How to Surf a Hurricane — Todd Medema
About Todd Medema
Todd Medema has a lot to teach us. His new book How to surf a hurricane is an ecothriller, an adventure that does provide a welcome escape from the worries of everyday life. We talk about many things and why someone who has worked for Tesla among other companies decided to redirect energy to writing a story about climate change and adaptation. For Todd writing was a way to think and recharge. His recommendation is to spend time meditating in nature, just reconnecting and once you're feeling recharged find an action that fits your lifestyle and makes sense for you. Join communities with people who have similar values who will inspire and energize you. Get yourself ready and then get started taking action.
How “How to Surf a Hurricane” Explores Climate Change and Human Resilience
We talk about many things and why someone who has worked for Tesla among other companies decided to redirect energy to writing a story about climate change and adaptation. When he was 12 years old he read Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy and has a realization that it was a story that made him thing about the future he wanted. It was the seed that started him into technology. It showed him that technology was a lever for shaping the future.. Writing is a way to think and recharge. It offers his need for a fast-paced fun with the reality that technology takes a long time to develop.
His recommendation for those wishing to bring about changes is first to spend time meditating in nature, reconnecting with the world. Once recharged a person should find an action that fits their lifestyle. For example, join in communities with people who have similar values who will inspire and energize you. Then get started taking action.
Todd Medema’s How to surf a hurricane
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00:00:01 Pam Ferris-Olson Today on the Wo(men) Mind the Water Artivist Series podcast on womenmindthewater.com, I'm speaking with Todd Medema. Todd is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon, where he majored in Technology, Entrepreneurship and Design. Todd’s background is more technologically based than we typically feature on the Wo(men) Mind the Water Artivist Series, BUT he has a lot to teach us as the author of How to surf a hurricane. His new book is an ecothriller. It’s an adventure that may not solve global warming, but it does provide a welcome escape from the worries of everyday life.
00:00:39 Pam Ferris-Olson The Wo(men) Mind the Water Artivist Series podcast on womenmindthewater.com engages artists in conversation about their work and explores their connection with the ocean. Through their stories, Wo(men) Mind the Water hopes to inspire and encourage action to protect the ocean and her creatures.
00:00:56 Pam Ferris-Olson Todd Medema is an inventor and lifelong learner. He seeks to solve complex problems with innovation. Todd’s first novel How to surf a hurricane, is the story of an inventor whose work aims to reduce climate change. It also requires a daredevil heist on the high seas to keep the project afloat.
00:01:29 Pam Ferris-Olson Welcome Todd, I am happy you reached out to Wo(men) Mind the Water to share your intriguing story. I am curious how someone with your credentials, which include being a Carnegie Mellon scholar in Robotics and Urban Design and who has worked for Tesla, decided to redirect energy from getting the job done, to writing a story about climate change and adaptation. I think our discussion about writing, sci-fi and climate change will open up new worlds, I know it has mine.
00:02:07 Pam Ferris-Olson Speaking about sci-fi literature, do you remember when you became interested in it? What stories did you find most compelling and what was it about them that grabbed you?
00:02:21 Todd Medema Again, thank you so much for having me and I'm grateful to share this time with you and your audience. You know, that's a great question about science fiction. I remember when I was around 12 or so reading Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy and being hit with this really profound sense, this realization of like, here's a story that made me think about what future I want. And not only what do I want in the future but how would I get there and not even from the technology perspective. Right. But in the Foundation trilogy, they really get into the culture, the systems, the politics, the people, and how those behaviors create that future and that just really drove home to me that science fiction is not just entertainment, it's inspiration to build a better future.
00:03:15 Pam Ferris-Olson So do you think those sci-fi stories steered you into the study of technology? How did you imagine you'd be involved with technology and design?
00:03:27 Todd Medema I mean they absolutely were a huge seed into me going into technology. They really showed me that technology is this lever for us to shape the future. And you know that was what got me into engineering. You know, how can we build that lever. On top of that, as I went to Carnegie Mellon, I discovered that it's more than just engineering, right. You can build whatever technology you want but if people don't use it, if people don't want to use it, you've accomplished nothing. So I went from there and to also studying design and really asking these questions and how do we make technology that people want to use and that people benefit from.
00:04:14 Pam Ferris-Olson So help us understand what you mean by technology. What sort of things might someone do who works in technology?
