Matthew Cutler-Welsh, Zack Semke, Mary James, and Ilka Cassidy
500 episodes listed below
Building science with a human center.
Passive House Podcast follows the people turning high-performance building from technical standard into everyday practice. Its interviews and conference reflections move between wall assemblies, embodied carbon, housing equity, overheating risk, and the human case for better homes.
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Passive House Podcast is a detailed, practitioner-facing show about the work of making buildings healthier, more comfortable, and less carbon intensive. It sits close to the people doing the work. Architects, builders, developers, designers, conference speakers, and Passive House advocates talk through projects with enough room for complexity to show. The show is not afraid of technical language. Airtightness, triple glazing, thermal performance, mechanical ventilation, embodied carbon, overheating, low-carbon cement, and appraisals all appear as ordinary parts of the conversation. Still, the episodes are rarely just about specs. A recurring question runs underneath the technical talk: how can better buildings become persuasive, affordable, humane, and repeatable? Recent episodes show that range clearly. Andreas Gertz frames a healthy home as something people should be able to experience directly, not just understand on paper. BuildingEnergy Boston conversations move through policy setbacks, institutional climate commitments, retrofit choices, and the stubborn value of community momentum. The Reimagine Edit brings in member discussions about ventilation, filtration, passive house development, finishes, square footage, financing, and green appraisal strategy. Other episodes look at scaling efforts, design equity with Kia Weatherspoon, New Zealand insulation rules and overheating risk with Tavis Creswell-Wells, and multifamily retrofit lessons tied to Cycle Architecture + Planning. The pace is measured. Voices tend to set up the subject, ask practical next questions, and give guests enough space to explain the work in their own terms. That makes the show useful for listeners who already understand the basic promise of Passive House and want to hear how projects, policies, and professional judgments actually unfold. Its best moments connect building science to everyday dignity: a quiet room, clean air, lower energy demand, resilient housing, and clients who learn what performance feels like.
Made for: For architects, builders, developers, designers, policy-minded practitioners, and serious homeowners interested in Passive House, retrofit strategy, low-carbon construction, and healthier interiors.
What sets it apart: The show stands out by staying close to field practice: real projects, conference conversations, technical tradeoffs, and the social case for performance all share the same table.
Interviews with the leaders, practitioners, and change-makers in the global Passive House movement. A production of Passive House Accelerator.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Detailed practitioner conversations connect architectural intent with the materials, systems, costs, and compromises that determine how high-performance buildings actually work.
Passive House Podcast follows building design into the places where ideals meet materials, budgets, existing structures, and climate goals. Its interviews and conference conversations keep attention on consequential choices: how to retrofit an occupied building, reduce…
A reclaimed granite pier becomes your gateway drug to morally defensible homebuilding.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A clear, patient case for healthy housing as the standard.
Wunderbar Passive House makes a plain case for comfort, health, and performance as day to day expectations, not luxuries. The strongest material is concrete: triple glazing, exterior shutters for full blackout, and the way guests notice the comfort when they stay overnight.
A conference recap that follows a tough Acorn deck house retrofit and the carbon-versus-rebuild question.
The episode centers on a narrow retrofit problem: how to adapt an old Acorn deck house without flattening the character that makes it worth keeping.
Climate work under budget pressure, with campuses and client conversations kept in view.
Building Energy Boston reads as a discussion about keeping decarbonization work moving when programs get cut, budgets tighten, and the pressure to slow down gets louder.
A practical look at how passive house gets through lenders, appraisals, and the market.
This episode moves between passive house basics and the business realities of getting a building financed. It starts with ventilation and air changes, then turns to the questions a developer actually has to answer: interest rate, bankability, equity, project size, and a green…
A grounded talk about building ethics, material tradeoffs, and the practical choices that make them real.
The piece treats high performance building as a moral choice, then gets specific about what that looks like in practice: reclaimed stone piers, straw insulated panels, rigid wood fiber roofing, mineral based paints, lime, and a push to cut petrochemicals out of the material…
A calm, practical look at retrofit planning under Local Law 97.
