Masters of Data Podcast

The Masters of Data Podcast is back! Jun 14, 2022

Masters of Data is back! We have a new host and a new mission. On today's episode Sumo Logic's Chief Communication Officer, Aaron Feign, speaks with Dana Torgersen about goals for the podcast.

Highlights of the conversation include:

Talking about bringing back Masters of Data
Challenges the podcast wants to address
Transformation and accelerating the adoption of technologies to battle disruptions like COVID
Alert fatigue and new technologies solving problems in security
Thinking horizontally across different lines of an organization's business

James Governor - The Culture Change Observability Caused in Modern Tech (Observability Series - Part 3) Aug 31, 2020

Everything in modern tech — including observability — is actually a culture change. Observability is a different way of working, thinking, and composing a team. It is essentially a love letter to the future, helping the people who will support the application later. Instead of an operator sitting back and looking at a dashboard, observability tackles what can be done during the process of developing an application so that production can feel more comfortable. In James Governor’s word, “observability is about troubleshooting.” James Governor is the co-founder of RedMonk, a developer-focused industry analyst company. After working as a tech journalist, James saw room for a new research firm with a different focus and thus RedMonk was born. Listen to this week’s episode to hear James and Ben discuss the generational shift in technology building, and learn more about how observability can help developers. This week’s episode is the last installment of the special three-part series on observability in data. Thank you for joining us!

Ben Sigelman - The Future Of Observability & Why It's Not Just Telemetry (Observability Series - Part 2) Aug 24, 2020

There are three types of people in the data world: mathematicians, scientists, and engineers. Mathematicians are interested in understanding things that are true or false. Scientists are interested in furthering knowledge and enjoy answering challenging questions. Engineers are interested in building things that are useful, so they can solve a problem that’s important. Engineers in the software industry are currently searching for ways to resolve the issues associated with microservices. Right now, the software industry is facing a massive architectural transformation, and engineers have the opportunity to create systems that solve important problems. That’s why Ben Sigelman — CEO and co-founder, started Lightstep, to create something useful and impactful. He saw an opportunity to accelerate the industry’s transformation while improving the developer and end-user experience, and he took it. Using observability, he built something that could help people gain more confidence and understanding of their own system. As an ex-Googler and co-creator of Dapper, Ben Sigelman witnessed the birth of microservices at Google. He learned a great deal from his experiences, and Lightstep is in many ways a reaction to and a generational improvement beyond those approaches. Sigelman’s fascination lies in deep systems and how they break, but he is also passionate about separating the telemetry from the rest of observability. There is a lot of noise in the marketplace and confusion about how to approach observability, but Sigelman is confident that in the next 5-10 years, applications could change the way the software actually works, not just the way we understand it. Listen to Ben Sigelman and Ben Newton discuss the future of observability, and learn more about how this transformation could impact the industry. This week’s episode is the second installment of a special three-part series on observability in data. Tune in each week to hear about how the world of observability in transforming into a major player in the data realm.

Charity Majors - Revelations in Observability (Observability Series - Part 1) Aug 17, 2020

Observability doesn’t have three pillars, and it is not a monitoring tool. While the concept of observability is often misunderstood, what it can do for ops is revolutionary and transformative. Observability is achieved when a system is understandable — which is difficult with many things failing at once in a complex system. Many large technology companies use systems to debug code and understand how it runs in production, but those tools are not available to engineers outside of those companies. That’s why Charity Majors — CTO and co-founder, started Honeycomb, to tackle the issues with logging, monitoring, and metrics. Despite the confusion surrounding observability, it can help us ask the right questions of our systems in a way that is predictable, fast, and scalable over time. Utilizing observability to fully understand complicated production systems makes the systems more resilient to errors. Listen to Charity and Ben discuss the innovations and revelations of observability, and learn more about this transformational tool in data. Say goodbye to spending all your time on debugging, and get ahead of those issues now. This week’s episode is the first of a special three-part series on observability in data. Tune in each week to hear about how the world of observability in transforming from a major player in the data realm.

Today's Methods of Data Security and Erasure (Guest: Nathan Jones) Jul 20, 2020

Data doesn’t live forever. The data will finish its life cycle at some point, but when that day comes what happens next? For years, large corporations have used different methods to physically destroy drives. However, modern problems require modern solutions. Nathan Jones, VP of Sales at White Canyon Software, gives us these solutions. We can turn to software destruction to help save us money and, most importantly, the environment. Utilizing software-based data destruction methods give physical drives another chance at being reused. Say goodbye to sticking nails in that drive.

The Advancements and Applications of AI (Guest: Dan Faggella) Jul 14, 2020

The applications of artificial intelligence is seemingly never-ending. But, how do we find where AI can fit within our industries? In this episode, Dan Faggella, CEO and Head Researcher at Emerj, sits down with us to talk about where AI is currently and headed in the future. In fact, when we talk about AI it's important to recognize the significance that culture plays in furthering application, just as much as the science and algorithms.

