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How Business and Storytelling Are Changing Ocean Conservation · How To Protect The Ocean

• 0:00
  What if the future of ocean conservation
• 0:01
  wasn't just built in labs, but in
• 0:04
  boardroom, startup
• 0:05
  accelerators, and global conferences?
• 0:08
  Because right now,
• 0:09
  there's a shift happening.
• 0:11
  Solutions are no longer being studied.
• 0:13
  They're being built, funded, and scaled.
• 0:16
  And one of the places where all of this
• 0:18
  comes together is a
• 0:20
  conference called Earth-X.
• 0:21
  Today, I'm joined by Peter
• 0:23
  Simic, the CEO of Earth-X.
• 0:25
  Peter brings a unique
• 0:26
  perspective to environmental work.
• 0:28
  He started his career as a
• 0:30
  journalist and storyteller.
• 0:32
  And now leads one of the largest
• 0:33
  convenings of business leaders,
• 0:35
  policymakers, investors, and
• 0:37
  conservationists working
• 0:39
  on real-world solutions.
• 0:41
  In this conversation, we talk about why
• 0:43
  collaboration across the
• 0:45
  industries is critical,
• 0:46
  how market-driven solutions
• 0:47
  are changing conservation,
• 0:49
  and why storytelling might be one of the
• 0:51
  most powerful tools we have.
• 0:54
  This episode is going to give you a
• 0:56
  behind-the-scenes look at how solutions
• 0:59
  actually move forward in today's world.
• 1:02
  This is the How to
• 1:03
  Protect the Ocean podcast.
• 1:04
  And if you want to learn more about
• 1:06
  things like Earth-X conferences or other
• 1:08
  conferences that are happening in and
• 1:10
  around the world that
• 1:11
  you might be interested in,
• 1:12
  or you just want to learn about the
• 1:13
  ocean, you want to hit that follow button
• 1:15
  right now so you don't
• 1:16
  miss next week's episode.
• 1:18
  Now, here's the interview with Peter
• 1:19
  Simic talking about the
• 1:21
  benefits of Earth-X 2026.
• 1:23
  Hey, Peter, welcome to the How to Protect
• 1:25
  the Ocean podcast. Are you
• 1:26
  ready to talk about Earth-X 2026?
• 1:29
  Let's do it.
• 1:30
  All right.
• 1:31
  Look, I am very excited for this
• 1:33
  interview because I am a big
• 1:35
  supporter of Earth-X in general.
• 1:37
  I've actually been on Earth-X back in the
• 1:41
  day, a few years ago during COVID, doing
• 1:43
  some Oceans Week work with Ross Mason,
• 1:46
  which was a lot of fun.
• 1:48
  I feel like I really love the mission of
• 1:50
  Earth-X and the conferences and how they
• 1:53
  bring together so many
• 1:54
  different people from science,
• 1:56
  professional backgrounds, different
• 1:57
  professional backgrounds, different parts
• 1:59
  of the world, and bring together people
• 2:00
  on finding solutions to help our planet,
• 2:02
  not just the ocean, but help our planet.
• 2:04
  But as you know, the ocean takes up more
• 2:07
  than two-thirds of the planet, almost
• 2:10
  three-quarters, and so it's a very
• 2:11
  important part of protecting the Earth.
• 2:13
  And so we talk a lot about it at Earth-X.
• 2:15
  And so I'm very, very happy to have you
• 2:17
  on Peter to be able to talk about that.
• 2:20
  So we're going to get
• 2:20
  into the conference.
• 2:21
  We're going to get into a
• 2:22
  little bit of background on you.
• 2:24
  Before we get into all that, why don't
• 2:25
  you just let us know who
• 2:26
  you are and what you do.
• 2:28
  Thanks, Andrew. I'm Peter Simic.
• 2:29
  I'm the CEO of Earth-X.
• 2:31
  I've been CEO for about seven months or
• 2:33
  so, but with the organization for longer
• 2:36
  than that, for about four years, kind of
• 2:37
  working on the conference side and
• 2:39
  programming and messaging and helping to
• 2:41
  build this incredible organization.
• 2:43
  I have the privilege of working for it.
• 2:44
  That's awesome. Now you have a background
• 2:46
  in journalism and media and so forth.
• 2:51
  So what, for you, what personally led you
• 2:53
  to work with an organization in the
• 2:56
  environmental space in
• 2:57
  general, not just Earth-X?
• 2:59
  Sure. I mean, yeah, my background, I was
• 3:01
  a journalist for most of my career before
• 3:03
  joining Earth-X, but, you know, there's
• 3:04
  different kinds of journalists.
• 3:05
  And I was mostly a long form magazine
• 3:08
  journalist and a columnist.
• 3:08
  So I always had a bent and a point of
• 3:11
  view and kind of almost, I guess, one of
• 3:13
  the buzzy terms is
• 3:14
  like activist journalism.
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  But I wasn't quite that far. But I
• 3:16
  always, you know, was writing about
• 3:17
  things I cared about.
• 3:19
  And so my role is sort of using
• 3:20
  storytelling as a force for good and
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  moving our society towards, you know, at
• 3:27
  least awareness, if not realization and
• 3:28
  action on critical issues.
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  And the more I was doing that, especially
• 3:32
  last several years, I found myself
• 3:33
  gravitating more towards writing about environmental issues.
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  In a certain sense, you couldn't write
• 3:38
  about anything without it having some
• 3:40
  environmental element as part of it,
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  because, you know, we live in this
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  interconnected, you know, social
• 3:45
  ecosystem that the environment is more
• 3:47
  and more just a day to day concern and
• 3:49
  how how we live is
• 3:51
  affecting the broader planet.
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  So it was about four years ago, a friend
• 3:54
  of mine who had been working with Earth-X
• 3:55
  and building up new partnerships with
• 3:58
  groups like the United Nations.
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  And actually, my first job work with
• 4:02
  Earth-X was I worked on a
• 4:03
  media campaign with the UN.
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  So it wasn't as huge a jump. It was very
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  much like I could use my background in
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  storytelling and messaging and media to
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  kind of help raise the volume on some of
• 4:13
  the critical issues facing the planet.
• 4:16
  Absolutely. Did you were you ever like
• 4:19
  when you grew up, were you a kid who was
• 4:21
  very in tune with the environment or just
• 4:23
  interested in the environment or just
• 4:25
  kind of like, you know,
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  it's part of the day to day.
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  You just go through it or you kid who was
• 4:29
  in the ponds looking for
• 4:30
  frogs and that kind of stuff.
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  That's funny. No, I'm thinking I'm
• 4:34
  thinking about what my mom would say if
• 4:36
  she if I'm not because there was a point
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  where like the joke was I wouldn't go
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  outside like I like in a nature such a
• 4:42
  city kid as like a
• 4:43
  skateboarder, but no, that's not.
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  But no, I grew up in New York on the
• 4:47
  island near the ocean. So like going to
• 4:50
  the beach, being on the sea, being in the
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  water is just a key part of life.
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  And I think when it gets in you at a
• 4:55
  young age, it never really leaves you.
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  And so that was always sort of the
• 4:59
  gateway to nature was
• 5:00
  just being in the water.
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  And yeah, I remember as a kid, we would
• 5:04
  get dragged to these summer camps and
• 5:06
  like it was like a pond. But
• 5:08
  I was a terrible fisherman.
• 5:10
  I joined the hiking club in high school.
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  And after about a year and a half for
• 5:15
  that, I figured there are better ways to
• 5:16
  spend a Saturday. Yeah. So I was
• 5:18
  definitely not like a Boy Scout, you
• 5:20
  know, building a
• 5:21
  building makeshift thing.
• 5:22
  It was really later in life after, you
• 5:24
  know, I lived in various cities around
• 5:26
  the world and very much was my early
• 5:28
  journalism was arts and
• 5:29
  culture and very much of society.
• 5:31
  But then it was kind of later on that,
• 5:33
  you know, I started to I think it was I
• 5:36
  forget maybe in my mid
• 5:37
  thirties. I won one birthday.
• 5:39
  I decided I was going to go buy a tent
• 5:41
  and go to Big Bend National Park and live
• 5:43
  out in the wilderness. You know, like
• 5:45
  life sometimes pushes you in those
• 5:46
  directions and realize that nature is
• 5:48
  there for you in ways
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  that you don't expect.
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  And so that's my entry into a lot of
• 5:52
  this. It's like I want to work to save
• 5:54
  the planet because I think it's given
• 5:55
  given me so much. And it's yeah, of
• 5:58
  course, it's not just, you know, in all
• 5:59
  the ways we talk about between climate
• 6:01
  and conservation, ocean health and yeah,
• 6:03
  you know, food and resources.
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  But there's just almost like, is that
• 6:06
  spiritual connection to it where it's
• 6:08
  like, this is our this is our home. I
• 6:10
  completely agree. I had a very similar
• 6:12
  kind of upbringing. I was I did not live
• 6:13
  by the ocean, but I lived in the city.
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  And so everything was a concrete
• 6:17
  surrounded and we had the Great Lakes
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  around us. I grew up in Toronto. And and
• 6:20
  so you go there and you enjoy being in
• 6:22
  the water. You enjoy going to cottages
• 6:24
  and things like that. But for the most
• 6:26
  part, my introduction
• 6:27
  was it was a documentary.
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  It was the Jacque Cousteau documentaries
• 6:30
  that would come out. And that's when I
• 6:31
  really fell in love with the ocean. And
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  then I went to the ocean to Florida for
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  the first time. I actually stepped foot
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  in this. No, looking back, I knew exactly
• 6:38
  what I wanted to do after that.