00:04:23 Todd Medema Yeah. So this is actually a great question, because when I was growing up I always thought technology is just, you know, computers, robotics. But what I've come to appreciate is that technology is really so much more. It's any tool or system or method that helps us change ourselves and our world. So not just the Internet, but crop rotation, democracy. These ideas in these systems have had such a profound impact on humanity, it's really every piece of knowledge that we develop and pass on. So, you know, people think like: “Oh, you only work in tech if you're writing code or designing circuits. But really if you're designing policies or planting forests or, you know, leading local community meetings, you're working in tech.
00:05:18 Pam Ferris-Olson So with more than a decade working in the field of technology and design, what aspects of the work have intrigued you the most? How does this work compared to what you initially thought you'd be doing?
00:05:31 Todd Medema So initially I was a software engineer. I taught myself how to program and kind of thought that is what I would be doing. But as my understanding of technology evolved, that concept developed inside of me as well. And so you know what I realized is if you want your ideas to have an impact you have to understand the people, their behaviors and their motivations and their fears.And so that's where I ended up pivoting into product management. To find the intersection of where technology meets humanity.
00:06:04 Pam Ferris-Olson Well, it's the same thing in writing. You have to know your audience. You can't just write a book. You have to know what they might be interested in. So in your book How to surf a hurricane, you move the plot along at a good pace but how does this pacing compare with that of the real world in technology?
00:06:25 Todd Medema Yeah. So the pacing in the book definitely happens faster than it would in real life. But underneath that action, the technology itself evolves over many years, not weeks. And that's very accurate. You know, I really tried to base the technology and all that on my experience working in the field. In reality, like these breakthroughs, they take a long time and a lot of people. And so to kind of balance that need for a fast-paced fun, enjoyable book, with the reality that technology does take a long time to develop. I used a little writers trick where there are several time lapse moments that happened in the book, that kind of keep the fast-pace and keep it true to reality.
00:07:17 Pam Ferris-Olson So do you find science fiction an outlet for the frustrations you face on the job and the rate at which things move?
00:07:26 Todd Medema Yes, 100%. I would love it for things to move faster. And this was an I had when I was studying this project that a lot of science fiction skips the messy middle. They jump straight to 100 or 1000 years in the future where we're in this magical utopia and everything is great. And, you know, I think that's an important part of storytelling because it lets us imagine that future that we want to work towards. But what I wanted to write about was the near future, the bridge, these moments of like how are we, how is our generation going to start building towards these futures? And showing that path ahead of not just the inventions but the politics, the trade-offs and the human reactions.
00:08:18 Pam Ferris-Olson OK, so speaking about near future. I know that there are athletes that are extreme surfers. They attempt to ride 100 foot waves generated by big storms like hurricanes. And I know there are airplanes that fly into hurricanes in order to collect weather data. In your novel, there's a plane that attempts, if I understand it right, to surf the waves created by a hurricane. Where did this idea come from? And is there such a thing as an extreme sport or feat of aviation that currently exists?
00:08:55 Todd Medema Yeah, as far as I am aware, no one has attempted this and at least survived to tell the tale. You know, it's not surfing the waves on shore and it's not flying above a hurricane. It's surfing the waves in the middle of the hurricane. You know, this came from this question that I was asking myself of what is an aspect of hope that we can find in climate change.
And you know, I realize we're going to have more and more extreme weather events. And what is something fun, something enjoyable and exciting and thrilling that humans might invent to take advantage of this trend. And, you know, hurricanes have been in the news a lot. I have foolishly attempted to surf a few times myself and I thought like it would be, it almost seemed like this kind of logical jump of someone's going to try this at some point.
00:09:52 Todd Medema And so I actually had the good fortune of talking with a friend, Adam Flynn, who has designed high performance boats. And so I was able to kind of calibrate my idea for this against reality. Initially I'd imagine boats going at 300 knots through the hurricane, you know, like really like, you know, setting crazy speed records. But reviewing it with him and his expertise. The physics just didn't hold up. Yeah, the boat would be basically vaporized. So we were able to scale it back to both using electric hydrofoils that ride the waves at more like 90 to 100 knots, which is wild but absolutely achievable.
00:10:41 Pam Ferris-Olson [laughter] I'm not sure I like the answer that it's absolutely achievable. I hope whoever tries it is not somebody that I'm close to. I'm going to put a break on that idea and ask you whether this sport should it evolve, is it in the category of something that you would think would contribute to global warming?