Data Insights bring everyone to the table (Guest: Julie Lemieux) Jun 22, 2020

Businesses and companies collect and rely on a lot of data. Until now, that data hasn't been the easiest to access or understand. Julie Lemieux, VP of Product Design and Research, talks to us about creating tools and processes to make data insights more accessible and inclusive. By eliminating the conflict between data teams and business users, everyone in the company, regardless of their background in data collection or reading, can confidently take the data and explore more of the insights and value the company can get from it.

Human Capital Data matters more than ever (Guest: Paul Rubenstein) Jun 08, 2020

The human resources, or human capital, industry has been going through massive change in how it thinks about data. Paul Rubenstein, Chief People Officer at Visier, talks us through the history and how data and analytics have been revolutionizing how HR departments work and the value they bring. In particular, Paul walks through how Covid-19 is upending how companies think about their people, but also how the data is better than ever.

Cloud Success is about more than Technology (Guest: Mike Kavis) May 25, 2020

Over his decades of experience, Mike Kavis from Deloitte, has seen a lot of successful, and successful cloud implementations. One clear lesson - technology is easy, but people are hard. Mike discusses how innovation has to be more than just implementing technology and tools. Successful enterprises have to break down the old silos and rethink their culture, rather than merely adopting technology layered over legacy processes and approaches to collaboration.

Digital Twins and Real-time Analytics (Guest: Simon Crosby) May 11, 2020

The rate of data growth and complexity is only accelerating. How do you decide what data is important? What data do you store for later? Simon Crosby, CTO at Swim.ai, discusses how real-time streaming analytics provides a better way to think about massive volumes of data from sources like traffic infrastructure and manufacturing. He discusses how you can use this data to build a model of your world - digital twins - and use that model to make better decisions.

Graph Data and Why It Matters (Guests: Denise Gosnell and Matthias Broecheler) Apr 27, 2020

Graph theory is all about relationships, and relationships are key to understand so many critical areas - like understanding the spread of a pandemic. Denise Gosnell and Matthias Broecheler from DataStax talk about what graph data is, why it matters, and fascinating use cases - including how it applies to Artificial Intelligence.

Understanding Cyber Risk in a Pandemic (Guest: Bill Mew) Apr 13, 2020

Bill Mew returns to Masters of Data to talk about evaluating cyber risk in a time of crisis like today. Bill dispels three myths that keep companies form taking decisive action and protect their data, employees, and customers. He also explains how cyber insurance actually works and why so many companies are much less covered than they think they are.

Saving Lives with 3D Printing (Guest: Jeremy Proffitt) Apr 06, 2020

Jeremy Proffit and his compatriots in Charlotte, NC are thinking out of the box in order to meet the overwhelming need for face protection in this crisis. Jeremy, a long time 3D printing enthusiast, started printing face shields in his house and has helped start a movement to do this at scale in a mind-boggingly short amount of time.

Competing in the Age of AI (Guest: Marco Iansiti and Karim Lakhani) Mar 09, 2020

One of the most controversial and discussed topics today is Artificial Intelligence - or AI, and the implications of it. Is AI good or bad. Are we being replaced? Is AI exacerbating discrimination? Our guest today are taking a much more practical view - one that seeks to capture the value of AI for business and help corporations large and small take advantage.
Our guests: Marco Iansiti, the David Sarnoff Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and Karim R. Lakhani is the Charles E. Wilson Professor of Business Administration and the Dorothy and Michael Hintze Fellow at Harvard Business School.

Making the World a Safer Place (Guest: Stacy Stephens) Feb 24, 2020

Stacy Stephens and his co-founder created Knightscope with the lofty mission of making the United States of America a safer place. They are working towards this goal with robots - Robots that are running autonomously - every day, all day - and have demonstrably made their customers safer. Listen to how Knightscope is forging a different path than most startups and making a direct impact on their clients lives.

How to Build a Data Science Team (Guest: Jorge Lozano) Feb 10, 2020

One of our recurring themes on this podcast is the application of data in the real world and how data science is adapting to the needs of the businesses it serves. This episode is a perfect example of that. Jorge Lozano leads the data science team at Steelcase. Steelcase was founded over a hundred years ago and is the largest office furniture manufacturer in the world. So, what does a company like Steelcase do with data and data science? Listen and find out.

The Data of Releasing Software (Guest: Rob Zuber) Jan 20, 2020

If software is truly eating the world, then software release management determines how quickly it can chew. For better or worse, just writing code isn’t enough. Software Engineering teams have to manage large, complex codebases with lots of dependencies - all while trying to move fast. Rob Zuber, the CTO of CircleCI, knows this world inside and out. CircleCI helps companies get innovation to the market faster, and with better quality, and Rob is passionate about how data is a big part of that picture. So, without any further ado, let’s dig in.

