Inevitable

Ashvin Dayal is Senior Vice President for Power and Climate at the Rockefeller Foundation, where he oversees the Global Energy Alliance (GEA), a multi-billion-dollar initiative backed by the Rockefeller Foundation, the IKEA Foundation, and the Bezos Earth Fund to expand access to clean, reliable electricity worldwide.

In this episode of Inevitable, Dayal explains why energy access remains one of the defining development challenges of the century, with roughly three billion people still lacking enough electricity to meaningfully power economic activity. The conversation explores how philanthropic capital can unlock private investment in markets that commercial investors often avoid, the rise of distributed solar and mini-grids in places like India and across Africa, and how programs like Mission 300 aim to electrify hundreds of millions of people in the coming decade.

Dayal also shares lessons from a decade of deploying distributed energy systems, the growing role of digital tools and AI in managing complex power systems, and why the Rockefeller Foundation is now exploring nuclear and small modular reactors as part of the future global energy mix.

Episode recorded on March 4, 2026 (Published on March 17, 2026)

In this episode, we cover: 

(0:00) An overview of the Rockefeller Foundation

(2:31) Ashvin’s background in disaster response and climate resilience

(8:16) What energy access really means for economic opportunity

(10:15) The “modern energy minimum” and the 3 billion people below it

(14:11) The Rockefeller Foundation and the creation of GEA

(19:06) How philanthropic first-loss capital unlocks clean energy investment

(24:19) Why distributed solar and mini-grids work for emerging markets

(27:57) Lessons from Smart Power India and scaling rural electrification

(36:39) Mission 300 and the effort to electrify Africa

(42:05) Why Rockefeller is exploring nuclear and SMRs

(47:09) Rockefeller’s legacy: from Standard Oil to global clean energy

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*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

William Layden is Co-founder and CEO at Rune, a company building modular, behind-the-meter micro data centers that plug directly into solar and wind plants. These units operate on a fully electric, DC-to-DC architecture—bypassing the traditional grid and unlocking new economics for compute at renewable energy sites.
In this episode of Inevitable, Layden explains how solar clipping and curtailment leave vast amounts of clean power stranded—and how Rune’s “RELIC” units turn that waste into usable compute. The conversation dives into DC architecture, Bitcoin as a beachhead market, and why traditional data centers are ill-suited to an era of distributed energy. Layden also unpacks why modular infrastructure may be the fastest path to deploying AI-scale compute at the edge of the energy transition.
Episode recorded on Jan 27, 2026 (Published on Feb 17, 2026)
In this episode we cover: 
(0:00) Intro
(3:19) An overview of Rune
(7:15) How energy flows and gets los in today’s power stack
(10:50) Clipping: the hidden inefficiency in solar
(14:17) Curtailment: why the grid rejects clean energy
(20:47) Starting with Bitcoin before scaling to AI workloads
(25:50) Which compute loads can run interruptibly
(27:26) Rune’s business model and value to power producers
(33:16) Where Rune operates and who’s backing it
(36:10) Why modular, DC-native design matters for scale
Links:
William Layden on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-layden
Rune: https://www.rune.energy/

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*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

Varun Sivaram is Founder and CEO of Emerald AI, a company building software that makes AI data centers power flexible. As AI data centers become one of the fastest-growing sources of electricity demand, grid constraints are emerging as a critical bottleneck for compute deployment.
In this episode, the conversation focuses on why power availability — not GPUs — is increasingly the limiting factor for AI. Data centers concentrate massive electrical loads in specific locations, creating grid stress, long interconnection delays, and rising electricity costs for surrounding communities. Traditional grid expansion alone is too slow to meet near-term AI demand.
Emerald AI’s response is to treat AI data centers as flexible loads rather than fixed ones. Its software coordinates compute with grid conditions by shifting workloads across time, geography, and on-site energy resources like batteries. The episode walks through real-world demonstrations, including a published field trial showing a 25% power reduction during grid stress without breaking compute performance. The discussion frames flexible load as one of the fastest ways to unlock power for AI while improving grid stability.
Episode recorded on Feb 2, 2026 (Published on Feb 10, 2026)
In this episode, we cover:
(0:00) Intro
(1:36) What Emerald AI is and how it works
(6:41) Varun’s background and why he founded Emerald
(10:59) Emerald’s software for power-flexible data centers
(19:04) The three types of flexibility: temporal, spatial, and resource
(23:29) How much control customers give Emerald
(28:20) Coordinating compute with on-site energy like batteries
(31:27) Off-grid vs. grid-connected data centers
(35:39) Why exiting the grid creates political and systemic risk
(37:12) Emerald AI’s open roles
Links:
Varun Sivaram on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/varunsivaram
Emerald AI: https://www.emeraldai.co/
AI data centers as grid-interactive assets paper

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*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

Eugene Kirpichov is Co-Founder and Executive Director of Work on Climate, a global community helping professionals take action on climate across industries and disciplines. Originally created to help people transition into climate-related careers, the organization is now evolving toward a deeper goal: empowering individuals to become climate leaders—people who transform their companies, sectors, and communities from within.
In this episode of Inevitable, Kirpichov shares why the “get a climate job” model is no longer enough, and why systemic change depends on how professionals use their power. The conversation explores the concept of regenerative economics, the breakdown of siloed climate thinking, and the need for new economic architectures that support resilience, not extraction. We also dive into what it means to build bottom-up leadership, how Work on Climate is shifting its model, and why now is a critical moment to invest in alternatives that go beyond federal policy.
Episode recorded on Jan 22, 2026 (Published on Feb 3, 2026)
In this episode, we cover:
(0:00) Intro
(2:40) Climate as one piece of a larger systemic crisis
(7:19) An overview of Work on Climate
(11:28) Why the climate job market isn’t enough
(17:08) The shift from jobs to leadership and power
(24:49) What a regenerative economy actually means
(32:00) Building new economic operating systems
(37:00) The Work on Climate member experience 
(46:49) Final thoughts on reclaiming power
Links:
Eugene Kirpichov on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eugenekirpichov
Work on Climate: https://workonclimate.org/

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at [email protected].
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*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

Stu Landesberg is Co-founder and CEO of Seneca, a company developing autonomous aerial systems to detect and suppress wildfires before they grow out of control. Designed for rapid initial response, Seneca’s technology deploys robotic aircraft that launch within minutes, helping protect homes, infrastructure, and communities in fire-prone regions.
In this episode of Inevitable, Landesberg shares why he left Grove—his first company focused on sustainable consumer goods—to tackle what he sees as a civilization-level challenge: early wildfire intervention. The conversation explores how climate conditions, outdated fire cycles, and insurance market failures have converged to threaten life in the American West. Landesberg walks through Seneca’s approach to changing that trajectory: distributed strike teams of large autonomous suppression copters, built in the U.S., designed to reach fires faster than any existing response method. He also unpacks the product’s potential for mop-up operations, prescribed burns, and utility asset protection.
In this episode, we cover:
(2:40) Wildfire as a threat to housing and the economy
(10:07) The urgent need for faster fire response
(15:12) Why helicopters aren’t a scalable solution
(20:03) New use cases beyond initial attack
(28:25) What autonomy looks like in practice
(33:11) Why Seneca isn’t just another drone company
(38:21) Wildfire as a climate and national security risk
(46:18) Seneca’s first deployments and what’s next
Links:
Stuart Landesberg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuartlandesberg
Seneca: https://seneca.com/

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at [email protected].
Connect with MCJ:
Cody Simms on LinkedIn
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*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant