What if one solution to fashion's waste problem is literally growing on our own heads?

Every day, salons around the world toss out millions of pounds of freshly cut human hair — a clean, protein-rich, renewable resource that mostly ends up in landfills or incinerators. But what if that so-called waste could become the next sustainable textile?

My guest on this episode, Zsofia Kollar, is the founder and CEO of Human Material Loop, a Netherlands-based startup turning salon hair waste into a high-performance fibre that behaves like wool — but with 43 times lower CO₂ emissions, 20 times less water use, and none of the animal cruelty or plastics. Their branded fiber, called Adara, is already being spun into things like carpets, curtains, and acoustic panels — and it's made from something we all grow ourselves.

In this conversation, Zsofia and I talk about how she got the idea to build an entire materials company out of human hair, how her technology works, why hair is such a strong and versatile material, the "ick" factor of human-derived fibres, and how she's scaling her model so that salons and HML benefit alike.

If you think using human hair in textiles sounds strange, stick around — because by the end of this episode, you might just want a carpet made from your own cut-offs.

I'll let Zsofia make the case.

Discussed in this episode

• Washington Post coverage of Human Material Loop's work.

• Vogue and CNN have covered their work, too.

• Zoroastrians sometimes practice sky burial on a Tower of Silence, in which vultures are allowed to consume a recently deceased human.

• Our past episode on human composting with Recompose.

Get to Know Zsofia Kollar

Zsofia Kollar is a forward-thinking entrepreneur passionate about sustainable innovation. Science and design are crucial in the company's development. After her experience running an independent design studio, Zsofia was driven to reimagine waste management, focusing particularly on hair waste. Her goal is to foster collaboration and innovation for a more sustainable future. Human Material Loop demonstrates that sustainability and economic growth can coexist. Zsofia's dedication extends beyond her CEO role—she's also a published author and university lecturer, inspiring others in design and sustainability. Her vision entails holistic sustainability, where science, design, and collaboration reshape waste management and drive innovation.

When you hear the word nuclear, does your mind flash to mushroom clouds, Chernobyl, or maybe the glowing three-eyed fish from The Simpsons? Well, what if nuclear electricity — far from being an environmental villain — is actually one of the safest, cleanest, and most land-efficient energy sources we have?

It turns out that former fashion model Isabelle Boemeke is on a mission to change how we think about nuclear energy. When she and I met a few years ago, in Italy of all places, she was known by many simply as Isodope, her online persona that blends fashion, futurism, and fission to make nuclear cool again. And now, in her new book Rad Future, Isabelle argues that nuclear power isn't just misunderstood — it's essential to solving climate change, land preservation, and numerous other important concerns.

In our conversation, Isabelle details:

• Why fear of nuclear power stems more from cultural trauma than from science,

• Why nuclear electricity is safer and environmentally-friendlier than not just fossil fuels, but also solar and wind,

• What's fact vs. fiction when it comes to the world's biggest energy disasters,

• And why, despite all the excitement about fusion and modular reactors, maybe the smartest thing we can do right now is simply pick a proven fission design — and start building them fast.

I always love when it turns out that the thing we thought was the villain is actually a hero, or at least better than what we thought. If you do too, this is the episode for you, as this episode may challenge your assumptions about what's truly "green" and is actually safe.

Discussed in this episode

• The 2019 Amazon Rainforest fires and Australian fires that decimated massive amounts of wildlife habitat helped inspire Isabelle to focus on environmental concerns such as climate change.

• The 1975 Baquiao dam collapse killed hundreds of thousands of people.

• Isabelle recommends checking out www.whatisnuclear.com and the Decouple Podcast.

• Commonwealth Fusion recently raised $863 million.

• The US military is investing in small, mobile nuclear reactors.

• Paul recently read a sci-fi book about nuclear-powered wildlife called The Kaiju Preservation Society.

Get to Know Isabelle Boemeke

With her signature mix of humor, sharp research, and optimistic vision, her debut book, Rad Future, makes the case for nuclear electricity as one of the best tools to solve the climate crisis. Boemeke is also known as Isodope, the irreverent digital persona on a mission to make nuclear cool. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Save Clean Energy and board member of Nature is Nonpartisan and Nuclear Scaling Initiative, where she works at the intersection of policy, culture, and technology to accelerate pragmatic solutions. She delivered a TED Talk that has been viewed nearly 2 million times, led a grassroots campaign that helped delay the closure of California's Diablo Canyon Power Plant, and is a TIME Magazine "Next Generation Leader."

