Undecided with Matt Ferrell cover art

Undecided with Matt Ferrell

Undecided with Matt Ferrell

By: Matthew Ferrell
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About this listen

As a UI/UX designer by trade, I explore how sustainable and smart technologies impact our lives. And I try to dive deeper into those topics to provide context. Topics like electric vehicles, solar panels, and renewable energy that is meant to transition the world off of fossil fuels. Smart home technology that can make our homes not only more convenient, but safer and more accessible. Wearable technology that can track our health and save lives. Or how technology might be invading and breaking down the walls of our privacy. So in short... Exploring how technology impacts our lives.Matthew Ferrell
Episodes
  • How Ocean Plastic Isn’t The Problem
    Apr 21 2026

    How Ocean Plastic Isn’t The Problem. Start your 7-day free trial + unlock 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN — head to https://surfshark.com/undecided or use code UNDECIDED at checkout! I was a teenager on a cruise when I first saw ocean pollution up close. Late at night, I saw crew dumping garbage into the ocean. A stream of trash stretching off toward the horizon. But that garbage spilling into the ocean was just the tip of the trashberg. And that trashberg… is mainly plastic. Plastic makes up about 80 percent of marine pollution. And it doesn't always come from where you'd expect. Most people think of waste plastic as straws, bottles, and grocery bags washing off beaches. But when a Dutch nonprofit called The Ocean Cleanup sailed out to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch to scoop it all up… they found something else entirely. More than three-quarters of the plastic wasn’t consumer trash... at all. It didn’t even come from the shore! Even worse, cleaning it up was a lot harder than anyone hoped. So, they did something surprising. They turned around, returned to shore, and started tackling the plastic problem upstream. This is the story of what The Ocean Cleanup discovered once they started studying the problem up close… and why solving ocean plastic might mean turning off the tap, and not just mopping up what's already spilled.

    Watch Why Steam Power's 200-Year Reign Might Be Over https://youtu.be/TboSBAnmJKI?list=PLnTSM-ORSgi7uzySCXq8VXhodHB5B5OiQ

    Video script and citations:https://undecided.tech/how-ocean-plastic-isnt-the-problem/

    Get my achieve energy security with solar guide: https://undecided.link/solar-guide

    Follow-up podcast:

    Video version - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4-aWB84Bupf5hxGqrwYqLA

    Audio version - https://undecided.link/stilltbd-podcast

    Join the Undecided Discord server: https://undecided.link/discord

    👋 Support Undecided on Patreon! https://undecided.link/patreon

    Visit my Energysage Portal (US): Research solar panels, heat pumps, and more to get quotes for free! https://undecided.link/energysage

    For a curated solar buying experience (Canada) EnergyPal's free personalized quotes: https://undecided.link/energypal

    👉 Follow Me

    Mastodon https://mastodon.social/@mattferrell

    Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/mattferrell.bsky.social

    X https://x.com/undecidedtech

    Instagram https://www.instagram.com/undecidedtech

    Website https://undecided.tech

    Some music provided by Epidemic Sound https://undecided.link/epidemic

    I may earn a small commission for my endorsement or recommendation to products or services linked above, but I wouldn't put them here if I didn't like them. Your purchase helps support the channel and the videos I produce. Thank you.

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    15 mins
  • Why China’s Supercritical CO₂ Turbine Matters
    Apr 14 2026

    Why China’s Supercritical CO₂ Turbine Matters. Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code UNDECIDED at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: http://incogni.com/undecided For over 200 years, we've been generating electricity essentially the same way: by boiling water. Today, steam turbines power the vast majority of the world's electricity. But this technology, which has powered us since the industrial revolution, might not be up to supplying us enough energy in this new revolutionary era of artificial intelligence. AI data centers are driving energy demand through the roof. The US alone needs to increase power output by 165% before the end of this decade just to keep up. We need to find ways to generate more power right now, without taking years to build entirely new facilities. And that's where things get interesting. In December 2025, China flipped the switch on the world's first commercial supercritical CO2 power generator. The claims? An 85% increase in efficiency and 50% more power output. Same facility, better generator. And the full-size turbine? It's about the size of a desk. Now, that's a series of bold claims. I know that impressive first deployments don't always translate to long-term success. So, what is the real potential of something like Chaotan one? To answer, let's dig into what supercritical CO2 actually is, how it measures up to its steamy competition, and whether engineering challenges might keep it from living up to the hype.

