The Stream (with Will & Tom)

We're back!
In this week’s episode, Will & Tom are joined by Cody Friesen, the founder of Source - the poster child of the atmospheric water generation, or air to water market.
The Arizona start-up is setting out to do for drinking water what solar panels have done for electricity, namely disrupt the centralised market. His Hydropanel technology takes in sunlight and air to create water from the atmosphere, adding minerals, ozonating and then storing the water for drinking at a later date.
After securing an eye-watering $50 million dollars of investment from BlackRock, he’s under enormous pressure to lead this new market segment against heavy scepticism from seasoned water practitioners that claim it’s an expensive way to generate what they perceive to be low volumes of water.
Cody is not only kickstarting the new season and 2022 but he’s also the first of many guests to who we are awarding WaterPunk status. Those of you who have seen the video version of this podcast on our Youtube channel will have noted the alternative intro.
The WaterPunk badge is for those guests with an even greater bias for action; those who are pushing boundaries to innovate, despite greater headwinds and adversity.
We hope you enjoy the episode!

🔔 We hope you enjoy the episode and make sure to follow and subscribe to our channels to get alerts on the episodes.

We’re delighted you can join us on this voyage of discovery, as we journey down The Stream.
Special thanks to this season's sponsor, Raymond James.
And our charity partner, Frank Water.
And thanks to our knowledge partners: British Water, WWF, Water Alliance, DCU Water Institute, SurplusWater25, Earth and Environmental Science at Berkeley Lab, Water Foundry and Atlantean Media.

In this special mini-season, before we kick off season 5, Will and Tom pack their bags and head to WEX Global 2022 in Valencia to chat with four special guests.

This week is the final episode in this mini-series and Will & Tom are joined by the fantastic Mohsen Mortada of IBI Group.

Mortada talks about implementing the 'one water' approach at the Californian metropolitan water district, an over 100-year-old organisation that Mortada is looking to prepare for the next century.

Plus hear about:

• Changing workforce dynamics, the effects of covid and evolving to new workplaces
• Is it sexier to be an investment banker or a bitcoin trader?
• The best ways to attract young talent using sustainability
• Changing the image of the utility sector and the importance of developing their communications
• And his take on people choosing not to be informed about climate change.

Plus, Mortada opens up about having a heated debate with his next-door neighbour about using recycled water and his own civil disobedience...

You don't want to miss this one!

We hope you enjoy it!

🔔 We hope you enjoy the episode and make sure to follow and subscribe to our channels to get alerts on the episodes.

We’re delighted you can join us on this voyage of discovery, as we journey down The Stream.
Special thanks to this season's sponsor, Raymond James.
And our charity partner, Frank Water.
And thanks to our knowledge partners: British Water, WWF, Water Alliance, DCU Water Institute, SurplusWater25, Earth and Environmental Science at Berkeley Lab, Water Foundry and Atlantean Media.

This week on #TheStream, Will and Tom are joined by the incredible Sunny Wang, Water Resources Manager at City of Santa Monica.

Sunny talks about his journey from being a private consultant, working in the UK and being admittedly amused by the imperial-metric measurement mix, to taking up the role in Santa Monica.

Since then he’s been involved in one of the most progressive projects, with the city set out to be “water self-sufficient” by 2023 using the One Water approach.

Plus hear about:

• The strategy to reduce the reliance on external water supplies, due to the increased combined threat of natural disasters and climate change
• The need to communicate complex water treatment developments to the public, and how he has learned to articulate the water sector to his six-year-old back home!
• Sunny's role as an adjunct facility at the University of Southern California, teaching civil and environmental engineering

And listen to why Sunny says when it comes to water infrastructure, you can’t afford to get it wrong...

All this and more!
We hope you enjoy the episode!

🔔 We hope you enjoy the episode and make sure to follow and subscribe to our channels to get alerts on the episodes.

We’re delighted you can join us on this voyage of discovery, as we journey down The Stream.
Special thanks to this season's sponsor, Raymond James.
And our charity partner, Frank Water.
And thanks to our knowledge partners: British Water, WWF, Water Alliance, DCU Water Institute, SurplusWater25, Earth and Environmental Science at Berkeley Lab, Water Foundry and Atlantean Media.

This week on The Stream, Will and Tom are joined by the incredible Professor Dragan Savić, a legend when it comes to the intersection of water and digital.

He was the UK’s first professor of Hydroinformatics, the former CEO of KWR Water Research Institute, and a chartered civil and water engineer with over 40 years of experience in research, teaching, and consulting.

Plus hear about:

• How Will and Tom had the privilege of working alongside Dragan in recent years on an advisory board, at KWR and events.
• Dragan sharing details of obtaining his master's in Belgrade, Serbia, before moving to Canada, the UK, and Exeter University. Tom would say it's probably the best university in the world, although, as a graduate, perhaps he's personally biased!
• They discuss elements of ‘chance’, and how we can help to stack the odds in our favour by being open to new opportunities and embracing changes.
• As well as touching on topics such as AI and population degrowth, he talks about development in Africa and how he wants to focus on the continent in the next phase of his very fruitful career.

🔔 We hope you enjoy the episode and make sure to follow and subscribe to our channels to get alerts on the episodes.

We’re delighted you can join us on this voyage of discovery, as we journey down The Stream.
Special thanks to this season's sponsor, Raymond James.
And our charity partner, Frank Water.
And thanks to our knowledge partners: British Water, WWF, Water Alliance, DCU Water Institute, SurplusWater25, Earth and Environmental Science at Berkeley Lab, Water Foundry and Atlantean Media.

In this episode, Will and Tom are joined by Newsha Ajami, Chief Development Officer for Research, Earth & Environmental Sciences Area, Berkeley Lab.
They talk about the role of water demand reduction to help increase water security across the Colorado River Basin.
Newsha discusses what’s needed to move from a centralised, aka the conventional water systems, to the decentralised model and the role of engaging community ambassadors.
She believes spurring the first movers is really important in the decentralised movement, and talks about policy developments and leading cities such as San Francisco
There is also talk, believe it or not, on pizza! That’s right, we discuss how digital innovation has given people insights on their pizza’s being cooked and delivered. Why is it that people have a more positive relationship with their local pizzeria than their water company?
It was great to have Newsha back on The Stream – we’re a big fan of her vision for the future of water.
We hope you enjoy the episode!
Special thanks to this season's sponsor, Raymond James.
And thanks to our knowledge partners: British Water, WWF, Water Alliance, DCU Water Institute, SurplusWater25, Earth and Environmental Science at Berkeley Lab, Water Foundry and Atlantean Media.

🔔 We hope you enjoy the episode and make sure to follow and subscribe to our channels to get alerts on the episodes.

We’re delighted you can join us on this voyage of discovery, as we journey down The Stream.
Special thanks to this season's sponsor, Raymond James.
And our charity partner, Frank Water.
And thanks to our knowledge partners: British Water, WWF, Water Alliance, DCU Water Institute, SurplusWater25, Earth and Environmental Science at Berkeley Lab, Water Foundry and Atlantean Media.