Energy might just be the ultimate moonshot – because if we can make it affordable, abundant and dependable long-term, it could improve life for all 8.2 billion people on Earth. In this episode, we follow two bold projects from X: Blixt, a fusion Moonshot that took a high-risk bet on a decades-old scientific mystery, and Tapestry, a new set of AI powered tools that are helping grid operators manage the world’s largest machine. From lightning bolts and frozen hydrogen, to mapping the electricity networks of entire countries, this is a story about risk, reward, and the invisible systems we all depend on.
Hosted by Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots, The Moonshot Podcast goes behind the scenes with the engineers and inventors using breakthrough technologies to try to find radical solutions to the world’s biggest problems. These are the untold stories from 15 years of Google’s innovation lab.
Thank you to Matt Forkin, Brian Adolph, Will Regan, Ivo Stivoric, Page Crahan and Juan Carlos Olmedo for featuring in this episode.
The Moonshot Podcast is a Blanchard House production for X, the moonshot factory. It’s produced by Ellie Sans and Sophie Eastaugh. Original music by Louis Nanke-Mannell and Daniel Lloyd-Evans. Sound design and mix engineering by Toby Matimong. The executive producers are Amica Sciortino Nowlan and Rebecca Maxted.
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41:14
Episode 7: Fires, Floods and Future-Proofing
Natural disasters will keep coming — but what if we could stay one step ahead? That’s the mission of Bellwether, a moonshot working to build a “crystal ball” for the natural world. Their team is uniting the talents and expertise of firefighters and physicians to turn messy geospatial data into real-time forecasts for fire, flood and beyond, helping communities prepare for the unpredictable. We also meet the inventors behind 280 Earth, a project that uses waste heat from data centres to pull CO₂ from the air and produce clean water in the process. This is a story about resilience — technological, economic and human — and the power of radical foresight.
Hosted by Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots, The Moonshot Podcast goes behind the scenes with the engineers and inventors using breakthrough technologies to try to find radical solutions to the world’s biggest problems. These are the untold stories from 15 years of Google’s innovation lab.
Thank you to Robert Baird, Sarah Russell, Jacques Gagne and Helen Riley for featuring in this episode.
The Moonshot Podcast is a Blanchard House production for X, the moonshot factory. It’s produced by Ellie Sans and Sophie Eastaugh. Original music by Louis Nanke-Mannell and Daniel Lloyd-Evans. Sound design and mix engineering by Toby Matimong. The executive producers are Amica Sciortino Nowlan and Rebecca Maxted.
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38:51
Episode 6: Trash to Treasure
What if waste wasn’t the end of the story – but the start of something new? In this episode of The Moonshot Podcast, we explore Delta, a Moonshot to help feed the millions of Americans facing food insecurity, and X’s Moonshot for Circularity which is working to design waste systems that are more resilient, more adaptable, and more intelligent from the outset. This isn’t just about cleaning up – it’s about building a world where nothing useful gets thrown away.
Hosted by Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots, The Moonshot Podcast goes behind the scenes with the engineers and inventors using breakthrough technologies to try to find radical solutions to the world’s biggest problems. These are the untold stories from 15 years of Google’s innovation lab.
Thank you to Emily Ma, Mark Mollenkopf, Rey Banatao, Emma Lingle and Chef Monet for featuring in this episode.
The Moonshot Podcast is a Blanchard House production for X, the moonshot factory. It’s produced by Ellie Sans and Sophie Eastaugh. Original music by Louis Nanke-Mannell and Daniel Lloyd-Evans. Sound design and mix engineering by Toby Matimong. The executive producers are Amica Sciortino Nowlan and Rebecca Maxted.
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53:59
Episode 5: Living With Robots
Robots are at the heart of sci-fi, visions of the future, but what if that future is now? And what if those robots, helping us at work and at home, are simply an extension of the tools we’ve used for millions of years? That’s what artist and engineer Catie Cuan thinks, and it’s part of the reason she teaches robots to dance. In this episode we meet the people at the frontiers of the future of robotics and Astro Teller introduces two groundbreaking projects, Everyday Robots and Intrinsic, that have advanced how robots could work not just for us but with us.
Hosted by Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots, The Moonshot Podcast goes behind the scenes with the engineers and inventors using breakthrough technologies to try to find radical solutions to the world’s biggest problems. These are the untold stories from 15 years of Google’s innovation lab.
Thank you to Catie Cuan, Hans Peter Brondmo, James Manyika and Wendy Tan White for featuring in this episode.
The Moonshot Podcast is a Blanchard House production for X, the moonshot factory. It’s produced by Ellie Sans and Sophie Eastaugh. Original music by Louis Nanke-Mannell and Daniel Lloyd-Evans. Sound design and mix engineering by Toby Matimong. The executive producers are Amica Sciortino Nowlan and Rebecca Maxted.
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59:05
Episode 4: Feeding The World
Agriculture is the world’s oldest industry – and it’s racing to meet one of the newest and biggest challenges of our time: how to feed a growing global population that will soon hit 10 billion people. In this episode, Astro Teller explores how two moonshot teams set out to reinvent the way we grow food, using cutting-edge technology in some unexpected places. We follow the team behind Mineral, who began their journey with a pair of bicycles and a radical idea for rethinking farming from the ground up. And we head underwater with Tidal, where the team is using computer vision to transform ocean aquaculture.
Hosted by Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots, The Moonshot Podcast goes behind the scenes with the engineers and inventors using breakthrough technologies to try to find radical solutions to the world’s biggest problems. These are the untold stories of innovation from 15 years of Google’s moonshot factory.
Thank you to Elliott Grant, David Guerena, Evan Rapoport, Rajesh Jadhav, Joe Sargent, Paul Nnko, Elifura Nassari and Elinansha Nanyaro for featuring in this episode.
The Moonshot Podcast is a Blanchard House production for X, the moonshot factory. It’s produced by Ellie Sans and Sophie Eastaugh. Original music by Louis Nanke-Mannell and Daniel Lloyd-Evans. Sound design and mix engineering by Louis Nanke-Mannell and Toby Matimong. The executive producers are Amica Sciortino Nowlan and Rebecca Maxted.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
What if the keys to solve the world’s hardest problems – food security, energy resilience, the digital divide – were already within our grasp?
Welcome to The Moonshot Podcast, where we go behind the scenes at X, The Moonshot Factory, to celebrate 15 years of Google’s innovation laboratory. Hosted by Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots, this series gives you unprecedented access to the radical ideas and fearless inventors working to build a future we want to live in.
Explore real-world moonshots—from self-driving cars to AI-powered disaster prediction—and discover the messy, exhilarating journey of creating breakthrough technologies with the potential to reshape our world.
Some ideas will succeed. Some will fail. But every moonshot moves us forward.
Subscribe now to The Moonshot Podcast, a Blanchard House production for X, The Moonshot Factory.
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