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Quick note - a few audio drop outs here and there. Tried to edit around them, but nothing too serious and you'll get the gist in all the spots with issues.
Rubber is one of those materials we almost never think about, right up until it fails. From tyres and medical gloves to seals, gaskets, and global logistics, modern life quietly depends on a substance that still comes, quite literally, from trees.
In this episode, Renee and Marc trace the unlikely journey of rubber from indigenous use in the Amazon, through the boom and collapse of Brazil’s rubber economy, to the accidental discovery of vulcanisation and the rise of a global industry built on a single species of tree. Along the way, they explore the colonial economics and ethical costs of the rubber boom, the fragility of today’s supply chains, and why the world remains dangerously dependent on Southeast Asian plantations.
Drawing on firsthand experience touring rubber plantations in Thailand and research into modern alternatives, the conversation moves from tree sap to tyres to the future of latex itself. From aircraft tyres and hospitals to dandelions, desert shrubs, and genetically engineered crops, the episode looks at how rubber is being reinvented before its weaknesses become unavoidable.
Disruption to natural rubber could trigger cascading failures across medicine, sanitation, and global trade, this episode asks a simple question with unsettling implications: what happens when the quiet material holding everything together disappears?
Featuring the song "Elastic Hearts"

Join Renee and Marc as they discuss tech topics with a view on their nostalgic pasts in tech that help them understand today's challenges and tomorrow's potential.

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