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  And I think as I think as we grow into
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  adults and we start to realize how
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  important nature is, we start to really
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  be aware and appreciate it more,
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  especially for me as
• 6:52
  a parent of two girls.
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  I know I've always like, oh, this is this
• 6:55
  is something that's interesting. I've
• 6:56
  never been a huge camper. I've enjoyed
• 6:58
  hiking and stuff like that. But I find as
• 7:01
  I grow older, I definitely enjoy nature a
• 7:04
  lot more than I did when I kid, maybe
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  because I just appreciate it more. I have
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  I have more that maturity to to
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  appreciate it more. But I love that. I
• 7:11
  love that answer. Now, you know, I love
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  the fact that you came from a journalist
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  background and you mentioned a lot about
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  storytelling and how you can use your
• 7:20
  skills and storytelling to be able to to decide what you want to do.
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  And I think that's a great way to be able
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  to discuss a lot and probably connect
• 7:25
  with an audience around environmentalism
• 7:28
  and so forth. Now, you know, a lot of the
• 7:31
  times when I first got into science, when
• 7:33
  I first got into storytelling through the
• 7:35
  podcast and YouTube channel and so forth,
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  a lot of the stuff I was talking about
• 7:39
  was doom and gloom to make people aware
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  of what was happening into the ocean.
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  I was like, Andrew, I've I've listened to
• 7:50
  your stuff, but it's just it's too
• 7:51
  depressing. I can't I can't hear it
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  anymore. From your background in your
• 7:55
  skill set, when you started to do these
• 7:57
  campaigns with like the UN. So what was
• 7:59
  your approach when you started to do
• 8:02
  these campaigns to get people interested?
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  Like you talked a lot about culture and
• 8:06
  things like that in your in your past.
• 8:08
  How were you getting people interested in protecting the oceans or just protecting the planet?
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  And walked into it because now I have to
• 8:16
  tell the story of the giant dinosaur. So
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  the UN campaign that I worked for is
• 8:22
  called Don't Choose Extinction. And it
• 8:24
  was developed maybe four or five years
• 8:26
  ago, UNDP brought in a bunch of agencies
• 8:30
  and tried to answer exactly that question. This is this big doom and gloom topic.
• 8:32
  It's serious. It's there's a need for
• 8:38
  urgency. But how can we think about
• 8:40
  messaging something like climate with a
• 8:42
  little bit of humor, a little make it a
• 8:45
  little bit more approachable? And the
• 8:47
  idea was they created a giant animated
• 8:49
  dinosaur called Frankie who came back to life in this video that they created, stormed the United Nations and made a plea to the world saying my species didn't have a choice. We were hit by giant asteroids. And they were like, I'm not going to do this.
• 9:04
  But the magic of that was they translated
• 9:06
  this this campaign video into I think 40
• 9:10
  plus languages using a different
• 9:12
  celebrity to voice the language to voice the different languages. So Jack Black was the English voice. Nikolai Castowato from the Game of Thrones was the Danish voice. And so that campaign video was created by the people who were using the language to voice the language.
• 9:20
  And so that campaign became viral. And
• 9:23
  when I came on a friend and I we were
• 9:25
  like, how do we how do we take this
• 9:27
  campaign and kind of sustain its life
• 9:29
  beyond that sort of initial campaign
• 9:31
  launch? And then and he had the amazing
• 9:32
  idea of like, why don't we create a life size dinosaur? And we ended up traveling around the world for a year and a half of this giant dinosaur bringing it to places like Kigali Rwanda and the canned lions festival.
• 9:44
  And we were in Times Square. We got on,
• 9:46
  you know, got interviewed by Telemundo in
• 9:49
  the middle of Times Square because you
• 9:50
  realize if you bring this giant dinosaur
• 9:52
  around, everyone's like, what is
• 9:53
  happening? And how do I get a picture with it? Figure out. But at the end of the day, we were we were raising awareness around this campaign. And I think that's it. It's like I'm a big fan of Catherine Hayhoe who wrote this.
• 10:00
  And I think that's it. It's like I'm a
• 10:02
  big fan of Catherine Hayhoe who wrote an
• 10:05
  amazing book about how do you message
• 10:06
  things like climate to places in the
• 10:09
  middle of the country to faith groups to
• 10:12
  people who not just don't engage in the
• 10:14
  issue a lot, but the way that we've talked about climate and maybe the way we've talked about a lot of environmental issues have almost alienated them from the conversation and created this sense that like, oh, that's not my issue because I think that's what we're doing.
• 10:27
  And so that touches into when I was a
• 10:29
  journalist and trying to understand, you
• 10:31
  know, characters and subjects that came
• 10:33
  from wildly different walks of life than
• 10:35
  where I'm coming from. And you have to
• 10:36
  kind of sit and listen and try to understand what makes them tick and what they're really motivated by and then realize that have the confidence, I guess, that at the end of the day, we all share this.
• 10:37
  So it's just a matter of time of figuring
• 10:48
  out how do you value the planet? Is it if
• 10:51
  you didn't grow up surfing in the East
• 10:53
  coast, maybe you grew up hunting in the
• 10:55
  middle in the Midwest. Maybe you are a
• 10:58
  skier and you're dismayed by the shortening winters or maybe, you know, maybe you're really just concerned about putting food on a table and getting your kids to the east coast.
• 11:07
  But those things connect to environmental
• 11:10
  issues when you when you dig around and
• 11:12
  find how it's all interconnected on some
• 11:13
  level. So it's really just understanding
• 11:15
  your audience in a lot of ways.
• 11:16
  Absolutely. And I love that aspect of like looking at like understanding the audience, looking at connecting with that audience, you know, coming with a media background and communications background.
• 11:26
  Obviously, you can see that coming into
• 11:28
  effect right away as you as you come into
• 11:30
  Earth X and just deal with in sort of
• 11:32
  environmental issues in the first place.
• 11:35
  You know, it's kind of funny because many
• 11:36
  people look at sustainability as you
• 11:38
  know, with with, you know, scientists solving problems and policy makers helping solving problems. Where do you see like, like, what's the point of the problem?
• 11:39
  You know, scientists solving problems and
• 11:41
  policy makers helping solving problems?
• 11:44
  Where do you see like, like that media
• 11:49
  and communication perspective? Where do
• 11:51
  you see that in helping
• 11:51
  environmental problem solving?
• 11:53
  I mean, it's one of the reasons that drew
• 11:56
  me to Earth X, it was in in, you know, I
• 11:59
  was living in Dallas, Texas, Earth X is
• 12:01
  based in Texas, that that alone, I think
• 12:03
  is kind of an eyebrow razor, you don't
• 12:05
  find a lot of, you know, Dallas isn't the
• 12:08
  first city that comes to mind when you
• 12:09
  think environmentalism.
• 12:11
  Nonetheless, we have a beautiful river in
• 12:14
  the largest urban hardwood forest in the
• 12:16
  nation. But no, I think it's what drew me
• 12:19
  to Earth X is it was already trying to do
• 12:21
  that. It was already trying to message to
• 12:23
  groups that weren't
• 12:24
  engaged in these conversations.
• 12:26
  And I think now you look around, you
• 12:29
  know, our country in the world and you
• 12:31
  see the polarization, you see
• 12:32
  misinformation, you see a lot of ways in
• 12:36
  which we're pulled apart or sort of
• 12:39
  activated by the ways we message things
• 12:42
  for figuring out how to take these take
• 12:45
  these stories and take these issues and
• 12:46
  and and communicate them in a way that's
• 12:48
  makes them feel effective
• 12:49
  and relevant and not just the
• 12:52
  narrative or but also not, you know, not
• 12:55
  whitewash it or greenwash it or brush it
• 12:57
  over and realize that it's you just got
• 12:59
  to find the ways to to kind of
• 13:01
  communicate these things across across
• 13:02
  all the different perspectives.
• 13:05
  Yeah, no, absolutely. And I think that's
• 13:06
  that it kind of leads right into my next
• 13:09
  question, you know, to bring people
• 13:11
  together, you know, through media,
• 13:13
  through communications, through
• 13:14
  storytelling, you know,
• 13:16
  Earth X plays a big role in that.
• 13:18
  Can you just kind of for some of the
• 13:20
  listeners who aren't familiar with with
• 13:22
  Earth X, you just talk about what Earth X
• 13:24
  is and what it's what
• 13:26
  problems is trying to solve?
• 13:28
  Sure. I mean, Earth X is a 15 year old
• 13:30
  environmental nonprofit and it's been a
• 13:32
  lot of things throughout the years. I
• 13:34
  mean, the way I tell the story, it
• 13:36
  started as a street festival 15 years ago
• 13:39
  in Dallas, really trying to reignite the
• 13:42
  passion around Earth Day and hearkening
• 13:44
  back to this time, the early 70s, when
• 13:46
  Earth Day grows out of, you know,
• 13:47
  the early 90s, when Earth Day grows out
• 13:47
  of, you know, Rachel Carson, the silent
• 13:50
  spring revolution comes out of the
• 13:52
  radicalism of the 60s, but ends up
• 13:55
  creating a movement where you have the
• 13:57
  clean air, clean water acts and the EPA
• 13:59
  all established under republican
• 14:01
  administration and this real
• 14:02
  acknowledgment that, you know, the roots
• 14:04
  of environmentalism and the roots of
• 14:05
  environmental policy go back to this time
• 14:07
  where we saw a little
• 14:08
  bit eye to eye around that.
