Battery Deep Dive: 5-Minute EV Charging, Solid State & How Batteries Are Quietly Running the World!

About this episode

This week's podcast was recorded live on stage at Latitude Festival 2026, in the Cosmic Shambles Forest of Science and Culture! Helen Czerski is joined by our very own Robert Llewellyn and battery chemist Professor Saiful Islam for a wide-ranging conversation about batteries — covering everything from world-record lemon batteries to five-minute EV charging, sodium-ion tech, battery planes, and vehicle-to-grid power. https://cosmicshambles.com/ 00:00 – Introduction 02:53 – Meet the guests: Robert Llewellyn & Prof. Saiful Islam 03:34 – The world-record lemon battery (and Saiful's quest to reclaim it) 08:54 – What does a battery chemist actually do? 12:42 – Debunking range anxiety: the real stats on UK car journeys 13:34 – From gadgets to vehicles: how battery use has transformed 14:36 – How do you actually measure a "good" battery? 15:21 – Where battery R&D is focused: sustainability, cobalt, and beyond 17:19 – What is a battery? The "electrochemical sandwich" explained 19:38 – BYD's flash charging: 10–70% in 5 minutes 23:31 – Why fast charging is hard — and the safety engineering behind it 28:04 – Battery recycling: Redwood Materials and "second life" batte