If you've ever changed a diaper, you might've wondered what happens to it after it goes in the trash. The answer, unfortunately, is that it'll sit in a landfill for hundreds of years—certainly longer than the baby who briefly wore it will live. In fact, every diaper you wore when you were a baby is still sitting around, at best in a landfill, or perhaps even in the ocean. And did you know the average American baby goes through 6,000 diapers before learning to use a toilet?

But what if fungi could change that?

In this episode, I sit down with serial entrepreneur Miki Agrawal, the founder of Thinx (yes, the period underwear company), Tushy (yes, the bidet company), and now HIRO Technologies—a company using plastic-eating fungi to help disposable diapers return to the earth.

Miki, who some have dubbed the "Queen of pee, poop, and periods," (I think they should shorten it to the "Queen of Secretions") shares how an opportune moment with her toddler and a children's book about fungi inspired her to launch HIRO. Her company's first product—HIRO Diapers—uses a packet of dormant, culinary-grade fungi that awaken when exposed to moisture and begin breaking down the diaper's plastic components, dramatically reducing its landfill lifespan from centuries to under a year, after which it simply becomes dirt.

We talk about everything from the science of fungal degradation to the challenges of biotech entrepreneurship, from raising millions for an unconventional idea to why she believes reconnecting with nature is the ultimate form of innovation.

Whether you're a parent, a sustainability enthusiast, or just fascinated by the intersection of biology and business, this conversation will make you rethink what "waste" really means.

Discussed in this episode

• It was the children's book Pacha's Pajamas that implanted the idea in Miki's mind about plastic-eating fungi.

• You can buy HIRO Diapers here.

• You can see HIRO's original kickstarter, including video pitch, here.

• Miki recommends checking out the UN Millenium Goals for ideas of companies to create.

• Reuters discusses HIRO's launch and technology.

• Miki also started Thinkx (period underwear) and Tushy (bidets).

More about Miki Agrawal

Miki Agrawal is the creative force behind acclaimed social enterprises TUSHY (the modern bidet brand), THINX (period-proof underwear), and WILD (NYC's first gluten-free pizza concept), collectively valued at over $250 million. Miki is the author of best-selling books "DO COOL SH*T" and "DISRUPT-HER".

Her latest company HIRO is a revolutionary nature-based start-up harnessing ancient technology - fungi - to help solve the global plastic crisis. Their first product is a baby diaper that returns to the earth with the help of friendly fungi. (They chose diapers to launch with because they're the #1 household plastic waste item that takes 400+ years to decompose in a landfill - and each baby uses ~6,000 diapers in their lifetime. Wild, right?) HIRO Diapers starts returning to the earth with the help of fungi - and they're soft, safe, high-performing and ready to change the game.

Recognized as one of Fast Company's "Most Creative People," a "Young Global Leader" by the World Economic Forum, and named one of INC's "Most Impressive Women Entrepreneurs," Miki brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the stage as a keynote speaker. Her authentic talks have been validated by audiences at MindValley, EO, and Capitalism.com, who have voted for her as the #1 best speaker among hundreds of speakers.

Recently Alex Shandrovsky had me as a guest on his show, the Investment Climate Podcast to talk about The Better Meat Co.'s recent funding round. When it came out, more than one Business for Good listener heard it and told me they thought it would make a good episode to release to our audience too, so this episode is simply the conversation Alex and I had for his podcast.

If you've been following the alternative protein sector (and the broader biotech sector), you've likely seen the wave of challenges that fermentation, cultivated, and plant-based startups have faced over the past few years. As recent AgFunder News reporting confirms, ag and food tech investment is at a decade-long low. One active food tech VC even declared that foodtech investing is "maybe as bad as it's ever been."

Some days, building a startup in our sector can feel like being a player in Squid Game—with about the same odds of survival.

While layoffs, bankruptcies, shutdowns, and cash-free acquisitions have been rampant in our sector lately, BMC has never conducted layoffs. Instead we've always been very frugal, and we tightened our belt even further in the past year, all while continuing to make important progress toward our aspirations of slashing humanity's footprint on the planet. This has been true in the midst of the three-year litigation we endured, the collapse of our bank and subsequent (temporary) loss of all funds, the painfully wintry investment climate for alt-protein, and other seemingly innumerable challenges. Our ethic of frugality will certainly continue in this new era of scaleup for our company.

