Thank you for this!

There has been much made of La Nina and El Nino as "drivers of climate extremes" in the news since the really big 1997-98 El Nino event.   Yet the news rarely explains what the 2 phases mean or involve, beyond being shorter term 'cool weather' and 'warm weather' climate phases. 

The battery charge and discharge analogy seemed quite apt and very easy for any lay person to grasp, if not a little too conveniently simple.

As far as 'heat discharge' is concerned, a simple volcano analogy makes some sense.  But then that begs the question, which might not strictly be an ENSO phase question, whether the equilibrium between cool Ninas and warm Ninos is shifting, as we've seen warmer oceans even through the recent "moderately strong" 2020-23 La Nina.  (After all, hearing stories of batteries overheating with analogies of ...suns going supernova can't be too far off at this rate...  I digress)

Surely we need more understanding of those dynamic, complicated atmospheric processes.  A simple theory would be wonderful - there is much to comb through to, to begin to get close to having an idea of what's going on for the average lay person.  But it is 100% worth it for those who want to know.