• 14:13
  And so, you know, the first time we had a conversation with the president of the United States was at the national
• 14:13
  festival, trying to use almost like a big
• 14:15
  we took over a big park and had
• 14:18
  everything from kids climbing trees and
• 14:21
  like solar car challenge, driving races
• 14:23
  and tiny homes to stages where people
• 14:26
  were coming in and having conversations
• 14:28
  between a republican and democrat senator
• 14:30
  or people, you know, debating nuclear at
• 14:33
  the time when it wasn't when a lot of
• 14:34
  environments were like wouldn't touch
• 14:36
  nuclear for 10 foot pole.
• 14:38
  And so it was this kind of like eclectic
• 14:41
  mix of bringing all sides together, but
• 14:43
  also not being a climate organization
• 14:45
  almost deliberately like we're we're it's
• 14:48
  really about it's as much about
• 14:50
  celebrating the beauty
• 14:51
  of the natural world.
• 14:52
  And you mentioned, Cristo, I mean, we're
• 14:54
  gonna have Sylvia Earl and Bob Ballard
• 14:57
  and these amazing explorers at our event
• 14:59
  this year because that are amazing
• 15:01
  science communicators, but they're also
• 15:03
  remind us what a
• 15:04
  beautiful treasure this place is.
• 15:05
  But so Earth X was this big environmental
• 15:08
  festival after covid. We kind of took a
• 15:10
  step back and and asked ourselves a
• 15:12
  question like what is where does this fit
• 15:14
  in the very busy calendar of
• 15:16
  environmental events?
• 15:18
  There's obviously the cops happen every
• 15:19
  year, climate weeks, a huge deal is a lot
• 15:22
  of business and sustainability
• 15:23
  conferences. And I think we came back to
• 15:25
  that sort of original vision of where
• 15:27
  this connector where this group in the
• 15:29
  middle of the country that can talk about
• 15:30
  these things in a way that other
• 15:32
  organizations aren't.
• 15:33
  And we have this ability to bring the
• 15:35
  left and the right together, but really
• 15:37
  also break down barriers between
• 15:39
  different industry silos and have an
• 15:42
  event that brings together everyone from
• 15:44
  corporate sustainability folks to the
• 15:46
  energy folks to, like I said, science and
• 15:48
  explorers and sort of
• 15:50
  wide cross section of people.
• 15:53
  And it's a three day event that happens
• 15:55
  every April still around Earth Day.
• 15:56
  And we say it's a conference, but it's
• 15:59
  really it's 20 plus conferences across
• 16:01
  three days. It's a big it's a large
• 16:03
  convening of a whole wide range of
• 16:06
  different people looking at any number of
• 16:09
  solutions depending on where you're
• 16:10
  coming in and what's your what's your background?
• 16:12
  I think what that's what I love most
• 16:15
  about Earth actually conferences is
• 16:17
  because there's just so many different
• 16:20
  people coming through, like you mentioned
• 16:22
  before, different business sectors and
• 16:24
  different places around the world,
• 16:25
  different places around the country and
• 16:27
  different politics and so forth.
• 16:28
  It's a really important aspect to
• 16:32
  understanding global solutions around
• 16:35
  protecting the Earth and understanding
• 16:36
  and like you said, celebrating. It's not
• 16:38
  just protecting Earth, but celebrating
• 16:40
  the Earth. How do you make sure that we
• 16:45
  live in siloed areas, especially these
• 16:48
  days, you have your own communities.
• 16:50
  So when you get to a conference, you tend
• 16:51
  to hang out with the people you have most
• 16:54
  in common with how does the conference
• 16:57
  give way to ensuring that people are
• 17:00
  coming from a diverse set of maybe
• 17:04
  potential values or diverse set of
• 17:06
  business practices or even diverse set of
• 17:09
  business sectors that
• 17:10
  are all talking together?
• 17:11
  How does that I mean, you can't make
• 17:13
  people put it and put them on the same
• 17:14
  room like, hey, talk it out.
• 17:16
  Yeah, yeah. How does that how do you guys
• 17:19
  try to encourage that to happen? And when
• 17:22
  you see it happen, you know, what does
• 17:24
  that do for you for the organization?
• 17:27
  Yeah, that's it. That's it's something I
• 17:28
  think we're always working on and always
• 17:30
  trying to evolve. And even our format
• 17:32
  this year, we've evolved in from the last
• 17:35
  couple of years, kind of looking towards
• 17:37
  that. I mean, one way we program the
• 17:39
  conferences, Earth X will curate a
• 17:42
  handful of stages throughout the week.
• 17:44
  But we the way we get to 20 plus
• 17:46
  conferences and workshops and things that
• 17:48
  we rely on partners who will come in and
• 17:50
  stage their own event within our event.
• 17:52
  So we think of Earth X as this big 10.
• 17:54
  And if you either host a conference
• 17:57
  that's already happening somewhere else
• 17:58
  or want to want to stage something for
• 18:00
  your audience, come in and put your thing
• 18:02
  on underneath our big umbrella.
• 18:04
  And the idea there is they're bringing in
• 18:06
  and they have the relationships with
• 18:08
  their own audience that we might not have
• 18:09
  a relationship with. And then we
• 18:11
  structure the flow of the day and the and
• 18:13
  the three days so that there's enough
• 18:15
  opportunities for everyone to come
• 18:17
  together in plenaries to
• 18:18
  come together in receptions.
• 18:19
  There's our founder, Tramal S. Crow hosts
• 18:22
  an after party at his home every night
• 18:25
  during the conference. So there's all
• 18:27
  these opportunities for everyone to kind
• 18:29
  of get out of their shell and find the
• 18:31
  ways into into into other people's
• 18:34
  spaces. Also, when you get a badge for
• 18:36
  Earth X, it gets you into
• 18:37
  all 20 plus conferences.
• 18:38
  So maybe you bought a badge because you
• 18:41
  are are used to going to the Marine
• 18:43
  Technology Society's event, which they're
• 18:45
  doing one of their symposiums at our
• 18:47
  thing. It's all about blue finance
• 18:48
  investing in ocean economy, blue economy.
• 18:52
  But maybe you'll come in the day before
• 18:53
  because you see that some of these
• 18:55
  amazing ocean pioneers are speaking that
• 18:57
  day on the main stage. But you walk
• 19:00
  across the hall and you might wander into
• 19:01
  something about the bioeconomy or an
• 19:04
  agriculture conference or something like that.
• 19:05
  And we hope that there's enough of
• 19:07
  almost, you know, flip the channel type
• 19:09
  of experience where you can bounce
• 19:10
  between these rooms and just sort of
• 19:12
  sample different things and bump into
• 19:14
  people that you might not otherwise meet.
• 19:16
  And that's why, you know, zero week is
• 19:18
  the big energy conference in Houston that
• 19:20
  takes place this year, maybe about three
• 19:22
  weeks before our event, which can make it
• 19:24
  a challenge for finding those, you know,
• 19:26
  those energy speakers that you're really
• 19:27
  trying to lock down because I mean, you
• 19:28
  have the one of the most important
• 19:29
  convening of energy leaders. But but
• 19:32
  unlike something like zero week, we're
• 19:33
  going to have a strong energy conference.
• 19:35
  And so we're going to have a strong
• 19:35
  energy component looking at energy from
• 19:36
  all angles. But in our in an after party
• 19:40
  on a reception, you'll see an energy exec
• 19:42
  next to someone who's maybe a CSO for a
• 19:44
  fortune 500 company next to someone who's
• 19:46
  doing, you know, ocean reef conservation
• 19:50
  or finding new economic models around
• 19:52
  relieving, you know, cleaning up ocean
• 19:55
  pollution and things like that.
• 19:57
  And so the goal is that you can build
• 19:58
  these new relationships and these new
• 19:59
  insights and these new perspectives on
• 20:01
  these different issues because sometimes
• 20:03
  when you get too locked in your in your
• 20:05
  silo, you miss other ways of thinking
• 20:06
  about it that you might get unlocked if
• 20:08
  you just happen to walk by a stage where
• 20:10
  someone's talking about,
• 20:11
  you know, butterfly habitats.
• 20:14
  And so you know, you're going to have to
• 20:15
  ask, you know, like, you mentioned
• 20:17
  earlier, like the world is in a very
• 20:19
  interesting spot right now, to say the
• 20:21
  least, especially from political
• 20:22
  spectrum, it's either this team or that
• 20:25
  team. And and when especially when it
• 20:28
  comes to environment, it seems like the
• 20:29
  environment has been very polarized for
• 20:31
  some reason over the last
• 20:32
  like the five to 10 years or so.
• 20:34
  So again, you know, making sure that
• 20:37
  everybody's having these conversations
• 20:38
  and coming from the right place of
• 20:40
  celebrating the plan. And we know that
• 20:43
  people on both sides of the political
• 20:46
  spectrum or even if they're in the
• 20:47
  middle, everybody loves the earth at some
• 20:49
  point, you know, a lot of people love it.
• 20:52
  They may have different reasons for it.
• 20:53
  But when you're when you go on vacation,
• 20:55
  a lot of the times you're going near
• 20:56
  nature or you're going to relax. And
• 20:58
  that's usually around
• 20:59
  an ocean or so forth.
• 21:00
  How do you encourage more positive
• 21:05
  dialogue than the negative dialogue that
• 21:08
  we see online or that we see dissipating
• 21:11
  in or happening in sort of different
• 21:14
  political political circles?
• 21:16
  How do we and focus everybody on
• 21:18
  solutions, finding
• 21:19
  solutions in celebration?
• 21:22
  Well, I think you said it. I think a lot
• 21:23
  of, you know, a lot of the dialogue
• 21:26
  around the environment over the last 20
• 21:27
  years, really, and and kudos to Al Gore
• 21:31
  for raising the volume on
• 21:32
  the on the climate crisis.
