Electric Futures
by University of Southern California
Latest episode
Electric Futures Season 4 Episode 1 | AI, Data Centers, and Trust
Electric Futures Season 4 Episode 1 | AI, Data Centers, and Trust
About this podcast
Electric Futures is USC’s award-winning podcast that explores the charged intersection of energy and the environment through deep, on-the-ground reporting, original academic research, and alongside the people who will be most impacted by the changes coming their way.
Produced by the Center for Climate Journalism at the Annenberg School and hosted by Charles Zukoski — former USC provost, Robert E. Vivian Professor in Energy Resources, and Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and Biomedical Engineering — Electric Futures made its debut in 2024, charting as a Top 50 Science P
Episodes
The newest 20 of 28 episodes
- Electric Futures Season 4 Episode 1 | AI, Data Centers, and Trust · 17 minToday is the day before the mid-term elections in the United States, and it’s also the day that USC Annenberg's Center for Climate Journalism and Communication releases findings…
- Episodio 8: El Centro de Datos en la Cuadra · 26 min¿Alguna vez te has preguntado qué sucedería si cruzaras una comunidad agrícola con la forma más avanzada de tecnología humana? ¡Fuimos al Valle Imperial para averiguarlo! En este…
- Episode 7: Electric Futures Live! Everything You Need to Know About Data Centers · 52 min · Season 3 Episode 5Recorded live in USC’s Wallis Annenberg Hall in April 2026, this special episode focuses on the key issues surrounding data centers, the focus of Season 3. What exactly are data…
- The Data Center Next Door | Episode 6: The AI Data Center Pushback · 1 h 1 min · Season 3 Episode 6In our Season 3 finale, we explore what it is about data centers that has been creating animosity across the country. Is it the pushback against what powers artificial…
- The Data Center Next Door | Episode 5: Will AI Bring Jobs to the Valley? · 43 min · Season 3 Episode 5In this episode, we explore how communities think about jobs when a data center comes knocking. When a data center comes to town, will it bring high paying jobs to a community?…
- The Data Center Next Door | Episode 4: Not in My Backyard · 1 h 3 min · Season 3 Episode 4When a hyperscale data center comes to a place like Imperial Valley, communities have questions and concerns. Billions of dollars of investment — and profit – are at stake…
- The Data Center Next Door | Episode 3: Water is for Fighting Over · 45 min · Season 3 Episode 4In this episode, we look how the proposed data center in the Imperial Valley would use water, then explore similarities and differences with data centers around the nation. How…
- The Data Center Next Door | Episode 2: The Tech Behind an AI Data Center · 59 min · Season 3 Episode 2We take a deep dive into the AI data center planned for California’s Imperial Valley and talk to the developers themselves about how the project came about. Then, we explore the…
- The Data Center Next Door | Episode 1: Back to the Imperial Valley · 51 min · Season 3 Episode 1Have you ever wondered what might happen if you crossed an agricultural community with the highest form of human technology? We went to the Valley to find out! In this season of…
- Season 3 Trailer | The Data Center Next Door · 2 minSeason three of Electric Futures, the USC energy transition podcast, takes listeners back to California’s Imperial Valley, a region explored throughout season one in connection…
- Special | My Story Is A Climate Story: 2025 LA Wildfires | Episode 3: One Year Later · 37 minIt has been a year since the fires, and some of the impacts are only now starting to come into play. Despite efforts from the government and community groups to provide speedy…
- Special | My Story Is A Climate Story: 2025 LA Wildfires | Episode 1: January 7th · 37 minThis special three-episode season takes an intimate look at the impact of the 2025 Los Angeles Wildfires on the USC community. We’ll get to know five USC professors who were…
- Special | My Story Is A Climate Story: 2025 LA Wildfires | Episode 2: The Emotional Impact of Loss · 31 minClimate-amplified extreme weather events are rising in frequency and intensity all over the world; yet the emotional impacts of these events, the loss and grief they bring, and…
- Your Community, Electrified | Episode 4: Where We Go From Here · 48 minWe talk to two expert journalists about what’s next for the U.S. Department of Energy programs and green energy during the second Trump administration. In the first half of the…
- Your Community, Electrified | Episode 3: It’s All Connected (Communities) · 21 minIt’s January 20th, 2025. Donald Trump’s second term as president. He signs a slew of executive orders, including one called “Unleashing American Energy.” This order rolled back…
- Your Community, Electrified | Episode 1: Shadow Mountain · 29 minWe’ll take you to the Shadow Mountain housing development in Menifee, California. It’s an experimental community outside of Los Angeles where 200 all-electric homes produce and…
- Your Community, Electrified | Episode 2: The Tech Behind the Microgrid · 43 minWe take you through the science of microgrids with UCLA’s Rajit Gadh, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and founding director of Smart Grid Energy Research…
- Season 2 Trailer | Your Community, Electrified · 2 min · Season 2Brief description: Before fires scorched Los Angeles in January of 2025, the Electric Futures team began exploring a new neighborhood in Southern California that was built with…
- Building a Green Chicago - A Collaboration with "Home Interrupted" · 29 minThe Electric Futures team recently collaborated with the independent media outlet "Feet in Two Worlds" to highlight stories around the nexus of immigration and climate change…
- Valle de Litio | Episodio 7: Una Época de Cambio · 30 min · Season 1 Episode 7Este episodio fue hecho especialmente en Español para explicar en resumen la investigacíon hecha por el ex-rector y profesor de ingeniería química y ciencias materiales, Charles…
