logo
episode-header-image
Sep 2025
38m 13s

Carbon Capture at Rock-Bottom Prices

IHEARTPODCASTS AND PUSHKIN INDUSTRIES
About this episode

Shashank Samala is the CEO and co-founder of Heirloom, a carbon capture start-up.

His problem is this: Can you use crushed up rocks to permanently suck carbon out of the atmosphere? And can you do it cheaply enough to have a global impact?

On today’s show, Shashank explains why he believes rocks could be the backbone of carbon capture, how his childhood in India shaped his outlook on climate change, and how government policy is shaping today’s direct air capture industry.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Up next
Jul 16
Using Viruses to Fight Disease
Phages are viruses that attack bacteria. People have been using phages to treat infections for over a hundred years, but in most cases they just don't work as well as antibiotics. Paul Garofolo is the co-founder and CEO of Locus Biosciences. His problem is this: How do you geneti ... Show More
32m 20s
Jul 9
How AI Could Reduce Inequality
David Autor is a labor economist at MIT. He has written about how the arrival of personal computers increased inequality among American workers. But when it comes to AI, David thinks there could be a different outcome. Read David’s article about AI in Noema Magazine. In this epis ... Show More
43m 43s
Jul 2
Racing Wildfires to Warn the Public
John Mills is the CEO and co-founder of a nonprofit called Watch Duty. His problem is this: How do you build an app to warn people when they are in immediate danger from a natural disaster? Watch Duty has millions of users and played a key role in the Los Angeles fires of 2025. I ... Show More
52m 22s
Recommended Episodes
Feb 2024
Building a decarbonization army with Shashank Samala of Heirloom
Cutting emissions alone will not be enough. To avoid the worst effects of global climate change, Heirloom CEO and co-founder Shashank Samala believes we’ll also need to pull a lot of carbon out of the atmosphere...This week on How I Built This Lab, Shashank’s leap into climate en ... Show More
27m 8s
Aug 2025
Direct Air Capture’s Cost Curve Conundrum
Right now, there are technologies that can pull carbon dioxide directly out of the air. That could be a critical tool in a world where climate change is rampant. Yet to fulfill this carbon removal potential, the sky-high costs of direct air capture need to fall. Today, capturing ... Show More
31m 15s
Sep 2021
Will Direct-Air Carbon Capture Be Viable?
Carbon capture has long been criticized as too nascent, too expensive, and too distracting. Is that changing?This month, the Swiss company Climeworks officially launched a direct-air capture plant in Iceland, called Orca. The company has already signed deals with SwissRe, Bill Ga ... Show More
54m 8s
Apr 2024
Capturing CO2 from the air
We're in Iceland, where, in attempt to fight climate change, huge machines are being used to pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.And then locking it away deep underground, turning it into stone.The business behind the technology believes this is a crucial step in reducing t ... Show More
17m 29s
Nov 2023
Big promise, little success: The state of carbon capture
<p>The U.S. is spending billions on carbon capture as a climate solution, but is it realistic? The method has been around for 50 years and used primarily as a way to extract more oil. To find out how and if carbon capture can work as a climate solution, Akshat speaks with Emily G ... Show More
34m 45s
Jan 2021
How carbon capture networks could help curb climate change | Bas Sudmeijer
What if we could build a global waste disposal service for carbon? In this forward-thinking talk, carbon capture advisor Bas Sudmeijer proposes building CO2 networks: partnerships between cities around the world that would share the cost and geological resources needed to trap em ... Show More
11m 55s
Apr 2024
Bringing down sky scrapers' sky-high carbon footprint with Joselyn Lai from Bedrock
Most skyscrapers have sky-high carbon footprints due mostly to inefficient methods of heating and cooling. Today’s guest, Joselyn Lai is the co-founder and CEO of Bedrock Energy, a company that works with buildings to install geothermal systems. They have developed a system to dr ... Show More
44m 27s
Oct 2022
Climate tech to save the planet: Out of thin air
<p>Direct air carbon capture - taking carbon dioxide straight out of the air around us - sounds like science fiction. In this episode Pilita Clark visits Iceland to meet the engineers and scientists at the forefront of this<em> </em>new<em> </em>tech. Can carbon capture scale up ... Show More
24m 21s
Aug 2023
A carbon… vacuum cleaner?
For years, companies have tried to invent tech that would make carbon capture viable. We’ll hear from Vijay Vaitheeswaran, global energy and climate innovation editor at The Economist, about the latest innovations in the field. Plus, Powell is set to kick off the Jackson Hole sym ... Show More
1m 30s