The Young Ike Project

Future Makers: Fixing Farming’s Fertilizer Problem ft. Bill Brady

Climate Future Makers is a new monthly series from The Young Ike Project spotlighting people actively building real-world climate solutions. The goal is to move beyond the doom-and-denial cycle that often defines environmental discourse and instead tell the stories of builders, innovators, and leaders shaping a more sustainable future right now. Our first guest is Bill Brady, a veteran industrial executive turned climate entrepreneur. After decades leading global chemical businesses, Brady shifted his career toward solving large-scale environmental problems and has since helped launch ventures in clean fuels, low-carbon cement, and sustainable agriculture. In this episode, we explore Brady’s latest venture, Kula Bio, which is developing biologically based nitrogen fertilizer as an alternative to the century-old Haber-Bosch process. We discuss how synthetic fertilizer helped feed the modern world, but also contributes heavily to greenhouse gas emissions, water pollution, and soil degradation. Brady explains how Kula’s technology uses naturally occurring microbes to deliver nitrogen in a cleaner, more regenerative way. We also dive into the realities of climate entrepreneurship—breaking into markets long controlled by established industry players. Brady closes with a broader vision for the future: that the nexus between energy and technology will define the next century and beyond.

AI, Hype, and the History of Tech Bubbles: What Past Manias Can Teach Us About the Data Center Buildout ft. Dr. Andrew Odlyzko

Andrew Odlyzko is a mathematician, technology historian, and professor at the University of Minnesota who has spent decades studying the relationship between innovation, finance, and technological manias. His research spans everything from the railway booms of the 19th century to the dot-com bubble—and what those earlier episodes can teach us about the AI buildout happening today. In this episode, we zoom out from the day-to-day politics of data centers to ask a bigger historical question: what happens when a transformative technology collides with hype, speculation, and the promise of world-changing progress? Odlyzko explains why AI fits into a much longer story of technological booms, why bubbles often form around real breakthroughs, and how past manias sometimes left society with useful infrastructure even when investors got burned. We also talk about why he believes the current AI moment is becoming more dangerous. As improvements in large language models begin to look more incremental, the scale of spending on chips, data centers, and infrastructure keeps rising. Odlyzko argues that the real warning sign is financial: once the buildout moves beyond hyperscalers spending their own profits and starts drawing in outside investors through increasingly creative financing, the broader risks grow. This is apart of The Young Ike’s Live Series. To find a Podclub event near you or start your own, visit: theyoungike.org/podclubThis [http://theyoungike.org/podclubThis] is apart of The Young Ike’s Live Series. To find a Podclub event near you or start your own, visit: theyoungike.org/podclub Follow [http://theyoungike.org/podclubFollow] us on Social Media: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theyoungike/ Facebook [https://www.instagram.com/theyoungike/Facebook]: https://www.facebook.com/p/The-Young-IKE-61579184976598/ LinkedIn [https://www.facebook.com/p/The-Young-IKE-61579184976598/LinkedIn]: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-young-ike/ [https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-young-ike/]

A “Small City” of Water Demand: Why Data Centers Are a Water Governance Stress Test ft. Carrie Jennings

Carrie Jennings is the Research and Policy Director at the Freshwater Society and a geologist by training. She’s one of Minnesota’s leading voices on groundwater and water policy. A past guest from last season, we’re thrilled to have her back on the podcast. In this episode, we talk about the rise of hyperscale data centers and what they could mean for water in Minnesota and across the Great Lakes region. Jennings explains why groundwater is often misunderstood as “infinite,” how data centers can function like adding a new small city’s worth of demand to the edge of a metro-center. We also dig into the governance problem: non-disclosure agreements, limited public data on actual water use, and how municipal hookups can effectively let data centers “jump the line” during scarcity—despite statutory water-use priorities. Jennings closes by outlining where Minnesota’s system is breaking down and what it would take to build clearer rules before the next wave of high-volume water users arrives. This is apart of The Young Ike’s Live Series. To find a Podclub event near you or start your own, visit: theyoungike.org/podclubThis is apart of The Young Ike’s Live Series. To find a Podclub event near you or start your own, visit: theyoungike.org/podclub Follow us on Social Media: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theyoungike/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/The-Young-IKE-61579184976598/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-young-ike/

Who Decides What Gets Built? Data Centers, Democracy, and Environmental Law ft. Kathryn Hoffman

Kathryn Hoffman is the CEO of the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy (MCEA), where she leads legal and policy efforts to protect Minnesota’s water, air, and natural resources. In this episode, we talk about the rapid expansion of data centers and AI infrastructure — and the growing tension between economic development, environmental protection, and democratic transparency. Hoffman explains how data centers are currently reviewed and approved in Minnesota, why MCEA is challenging opaque environmental reviews and non-disclosure agreements, and what stronger guardrails could look like to ensure communities understand the water, energy, and environmental tradeoffs before these projects move forward. This is apart of The Young Ike’s Live Series. To find a Podclub event near you or start your own, visit: theyoungike.org/podclubThis [http://theyoungike.org/podclubThis] is apart of The Young Ike’s Live Series. To find a Podclub event near you or start your own, visit: theyoungike.org/podclub Follow [http://theyoungike.org/podclubFollow] us on Social Media: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theyoungike/ Facebook [https://www.instagram.com/theyoungike/Facebook]: https://www.facebook.com/p/The-Young-IKE-61579184976598/ LinkedIn [https://www.facebook.com/p/The-Young-IKE-61579184976598/LinkedIn]: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-young-ike/ [https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-young-ike/]

One Year In: The Boundary Waters under Trump 2.0 ft. Becky Rom

This episode is a special break from our current season on data centers and the environmental trade-offs of the AI infrastructure buildout. Instead, we return to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness for a clear-eyed, one-year-in assessment of what has actually changed under the second Trump administration. When I first spoke with Becky Rom just before the 2024 election, much of the conversation was shaped by uncertainty. A year later, a lot has changed. Or has it? Recorded on January 21st—the morning the House voted on H.J. Res. 140—this conversation walks through the concrete policy mechanics behind the fight to undo federal protections for the Boundary Waters: the 20-year mining withdrawal, the Congressional Review Act, and what’s at stake if Congress succeeds. Rom, National Chair of the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters, explains what change is tangible versus symbolic, how federal and state protections intersect, and why this moment feels both like a culmination of the past year—and another critical chapter in the decades-long battle over America’s most visited wilderness. Articles Mentioned: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2025/02/11/an-ely-group-agrees-on-the-value-of-the-boundary-waters-but-they-cant-agree-on-mining?utm_source=chatgpt.com [https://www.mprnews.org/story/2025/02/11/an-ely-group-agrees-on-the-value-of-the-boundary-waters-but-they-cant-agree-on-mining?utm_source=chatgpt.com] https://www.themeateater.com/conservation/public-lands-and-waters/protecting-the-boundary-waters-is-a-test-of-leadership-for-americas-public [https://www.themeateater.com/conservation/public-lands-and-waters/protecting-the-boundary-waters-is-a-test-of-leadership-for-americas-public] Learn more about SAVE at: savetheboundarywaters.org [http://savetheboundarywaters.org] Follow us on Social Media: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theyoungike/ [https://www.instagram.com/theyoungike/] Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/The-Young-IKE-61579184976598/ [https://www.facebook.com/p/The-Young-IKE-61579184976598/] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-young-ike/ [https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-young-ike/]