Our previous episode, number 367, if you're counting, was about the future of meat.

One of the people helping determine that future is a biochemist named Pat Brown.

He founded a company called Impossible Foods, whose mission is...

Whose mission is to completely replace animals as a food production technology by 2035.

The science behind Brown's idea is fascinating and impressive and all that, but it is also,

to me at least, it's also an act of remarkable creativity.

Well, just in principle, it should be possible to produce foods that deliver all the qualities

that consumers want more sustainably from plants.

Making meat out of plants was not Pat Brown's first creative breakthrough, years earlier

as a Stanford researcher.

He created a genetic tool called the DNA Micro Array.

It lets you learn how the genome writes the life story of a cell.

As interesting as it was to talk to Pat Brown about both the DNA Micro Array and Impossible

Meat, I found myself thinking about an even more interesting question, or at least a much

broader one.

Whether we're talking science or the arts or business, where do creative ideas come

from?

Today, on Frekenomics Radio, we resume our occasional How to Be Creative Series with that

question.

Some ideas, as we'll hear, are made possible by new technologies.

And that's what enabled the revolution in our ability to map the universe.

Some ideas are imposed by a deadline.

...