The Grand Challengers Podcast

• The NotebookLM Mini Series #4: Jalapeños as part of the urban form and a lesson in Dutch (feat. Martijn Kuller)

  Welcome to this Mini-Series on The Grand Challengers Podcast! The topic of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been in all our minds over the past few years and is gaining even more momentum with rapid advancements in text, audio and video. Google recently released NotebookLM, a powerful research-support AI that can generate not only summaries of sources that we feed it, but also entire podcast episodes. This Mini-Series will explore the power of NotebookLM, our live reactions to its outputs... and a deep dive into some of the topics that we have covered on the show. We feature previous guests, who are here to join in on the fun!Episode #4 delves into "Water sensitive urban design as part of the urban form" -  Martijn Kuller (ep3) first reacts to how NotebookLM produces a heavily prompted deep dive discussion (my work of art) of an older review we co-authored, highlighting the ease with which prompting can get dangerous and misleading if not in the right hands. We then both react to an Audio Overview of the same review produced by Google Gemini 2.5 Pro, the LLM upon which NotebookLM is based - shorter and more concise.Full Reference to the Paper: Kuller, M., Bach, P.M., Ramirez-Lovering, D. and Deletic, A., 2017. Framing water sensitive urban design as part of the urban form: A critical review of tools for best planning practice. Environmental modelling & software, 96, pp.265-282. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2017.07.003Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Funky Fortune by Danny Shields (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7vRFEGMyTTfeCtc8qiUB82?si=dygdqu9IQLSFYNvVzPNu5w)Chapters:0:00 Intro1:26 Guest Intro and what's happened since Episode 34:39 How this experiment works5:44 Guest's prior experience with AI9:59 Martijn's critique of current thoughts so far12:25 The Experiment Structure13:07 The human summary16:43 Live Reaction - Prompted NotebookLM31:52 Post-Discussion - Prompted NotebookLM36:57 Live Reaction - Gemini Audio Overview52:01 Post-Discussion - Gemini Audio Overview55:16 Thoughts on the future of AI57:50 Wrap-up59:10 OutroDetailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from. Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on: X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach Instagram: @petermbach87 Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

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• #43 - Tom Young: Answers to sustainability are in the links between green roofs, beer, mushrooms, golf, water, cowboys and community

  Thomas Young, Associate and Blue-Green Infrastructure Specialist at The Environment Partnership (TEP) in the UK shows us his journey from the technical side of green roofs to the more holistic broader planning of sustainability and blue-green infrastructure. His incredible journey is supported by many seemingly unrelated topics, travels and passions that have all contributed to the impact he is creating in the UK. Find out how beer, mushrooms, cowboys and community among many others are linked to this intricate story!Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)Chapters:0:00 Intro1:59 Guest Intro and a house tour4:09 Origins of Tom's Ecology Inspiration7:13 Sheffield and Tom's PhD side project12:59 Green Roofs 10122:30 Fungi to help Green Infrastructure28:12 Writing the British Standards for green roofs32:20 Blue-Green or Green-Blue Infrastructure? Return of Terminology35:10 Venturing into Sports Turfs41:56 Joining TEP and thinking about golf courses53:08 The Nuffield Farming Scholarship and Tom's world travels1:03:52 Learning for the UK's future cities and sustainability1:07:40 Tom's current endeavours1:12:47 Q&A Start1:13:14 What does “innovation” mean to you?1:13:53 Key event book person1:14:43 Time Management1:16:56 Favourite childhood memory1:17:36 Biggest Challenge to date1:18:37 Advice for young professionals1:19:42 What would you most like to be remembered for?1:20:27 Where can people find you?1:21:08 Final Message1:21:36 OutroDetailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from. Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on: X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach Instagram: @petermbach87 Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

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• #42 - Mashael Yazdanie: "Doing the right things the right way" - how to holistically plan for sufficiency and renewable energy

