Now There's a Helium Shortage and It Affects More Than Balloons
Odd Lots
Bloomberg
4.5 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 27 March 2026
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ripple effects from the war in Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz continue to widen. There's yet another brewing shortage, this time in helium. While most people associate helium with balloons and funny voices, the element is used in a surprisingly wide variety of industrial settings, including semiconductor production, where its role in advanced lithography has been growing rapidly. But helium mining and exploration in North America has been practically non-existent for a variety of reasons. And while the US used to have a strategic helium reserve, the government started selling that down in the late 1990s. On this episode, we speak with Nicholas Snyder, the founder and CEO of North American Helium, which does helium mining in Canada. We discuss the properties of helium that make it so useful, as well as the difficulties of expanding global production and distribution.
Subscribe to the Odd Lots Newsletter
Join the conversation: discord.gg/oddlots
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Running a business means dealing with a lot of overly complicated software, and most CRMs tend to follow the same pattern. |
| 0:06.3 | They're packed with endless features you'll never use, interfaces that feel clunky, and teams end up spending way too much time just trying to find basic information. |
| 0:14.1 | Today's sponsor, PipeDrive, is a simple CRM tool designed for small and medium businesses. |
| 0:19.0 | Pipe Drive brings you entire sales processes into one dashboard, giving you a crystal clear, complete view of sales processes and customer information designed to help team stay in control and close more deals faster. |
| 0:28.6 | It all centers around the visual sales pipeline, where you can see every deal, what stage it's in, and what needs to happen next. |
| 0:35.6 | Since everything is in one platform, pipe drive is designed to unite your team, keep track of sales tasks, and stay on top of your |
| 0:41.7 | leads. Switch to a CRM built by salespeople, for salespeople, and join the over 100,000 |
| 0:47.3 | companies already using Pipe Drive. Right now, you'll get a 30-day free trial, no credit card |
| 0:52.3 | or payment needed. Just head to pipedrive.com |
| 0:54.9 | slash simple CRM to get started. That's pipe drive.com slash simple CRM. |
| 1:00.4 | This is Tom Keene, inviting you to join us for the Bloomberg Surveillance Podcast. |
| 1:06.1 | It's about making you smarter every business day. I'm Paul Sweeney. We bring you complete coverage of the |
| 1:11.7 | U.S. market open. We cover stocks, bonds, commodities, even crypto, all the information you need to |
| 1:17.1 | excel. And I'm Alexis Christophorus. Bloomberg surveillance also brings you the analysis behind |
| 1:22.2 | the headlines. We do that through conversations with the smartest names in economics, |
| 1:26.5 | finance, investment, and |
| 1:27.8 | international relations. We do all this live each and every weekday, then bring you the best |
| 1:32.9 | analysis in our daily podcast. Search for Bloomberg Surveillance on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, |
| 1:40.1 | or anywhere else you listen. On the East Coast, listen at lunch. And on the West Coast, listen as soon as you wake up. |
| 1:46.2 | That's the Bloomberg Surveillance Podcast with Tom Keen, Paul Sweeney, and me, Alexis Christophorus. |
| 1:52.0 | Subscribe today, wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 1:54.8 | Bloomberg Surveillance, Essential Listening, each and every business day. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Bloomberg, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Bloomberg and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.