In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Pat Layton, director of the Wood Utilization + Design Institute at Clemson University, about the resurgence in constructing buildings with wood and, in particular, with mass timber. Layton discusses the development and adoption of mass timber in the United States, along with the environmental and architectural benefits of integrating mass timber into construction projects. Layton also discusses the manufacturing process for mass timber and the fire resistance and structural strength of the material compared to more mainstream building materials, such as steel and concrete.

References and recommendations:

Woodworks map of mass timber projects; https://www.woodworks.org/resources/mapping-mass-timber/

Mass Timber Business Case Studies; https://www.woodworks.org/resources/mass-timber-business-case-studies/

Cost comparisons of building with mass timber vs other materials; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIcr0R3w9ZQ

Andy Quattlebaum Outdoor Education Center, a building created with mass timber; https://www.thinkwood.com/construction-projects/andy-quattlebaum-outdoor-education-center

Building projects that use wood and mass timber as the main material; https://www.woodworks.org/award-gallery/

Building with Mass Timber, with Pat Layton

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Fiona Burlig, an assistant professor at the University of Chicago, about improving access to clean drinking water in India. In partnership with a private company that cleans drinking water and delivers water directly to households, Burlig recently conducted a field experiment to find out how different pricing strategies and subsidies influence people’s willingness to pay for clean drinking water; she and her colleagues gauged the effectiveness of these strategies by monitoring health outcomes for households that had varying levels of access to clean water. Burlig discusses the design and findings of her study, what these findings reveal about how people value clean water, and the involvement of both the public and private sectors in expanding access to clean water in developing nations.

References and recommendations:

“The Value of Clean Water: Experimental Evidence from Rural India” by Fiona Burlig, Amir Jina, and Anant Sudarshan; https://www.nber.org/papers/w33557

“Development Impact” blog from the World Bank; https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/impactevaluations

Valuing Access to Clean Drinking Water in India, with Fiona Burlig

In this week’s episode, host Margaret Walls talks with Jenny Schuetz of Arnold Ventures, a philanthropic foundation where Schuetz serves as vice president of housing infrastructure, and where she focuses her work on expanding and diversifying the supply of housing while addressing issues like affordability and vulnerability to climate risks. Walls and Schuetz discuss the intersection of housing policy and climate change, the growing exposure of US households to climate risks such as wildfires and floods, the gaps in information about hyperlocal climate risks, and policies that can help protect communities from future climate disasters.

References and recommendations:

“How to nudge Americans to reduce their housing exposure to climate risks” by Julia Gill and Jenny Schuetz; https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-to-nudge-americans-to-reduce-their-housing-exposure-to-climate-risks/

“Fixer-Upper: How to Repair America’s Broken Housing Systems” by Jenny Schuetz; https://www.brookings.edu/books/fixer-upper/

“Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity” by Yoni Appelbaum; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/700580/stuck-by-yoni-appelbaum/

Reducing Climate Risks through Housing Policy, with Jenny Schuetz

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Robert D. Metcalfe, a professor at Columbia University. Metcalfe recently coauthored a study of the levels of invisible particulate matter released in the air during everyday household activities like cooking and cleaning, exposure to which has been linked to health problems. He shares key findings on trends in indoor air quality, how people change their behavior when made aware of pollution levels in their homes, and the potential benefits and trade-offs of government subsidies for indoor air quality monitoring technologies. Metcalfe also highlights what areas of future research could inform this field and guide more effective interventions for public health and policy.

References and recommendations:

“Making the Invisible Visible: The Impact of Revealing Indoor Air Pollution on Behavior and Welfare” by Robert D. Metcalfe and Sefi Roth; https://www.nber.org/papers/w33510

Seeing the Invisible: Responses to Indoor Air Pollution, with Robert D. Metcalfe

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Sandeep Pai, director of climate and energy policy at Swaniti Global. Pai grew up in India’s coal belt; he has spent his career examining the coal and energy sectors in India, first as a journalist and now as a researcher and advisor focused on justice in the clean energy transition. He joins the podcast to discuss India’s energy and power sectors: the unique trajectory of the country in first carbonizing its economy and now decarbonizing and building out its renewable energy sector while balancing its goals for economic development. Pai also discusses what justice in the energy transition looks like in different contexts around the world, and how political and social realities shape the challenges and considerations involved in building an equitable clean energy future.

References and recommendations:

“The Climate Question” podcast from the BBC; https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w13xtvb6

What’s the Role of Coal in India?, with Sandeep Pai

In this episode, Rob speaks with Nicholas Burns, the Roy and Barbara Goodman Family Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Relations at Harvard Kennedy School about his time serving as U.S. Ambassador to China and on his perspectives about bilateral efforts to address climate change. 

Read a transcript of the podcast: https://www.belfercenter.org/sites/default/files/2025-06/nick-burns-podcast-transcript-june-2025.pdf.

Photo credit: Grace DuVal/Harvard University

Nicholas Burns on his time as U.S. Ambassador to China and on efforts to address climate change.

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with McKenna Peplinski, a senior research associate at Resources for the Future, about delays in building up the infrastructure that delivers electricity to the United States. Many electric power projects, such as bids for new generators and transmission lines, are waiting in long queues to connect to the grid. In a recent study she coauthored, Peplinski examines the consequences of these delays in building out power infrastructure by comparing two scenarios that the research team modeled: one in which projects move forward on schedule, and another in which projects get stalled. She shares the research findings, which reveal that these delays have negative consequences for energy costs, emissions from power plants, public health, and the feasibility of adding renewable energy sources to the grid.