• 21:35
  But at the same time, I think you had a
• 21:37
  kind of implicit rhetoric around that
• 21:39
  that was really about these are bad
• 21:41
  things are about to happen
• 21:42
  to us and we need to act now.
• 21:43
  And I think that that is certainly a
• 21:46
  motivator in human behavior, but it's not
• 21:48
  the only motivator. And I think what
• 21:49
  happens is you become discouraged and
• 21:51
  sometimes cut off and shut down.
• 21:53
  And I think you said it. It's how do you
• 21:54
  find the way to focus more on solutions
• 21:57
  and that there are these inspiring
• 21:59
  stories and there are these inspiring
• 22:01
  technologies and we do have the tools to
• 22:03
  be more effective than we might otherwise
• 22:05
  think when you you think about the scale
• 22:08
  of some of the issues and talk about it.
• 22:10
  And I think that's what we need to talk
• 22:10
  about is easy to talk about climate a
• 22:11
  lot, but even things like biodiversity
• 22:12
  loss and mass extinction, these sort of
• 22:15
  almost inconceivable kind of global
• 22:19
  issues that as an individual, they can
• 22:21
  feel so overwhelming and daunting that
• 22:23
  you just kind of shut down.
• 22:24
  But it's thinking about solutions, things
• 22:27
  that people can do individually. And then
• 22:28
  another thing we really lean on is
• 22:30
  looking at sort of market based
• 22:32
  approaches to some of these issues. So
• 22:34
  you can kind of bypass why people care
• 22:37
  about things or what their motivation is
• 22:39
  and what their values is as long as
• 22:41
  they're sort of a bottom line common
• 22:43
  denominator where, you
• 22:44
  know, I'll give you an example.
• 22:45
  We had a group last year that actually
• 22:47
  won our ocean pitch competition in our
• 22:50
  impact investment summit called the e
• 22:51
  capital summit and it was a group out of
• 22:54
  Kentucky, which is not the first place
• 22:56
  you think of where an ocean
• 22:58
  innovator is going to come from.
• 22:59
  But what they did was they created this
• 23:02
  technology super simple and easy to
• 23:04
  deploys and I hope I don't butcher it,
• 23:06
  but it's like tiny little phosphorous
• 23:07
  pellets that they put in these almost
• 23:09
  like burlap sack looking things.
• 23:11
  And you drop them in wastewater,
• 23:13
  stormwater runoff trains in the middle of
• 23:16
  the bread basket of America, the
• 23:18
  heartland. And as there was rain and
• 23:20
  agricultural runoff, these things would
• 23:22
  capture a lot of that fertilizer runoff
• 23:24
  and the nitrogen before it flowed out
• 23:26
  into the Mississippi and down the
• 23:28
  Mississippi out into the Gulf where
• 23:29
  there's that massive dead zone.
• 23:31
  And so here you have this group that oh,
• 23:33
  and then when you take that when it
• 23:34
  captures all this, you can take it and
• 23:35
  then resell it as fertilizer to
• 23:37
  agricultural producers.
• 23:38
  Yeah, so you have this like circular
• 23:40
  technology that's done off of this very
• 23:42
  kind of almost low tech kind of tech
• 23:44
  ideas. And you don't need to really care
• 23:48
  about the ocean or have any personal
• 23:49
  connection to the ocean or be afraid
• 23:51
  about the die off of species.
• 23:53
  It's just, oh, this is this is a good
• 23:55
  business model. This actually makes a lot
• 23:57
  of sense. We're capturing excess
• 23:58
  fertilizer and reselling it and reusing
• 24:01
  it. How do you not get into that?
• 24:03
  And so I think that's part of the
• 24:05
  strategy is finding these bypasses where
• 24:07
  you don't have to get stuck in the types
• 24:09
  of value adjacent conversations that can
• 24:12
  create friction or polarization or rub up
• 24:17
  against people's personal identities,
• 24:18
  which is, I think would happen a lot in
• 24:20
  the environment conversation.
• 24:22
  Yeah, both its identity is such a great
• 24:24
  way of motivating people to act, but it's
• 24:25
  also a thing that can make you super
• 24:27
  defensive and you just find it, find a
• 24:29
  good market based excuse and you don't
• 24:32
  have to deal with any of that stuff. You
• 24:33
  just have people running successful
• 24:36
  businesses that help the
• 24:37
  planet at the same time.
• 24:49
  Yeah, I think that's really important.
• 24:49
  I've been to a number of conferences,
• 24:52
  including one a couple of weeks ago where
• 24:53
  there was a lot of talk around some great
• 24:56
  policies that are coming into place. The
• 24:58
  high seas treaty, the World Trade
• 25:00
  Organization subsidy
• 25:01
  policy that has come out.
• 25:04
  I think they're really great, but it was
• 25:05
  a lot of talk and they're new. And so we
• 25:07
  expect that a lot of talk, but I think
• 25:09
  that's what happens sometimes when we get
• 25:11
  wrapped up in talking about protecting
• 25:14
  the planet, protecting the ocean is we
• 25:15
  talked about all these policies and how
• 25:16
  good they could be. But the problem is
• 25:18
  the conference is all about how good
• 25:21
  these are going to be. But there's really
• 25:22
  a conference that's needed for the
• 25:23
  implementation of these policies and talk
• 25:26
  about the specific aspects of those of
• 25:28
  that implementation.
• 25:30
  What I love about Earth X is talking
• 25:32
  about implementation, talking about
• 25:33
  businesses and getting together and I
• 25:36
  mean what businesses to me, I started to
• 25:39
  look at this a number of years ago where
• 25:41
  they're solutions, right? They're
• 25:43
  solutions to problems that people have
• 25:45
  and you just bring them to market and you
• 25:47
  sell them that solution.
• 25:48
  I think that's a really important aspect
• 25:51
  to Earth X is to come up with these
• 25:54
  pragmatic market based solutions. And so
• 25:57
  you mentioned it earlier, there was a
• 25:59
  pitch competition during last year's
• 26:02
  conferences. What do you do to encourage
• 26:06
  people who have these ideas or on the
• 26:09
  precipice of these ideas when they come
• 26:11
  to the conference so that they can feel
• 26:14
  more inspired and follow
• 26:16
  through on some of these ideas?
• 26:17
  Because a lot of these ideas, they might
• 26:19
  not seem practical at the beginning or
• 26:21
  pragmatic at the beginning, but then when
• 26:23
  just the example you talk about is to try
• 26:25
  and circulate these fertilizers into more
• 26:29
  fertilizers like from the ocean. How does
• 26:32
  the conference inspire the people who are
• 26:34
  looking for these types of coming up with
• 26:36
  these types of solutions?
• 26:38
  That's a great crowd. I mean, it depends
• 26:39
  on who you are and where you're coming
• 26:40
  from. I mean, our e-cap summit, which is
• 26:43
  where that we have two pitch competitions
• 26:46
  that happen within that. One of the
• 26:48
  things that I think its goal is to match
• 26:50
  investment capital with innovators and
• 26:53
  startups and founders that have these
• 26:54
  ideas that they're growing
• 26:55
  into, it's a viable businesses.
• 26:57
  And that's an invitation only application
• 27:00
  summit because we want to make sure that
• 27:03
  the people in the room are at the stage
• 27:05
  of their companies growth where any sort
• 27:07
  of influx of capital will actually help
• 27:09
  them bring it into reality.
• 27:11
  But at the same time, we then try to like
• 27:13
  the pitch competitions will showcase on
• 27:15
  our public stages. A lot of those
• 27:17
  speakers from those events will also
• 27:18
  speak at other parts
• 27:19
  during the conference.
• 27:21
  And then because of the success of that
• 27:24
  one program, several of the other
• 27:25
  conferences that are coming in and having
• 27:28
  events this year at Earth X are also
• 27:30
  dealing with similar ideas to say, how do
• 27:32
  you invest in ocean, ocean economy?
• 27:34
  How do you invest in conservation in a
• 27:36
  way that is regenerative? We have a
• 27:38
  circular economy conference that is all
• 27:42
  about looking at the ways in which
• 27:43
  corporate stewardship plays a role in
• 27:45
  sort of moving some of
• 27:46
  these solutions at scale.
• 27:48
  And then, you know, what we did with that
• 27:51
  investment side is familiar what you
• 27:52
  said, the talky talk policy thing, which
• 27:55
  I think is a challenge of conferences.
• 27:56
  You hear people talking, it's like, well,
• 27:58
  what does it do? So this year we're
• 28:00
  leaning and we're trying to take that
• 28:01
  e-cap model and move
• 28:03
  it into the policy side.
• 28:04
  And we launched something called the
• 28:06
  Earth X Institute. That's going to try to
• 28:08
  use a convening at Earth X every year to
• 28:10
  kind of not just talk about policy
• 28:12
  innovation, but actually say, how can we
• 28:14
  learn from certain policy innovations and
• 28:16
  find out ways to move it into the policy side?
• 28:17
  And so we're looking this year
• 28:20
  specifically at nuclear energy policy
• 28:22
  because Texas has really led in that
• 28:24
  space over the last couple of years
• 28:25
  because you have this amazing confluence
• 28:27
  of a state government that wanted to get
• 28:32
  behind nuclear, of academic institutions
• 28:34
  that were driving forward research.
• 28:37
  And then, of course, you know, data
• 28:38
  centers coming in with a lot of surge in
• 28:41
  energy production, a lot of new capital
• 28:43
  looking to invest in other
• 28:44
  ways of producing energy.
• 28:47
  And so Texas was able to pass state level
• 28:48
  legislation that has sort of created
• 28:51
  funding and created, you know, an inroads
• 28:53
  for furthering nuclear adaptation.
