Ten Across Conversations

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Ten Across

118 episodes

1 day ago

Ten Across Conversations examines pressing issues impacting communities along the U.S. Interstate 10 corridor. From Jacksonville, Florida to Los Angeles, California, this region provides a compelling and comprehensive window into the major challenges and opportunities of the 21st century in their most extreme. Join founder and executive director, Wellington “Duke” Reiter, as he chats with subject experts bringing unique insights and new ways of thinking to reveal our collective capacity to create a more resilient future.

For more information about the Ten Across Initiative visit www.10across.com.

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Episodes (20/118)

Ten Across Conversations

The Future of Insurability: New Approaches and Mindsets

As a prelude to the Ten Across Convergence in Jacksonville coming up on October 22nd—where insurability planning will be a focal topic—we’re sharing a conversation Charlie Sidoti and Stephen Brandt, founders of the nonprofit InnSure. Concerned about the risk protection gap growing with climate change in the U.S., these two have applied their combined decades of insurance industry expertise to form a professional network dedicated to developing insurance products that support—and therefore incentivize—communities’ proactive fight against the risks they face.

Ten Across participants are well-aware of disaster recovery costs soaring in this part of the country. Between 2020 and 2022, State Farm and Allstate dropped a shocking 2.8 million insurance policies in fire-prone areas of California—yet Florida and Louisiana lead the nation with even higher nonrenewal rates. Regulatory reform is struggling to relieve insurers and the insured, and the private market continues to retreat as losses exceed underwriting metrics.

InnSure believes the insurance sector can lead the development of new models that incentivize risk reduction and community-based action—that in fact it must, in order to remain viable as an industry.
In this episode, Charlie Sidoti and Stephen Brandt walk us through the challenges and solutions insurers consider in devising effective products to support climate risk mitigation—a preview to the multi-sector problem-solving work that attendees will undertake at the upcoming 10X Convergence.
Relevant Articles and Resources

Charlie Sidoti: “Running Toward Climate Risk” (InsuranceThoughtLeadership.com, August 2022)

“How Shutdown Gridlock Could Impede Disaster Preparedness” (The New York Times, Sept. 2025)
“A Trump Administration Playbook: No Data, No Problem” (The New York Times, Sept. 2025)

REPORT: “Next to Fall: The Climate-Driven Insurance Crisis is Here—And Getting Worse” (Senate Budget Committee, December 2024)

“The risky economics of living without homeowners insurance” (Reuters, March 2024)

Relevant Ten Across Conversations Podcasts

Carolyn Kousky on Using Insurance Models to...

4 weeks ago

38 minutes

Ten Across Conversations

Extreme Heat Has Only Just Begun: How Prepared is the U.S.?

The Ten Across Resilience Network convened in Jacksonville, Florida, in April to share strategies from their communities—the hottest in the nation—for mitigating the mortality and economic loss caused by extreme heat, and to identify common obstacles to both long-term planning and immediate response. Representatives from the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) joined the exercise to discuss and document the findings.

With co-author Dr. Melissa Guardaro, Senior Global Futures Scientist for ASU’s Global Futures Lab, FAS’s Grace Wickerson has drafted a set of policy recommendations for all levels of government and non-governmental actors, “Framework for a Heat-Ready Nation.” This document draws heavily upon the recommendations, challenges and successes raised by Ten Across participants and outlines a series of steps that can be taken to protect people and their livelihoods from rising temperatures nationwide.

In this episode, Grace walks us through the five high-priority measures defined in the report; how these points were determined and what it will take to see them carried out. A scientist recognized for their policy advocacy work by last month’s 2025 Grist 50 list, Grace discusses the importance of decisions based on sound science, and how to move forward even as most federal climate policy is rolled back.

Relevant Articles and Resources

Framework for a Heat-Ready Nation (Ten Across/Federation of American Scientists, July 2025)

2025 Heat Policy Agenda (Federation of American Scientists, January 2025)

“As summer ends, Maricopa County is on track to see fewer heat-related deaths than last year” (KJZZ, September 2025)

“Ten Across Joins 60+ Organizations in Supporting Federal Policy Agenda for Tackling Extreme Heat” (Ten Across blog, January 2025)

“Here’s why an Arizona medical examiner is working to track heat-related deaths” (NPR, June 2024)

Relevant Ten Across Conversations Podcasts

ASU Researchers Tackle Extreme Heat Relief as Phoenix Temps Soar

Urban Planners: The Unexpected Champions of the U.S. Heat Resilience Effort

What Some of the Hottest Cities on The 10 Are Doing to Address Deadly Heat

Credits
Host: Duke Reiter
Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith
Music by: Dew of Light and Lennon Hutton
Research and support provided by: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler

About our...

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1 month ago

47 minutes

Ten Across Conversations

Negotiating Survival: The Complex Decision-Making Required to Save Louisiana's Coast
The human interventions intended to make Louisiana's coastline habitable and productive over the past century have contributed to the region's most existential threats. Without redress, displaced river sediment, compromised wetlands, and land subsidence will increasingly expose the state to extreme storm surge and sea level rise.