Local Law 97 is treated as a retrofit planning problem, not a one-step compliance fix. The discussion argues for starting with the whole building, then moving through emissions pressure, strategic planning, case studies, and the value of pre- and post-retrofit performance data.
A retrofit case study where the bills and cold-weather system details do the heavy lifting.
This episode follows a retrofit story where an existing baseboard system gets paired with an air-to-water heat pump, Eco Ultra storage with backup electric resistance, and three solar hot water panels.
Deep retrofits become a question of access, verification, and disciplined scope.
Kara Haggerty Wilson's conversation treats deep energy retrofits as an exercise in access, sequencing, and honesty about what is already there.
Rob Walling on bootstrapped SaaS growth, plateaus, and exits — with founders who lived them.
Abbey Ashley's playbook for turning your job skills into a virtual assistant business.
Naval Ravikant on epistemology, startups, and crypto, from David Deutsch to Vitalik Buterin.
Alex Theuma interviews SaaS founders and investors on scaling to $10M-plus ARR.
Guy Raz traces founders' origin stories and fields live advice-line calls from entrepreneurs.
Alex Blumberg interviews guests like Megan Phelps-Roper and Shane McAnally about failure and reinvention.
Andreas talks about Passive House like basic dignity.
Future generations start the conversation.
Momentum matters here.
A house needs lungs, but the business question keeps tugging at this episode.
This episode features an interview with Nick Nigro about scaling Passive House projects in Massachusetts, focusing on improving construction productivity and zero-carbon building.
This episode features an interview with Kia Weatherspoon discussing design equity and how interior design principles intersect with Passive House building standards to create inclusive, sustainable spaces.
This episode discusses the focus on insulation in New Zealand's building standards and the risks of overheating in Passive House designs, featuring insights from energy modeling.
This episode features a conversation with Jay Fox about sustainable architecture and retrofitting multifamily housing, tied to the New York State Green Building Conference.
Interviews with leaders in the global Passive House movement, discussing energy-efficient building design and construction.
An interview-based podcast discussing Passive House building standards, successes, and failures to promote zero carbon construction.
This episode of the Passive House Podcast features a discussion on regenerative building practices with guest Lindsey Love, exploring sustainable architecture and climate-resilient construction.
An interview series exploring Passive House building principles and practices through conversations with industry leaders.
An interview with Ilka Cassidy and Christoph Irwin about designing buildings that reduce inflammation and promote physiological well-being.
An interview with Zach Simke and Mary about Passive House projects and the benefits of high performance building.
An interview with James Peterson about reducing heating requirements in the northeast by 75-80% using Passive House standards.
An interview with a politician about leveraging federal resources for community rebuilding, framed within the Passive House movement.
Building choices turn into ethical questions here.
A special series episode where experts discuss managing high humidity in Passive House projects, featuring insights from members of the Reimagine Buildings Collective.
Interviews with leaders in the global Passive House movement, discussing sustainable building practices.
An interview with Emily Mottram about using existing spaces for Passive House projects, hosted by Matthew Cutler and Zach Semke.
Local Law 97 is the squeeze point.
The bills do the talking first.
Exterior retrofits are hard.
The hosts discuss Ilka's coverage of the Fierce Con conference in Milwaukee, focusing on Passive House topics and interviews conducted there.
Hosts discuss recent Passive House conferences and share insights from the global movement.
Interview with a housing provider about implementing Passive House standards for affordable housing.
This episode discusses the challenges and realities of achieving Passive House certification, emphasizing that initial failures are common and providing insights for building teams.
An interview with Jessica Kismet about her journey in the Passive House movement, discussing mould sensitivity and sustainable building.
An interview-based podcast discussing the Passive House movement and its benefits for energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions.
An interview discussing the integration of renewable energy with Passive House principles for low-energy buildings.
Hosts interview leaders in the Passive House movement, discussing challenges and innovations in sustainable building.
Interview discussing the benefits of Passive House certification for a nonprofit housing project in Quebec.
This episode features hosts discussing local weather and introducing the Passive House movement, with interviews on sustainable building practices.
An interview-based podcast discussing Passive House building standards and zero-carbon construction with industry leaders.
Interviews with leaders in the global Passive House movement, discussing zero-carbon building and sustainable design.