PODCAST · business
Electric Ladies Podcast
by Joan Michelson
Engaging and enlightening interviews with women leaders on energy, climate, sustainability and corporate responsibility -- ESG, environment,social and governance issues. Business, policy and technology, money, the arts and careers. Topics include driving innovation, leadership, communications and career advice. Inspiration, trends and insights. Hosted and produced by Joan Michelson, acclaimed journalist, business leader, coach and speaker, based in Washington, DC.
Episodes
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The Future Energy Landscape: Innovation, Investment - Joan's Tulane Energy Forum 2026 Panel
"Successful energy innovations can have outsize economic and social outcomes, impacting industrial competitiveness, trade, environmental health, infrastructure investment and security," according to the International Energy Agency's State of Energy Innovation 2026 report. They added that…
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Uncertainty As Your Friend - with Jessica Li, Align Experience, Coach and Investor
"Uncertainty doesn't mean you know zero. Uncertainty just means you may know 80%, you may know 90%. So I think we're too quick to freak out and say, "Well, if I'm not certain, therefore I know nothing….So I would say get curious about uncertainty. Stop freaking out about it because everything…
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The Power of Celebrity for Good – Maggie Baird, Founder & President of Support+Feed, Mother of Grammy-winning Artists Billie Eilish and Finneas
"The venues chosen had to agree….Many of those venues went fully plant-based for Billie shows, which was amazing. So, they had to agree to have at least three plant-based mains. So that doesn't count pretzels…or popcorn…. On that last US leg (of Billie's tour), we went a step further. We worked...
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Women's History On Wall Street– Paulina Bren, Author of "She Wolves: The Untold History of Women on Wall Street," Professor at Vassar College
"Obviously that question of women, money, and wealth changed over time….We don't talk about women wanting money all that much…Women were excited to become gradually big earners, but they treated money very differently. They treated money as a way to create protection for themselves and their...
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Study Shows Green Manufacturing Supports Economic Growth– Bethia Burke, President, The Fund For Our Economic Future
"It's really that investment to transition from a legacy industry into a future industry…that is aiming to drive more sustainability and manufacturing processes and products overall…One of the things that we fundamentally see as being important in this economic shift, and we say it in this...
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Organic Cotton From Female Farmers: Alison Ward, CEO of CottonConnect
"I've been particularly passionate about working with women in those communities to teach them about new techniques so they can understand how to run their farm more effectively, but also understand their rights as women in those communities so they have a stronger voice…. And because they were...
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How Hotel Rooms Affect Your Health & The Planet – JoAnna Abrams, Founder/CEO of MindClick
"We did a study where we shared the story of the careful thought that went into products that were better for people and the planet … Then we administered the standard guest satisfaction survey, and what we found, Joan, was 150% increase in satisfaction, loyalty numbers… Why?...They equated it to...
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Make A Difference Where You Are – Laur Hesse Fisher, MIT's Environmental Solutions Initiative
"There are those individual actions that we can take. But if I can work with my community or work inside of my company, or if I can work inside of my house of worship and we can build some community and some action that way, it will have a much bigger impact than anything that I can do as an...
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Climate Modeling, Weather & Money – Maria Caffrey, Principal Scientist, UK's National Physical Laboratory
"(Climate modelling)…it's being used in things like insurance companies. It's being used by companies for their ESG assessments. So, when you get your insurance premium at the end of the year, there is some kind of climate model that has said something about the risk of your house to flood. It…
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Plastic Bottles & Summer Vacations – Ann Marie (Canela) Chock, Head of Niagara Cares, the Philanthropic Arm of Niagara Water, America's Largest Water Bottler
Plastic Bottles & Summer Vacations – Ann Marie (Canela) Chock, Head of Niagara Cares, the Philanthropic Arm of Niagara Water, America's Largest Water Bottler "We were the first to lightweight our bottles. So, if you think about a typical bottle of soda, it's about 27 grams of plastic. Our…
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Get Out of Your Comfort Zone - Career Advice From 5 Women At The Top Of Their Game
"The first one is own it…Your career…I'm constantly, even today having meetings with people that I don't know, requesting mentorship, reaching out through LinkedIn, going to events. I try to stay very connected and not just people in my close industry or even work type …Every single person you…
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How Can Tech Reduce Housing Costs? – Nikki Greenberg, Real Estate of the Future, from Smart City Expo World Congress 2025
"There's a housing shortage crisis in places all around the world. And for me, as somebody that is from architecture, from urban design, from property development, especially for residential buildings, I believe that technology is …an avenue to be able to facilitate lower cost development…One of...
