For a couple of decades, Vaclav Smil has been on my go-to list when questions arise about global trends and risks, and particularly about energy. He is a distinguished professor on the environment faculty at the University of Manitoba but really should be in the department of everything. He rarely can be found anywhere other than Manitoba or Japan, so I jumped at the chance to do an hourlong interview with him at a festival of science and technology organized by the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics over the weekend.