Feral by Design | The Biomimicry Podcast

What happens when you give someone a way of looking, without telling them what to find?
Pia takes one small part of her octopus-inspired innovation method out of the office and sends it on holiday to Zimbabwe with her friend Jane.
The experiment starts at Eastgate Centre in Harare, the termite-inspired building from the previous episode. Jane gets one loose lens: How does this place feel? What can you hear? What do you notice? What surprises you?
Then Pia gets out of the way.
What begins as a visit to a biomimicry landmark somehow turns into termite-mound excursions, sunset drinks on top of one, an unofficial Zimbabwe branch of Feral. And a safari where termite mounds become surprisingly competitive with lions.
Underneath the fun is an experiment in attention: how a simple lens can change what we notice, what we follow and even what the people around us start seeing.
A story about biomimicry, octopus intelligence, distributed sensing, curiosity - and what can happen when you direct attention without prescribing the answer.
Partner episode: How Termites Taught a Building to Keep Cool (Eastgate Centre)
Original method episode: The Octopus Method: Octopus Intelligence When You're the Bottleneck 

Nature owns the patent. We get to copy it.

S3E07
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Created and hosted by Pia Williams
Clever by Nature. Feral by Design.

Eastgate Centre in Harare, Zimbabwe, is one of biomimicry’s most famous buildings. Designed by architect Mick Pearce and inspired by termite mounds, its passive cooling system uses around 90% less energy for heating and cooling than comparable conventionally air-conditioned buildings.
Thirty years later, Feral went inside.
Our first roving correspondent, Jane, went into Eastgate to find out what this famous piece of termite-inspired architecture actually feels like today, how its passive cooling works, and whether the story we’ve been telling about Eastgate for 30 years still holds up.
She found cold air, 48 chimneys, cactus-inspired surfaces, a touch of The Matrix, some strangely empty upper floors... and a termite story that science has made considerably more interesting since Eastgate was built.
Eastgate engineering functionality still works as designed. But our understanding of the biology moved on.
A story about Eastgate Centre, termite-inspired architecture, passive cooling, biomimicry and a deceptively useful question: what’s already here that I could use instead of fight?
Next episode: Jane takes the Octopus Method into the wilds of Africa. Listen to S1E04, The Octopus Method, first if you can.
Sources
Mick Pearce — Eastgate Centre project page: https://www.mickpearce.com/Eastgate.html
Arup — The Arup Journal, 50th Anniversary Issue: https://www.arup.com/globalassets/downloads/arup-journal/the-arup-journal-50th-anniversary-issue.pdf
Hidden Architecture — Eastgate Centre: https://hiddenarchitecture.net/eastgate-centre/
Nautilus — "The Termite and the Architect": https://nautil.us/the-termite-and-the-architect-234706
ASME — "What Termites Can Teach Engineers" by Mark Wolverton: https://www.asme.org/topics-resources/content/what-termites-can-teach-engineers
King, H., Ocko, S. & Mahadevan, L. (2015), "Termite mounds harness diurnal temperature oscillations for ventilation," PNAS
Grist — cactus-inspired façade design (Jane C. Hu)
Knight Frank Zimbabwe — Harare CBD office vacancy data

S3E06
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feralbydesign.com
Created and hosted by Pia Williams
Clever by Nature. Feral by Design.

Last week, we looked at the biology behind GLP-1 medicines like Ozempic and Wegovy. This revisited Season 1 episode looks at the other half of that moment: the needle itself.
Mosquito mouthparts have inspired researchers and designers working on less painful needle technology, microneedles and medical devices. Their six-part feeding system works very differently from a conventional needle, using multiple tiny structures together rather than one blunt puncture.
When you were a kid, did you ever get jabbed with a needle so big it felt like a medieval weapon? I did, the kind that left welts and trauma in equal measure.
Turns out, the real master of painless penetration was buzzing around my head the whole time.
This episode of Feral by Design explores how mosquito mouthparts inspired biomimicry researchers to rethink needle design, pain, precision and the way we deliver medicine.
It’s a classic biomimicry story: brute force versus elegance, one sharp object versus a coordinated six-part system, and why one of the world’s most annoying insects might deserve a tiny nod of respect before you swat it.
This is a revisited Season 1 episode with a new introduction pairing it with Ozempic’s Secret Weapon.

S3E05A
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feralbydesign.com
Created and hosted by Pia Williams
Clever by Nature. Feral by Design.

What does Ozempic have to do with a venomous desert lizard that spends most of its life underground?
This story starts at 3am with a unicorn saying the word chocolate fifteen times, and ends with the Gila monster, GLP-1, Ozempic, Wegovy and one tiny molecular difference that helped change modern medicine.
Our bodies already make GLP-1. It works beautifully, then disappears in minutes. The Gila monster carries a remarkably similar molecule called exendin-4, except nature built this one differently enough that the body’s molecular scissors struggle to cut it.
That difference helped lead to Byetta, the first GLP-1 receptor agonist, and later helped inspire a deeper biomimicry move: don’t copy the molecule. Copy the principle.
And the best part? Nobody found it by asking nature how to control appetite. An endocrinologist in the Bronx found it while looking through venom.
So this episode is about food noise, microscopic scissors, accidental discovery, a drug market worth tens of billions of dollars, and a squat pink-and-black lizard that had been sitting on the answer for millions of years.
Biology: Exendin-4, found in Gila monster saliva, can activate the same GLP-1 receptor as our own hormone but resists the rapid DPP-4 breakdown that makes native GLP-1 so short-lived.
Biomimicry: Byetta copied the Gila monster molecule directly. Later GLP-1 drugs including Ozempic and Wegovy took the underlying design principle and applied it back to human GLP-1.
Next week I’m bringing back the perfect companion from Season 1. Today, the drug. Next week, the needle.
Nature owns the patent. We copied it.

