4D AGO

#46 - Mark Swinnerton: Gravity vs. "giant hockey pucks" - what disused mines and renewable energy storage have in common

Mark Swinnerton, CEO of Green Gravity, shares his journey from metallurgy to mining operations and currently gravitational storage technology to support the energy transition. We get an in-depth look into how he is transforming the renewable energy storage industry and giving old mine shafts a new lease on life, an insight into the technology and logistics and how businesses are evolving in this new digital age. Tune in for some amazing advice from someone with decades of global experience in a major industry and influences so many aspects of our daily lives! Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW) Chapters: 00:00 Intro 1:59 Guest Intro and Wollongong, Australia 3:52 Mark's infamous selfie-stick - communicating authenticity 9:10 Mark's journey from metallurgy to mining 15:17 Reflecting on Mark's 9 years in Singapore 18:16 Handling large responsibilities 20:19 The challenge of mining legacy issues 23:01 Mark's own perception of mining legacy issues 24:26 What is Green Gravity? - the concept of gravitational storage 32:30 VIsualizing the scale of mines 35:30 Increasing importance of energy storage 38:31 Building up Partnerships in preparation for technology readiness 42:00 Multiple benefits of Green Gravity’s technology 46:02 What is Mark most excited about? 47:42 Relationship between mines and urban areas - the Ballarat example 52:29 The changing world of business - from corporation to startup 1:00:48 Q&A Start 1:01:09 What does innovation mean to you? 1:03:42 Key moment, book, person 1:09:26 Time Management 1:11:39 Favourite childhood memory 1:14:15 Biggest challenge in career to date 1:16:39 What would you most like to be remembered for? 1:17:57 Where can people find you? 1:18:38 Final Message 1:19:04 Outro Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode. Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world! Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from. Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience. Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on: X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach Instagram: @petermbach87 Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

1h 20m

JUN 23

The NotebookLM Mini Series #6: These are neither the pollutants nor researcher you are looking for (feat. Lena Mutzner)

Welcome to this Mini-Series on The Grand Challengers Podcast! The topic of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been in all our minds over the past few years and is gaining even more momentum with rapid advancements in text, audio and video. Google recently released NotebookLM, a powerful research-support AI that can generate not only summaries of sources that we feed it, but also entire podcast episodes. This Mini-Series will explore the power of NotebookLM, our live reactions to its outputs... and a deep dive into some of the topics that we have covered on the show. We feature previous guests, who are here to join in on the fun! Episode #6 attempts to create a biographical piece - Lena Mutzner (ep45) reacts to how NotebookLM produces a deep dive discussion about her, using all her available publications, her PhD Thesis and up-to-date CV as sources. Will NotebookLM be able to capture the essence of her work and career to date? Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Funky Fortune by Danny Shields (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7vRFEGMyTTfeCtc8qiUB82?si=dygdqu9IQLSFYNvVzPNu5w) Chapters: 0:00 Intro 1:26 Guest Intro and AI Impressions 3:12 Guest prior experience with AI 8:49 AI for Graphic Design in Research & Communication 9:59 How this experiment works 12:16 The human summary - or setting expectations 13:47 Live Reaction 41:39 Post-discussion 47:23 Evaluating the analogies 49:29 Discussing the accuracy and inner workings 52:53 Wrap Up 54:46 Outro Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode. Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world! Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from. Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience. Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on: X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach Instagram: @petermbach87 Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

56 min

JUN 16

#45 - Lena Mutzner: “A list that keeps getting longer” - understanding pollutants of emerging concern for healthier aquatic environments

Lena Mutzner, Group Leader in the Urban Water Management Department at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science & Technology discusses the intricacies of stormwater quality monitoring. We learn a bit about how water quality is sampled, different pollutant types that she has focussed on and the ongoing challenge around contaminants of emerging concern. We also discuss the apparent paradox of repeating research cycles despite having done similar work 40 years ago, the importance of a holistic approach to stormwater management and how she is developing her research career into the uncertain future. Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW) Chapters: 0:00 Intro 1:59 Guest Intro & Meditative Activities 4:16 Nordic Countries vs. Switzerland 7:36 Lena's Mission in Water Quality 10:53 How it all started - engineering or psychiatry? 13:18 Contaminants of emerging concern 16:48 Studying Water Quality 101 26:28 Which contaminants does Lena focus on? 29:28 Tyre wear leachate and 6PPD-Quinone 33:01 Data issues towards building water quality understanding 36:45 Different types of common micropollutants 40:55 Interplay of Modelling and Water Quality Data Collection 46:18 Effect-based measurements 48:19 The holistic view - integration as a the way forward 51:05 Mitigation of pollution through Blue-Green Infrastructures 54:00 Lena's Future Research Trajectory 56:49 Q&A Start 57:24 What does innovation mean to you? 1:00:30 Key Moment, Person, Event 1:03:52 Women in STEM - Lena's drive to be a role model 1:06:40 Time Management 1:10:24 Favourite childhood memory 1:12:55 Biggest challenge to date 1:18:17 Advice for young researchers 1:20:00 What would you most like to be remembered for? 1:21:15 Where can people find you? 1:21:57 Final Message 1:22:15 Outro Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode. Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world! Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from. Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience. Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on: X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach Instagram: @petermbach87 Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

