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In February this year, we noticed at Resources for the Future that our explainer about carbon capture and storage\u2014which provides an overview of the technology, along with its uses, benefits, and drawbacks\u2014had suddenly skyrocketed in terms of page use on the website. When we investigated what had prompted this sudden expanded interest, we found Elon Musk\u2019s announcement from the day prior: Musk had offered $100 million in prize money, through the XPRIZE Foundation, to teams that can envision, prototype, and validate scalable carbon capture and removable technology. At the end of the four-year contest period, several prizes will be awarded: $50 million for first place, $20 million for second place, and $10 million for third. In addition, the program will offer 25 six-figure scholarships to competing academic teams. According to XPRIZE officials, the $100 million on offer represents one of the largest\u2014if not the largest\u2014incentive prizes in history. \n\nSo, this episode is about prizes: how they\u2019ve been used, what we can learn from past successes and failures, and how they compare to other instruments that are designed to spur innovation. Zorina Khan joins the podcast to talk about these fascinating issues. Khan is a professor of economics at Bowdoin College and a member of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Her research examines issues in law and economic history, including intellectual property rights, technological progress in Europe and the United States, antitrust litigation, legal systems, and corporate governance. She\u2019s an award-winning author, and her newest book is called "Inventing Ideas: Patents, Prizes, and the Knowledge Economy."\n\nReferences and recommendations:\n\n\u201cCarbon Capture and Storage 101\u201d from Resources for the Future; https://www.rff.org/publications/explainers/carbon-capture-and-storage-101/\n\n\u201c$100M prize for carbon removal\u201d from XPRIZE Foundation and Elon Musk; https://www.xprize.org/prizes/elonmusk\n\n\u201cInventing Ideas: Patents, Prizes, and the Knowledge Economy\u201d by B. Zorina Khan; https://global.oup.com/academic/product/inventing-ideas-9780190936082\n\n\u201cDemocratization of Invention\u201d by B. Zorina Khan; https://books.bowdoin.edu/book/the-democratization-of-invention-patents-and-copyrights-in-american-economic-development-1790-1920/\n\n\u201cUnlocking history through automated virtual unfolding of sealed documents imaged by X-ray microtomography\u201d by Jana Dambrogio, Amanda Ghassaei, Daniel Starza Smith, Holly Jackson, Martin L. Demaine, Graham Davis, David Mills, Rebekah Ahrendt, Nadine Akkerman, David van der Linden, and Erik D. Demaine; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21326-w