Podcast Episodes

Live From New York Climate Week: The AI and Electricity Moment

Season 3 Episode 5

Artificial intelligence is helping to drive up electricity demand in America. Energy costs are rising, and utilities are struggling to adjust. How should policymakers — and companies — respond to thi…

Published on 7 hours ago

Nobody in the West Knows How to Respond to the ‘Electrotech Revolution’

Season 3 Episode 4

A new stack of electricity technologies — including solar panels, batteries, electric vehicles, and power electronics — seem to be displacing fossil fuels across China and the developing world. Are w…

Published on 2 days, 7 hours ago

What J.P. Morgan’s Chief Climate Advisor Is Telling Energy Startups

Season 3 Episode 3

We live in a new energy era — one in which the inputs and technologies key to clean electricity production are at the heart of international politics. What will that mean for decarbonization? And how…

Published on 1 week, 2 days ago

Utility Regulation Really Sucks

Season 3 Episode 2

Electricity is getting more expensive — and the culprit, in much of the country, is the poles and wires. Since the pandemic, utility spending on the “last mile” part of the power grid has surged, and…

Published on 2 weeks, 2 days ago

What Carbon Dioxide Has to Do With the Meaning of Life

Season 3 Episode 1

How did life first form on Earth? What does entropy have to do with the origins of mammalian life — or the creation of the modern economy? And what chemical process do people, insects, Volkswagens, a…

Published on 3 weeks, 2 days ago

Shift Key Classic: How to Hook Up More Power Plants

Season 2 Episode 54

Shift Key is off for Labor Day, so we’re re-running this classic episode.

For the first time in 15 years, American electricity demand is rising again as new data centers, factories, and electric vehic…

Published on 4 weeks, 2 days ago

This Is What It’s Like to Run a Power Grid

Season 2 Episode 53

So far on Shift Key Summer School we’ve covered how electricity gets made and how it gets sold. But none of that matters without the grid, which is how that electricity gets to you, the consumer. Who…

Published on 1 month ago

How Electricity Markets Work

Season 2 Episode 52

Most electricity used in America today is sold on a wholesale power market. These markets are one of the most important institutions structuring the modern U.S. energy economy, but they’re also not v…

Published on 1 month, 1 week ago

Trump’s Move to Kill the Clean Air Act’s Climate Authority, Forever

Season 2 Episode 51

The Trump administration has formally declared that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are not dangerous pollutants. If the president gets his way, then the Environmental Protection Agency may…

Published on 1 month, 2 weeks ago

Why We’re Worried About Electricity Prices

Season 2 Episode 50

In the next few years, the United States is going to see the fastest growth in electricity demand since the 1970s. And that’s only the beginning of the challenges that our power grid will face. When …

Published on 1 month, 3 weeks ago