Far Middle episode 86 celebrates the “Fab Five Record Setters of 1986.” These record setters span professional sports, from the hockey rink to Augusta National, and from Fenway Park and the Boston Garden to the boxing ring.

While memorable records were being established in 1986, in 2023 we find several forgettable records being set. These include the declining state of the UK’s beloved brewing industry as it faces numerous challenges; from energy costs to labor strife to consumers’ purchasing power, challenges all rooted in climate and energy policy creating energy scarcity.

The situation on tap for UK brewers reminds Nick of another record, Neil Young’s Harvest, and the song “The Needle and the Damage Done.” But in this case, it’s “Climate Policy and the Damage Done.”

On that note, Nick discusses the irony of referencing an eco-warrior such as Young and explores what concerts and touring would look (and sound) like if such warriors’ performances were carbon-free.

Next up in the episode’s setlist is a “groundbreaking” study from Stanford that, according to the study’s lead author, finds “electricity access impacts economic well-being at scale across an entire country in Africa.” Nick asks if we really need satellites and artificial intelligence to tell us something we’ve known since the start of the Industrial Revolution. Nick references this is a theme discussed in his book, Precipice. He argues that the corollary to inhibiting the availability of affordable and reliable electricity through climate policy, which is morally wrong, is suppressing growth and personal income, destroying quality of life, and denying those in the developing world a path to a better life.

Equally morally wrong are business leaders not speaking up when they see policy prescriptions proposed or enacted that are impractical, “it’s leadership 101,” says Nick.

The discussion then returns to Stanford as Nick uses the school’s administrative army, which almost equals the school’s student body, as a prime example of how the business model of higher education is broken.

Nick closes by celebrating the numerous contributions of Alexander Hamilton, whose birthday coincides with today’s episode release.

Far Middle episode 85 marks the series start to 2023. As The Far Middle enters its third calendar year, Nick once again connects issues spanning the past, present, and future.

Dedicated to the iconic 1985 Chicago Bears, Nick looks back on the epic season of a team that was truly “must-see TV.” While not a dynasty, the Super Bowl XX champs had it all; boasting personalities like Jim McMahon and Walter Payton on offense, the “Monsters of the Midway” on defense, and Coaches Ditka and Ryan on the sideline.

Nick moves from the “Windy City” to the hot air blowing from the medical journal, The Lancet, which in a March 2020 editorial made bold proclamations touting China’s success in handling Covid-19.

Next, Nick examines a recent editorial by U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, titled, “Biden Has the Economy Back on Track.” Nick counters Ms. Yellen’s hollow policy proclamations, in particular her accomplishments on energy being “a key focus of the administration’s work.”

Staying on energy and the economy, Nick looks under the hood of Stellantis’ announcement that it would be idling its Belvidere, Illinois, plant that produces Jeep Cherokee SUVs. The company is looking to cut costs, and 1,300 jobs, to invest in electric vehicles. Nick says this is the real-world collateral damage of the energy transition that’s falling upon our middle class and middle America.

Shifting gears from the auto industry to power sector, Nick reflects on Siemens Energy and the challenges its renewable business is facing. Nick reiterates the supply chain issues/sourcing for renewable sources, as well as the material required per unit of power derived from sources like wind and solar juxtaposed to sources such as natural gas.

Turning to academia, Nick discusses Harvard and Yale’s decision to stop participating in U.S. News & World Report law-school rankings. He says our elite colleges can make quite the hollow pronouncements at times, and so too can the G20 (aka the master of the obvious) who issued a recent declaration stating, “Today’s era must not be of war.”

Nick wraps this episode’s policy discussion by highlighting total factor productivity (TFP), a metric that measures how much innovation contributes to growth, particularly economic growth.

And as 2023 gets underway, Nick goes back 78 years to 1944 and the Battle of Anzio to demonstrate the lessons and importance of strong leadership. Nick concludes: “If America and the West do not get better leadership, do not drop the ideology and embrace the reality, and if we continue to move sluggishly and inefficiently, we’re going to lose the current confrontation with our adversaries. It’s not Anzio and it’s not bullets yet, but there is a war and its largely being waged economically and via policy. Let’s wake up and win this thing.”