1h 23m

JUN 2

The NotebookLM Mini Series #5: Plot Twist! Figure 3 says more than a thousand words and a third of the hot dogs (feat. Yannick Back)

Welcome to this Mini-Series on The Grand Challengers Podcast! The topic of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been in all our minds over the past few years and is gaining even more momentum with rapid advancements in text, audio and video. Google recently released NotebookLM, a powerful research-support AI that can generate not only summaries of sources that we feed it, but also entire podcast episodes. This Mini-Series will explore the power of NotebookLM, our live reactions to its outputs... and a deep dive into some of the topics that we have covered on the show. We feature previous guests, who are here to join in on the fun! Episode #5 delves into the links between water, energy and heat - Yannick Back (ep35) reacts to how NotebookLM produces a deep dive discussion (in English) of eight of his publications, all written in German and with different foci. This is the first experiment on this mini-series, which uses multiple sources. The 8 Papers were published from 2019 to 2024. Full details can be found in the show notes. Their German titles are: 2019: Einsatzmöglichkeiten von Geoinformationssystemen in der Siedlungswasserwirtschaft am Beispiel Einbindung dezentraler Entwässerungssysteme zur Entlastung des städtischen Abwassernetzes2019: Untersuchung und Optimierung der Einbindung dezentraler Entwässerungssysteme zur Entlastung des städtischen Abwassernetzes und Minderung urbaner Hitzeinseln2020: Dezentrale Regenwasserbehandlung zur Entlastung der Kanalisation und Minderung urbaner Hitzeinseln2020: Urbanen Hitzeinseln und überlasteten Entwässerungsnetzen entgegenwirken 2021: Latente Wärme vs. Sensible Wärme2021: Rolle der Energie- und Wasserflüsse im Stadtsystem: Steigerung der Resilienz unserer Städte zur Anpassung an die Auswirkungen des Klimawandels2023: Chancen und Herausforderungen bei der Gestaltung klimaresistenter dichter städtischer Gebiete mit Blaugrüner Infrastruktur2024: Die Rolle der Bewässerung städtischer Grünflächen während gleichzeitiger Trocken- und HitzeperiodenPodcast Intro/Outro Song: Funky Fortune by Danny Shields (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7vRFEGMyTTfeCtc8qiUB82?si=dygdqu9IQLSFYNvVzPNu5w) Chapters: 0:00 Intro 1:27 Guest Intro, Vibe Coding and Catch up 3:20 Guest's prior experience with AI 5:02 How this experiment works 6:32 The human summary 11:19 Live Reaction 54:11 Post-discussion 59:03 Potential Future of AI 1:00:29 Wrap up 1:01:10 Outro Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode. Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world! Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from. Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience. Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on: X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach Instagram: @petermbach87 Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

1h 2m

MAY 19

#44 - Jarrod Luxton: What does a best-practice sustainability strategy look like? Discussing nature, valuation, Nordic and Aussie contrasts