• 28:56
  And so we're bringing in several
• 28:57
  lawmaking groups from across the country
• 28:59
  that represent other states that are
• 29:01
  playing with nuclear energy policy and
• 29:02
  trying to figure out the right way
• 29:03
  forward and sort of using our convening
• 29:05
  to have them meet and trade ideas and
• 29:07
  actually look at what are tangible ways
• 29:09
  we can not just talk about the policy
• 29:11
  that's on the ground,
• 29:12
  but find metrics and ways to produce, you
• 29:14
  know, sort of policy recommendations
• 29:16
  after the after the conference that other
• 29:18
  states could use to kind of look at their
• 29:20
  own policy metrics. So always trying to
• 29:22
  tweak these things and figuring out what
• 29:23
  are the ways that you can take a
• 29:24
  convening and make it more than just a
• 29:26
  good time and a great way to build your
• 29:28
  network and and a great way to learn a
• 29:30
  lot about what people are doing, but
• 29:31
  actually have these sort of tangible
• 29:32
  impact oriented initiatives that are sort
• 29:35
  of grown out of and then
• 29:36
  lead into the event each year.
• 29:38
  Yeah, the conference. Do you ever talk
• 29:40
  about how to make the process of bringing
• 29:44
  market solutions, you know, to move
• 29:46
  faster to help with the environmental
• 29:48
  crisis? Because a lot of the times these
• 29:49
  solutions are very new and there aren't
• 29:52
  any policies that are
• 29:54
  associated with them.
• 29:55
  It's just because they're so new or
• 29:57
  regulations or sometimes they get held up
• 29:59
  in regulations. Is there any talk about
• 30:02
  how to bring it like from idea to market,
• 30:06
  you know, to ensure that these these
• 30:07
  environment because let's be honest, like
• 30:09
  climate crisis, environmental crisis,
• 30:12
  these things are moving faster than our
• 30:13
  solutions are moving sometimes.
• 30:15
  And so there are conversations that are
• 30:16
  happening at the conference where there's
• 30:19
  ways to be like, hey, how can we
• 30:21
  introduce policy to make these some of
• 30:23
  these ideas go a
• 30:23
  little faster and so forth?
• 30:25
  Yeah, I mean, you touched on it. I mean,
• 30:27
  I mentioned nuclear policy. One of the
• 30:29
  big criticisms is the the timeline and
• 30:31
  implementing nuclear is so long. Can you
• 30:33
  actually get it there? Same thing with a
• 30:35
  lot of these sort of startup founder
• 30:37
  based, you know, innovative solutions
• 30:39
  that you can figure out a way to build a
• 30:41
  business around recapturing for, you
• 30:43
  know, agricultural run-on.
• 30:44
  Yeah, you have agricultural runoff and
• 30:45
  keeping out of the oceans. But how do you
• 30:47
  do that at scale in a way that can
• 30:49
  actually impact things? And I mean, it's
• 30:51
  a tough one. I don't know if there's an
• 30:52
  easy, easy, singular answer. One way
• 30:55
  we're approaching it this year is, you
• 30:58
  know, one of the things we've heard back
• 30:59
  in conversations over last year,
• 31:01
  especially as there seems to be kind of,
• 31:03
  if not an impasse, kind of like a
• 31:05
  stalling and how we approach policy at a
• 31:08
  federal and even international
• 31:09
  collaborative way that has that scale
• 31:12
  that can really move things at the speed that we're at.
• 31:13
  things at the speed that
• 31:14
  they need to be moving.
• 31:16
  We've been talking to a
• 31:17
  lot of corporate leaders
• 31:19
  that are like, well, we're
• 31:21
  not really putting our names
• 31:23
  on big environmental
• 31:24
  green initiatives right now.
• 31:25
  We're kind of keeping our head down.
• 31:26
  There's a feeling of uncertainty.
• 31:27
  There's a feeling of not knowing
• 31:29
  what's the right way forward.
• 31:31
  And so we're kind of
• 31:31
  taking the advantage there
• 31:33
  to kind of bring a lot of them together
• 31:34
  almost in a closed door meeting to say,
• 31:36
  let's have a conversation
• 31:37
  around how we can continue
• 31:38
  to stay committed to these goals,
• 31:40
  whether they are environmental goals,
• 31:43
  climate mitigation goals,
• 31:44
  circularity and
• 31:45
  recycling and composting goals,
• 31:48
  so that we don't lose momentum even when
• 31:50
  that policy backdrop
• 31:51
  isn't there to really give that inertia.
• 31:54
  But the reality is, is like when you talk
• 31:56
  to a lot of these groups,
• 31:57
  they're dealing with onset,
• 32:00
  responding to European regulations that's
• 32:02
  accelerating some of their actions
• 32:03
  and then also dealing with having to be
• 32:06
  somewhat quiet about how they're
• 32:07
  sustaining some of that behavior in the
• 32:10
  US at a moment where ESG has been sort of
• 32:12
  gutted and not their threat.
• 32:15
  But those are also
• 32:16
  conversations we have at our event is,
• 32:18
  was ESG the right framework policy
• 32:21
  framework for thinking about how to
• 32:22
  achieve some of these things?
• 32:23
  And I think part of it is we at the end
• 32:25
  of the day are a nonpartisan,
• 32:28
  almost agnostic organization.
• 32:32
  We're really about creating a space where
• 32:34
  everyone can come
• 32:35
  together with the diversity ideas
• 32:36
  and really talk through them in a way
• 32:38
  that you can't really do in a lot of
• 32:40
  other places these days.
• 32:41
  Yeah, I agree. I think when we, I think
• 32:44
  talking about any type of solution around
• 32:46
  the environment or any type
• 32:47
  of solution around anything
• 32:48
  should be nonpartisan
• 32:49
  because it applies to all of us.
• 32:51
  It doesn't matter whether, you know,
• 32:53
  whatever side of the aisle
• 32:54
  or aisles that you are on,
• 32:55
  it's got to be something for all of us,
• 32:58
  you know, so that we can all bite into
• 33:01
  and be able to handle
• 33:02
  because this is something that is going
• 33:04
  to affect everybody and their children
• 33:06
  for future generations.
• 33:07
  So I think I think
• 33:08
  that's really important.
• 33:09
  You know, as a marine biologist, you
• 33:10
  know, I find sometimes I go to
• 33:12
  conferences and, you know, like climate
• 33:14
  weeks, you know, in Toronto and New York.
• 33:16
  I'm always, I'm always concerned when I
• 33:20
  see like, you know, talk about people
• 33:21
  talk about climate that the ocean only
• 33:23
  has like an afternoon or a morning
• 33:25
  session on it in terms of climate when it
• 33:28
  plays such a big role
• 33:29
  in regulating climate
• 33:31
  and biodiversity and even just the role
• 33:34
  it plays in global economy.
• 33:37
  So how does the ocean fit into the
• 33:39
  broader conversations
• 33:40
  happening at Earth X?
• 33:44
  That's a great point. I think at the
• 33:47
  beginning you said the ocean cover two
• 33:48
  thirds of the planet, but it's really, I
• 33:51
  mean, it's part of the
• 33:52
  lungs of the atmosphere.
• 33:53
  It's it's it's part of, you know, the
• 33:56
  entire functioning of the whole thing.
• 33:58
  And so even though we're we're a
• 33:59
  landlocked conference, the ocean has
• 34:01
  always been kind of a
• 34:02
  core focus of what we do.
• 34:04
  And we've had various ocean focused
• 34:06
  conference over the years.
• 34:09
  It's this year specifically. So we're
• 34:11
  working with a group called Marine
• 34:12
  Technology Society, I think I mentioned
• 34:14
  before that's that's putting on kind of a
• 34:16
  blue finance symposium where they'll be
• 34:19
  bringing together a lot of groups
• 34:21
  exploring ways of finding.
• 34:23
  Again, market based solutions to ocean
• 34:26
  conservation, ocean health resources. But
• 34:29
  then in addition to that, on our main
• 34:30
  stage, we're exploring a lot of we've
• 34:32
  brought together kind of a really
• 34:34
  compelling list of ocean leaders,
• 34:36
  everyone from Bob Ballard, the explorer
• 34:38
  who discovered the Titanic and is now
• 34:41
  sort of embarking on this
• 34:43
  mission to map the ocean floor.
• 34:45
  And in the end, also along with that with
• 34:48
  Tim Gallaudet and some some other really
• 34:52
  impressive people from naval background,
• 34:56
  but also involved in ocean exploration.
• 34:58
  Sylvia Earl will be there. Yeah. Richard
• 35:01
  Reese, the head of the Explorer's Club is
• 35:02
  also bringing in some people that are
• 35:04
  involved in ocean exploration.
• 35:05
  I think it's all that's being framed
• 35:07
  under, you know, there's this tension of
• 35:09
  that's of ocean exploration as being, you
• 35:12
  know, there's national security
• 35:14
  interests, there's resource exploitation
• 35:16
  interests, there's general we
• 35:18
  don't know what's out there.
• 35:19
  And how do we make decisions around how
• 35:21
  we how we, you know, either whether it's
• 35:23
  deep sea mining or just maintaining
• 35:26
  fisheries or understanding how to
• 35:28
  maintain and control ocean health and how
• 35:30
  it impacts the rest of our planet.
• 35:32
  Such a key, such a key issue. So there'll
• 35:35
  be ocean programming, ocean related
• 35:36
  program comes kind of strung throughout
• 35:38
  the three days and various formats.
• 35:40
  Yeah, that's that's great. And I guess I
• 35:43
  want to ask you on from a personal level,
• 35:46
  you know, when you you've been to four
• 35:48
  different you've helped organize and been
• 35:50
  to four different events.