Making Solar Investment Easy (Guest: Dave Riess) Dec 16, 2019

Green tech. Solar Energy. What do you think when you here those words? Probably putting on your roof, right? Or maybe your local electricity provider. Wunder Capital is coming at it from a different direction. They are filling the gap to help finance commercial solar - think community solar project, solar panels on warehouses, and more. According to Dave Riess, Co-Founder & CEO at Wunder Capital, there is a lot of untapped potential.

The changing culture of IT (Guest: Nancy Gohring) Nov 04, 2019

In this episode, we talk with Nancy Gohring - a senior analyst at 451 Research. I have known Nancy for a few years, and I am always impressed with her perspective on the culture of IT Operations and the impact of the massive changes in the last few years - and that is what we talked about.

Getting to Know Developers (Guest: Stephen O'Grady) Oct 21, 2019

In this episode, we talk with Stephen O’Grady, co-founder and principal analyst at Redmonk. RedMonk is an industry analyst firm focused on software developers and helps companies understand and work with developers. In fact, Stephen wrote an amazing book “The New Kingmakers” that explains the rising influence of software developers. We talk with Stephen about how RedMonk uses data to help companies understand developers and how developers are taking over the world.

Diversity in Security (Guest: Ian Murphy) Oct 07, 2019

Ian has been a journalist, editor, and analyst for over 30 years and is currently an editor at Enterprise Times. He and I talked about his very interesting background, the need for diversity on security teams, and his passion for working with veterans.

Doctors need data too (Guest: Dave Albert) Sep 23, 2019

In this episode, we talk to Dave Albert, CTO, and Co-Founder of Medit and the host of the CTO and Cofounder Talk podcast. We talk to Dave about the system he’s building at Medit for combing the immense amounts of data medical professionals need to consume and putting the information most relevant to them front and center. That, of course, raises some of the same bias and privacy challenges we see at other places today on the Internet, and Dave and his team take that seriously.

Free the Data (Guest: Clark Richey) Aug 26, 2019

In this episode, we talk to Clark Richey, Chief Technology Officer at FactGem. Clark has spent his career working with data, and he co-founded FactGem to help companies get more out of their data. Clark is passionate about freeing data from its constraints and breaking the silos between data that hamstring good decision making in today’s business world.

Data and Venture Capital (Guest: Jeremy Kaufmann) Aug 12, 2019

In this episode, we talk to Jeremy Kaufmann, Principal at Scale Venture Partners. Scale Venture Partners is a venture capital firm that invests primarily in technology companies that are starting to bring in revenue, and they focus on companies doing business on the Internet, in the cloud, on mobile, and delivering their product as a service. Scale Venture Partners prides itself on being a data driver Venture Capital firm, and we talked to Jeremy about how they leverage data to make better investment decisions and make their portfolio companies more successful.

Data is a Lifestyle, not a Project (Guest: Michael Herskovitz) Jul 29, 2019

Our guest on this episode comes from an industry that has always been a pioneer in data and making good of data. Michael Herskovitz is an SVP and Co-Head of Global Operations and Technology at AllianceBernstein. AllianceBernstein is a global asset management firm providing investment management and research services worldwide to institutional, high-net-worth and retail investors.
Michael talks us through his philosophy on making the best use of data - that data is a lifestyle, not a project. So, without any further ado - let’s dig in.

Fender rocks the data (Guest: Josh Couch) Jul 15, 2019

"In this episode, we get to hear from one of the most iconic and influential brands in the world - Fender - or more formally known as Fender Musical Instrument Corporation. Fender was founded in 1946 by the Leo Fender and is best known for the Telecaster and Stratocaster electric guitars. These instantly recognizable guitars have been played by the likes of Muddy Waters, Keith Richards, Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and so many more.

I got to meet with the Vice President of Engineering at Fender, Josh Couch, at the Fender offices in Hollywood California. Josh, and his team, learned from the data and created new apps like Fender Tune and Fender Play that are opening up the world of guitars to a whole new set of people."

Moving from Artificial Intelligence to Artificial Wisdom (Guest: Yoon Lee) (REPLAY) Jul 01, 2019

Our guest is at the intersection of innovation and creation at one of the most important technology companies in the world. Yoon Lee is the Senior Vice President and Division Head, Content and Services, Product Innovation at Samsung Electronics America. In today’s world, our lives are connected to our devices in a way inconceivable even a few decades ago. Yoon is in a unique position to understand how A.I. and an understanding of the human context can make for better experiences for users. (REPLAY from 2018)

How iRobot uses Data Science to Innovate (Guest: Angela Bassa) Jun 24, 2019

Our guest on this episode, Angela Bassa, hails from one of the most innovative robotics companies on the planet, the aptly named iRobot - the creators of the iconic Roomba vacuum robot. Angela is the Director of Data Science at iRobot and talks to us about how iRobot's recent product announcements reveal more than just product innovation. Their new iRobot 2.0 platform is a new approach to how they build robots, software, and also the place of data science at iRobot.

