Nature + Children Already Have the Answer, Sacred Reciprocity & New Paradigm Parenting With Miki Agrawal

Mar 16, 2026

Miki Agrawal, entrepreneur and activist behind Thinx, Tushy and Hiro/Hero Diapers, works on regenerative products and sustainable parenting. She discusses diapers and fungal solutions to plastic waste. She explores ecosystem consciousness, sacred reciprocity, and a new-paradigm approach to parenting. Practical shifts like composting and reducing single-use plastics are highlighted.

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ANECDOTE

How A Toddler And A Book Sparked Hero Diapers

Miki Agrawal discovered fungi could break down plastic after her toddler pointed to a book saying fungi can break down plastic while she was pondering diapers as fertilizer.
That moment sparked Hero Diapers: a high‑performance unbleached diaper plus a pouch of culinary‑grade fungi meant to biodegrade diapers in landfills within months instead of centuries.

INSIGHT

Why Fungi Can Eat Plastic

Fungi can break down plastic because the carbon backbone of plastic (from fossil fuels) is chemically similar to the lignin carbon backbone of trees that fungi evolved to digest.
Hero tested thousands of strains, selected non‑toxic culinary strains, and uses a soil pouch to trigger fungi growth in landfill conditions to accelerate decomposition.

INSIGHT

Planetary Fever And The Need For Stewardship

Miki frames planetary warming as the Earth having a fever and humans as the viruses; beneficial humans must become stewards to avoid ecological self‑correction that threatens our species.
This view underpins Hero's mission: design products and parenting practices that prioritize ecosystem health over pure convenience.

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Episode Highlights With Miki

Her amazing story, growing up half Indian and half Japanese and the winding journey of her entrepreneurial success
How she went from being a professional athlete to opening a gluten-free restaurant in NYC, to other start-ups as well
Every baby goes through up to 6,000 diapers that take hundreds of years to break down
Her revelation with diapers and baby poop and how this led to a product that's helping address the plastic problem
The unique way that fungi can break down plastic in a completely safe way!
Diapers are actually the #1 source of plastic waste
91% of plastic is not recycled and ends up in landfills and oceans
The planet is running a fever, and humans are the viruses it’s trying to get rid of if we don’t fix the problem
What ecosystem consciousness is and how we can shift our thinking
How they’re shifting from reduce, reuse, and recycle to reduce and regenerate, and how this shifts things
What sacred reciprocity is and how this shifts the model
Her audacious mission in life is to elevate people and the planet
What new paradigm parenting is and how this framework shifts things for families
Other ways we can make small shifts that contribute to sacred reciprocity
24% of all landfill waste is food waste! How home composting can help
Trees are the greatest technology of our time
Why she's so anti-toilet paper, and what to try instead!
Emergence and Cultivation in parenting and what we can learn from nature
Nature is our greatest technology, and it can even shape the way we parent
The very real way that fungi have the potential to reverse some of these massive planetary problems

Resources Mentioned

Follow Miki on Facebook, Instagram, and X.
Follow Hiro Diapers on Instagram
Hiro Diapers - get a discount at this link
Tushy Bidet

LMNT
I talk often about the health benefits of salt and electrolytes and I am a big fan of LMNT canned drinks and packets. Go to drinklmnt.com/wellnessmana for a special offer.

Hiya
Hiya created a super powered chewable vitamin for kids that packs twelve organic fruits and vegetables plus fifteen essential vitamins and minerals into every dose. Try it at hiyahealth.com/wellnessmama for 50% off your first order.