Jarrod Luxton, Senior Lead at the Finnish Innovation Fund (Sitra), Board Member of Finland's Sustainable Investment Forum (finsif) and Founder of First Arrow discusses what a best-practice sustainability strategy looks like in 2025! The key player? Nature! We delve into the topic of valuing nature-based solutions and compare and contrast between Australian and Nordic contexts, especially Finland's priorities and motivations for the practice. Jarrod and I also reflect upon our times in Australia and the transition to Europe. Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW) Chapters: 0:00 Intro 1:59 Guest Intro & Nordic Summers and reconnecting via Podcast 4:36 Missing Australian Rules Football ("Footy") 6:14 Jarrod's own podcast creation journey 7:29 Jarrod's interest in ESG 12:58 NBS and Terminology 17:13 Valuation of NBS, Sitra and Jarrod's perspective 34:41 Finland's Adoption of NBS - current status 37:25 Green gentrification and being equitable with NbS 39:55 The role of spatial data 41:36 What does a best practice sustainability strategy look like in 2025 48:22 Unpacking the importance and thinking of circular economy 51:00 The TNFD-LEAP Framework for financing 55:01 Jarrod's current endeavours 56:34 Investing in nature - are nature credits a thing? 58:24 The importance of communication and Jarrod's new company 1:02:18 Q&A Start 1:02:39 What does innovation mean to you? 1:05:28 Key event, person, book 1:08:20 Time Management 1:10:43 Favourite childhood memory 1:11:39 Biggest Challenge to Date 1:14:02 Advice for young professionals 1:15:56 What would you most like to be remembered for? 1:17:35 Where can people reach you? 1:18:31 Final Message 1:18:46 Outro Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode. Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world! Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from. Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience. Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on: X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach Instagram: @petermbach87 Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

1h 20m

MAY 12

The NotebookLM Mini Series #4: Jalapeños as part of the urban form and a lesson in Dutch (feat. Martijn Kuller)

Welcome to this Mini-Series on The Grand Challengers Podcast! The topic of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been in all our minds over the past few years and is gaining even more momentum with rapid advancements in text, audio and video. Google recently released NotebookLM, a powerful research-support AI that can generate not only summaries of sources that we feed it, but also entire podcast episodes. This Mini-Series will explore the power of NotebookLM, our live reactions to its outputs... and a deep dive into some of the topics that we have covered on the show. We feature previous guests, who are here to join in on the fun! Episode #4 delves into "Water sensitive urban design as part of the urban form" - Martijn Kuller (ep3) first reacts to how NotebookLM produces a heavily prompted deep dive discussion (my work of art) of an older review we co-authored, highlighting the ease with which prompting can get dangerous and misleading if not in the right hands. We then both react to an Audio Overview of the same review produced by Google Gemini 2.5 Pro, the LLM upon which NotebookLM is based - shorter and more concise. Full Reference to the Paper: Kuller, M., Bach, P.M., Ramirez-Lovering, D. and Deletic, A., 2017. Framing water sensitive urban design as part of the urban form: A critical review of tools for best planning practice. Environmental modelling & software, 96, pp.265-282. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2017.07.003 Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Funky Fortune by Danny Shields (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7vRFEGMyTTfeCtc8qiUB82?si=dygdqu9IQLSFYNvVzPNu5w) Chapters: 0:00 Intro 1:26 Guest Intro and what's happened since Episode 3 4:39 How this experiment works 5:44 Guest's prior experience with AI 9:59 Martijn's critique of current thoughts so far 12:25 The Experiment Structure 13:07 The human summary 16:43 Live Reaction - Prompted NotebookLM 31:52 Post-Discussion - Prompted NotebookLM 36:57 Live Reaction - Gemini Audio Overview 52:01 Post-Discussion - Gemini Audio Overview 55:16 Thoughts on the future of AI 57:50 Wrap-up 59:10 Outro Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode. Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world! Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from. Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience. Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on: X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach Instagram: @petermbach87 Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

1 hr

MAY 5

#43 - Tom Young: Answers to sustainability are in the links between green roofs, beer, mushrooms, golf, water, cowboys and community

Thomas Young, Associate and Blue-Green Infrastructure Specialist at The Environment Partnership (TEP) in the UK shows us his journey from the technical side of green roofs to the more holistic broader planning of sustainability and blue-green infrastructure. His incredible journey is supported by many seemingly unrelated topics, travels and passions that have all contributed to the impact he is creating in the UK. Find out how beer, mushrooms, cowboys and community among many others are linked to this intricate story! Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW) Chapters: 0:00 Intro 1:59 Guest Intro and a house tour 4:09 Origins of Tom's Ecology Inspiration 7:13 Sheffield and Tom's PhD side project 12:59 Green Roofs 101 22:30 Fungi to help Green Infrastructure 28:12 Writing the British Standards for green roofs 32:20 Blue-Green or Green-Blue Infrastructure? Return of Terminology 35:10 Venturing into Sports Turfs 41:56 Joining TEP and thinking about golf courses 53:08 The Nuffield Farming Scholarship and Tom's world travels 1:03:52 Learning for the UK's future cities and sustainability 1:07:40 Tom's current endeavours 1:12:47 Q&A Start 1:13:14 What does “innovation” mean to you? 1:13:53 Key event book person 1:14:43 Time Management 1:16:56 Favourite childhood memory 1:17:36 Biggest Challenge to date 1:18:37 Advice for young professionals 1:19:42 What would you most like to be remembered for? 1:20:27 Where can people find you? 1:21:08 Final Message 1:21:36 Outro Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode. Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world! Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from. Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience. Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on: X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach Instagram: @petermbach87 Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

