Energy powers our homes, our cars, and our lives. But the kinds of energy we use – and the ways we use it – are rapidly changing our climate. A podcast launched this year by the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI), What if it works?, examines this challenge, looking at the energy solutions to climate change.

Every two weeks, What if it works? features faculty and researchers from across MIT to explore the science, technology, and policies that can transform the world’s energy systems and promote a more sustainable future.

The podcast invites listeners to hear from the people testing new ideas and working on breakthroughs in labs, industry, and government – the ones who aren’t afraid to ask, “What if it works?”

“Without greater public awareness about the climate crisis and the solutions needed to mitigate it, the world will fail to meet the goals expressed in the Paris Agreement,” says William H. Green, the director of MITEI and Hoyt C. Hottel Professor of Chemistry, who was a guest on an early episode of the podcast. “The labs across the MIT campus are doing world-changing energy research and we want to share that work with the world. We want to encourage hope that the world can successfully transition to a much cleaner energy future and to spur investment, invention, and the new tools, new institutions, and new policies that will make it happen.”

Guests include former US Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics and Engineering Systems, Emeritus, who lays out the role of government in decarbonizing energy, and Climate Project Policy Mission Lead Christopher Knittel, the Associate Dean for Climate and Sustainability at MIT Sloan, who takes that conversation a step further with his examination of what the next four years of US energy and climate policy might look like under the new Trump administration.

Susan Solomon, the Lee and Geraldine Martin Professor of Environmental Studies and Chemistry, brings her expertise from working to fix the hole in the ozone layer to provide practical advice to solve the great challenge of global temperature rise. “I really believe we’re right on the cusp of succeeding with this problem,” she says in the podcast. “We are right on the inflection point. And the reason is that basically when I look at environmental issue after environmental issue, I see the same factors that characterize when we start to achieve success. It’s the public being engaged and interested and feeling that it’s personal; the technology steering going on that makes solutions practical. We’ve seen all of that.”

In one episode, Larry Susskind, professor of urban and environmental planning, describes his work as a mediator between renewable energy project developers and affected communities, highlighting the social implications of energy work and illuminating why so many renewable energy projects are stalling. “Right now, we’re down about 20% of the megawatts that could be running if the projects that had been planned and financed had been able to go ahead,” he shares.

Other episodes tackle the various technologies important to meeting net-zero emission goals, from carbon removal technologies such as direct air capture with Howard Herzog, a MITEI senior research engineer, to nuclear energy with Jacopo Buongiorno, the Battelle Energy Alliance Professor in Nuclear Science and Engineering, to fusion energy with Dennis Whyte, the Hitachi America Professor of Engineering.

Another episode digs even deeper: Climate Project Decarbonization Mission Lead Elsa Olivetti, the Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Career Development Professor, explores the environmental impacts of the materials that make up these technologies. “Materials and the manufacture of materials are responsible for over a third of greenhouse gas emissions globally,” Olivetti says. “And so the choices we make at every stage of designing materials, of recycling, and manufacturing are going to have a global impact.”

In an episode with Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Desirée Plata, the podcast explores the role of methane in climate change. Plata says that “methane is the only thing, the only greenhouse gas, that will change the rate of warming in our lifetimes,” and shares the work she is doing to help mitigate these harmful emissions.

The goal of the podcast is to take a balanced, optimistic approach to pressing energy and climate topics while featuring influential MIT researchers working in a wide range of energy applications.

What if it works? does this in part by pairing energy expert Robert Stoner, founding director of the MIT Tata Center for Technology and Design and president of the Kendall Square Project, with journalist Kara Miller, Boston Globe columnist and former host of the public radio program Innovation Hub as co-hosts.

“I’m in the business of finding solutions to climate change – finding those low-carbon technologies that are going to enable us to move the economy of the world into a very different place,” remarks Stoner in the first episode. “Making the case for climate optimism” sets the tone for the podcast, distilling the current energy landscape and setting the stage for future conversations.

Future guests on the podcast include Nobel Laureate Moungi Bawendi, the Lester Wolfe Professor of Chemistry; Brad Hager, the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Earth Sciences; and Ariel Furst, the Paul M. Cook Career Development Professor of Chemical Engineering. What if it works? is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. For episode notes and transcripts, visit energy.mit.edu/podcasts.

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