Innovation Matters

Mike, Alina, and Anthony discuss the recent Biolab fire in Georgia, examining the chemical industry's structure, how increasing sustainability and climate change pressures may impact smaller chemical businesses, and the ways companies can adapt to these challenges.

Nuclear energy is undeniably having a renaissance, but there are still major hurdles to actually increasing the amount of nuclear energy in the world. Karthik and Anthony take on two recent announcements - the restart of Three Mile Island, and BlackRock's USD 30 billion data center fund - to try to figure out where nuclear goes from here. 

Mike, Amy, Karthik, and Anthony talk Lego's new sustainability efforts, discussing why mechanical recycling has failed them, what the shift to mass balancing really means, Lego's sustainability principles, and the long-term role of Lego as an ambassador for plastics sustainability.

Karthik and Anthony tackle the latest releases from Apple - and why the pace of groundbreaking products from tech companies seems to be slowing down, despite the rise of AI as a supposed force for innovation. Plus, Anthony shares his findings from the Advanced Recycling Summit as the hosts wonder if recycling will really ever get done. 

Mike, Karthik, and Amy are talking about robots! Not just any robots: humanoid robots whose creators are betting will replace human labor in factories, the home, and in services. To do that, the robots will need to overcome human rejection - which might be an insurmountable challenge for the eerie human doppelgangers. Use cases, business models, and the overall weirdness of the human robots are all on the table in this episode.

When you think of ethanol, you probably think of corn: at least in America, where corn ethanol has become a common addition to everyone's gas tank. This week, we speak with Dave Rubenstein who's trying to change that by growing sugarcane in California's Imperial Valley. Anthony, Amy, and Karthik discuss the economics of ethanol, long term opportunities in sustainable aviation fuel and chemicals, the challenges with water, and more. 

Alina, Karthik, and Mike sound off on the news as summer wraps up and fall kicks off. Can Nestle rebrand as a health company, or will consumers continue to hold a grudge for pandemic-era price increases? What about the future of nuclear power - can it really find a place in the grid? All this and more in this episode. 

This week Amy, Anthony, Mike, and Karthik tackle the thorny issue of carbon credits, offsets, and insets as big tech companies like Google and Amazon seek to make changes in how emissions are calculated.  Will consumers grow even more distrustful of big tech? And how can we regulate a complex system in a way that appeals to consumers?