• 35:51
  This will be your fifth at Earth X. What
• 35:53
  has been like, what do you think are the
• 35:55
  biggest opportunities right now for
• 35:57
  investors and or innovators
• 35:59
  to support ocean solutions?
• 36:00
  Like, where do you see it coming out? You
• 36:03
  kind of have an idea of who's coming to
• 36:04
  the conference and stuff like that. But
• 36:06
  where do you see is the most exciting and
• 36:08
  personally, like what you what you are
• 36:10
  looking forward to seeing
• 36:11
  from an ocean perspective?
• 36:14
  Yeah, I just think that there's there's
• 36:17
  just new technologies and there's a new
• 36:18
  interest in in finding ways of adapting
• 36:21
  new technologies to sort of novel things
• 36:24
  like how do you scale wreath restoration
• 36:26
  or wreath construction?
• 36:28
  How do you how do you build? How do you
• 36:30
  how do you rethink how we do coastal
• 36:32
  development that's both resilient and
• 36:34
  responsive to the
• 36:35
  need to protect wetlands?
• 36:36
  Where are there opportunities for carbon
• 36:40
  credit and carbon renewables, renewables
• 36:42
  solutions that are baked into national
• 36:45
  agendas for both restoring and and and
• 36:49
  building resilience and stick hosts.
• 36:50
  I think, you know, we were talking about
• 36:52
  some of the daunting nature in the rapid
• 36:54
  pace of some of the
• 36:56
  challenges around climate.
• 36:56
  And I think you see that for a lot of the
• 37:00
  countries, especially we do a lot of work
• 37:01
  with Pacific Island nations and Caribbean
• 37:03
  nations and we'll have the the
• 37:06
  environmental minister
• 37:06
  for Panama joining us.
• 37:08
  And so there's a lot of countries that,
• 37:10
  you know, this isn't an abstract far off
• 37:12
  thing. This is a real front and center.
• 37:15
  We need to figure out how to protect our
• 37:17
  coastal countries from from the ocean.
• 37:19
  And so how you can turn some of those
• 37:22
  resilient activities and activations into
• 37:24
  ways of developing strategies and
• 37:27
  techniques that are sustainable and that
• 37:29
  can that can implement new ways of
• 37:31
  approaching some of these issues.
• 37:32
  I think there's there's a lot of that
• 37:34
  going on out there. It's exciting to see.
• 37:36
  Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Now, one
• 37:39
  thing I'd love to hear is like, again,
• 37:41
  with your experience with with Earth X
• 37:43
  and bringing together these sort of like
• 37:44
  unlikely partners that come together.
• 37:45
  Can you talk about a collaboration that
• 37:49
  potentially started at Earth X that has
• 37:52
  led to some type of real world impact?
• 37:56
  Yeah. So two years ago at the Capitol
• 37:59
  Summit, we had two
• 38:00
  congressmen come and speak.
• 38:01
  One was Chuck Fleischman from Tennessee,
• 38:06
  who's a Republican member of the House
• 38:08
  Appropriations Committee and then a Mark
• 38:11
  Vesey, a Democrat from Texas. And like
• 38:13
  before the event, they knew of each
• 38:15
  other, but they didn't really know each other.
• 38:16
  Mark Vesey is a much younger congressman.
• 38:20
  And then after the event, they had a
• 38:21
  conversation on stage about sort of the
• 38:23
  future of energy and sort of where
• 38:25
  there's bipartisan agreement on that.
• 38:28
  They went back to Capitol Hill, realized
• 38:30
  their offices were
• 38:31
  pretty close to each other.
• 38:32
  And they started to become friends. And
• 38:34
  over the next two years, they started
• 38:36
  finding other ways to collaborate and
• 38:38
  talk. And then earlier last year, they
• 38:40
  launched the bipartisan energy caucus in
• 38:42
  the Capitol. And it's this example of
• 38:45
  how, you know, but for Earth X, they
• 38:48
  wouldn't have come together in quite the
• 38:49
  way they did come together.
• 38:50
  And then even in these times where all
• 38:52
  the headlines are about how impossible it
• 38:54
  is to work across party lines, who are
• 38:55
  two individuals who are able to find at
• 38:58
  least some of that common ground and
• 39:00
  build some consensus around it.
• 39:01
  So those are the types of connections
• 39:03
  we're trying to make and trying to sort
• 39:05
  of facilitate where it's not just having
• 39:08
  these conversations, but it's OK, now
• 39:10
  what do we do with it now that we have
• 39:11
  this relationship now? Yeah, there's ways
• 39:13
  of working together.
• 39:14
  I love that. I love that. I think that's
• 39:15
  such an important, like you said, it's
• 39:17
  such an important aspect when you look at
• 39:18
  two people on different sides of the
• 39:20
  aisle working together for something
• 39:22
  that's that's going to be
• 39:23
  helping for the future in the U.S.
• 39:25
  And of course, the world as well. And,
• 39:27
  you know, this is that was a federal
• 39:29
  example. And then often a lot of times,
• 39:33
  you know, we think globally, but we act
• 39:34
  locally and at conferences like Earth X
• 39:38
  is kind of cool, like to see all these
• 39:40
  different local, you know, I guess
• 39:43
  projects or or or movements
• 39:45
  to see how they're working.
• 39:47
  And then other local governments or or
• 39:50
  municipalities can look at what they're
• 39:52
  doing at the conference and be like, oh,
• 39:53
  how did you do that?
• 39:54
  We're very similar to you.
• 39:56
  Did you get to see a lot of that happen
• 39:57
  when when at this conference where it's
• 39:59
  like you see like, let me say, a
• 40:01
  presentation or a panel that's up there
• 40:02
  and people are listening and then
• 40:03
  something just ignites in someone's mind,
• 40:05
  be like, hey, I really like your program,
• 40:07
  you know, on, say, you know, protecting
• 40:09
  wetlands or a restoration of wetlands or
• 40:12
  reef growth or things like that.
• 40:13
  And do you see that often happening at
• 40:15
  these conferences where someone sees
• 40:17
  something and then they engage and then
• 40:19
  they say, hey, how can we learn from you
• 40:21
  and how can we implement that locally?
• 40:24
  Yeah, a few examples of that. One is
• 40:26
  there's this amazing group called
• 40:27
  Constellation of Living Memorials, where
• 40:30
  they they're a dollar space organization.
• 40:33
  Their idea was basically so much of our
• 40:36
  open space, especially urban and urban
• 40:38
  centers are cemeteries.
• 40:39
  Right. How can we and so many of these
• 40:42
  cemeteries, especially in older cities,
• 40:44
  are sort of neglected and overrun and
• 40:45
  sort of run down and say, sorry, this
• 40:47
  program where they come in and sort of
• 40:49
  adopt a cemetery and turn it into sort of
• 40:52
  restored biodiversity and it's and it's
• 40:55
  and it's and it's and it's
• 40:56
  sort of natural landscape.
• 40:56
  And that sort of swollen over the last
• 40:59
  they first spoke, I think two or three
• 41:00
  years ago at Earth X because of that,
• 41:02
  they got some local coverage in the press
• 41:04
  because of that local press.
• 41:06
  They were able to get some investment in
• 41:07
  their program. They're sort of scaling
• 41:08
  it. And then I should just sign an MOU
• 41:10
  with them a couple of weeks ago where
• 41:12
  we're now partnering with them a
• 41:14
  landscape architecture firm and some
• 41:16
  other organizations to be sort of
• 41:20
  embedded in the development redevelopment
• 41:22
  of the Dallas Convention Center, which is
• 41:24
  adjacent to this historic cemetery.
• 41:25
  And using that as sort of a pilot project
• 41:28
  for how do you pair some of these habitat
• 41:31
  biodiversity restoration projects with
• 41:33
  large scale urban renewal projects.
• 41:36
  And she's an example of how you create a
• 41:38
  platform and you get people out there and
• 41:39
  people, oh, wow, they never thought
• 41:41
  that's that's it's such a simple idea.
• 41:43
  And then realize that no one's done it
• 41:45
  before. How do we scale that? And we were
• 41:47
  looking at a map of just the amount of
• 41:49
  land coverage just even in Texas that is
• 41:53
  taken up by cemeteries that if you were
• 41:55
  able to restore that, you know,
• 41:55
  you'd have a tremendous impact at
• 41:59
  restoring the soil health
• 42:00
  and restoring natural habitats.
• 42:04
  I love it. I love that. It's it's such a
• 42:06
  I think that's so that's such a great
• 42:07
  innovation. It's just like it just a
• 42:09
  great use case study on on like what you
• 42:11
  can expect to you know, in types of
• 42:13
  projects or what people are thinking
• 42:15
  about. It's kind of out of the box. But
• 42:17
  like it's it's it's a cool thing that
• 42:18
  when you hear it happen, you're like, oh,
• 42:20
  this is this is really great.
• 42:20
  Let's talk a little bit about the
• 42:24
  conference. I know we've been talking
• 42:25
  about the conference. Let's talk a little
• 42:26
  bit more. The conference is coming up and
• 42:29
  and what people can expect. So what what
• 42:31
  if people are looking to attend, what
• 42:33
  could they expect from the conference?
• 42:37
  Well, you know, sometimes I like to call
• 42:40
  it kind of a hot mess, like almost by
• 42:42
  design. There's a lot going on. You know,
• 42:45
  it's it's one of the the the feedbacks we
• 42:47
  get every year is I
• 42:49
  really enjoyed it. I saw a lot.