This financing is hardly the end of our story. Receiving investor dollars isn't our goal; it's solely a means to the end of building a profitable business that will help put a dent in the number of animals raised for food. Raising a round is akin to having someone provide the clothes, tents, and food you'll need to climb Everest…but you still need to actually go climb the mountain—hardly a guaranteed outcome.

I've often said these days that we've shifted from what felt like a Sispyphean feat of fundraising to now merely a Herculean feat of scaling.

Nearly all startups fail. The vast majority never see their seventh birthday, which BMC recently celebrated. Our company is still far from successful, but we now have a real chance to birth into the world a novel crop that can help feed humanity without frying the planet. We will judiciously use these new funds to work hard to finally let the Rhiza River flow.

Alex and I discuss the story of how this funding round came about, and where we may be going from here.

When you think about climate change solutions, your mind might go to renewable energy, electric vehicles, or eating less meat. These are all of course important. But even if we stopped all emissions today, we'd still have too much CO2 in the atmosphere and would need to pull a lot of our emissions out of it.

That's the bold mission of Aircapture, a California-based company pioneering modular direct air capture technology.

On this episode, I speak with Matt Atwood, Aircapture's founder and CEO, about how his company is not only working to reduce atmospheric CO₂, but also profitably supplying it to industries that rely on the gas today—like beverage makers, greenhouses, and more. Instead of relying on fossil fuel byproducts or ethanol fermentation for their CO₂, companies can now get a cleaner, more reliable, and often cheaper supply directly from the air.

Matt explains how Aircapture's approach differs from traditional large-scale carbon capture projects by focusing on on-site, modular units that can be shipped in a container and installed within weeks. These systems already commercially operate in the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, giving customers local CO₂ while shrinking supply chain emissions.

We dig into the economics of direct air capture, the climate math of whether it truly reduces atmospheric carbon, and the criticisms that it could provide a "moral license" to keep burning fossil fuels. Matt also shares how Aircapture recently raised a $50 million Series A—during a tough climate tech funding market—and what gives investors confidence that their model will scale where others have stumbled.

If you've ever wondered whether pulling CO₂ out of thin air is realistic—or just hype—this conversation will give you a fascinating inside look.

Discussed in this episode

• Our past episode with Make Sunsets about sulfur dioxide injections into the atmosphere.

• We've done other episodes on geoengineering, for example on olivine spreading (Vesta and Eion), sulfur dioxide injections (Make Sunsets), direct carbon capture (Global Thermostat).

• Al Gore's skepticism about direct air capture.

• Matt recommends reading Ministry for the Future.

• Paul recommends Dan Carlin's The End is Always Near.

• Matt reflects on his earlier work with Algae Systems and why he thinks wastewater treatment improvements are so important.

• Paul suggests tackling wastewater treatment with Neurospora species, as discussed here, here, here, and elsewhere.

Get to Know Matt Atwood

Matt is a technologist, chemist, entrepreneur and pioneer in the DAC space. He has over 20 years experience in renewable and climate technology development and over a decade of experience with DAC and CO2 utilization technologies.

Matt developed the world's first energy-positive wastewater treatment platform as Founder & CEO of Algae Systems.

He has built and commercialized technologies in CO2, water, AgTech, waste treatment, and biofuels.

What if the biggest environmental culprits were hiding in plain sight—right on our dinner plates? While most environmental organizations train their sights on the energy sector, Mighty Earth has taken a bold, and often lonely, stand in confronting the meat industry's massive role in climate change, deforestation, and biodiversity loss. In this episode, I sit down with Glenn Hurowitz, founder and CEO of Mighty Earth, to unpack why the meat industry typically gets ignored by the environmental movement, and what he thinks needs to be done.

Glenn has spent decades fighting for the planet, from working on federal public policy in Congress to launching powerful corporate campaigns that aim to guide the world's largest food companies toward more sustainable practices. In our conversation, he explains why mainstream NGOs often shy away from challenging the meat industry, and how Mighty Earth's strategy—focusing on supply chains, corporate accountability, and the expansion of animal-free proteins—aims to fill that void.