    Watch The Grid Doesn't Need More Power Plants (It Needs This) https://youtu.be/pLIatO-RA1c?list=PLnTSM-ORSgi7uzySCXq8VXhodHB5B5OiQ

    Video script and citations: https://undecided.tech/why-chinas-supercritical-co₂-turbine-matters/

    Get my achieve energy security with solar guide: https://undecided.link/solar-guide

    Follow-up podcast:

    Video version - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4-aWB84Bupf5hxGqrwYqLA

    Audio version - https://undecided.link/stilltbd-podcast

    Join the Undecided Discord server: https://undecided.link/discord

    👋 Support Undecided on Patreon! https://undecided.link/patreon

    Visit my Energysage Portal (US): Research solar panels, heat pumps, and more to get quotes for free! https://undecided.link/energysage

    For a curated solar buying experience (Canada) EnergyPal's free personalized quotes: https://undecided.link/energypal

    👉 Follow Me

    Mastodon https://mastodon.social/@mattferrell

    Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/mattferrell.bsky.social

    X https://x.com/undecidedtech

    Instagram https://www.instagram.com/undecidedtech

    Website https://undecided.tech

    Some music provided by Epidemic Sound https://undecided.link/epidemic

    I may earn a small commission for my endorsement or recommendation to products or services linked above, but I wouldn't put them here if I didn't like them. Your purchase helps support the channel and the videos I produce. Thank you.

    Chapters

    00:00 - Intro

    01:45 - What Is Supercritical CO2?

    03:18 - Why sCO2 Could Replace Steam

    05:47 - China's Chaotan One

    07:37 - The US Approach: Sandia's STEP Program

    09:35 - Here's What They're Not Telling You

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    14 mins
  • The National Grid Is Dead. Here's What Replaces It.
    Apr 8 2026

    The National Grid Is Dead. Here's What Replaces It. 👉 Grab your free seat to the 2-Day AI Mastermind: https://bit.ly/OutskillUndecidedMF 🔐 100% Discount for the first 1000 people 💥 Dive deep into AI and Learn Automations, Build AI Agents, Make videos & images – all for free! 🎁 Bonuses worth $5100+ if you join and attend. In April 2025, most of Spain and Portugal went dark. A cascading failure knocked out the Iberian peninsula's grid in seconds. Just four years earlier, Texas came within 4 minutes and 37 seconds of its own total collapse. Not a temporary blackout. A full shutdown. What engineers call a "black start," a process that could take days to weeks to recover from. Not to mention all of the people that died as a result. According to the Department of Energy, 70 percent of US transmission lines are over 25 years old. We're running 21st century lives on a mid-20th century grid. But back in 1997, energy consultant Karl Rábago wrote a blueprint for a radically different grid. His model? The internet. Seriously. And no, I'm not talking about today's internet, which is just five billionaires in a trench coat. I'm talking about the '90s internet. Decentralized. Collaborative. And really, really cool. So how would the internet stop a blackout? And why did the guy who figured it out get ignored for 30 years? But first, we need to understand what went so wrong.

    Watch Is This Solid State Battery REALLY Solid State? https://youtu.be/wLK0GAr0Kb8?list=PLnTSM-ORSgi4At-R_1s6-_50PCbYsoEcj

    Video script and citations: https://undecided.tech/the-national-grid-is-dead-heres-what-replaces-it/

    Get my achieve energy security with solar guide: https://undecided.link/solar-guide

    Follow-up podcast:

    Video version - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4-aWB84Bupf5hxGqrwYqLA

    Audio version - https://undecided.link/stilltbd-podcast

    Join the Undecided Discord server: https://undecided.link/discord

    👋 Support Undecided on Patreon! https://undecided.link/patreon

    Visit my Energysage Portal (US): Research solar panels, heat pumps, and more to get quotes for free! https://undecided.link/energysage

    For a curated solar buying experience (Canada) EnergyPal's free personalized quotes: https://undecided.link/energypal

    👉 Follow Me

    Mastodon https://mastodon.social/@mattferrell

    Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/mattferrell.bsky.social

    X https://x.com/undecidedtech

    Instagram https://www.instagram.com/undecidedtech

    Website https://undecided.tech

    Some music provided by Epidemic Sound https://undecided.link/epidemic

    I may earn a small commission for my endorsement or recommendation to products or services linked above, but I wouldn't put them here if I didn't like them. Your purchase helps support the channel and the videos I produce. Thank you.

    Chapters

    00:00 - Intro

    02:52 - But It Doesn't Have to Be This Way

    05:40 - Internetification

    08:22 - The 30-Year Blueprint

    11:24 - Broadband Jesus Goes Electric

    13:52 - But Here's the Problem

    15:22 - Here's My Take

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    17 mins
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