• 42:50
  But I felt like there was still so much I
• 42:52
  didn't get to experience and we take that
• 42:54
  as sort of a plus and a minus on the one
• 42:56
  hand. Yeah, you don't want people leaving
• 42:57
  feeling like why I missed something I
• 42:59
  would have otherwise gone to. But at the
• 43:00
  same time, you want to make it feel like
• 43:02
  you're part of something that was sort of
• 43:04
  bigger than than your regular sort of
• 43:06
  conference. So right, you know, it's
• 43:08
  anchored this year by like a main stage
• 43:10
  program that'll take place over three
• 43:12
  days. I don't have most of our major
• 43:13
  keynotes and sort of high profile
• 43:16
  conversations. And then from there, you
• 43:18
  get one badge and you kind of navigate it
• 43:19
  like a choose your own adventure.
• 43:20
  Every day there's five or six different
• 43:23
  conferences happening simultaneously
• 43:24
  throughout the day. This is from program
• 43:26
  networking experiences, educational
• 43:28
  experiences and then, you know, plenary
• 43:31
  lunches and receptions and and and
• 43:33
  banquets each evening.
• 43:35
  And then this year, what's a little
• 43:36
  different is we moved into a part of our
• 43:39
  venue where there's a big outdoor space.
• 43:41
  So we'll have some outdoor activations.
• 43:42
  We're doing an event with
• 43:43
  FIFA with the World Cup coming.
• 43:45
  Oh, yeah. Sports and Sustainability
• 43:48
  Conference. And so we'll have some kind
• 43:50
  of activations around that. Yeah.
• 43:52
  Afternoons. And then and then we're also
• 43:54
  working with several rotary clubs to put
• 43:56
  on this huge sort of exposition of of
• 43:58
  different grassroots projects around the
• 44:01
  world that are helping to move the needle
• 44:03
  on a lot of environmental issues. And so
• 44:05
  the experience itself, it's we condensed
• 44:08
  it this year. It's three
• 44:09
  days instead of five days.
• 44:10
  OK. Five days, I'd say get a lot of sleep
• 44:14
  the week before because it'll knock you
• 44:15
  out. But no, it's it's it's over. It's
• 44:18
  just so condensed. And you meet so many
• 44:21
  different people and you're able to have
• 44:23
  these serendipitous exchanges and
• 44:25
  connections that they're hard to make
• 44:27
  anywhere else because you are.
• 44:29
  Everyone's coming in from such different
• 44:30
  perspectives and places and we'll have
• 44:32
  everything from the prime minister of
• 44:34
  Tonga down to incredible master
• 44:37
  naturalist working in
• 44:38
  our backyard and across.
• 44:38
  Yeah. So it's a big broad range of people
• 44:41
  that you have the opportunity to be able
• 44:43
  to engage with. That's amazing. That's
• 44:45
  awesome. And so like I think that's the
• 44:47
  question is like there's so many
• 44:48
  different types of people that could
• 44:50
  come. Who is like the ideal person or
• 44:54
  like the type like I've got a lot of
• 44:56
  early career researchers and scientists
• 44:58
  on this podcast that are in the audience.
• 45:00
  I have a lot of people who are just
• 45:01
  interested in protecting the ocean. I
• 45:03
  have some business people here. It seems
• 45:06
  like all of them can kind of
• 45:07
  come. Like what's the point?
• 45:08
  When you guys speak about your audience
• 45:10
  for Earth X 2026 who comes to mind? Like
• 45:14
  what what are the types of people that
• 45:16
  come to mind? I think you know, it's
• 45:19
  again back to the idea that Earth X is
• 45:21
  it's 20 conferences, not one. Right. So
• 45:24
  there usually is a place for most people
• 45:26
  to fit. If you're if you're if your
• 45:31
  background is in corporate sustainability
• 45:32
  and you work in the corporate world, we
• 45:37
  have a whole circle of people.
• 45:37
  We have a whole circular economy
• 45:39
  conference that's very much looking at
• 45:40
  different new strategies for for first
• 45:43
  sustainable business and circular
• 45:44
  practices. Then if you're an investor or
• 45:47
  or an innovator, there's the capital
• 45:49
  summit as well as some other groups that
• 45:51
  are that are having that
• 45:54
  angle to what they're doing.
• 45:55
  And then we have a law conference. So
• 45:57
  that's very specifically targeted to
• 45:59
  early career lawyers and people that want
• 46:01
  to get more involved in
• 46:03
  environmental law, climate law.
• 46:05
  But then, yeah, in terms of ocean
• 46:07
  technology, we have, you know, we have a
• 46:10
  conference just all around climate
• 46:12
  restoration and different technologies
• 46:14
  that are being developed and what some of
• 46:16
  the pros and cons of those are in terms
• 46:18
  of how do we how to
• 46:19
  be more proactive about
• 46:20
  sequestering carbon out of the out of the
• 46:23
  atmosphere. So there and we do a lot of
• 46:25
  work with federal labs and do a lot of
• 46:27
  work in the science and research sort of
• 46:32
  spaces. And so if take a look on the
• 46:34
  website, see the to the range of
• 46:36
  different things. And I think it's one of
• 46:37
  those where the door is open. And that's
• 46:40
  the whole point is there's a lot of a lot
• 46:41
  of ways to plug in no matter
• 46:42
  where you're coming in from.
• 46:43
  Absolutely. Absolutely. Love that idea.
• 46:47
  And so are there are there specific teams
• 46:50
  or I know you just mentioned there's like
• 46:51
  20 conferences, but are there specific
• 46:54
  themes or topics that will be central to
• 46:58
  the conversations this year
• 46:59
  as opposed to earlier years?
• 47:00
  Yeah, I mean, a few things we're leaning
• 47:03
  into is, you know, first of all, this is
• 47:05
  the America 250 anniversary. And so
• 47:07
  trying to find ways of looking at nature
• 47:10
  as kind of a common ground again back to
• 47:12
  this bipartisan ways
• 47:14
  of restoring dialogue.
• 47:15
  I think looking at, you know, the
• 47:18
  uncertainty of the global geopolitical
• 47:20
  moment and where can we still find
• 47:22
  opportunities for advancing some of these
• 47:26
  things, even as there's sort of
• 47:27
  uncertainty and both the markets and the
• 47:29
  political space and where there's still
• 47:31
  wins and where there's still ways to
• 47:33
  advance the ball on
• 47:34
  some of these solutions.
• 47:36
  And then, yeah, research, I mean, between
• 47:38
  the hyper demand for electricity energy
• 47:41
  to the, you know, the demand for precious
• 47:44
  metals and the stresses that puts on, you
• 47:47
  know, land and conservation, I think
• 47:49
  that's another theme and throw water into
• 47:52
  the mix that keeps coming up as a major
• 47:54
  sort of through line through the event.
• 47:57
  And I mentioned earlier, just just before
• 47:59
  that I had a lot of, you know, scientists
• 48:01
  that early early career scientists and
• 48:04
  people have been in scientists for, you
• 48:06
  know, 10 science and conservation for
• 48:07
  like 10, 20, 30, 40 years.
• 48:09
  What advice would you give them when
• 48:12
  engaging with business leaders or even
• 48:15
  investors? Like what, how would you say
• 48:17
  like they should approach or they should
• 48:18
  just engage with them on conversations
• 48:20
  around science conservation as well as
• 48:22
  investing and businesses?
• 48:25
  Yeah, I think part of it is just build
• 48:27
  the rapport in the relationship and make
• 48:30
  it so that, you know, there's an
• 48:32
  educational piece. I think what a lot of
• 48:33
  conversations I've had with investors is
• 48:36
  if your background isn't in the science
• 48:38
  of the technology or it's you know
• 48:41
  there's a need and you're just trying to
• 48:43
  find the right way to engage or invest in
• 48:46
  some of these solutions.
• 48:47
  And you're probably getting pitched
• 48:48
  nonstop with a million different ideas.
• 48:51
  So understanding how to have, you know,
• 48:53
  both build that trust and not even look
• 48:55
  at it as transactional from the start,
• 48:57
  but just be thinking about in terms of
• 48:59
  how you build an understanding and be a
• 49:00
  source of information and research and
• 49:04
  being aid to navigate the space and see
• 49:07
  yourself as being an asset in that way.
• 49:09
  Yeah, you bring up a great point. I think
• 49:10
  a lot of times when scientists like
• 49:13
  myself or even like conservationists like
• 49:16
  myself and others, when we hear investors
• 49:18
  were like, oh, money, oh, they can maybe
• 49:20
  they'll pay for my project to happen. Oh,
• 49:22
  if they did this, maybe they can help
• 49:23
  that. But I think you're right. I think
• 49:25
  it's the first idea is just to connect
• 49:27
  and build that
• 49:27
  relationship and just be patient.
• 49:31
  And who knows, maybe there is a common
• 49:33
  thread here, but like I guess when you're
• 49:36
  speaking to business leaders and
• 49:37
  investors, a lot of the times they're
• 49:39
  looking to get an ROI out of some type of
• 49:43
  transaction that happens, right? Whether
• 49:46
  that be from a monetary standpoint or
• 49:48
  whether that be from an environmental
• 49:50
  standpoint, they're looking at an ROI.
• 49:52
  Is there a certain way that you in your
• 49:55
  experience, like scientists and
• 49:57
  conservationists should be able to
• 49:58
  approach an idea like that where they're
• 50:02
  not just looking for money to try and get
• 50:03
  an investor, but also think in the place
• 50:06
  of that investor or business leader?
• 50:09
  Yeah, I mean, and it's not a space that I
• 50:11
  have a lot of direct experience in, but I
• 50:13
  think it comes back to the idea. I mean,
• 50:16
  there's a million ideas or at least there
• 50:18
  are a million apparent ideas that a lot
• 50:20
  of especially investors are getting.
