes, and recently Jon Creyts, the Executive Director of Rocky Mountain Institute where Ted began his career. Ted also discusses his international guests, beaming in from Tahiti, Dubai, Nairobi, Scandinavia, and Australia... covering topics such as ocean health, "slow fashion," and energy access in the developing world. He thanks repeat guests including Jigar Shah, Steve Lewis, Jonathan Parfrey, and Evan Mills. The informal conversation touches on over 50 guests... from grubstaking with Henk Van Alphen, to recycling the unrecyclable with Tom Szaky, to much more efficient electric transmission lines with Dr. Jason Huang, and watershed health with TreePeople's Amanda Begley. Ted notes Rebecca Tickell's Big Picture Ranch films on the soil and regenerative agriculture, and Jack Gro... the NFL's sustainability officer. The breadth of issues is what makes the podcast fresh and interesting for listeners. Ted discusses his view of sustainability and the taxonomy he has developed that address what he calls the spheres of sustainability... energy, water, transportation, the built environment, greenhouse gases, waste management, food and agriculture, and health and wellness. Topics covered include climate music, wildlife crossings, oyster farming, sustainable energy utilities, coffee, tea, the Aspen Ski Company's methane capture, and biophilic design with former colleague Bill Browning. Sierra has hosted Eco-Logic's 17 crash courses in which she interviews Ted, together working to take challenging topics and to relate them in interesting and digestible ways. These include courses on offshore wind, vehicle-to-grid integration, microgrids for energy resilience, net billing, and most recently a course on combusting green hydrogen. More to come! Ted threatens to tackle power factor in an upcoming episode... a complex nuance of power system engineering. When asked, Ted presents a few key lessons learned. First off, be prepared. Then. like journalism, kick off with the meat of the matter. Not to much chit-chat! Then hang loose. And yes, there will be blunders.... He recounts some of those with a chuckle.  The conversation ends with thanks to all who have been instrumental in making the podcast a success: Sierra Flanigan, Skye Flanigan, Alizeh Siddiqui, and Bill Flanigan, with special recognition to Eco-Logic's podcast coach, Rhys Waters from Podstarter in Nova Scotia. It's a team effort, with lots of parts. Ted laments that recording the conversations is the least of it! In closing Ted again thanks his wonderful guests and encourages listeners to send nominations for more of them. "We've had so many great guests that we'd never heard of including recent ones like Tom Chi, Ralph Bianculli, Rinaldo Brutaco, John Belizaire, Chance Claxton, and Heather White. Bring 'em on! We're now working on the next 250!"

    31 min
  6. Andrew Arentowicz -- Burgers Made of Beef and Veggies

    12/29/2025

    Andrew Arentowicz -- Burgers Made of Beef and Veggies

    Andrew Arentowicz is the Co-Founder and CEO of 50:50 Foods, a firm devoted to making healthier burgers. Drew explains that his company's burgers are made up of 50% beef and 50% vegetables. Concerned about the ravages of Amazon rainforest slash and burn practices -- to raise cattle for beef -- Drew and his colleague went to work in their own kitchens to make burgers that taste just as good as their all-beef brethren, but that are healthier both for the planet and for their consumers. Drew tells his origin story...  from early explorations, the realization that consumers are unwilling to completely give up beef, to his early recipes, leading to manufacture at a major burger facility in San Diego. At this point, the burgers are available in 142 retail outlets -- notably at Pavilions and Vons supermarkets, through Thrive on line, and at Disneyland. Clearly 50:50 Foods has come a long way... a bootstrapped start-up that Drew notes "checks all the boxes!" He discusses the dual needs to cut down on beef consumption and to increase vegetable consumption. For parents, his burgers are a form of "stealth health," as they taste better while offering a potential sustainability solution. While not marketed for their environmental benefits, Both burgers address environmental concerns head on. Fully 14% of all greenhouse gas emissions are attributed to cows. For every pound of beef production avoided, 100 pounds of greenhouse gases are avoided. Cows and cow food production are responsible for nearly half of all fresh water used in America, dwarfing the 12% used in our homes. Every Both burger cuts water use by nearly 2,000 gallons in the switch from all beef to 50:50's recipe. But Drew is not one to "brow-beat" consumers: Fundamentally, he stresses that Both burgers are delicious. And when produced at scale, they will cost less as vegetables cost less than beef on a pound-per-pound basis.  The conversation weaves through Drew's rather fortuitous start-up, some of the challenges of working within FDA and USDA protocols and regulations, the clear benefits of 50:50 Foods, and the entrepreneurial path that Drew and his team have taken in developing their potent niche. What's next? First, scaling the burgers.... then taking a look at other related products like meat balls, hot dogs, and chicken nuggets.