  Mashael Yazdanie, Group Leader, Scientist and Lecturer at the Urban Energy Systems Lab at the Swiss Federal Institute of Materials Science & Technology (Empa) traces her journey across the renewable energies towards more holistic thinking around energy, sustainability, society and sufficiency. We cover her projects in both the global north and south, key concepts such as planetary boundaries, sufficiency, efficiency and doughnut economics as well as the need to learn, unlearn and relearn if we want to become more adaptive and resilience in the face of the climate crisis.Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)Chapters:0:00 Intro1:59 Guest Intro and Solar Racing5:58 Nature and energy?9:50 Sufficiency, planetary boundaries and doughnut economics20:31 Mashael's early renewables journey - Biogas Energy in Pakistan29:58 Mashael's early renewables journey - Wind Energy33:37 Mashael's early renewables journey - Tidal energy and the rest36:35 Is there a favourite renewable?38:01 Energy grid centralization vs. decentralization42:30 Planning-support modelling & optimization44:48 Understanding the breadth of modelling tools46:49 Energy in West Africa - The Measures Project54:28 The concept of 'Regret' in decision-making1:01:56 Coming full circle to sufficiency1:04:06 Learning, unlearning and relearning for the climate crisis1:10:06 Mashael's future trajectory1:14:30 Q&A Start1:14:50 What does "innovation" mean to you?1:16:00 Time management1:20:34 Favourite childhood memory1:21:26 Biggest challenge to date1:23:45 Advice for young researchers1:27:57 What would you most like to be rememnbered for?1:30:16 Where can people find you?1:30:58 Final message1:33:06 OutroDetailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from. Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on: X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach Instagram: @petermbach87 Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

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• The NotebookLM Mini Series #3: Multi-tasking superheroes and going meta on AI (feat. Veljko Prodanovic)

  Welcome to this Mini-Series on The Grand Challengers Podcast! The topic of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been in all our minds over the past few years and is gaining even more momentum with rapid advancements in text, audio and video. Google recently released NotebookLM, a powerful research-support AI that can generate not only summaries of sources that we feed it, but also entire podcast episodes. This Mini-Series will explore the power of NotebookLM, our live reactions to its outputs... and a deep dive into some of the topics that we have covered on the show. We feature previous guests, who are here to join in on the fun!Episode #3 delves into "Different perspectives on urban nature-based solutions" -  Veljko Prodanovic (ep13) and I react to how NotebookLM produces a deep dive discussion on an opinion piece around human, ecological and AI perspectives of urban nature based solutions, this time guided by a focus prompt.Full Reference to the Paper: Prodanovic, V., Bach, P.M. and Stojkovic, M., 2024. Urban nature-based solutions planning for biodiversity outcomes: human, ecological, and artificial intelligence perspectives. Urban Ecosystems, 27(5), pp.1795-1806. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-024-01558-6Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Funky Fortune by Danny Shields (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7vRFEGMyTTfeCtc8qiUB82?si=dygdqu9IQLSFYNvVzPNu5w)Chapters:0:00 Intro1:26 Guest Intro and callback to main series3:31 How this experiment works4:31 Guest's prior experience with AI9:50 The human summary11:20 Live Reaction49:18 Post-discussion53:40 Potential Future of AI55:54 Wrap up57:21 OutroDetailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from. Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on: X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach Instagram: @petermbach87 Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

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• The NotebookLM Mini Series #2: Playing "Urban Tetris" and "Heat Detectives" with Blue Green Systems (feat. João P. Leitão)

  Welcome to this Mini-Series on The Grand Challengers Podcast! The topic of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been in all our minds over the past few years and is gaining even more momentum with rapid advancements in text, audio and video. Google recently released NotebookLM, a powerful research-support AI that can generate not only summaries of sources that we feed it, but also entire podcast episodes. This Mini-Series will explore the power of NotebookLM, our live reactions to its outputs... and a deep dive into some of the topics that we have covered on the show. We feature previous guests, who are here to join in on the fun!Episode #2 delves into "Tools for urban heat mitigation" -  João Paulo Leitão (ep1, ep40) and I react to how NotebookLM produces a deep dive discussion of a fairly long and comprehensive literature review paper that we co-authored along with colleagues.Full Reference to the Paper: Probst, N., Bach, P.M., Cook, L.M., Maurer, M. and Leitão, J.P., 2022. Blue Green Systems for urban heat mitigation: mechanisms, effectiveness and research directions. Blue-Green Systems, 4(2), pp.348-376. https://doi.org/10.2166/bgs.2022.028Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Funky Fortune by Danny Shields (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7vRFEGMyTTfeCtc8qiUB82?si=dygdqu9IQLSFYNvVzPNu5w)Chapters:00:00 Intro1:25 Guest Intro1:57 Guest’s prior experience with AI4:06 How this experiment works5:17 Live Reaction49:22 Post-discussion52:12 Thoughts on the future of AI53:49 Final remarks54:39 OutroDetailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from. Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on: X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach Instagram: @petermbach87 Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

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