Plastics production has doubled in the last two decades, clogging up our oceans and showing up in our organs. The massive growth in plastics production is also increasing CO2 output and driving up fossil fuel demand.

Meanwhile, only 8% of plastic actually gets recycled, challenging our trust in the waste management system.

But a new set of tools driven by AI, robotics, and material science are helping recycle plastics, steel, textiles, and just about everything else. And a new generation of entrepreneurs, scientists, and engineers are devoting themselves to launching those tools.

In this episode, we examine technology advances that are helping recyclers convert hard-to-recycle waste into a valuable feedstock – and what it means for building a circular economy with a singular goal of radically reducing global waste.

Guests:

• Kate Brandt, chief sustainability officer at Google
• Astro Teller, captain of moonshots, at X, the moonshot factory
• Rey Banatao, project lead at X, the moonshot factory
• Julia Mangin, head of sustainability, Recology
• Emma Lingle, project manager at X, the moonshot factory

Watch our complementary documentary about how scientists and entrepreneurs at X, Alphabet’s moonshot factory, are inventing tools driven by AI, robotics, and material science to recycle plastics, steel, textiles, and just about everything else. It's all part of their vision to build a circular economy that will radically reduce global waste.

Last March, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket into space from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. It carried more than 40 payloads on board, including a satellite called MethaneSAT, which was designed to track methane emissions around the globe.

Cutting methane emissions is a critical step toward reducing the rise of global temperatures that climate change is spreading to communities.

In this episode, we have two stories about how data centers – and the AI they enable – are helping to mitigate the invisible threats of heat and air pollution around the world, particularly for vulnerable populations.

From satellites to tree canopies, we ask how AI can help protect human health, reduce air pollution, and temper the urban heat island effect in our cities.

Guests:

• Mansi Kansal, Cool Roofs product manager at Google
• Dr. Monica Bharel, clinical lead for public sector health at Google
• Karin Tuxen-Bettman, Google Earth outreach manager
• Millie Chu Baird, VP, Office of Chief Scientist, Environmental Defense Fund
• Fatima Luna, chief resilience officer, City of Tucson

Watch our complementary documentary about how Google’s data centers are helping make the invisible threats of air pollution and methane emissions visible.

Dwane Roth is a fourth-generation farmer growing corn, wheat, sorghum, and sunflower in southwestern Kansas. Back in 2016, the state of Kansas launched a three-year pilot designed to test the latest water conservation technologies on three working farms. Dwane’s farm was one of them.

Seeing the benefits, Dwane became an outspoken advocate for high-tech approaches to water conservation – approaches that could help restore the critical Ogallala Aquifer running underneath most of western Kansas.

In this episode, we ask how data-driven predictive tools are helping farmers use less water and improve yields. Plus, we look at how data and AI are getting excess food to those who need it most. And we confront the paradox of hunger and food waste existing at the same time, in the same places.

Guests:

• Emily Ma, head of special projects in REWS sustainability at Google
• Prem Ramaswami, head of Data Commons at Google
• Stephanie Zidek, vice president of data and analytics, Feeding America
• Dwane Roth, farmer and water conservation advocate in Kansas
• Astro Teller, captain of moonshots at X, the moonshot factory

Watch our complementary documentary about how data and AI are getting excess food to those who need it most, and the paradox of hunger and food waste existing at the same time, in the same places.