Security Experts Panel - Second Edition Jun 10, 2019

We are excited to bring to you our second security experts panel discussion for 2019! We brought together a high-powered set of individuals that know security inside and out. As always, we have George Gerchow, the Chief Security Officer at Sumo Logic. And he is joined by Jadee Hanson, Chief Information Security Officer at Code42 and Teri Radichel, CEO at 2nd Sight Lab.
We had a wide-ranging discussion about everything from DevSecOps to privacy.

Podcast Powered Projects (Guest: Matt Ballantine) May 27, 2019

Our guest on this episode is a repeat guest, and that’s a very good thing. Matt Ballantine is a multi-talented technologist who spends his days helping companies build and execute digital strategy with his company Stamp, and also hosts his own podcast - WB40 - with his co-host Chris Weston.
I talked with Matt about his newest project which brings these two worlds together in a way that will be truly compelling for organizations struggling to innovate and communicate. He is using Podcasts as a medium to communicate, define, and get buy-in for projects.

Finding the Mythical Centrist (Guest: Charles Wheelan - Author of "Naked Economics" and "The Centrist Manifesto") Apr 29, 2019

New York Times Best-Selling Author Charles Wheelan describes his journey from economics writer to his search for the political middle in the United States.
Charles is the author of Centrist Manifesto, which helped launch Unite America in 2013. He is a Senior Lecturer in Economics at Dartmouth College. Charles formerly ran for Congress as a Democratic candidate in Illinois in 2009. He is the author of the New York Times bestselling books Naked Economics, Naked Statistics and Naked Money. He also has a new book coming out on May 21 - “The Rationing” which is Political Thriller.

A Data Science Super Hero Fighting the Creepy Algorithms (Guest: Cathy O'Neil) (REPLAY) Apr 22, 2019

More and more of our world today is being evaluated, analyzed, and driven by algorithms. You need look no further than your car insurance, your kids’ educations, or your mortgage to see the results of algorithms processing and delivering verdicts on you and your ability to do something you want to do. Our guest today is Cathy O’Neil, a data scientist, mathematician, activist, and author of the New York Times best-selling book “Weapons of Math Destruction”. She has spent years talking about the dangers of, as she calls them, “creepy algorithms”, and our need to take the effects they may cause seriously - both to ourselves, and those less advantaged than ourselves.

Machines that tell stories with Data (Guest: Amy Heineike) May 06, 2019

One of the most interesting areas of innovation in machine learning and artificial intelligence is Natural Language Processing or NLP. It is basically about teaching machines to both understand human language, and then reproduce convincingly human language in return
Our guest on this episode and her company build what they call “machines that can read and write”.
Amy Heineike is the VP of Engineering at Primar AI. I talked to her about how she, and her team, are using applied machine learning techniques to build software that tells stories from data. In particular, we talked about “Quicksilver” - a project to fill some gaps in Wikipedia by producing new content for people without pages.

Master of Flavor (Guest: Jason Cohen) (REPLAY) Apr 08, 2019

Who knew that the food and beverage industry was ripe for disruption using the power of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data? Well, Jason Cohen did. Jason Cohen is the Founder and CEO of Analytical Flavor Systems - a startup focused on bringing the power of A.I. and machine learning to the world of flavors and sensory science. Jason started his company after studying sensory science and computer science at Penn State, as well as founding The Tea Institute, a research group devoted to tea. He is even a professional coffee, tea, and beer taster. So, he knows his stuff!

(REPLAY FROM NOVEMBER 2018)

How Stitch Fix uses Data to Personalize Fashion (Guest: Brad Klingenberg) Apr 01, 2019

Our guest this episode is Brad Klingenberg - the VP of Algorithms at Stitch Fix. If you are one of the few people that hasn’t at least heard of Stitch Fix, Stitch Fix is an online personal styling service that both recommends additions to their clients’ wardrobes but really commits to its recommendations by physically delivering inventory to those clients.
Brad and his team use statistics, machine learning and human-in-the-loop algorithms to deliver an amazing experience for Stitch Fix customers, optimize inventory management and make great fashion recommendations for their customers. The “human-in-the-loop” part means that they have cracked for using next-gen machine learning to super-charge their network of thousands of personal stylists to work faster and deliver great results at the same time.

