Can We Build a Civilization That Lasts a Million Years? Laurie Menoud on Nature, Scale, and Why Cheaper Wins

Industrial civilization is about 250 years old. Life on Earth has been adapting and surviving for four billion. Laurie Menoud wants to know what the first can learn from the second. In this episode of the Scientista Podcast, Sweta and Monica sit down with Laurie, founding partner at At One Ventures, which backs technologies that help humanity become net positive for nature. Her path began with a childhood microscope and led to microbiology research, where she was part of the team behind Mimivirus, the first known giant virus. It also led to a harder question: how does a discovery leave the lab and change anything? Her answer is blunt. Industries adopt what performs better and costs less, so clean technology has to win on both. Laurie explains why climate companies that raise billions still fail when they scale too fast, why she thinks direct air capture can’t pass the physics test, and why AI is a far more physical industry than it looks. She closes with what gives her hope, and what worries her: technology moving faster than our institutions can make decisions. Thank you for listening! Learn more about Scientista here: www.scientista.world Thank you for listening! Learn more about Scientista here: www.scientista.world