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Why We Care

Materials innovation, biomimicry, no waste in nature and alchemical mycology with Jesse Adler, materials innovation researcher at PANGAIA and biomolecular scientist

Season 1, Ep. 7
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In this week’s episode I’m chatting with my friend Jesse Adler, a biomolecular scientist and materials innovation researcher at PANGAIA. Jesse is one of my favourite people - she is one the most enthusiastic, smartest, and overall just wonderful human beings I know. We spoke about materials innovation and what in her view are the most pressing issues in terms of materials that we need to find alternatives for, and about biomimicry and how so much of what we design as humans have been inspired by nature, including for example planes. We also discussed the cyclical nature of the world we live in and how the concept of waste doesn’t exist in nature.


Aside from her job at PANGAIA Jesse is also a future materials research fellow at the Jan Van Eyck Academie in the Netherlands. Her research focuses on finding replacements for artificial colorants in fungi. So we spoke about the makeup collection she created using pigments extracted from various types of fungi, and how she approaches this as a collaboration rather than an exploitative extractive practice. She shared her tips for ethical foraging and also how she practices mindfulness to connect with the wider ecosystems we are part of.


I’ve had bits of this conversation with Jesse over the past few years and it is so nice to have finally recorded it, I hope you’ll find it as exciting as we did!


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