144. Art Meets Agar: Karen Ingram Reimagines Biodesign

Episode notes

Karl Schmieder and Erum Azeez sit down with Karen Ingram, Creative Director & Designer at Karen Ingram & Associates, Inc. From her iconic Biogenetic Blooms - Petri dish paintings made with living yeast - to her innovative teaching with BioBuilder and playful experiments like Fallacy Bingo , Karen shows how science and creativity can merge to inspire broader engagement with biotechnology. She shares stories from the early Brooklyn biohacker days, reflects on teaching teenagers to think critically about designing life, and explains how art, games, and design can shape the future of the bioeconomy. This is where art truly meets agar - transforming living microbes into canvases and reimagining the possibilities of biodesign. 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 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Chapters: (00:00:00): Summer travel in the Hamptons. (00:01:35): Sag Harbor’s Whaling History - The town’s past as a whaling hub using whale oil.

• 186. N.Y. Tech Week Live Demo: Engineering the Future of Manufacturing with Roebling's Brentan Alexander72 / 100
• 185. Brick Happens: Chris Maurer of Redhouse Studio Redesigns Remote Living for Earth and Mars75 / 100
• 184. The Multiverse of Microbes: Henry Lee on Building Cultivarium and Training with Titans65 / 100
• 183. The American Biotech Blueprint: Senator Todd Young on Biodiversity as National Security
• 182. SynBioBeta 2026 Recap, It's Biologist Approved