Industrial-Grade Machine Learning (Guest: Joshua Bloom) Mar 25, 2019

Joshua Bloom is vice president of data and analytics at GE Digital, where he serves as the technology and research lead bringing machine learning applications to market within the GE ecosystem. Previously, Joshua was cofounder and CTO of Wise.io (acquired by GE Digital in 2016). Since 2005, he has also been an astronomy professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where he teaches astrophysics and Python for data science.

Building the Data Science Future (Guest: Sarah Catanzaro) Mar 18, 2019

Sara Catanzaro is a principal at Amplify Partners, a Venture Capital firm that specializes in early-stage companies innovating with Machine Learning and AI. Sarah helps guide founders and innovators because of her incredible expertise built over years using data science to innovate for both the private sector and protecting US National Security.

Artificial Intelligence for Sports (Guest: Austin Basye) Mar 11, 2019

A data scientist trained in the world of particle physics, Austin is a Senior Data Scientist at Hudl - a really cool company that provides video review and performance analysis tools for sports teams and athletes. In this episode we talk about why physics is awesome - of course - how guided missile theory and passing a soccer ball are related, and more. Much more.

Designing Software for Humans (Guest: Amber Case) Mar 04, 2019

Amber Case is another personification of that intersection of the human and technology. Amber Case is an American a user-experience designer, author, and public speaker. She has combined a deep understanding of anthropology and human behavior with a focus on user experience - making technology work us instead of annoying. In particular, she is the author of two great books - Calm Technology and the newest one - Designing with Sound.

The Origin Story (Interview with Ben Newton on the WB40 Podcast) Feb 25, 2019

A few months I had the honor and pleasure to be interviewed on the British podcast - WB40, but one of my favorite people - Matt Ballantine. Matt and I talked about why we started the Masters of Data podcast and how it has evolved.

So, I think you will enjoy this, and we will be back next week in your feed with another great original podcast episode!!

And check out the WB40 podcast at WB40.com

Bringing the Human to Data (REPLAY) (Guest: Christian Madsbjerg) Feb 18, 2019

We thought we would replay one of the most important episodes of last year - the episode with Christian Madsbjerg, the author of “Sensemaking”. Christian’s point of view has become the basis of so much of what we do on this podcast.

We don’t often read books that change how we think about the world. Our guest on this episode, Christian Madsbjerg, wrote a book “Sensemaking” that did just that. Christian’s consulting firm ReD Associates has, in their own words, led a quiet revolution in business thinking. This book is a treatise on Christian’s underlying philosophical framework for ReD’s goal to bring the humanities and social sciences into today’s businesses dominated by technology, data, and analytics. We hope that you will find that Christian’s perspective will make your rethink your assumptions about the critical importance of the humanities in today’s fast paced world.

The Big Security Topics of 2019 (Security Experts Panel: George Gerchow, Davi Ottenheimer, Tricia Howard) Feb 11, 2019

Government Shutdowns, Bug Bountires, and Ethics - what do these have in common? Our first live panel of security experts in 2019. We recorded this live in January 2019 and are now providing the audio for your listening pleasure on the Masters of Data Podcast.

Reinventing Capitalism in the Age of Big Data (Guest: Viktor Mayer-Schoenberger) Feb 04, 2019

How does capitalism change in the age of big data and the data superstars like Amazon? To answer that we have a guest that is the author of a book called “Big Data” and who just recently published a book called “Reinventing Capitalism in the Age of Big Data”. Viktor Mayer-Schönberger is the Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation at Oxford. His research focuses on the role of information in a networked economy. Earlier he spent ten years on the faculty of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. We talked about his new book and the concept of data-rich markets.

The New Paradigm of Work (Guest: Robert Christiansen) Jan 28, 2019

We discuss a tectonic shift going on in the technology industry and how leaders will be successful in this new world. Robert Christiansen is a VP and Cloud Strategist at Cloud Technology Partners, which is part of HPE - Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Robert has had a long and interesting career starting his own companies and building world-class organizations. Robert is passionate about people and helping them succeed, and it comes through.

Data Ethics is the new Data Privacy (Guest: Bill Mew) Jan 21, 2019

Some clear themes have arisen on the podcast so far - trust, privacy, ethics around data. We have talked to authors, company leaders, big thinkers, influencers. Bill Mew, was a guest in June of 2018 talking to us about data privacy and the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We have brought him back on to talk about his current focus - Data Ethics. With his long experience, Bill has crafted a very solid message around what companies have to do to avoid some of the recent privacy and ethical disasters that lead to huge problems for the brand and loss of their customers’ trust.

Mastering Data for Colorado (Guest: Suma Nallapati) Jan 14, 2019

Suma Nallapati was appointed Secretary for Technology and Chief Information Officer for Colorado, a state cabinet-level position, by Governor Hickenlooper in 2014. Under her leadership, her team has won both statewide and national awards, while also revolutionizing digital services for the state of Colorado.
We caught Suma in her last week as State CIO before she transitions her responsibilities to the new administration and takes a new leadership position at DISH.

