Future Optimist

Paige Peters is the founder and CTO of Rapid Radicals, a company that is able to treat wastewater much faster than traditional methods.  She developed this technology to tackle the massive problem of the over 850 billion gallons of untreated wastewater that go into our lakes, oceans, and rivers each year.  What’s worse? When it rains, these outdated systems flood and overflow, causing massive damage. She’s built a thriving business solving a problem no one else wanted to solve. ➡️ https://rapidradicals.com/  ➡️ Highlights: https://rosspalmer.com/paige-peters 

Alexander Olesen is the CEO & Co-Founder of Babylon Micro-Farms Inc. He’s a social entrepreneur, keynote and TEDx speaker, and urban agriculture expert. Today we talk about how he’s been building a successful business making produce much more sustainable than conventional methods. We get into the ups and downs of social entrepreneurship, and especially why this is such a timely concept for us all getting access to better food.     ➡️https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-olesen-7aa4a16a/ ➡️https://babylonmicrofarms.com/ ➡️ Highlights: https://rosspalmer.com/alexander-olesen

Masachs Boungou, a recent doctoral graduate of UMass Lowell, is a keynote speaker, Ph.D. holder, and Fulbright Scholar Alumnus. His childhood was completely upended when his village was ravaged and destroyed, forcing him into exile. He was forced to live in the jungle for a year, facing unimaginable circumstances. Somehow he never lost faith, educating himself and eventually getting an advanced degree in America. Now he’s a public speaker and author, and his jaw-dropping tale is inspiration for us all. ➡️ https://www.drmasachs.com/ ➡️ Highlights: https://rosspalmer.com/masachs-boungou 

Can we get rid of all the plastic in the oceans?  Like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, 1.6 million square kilometers of plastic trash floating in the Pacific Ocean.  Some see this never-decomposing trash as one of the biggest problems facing our species, others like Eleonore Eisath see that plastic as a “locked resource” that can be tapped into.  Her company Beworm is developing a biocatalytic recycling process that decomposes plastic waste into natural raw materials—it’s about as cool as it gets! ➡️ https://www.linkedin.com/in/eleonore-eisath/ ➡️ https://www.beworm.org/ ➡️ Highlights: https://rosspalmer.com/eleonore-eisath

How do we eradicate extreme rural poverty? What can we do to build up communities?  Jacob Foss asked this question when travelling in Africa, and his answer was to co-found Agricycle—a brilliant start-up that connects women, smallholders, and youth in East Africa with global markets.  Don’t know what a smallholder is? I didn’t either, but we’re about to find out! Jacob’s been on Forbes 30 Under 30, he’s received millions in funding for his work, and Agricycle is an official partner of the United Nations FAO. Join us as we talk about taking the road less traveled. ➡️ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacob-foss-/ ➡️ https://agricycleglobal.com/ ➡️ Highlights: https://rosspalmer.com/jacob-foss

What if you could program a cell directly to fight cancer? What if you could solve the 7,000 genetic diseases facing our species? This type of science fiction is now a reality, thanks to today’s guests on the Beat the Often Path Podcast. Joining me today are Omar Abudayyeh and Jonathan Gootenberg, creators of the AbuGoot lab at MIT, two people leading the way in gene therapy, gene editing, and CRISPR innovations. The AbuGoot lab combines natural biological discovery and molecular engineering to develop a suite of new tools for manipulation of DNA, RNA, and cellular states – the cellular engineering toolbox. In short, it doesn’t get more cutting edge than this. ➡️ https://www.abugootlab.org/ ➡️ Highlights: https://rosspalmer.com/omar-abudayyeh  

What if you could create meaningful memories with loved ones around the globe?  My guest today Anieke Lamers has created Peekabond, a new app that makes it easier to not just connect remotely, but bond. She left a lucrative role as a VC to follow her passion and build her own company in a space she believed in. She created a kid-friendly platform with science-based activities, ethical games, and a bank to store all the memories made. Many of us have gone years without being able to see loved ones like grandparents, aunts, cousins, etc. This app is a way for people to create and store meaningful memories instead of just jamming YouTube Kids in front of your children and letting the algorithm raise them. (Who’s done that? You? Nope? Just me? Ok then!) ➡️ https://www.peekabond.com/ ➡️ Highlights: https://rosspalmer.com/anieke-lamers

Mai Shimada is a medical doctor, and the Founder & CEO of Isha Health, providers of ketamine-assisted therapy. She spent many years of her life as an ER doctor, and she came to understand that ketamine was a legal and underutilized treatment option for clinically-resistant depression, PTSD, and a wide range of other mental health disorders. In this episode, we are going to talk about DRUGS. Even though this treatment is completely legal, if that bothers you, turn it off right now. I’m going to preface this episode by saying that I am not a doctor, nor an expert, I’m just your local neighborhood idiot who doesn’t know anything about anything or anyone. So do yourself a favor, and never listen to a word I say. But, please do hear out Dr. Mai Shimada, because she’s an incredible human. ➡️ https://www.isha.health/ ➡️ Highlights: https://rosspalmer.com/mai-shimada  

Brian Cook is the President of Local Bounti, a company that brings fresh local produce to the world using 90% less water and land than traditional agriculture. In a world that’s poised to hit 10 billion people not too long from now, we need all the help we can get finding innovative ways to feed our population food that isn’t just gruel, mush, mushy-gruel, or god-forbid, soylent green. Brian has dedicated his life to food production, and today we talk about not only what Local Bounti is doing and why it’s important, but also how we all need to educate ourselves better about where our food actually comes from. It’s a topic that’s near and dear to my heart. ➡️ https://localbounti.com/ ➡️ https://www.linkedin.com/in/4brianccook/ ➡️ Highlights: https://rosspalmer.com/brian-cook  

David Dellal is the Co-Founder & CEO of Floe Inc, a cleantech startup developing a smart solution to prevent the extensive, costly water damage caused by ice buildup on buildings' roofs in the winter. You know what I love? I love learning about amazing solutions to problems that I never knew existed, such as the fact that $9.5 billion in damage occurs due to ice on rooftops each year in the US alone.  Not only that, de-icing as an entire industry is archaic, harmful, and wasteful, meaning that it’s a huge sector ripe for eco-disruption. David recently made the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, and his idea was conceived in MIT and perfected at Yale, so I’m looking forward to a great conversation with an extremely smart dude. ➡️ https://floesafe.com ➡️ Highlights: https://rosspalmer.com/david-dellal