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Climate Is A Security Emergency – From A Top Climate Scientist & A Geopolitical Expert, From The Earth Day Women's Summit®
"The climate crisis has roots in fossil fuels, but at the same time, fossil fuels fund this Russian inversion to Ukraine. So it means this is a fossil fuel war. If we will actually fight against our overall actually dependency on fossil fuels in the same way we will fight against climate change."...
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Critical Minerals, Energy and A.I. – Liv Carroll, Critical Minerals Expert, former Managing Director - EMEA Mining Lead and Global Natural Resources Lead for Data & A.I. at Accenture
Critical Minerals, Energy and A.I. – Liv Carroll, Critical Minerals Expert, former Managing Director - EMEA Mining Lead and Global Natural Resources Lead for Data & A.I. at Accenture "The energy transition is certainly where critical minerals started, but now we're obviously supporting all of the...
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What's Sustainable Fish & Seafood? – Amanda Leland, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), Author of "Sea Change: Unlikely Allies and a Success Story of Oceanic Proportions"
"Sustainable aquaculture needs to be part of the solution set for health, for feeding a growing population, and it increasingly can be done well, that's the thing. There's been a lot of innovation in that field over the last few decades….There are different types of aquaculture. So the gold...
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Innovative Climate Finance – Kanika Singh, Milken Institute, Director of Catalytic Capital
"We're seeing hurricanes, four of the 10 most damaging hurricanes in the United States happened in the last 10 years. Recovery and rebuild continues in many cases. Last year we had the world's most expensive wildfire on record in Los Angeles. These are market failures. Why are these things...
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How Stories Can Shift Culture – Melissa Jun Rowley, Author of "Beyond The Mic Drop: How Stories Can Shift Culture, Power & Policy"
"What are the stories that people can participate in and see themselves in? I think that's one of the keys that we can unlock when it comes to the whole climate narrative is telling stories that build the scaffolding blocks to a larger narrative that people want to be a part of, and we need to…
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An Air Force Veteran on Bipartisan Climate And Energy Policy – U.S. Representative Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA)
"While the word 'climate' may be politically charged for some, the need for affordable, reliable, and secure energy is something we can all agree on. Americans are calling for action, and as Members of Congress it's our responsibility to deliver. If we want long-term solutions that address both…
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Impact Investing In New Hands In New Ways– Jolyne Caruso, Financial Executive, Investor, Wealth Advisor
"When you look at where families invest across the spectrum of sustainable and impact investing, climate is really at the forefront. They think about that because, look at our environment, look at the food supply… because of environmental issues. Not withstanding the tariffs too….These are issues...
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New Business Models for Philanthropy – Amy Dornbusch, Atlas Daughters, Entrepreneur, Philanthropist, Investor
"Atlas Daughters is a social venture I launched that creates immersive travel experiences for mothers, grandmothers, and their children — bringing families directly to the NGO projects most worthy of investment and ripe for scale. We identify organizations with proven, high-impact work in areas...
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People Leveraging Carbon Markets To Keep Their Land – Stacey Solie, Coproducer of the Documentary "From The Ground Up: Voices From The Carbon Market"
"If you don't tell your stories, then no one will ever know, …Basically I just said, I think we should tell the positive stories and we should do it through the people…Let's actually just go and meet the people at all levels from the people that are involved in the projects and organizing them....
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Managing IT in the Midst of a Tech Revolution - Elizabeth Hackenson, Chief Information Officer, Schneider Electric
"We realized early on with our digital transformation that really what we're trying to do is digitize processes and …we really want to transform. But the people that own these business processes are stakeholders, they're in sales, they're in operations, they're in HR, finance, supply chain, so we...
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Earth Day Career Advice From 6 Extraordinary Women Leaders
"Try as best as you can not to be fear-driven. I think we are so driven by fear that we're never going to be enough, that we aren't going to contribute enough….(Y)ou actually are enough just as you are, right? Take this day, do what you can. Impact the people around you.…Become partners in your...
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The State of Energy Today Might Surprise You - Lisa Jacobson, BCSE on the 2026 Energy Factbook
"You see corporate procurement of clean energy, predominantly renewable energy, but there's fleet investments, there are efficiency improvements in buildings and on campuses underway….but it was a little different than what we'd seen in recent years. It wasn't just solar and wind. There was an...
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How To Talk "Climate" To Keep People Safe – Allison Agsten, USC Center for Climate Journalism & Communications
"If there are people who are willing to talk to you about it, the first thing you got to do is listen….I grew up in a very rural area and it's very conservative also. And when I go home, I don't talk about climate change. I do talk about what's going on with hunting season. 'Oh, there's no deer...
