Grow Everything LIVE: The Race to Remake Everything

​A live recording of the Grow Everything podcast during DC Climate Week 2026.

​Grow Everything has spent 150+ episodes mapping the bioeconomy: who is building it, who is funding it, and what is actually scaling. For this episode, hosts Erum Azeez Khan and Karl Schmieder are recording live in Washington, DC with investors, policy leaders, and founders for a conversation about whether the United States will lead the transition from petrochemical inputs to biological manufacturing, or fall behind.

​Sixty percent of all physical inputs to the global economy can be produced with biology. The tools exist. The companies are here. China has declared biomanufacturing a national strategic priority. The US has the science and the founders but not the production infrastructure, the policy urgency, or the capital formation to match the pace.

​The morning opens with a look at the competitive landscape, then moves into what is actually working right now: fermentation, synthetic biology, biological materials, and where the gaps sit between what is being built and what is being funded. The second half turns to the policy and capital layer. What would it take to build domestic biomanufacturing infrastructure at scale? Where is the legislative momentum? What do investors need to understand about biology as a technology category that is not pharma and not software?

​You will hear the episode before anyone else does.

​Coffee, light bites, and networking before and after.

​Hosted by Karl Schmieder and Erum Azeez Khan of Grow Everything

​Panelists include:

​Justin Brodie-Kommit of Lichen Ventures
Michael Luciani of Juniper VC
Veronica Breckenridge of First Bight

​More speakers to be announced in early April. 

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​DC Climate Week is not responsible for this event. It is organized by the organizing group, and being listed on the DCCW calendar is not an endorsement of content or partners.