Right now, the United States has enough untapped energy crashing on its coastlines to power over half the country. The problem? The ocean's movements are slow, and traditional generators require high speeds to work efficiently.

Priscilla Prem, a former Navy nuclear engineer, founded Pittsburgh Coastal Energy to solve the subsea power problem. It started with a contrarian idea: building an energy-generating device out of cardboard and a bottle of nail polish. Now, her flexible PINGs are set to change how we power everything from deep-sea military submarines to the global energy grid.

In this episode of Thought Liters, we go in depth on Priscilla’s incredible journey from building scrap metal windmills to operating nuclear reactors on aircraft carriers. We discuss the scrappy, messy reality of deep tech prototyping, the high stakes of defense contracting, and her vision for an "ethical capitalism" that provides free childcare to employees.

00:00 The Free Energy No One Uses

01:21 Mathletes & Scrap Metal Windmills

03:54 Life as a Navy Nuclear Engineer

06:16 The High Stakes of Startup Failure

09:13 Inventing a Generator with Nail Polish & Cardboard

15:07 The Magic "Ping" Device Revealed

19:27 Why Wave Energy Beats Solar Underwater

21:18 Revolutionizing Submarine & Drone Missions

26:20 Ethical Capitalism & The Push for Free Childcare

31:44 The Lightning Round

36:03 Rejecting a $100k Scholarship for a Crazy Idea

40:42 How to Power Half the United States

#businesspodcast #pittsburgh #thoughtliters

WHAT IS THOUGHT LITERS?

Thought Liters is a series created and hosted by Adam Conner. On the show, Adam learns from the top of the world through the bottom of their glass. Each episode, we share a flight of local craft with the best and brightest brand minds around – whether it be an entrepreneur, an athlete, an artist, or otherwise. The questions evolve as the sip changes.

The show is proudly founded and produced in Pittsburgh, PA.

The whole goal is to have conversations about business with a more lighthearted look and feel. Adam thinks most business content is dry, and wants to change that.

If you’re interested, follow along! If not, that’s cool too. But if you wanna be where the thought leaders are…you’ll tune in to where Thought Liters is.