As 2023 nears, Nick goes back to 1984 for episode 84’s dedication—commemorating the seven-game NBA Finals series between the Boston Celtics and LA Lakers. The intense matchup marked the golden era of NBA basketball as the 1980s would feature classic rivalries, many of the sport’s greatest players, and iconic coaches.

Nick crosses over from the hard court to America’s military, stressing the importance of focusing on the best military equipment, contractors, and systems. He calls out a new rule proposed by the Department of Defense and NASA that aims to require defense contractors to disclose their CO2 footprints, reduction plans, and their climate risks. Nick suggests our government is more concerned about our military’s carbon footprint than its efficacy, which is great for our enemies, as are all America’s climate policies. Such a strategy would’ve spelled loss for the Celtics and Lakers in 1984, and Nick fears it could spell loss for our military in an increasingly hostile world.

Next up, Nick discusses BP considering ending the publication of its Statistical Review of World Energy. “Another symptom of how the energy space is being driven, more and more, by the mystic and not by the science,” says Nick.

While some in the energy space yield to mysticism, CNX Resources is not. That’s why the company has recently launched its “Positive Energy Hub”—a new forum for energy related facts and resources. Nick proceeds to delve into CNX’s recently announced vision for the Appalachian region, aka “Appalachia First.” It’s a chaotic world when it comes to energy, but Appalachia should be ground zero for a better energy future. The CNX vision is a strategic roadmap, leveraging low-carbon-intensive natural gas to transform key sectors of America’s economy and workforce while also changing the world for the better.

Why Appalachia? Nick says it all centers around location-location-location, including Appalachia’s workforce, existing infrastructure, and decades of energy supply. Nick concludes by looking at the motivators behind constructing the Appalachia First vision.

Visit www.positiveenergyhub.com/appalachia-first to learn more, and for a detailed presentation narrated by Nick.

Happy New Year!

The Far Middle episode 83 takes off with a dedication to “the Mad Stork,” aka NFL Hall of Famer Ted Hendricks. A four-time Super Bowl champion, Hendricks is “one of the greatest personalities and linebackers in NFL history,” reflects Nick.

For those new to The Far Middle, Nick reminds listeners the podcast’s format is modeled after the TV series Connections. Hosted by science historian James Burke, “each episode of Connections would start with a modern innovation, and then jump back in time to show how one event linked to another, sequentially, connecting dots and making connections, hence the name of the series,” explains Nick. That innovative format serves as the structure for each Far Middle episode.

As such, Ted Hendricks embodied durability, evidenced by playing in over 200 consecutive games. Durability is also important when considering what type of car to purchase, which brings us to Consumer Reports’ latest rankings on vehicle reliability. Those rankings find that electric vehicles are among the least reliable cars and trucks in the automotive industry today. Nick counters Consumer Reports’ outlook that EV reliability will improve with time. He argues that when government protects markets and subsidizes products like EVs, innovation is stifled, and continuous improvement is restrained as there’s reduced incentive for automakers to drive towards excellence.

Subsidies for prodcuts like EVs are often justified under the taglines of “green is good” and “doing good by doing well.” Nick next applies these taglines in the context of LEED-certified green buildings and analyzes a new real estate report, “Green Is Good: The Enduring Rent Premium of LEED-Certified U.S. Office Buildings.” Nick reveals how the report’s title and summary don’t exactly reflect the data provided in the study. Read more on the report in Nick’s essay, “Mis“LEED”ing: Fact Versus Fiction for Green Buildings.”

The next dot in this week’s Far Middle connections is the United Nations’ announcement that the world’s population has reached 8 billion, as well as unprecedented growth in life expectancy and fertility rates. Nick notes the UN attributes the growth to improvements in public health, nutrition, personal hygiene and medicine, but the UN conveniently failed to mention the leading driver, which is the importance of access to reliable and affordable energy. “Utilization of things like natural gas improves the human condition, particularly and drastically in poorer areas of the developing world,” says Nick.

In closing, Nick looks back at a December 1988 address by Mikhail Gorbachev to the United Nations General Assembly. Nick shares two ironic excerpts that illustrate where Gorbachev was taking his nation in 1988, juxtaposed to where America’s leaders are taking us today.

“Gorbachev in his speech, proved once again, there’s a big difference between being a leader and leading. The former is such because they simply hold power. But leading occurs only when a leader inspires, making others want to follow,” concludes Nick.