In 2007, following the devastating impacts of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Louisiana adopted its Coastal Master Plan. More than 100 projects have been approved under the plan, including the $3 billion Mid Barataria Sediment Diversion. The largest project of its kind, the diversion was designed to regenerate 40 square miles of barrier wetlands by allowing the leveed river to flood the Barataria Basin. Construction began in 2023, but it was ultimately canceled by Governor Jeff Landry in July of 2025 due to financial and environmental objections.

The arc of this project, from its design through its cancellation, exemplifies how complicated and divisive collective decision-making can become in the age of climate change. Projects scaled to meet major resilience issues are rarely able to serve the conflicting priorities, values, and interests of all stakeholders equally—and trade-offs can bring conflict at every step.

The Water Institute CEO Beaux Jones and award-winning environmental journalist Boyce Upholt both return to the podcast—this time for a joint conversation about the dilemmas in Mississippi River management, conflicting interests and negotiations in coastal resilience, and what it all means for Louisiana’s future.

Relevant Articles and Resources

Subscribe to receive the Southlands Magazine and newsletter here!

Learn more about the 10X Convergence and attending

“’It’s a tragedy’: Current, former state officials spar over scuttled coastal project” (The Current LA, August 2025)

“What scrapping a $3 billion coastal project means for Louisiana’s future” (The Washington Post, July 2025)

“Proponents of Mid-Barataria diversion warn against abandoning wetlands” (Louisiana Illuminator, May 2025)

Mississippi River 100 (The Water Institute)

Relevant Ten Across Conversations Podcasts

Past and Future Resilience Along the Mississippi with Boyce Upholt

Want to Understand the Future of U.S. Climate Resilience? Look to the...
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1 month ago
47 minutes

Ten Across Conversations

Latest Deadpool Projections Inject New Urgency into Colorado River Negotiations
Negotiators representing seven states, 30 tribes, and Mexico are running out of time to agree on new rules to guide sharing of Colorado River water before a federally mandated deadline next fall. Failure to do so would forfeit water allocation authority to the Bureau of Reclamation, and costly state and tribal litigation would be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Potable water supply for much of the West is not all that’s at stake in managing demands on the river’s supply. “Deadpool” levels in the reservoirs at Lake Powell and Lake Mead would result in inability of the Glen Canyon and Hoover Dams to generate hydropower. The establishment of new post-2026 operating guidelines among the river’s competing stakeholders is a complex undertaking, consuming much of the region’s attention and effort.

However, an analysis published last week by six leading scholars in the basin warns that immediate, substantial action to conserve water is needed. Their study suggests that if the coming year’s patterns of water supply and use mirror past years, then by the time any hard-won new guidelines are in place, the basin may already be in serious trouble.

In this episode, study author Kathryn Sorensen and water policy expert Sarah Porter provide perspectives on the near-term science, human behavior, and potential solutions relating to conditions around the Colorado River.

Relevant articles and resources

“Analysis of Colorado River Basin Storage Suggests Need for Immediate Action” (Jack Schmidt, Anne Castle, John Fleck, Eric Kuhn, Kathryn Sorensen, Kathrine Tara, September 2025)

“As the Colorado River slowly dries up, states angle for influence over future water rights” (The Conversation, August 2025)

“Inside the ‘revolutionary’ new Colorado River proposal” (E&E News by Politico, July 2025)

Colorado River Shortage: What This Means for Arizona & What Comes Next (Arizona Water Blueprint)

“The Colorado River needs some ‘shared pain’ to break a deadlock, water experts say” (KUNC, May 2025)

“Floating Pools & Grand Bargains” (Kyl Center for Water Policy at Morrison Institute, April 2025)

Relevant Ten Across Conversations podcasts

Checking in on Tense Colorado River Negotiations with Anne Castle and John Fleck

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1 month ago
47 minutes

Ten Across Conversations

Katrina's 20th: Jeff Hébert on Community Recovery and Resilience
Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast from Florida to Louisiana in 2005 and is still the costliest disaster in U.S. history. New Orleans, a city resting below sea level, is uniquely dependent on engineering for its safety. On August 29th, nearly every defense seemed to fail, allowing storm surge to flood 80% of the city.

As terrible as the storm itself, arguably, were the human failures that contributed to what happened to New Orleans during and after Katrina—flaws in planning, infrastructure, governance, and social equity.

Yet change is possible. And in the intervening years, New Orleans has become known globally as a leader in preparedness, adaptation and recovery knowledge.

New Orleanians are weary of being praised for their resilience. In the past five years alone, the metro area has faced 17 federally declared national disasters—four times the national average. And the challenge of long-term adaptation can be especially overwhelming, especially at a time when consensus seems nearly impossible. But there is no substitute for New Orleans. Its people, environment, culture, and history add up to an inimitable home worth sustaining.

