Coding The Natural World

Coding The Natural World

From The Moonshot Podcast by X, The Moonshot Factory

April 1, 2026 · 40 min · Season 2 · Episode 2

About this episode

This episode explores the future of biology and how to harness life's tiny factories to address major global challenges.

This episode of The Moonshot Podcast dives into the future of biology, exploring how to harness life's "tiny factories" to solve humanity's biggest challenges. Host Astro Teller sits down with Brad Zamft, CEO of Heritable Agriculture, to talk about programming plants to dramatically increase yield, pest, and drought resistance for a more sustainable food system. Next Astro speaks with Relly Brandman from project A-Life about unlocking the manufacturing power of biology, using AI to create a "virtual cell" that shifts biomanufacturing from slow trial-and-error to a predictable engineering discipline for making materials like medicines, fuels, and textiles. Hosted by Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots, The Moonshot Podcast goes behind the scenes with creators and inventors trying to find radical solutions and breakthrough technologies to the world’s biggest problems. These are the untold stories of innovation from 15 years of Alphabet’s Moonshot Factory. The Moonshot Podcast is a Pique Action production for X, The Moonshot Factory, produced in association with Blanchard House. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

People in this episode

Host: Astro Teller

Guests: Brad Zamft, Relly Brandman

Topics covered

  • biology
  • sustainability
  • biomanufacturing
  • AI
  • food systems
  • innovation

Keywords

  • biology
  • sustainability
  • AI
  • biomanufacturing
  • food systems
  • innovation
  • pest resistance
  • drought resistance

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Heritable Agriculture, project A-Life, Alphabet, Pique Action, Blanchard House

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