Education and Social Networks (Guest: Alan J. Daly) Jan 07, 2019

Alan J. Daly is Professor and Chair of Education Studies at the University of California - San Diego. He is also the author of new book - “Social Network Theory and Educational Change”. Dr. Daly has been researching and writing about how social networks - relationships between people - affects how successful educational reforms are. Educators and administrators are often unaware of how important their own social networks are to whether crucial reforms succeed or languish. Just like in so many other interviews we have done, we come back to that important lesson - you can’t be successful with data alone. You need to understand how data and humans intersect

BONUS: 2018 Retrospective with Ben Newton Jan 02, 2019

Haven't listened to all of the MoD interviews? Or just forgot? That's ok. Ben Newton walks throughs the year's interviews to give you a bird's eye view. Check out last year's themes: Bringing the human to the technology. The rise of the polymath, Data Bias, Data Trust, Data Privacy, Making Decisions with Data, You can measure anything, Artificial Intelligence to Artificial Wisdom, The Data-Fueled Economy

Protecting Data at Pokemon (Guest: John Visneski) Dec 17, 2018

Ever heard of Pokemon? Of Pikachu? If you not you, you can guarantee your kids have. That is the challenge for John Visenski, Director of Information Security & Data Protection Officer at Pokemon. He not only has to protect the brand of Pokemon, many of his customers, indirectly or directly, are children. That carries an extra burden and responsibility that John doesn’t take lightly.

Innovation at the Intersection (Guest: Linda Holliday Dec 10, 2018

Our guest today is a perfect example of the kind of combination of humanities and science in a single person. Linda Holliday is the founder and CEO of Citia. Linda grew up in a family of engineers but decided to go her own way and pursue design in college. She was able to use her home-brewed love of engineering and math together with her sense of design to start two companies, build a very unique understanding of the intersection of data, engineering, and the human.

Establishing Trust with Customers (Guest: Scott Vlaminck) Dec 03, 2018

Our guest today, Scott Vlaminck, cofounded SmartThings with 6 other guys in the spring of 2012. Their goal was to make your world - your house - smarter. In the fall of 2012 they raised 1.2 million dollars in one of the biggest campaigns on Kickstarter. Only two years later in 2014 they were acquired by Samsung for $200 million dollars. Now their IOT devices are in your inner sanctum - your home - and they work hard to earn your trust.

Data and Customer Experience (BONUS Episode) Nov 26, 2018

In October, Ben was a guest on Ned Bellavance’s podcast - Anexipod. We talked about one of Ben's favorite subjects - how data is essential to driving better customer experiences.

Master of Flavor (Guest: Jason Cohen) Nov 19, 2018

Who knew that the food and beverage industry was ripe for disruption using the power of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data? Well, Jason Cohen did. Jason Cohen is the Founder and CEO of Analytical Flavor Systems - a startup focused on bringing the power of A.I. and machine learning to the world of flavors and sensory science. Jason started his company after studying sensory science and computer science at Penn State, as well as founding The Tea Institute, a research group devoted to tea. He is even a professional coffee, tea, and beer taster. So, he knows his stuff!

Analytical Storytelling (Guest: Karthik Krishnamurthy) Nov 12, 2018

Our guest today, Karthik Krishnamurthy, is the Senior Vice-President of Cognizant Digital Business - AI & Analytics, Interactive and Intelligent Products. In his two-decade career at Cognizant, he has worked across many strategic areas. One of his focus areas today is analytical storytelling and the human connection, where he has collaborated with Christian Madsbjerg, a guest in a previous episode. In the end, it's all about bringing the human to data.

Moving from Artificial Intelligence to Artificial Wisdom (Guest: Yoon Lee) Nov 05, 2018

Our guest is at the intersection of innovation and creation at one of the most important technology companies in the world. Yoon Lee is the Senior Vice President and Division Head, Content and Services, Product Innovation at Samsung Electronics America. In today’s world, our lives are connected to our devices in a way inconceivable even a few decades ago. Yoon is in a unique position to understand how A.I. and an understanding of the human context can make for better experiences for users.

Fighting Data-Driven Inequality (Guest: Virginia Eubanks) Oct 29, 2018

Our guest today has been on a long crusade to raise awareness about how our digital tools are continuing and exacerbating the problems we already have around poverty and inequality. Virginia Eubanks is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University at Albany, SUNY. She is the author of the book “Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor”.