In this episode, longtime friend of Ten Across Jeff Hébert joins us to talk about the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina—the recovery process and the lessons in it that continue to resonate for the future of all our communities. Today, Jeff is chief executive officer for HR&A Advisors. In the years after Katrina, as a New Orleans native and urban planner, he served as a director with the Louisiana Recovery Authority and as a senior official in Mayor Mitch Landrieu's administration. He was also among the first chief resilience officers appointed under The Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities program.

Ten Across founder Duke Reiter talks with Jeff about how his experiences with the long game of adaptation and recovery in New Orleans and beyond have shaped his perspective and his work.

Relevant articles and resources

“Trump’s former FEMA chief opens up — and says administration is ‘delaying’ aid” (Politico, August 2025)

“20 years after Katrina, New Orleans’ levees are sinking and short on money” (Grist, August 2025)

“Coastal communities restoring marshes, dunes, reefs to protect against rising seas and storm surges” (AP News, August 2025)

“Government to keep sharing key satellite data for hurricane forecasting despite planned cutoff” (AP News, July 2025)

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2 months ago
49 minutes

Ten Across Conversations

Katrina's 20th: Vann R. Newkirk II on What We Owe Climate Disaster Survivors Today
Twenty years ago this week, Hurricane Katrina—still the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history—made landfall in New Orleans. Many mark the storm as the transition point to a new age of extreme weather impacts. The Federal Emergency Management Agency more than tripled the size of its Disaster Relief Fund going forward as a result of Katrina and two other major hurricanes in 2005.

Yet two decades later, disasters of this scale have become so common that FEMA has been on track to run out of its Disaster Relief Fund for the second year in a row, unless Congress issues an emergency aid package. And in this anniversary week, more than 180 FEMA employees have endorsed a letter submitted to members of Congress, urging their defense of the agency's continued operations in spite of the President's stated intent to eliminate or severely curtail its funding. The 36 co-signers that opted to use their names have been placed on administrative leave until further notice, The New York Times reports.

This is the context for today’s conversation with the host and co-creator of the Peabody Award-winning podcast miniseries “Floodlines”, Vann R. Newkirk II. Vann traces the events surrounding Hurricane Katrina as a demonstration of the ways a community's risk exposure and recovery assistance are often determined by race and class. These disparities became nationally visible both in the immediacy of the disaster and long after, as some New Orleanians were able to return and recover their homes and livelihoods, while for many others such recovery still remains out of reach.

Duke and Vann also look at Hurricane Katrina’s invigoration of a national and federal movement for environmental justice. Now that this work is being targeted and dismantled, they discuss how to maintain focus in the face of such dramatic reversals and the implications for the next major storm.

Be sure to tune in again next week when we look further into the post-Katrina recovery period with one of its primary leaders, HR&A President and CEO Jeff Hébert, who formerly served as first deputy mayor for the City of New Orleans, executive director of the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority, and as one of the first chief resilience officers appointed under Rockefeller’s 100 Resilient Cities initiative.

Relevant content from Vann R. Newkirk II

Listen to the “Floodlines” podcast series, including “Part 9: Rebirth”, released five years later

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2 months ago
50 minutes

Ten Across Conversations

Mississippi River Mayors Coalesce to Address Shared Climate Risks
Recent Ten Across Conversations episodes have considered how current changes in staffing, research, and responsibilities within federal agencies like FEMA and NOAA may affect disaster readiness and response at the local level. Many cities find themselves pressed to rethink how their own limited resources might secure the information and support necessary to address the growing risks they face.

Collaborative regional networks are proving to be one way to achieve much greater returns on investments of local time and funds. The Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative (MRCTI) has become an outstanding example of this type of work. Formed in 2012, this innovative coalition of 105 mayors from cities along the main stem of the Mississippi has spearheaded programs in vital policy areas including clean water, sustainable economies, and climate resilience.

Among their most interesting efforts from a Ten Across perspective is the pilot parametric insurance policy MRCTI is developing with global reinsurer Munich Re. When realized, this program would allow member cities to opt in to a customized, shared insurance pool that could rapidly fund local emergency response based on predefined environmental trigger events.

Listen in as City of Gretna Mayor and MRCTI Louisiana Chair Belinda Constant joins MRCTI’s executive director, Colin Wellenkamp, and Ten Across founder Duke Reiter to discuss how collaboration can help defend against more frequent and costly risks.

Relevant articles and resources

“Trump moves to end NASA missions measuring carbon dioxide and planet health” (PBS, August 2025)

“Trump, who called FEMA ‘slow,’ is making people wait months for help” (E&E News by Politico, May 2025)

“As Mississippi River towns experience whiplash between drought and flood, mayors look to new insurance model” (The Lens, November 2024)

Relevant Ten Across Conversations podcasts

Why the Ten Across Geography Needs FEMA with Dr. Samantha Montano

Beyond the Forecast: TV Meteorologists Weight in on Climate Challenges

Past and Future Resilience Along the Mississippi with Boyce Upholt

Want to Understand the Future of Climate Resilience? Look to the Gulf Coast

Credits:
Host: Duke Reiter
Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith
Music by: Jakob Ahlbom and Lennon Hutton
Research and support provided by: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler

About our guests

Rep. Colin Wellenkamp is the executive director of the Mississippi River Cities and Towns...
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2 months ago
39 minutes

Ten Across Conversations

Beyond the Forecast: TV Meteorologists Weigh in on Climate Challenges
Local broadcast meteorologists have become more vocal about the evidence of climate change in their communities’ weather in recent years. While some have encountered dramatic pushback, others have found audiences that are eager to understand the causes of recent record-breaking disturbances in familiar weather patterns.