Topics: Ozempic, Wegovy, GLP-1, Gila monster, exendin-4, Byetta, biomimicry.

Sources
Exendin-4 and the Gila monster
Eng J, Kleinman WA, Singh L, Singh G, Raufman JP. Isolation and characterization of exendin-4, an exendin-3 analogue, from Heloderma suspectum venom. Journal of Biological Chemistry. 1992;267(11):7402–7405.
GLP-1 physiology and DPP-4 - the biomimicry claim
Deacon CF, Knudsen LB, Madsen K, Wiberg FC, Jacobsen O, Holst JJ. Dipeptidyl peptidase IV resistant analogues of glucagon-like peptide-1 which have extended metabolic stability and improved biological activity. Diabetologia. 1998;41(3):271–278. doi:10.1007/s001250050903.
Semaglutide design
Lau J, Bloch P, Schäffer L, Pettersson I, Spetzler JC, Kofoed J, Madsen K, Knudsen LB, McGuire J, Steensgaard DB, Strauss HM, Gram DX, Knudsen SM, Nielsen FS, Thygesen P, Reedtz-Runge S, Kruse T. Discovery of the once-weekly glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) analogue semaglutide. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. 2015;58(18):7370–7380. doi:10.1021/acs.jmedchem.5b00726.
Drucker DJ, Habener JF, Holst JJ, et al. The discovery and development of GLP-1 based drugs that have revolutionized the treatment of obesity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2024;121(39):e2415550121. doi:10.1073/pnas.2415550121.
Knudsen LB, "Inventing Liraglutide, a Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Analogue, for the Treatment of Diabetes and Obesity." ACS Pharmacol Transl Sci 2019;2(6):468–484. doi:10.1021/acsptsci.9b00048
Patient experience
de Vere Hunt I, Ramirez-Posada M, Babu CS, Brown-Johnson C, Linos E, Rodriguez F. Patient Experiences With GLP-1 Receptor Agonists. JAMA Network Open. 2026;9(6):e2616951. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2026.16951.
Global music industry stats - $31.7billion in 2025
https://www.ifpi.org/global-music-report-2026-global-recorded-music-revenues-grow-6-4-as-record-companies-drive-innovation/
Moonbow Unicorn Forest Bedtime story
https://insighttimer.com/corycochiolo/guided-meditations/moonbow-unicorn-forest-childrens-bedtime-story-slash-meditation

S3E05

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feralbydesign.com
Created and hosted by Pia Williams
Clever by Nature. Feral by Design.

In 1971, a temp agency ran a print ad for the perfect worker. She never took a vacation. Never asked for a raise. Never got sick. Never stopped. They called her the Never-Never Girl.
Nobody prints that ad anymore. We just say it about each other. Reliable. Committed. Always steps up. But knowing when to stop can be just as important.
This episode starts with a nearly finished episode of this show going in the bin, and then four nights of going back at it, a genuinely new idea every time, and nothing that survived. Every attempt felt like resourcefulness. None of it was.
The question underneath it is knowing when to stop, when the only person available to make that call is the one who's been at it for four nights?
The red harvester ant is the mascot for never stopping - the fable, the kitchen bench, busy as an ant, and she spends most of her time at home. On a hot dry day, with seeds sitting on the ground and nothing in her way, she stays in, because going out costs her more water than she'd bring back.
After forty years watching these colonies, Gordon found something stranger still: nobody makes that decision. There is no ant in charge. The colony speeds up and slows down all day on the rate of what's coming back, and not one individual ever decides anything.
Which means the ant isn't better at stopping. She's simply never asked. There's no moment in her life where she has to talk herself out of one more go.
This episode is about what that changes - why "can I do this?" is always answered yes and therefore stops nothing, why the colonies that pulled back hardest in a drought produced the most descendants, and the difference between stopping a go and stopping the goal.
Three worth stealing: find your signal, check the conditions, and know what a stop actually means.
Nothing out there has to be strong at midnight. Which is lucky.
Nature owns the patent. We get to copy it.
Biology: Red harvester ant colonies regulate foraging by the rate at which foragers return with seeds - no central control, no individual decision. On hot, dry days they forage less, because being out costs water that only returning seeds replace.
Principle: Effort is set by what comes back and what the conditions cost. Never by how hard the individual is trying.
Application: Knowing when to stop is about decision-making, not willpower. The signal that it’s time to stop is often already there and being ignored, because stopping can feel like giving up on the whole goal. Check the conditions before you start, notice when effort is no longer producing a useful return, and let one attempt end without abandoning the ambition.
Enjoyed this? Try Feral by Design Season 2: Too Fast To Think: The Sloth Strategy For Better Decisions - another episode about why doing less can be the winning move.

S3E04
Send Pia a note
Follow Feral for new episodes every fortnight.
Instagram / Facebook / YouTube : @feralbydesignpod
feralbydesign.com
Created and hosted by Pia Williams
Clever by Nature. Feral by Design.