The Data Driving Political Campaigns (Guest: David Shor) Oct 22, 2018

Our guest was there in one of the seminal elections in the last decade, working on the 2012 Obama campaign in the legendary “cave” doing political data science. David Shor is now the Head of Political Data Science at Civis Analytics. Civis Analytics was founded in the afterglow of Obama’s win with the backing of Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google. These Obama campaign alums were building on the successes in polling and data science used so successfully in that campaign.

Why Curiosity Matters (Guest: Sarah Davanzo) Oct 15, 2018

You could be forgiven for thinking that curiosity gets pretty short shrift in our culture today. Our guest on this episode, Sarah Davanzo - VP of Consumer and Market Insights and Foresights at L’Oreal is also referred to as the Chief Curiosity Officer. She takes exploration and curiosity extremely seriously and has applied data science and analytics to the field in an unprecedented way. On top of that, she is an extremely interesting person to talk to.

Just a Spoonful of Honey (Guest: Terry Young) Oct 08, 2018

Our guest on this episode started a company with one of the best names ever! Terry Young, the founder and CEO of Sparks and Honey, has created a very different way of approaching cultural trends. Sparks and Honey’s active learning system, Q, brings top-grade data science and machine learning to the art of trend spotting and understanding how our culture is changing. I sat down with Terry at his Madison Ave headquarters in New York City.

Building Trust from the Ground Up (Guest: Sarah Guo) Oct 01, 2018

The world of startups moves incredibly fast, and venture capitalists have a very unique vantage point from which they can synthesize a really deep understanding of what innovation is actually going on. That is literally part of their job. Our guest on this episode, Sarah Guo, is a general partner at Greylock Partners - a venture capital firm in Menlo Park, California. In only 5 years with Greylock, Sarah has already cemented a reputation as a savvy operator that understands what it is entrepreneurs go through and also maintains an impressive network of relationships beyond the C-Suite that gives her unique insights.

The Most Connected Man on Earth (Guest: Chris Dancy) Sep 24, 2018

Chris Dancy became the “most connected man on earth” by wrangling the data for over 700 sensors, applications, and services that analyzed his life.

A Data Science Super Hero Fighting the Creepy Algorithms (Guest: Cathy O'Neil) Sep 17, 2018

More and more of our world today is being evaluated, analyzed, and driven by algorithms. You need look no further than your car insurance, your kids’ educations, or your mortgage to see the results of algorithms processing and delivering verdicts on you and your ability to do something you want to do. Our guest today is Cathy O’Neil, a data scientist, mathematician, activist, and author of the New York Times best-selling book “Weapons of Math Destruction”. She has spent years talking about the dangers of, as she calls them, “creepy algorithms”, and our need to take the effects they may cause seriously - both to ourselves, and those less advantaged than ourselves.

Confessions of a Converted Climate Skeptic and his Data (Guest: Dr. Richard Muller) Sep 03, 2018

In the world of science, Physicists have a long and well-deserved reputation for being on the cutting edge of data acquisition, data analytics, and big data in general. Our guest today, Dr. Richard Muller, is a larger-than-life figure in the world of physics and beyond. Dr. Muller is a Professor of Physics Emeritus at Berkeley University, where he has had a long and successful career across particle physics, astrophysics, geophysics, and in the couple of decades - climate science. He has won multiple awards, including the prestigious MacArthur Foundation Prize. We reached out to him because of his unique and fascinating views on using data and data analytics in the climate science discussion.

How to Measure Ethical Behavior (Guest: Roberto Rigobon) Aug 27, 2018

Dr. Roberto Rigobon is Professor of Applied Economics at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He has been teaching and advising students at Sloan for over 20 years, and he has won both the "Teacher of the Year" award and the "Excellence in Teaching" award at MIT three times. He has an exuberant personality and made an interview effortless with his stories and analogies. We sat down in his office and talked about his theory of “Aggregate Confusion” and how we measure the wrong things at the wrong time.

Bringing the Human to Data (Guest: Christian Madsbjerg) Aug 20, 2018

We don’t often read books that change how we think about the world. Our guest on this episode, Christian Madsbjerg, wrote a book “Sense Making” that did just that. Christian’s consulting firm ReD Associates has, in their own words, led a quiet revolution in business thinking. This book is a treatise on Christian’s underlying philosophical framework for ReD’s goal to bring the humanities and social sciences into today’s businesses dominated by technology, data, artificial intelligence, and analytics. We hope that you will find that Christian’s perspective will make your rethink your assumptions about the critical importance of the humanities in today’s fast paced world.

Intro to Data Bias (Guest: Christian Beedgen) Aug 13, 2018

Christian Beedgen, the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Sumo Logic, has had a long history in the world of data and is a fantastic person to have deep conversations about meaty topics with. And that’s good because our topic is meaty! Christian has been spending a lot of time lately thinking about Bias - Bias in Data and Data Analytics, in particular - and that’s what we are going to talk about.