In Phoenix, meteorologist Amber Sullins—formerly a climate skeptic, herself—uses her role to inform an increasingly concerned audience about not only the risks but the climate change factors contributing to the unprecedented extreme heat they experience. And far to the other end of the Ten Across region in Miami, Michael Lowry is putting his background in meteorology and emergency management to work on multiple platforms, explaining both the immediate dangers and the greater, complex drivers of worsening tropical storms.

But even as more meteorologists like Amber and Michael embrace their unique ability to use the immediacy of local weather to connect the public to the larger context of climate change, there is growing concern about loss of critical federal weather and climate data on which their forecasts are based. Severe cuts are being made at federal agencies—particularly within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees the sources of nearly all U.S. weather information. A proposed budget change for 2026 would reduce resources even further.

Listen in as Amber, Michael, and Ten Across founder Duke Reiter discuss these changes and the implications for both forecast accuracy and public safety as the climate continues to warm.

Relevant links and resources:

Read Michael’s column in the New York Times

2017 Bloomberg video report on Amber's climate coverage

"After DOGE cuts, National Weather Service gets OK to fill up to 450 jobs" (The LA Times, August 2025)

“US Weather Boss During ‘Sharpiegate’ Nears Return to a Shrinking Agency” (Bloomberg, August 2025)

“After 7 Decades of Measurements From a Peak in Hawaii, Trump’s Budget Would End Them” (The New York Times, July 2025)

“Nearly half of National Weather Service offices are crticially understaffed, experts warn” (PBS News, April 2025)

Show more...
3 months ago
46 minutes

Ten Across Conversations

Past, Present, and Future Climate Reporting with NPR's Sadie Babits
The global climate has undoubtedly changed. Earlier this year, Copernicus, one of the most trusted weather models in the world, calculated that global average temperatures have increased by 1.4°C (2.5°F) since the start of the Industrial Revolution. This seemingly slight increase has had an outsized effect on weather patterns, challenging our ability to predict and prevent disasters resulting from more extreme weather.

Most Americans are at least somewhat concerned about global warming, the documented solution to which is greenhouse gas reduction. Yet just this week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to rescind its central scientific basis for climate-related regulation. And with so much competing for our attention, it is easy to imagine that relatively few people will take note of such a policy decision—let alone clearly understand the larger implications and how to respond.

In this episode, NPR's Sadie Babits discusses her new book Hot Takes: Every Journalist’s Guide to Covering Climate Change, written to equip all of us (journalists or not) to take part in critical public discourse about climate science and policy.

Listen in as Sadie and Ten Across founder Duke Reiter talk about the development of this book, and how journalists can and must rise to the challenges present in the political and media landscape today.

The video format of this discussion will be released 8.7.25. Subscribe to the Ten Across newsletter at 10across.org/subscribe/ to receive it as soon as it is available.

Related links:

“Funding cuts will hit rural areas hard. One station manager explains how” (All Things Considered, July 2025)

“Congress rolls back $9 billion in public media funding and foreign aid” (NPR, July 2025)

“Trump EPA moves to repeal landmark ‘endangerment finding’ that allows climate regulation” (Associated Press, July 2025)

“There’s a Race to Power the Future. China is Pulling Away” (The New York Times, June 2025)

Relevant Ten Across Conversations podcast episodes:

Getting Personal About Climate Change with Sammy Roth

Reporting on Climate Change When it’s at Your Doorstep with...
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3 months ago
45 minutes

Ten Across Conversations

A Road Trip Along Interstate 10 with Author E.A. Hanks — Part Two
This episode deals with some mature topics. Listener discretion is advised.

This week, we’re bringing you the second half of our discussion with author E.A. (Elizabeth) Hanks about her new book, The 10: A Memoir of Family and the Open Road. Elizabeth undertook her journey along the iconic Interstate 10 transect to better understand herself and the nation we inhabit—and her experience is a perfect subject for a Ten Across conversation.

In part two, Ten Across founder Duke Reiter and Elizabeth pick up where they left off at the end of the first installment, crossing from Texas into Louisiana on her way to her favorite stop of all—New Orleans. Tracing the length of the Gulf Coast to her destination in Florida, they explore what this diverse set of places revealed along the way about family, country, and culture.

