122. Ecohacking the Planet: Daniel Goodwin of Homeworld Collective Brews Up Planetary-Scale Solutions

Karl and Erum sit down with Daniel Goodwin, co-founding Director of Homeworld Collective alongside his friend and collaborator Paul Reginato. Together, they explore how to build resilient, values-aligned infrastructure for a flourishing bioeconomy—beyond the venture model.

From climate biotech to systems thinking, Daniel shares how Homeworld Collective is more than just a network—it's an emergent, mycelial community focused on care, collaboration, and collective intelligence. The conversation weaves through everything from the limits of "techno-solutionism" to the power of story in science, and the need to design not just tools, but the conditions for innovation to thrive.

If you’re thinking about the future of biotech, and how culture, community, and infrastructure intersect to make it real—this episode is for you.

Grow Everything brings the bioeconomy to life. Hosts Karl Schmieder and Erum Azeez Khan share stories and interview the leaders and influencers changing the world by growing everything. Biology is the oldest technology. And it can be engineered. What are we growing?

Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.messaginglab.com/groweverything⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 

Chapters:

• 00:00:00 – Welcome to the Biofuture: Erum and Karl kick things off in full grind mode.
• 00:00:16 – Biotech Boom Times: Why the field never sleeps (and neither do the hosts).
• 00:01:01 – Inside the AI Emergence Summit: Smell farms, AGI hype, and real talk on moats.
• 00:03:21 – DIY Healthcare with AI: What happens when you feed your genome to a chatbot?
• 00:05:35 – Can AI Decode Biology? Drug discovery and the limitations of human cognition.
• 00:07:49 – Mammoths, Models & Media: Colossal Biosciences and the narrative power of science.
• 00:11:32 – Meet Daniel Goodwin: Systems thinker, community builder, biotech whisperer.
• 00:12:03 – On George Church: The unintentional influence that shaped Homeworld's DNA.
• 00:18:07 – What Is Homeworld Collective? Building more than a Slack—building a system.
• 00:20:47 – Imagining the Next Bio Era: Biotech’s renaissance as culture, not just tech.
• 00:26:52 – Idea Porn & Biotech Fiction: When storytelling shapes science (and vice versa).
• 00:29:54 – Collaborating with Biology: Designing with, not against, nature’s blueprint.
• 00:30:07 – Rivers as Systems: What infrastructure can learn from ecosystems.
• 00:30:54 – Biomanufacturing Is Hard: Real talk on what it takes to scale with biology.
• 00:32:08 – Carbon Capture, Naturally: Biodesign, fermentation, and the future of CO₂.
• 00:33:45 – Biosecurity + Ethics: Guardrails, governance, and growing with intention.
• 00:41:18 – Prototype Like a Scientist: What biotech can borrow from product design.
• 00:49:07 – Cleaning Up Chemistry: Synbio’s role in reshaping industrial pollution.
• 00:52:46 – Looking Ahead: Final reflections, future infrastructure, and quiet revolutions.

Links and Resources:

• Homeworld Collective
• The Climate Biotech Podcast
• Karl and Erum on the Climate Biotech Podcast
• AI Circle 
• Osmo.AI
• Doctors Told Him He Was Going to Die. Then A.I. Saved His Life.
• Colossal Biosciences
• Hoping to revive mammoths, scientists create 'woolly mice'
• George Church episode, interviewed by Homeworld Collective
• Neuroscience Needs Hackers, Scientific American 
• Liquid Trees 
• A Natural History of the Future: What the Laws of Biology Tell Us about the Destiny of the Human Species by Robb Dunn

Topics Covered: 

climate biotech, George Church, Churchian Juxtaposition, idea porn, genetic engineering, geo biotech, environmental engineering,

Have a question or comment? Message us here:

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Email: groweverything@messaginglab.com

Music by: Nihilore