Climate Culture

Data Centers in Space

Something different this week — no co-host, no weekly rundown. Just one subject, the full picture, and about twenty minutes. Last week, Elon Musk became the world's first trillionaire when SpaceX went public in the largest IPO in history. The pitch behind that $1.77 trillion valuation? Within a few years, the cheapest place to run AI compute won't be on Earth. It'll be in orbit. SpaceX has filed with the FCC to launch up to one million satellites as orbital data centers. Blue Origin filed for 50,000. Google has a prototype constellation in development. Startups are already building hardware. This episode breaks it all down: * What an orbital data center actually is — and why the logic makes sense * How they're powered (unlimited solar, no grid, no water) * The five real engineering problems nobody's solved yet — including one that could make entire orbital altitudes unusable for decades * Whether this is a genuine climate solution or a supply-side answer to a demand-side problem * And what it means that SpaceX's own prospectus quietly warned investors this "may not be commercially viable"

Stay human, please

This week we're asking a simple question: in a world optimizing for efficiency, automation, and engagement — what does it actually cost us to be human? Three stories. One theme. A poem broke the internet. Shawn Smucker, a bookshop owner from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, wrote a piece of ironic poetry called "Please Use AI" that hit 13 million views in a week. It's not what you think. We break down why it landed so hard — and what it says about loneliness in the age of frictionless everything. A dictionary ethered Silicon Valley. Merriam-Webster announced their "newest Large Language Model" with purple gradients, floating buzzwords, and dramatic AI voiceover. The reveal: their 12th edition printed dictionary, slowly rotating. "There's artificial intelligence — and then there's actual intelligence." We get into why this 35-second video might be the most effective AI criticism of the last two years. Microsoft said the quiet part out loud. Leaked internal documents obtained by 404 Media show that Phase 1 of Microsoft's Scout AI assistant rollout was literally labeled "Make people addicted." We connect the dots to Facebook, Frances Haugen, The Social Reckoning (Aaron Sorkin's new film hitting theaters October 9), and why we're at a Facebook Files moment for AI — right now, on day one. The overarching theme: AI is a tool. You're still the point. And if you're going to use AI, use one that's giving something back to the planet.

The Pope enters the chat

This week we go deep on the story nobody in Big Tech wants you to connect: AI is draining the planet's water, burning fossil fuels to keep up, and the people most affected had no say in any of it. We cover: * Pope Leo XIV's 42,000-word encyclical Magnifica Humanitas — why the most influential religious institution on Earth dedicated its first major document to calling out AI's environmental footprint, and why it landed differently than the headlines suggested * The UN University report that put a number on AI's water crisis — and what evaporative cooling actually means for the communities living next to data centers * The Gen Z values gap: 79% care about sustainability, only 35% will pay extra for it — and why that's not hypocrisy, it's a broken system * Why Viro is free, and why the business model is part of the mission Plus: we're asking you what we should do about the water.

Solar Keeps Winning

Solar keeps winning. And this week we have the receipts. What we cover: Indiana Jones Gets It — Harrison Ford showed up to Arizona State's biggest graduating class ever and opened with "the world my generation left you is a real mess." No hedge. No optimism theater. Just accountability first, then a real ask. We talk about why it went viral during a commencement season where AI speeches got booed, what it means for a generation that cares deeply about climate and feels completely powerless, and why that order — own the damage, then inspire — is the only one that lands. Solar's Winning — Now What — BloombergNEF just dropped their New Energy Outlook and the headline is real: solar becomes the world's largest energy source by 2032. Not because of policy. Because it's too cheap to lose. We break down the numbers — 655 gigawatts added in 2025 alone, battery storage about to follow the same cost curve — and then we get into the catch. AI data centers run 24/7. Solar doesn't. Fossil fuels are still projected to power 51% of data center energy through 2050. We talk about what geothermal, nuclear, and hundred-hour iron-air batteries mean for that number — and why it's a default, not a destiny. Case Dismissed. Conscience: Billionaires win again — A jury took 90 minutes to throw out Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI on a statute of limitations technicality. The real question — whether it's okay to found a nonprofit on "AI for humanity," attract billions in funding and talent on that promise, then convert to for-profit and pursue an IPO — was never answered. We get into what that silence means for every AI company running the same playbook.

Spies, Boos, and Shein Buying the Soul of Sustainable Fashion

This week billionaires are getting checked. By Utah women. By college graduates. And by the slow collapse of every brand that promised to do better. What we cover: Mr. Not-So-Wonderful — Kevin O'Leary wants to build a hundred billion dollar data center on forty thousand acres in drought-stricken rural Utah. Locals said no. He called them Chinese spies. On national television. By name. We break down the project, the process that approved it in a private room while residents watched on a livestream, and the two women who responded better than any PR team could have scripted. AI Gets Booed — Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt mentioned AI at a University of Arizona graduation and got booed. Repeatedly. We dig into why that reaction makes complete sense, what Pew Research says about how an entire generation actually feels about AI, and why telling people to just get on the rocketship lands very differently when you are the one who built it. Everlane Sells to Shein — Everlane spent a decade on radical transparency, ethical factories, and sustainable materials. It just sold for a hundred million dollars to the biggest polluter in fast fashion. Fast Company called it the end of the era of millennial optimism. We agree. And we trace the same pattern through Allbirds, Beautycounter, OpenAI, and everyone else who led with the mission and sold it when the money ran out.