Relevant Ten Across Conversations podcast episodes and other links:

A Road Trip Along Interstate 10 with Author E.A. Hanks - Part One

Governing Through Times of Crisis and Opportunity with Mayor Mitch Landrieu - Part One and Part Two

A Fight for Better Air Quality in CA’s Inland Empire Reveals a Need for American Innovation

Catherine Coleman Flowers: A National Voice for Rural and Unincorporated America

Fewer Roads Could Mean More Freedom with Megan Kimble

Envisioning a Just Future for All with Dr. Robert Bullard thewhoweareproject.org

“Trump Told Park Works to Report Displays That ‘Disparage’ Americans. Here’s What They Flagged” (The New York Times, July 2025)

“The Costs of the Confederacy” (Smithsonian Magazine, 2018)

Listen to The 10: A Memoir of Family and the Open Road on Spotify or other audiobook services

Credits:

Host: Duke Reiter
Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith
Music by: Ramin
Research and support provided by: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler

About our guest:

E.A. Hanks is the author...
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3 months ago
45 minutes

Ten Across Conversations

A Road Trip Along Interstate 10 with Author E.A. Hanks — Part One
Earlier this year, E.A. Hanks—also known as Elizabeth—made her literary debut The 10: A Memoir of Family and the Open Road. Considering its framing, it is no surprise that the book was recommended to Ten Across by many. The 10 documents Elizabeth's re-creation of a fraught childhood road trip taken with her mother in 1996, traveling Interstate 10 from end to end. In retracing her mother’s path, she reflects on the diverse nature of the region itself and its influence on events both large and small.

What results is, in significant part, a series of provocative questions about identity—personal, political, and place-based. For example, what makes Texas and California so different, and at the same time so equally vivid in the American imagination? Why do people around the world recognize so much of this singular transect? Is New Orleans the American city? How long can Phoenix exist as it has? How do we define a border? Finally, and most importantly, how do such places inform our future—as individuals and as a nation?

In this special two-part interview, Elizabeth Hanks and Ten Across founder Duke Reiter attempt to answer all the above and find many new questions and revelations along the way. Keep an eye out for part two, which will be released wherever you get your podcasts on July 24.

Relevant Ten Across Conversations podcasts:

“Addressing Historical Inequities in Our National Infrastructure, Then and Now”

“Asking the Right Question: What Texas and Arizona Can Tell Us About the Country”

“Why Phoenix is the ‘Most American City’ with George Packer”

Listen to “The 10” on Spotify, or other audiobook services

Credits:
Host: Duke Reiter
Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith
Music by: American Legion
Research and support provided by: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich and Sabine Butler

About our guest:
E.A. Hanks is the author of The 10: A Memoir of Family and the Open Road. She is a former editorial assistant for Vanity Fair and news editor for The Huffington Post. Her culture reporting has been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, Time Magazine, and The Awl, among others.
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3 months ago
44 minutes

Ten Across Conversations

AI Series: Balancing Data Infrastructure Resource Demands
Previous episodes in our AI series have focused on the evolving features of artificial intelligence itself: its potential to democratize education and to improve city planning and weather forecasting. In this final installment, we examine its costs: the accelerating resource demands of AI and other data-intensive technologies.

Maya Chari, this year’s Ten Across + APM Research Lab data journalism fellow, recently investigated the true water and energy costs associated with data center facilities in the Phoenix metro area— now on track to become the second largest market in the U.S. Though granular industrial data can be difficult to come by, Maya located a report submitted by Microsoft to City of Goodyear officials, stating that one of their proposed data centers would use as much potable water each year as 670 homes. Amplified across the 140 other data centers currently dotting the state of Arizona alone, the scale of such consumption becomes clearer.

As data centers rapidly multiply in response to market demand around the world—often preferring arid places like the water-stressed U.S. Southwest—critical questions are pressed about whether and how such development can be sustained.

In back-to-back conversations in this episode, we’ll hear from experts involved in managing and reducing the impact of the physical infrastructure behind our digitized lives. Bobby Olsen, chief planning, strategy, and sustainability executive at the Arizona electric and water utility Salt River Project, describes planning to meet staggering levels of projected energy demand. And Dr. Kerri Hickenbottom, principal investigator at University of Arizona’s Hickenbottom Environmental Research Lab, discusses working in concert with the public and private sectors to improve water reuse strategies and overall efficiency of data center operations.

To support our I-10 neighbors' disaster recovery in Central Texas this week: Kerr County Flood Relief Fund

Related articles and resources:

“At Amazon’s Biggest Data Center, Everything is Supersized for A.I.” (The New York Times, June 2025)

“Are Data Centers Depleting the Southwest’s Water and Energy Resources?” (American...
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4 months ago
53 minutes

Ten Across Conversations

AI Series: AI-Powered Extreme Weather Modeling is on the Horizon
Over the course of a calendar year ending in May 2025, the United States absorbed nearly $1 trillion in damages due to extreme weather. This amount, representing 3% of U.S. gross domestic product, was driven by rising insurance costs and a series of disasters primarily concentrated in the Ten Across geography, such as Hurricanes Helene and Milton and the fires in Los Angeles.

More than ever before, timely and detailed forecasts are needed to properly prepare—and in some cases to evacuate—communities ahead of such extreme events. Leaders across sectors are further in need of advanced weather modeling to support larger-scale mitigation and adaptation efforts.