• 50:21
  Investors are getting pitched at all the
• 50:24
  time and you know, there's it's a limited
• 50:25
  number of even though from the other
• 50:28
  perspective may seem like well, this is
• 50:29
  this is the potential source of my
• 50:31
  research or my projectors. I think it's
• 50:33
  really almost see yourself as as as not
• 50:36
  the potential recipient of anything but
• 50:38
  more as what can I give this person? What
• 50:41
  can how can my expertise and background
• 50:43
  enhance their life and and it's that kind
• 50:46
  of giving culture kind of my mentality
• 50:47
  where if you're contributing in a way to.
• 50:51
  To helping them make their investment
• 50:53
  decisions were easy. Then at some point
• 50:57
  that battle that'll open doors that'll
• 50:58
  make everything kind of
• 50:59
  flow in the right direction.
• 51:01
  I love it. Last question for you, Peter.
• 51:04
  This is a bit of a prediction question.
• 51:07
  You know, 2030 is a big it's the end of
• 51:09
  the ocean decade. It's a big date for a
• 51:11
  lot of environmental things going on like
• 51:13
  30 by 30 and so forth.
• 51:15
  Where do you see Earth X in in four to
• 51:18
  five years and even even further than
• 51:20
  that as an event as an organization
• 51:23
  moving forward? Big question. Don't
• 51:25
  expect a long, long, long answer. But
• 51:27
  like, where do you see this playing a
• 51:29
  role in and does it continue to play this
• 51:32
  type of role or does
• 51:32
  it expand on that role?
• 51:34
  Yeah, I mean, I think we've been sort of
• 51:35
  touching on it in little ways throughout
• 51:37
  our conversation and it's I see if
• 51:40
  anything it's people seeing Earth X less
• 51:42
  as an event and more as the event is
• 51:44
  being the culmination of Earth X's year.
• 51:47
  There's a lot of things we've been doing
• 51:49
  even in the last seven, eight months of
• 51:51
  terms of having smaller convenings
• 51:53
  outside of April that we're bringing to
• 51:55
  people together in different
• 51:56
  environments. We're going to different
• 51:57
  cities and meeting them where they are.
• 51:59
  Like we were out in Denver a few weeks
• 52:01
  ago meeting with the consort of federal
• 52:03
  labs talking about some of the same
• 52:06
  things we were talking about. We were in
• 52:07
  New York about a month ago meeting with
• 52:10
  Fortune 500 leaders. I think there's a
• 52:11
  lot of ways where and what we're hearing
• 52:13
  too is this sort of brand of being an
• 52:16
  inclusive sort of all-time.
• 52:16
  And so I could see us growing in our
• 52:23
  year-round programming thinking more
• 52:25
  about how our programming feeds impact
• 52:27
  projects. And then the event every April
• 52:29
  being that that's touchstone where we get
• 52:31
  together and sort of take stock of what
• 52:33
  we've gotten to and where we're going and
• 52:35
  how we can drive things forward.
• 52:36
  And I think you mentioned 2030 ocean deck
• 52:38
  decade. A lot of the benchmarks that have
• 52:42
  been put through the international process. I think if anything, I think we're going to be able to do that.
• 52:43
  I think if anything, what we've learned
• 52:47
  as some of those things seem poised to
• 52:49
  come up a little short of their ambition
• 52:51
  is there needs to be more more ways of
• 52:53
  moving these things forward. It's not
• 52:54
  it's not this or that. It's a sort of
• 52:56
  there's a lot of different ways we can
• 52:58
  all be participating and helping keep
• 53:00
  momentum around a lot of
• 53:01
  these benchmarks and goals.
• 53:04
  And so we're going to be listening to
• 53:05
  this episode and they're really
• 53:07
  interested in not only following Earth X,
• 53:10
  but attending Earth X 2026. Where should
• 53:13
  they go to learn more?
• 53:22
  First word on everything that we have
• 53:24
  going on. Awesome. And I always love to
• 53:26
  end with sort of like an optimistic
• 53:28
  outlook on things. Where do you see like,
• 53:32
  what are you optimistic about right now
• 53:34
  in terms of environmental solutions or
• 53:36
  the future of environmental solutions?
• 53:37
  Oh, man, I was just asked this question
• 53:41
  the other day and I thought I had an
• 53:43
  answer that was pretty okay. But no, I
• 53:46
  mean, it's tough because I think, you
• 53:48
  know, we live in kind of stress,
• 53:52
  stressed, concerned kind of uncertain
• 53:54
  times. But I really think it's it's it's
• 53:57
  it's seeing all the new
• 53:58
  ideas that come through.
• 53:59
  I mean, it's hard for me to think of, you
• 54:01
  know, because we have upwards of 350
• 54:03
  people that something like a recap. And
• 54:06
  out of those, you know, a good hundred of
• 54:08
  them would be like inspiring people that
• 54:09
  are doing incredible work trying to, you
• 54:12
  know, bring new ideas to fruition.
• 54:14
  I just think there's the it's always
• 54:17
  comes back to like we do have the
• 54:18
  technology and the ability and the the
• 54:20
  capacity to solving a lot of these
• 54:22
  things. A lot of the issues that we face
• 54:25
  aren't aren't aren't.
• 54:27
  Yeah, the issue, we don't know how to fix
• 54:29
  them. It's just getting the right amount
• 54:31
  of political will and the amount of
• 54:33
  mobilization and the right scaling and
• 54:34
  the right amount of investment and
• 54:36
  bringing them into into reality. And so
• 54:38
  knowing we have the tools at hand, and we
• 54:40
  just have to work to bring everyone to
• 54:42
  start rowing in the same direction.
• 54:44
  I think that is a way to be optimistic
• 54:46
  about the future. I love that. That's
• 54:48
  that's wonderful. Thank you so much,
• 54:50
  Peter, for joining us on today's episode.
• 54:52
  This has been great. I'll put the links
• 54:54
  down below in the show notes for people to be able to see what's going on.
• 54:56
  I think it's a great opportunity for
• 54:56
  people to be able to get access and
• 54:59
  register for the event. Good luck with
• 55:02
  with the event. I hope it's I hope it
• 55:03
  works out really well. And we get some
• 55:05
  more collaborations. We get some more,
• 55:07
  you know, market based solutions coming
• 55:09
  to to the to the forefront.
• 55:11
  And we get to see some great things for
• 55:13
  the environment. So thank you so much for
• 55:14
  not only hosting EarthX, but for being
• 55:16
  here with us today and doing the great
• 55:18
  work. Thank you. Appreciate you. Thanks
• 55:20
  so much for having me.
• 55:22
  We're going to end today's episode of the
• 55:23
  how to protect the ocean podcast. It was
• 55:24
  great to have you on always nice to have
• 55:27
  somebody on from that puts on a
• 55:29
  conference that is so amazing and so
• 55:33
  broad ranging, you know, 20 conferences
• 55:35
  in one. It's really kind of cool that we
• 55:37
  see that now in this conversation.
• 55:39
  You know, this highlight something that I
• 55:42
  think is becoming impossible to ignore.
• 55:44
  If we want to solve ocean problems at
• 55:47
  scale, we need more than just science. We
• 55:50
  need business. We need an investment. We
• 55:51
  need collaboration and we need better
• 55:53
  storytelling. We talked about all that in
• 55:56
  this week's episodes earlier this week.
• 55:58
  So if you want to find out more, you can
• 55:59
  have a deeper dive in that.
• 56:01
  Because solutions don't just need to
• 56:06
  exist. They need to be spread. They need
• 56:08
  to be implemented and spread. And that's
• 56:11
  what the space is like EarthX are trying
• 56:13
  to do. You know, bring the right people
• 56:15
  together to make that happen. And over
• 56:17
  the last few episodes, I broke down some
• 56:19
  of the themes from this conversation,
• 56:21
  including how startups are changing the
• 56:23
  game, why collaboration across sectors
• 56:26
  matters and how storytelling drive
• 56:28
  drives. We can drive real action. Make sure you're doing that.
• 56:30
  Action make sure you are following this
• 56:32
  podcast so you don't miss any other
• 56:35
  episodes that we talk about in terms of
• 56:36
  oceans and look, it's going to be fun
• 56:39
  every week. We do five episodes per week
• 56:42
  and we look at a theme on every week and
• 56:45
  it's, you know, we did. We've done
• 56:47
  fisheries. We don't really protect the
• 56:48
  areas. We've done how businesses can help
• 56:50
  scale actual ocean solutions. So if you
• 56:53
  want to find out more, hit that follow
• 56:55
  button and continue to look back every
• 56:57
  weekday for a new episode. I want to
• 57:00
  thank you so much for watching.
• 57:00
  So I want to thank Peter for joining us
• 57:02
  on today's episode of the how to protect
• 57:04
  the ocean podcast. If you want to go to
• 57:06
  EarthX 2026, you can just go. You can
• 57:09
  just you can just look in the show notes.
• 57:11
  And if you have any questions or anything
• 57:13
  like that around EarthX 2026, you can hit
• 57:16
  me up on either if you're on Spotify,
• 57:18
  leave a comment or if you want to hit me
• 57:20
  up speak up for blue.com forward slash
• 57:22
  feedback. That's speak up for blue.com
• 57:25
  forward slash feedback. I'd
• 57:28
  love to hear your questions.
• 57:30
  I'm sure you can get a little bit of a
• 57:30
  comment, whatever that might be on that.
• 57:32
  You can leave a voicemail or you can type
• 57:34
  it in. So thank you so much for joining
• 57:35
  me on today's episode of the how to
• 57:37
  protect the ocean podcast. I'm your host,
• 57:39
  Andrew Lewin. Have a great day. We'll
• 57:40
  talk to you next time
• 57:41
  and happy conservation.