00:11:08 Todd Medema
This is a very nuanced question, really. When you look at it, because every human activity has an impact and extreme sports are no exception. You know as everything we do has some sort of footprint. But I think the bigger question is: Does this activity deepen our connection to the planet or does it separate us so you know, scuba diving? I recently got Paddy certified and that was an incredible experience. And the scuba gear, you know, has a footprint. You have the gear that has to be manufactured, the fuel for the boats. But it also puts you face-to-face with the ocean's beauty. It would, you know, it's such an incredible experience to get to swim among fish and coral. And I walked away from that being reenergized about this; this is something that I want to fight to protect. And so really, it's like the goal isn't zero impact, it's conscious impact that's joyful, connected and responsible.
00:12:06 Pam Ferris-Olson So I can see both the innovator and the climate change activist in you. Because the innovator would be intrigued by a plane that surfs the waves and the climate change activist would see this sport as actually contributing to the problem. But you're saying it also increases people's awareness and that awareness increases the desire to protect it. And I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Alright. So is writing a good way for you to think about the solutions to real world problems?
00:12:34 Todd Medema It is. It's how I problem-solve really. It lets me kind of simulate my head, test out ideas, and ask “what if” questions and most importantly not just from the technology side but from the human and emotional side. You know, ask these questions of like: What inspires people? What scares them? You know, how would they react if this change happened in their life? And because ultimately we're storytelling creatures, you know. A human is. I saw a stat once that humans remember stories like 39 times more effectively than they remember stats which, you know, that’s a bit ironic to give that as a stat. But, you know, to be able to kind of take this back to a story level, I think is actually a super profound problem-solving and exploration tool.
00:13:42 Pam Ferris-Olson How different is the mindset and the skills needed to write this book as opposed to the designing solutions for technological problem?
00:13:55 Todd Medema Very different. Yeah, very, very different. And exactly kind of what I needed and what I wanted. You know, in technology it's all about optimization, but in storytelling it's all about humanizing. And shifting myself into that writing mode really let me focus on the emotional and the cultural side of climate change, not just the tools, but the people; and ultimately what drove me to this idea of wanting to write a climate story that is real and fun and helpful and not just another dystopian guilt trip.
00:14:31 Pam Ferris-Olson I really appreciate having a chance to hear your point of view. I'd like to ask you one last question before we finish. As an innovator and someone who's interested in finding solutions to the climate crisis, what can listeners do to be part of the solution?
00:14:50 Todd Medema Yeah, this is a great question. For me, my recommendation is first and foremost to spend time meditating in nature, just reconnecting and grounding yourself. That will help you remember what you're fighting for and help recharge you for the long term. Once you're feeling recharged, there's a ton of actions that you can take, you know. So find an action that fits your lifestyle and makes sense for you. And just, you know, don't wait. Do it today. And as you start building these actions in your life, joining communities around you with people who have similar values will continue to inspire and energize you and in fact, if readers want to take this to the next level, I've prepared a page on the books website howtosurfahurricane.com/water specifically for the listeners here. That includes a lot of ideas on how they can get started taking action in their life.
00:15:56 Pam Ferris-Olson Very nice. So I'm grateful you that you talked with us and I think one thing we should say is the book will become available on August 2nd. And you mentioned your website and I will put it on your page on Wo(men) Mind the Water so people can directly click to it.
00:16:15 Pam Ferris-Olson And for listeners, I'd like to remind them that I've been speaking with Todd Medema. A technologist who works on complex problems while seeking solutions to support the companies he works for. Todd also works to minimize factors that contribute to the climate crisis. How to surf a hurricane is Todd's first novel. It's an exciting sci-fi daredevil heist that occurs on the high seas.
00:16:43 Pam Ferris-Olson Todd is the latest guest on the Wo(men) Mind the Water Artivist Series podcast. The series can be viewed on womenmindwater.com, Museum on Main Street, and YouTube. An audio-only version of this podcast is available on Wo(men) Mind the Water, iTunes, and Spotify. Wo(men) Mind the Water is grateful to Jaine Rice for the use of her song Women of Water. All rights for the Wo(men) Mind the Water name and logo belong to Pam Ferris-Olson. This is Pam Ferris-Olson.