We also dive into Mighty Earth's campaign to help supermarkets treat plant-based proteins not as niche novelties, but as core offerings. Glenn shares how enhanced meat products (think burgers that are part beef, part mycelium) can be a bigger environmental win than pure plant-based options alone, and why shifting market incentives—not just consumer behavior—is key to making real progress.

If you care about climate action, animal welfare, or food innovation, this episode may challenge you to think bigger—and act smarter—about what it really takes to feed humanity sustainably.

Discussed in this episode

• Glenn and Paul recommend the good work of Food Solutions Action.

• Our past episode with author Mike Grunwald.

• Quorn mycoprotein patties selling in London KFC at near price parity with chicken.

• Glenn references the Sierra Club's war on coal.

• Mighty Earth's campaign to guide supermarkets to do better on meat.

• Paul mentions that dozens of species go extinct every day, largely due to meat demand

• JBS's investment in Spanish cultivated meat production.

• Glenn's 2007 book, Fear and Courage in the Democratic Party.

• Glenn and Paul both recommend reading Regenesis.

• The UN report on nature finance

Get to Know Glenn Hurowitz

Glenn Hurowitz is the Founder and CEO of Mighty Earth, and has led environmental campaigns around the world for many years. He is a globally recognized leader on forests, agriculture, and climate change, and running strategic campaigns.

He has played a leading role in transforming several industries, including the 90% reduction in deforestation for palm oil, establishment of new policies and practices for the entire rubber industry, and serious action in meat, steel, and elsewhere. In his previous role as Chair of the Forest Heroes campaign, he and his colleagues won the Benny Award from the Business Ethics Network for their successes in transforming global agriculture. He co-founded Chain Reaction Research, which provides major financial institutions with in-depth risk analysis of companies' sustainability risk.

Glenn advises philanthropies, governments and non-profit organizations on strategy. Glenn has also worked extensively in politics. He is the author of the critically-acclaimed book Fear and Courage in the Democratic Party, and his writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Nation, Politico, The American Prospect.

He's appeared on many national media outlets, including CNN, MSNBC, FOX, CBS, and NPR. He is a graduate of the Green Corps fellowship and Yale University, worked previously as Managing Director of Waxman Strategies, among other senior roles in the environmental movement.

It's rare that we contemplate where all the plastic we throw out goes, but rest assured that nearly none of it is being recycled. Simply put, it's usually cheaper to make new plastic than to recycle old plastic, even the plastic you put in the recycling bin. Because it takes plastic centuries to break down, this means for each one of us you could build a mountain of plastic from all the packaging we use over the course of our lives.

But what if plastic didn't have to take centuries to break down, and could actually biodegrade in a matter of days or weeks?

That's exactly the vision Luna Yu is bringing to life as founder and CEO of Genecis Bioindustries, a biotech company using fermentation to transform food waste into high-performance, truly compostable bioplastics. In this episode, Luna joins us—at 1 a.m. her time from a manufacturing run in China—to share the story behind Genecis, from her early days as a teenage entrepreneur in Canada to raising $17 million for her startup in the climate tech world.

Luna walks us through how Genecis engineers microbes to turn low-cost industrial waste streams like glycerol into PHA, a biodegradable plastic alternative that's already being used in consumer products like Mad Tea and Mad Coffee. We discuss why Genecis is taking a direct-to-consumer approach, how they're preparing to launch in Sprouts nationwide, and what it will take to make sustainable plastics cost-competitive with petroleum-based ones.

We also dive into Luna's big bets on the future—including cell-free biology, the promise of enzyme-only production systems, and her vision for a world where the most convenient option is also the most sustainable.

If you're curious about the intersection of synthetic biology, circular economy, and product design—or you just want to hear from someone reshaping the future of plastic—this episode is for you.

Discussed in this episode

• You can learn more about Genecis' technology by reading their patents and patent applications here.

• Luna is very inspired by Isomorphic Labs.

• Genecis is backed by Amazon and is a graduate of the Y Combinator accelerator.

• CJ Biomaterials manufactures PHA via fermentation.

• Plastic has only been around since the 1950s but we believe it lasts for centuries. How do we know? Researchers simulate environmental exposure in labs by increasing UV radiation, temperature, moisture, and mechanical stress to accelerate plastic breakdown. They analyze how the polymer chains degrade and extrapolate those results to estimate natural-world decay timelines.