    33 min
  7. Heather White -- Tackling Eco-Anxiety

    12/22/2025

    Heather White -- Tackling Eco-Anxiety

    Heather White is the founder and director of the non-profit OneGreenThing. She and her colleagues are focused on helping people of all ages overcome eco-anxiety, and more specifically climate anxiety. Rather than being paralyzed by the enormity of it all and the gloom and doom of myriad threats to our natural world, she has developed a philosophy of empowerment. For those interested, she provides a test that measures and identifies each of our unique powers to make a positive contribution to climate sanity. Based on Bozeman, Montana, Heather is connected with Mother Earth. Her books help others find their own connections. Her books do not prescribe what people ought to do, but instead asking about who they are... and thus how they can use that self identity to take action... and to find joy in taking action. She explains that it's fulfilling... a far cry from the eco-anxiety that stymies action and well-being. Heather's three books flesh out her philosophy. In 2021, she wrote "OneGreenThing: Discover Your Hidden Power to Help Save the Planet." This was followed by a guide: "Sixty Days to a Greener Life." Recently, she has published "Eco-Anxiety: Saving Our Sanity, Our Kids, and Our Future." The last book's forward was written by Erin Brockovich who serves on OneGreenThing's board.  Ted and Heather jump into plastics and the gross ravages of plastic pollution. Her upcoming TedX talk on global plastic pollution is all about solutions and what each of us can do to repel the onslaught of plastic in our lives. To the greatest degree possible, she urges us to avoid single-use plastics, to buy products that have minimal packaging, and to use compostable materials where possible. She offers a plethora of solutions and encourages us all to complement our consumer patterns with being active in the policy arena. The podcast covers Heather's tenure at the Environmental Working Group which she headed, and her remarkable experiences with media. She's been featured on Good Morning America, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, the New York Times, Washington Post and more. And to maintain balance in life, she talks about her own daily practice of getting outside, and imparts the wisdom of a fellow author... who recommends us all to spend time each day... looking up.

    32 min
  8. Tom Chi -- Building a Sane Climate Future

    12/15/2025

    Tom Chi -- Building a Sane Climate Future

    Tom Chi is an inventor, entrepreneur, and investor with a deep knowledge of astrophysics. He was a founder and executive at GoogleX working with autonomous driving and AI when he first became alarmed by climate change. A coral reef near his Hawaii home died in less than eight weeks. Mass bleaching and reef collapse took away the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, every color of the rainbow diminished to gray and brown. Tom explains that climate change is not gradual but instead it is marked by extreme fluctuations. Its the outliers, the six degrees hotter in summer and 2 degrees cooler in winter as was the case at his reef, 122 degree heat in British Columbia, and multiple thousand year events taking place in less than a decade, all dangerous outliers. Clearly the Earth's natural systems are out of equilibrium. Tom believes that we have messed up on climate change communications. They are centered on average temperature changes that are "papering over" the worst parts of climate destabilization. At that moment, Tom decided to give up his work at GoogleX -- the best job he'd ever had -- to work on climate solutions. The awakening spurred him to dig into the source of the death in his neighborhood. And he learned that it could happen to entire world, damage that might take 10 - 20 million years to resolve. He considered taking a sabbatical. But he knew the lift was large enough: Clearly he could not effectively work on this in his spare time. So Tom travelled the world to the front lines of ecological damage, to glaciers calving at alarming rates, rivers running dry, Southeastern Asian rainforests destroyed. He witnessed communities where people live on $2 dollars a day, and how that links with ecosystem destruction like slash and burn in the Amazon. He was digging into the root causes of global ecological problems and found some 60 issues that need attention. Rather than being lost in the abstraction of destruction of our ecosystems, he talks about the need to work locally. "Specificity is the friend of innovation." The more specific you are in addressing problems, the faster you succeed, he explained. At One Ventures, Tom brings his tech savvy to influence investors to support new innovations, to stabilize them into high-yield manufacturing cycles... getting technologies into a global business setting to be profitable. He and his colleague are disrupting those sectors that do the most damage. One of At One's investments is with Factor 2 that is developing a geothermal technology that uses CO2 as the working fluid, replacing water with far greater efficiency. Ted and Tom talk about Tom's new book that will be released in February titled "Climate Capital: Investing in Tools for a Regenerative Future." In it he lays out the world's biggest challenges -- climate destabilization, economic destabilization due to AI, and geopolitical instability. He then addresses these with his 4 Cs... critical thinking , creativity, compassion, and community. Sometimes the problems at hand are so big that they are abstract. One of is book's key directives for all of us to repair our own backyard bioregions. He presents inspiring, localized stories... like the reemergence of the Nene birds in Hawaii. It was a small group of people there that spearheaded a captive breeding program that turned that species' decline around. A lone biologist in San Francisco focused on a native species of butterflies, worked with local botanical garden, and created an ideal habitat that rebounded that rebounded population. He stated that you've got to get past national headlines and get specific to get results. That is where we have the power to change the course of history. Tom works directly on technologies that are restoring mangroves with drones, robots that effectively replant coral reefs and sea grasses. Tom ends with a thoughtful response to Ted's question on his work-life balance. He explains that his form of relaxation and best thinking comes from time in his hammock in Hawaii, away from devices. A little swaying motion triggers the vestibular system. He believes that if you want to be less anxious about the future, get into the process of creating the future you want. The people that will make it are "the builders." They make progress every day, not at a newsworthy pace, but progress that is accretive and additive. This is grounding, a salve for what people are struggling with.

    43 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
10 Ratings

About

Flanigan's Eco-Logic, hosted by Ted Flanigan, provides cutting-edge information and insights in sustainability and the clean energy space. Episodes address alternative energy -- featuring solar, storage, microgrids, vehicle grid integration, and energy access. In addition, the podcast covers resources issues -- like water and food issues, and even slow fashion. Flanigan’s enthusiasm, vast experience, and deep network in the energy and environmental arena are palpable as he brings exciting and encouraging green developments to the fore, interviewing and engaging leading policy makers and practitioners throughout the United States and in many countries around the world.

Information

  • Creator
    Ted Flanigan
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    256
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2025 Flanigan's Eco-Logic
  • Show Website
    Flanigan's Eco-Logic