Hey Smarties! Make Me Smart is taking a little summer vacation this week. We’ll be back in your feeds soon. But for now, enjoy a rerun of one of our favorite episodes of the year so far.

To reach the Joe Biden administration’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, the country’s energy infrastructure needs a massive overhaul, and fast.

But many communities are not on board with the idea of a massive wind or solar farm in their area. Some counties are banning renewable energy developments before the planning can even begin.

“All those wind turbines and solar panels, and then all the transmission lines that you need to build … it has a big footprint. And that creates lots of land-use conflicts,” said Ted Nordhaus, founder of The Breakthrough Institute.

On the show today, Nordhaus breaks down climate NIMBYism, the threat it poses to our green-energy economy and what it might take to keep the green transition moving forward.

In the News Fix: Work as we know it is changing. Many U.S. companies are already using ChatGPT in one way or another, and the artificial intelligence chatbot is replacing jobs. Plus, workers in Asia and Europe are going back to the office at much higher rates than American workers.

Then, we’ll hear from listeners about how later school start times have improved their family’s mornings, the debate about what to call mocktails, and why Americans keep eggs in the fridge.


Here’s everything we talked about today:










“Decarbonization and its Discontents” from The Breakthrough Institute







“Will NIMBYs sink new clean energy projects? The evidence says no – if developers listen to local concerns” from The Conversation







“The Environmentalists Undermining Environmentalism” from The Atlantic







“America needs a new environmentalism” from The Economist







“Should I Learn Coding as a Second Language?” from Wired







“1 in 4 companies have already replaced workers with ChatGPT” from Resume Builder







“As Americans Work From Home, Europeans and Asians Head Back to the Office” from The Wall Street Journal







“What’s happened to the lunch places in office neighborhoods?” from Marketplace







“Why do we refrigerate eggs and other countries don’t?” from the Egg Safety Center







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