References and recommendations:

“Power Delayed: Economic Effects of Electricity Transmission and Generation Development Delays” by Daniel Shawhan, McKenna Peplinski, Sally Robson, Ethan Russell, Ethan Ziegler, and Karen Palmer; https://www.rff.org/publications/working-papers/power-delayed-economic-effects-of-electricity-transmission-and-generation-development-delays/

“Clean Power Delayed: Effects of Infrastructure Delays on Health, Environment, and US Households” by Daniel Shawhan, McKenna Peplinski, Sally Robson, Ethan Russell, Ethan Ziegler, and Karen Palmer; https://www.rff.org/publications/working-papers/clean-power-delayed-effects-of-infrastructure-delays-on-health-environment-and-us-households/

“Decarbonize Your Life” from Heatmap News; https://heatmap.news/decarbonize-your-life

Power Delayed: The Hidden Costs of Postponing Power Projects, with McKenna Peplinski

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Madeline Yozwiak, a PhD candidate at Indiana University Bloomington, about the potential of residential rooftop solar technology to address the growing problem of household energy insecurity in the United States. Energy insecurity—the inability to access or afford sufficient energy to meet basic household needs—affects about one in four US households. In a recent study she coauthored, Yozwiak evaluated whether rooftop solar can reduce energy burden by comparing the experiences and energy expenses of otherwise similar households, with and without rooftop solar. She shares findings from the study, which suggest that rooftop solar can lead to significant savings on energy bills and improve overall utility affordability.

References and recommendations:

“The effect of residential solar on energy insecurity among low- to moderate-income households” by Madeline Yozwiak, Galen Barbose, Sanya Carley, Sydney P. Forrester, David M. Konisky, Trevor Memmott, Cristina Crespo Montañés, and Eric O’Shaughnessy; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-025-01730-y

“Rooftop solar can reduce energy insecurity” by Madeline Yozwiak; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-025-01750-8

“Strangers in Their Own Land” by Arlie Russell Hochschild; https://thenewpress.org/books/9781620972250/

Who Benefits from Rooftop Solar—and How Much?, with Madeline Yozwiak

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Varun Sivaram, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and founder and CEO of Emerald AI, about how “climate realism” could shape the future of US climate policy. In a recent article for the Council on Foreign Relations, Sivaram lays out the case for climate realism—an approach to US climate policy that both realistically prepares for the consequences of climate change and advances American foreign policy objectives. Sivaram explains and defends his arguments for climate realism, which include contentious claims about the feasibility of reaching global climate targets, US contributions to global emissions, and the economic benefits of the clean energy transition. Sivaram then outlines an alternative vision for US climate policy that promotes investments in clean technology and action in the international arena to mitigate the worst consequences of climate change.

References and recommendations:

“We Need a Fresh Approach to Climate Policy. It’s Time for Climate Realism” by Varun Sivaram; https://www.cfr.org/article/we-need-fresh-approach-climate-policy-its-time-climate-realism

“The Most Powerful People You’ve Never Heard Of” episode of the Freakonomics podcast; https://freakonomics.com/podcast/the-most-powerful-people-youve-never-heard-of/

“The World for Sale: Money, Power, and the Traders Who Barter the Earth’s Resources” by Javier Blas and Jack Farchy; https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-world-for-sale-9780197651537

“Reflecting on Solar Geoengineering, with David Keith” from the Resources Radio podcast; https://www.resources.org/resources-radio/reflecting-solar-geoengineering-david-keith/

A New (and Controversial) Approach to Climate Policy, with Varun Sivaram

In this week’s episode, host Margaret Walls talks with Megan Lawson, an economist and researcher at Headwaters Economics, about how outdoor recreation economies support communities throughout the United States despite creating unique challenges for their residents. Many US communities that border public lands and scenic natural areas have recreation-dependent economies, meaning a majority of the local economy is driven by recreational activities and tourism. Lawson explains how recreation-dependent economies can be vulnerable to over-tourism, shortages in affordable housing, and increased risk of wildfires and floods. Lawson then unpacks the feasibility of public land sales to address challenges in making affordable housing available and describes ways to increase hazard resilience in recreation-dependent communities to protect full-time residents and visitors. 

References and recommendations:

“Housing on public lands will be limited by wildfire risk and development challenges” by Megan Lawson; https://headwaterseconomics.org/public-lands/wildfire-public-land-housing/

“If/Then: The Slippery Slope of Federal Land Sales” by Margaret Walls and Alexandra Thompson; https://www.resources.org/common-resources/if-then-the-slippery-slope-of-federal-land-sales/

“In Defense of Public Lands” by Steven Davis; http://tupress.temple.edu/books/in-defense-of-public-lands

“History of the Rain” by Niall Williams; https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/history-of-the-rain-9781620407707/


Recreation-Dependent Communities, Public Lands, and Housing Affordability, with Megan Lawson

In this episode, Rob speaks with Elaine Buckberg, Senior Fellow at Harvard's Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability, about the future of the EV market, both domestic and international. 

Read the transcript of this episode: https://www.belfercenter.org/sites/default/files/2025-07/elaine-buckberg-podcast-transcript-july-2025.pdf

The Future of EVs: A Conversation with Elaine Buckberg

Resources Radio is a weekly podcast by Resources for the Future. Each week we talk to leading experts about climate change, electricity, ecosystems, and more, making the latest research accessible to everyone.