Material Focus: Biomaterials. The best Material Matters podcast episodes on nature-inspired material innovation

This playlist brings together 12 Material Matters conversations with the designers, scientists and makers working at the frontier of biomaterials — from living pigments and seaweed-based packaging to objects grown by bacteria, bees and fungi. 

Guests include Natsai Audrey Chieza, whose studio Faber Futures pioneers the use of bacteria as a design medium; Carmen Hijosa, inventor of Piñatex, the pineapple-fibre leather alternative; Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez, co-founder of Notpla's seaweed-based packaging; Carole Collet, professor at Central Saint Martins and a leading voice on biotechnology and design; and Tomas Libertiny, whose collaborations with bees have produced some of the most extraordinary objects in contemporary craft. Also featured are Summer Islam, Bonnie Hvillum, Rosa Whiteley, Sanne Visser, Elaine Yan Ling Ng, Julia Lohmann and Marlene Huissoud. 

Together these episodes explore how biology is reshaping what designers can make — and what it means to work with living systems as your material. Whether you're interested in sustainable materials, biofabrication or the future of design, this playlist brings the biomaterials conversations from the Material Matters archive together in one place. 

You can follow the podcast on all major platforms including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.