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How Carbon Credits Work – with Donna Lee, CEO & CoFounder, Calyx Global
"What I knew about Carbon Credits having watched them for many years is that they're not always what they seem...So, Calyx Global was founded in 2021 to help companies navigate the space, to really understand….(i)t's a promise that somebody has reduced methane in that landfill or planted some…
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Creativity & Relationships Help Secure Grants – Megan Pater, CEO/Founder of Fund Nation & ECE Solutions
"Number one reason that people get denied and they didn't read the eligibility criteria. So yeah, very, very important …If you don't have the qualifications or something for something, you partner with somebody who does and you guys go after it together.… If you don't know something, that gives…
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"Healthcare Without Harm" to People & Planet – Dr. Katherine Gergen-Barnett & Dr. Anna Goldman, Boston Medical Center
"Healthcare Without Harm is more of an advocacy organization that works with clinicians and other healthcare workers to reduce the environmental impact of healthcare and pollution as well as climate impacts. And then Practice Greenhealth advises hospitals on how to get there and they do this…
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New Nuclear Energy Is Growing Fast – Maria Korsnick, President and CEO, Nuclear Energy Institute
"I've been in this industry for 40 years and we have never been at a moment like we are today. …About 10 years ago, a little bit more than that, the narrative at that time was we were closing down plants…. Now the narrative today is, Hey, you know what? Some of those plants you shut down, we've...
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How To Pressure Electeds For Climate, Clean Air – Dominique Browning, Mom's Clean Air Force
"We, the people we can definitely keep the pressure on, not only on our lawmakers, our governors, our mayors, our senators, our Congress people. We have to keep reminding them that we care about these issues…There's a real key also to the future reimagining, asking companies to reimagine…
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How Hospitals Can Juggle 24/7 Care & Climate Impacts – Carol Gomes, CEO & COO of Stony Brook University Hospital
"I believe in the power of people wishing to volunteer for initiatives rather than assignment of duties and responsibilities and having people feel as though it's a chore… (They) serve as champions in their areas to educate their fellow peers on what it means to be sustainable, what they can do...
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How Utilities Are Evolving While Keeping The Lights On – Nicole Pearson & Brad Johnson of Bentley Systems
How Utilities Are Changing While Keeping The Lights On – Nicole Pearson & Brad Johnson of Bentley Systems "The really great thing about electric utilities is that they maintain a singular focus almost regardless of what's going on around them. It's safety, reliability, resilience. So they'll…
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Using Software, AI To Reduce CO2 & Increase Resilience – Lydia Walpole & Chris Bradshaw of Bentley Systems
Using Software, AI To Reduce CO2 & Increase Resilience – Lydia Walpole & Chris Bradshaw of Bentley Systems "For example, if we have a concrete pile, we can change the parameters and use AI to suggest actually a more optimal design with regards to how much concrete is going to be used. So we quite...
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88% of Companies Say Sustainability Creates Long-Term Value – Maura Hodge, KPMG Chief Sustainability Officer
"There is value in being able to articulate the qualitative value of sustainability…And yes, obviously revenues can be attached to that, but obviously just the opportunity to open up new markets more broadly and innovate…There's the risk and compliance component, which tend to be more easy to...
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Microgrids Keep The Lights On, For Less – Jana Gerber, President of Microgrids, Schneider Electric
"What is a microgrid?...There's a lot of challenges that folks are dealing with around the grid infrastructure, with weather related challenges and load growth and other elements. And so what a microgrid does is help those customers become not only consumers of energy, but also producers of…
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How To Talk About Climate In A Polarized Culture – Katharine Hayhoe, Climate Scientist, Professor at Texas Tech University & Chief Scientist at The Nature Conservancy
"We have to begin our conversations with what really matters to the person or people we're speaking with. And if we don't know what that is, we have to get to know them and build a relationship and then start the conversation where they're at…The second common misconception I see is that we have…
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Critical Minerals 101 – Abby Wulf, Critical Minerals Expert, Former Head of Critical Minerals at the Dept. Of Energy, & Center for Critical Minerals Strategy
"Critical minerals and materials…are essential for key economic and national security technologies that help to fuel great sectors in the United States and around the world…We're at a very interesting point in the United States for critical minerals and materials because the US Geological Survey…...
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Mobilizing Women's Influence – Paula Noble Fellingham
"People care about the diversity because diversity makes teams stronger. And, and this is research based. And so they can say what they want, but those who know that there is strength in diversity, they'll continue on in spite of the, you know, the outcry on the other end….There's research that...
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A Creative Leverage For Good – Kate Williams, 1% For The Planet
"1% for the planet…the way it works is that we have businesses who are our members, and they're actually supporting environmental partners at the level of 1% of revenues….You invest in the things that matter and the planet matters.…(to) drive impact at scale. And so, in terms of that scale, last...
