Co-Op Heroes: Stories from Electric Utility Operators
Sep 1, 2026 · 17 min · 10 segments
In this episode of The Co-op Heroes Podcast, we sit down with James Tanneberger, CEO of South Central Indiana REMC, to talk about one of the more unexpected questions in the cooperative world: can the…
James TannebergerHost
Pablo FuentesHost
And we've talked a lot on the show about cooperation between cooperatives and how the cooperative principles help cooperatives deliver power and sometimes water and fiber and other services to communities.
Now, the big question is, how can that be a model for other industries and other areas? And it's a difficult topic because from a human perspective, I mean, I've never met a better group of folks than people in cooperatives.
And it's, again, very mission driven and very positive and a lot of a sense of possibility and a sense of duty in serving.
And how do you juxtapose that with, hey, we live in a capitalist society, we have success as a society in part because of that.
But there's also obviously a dark side and people seeking to accumulate as much as possible for themselves with little or sometimes no regard for the consequences on other people and the externalities in the system.
What are opportunities to adopt more of those cooperative principles in other areas of life?
And we've talked a lot on the show about cooperation between cooperatives and how the cooperative principles help cooperatives deliver power and sometimes water and fiber and other services to communities.
Now, the big question is, how can that be a model for other industries and other areas? And it's a difficult topic because from a human perspective, I mean, I've never met a better group of folks than people in cooperatives.
And it's, again, very mission driven and very positive and a lot of a sense of possibility and a sense of duty in serving.
And how do you juxtapose that with, hey, we live in a capitalist society, we have success as a society in part because of that.
But there's also obviously a dark side and people seeking to accumulate as much as possible for themselves with little or sometimes no regard for the consequences on other people and the externalities in the system.
What are opportunities to adopt more of those cooperative principles in other areas of life?
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