Second Nature

Production is underway on a new season! We're starting off strong with deep dives on how the AI boom is impacting our money. As a primer on the environmental impact of data centers, we thought it was the perfect time to revisit the episode: We Need to Talk About AI. 
This episode originally aired on May 25, 2025.
When you ask ChatGPT to write a cover letter, make your grocery list, or edit an image, what's actually happening in the real world? As AI gets bigger by the day, it's requiring more and more energy, water, and land in communities around the world. 
Tech companies are investing billions of dollars in data centers and technologies to power AI, but are they also investing in sustainable and equitable resources to keep it going?
Today, we’re going to take a step back from the chatbots to understand the true impact of AI, how we’re tracking and regulating that impact, and we’ll find out what it will take to build a sustainable future for AI with Shalolei Ren — associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California Riverside whose work focuses on AI for good. 

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Episode Credits
Listener contributions: Kylie Kovatch, Artie Sadahiro, Nicole Collins, Parisa Golchoubian, Brian Stancheski
Episode expert: Shaolei Ren
Editing and engineer: Evan Goodchild‍
Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham

(00:00) - Introduction

(02:50) - GPT is search on steroids

(07:07) - Our complicated relationship with AI

(14:46) - Is AI taking all our water and power?

(22:47) - Regulating the industry

(31:23) - What's next?

We’re working on a new season of the Second Nature podcast, and we’re doing things a little bit differently this time around — More episodes on each topic. Deeper dives. Easier submission process. First up this season, we're tackling the question: How is AI Impacting Our Money?
For the best shot at getting on an episode, please send in your submissions before November 8. Submitting is easy!
Head to the submission form to see the questions and submit your audio. 
Record your audio and attach it to the form, then hit send!
That's it! We'll let you know if we've featured your submission on the show.

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(00:00) - Marker 1

It seems that the modern world is in its isolation era, leaving us craving the easy comfort of irl camaraderie. Ideally, the kind that comes without the need to buy a ticket or split a bill. Because becoming a villager isn't just a salve for loneliness, it's a rebellion against consumerism.
After a whole season of following the money, we're wrapping up our finale contemplating how we can create community without it. We're hearing from our community about how they show up as villagers, and how they start their own villages. Turns out you don't need to bean extrovert, have a huge group chat, or be a pillar in your community. You just have to show up. 
These relationships we make with our community create bonds that strengthen our ability to adapt in climate disasters, financial instability, and even supply chain woes. And getting started is easier than you think.

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🌎 Find citations and further reading in the full show notes.
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Episode Credits
Listener contributions: Nick Blocha, Elena Demireva, Tavia, Camila Bronson, Jen Horn, Lena
Research: Makenna McBrierty
Editing and engineering: Evan Goodchild‍
Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham

When data centers come to town, power bills go up, the water supply gets squeezed, and emissions start to rise. It's no wonder seven in ten Americans don't want one in their backyard. In the midst of this AI gold rush, many tech companies are taking advantage of communities, health, wealth, and safety for promises of a better future. But communities aren't taking the bait.
In this episode, we talk about the real-life effects of AI infrastructure and hear how it's affecting folks in our community. We get the stats on this booming industry and what's at stake. We hear from Abre' Conner, the civil rights attorney leading the NAACP's lawsuit against Elon Musk's xAI — a data center that's now running 59 methane gas turbines in a Mississippi community, breaking a law that's been on the books since the 1970s.
And we ask the uncomfortable question: could all this energy hunger actually accelerate the renewable transition? Is the AI revolution happening to us or for us? And what can we do about it?
Episode rundown:

(00:53) - On thing we can agree on

(09:14) - The ripple effects of the AI boom

(14:35) - The NAACP Lawyer Taking Elon Musk's xAI

(27:59) - Can the Grid Save Us?

(43:52) - Keep Making Noise

📱 Want to make your money count? Download the Commons app .
🌎 Find citations and further reading in the full show notes.
📞 Want to submit to the show? We'd love to hear from you!
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Episode Credits
Listener contributions: Artie Sadahiro, Birdie Peelman, Amanda Doughty
Research: Makenna McBrierty
Editing and engineering: Evan Goodchild‍
Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham

You don't have to look much further than your grocery receipt to see how climate change can affect our food supply chain. But some of the key drivers of climate change are sitting right in our carts. It's a chicken-or-egg debacle that we're happy to explore on this episode if it means understanding how we can create a more adaptable, equitable food supply chain.
 
Farms are dealing with historic heat waves slashing wheat and maize yields, record rainfall collapsing corn harvests, sea level rise swallowing farmland on the East Coast, and disappearing pollinators that one-third of our food supply depends on. And we're paying the price. We hear from our community about how the rising price of groceries has meant making sustainability tradeoffs on what they buy at the store.
Food insecurity and the climate crisis are also intertwined. Maggie Baird, founder of Support and Feed, helps us understand how the animal agriculture industry is at the center of many climate (and health woes), challenging us to rethink food traditions rooted in culture and family identity. To better understand how we got here,  Commons founder Sanchali Seth Pal follows the money through animal agriculture subsidies.   
Episode rundown:

(00:54) - How our food choices and the climate crisis feed each other

(02:30) - How climate change is affecting food prices

(04:41) - When sustainable food becomes a luxury you can't afford

(09:07) - Animal agriculture, culinary tradition, and food inequity with Maggie Baird

(27:49) - Our tax dollars are making meat cheaper?

(33:59) - Changing what we eat can change the climate

📱 Want to make your money count? Download the Commons app .
🌎 Find citations and further reading in the full show notes.
📞 Want to submit to the show? We'd love to hear from you!
📷 Follow Second Nature on Instagram.

Episode Credits
Listener contributions: Sophia Anderson, Jeanne, Mary Klene, Molly Barton, Katherine, Dom Altomari
Research : Makenna McBrierty
Editing and engineering: Evan Goodchild‍
Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham