The Biotech Start-Up Making Vaccines for Bees and Shrimp

Tracy Alloway (0:00)

Hello, Odd Lots listeners. So you are about to listen to an episode that we recorded back in April when there was a lot of news around trade and tariffs. So you might hear us reference that quite heavily. It's a very interesting episode, and I think you'll enjoy it. Take a listen.

SPEAKER_2 (0:20)

Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio, news.

Tracy Alloway (0:36)

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots Podcast. I'm Tracy Alloway.

Joe Weisenthal (0:40)

And I'm Joe Weisenthal.

Tracy Alloway (0:42)

Joe, do you remember when you were a kid? Presumably, you went on road trips across America.

Joe Weisenthal (0:49)

I did.

Tracy Alloway (0:49)

Do you remember how filthy cars used to get on road trips because of hitting millions and thousands of insects? Do you remember this?

Joe Weisenthal (0:58)

I thought you were gonna say how filthy cars get inside. And I was like, my car is filthy inside. It's disgusting. But I do remember that. And there are weird things like people like insects. And people have talked about how this is one of those mysteries. It's kind of like chemtrails. Why don't car windshields get filthy anymore?

SPEAKER_2 (1:18)

As buggy as they used to.

Tracy Alloway (1:19)

Yeah.

Joe Weisenthal (1:19)

I didn't know this was ever going to become an Odd Lots topic, so I'm pleasantly surprised.

Tracy Alloway (1:23)

Well, I have a lot of thoughts on this. So one of the buggiest place I ever used to visit was in Arkansas with my grandma in the summer. And I remember the car just being disgusting, not only because of insects, but because there are also a lot of armadillos there. And armadillos, I don't know if you know this, but when they're frightened, they jump up, so they tend to get caught in truck drills. Anyway, this is probably too much information. But I also, I tried to read a book on insects once and the lack thereof in today's natural world, I guess. And it was called The Insect Crisis. And it's one of the few books that I had to stop reading after like three chapters because I just found it too depressing.

Joe Weisenthal (2:04)

By the way, I just want to say, A, I like that whenever this episode is getting released, we're recording this April 24th, I appreciate a break from like, we're not talking about sharks every second. Two, you mentioned Armadillo's, it reminds me of the famous sort of left-wing Texas populist, Jim Hightower wrote a book. There's nothing in the middle of the road, but yellow stripes and dead armadillos, a work of political subversion. So thank you for reminding me of that book. And three, I don't remember the other thing I was going to say, so keep going.

Tracy Alloway (2:33)

Okay, well anyway, I'm starting on a depressing topic, which is there has been this notable decline in insects over the past couple of decades.

And if you talk to old people like us, Joe and me, we will say that there is a notable lack of insects just when you're out and about and driving on highways or whatever. But all of that said, this isn't a doom and gloom episode, because we're actually going to be talking about some interesting efforts to kind of arrest that decline. And Joe and I, we've taken an interest in biotechnology recently, especially in the context of the US versus China. But human biotech is not the only thing out there. There is a pretty big industry around animal and insect biotech, and I know nothing about it pretty much, and I find it very interesting, and we should talk about it.

Joe Weisenthal (3:23)

We should. And also, look, pets and animals are a huge industry. And so for when it comes to biotech, non-human animals are huge. And of course, the other context besides the US versus China in biotech is, of course, the cutting or the gutting, some would say, of sort of core research from the federal government level. So this intersects with industrial and political trends. And so even though it's not a tariff episode, I'm looking forward to it.

Tracy Alloway (3:50)

Well, not just that. So, you know, one of the foremost examples of insect species that has been in decline is honeybees, of course. That's right. And those are constantly in the news, the lack of honeybees. And we all know if we don't have as many honeybees, well, then we don't have as much honey. But we also don't have as much other types of foods because they are very important pollinators.

Joe Weisenthal (4:09)

You know, I just one last thing for me. When I was in college, I lived in a vegan, a vegan co-op at the University of Texas.