The data that influence such public and private decision-making mainly stem from the National Weather Service’s six billion daily weather observations. The NWS recently shed 600 of its 4,000 positions, prompting a public warning from five former agency directors that understaffing could undermine the quality and delivery of forecasts, potentially putting many Americans at greater risk.

At the same time, advanced artificial intelligence capabilities are contributing to a trend toward increased commercial ownership of U.S. weather forecasting. However, today's guest, Dr. Amy McGovern, points out that while today's AI can create and curate efficient weather models better than a conventional supercomputer, its monitoring capabilities are not comparable to the collective experience and proficiency of NWS scientists.

Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter and Dr. McGovern, an expert in the integration of AI in meteorological science, explore the current forecasting landscape and how the emergence of private sector AI-powered modeling is influencing its evolution.

Related articles and resources:
Read about Brightband’s Extreme Weather Bench, led by Amy McGovern

NOAA stops tracking cost of extreme weather and climate disasters (UtilityDive, May 2025)

Most Americans use federal science information on a weekly basis, a new poll finds (NPR, May 2025)

Former...
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4 months ago
37 minutes

Ten Across Conversations

AI Series: 10X Cities Are Using Digital Twins to Solve Complex Challenges
This is the second episode in our limited series about artificial intelligence trends shaping life in the I-10 corridor and beyond. In this episode we chat with experts from the Ten Across cities of Phoenix, Houston and Jacksonville on the power of digital twins to more seamlessly convene stakeholders around shared goals.

As virtual representations of actual places and systems, digital twins at their most advanced can incorporate detailed, live data feeds to model real-time conditions—and their potential. These dynamic tools can produce highly accessible visualizations of data and three-dimensional spaces to enhance users' monitoring, scenario planning, and decision making, thanks to advances in computing power and machine learning.

Listen in as guests Devney Majerle, Satish Tripathi, and Jeffrey Carney discuss the goals behind their respective digital twin initiatives and the current capabilities of the models. Devney explains how a twin is helping Downtown Phoenix leaders and community members coalesce around a strategic development plan. Satish is in the process of developing a digital twin for Houston’s vast water system. And Jeff discusses the twins he has helped build for Jacksonville and the State of Florida to scope future-oriented resilience efforts.

Related articles and resources:

Listen to the first episode in our AI Series

Explore the JaxTwin

Read about Downtown Phoenix Inc.’s launch of their twin

Learn about Houston’s journey to develop a digital twin of its water system

Credits:

Host: Duke Reiter

Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith

Music by: Helmut Schenker and Lennon Hutton

Research and support provided by: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler

About our guests:

Jeffrey Carney is a professor in the University of Florida School of Architecture and director of the Florida Institute for Built Environment Resilience (FIBER). Jeff is also spearheading the GulfSouth Studio initiative and co-leading the JaxTwin and Florida Digital Twin initiatives to support decision making in the City of Jacksonville and State of Florida. Jeff previously served as director of the Louisiana State University Coastal Sustainability Studio and initiated the Inland from the Coast project which examined flood impacts in Baton Rouge, LA.

Devney Majerle is president and chief executive officer of Downtown Phoenix Inc. She is formerly executive director of the Phoenix Community Alliance, vice president of activation and special events for the Arizona Organizing Committee, and senior director of marketing partnerships activation for the Phoenix Suns. Devney serves on several advisory...
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4 months ago
47 minutes

Ten Across Conversations

Why the Ten Across Geography Needs FEMA with Dr. Samantha Montano
As we were publishing this episode, news from The New York Times broke that Jeremy Greenberg, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) disaster command center has left his post, a day after President Trump said he would wind down the federal agency by November. CBS reported that Tony Robinson, regional administrator of FEMA Region 6, which includes Ten Across states New Mexico, Texas, and Louisiana, also intends to step down this week.

Since January, President Trump has talked about his intent to eliminate or severely diminish the role of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, relegating disaster response and recovery to the states. On Tuesday, he reiterated this goal and stated that no major changes would be made until after this year’s hurricane season.

The administration's first six months, however, have already brought significant disruption to the agency's operations. One-third of its total staff has been laid off, an acting administrator was abruptly replaced after expressing support for the agency’s existence, and nearly all climate resilience grants and training programs directed at state and local preparation have been canceled.

While criticism of the agency and calls for its reform are not new, FEMA has been central to U.S. emergency management for decades. Now, at the onset of the 2025 hurricane season, emergency management experts throughout the country are widely reporting concern about the nation’s readiness for disaster response.

To help us make sense of these real and proposed changes in this episode, ‘disasterologist’ Dr. Samantha Montano returns to the podcast. Samantha will explain the origins of FEMA, valid areas for potential reform, and the issues inherent in turning its responsibilities over to the states— as environmental risks to lives and property in the Ten Across region become more difficult to insure.