Critical Thinking, Ethics, and Analytics (Guest: Alistair Croll) Aug 06, 2018

Our guest today has had a long and varied career in technology. Alistair Croll is a serial entrepreneur, much sought after speaker, prolific author - including the best selling Lean Analytics - which is a must read, an organizer of conferences like Forward50, and consultant to companies large and small. Alistair is a big thinker in the area of Data and Analytics, and we got to cover a lot of ground in this episode.

Confronting Our Humanity - and Bias - in Artificial Intelligence (Guest: Bill Welser) Jul 24, 2018

Our guest today has had an amazing journey. He was a Captain in the Air Force, had a decade-long career at the RAND organization - a world-renowned, non-profit research organization, - and now as a partner at ReD Associates. ReD is a strategy consulting company based on the human sciences. Bill Welser has done groundbreaking work around privacy, artificial intelligence, industrial ecosystems, commercial drones, and cryptography. We talked about Artificial intelligence, and how our humanity - and our bias - creeps into it.

How People Really Use Data to Make Decisions (Guest: Matt Ballantine) Jul 10, 2018

Our guest today has had a really long relationship with technology from learning to program on a BBC Micro as a child, to designing the first full-program streaming application at BBC, to Reuters, to Microsoft, and now being his own boss. Matt Ballantine loves to talk technology - he has his own podcast WB 40 - check it out at wb40podcast.com. It was a lot of fun to pick his brain. In this episode, we talked about how people really use data to make decisions, and how innovation happens. We also talked about his cool new CIO card game.

The Data Privacy and GDPR View from the U.K. (Guest: Bill Mew) Jun 19, 2018

So far in our two episodes where we touched on the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), we talked to two Americans. When I took a trip to Europe, it seemed like the obvious thing was to try to find a European and see how they think about it. And I found the right guy!! Bill Mew is the Founder and Owner at Mew Era Consulting and a Cloud Strategist at UKCloud. He is in the middle of the data privacy discussion, both for GDPR, as well as for Brexit. Listening to Bill was like taking a rapid masters course in Data Privacy!

Data, Democracy, and Politics (Guest: Carin Robinson) Jun 26, 2018

Our guest today works in Political Science - a field that might seem like it is miles away from some of our other guests. But the reality is that data, and data analytics, has penetrated every element of our society - even politics. Carin Robinson, an Associate Professor of Political Science at Hood College in Maryland, is an expert on today’s political system in the United States. We are going talk about how data is an essential part of today’s political campaigns and the implications for the future.

DevOps by the Data (Guests: Nicole Forsgren & Jez Humble) Jun 11, 2018

This episode we talk with two of the co-founders of DevOps Research and Assessment, LLC (DORA) - Nicole Forsgren, CEO and Chief Scientist, and Jez Humble, CTO. Nicole and Jez are two of the key thought leaders in the DevOps movement and have done more than most to evangelize and legitimize DevOps best practices. Through their extensive research, surveys, and in-depth analysis at DORA they, along with their co-founder Gene Kim, have built a strong, data-backed foundation for DevOps. We will discuss their new book, Accelerate, where they brought this research together and present some fascinating conclusions about what DevOps, when implemented well, can do for an organization.

Deep Dive - Security & DevOps (Guest: David Hafley) Jun 04, 2018

In this Deep Dive edition, we go under the hood on a topic to get a practitioner point-of-view on Security and DevOps. In the last five years, the DevOps philosophy and culture has risen to transform the way software is developed and maintained, with its emphasis on faster deployment cycles and cross-functional collaboration. How does it work? How is it incorporated in a DevOps process? What does it mean to do DevSecOps? Contrast Security is trying to answer that question for their customers. Their model of self-protecting software has the potential to change how companies think about security, and David Hafley was the right guy to talk to about it.

The New Age of Data Privacy (Guest: George Gerchow) May 21, 2018

Data Privacy has gone from the sidelines to the front page - the revelations of Russion hackers influencing the US election, Facebook data being used to manipulate our voting patterns, and an endless parade of stories about yet another company being hacked. It is in that context that we talked to George Gerchow - the Chief Security Officer at Sumo Logic, about security and data privacy - in particular, about the new privacy regulations coming out of the European Union - the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

A Journey through Time and Security (Guest: Bill Burns) May 14, 2018

Our guest this episode has had a front-row seat at some of the most game-changing innovators in the Internet Era - Netscape, Netflix, and now Informatica. He has seen the Information Security industry change dramatically since he first cut his proverbial teeth on it in the nineties. Our discussion touched across 20+ years of dramatic changes in the way business is done on the internet and how we as a society think about information security - all the way from security in a college computer lab, to security at Netflix, to his plans at Informatica, and to the new privacy regulations coming out of the European Union - the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

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