Steve LeVine talks with Jim about battery tech's role in sustainable transportation, his writing process for The Powerhouse, EV predictions, and much more...

Steve LeVine talks with Jim about why battery innovation is so important for sustainable transportation, the challenges & promises of transitioning to electric vehicles, how Steve researched & wrote his book (The Powerhouse), key milestones for electric vehicle range & costs, Tesla’s advantages, Volkswagen's electric aspirations, why charlatans are so common in battery R&D, the pace of progress in battery tech, the history & future of Argonne National Labs, the dynamics & socialization of US R&D, Steve’s predictions for the future of the electric car & battery markets, and more.

Episode Transcript

Mentions & Recommendations

Steve’s book, The Powerhouse
The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder
Argonne National Labs
BloombergNEF
Jeffrey Chamberlain
Stevelevinebooks.com
EP42 Jessika Trancik on Tech & Research vs Climate Change
Bernie’s Green New Deal
Follow Steve on Medium
Steve's latest article, The Geopolitics of Aliens

Steve LeVine is Editor at Large at Medium, writing on tech, economic, geopolitical and demographic trends. He formerly founded and directed the Future newsletter at Axios, and prior to that was Washington Correspondent for Quartz, the mobile-first startup. Steve is also a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Foresight, Strategy and Risks Initiative and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, where he teaches in the graduate-level Security Studies Program. Previously, Steve was a foreign correspondent for 18 years in the former Soviet Union, Pakistan and the Philippines, running a bureau for The Wall Street Journal, and before that writing for The New York Times, the Financial Times, and Newsweek. He is also an author of two books.