Get to Know Luna Yu

Luna Yu is the CEO of Genecis Bioindustries. She completed her Bachelors and Masters in Environmental Science at the age of 21 at the University of Toronto. During her Undergrad, Luna co-founded, grew and exited from two profitable software startups. The exciting advancements in fields of synthetic biology, bioinformatics, and machine learning led her to infuse her passion and experience together. This created Genecis, where biotechnology enables the conversion of food waste into high value materials.

Plastic pollution is one of the defining environmental challenges of our time—microplastics are now found in our oceans, our soil, our drinking water, and even in our bloodstreams. But what if we could make high-performance materials that look, feel, and function like plastic—without being plastic at all?

Enter Xampla.

Born out of the University of Cambridge, Xampla is a materials science innovation company that's developed a new class of plastic-free, fully biodegradable materials that offer a drop-in replacement for the most polluting types of plastic. Their flagship line, known as Morro™, is made from natural plant proteins like those found in peas, potatoes, sunflowers and many other sources. It's already launched in the market with global brands for food service packaging, and it's able to eliminate the most polluting plastics in a whole range of products from barrier coatings for paper, microcapsules in personal and homecare products, and soluble films for homecare and edible applications.

In this episode, I'm joined by Xampla's CEO, Alexandra French—a veteran of the chemical and materials industries with more than 25 years of global leadership experience. Since taking the reins in 2023, Alexandra has been leading Xampla through its next chapter: moving from a world-changing lab discovery to a commercially scalable solution.

We'll talk about how Xampla's technology works, the environmental promise it holds, and how Alexandra is navigating the complex journey of building a startup at the intersection of science, manufacturing, and sustainability. We'll also explore the company's recent commercialization and the licensing business model it's pursuing.

What if we could grow nutritious, sustainable protein—not in months or weeks—but in just one day?

This episode's guest is doing just that. Rather than going big with animal agriculture, MicroHarvest is going small with microbial agriculture.

A huge number of animals are used to feed both our pets and the animals we raise for food. Kate Bekers, the CEO and co-founder of MicroHarvest, is seeking to change that. She's running a fast-rising European biotech startup using fermentation to produce high-quality protein from microbes—in just 24 hours. Based in Hamburg and Lisbon, MicroHarvest is on a mission to reshape how the world thinks about protein production. Rather than growing plants or animals, they grow single-cell microbes in bioreactors, yielding a high-protein, micronutrient-rich ingredient that can be used in everything from animal feed and pet food to, eventually, human food.

With 10 million euros raised and hopefully a new 30 million euro round on the horizon, their process is fast, efficient, and radically resource-light—requiring far less land, water, and energy than traditional agriculture. Already able to produce one ton of their product per day, MicroHarvest is proving that microbial protein isn't just a lab experiment—it's a scalable, real-world solution.

In this episode, Kate shares what it takes to bring biotech innovation to market, and why she believes protein production should be faster, cleaner, and closer to the consumer. We talk about the company's entry into pet food and aquaculture, and what the future holds for sustainable protein made from the tiniest organisms on Earth.

If you're curious about the future of food, circular economies, or how to build a business that's good for animals and the planet, this conversation is for you.

In this episode, I'm joined by one of America's most thoughtful national journalists: Mike Grunwald. You may know him from his work at Time, Politico, or The Washington Post, or from his critically acclaimed books about the Obama administration and the history of the Everglades. He's also now a contributing columnist at the New York Times. But for the purpose of this episode, Mike is here to discuss his third book, We Are Eating the Earth: The Race to Fix Our Food System and Save Our Climate.

In this sweeping and deeply reported work, Mike tackles one of the most uncomfortable truths of our time: our global food system, especially animal farming, is a leading driver of climate change, deforestation, wildlife extinction, and more. But rather than simply doomscroll through the apocalypse, We Are Eating the Earth offers a clear-eyed, often witty, and ultimately hopeful exploration of how we might transform our food system to produce more food while using fewer resources.

In our conversation, we discuss some of the biggest food and climate myths—like whether organic or so-called "regenerative" agriculture is necessarily better for the planet—as well as Mike's views on what will actually work to slash humanity's footprint on the planet. (Spoiler: eat less meat, waste less food, and use fewer biofuels are among his biggest points.)

Mike also clarifies his views on animal welfare, including the welfare of chickens and pigs, and his (lack of) concern about falling fertility rates. It's a wide-ranging conversation that's got something for everyone interested in a future with fewer hungry people and more land rewilded.