rainforest

Palm oil is a wonder ingredient, used in almost everything from toothpaste and oat milk to biodiesel and laundry detergent. But to keep pace with rising global demand, producers have burned down millions of acres of rainforests to create more palm oil plantations, worsening climate change and making the air hazardous for entire countries in the process. 

C16 Biosciences has a plan to save those rainforests – and to shake up the behemoth palm oil industry while doing it. Since founding the company in 2018, Shara Ticku and her co-founders have cracked the code on its first beauty product made with lab-generated palm oil. And once they brought it to market? It sold out immediately!

This week on How I Built This Lab, Shara talks to Guy about how introducing C16’s initial product to a secondary market laid the foundation for even greater commercial success. Plus, Shara shares how a tight budget, scrappy science, and home-brewed beer were the keys to unlocking substantial funding.

This episode was produced by Carla Esteves and edited by John Isabella, with music by Ramtin Arablouei. Our audio engineer was Katherine Silva.

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Paul Rosolie (@PaulRosolie) is a conservationist, a filmmaker, the director of JungleKeepers and Tamandua Expeditions, and the author of Mother of God: An Extraordinary Journey into the Uncharted Tributaries of the Western Amazon.

What We Discuss with Paul Rosolie:

• How Paul Rosolie and his JungleKeepers team showcase sustainable and profitable alternatives to illegal logging and mining for locals — and their descendants — to prosper.
• Why many uncontacted tribes in the Amazon react to intrusion by outsiders with extreme violence — even when the outsiders demonstrate the best of intentions.
• How invasive and inefficient gold mining by armed, organized criminals from places as far away as Russia is turning once lush rainforests into mercury-poisoned wastelands.
• Efforts being made to harness medicinal compounds unique to the Amazon — and the knowledge to use them — and prevent them from disappearing for good.
• Even if you need to slim down for beach season, Paul doesn't recommend getting lost in the unforgiving Amazon — where he shed a pound a day simply trying to survive before finding his way back to civilization.
• And much more...

Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/827

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Everyone knows sloths are super slow, but do you know they’re slow because their bodies produce an astoundingly small amount of energy? And did you know that might be an adaptation that protects them from predators? Sloths are awesome and we prove it.

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