Calibrating hype with Akshat Rathi

Catalyst · 16 Oct 2025 · 41m

What this episode covers

Akshat Rathi, senior climate reporter at Bloomberg News and host of the Zero podcast, joins Shayle Kann to evaluate various climate technologies and market forces on a 'hype continuum.' They analyze the current state of distributed energy resources (DERs), data center power strategies, and critical infrastructure bottlenecks like transformers and transmission. The conversation also explores the role of venture capital in scaling climate tech, the influence of the Paris Agreement on business policy, and the realistic potential of emerging technologies such as sodium-ion batteries, advanced geothermal, and small modular reactors.

Mentioned

Companies
Bloomberg News, EnergyHub, Octopus Energy, BYD, XAI, Meta, Heron Power, CATL, Tesla, A123, Fervo Energy, Westinghouse, Hitachi, Siemens, GE, Mitsubishi, Rolls-Royce, ASML
Products
Zero

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