Relevant articles and resources:

Listen to our first episode with Samantha

More on the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season and related misinformation

“Trumps says his administration wants to ‘wean’ states off FEMA aid after hurricane season” (CBS News, June 2025)

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4 months ago
41 minutes

Ten Across Conversations

Understanding Groundwater Risks in the Southwest with Jay Famiglietti
Last week, news broke that the depletion of groundwater across the Colorado River Basin has been quietly, rapidly outpacing the more visible decline of the river itself. Even as the seven basin states negotiate reduced consumption of river water—inevitably driving dependence toward local aquifers instead—this newly published research shows that the majority ofmost of the water lost throughout the basin in recent years has been underground. In the Lower Colorado River Basin alone, groundwater has accounted for 71% of total water supply loss.

Jay Famiglietti, a longtime contributor to Ten Across, specializes in the use of satellite data to monitor the world's groundwater mass. His team's new findings focus on the U.S. Southwest—a region at the forefront of the nation's water supply challenges and the complex balances between resource limitations and economic growth.

As states and cities in the Colorado River Basin and elsewhere develop water management strategies to sustain themselves through future constraints, a growing understanding of groundwater supply is key to effective proactive policy. It is increasingly clear that time is of the essence for this uniquely finite resource.

Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter and Jay Famiglietti discuss the concrete findings in this report, the immediate and long-term implications for agriculture in the Southwest, and Jay’s motivations for raising awareness of groundwater usage in the Ten Across region and beyond.

Relevant articles and resources:

Read the open access study: “Declining Freshwater Availability in the Colorado River Basin Threatens Sustainability of Its Critical Groundwater Supplies”

Read The Washington Post’s analysis

More analysis from The Guardian and Inside Climate News

Catch up on the Colorado River negotiations

Listen to Jay’s first podcast appearance

Related headlines:

“ADWR Director Briefs UA Water Resources Research Center Conference on Colorado River Negotiations” (azwater.gov, June 2025)

“It’s not just big alfalfa farms. La Paz residents fear groundwater grab by big cities” (Arizona Republic, June 2025)

“Arizona wants this city to cut its groundwater use. Residents...
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5 months ago
38 minutes

Ten Across Conversations

A Fight for Better Air Quality in CA's Inland Empire Reveals a Need for American Innovation
Last week, we discussed the emerging digital economy and artificial intelligence sector. Fulfilling the long-term potential of such technological advancements will also require innovation in the ways we anticipate, understand and control their potential consequences.

Take, for example, the revolutionary success of Amazon and other online and same-day delivery retailers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for these services boomed. Even as brick-and-mortar stores reopened, consumers continued to rely on the ease of almost anything in the world shipping right to their doorstep at the click of a button.

Unanticipated changes in land use patterns and demands on aging energy, water and transportation infrastructure, however, belie that incredible convenience. How should we reconcile such popular improvements to daily life with the side effects experienced by the communities that find themselves directly in the path of a roaring supply chain?

Our guest this week, Andrea Vidaurre, grew up in California’s Inland Empire. This semi-rural metropolitan area located just an hour inland from the critical Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has been fighting a growing wave of pollution and industrial intrusion. Within a fraction of Andrea’s lifetime, the Inland Empire’s warehouse footprint has grown 90%, starting with a few hundred facilities and today reaching 4,000 (and counting). More than half a million trucks move goods to and from these centers every day, generating 25,000 tons of daily CO₂ emissions and myriad public health risks for the surrounding neighborhoods.

In this discussion, Andrea describes her transformation from concerned community member to award-winning policy analyst and environmental justice advocate who helped pass two landmark air quality regulations in California. Her work near the far western end of the I-10 is challenging conventional priorities for U.S. innovation and influencing more effective energy transition policy structures. Listen until the end for a postscript detailing the latest efforts in the Senate to limit California’s regulatory powers in relation to air quality.

Relevant articles and resources:

Follow the People’s Collective for Environmental Justice on X, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook

Read Andrea’s Goldman Environmental Prize and TIME Magazine recognitions

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5 months ago
42 minutes

Ten Across Conversations

AI Series: The Emerging Digital Economy Has Deep Roots Along 'The 10'
As artificial intelligence capabilities and related infrastructural demands have exploded in recent years, we have been keeping an eye on the implications for the Ten Across region. To help kick off our summer podcast series on the subject of AI, Arizona State University’s chief information officer Lev Gonick joins us to explore the ways AI is reshaping education, urban development and predictive sciences—as well as its effects on human relationships.

As CIO, Lev leads ASU’s AI strategy to stay ahead of the curve for higher ed. ASU was the first university to partner with OpenAI in 2023. Faculty, staff, and students are encouraged to develop and report on innovative uses of AI in their respective work. The university in turn is working to capture and disseminate this fast-developing body of knowledge to advance its own pursuits and those of the greater local and regional economies. As this technology expands its reach, ASU graduates are expected to have a sophisticated understanding of its potential within their chosen fields, and as a result, to have a lasting edge in a competitive job market.