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How Design & Tech Are Transforming Cities – Nikki Greenberg, Real Estate of the Future, from Smart City Expo World Congress 2025
"(B)efore we're even thinking about AI, it's actually thinking about how are we using our technology effectively and is it part of our processes? Does it complicate things or does it simplify things? And the advice that I always give them is like, before you start bringing in new technology and…
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What's a 'Tech Humanist'? – Kate O'Neill, CEO of KO Insights at Smart City Expo World Congress 2025
"One of the other important things about tech humanism to me is that the three-way relationship between business humans and tech is primarily about the relationship between business objectives and human outcomes and using technological capability to amplify that alignment, as opposed to using...
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Unique Practical Urban Climate Actions – Joan's Panel of International City Innovators from Smart City Expo World Congress 2025
The World Bank reports that, "today, more than half of the world's population – over 4 billion people – lives in cities." It also estimates that this shift is going to continue, in fact to DOUBLE to nearly 70% – or 7 out of every 10 people will live in cities by 2050. That's only 25 years away.…
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Career Advice For Difficult Times From 5 Women Leaders
"Your job isn't to know the answer. Your job is to ask all the right questions of where the business is going and…Don't be afraid…(Align) with people who could see the possibility of (your) experience…Take that stretch job and just remember you're in the room to ask different questions, and…
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How Climate Modeling Affects Everything – Maria Caffrey, Principal Scientist, UK's National Physical Laboratory
"(Climate modelling)…it's being used in things like insurance companies. It's being used by companies for their ESG assessments. So, when you get your insurance premium at the end of the year, there is some kind of climate model that has said something about the risk of your house to flood. It…
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Car Rentals Reinvented & Sustainable – with Page Motes, Chief Compliance & Sustainability Officer, Hertz
"Regardless of what's happening with kind of the ESG backlash conversation here, especially in the US, our other jurisdictions are coming hard and fast on regulatory…It doesn't matter what's happening in the broader ESG backlash …The other piece is, our corporate customers that have their own set...
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Women's Trillions Drive New Economic Values – Silvia Bastante de Unverhau, LGT Private Bankers International
"An estimated $124tn is expected to change hands (globally) under the so-called 'great wealth transfer', with women set to inherit nearly 70% of that amount. Combined with rising educational attainment, stronger diversity and inclusion efforts, and ongoing progress in closing the gender pay gap,...
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America's Largest Bottler On Plastic – Ann Canela, Head of Niagara Cares, the Philanthropic Arm of Niagara Water
"We were the first to lightweight our bottles. So, if you think about a typical bottle of soda, it's about 27 grams of plastic. Our bottles, this year, I think they're coming in at 6.6 grams. So it's incredibly lightweight. I always say, you know, it's a Niagara bottle if it crinkles…We've…
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Leveraging AI For Sustainability – with Mandi McReynolds, Chief Sustainability Officer at Workiva
"What we're seeing is, as the new carbon economy moves forward – and this is critical to businesses to operate in the future, in the next five, 10 years – it's colliding with the digital transformation and financial transformation. And so, I think one of the essential things our customers are...
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Carbon Accounting 101 – with Alyssa Zucker, Senior Industry Principal in Carbon at Workiva
"Essentially what carbon accounting is doing is it's using a mathematical equation to come up with a standardized unit of measure that we call a carbon dioxide equivalent of how you can, um, measure and track all of the different greenhouse gases that your business emits through various…
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Hotel Rooms Affect Your Health & The Planet – JoAnna Abrams, Founder/CEO of MindClick
"We did do a study where we shared the story of the careful thought that went into products that were better for people and the planet … Then we administered the standard guest satisfaction survey, and what we found, Joan, was 150% increase in satisfaction, loyalty numbers… Why?...They equated it...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Engaging and enlightening interviews with women leaders on energy, climate, sustainability and corporate responsibility -- ESG, environment,social and governance issues. Business, policy and technology, money, the arts and careers. Topics include driving innovation, leadership, communications and career advice. Inspiration, trends and insights. Hosted and produced by Joan Michelson, acclaimed journalist, business leader, coach and speaker, based in Washington, DC.
HOSTED BY
Joan Michelson
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How many episodes does Electric Ladies Podcast have?
Electric Ladies Podcast currently has 540 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Electric Ladies Podcast about?
Engaging and enlightening interviews with women leaders on energy, climate, sustainability and corporate responsibility -- ESG, environment,social and governance issues. Business, policy and technology, money, the arts and careers. Topics include driving innovation, leadership, communications and...
How often does Electric Ladies Podcast release new episodes?
Electric Ladies Podcast releases new episodes frequently with a large back catalog of 540 episodes. Check the episode list for recent publication dates.
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Who hosts Electric Ladies Podcast?
Electric Ladies Podcast is created and hosted by Joan Michelson.
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