1h 23m

APR 21

#42 - Mashael Yazdanie: "Doing the right things the right way" - how to holistically plan for sufficiency and renewable energy

Mashael Yazdanie, Group Leader, Scientist and Lecturer at the Urban Energy Systems Lab at the Swiss Federal Institute of Materials Science & Technology (Empa) traces her journey across the renewable energies towards more holistic thinking around energy, sustainability, society and sufficiency. We cover her projects in both the global north and south, key concepts such as planetary boundaries, sufficiency, efficiency and doughnut economics as well as the need to learn, unlearn and relearn if we want to become more adaptive and resilience in the face of the climate crisis. Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW) Chapters: 0:00 Intro 1:59 Guest Intro and Solar Racing 5:58 Nature and energy? 9:50 Sufficiency, planetary boundaries and doughnut economics 20:31 Mashael's early renewables journey - Biogas Energy in Pakistan 29:58 Mashael's early renewables journey - Wind Energy 33:37 Mashael's early renewables journey - Tidal energy and the rest 36:35 Is there a favourite renewable? 38:01 Energy grid centralization vs. decentralization 42:30 Planning-support modelling & optimization 44:48 Understanding the breadth of modelling tools 46:49 Energy in West Africa - The Measures Project 54:28 The concept of 'Regret' in decision-making 1:01:56 Coming full circle to sufficiency 1:04:06 Learning, unlearning and relearning for the climate crisis 1:10:06 Mashael's future trajectory 1:14:30 Q&A Start 1:14:50 What does "innovation" mean to you? 1:16:00 Time management 1:20:34 Favourite childhood memory 1:21:26 Biggest challenge to date 1:23:45 Advice for young researchers 1:27:57 What would you most like to be rememnbered for? 1:30:16 Where can people find you? 1:30:58 Final message 1:33:06 Outro Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode. Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world! Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from. Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience. Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on: X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach Instagram: @petermbach87 Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

1h 34m

The Grand Challengers Podcast

#46 - Mark Swinnerton: Gravity vs. "giant hockey pucks" - what disused mines and renewable energy storage have in common

The NotebookLM Mini Series #6: These are neither the pollutants nor researcher you are looking for (feat. Lena Mutzner)

#45 - Lena Mutzner: “A list that keeps getting longer” - understanding pollutants of emerging concern for healthier aquatic environments

The NotebookLM Mini Series #5: Plot Twist! Figure 3 says more than a thousand words and a third of the hot dogs (feat. Yannick Back)

#44 - Jarrod Luxton: What does a best-practice sustainability strategy look like? Discussing nature, valuation, Nordic and Aussie contrasts

The NotebookLM Mini Series #4: Jalapeños as part of the urban form and a lesson in Dutch (feat. Martijn Kuller)

#43 - Tom Young: Answers to sustainability are in the links between green roofs, beer, mushrooms, golf, water, cowboys and community

#42 - Mashael Yazdanie: "Doing the right things the right way" - how to holistically plan for sufficiency and renewable energy

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The Grand Challengers Podcast

Episodes

#46 - Mark Swinnerton: Gravity vs. "giant hockey pucks" - what disused mines and renewable energy storage have in common

The NotebookLM Mini Series #6: These are neither the pollutants nor researcher you are looking for (feat. Lena Mutzner)

#45 - Lena Mutzner: “A list that keeps getting longer” - understanding pollutants of emerging concern for healthier aquatic environments

The NotebookLM Mini Series #5: Plot Twist! Figure 3 says more than a thousand words and a third of the hot dogs (feat. Yannick Back)

#44 - Jarrod Luxton: What does a best-practice sustainability strategy look like? Discussing nature, valuation, Nordic and Aussie contrasts

The NotebookLM Mini Series #4: Jalapeños as part of the urban form and a lesson in Dutch (feat. Martijn Kuller)

#43 - Tom Young: Answers to sustainability are in the links between green roofs, beer, mushrooms, golf, water, cowboys and community

#42 - Mashael Yazdanie: "Doing the right things the right way" - how to holistically plan for sufficiency and renewable energy

Trailer

About

Information