We’ll also talk to Lev about his early-2000s success in expanding broadband internet access for urban Cleveland, Ohio, as high-speed internet became necessary for economic mobility. Lev’s work informed federal efforts to create equitable technological infrastructure that is needed more than ever in an increasingly digital world, but faces a tough political climate today.

Finally, given the serious water and energy tradeoffs associated with this technological leap, this conversation and others in the series will consider the careful balances the Ten Across region needs to strike in creating sustainable economic growth.

Relevant articles and resources:

“U.S. Literacy Rates by State 2024” (usadatahub.com)

“Are Data Centers Depleting the Southwest’s Water and Energy Resources?” (APM Research Lab/Ten Across, February 2025)

“The AI Journey” (ASU Enterprise Technology, October 2024)

“The Importance of Place in U.S. Higher Ed with Michael Crow” (Ten Across Conversations, May 2025)

Credits:

Host: Duke Reiter

Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith

Music by: William Claeson

Research and supportive provided by: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler

About our guest

Lev Gonick is an educator, technologist, and smart city architect. As Arizona State University’s chief information officer, Lev leads the design and management of all online infrastructure, including applications,...
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5 months ago
36 minutes

Ten Across Conversations

100th Episode: The Importance of Place in U.S. Higher Ed with Michael Crow
If you follow the evolution of American education, you are surely aware of Arizona State University's transformation under the leadership of Michael Crow. In a little over two decades, Crow has grown ASU into one of the largest and most influential public universities, in terms of overall enrollment, research expenditures, and the adoption of new technologies. In doing so, he has become an internationally recognized voice in the future of higher education at large. Built on a precise set of guiding principles outlined in his inaugural address, the university consistently garners accolades for community and global impact, environmental sustainability, and graduate employability.

In a field where peer institutions have traditionally competed based on exclusivity, ASU's success is derived from its 2014 Charter, which declared that this university would be "measured not by whom it excludes, but by whom it includes and how they succeed." Crow’s New American University model defies the norms of rising tuition, low acceptance rates and inflexible learning pathways, with an aim to prioritize meaningful change in the lives of more students and the communities which it serves.

Ten Across, of course, is itself responsive to ASU's Charter and its design aspirations, particularly its emphasis on place. As a unique subset of ASU, Ten Across strives to deliver outsized impact through intentional networks, education, and media that address high-stakes issues experienced throughout the I-10 region—many of which are exacerbated by climate change.

Listen in as Michael Crow explains why Arizona was the place he chose for the development of this highly inclusive and innovative model of higher education, and the efforts that have gone into transforming ASU from a small state college into a global humanitarian and technological engine generating solutions to some of our most difficult challenges.

Related articles and resources:

Michael Crow explains the “invisible hand” of university research in conversation with Rice University President Reginald DesRoches

“ASU boosts the economic vitality of Arizona” (ASU News, January 2025)

“Why Phoenix is the ‘Most American City’ with George Packer” (Ten Across Conversations, August 2024)

“’Evolve Or Die’ —Michael Crow’s Challenge to U.S. Higher Education” (Forbes, May 2025)

“Democrats need a leader like ASU President Michael Crow to rescue them” (Arizona Republic, January 2025)

Credits:

Host: Duke Reiter

Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith

Music by: Helmut Schenker and Pearce Roswell

Research and support provided: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler
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6 months ago
23 minutes

Ten Across Conversations

Carolyn Kousky on Using Insurance Models to Drive Positive Change
The insurance industry's bottom line offers the clearest, least political evidence that a stable economy and livable communities are increasingly dependent on strategies to address extreme weather impacts. California, Louisiana, and Florida have become harbingers of a spreading issue: disaster-related property losses that continuously exceed underwriting profitability. The resulting gaps in affordability and availability are driving property owners to states' insurer-of-last-resort programs or, more and more often, to forgo coverage for their greatest risks.

As warmer ocean water and sea level rise fuel more destructive Atlantic hurricane seasons, Florida homeowner's insurance costs more than three times the national average, and an estimated 15-20% of property owners are uninsured. In Louisiana, the withdrawal of the insurance industry has caused the state's FAIR plan enrollment to grow 400% in just four years.

Wildfire risk has grown as well. The fires in Los Angeles earlier this year are projected to become the costliest natural disaster in the nation’s history, around $50 billion more than the total damages from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Major insurers had already dropped 2.8 million policies in fire-prone areas of the state since 2020. Now, the state's FAIR plan is struggling to bear the weight of its own growing exposure as homeowners find themselves without other options for coverage.

In the Ten Across region and beyond, there is growing interest in insurance mechanisms and governance which, rather than simply reflecting and reacting to risk, can be adapted as tools for better preparation and response.

Carolyn Kousky founded the nonprofit Insurance for Good to meet this need. Listen in to learn more about how Carolyn’s work connects local leaders to deep industry knowledge and encourages the industry to participate actively in global climate resilience and energy transition efforts.

About our guest:

Carolyn Kousky is the founder of Insurance for Good, a nonprofit focused on improving equity in disaster recovery, accelerating the energy transition, and driving investments in resilience. She is also the author of Show more...
6 months ago
42 minutes