NPR.

This is the Indicator from Bad at Money. I'm Daryl Mwoods.

And I'm Whale and Wong. Lithia and Ion batteries are everywhere these days. They're in our

smartphones and laptops and there are bigger things too like e-bikes and scooters and electric

vehicles.

And with more lithium ion batteries comes more battery fires. I mean, you're probably

seeing the YouTube videos, Whalen, of like electric vehicles exploding in people's

dryways.

I've seen those. Yeah. And there's also news reports you see about exploding batteries

in airplanes or in people's homes.

Yeah. And these are causing huge problems, not just in airplanes, but in another piece

of critical infrastructure in the global economy, cargo ships.

Today in the show, we climb on board these ocean-going vessels to find out what's going

wrong with lithium ion batteries and what can be done about the problem.

Captain Rahul Kana spent 14 years at sea in charge of cargo ships transporting everything

from oil to iron ore to grain.

And in your career, did you ever have to transport lithium ion batteries?

Fortunately, no.

Today Rahul is the global head of marine risk consulting at the insurance company, Aalions.

That's a fancy way of seeing. He spends his time thinking about all the things that can

go wrong at sea. And lately, a big problem for the maritime industry is lithium ion battery

fires.

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