Technology

Core Memory

Core Memory is a podcast about science and technology hosted by best-selling author and filmmaker Ashlee Vance.

Vance has spent the past two decades chronicling advances in science and tech for publications like The Economist, The New York Times and Bloomberg Businessweek. Along with the stories, he’s written best-selling books like Elon Musk’s biography, made an Emmy-nominated tech TV show watched by millions and produced films for HBO and Netflix. The goal has always been to bring the tales of complex technology and compelling people to the public and give them a path into exceptional and unusual worlds they would not normally have a chance to experience.

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Latest Episodes:

China Builds, The US Regulates - EP 35 Dan Wang Sep 24, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, Dan Wang comes on the show to discuss his new book Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future.

I’ll start by noting that the book is fantastic, and you should read it. It’s a well-researched, vibrant account of how China became dominated by its engineering culture. The country has displayed an unmatched ability to build over the past forty years, and Wang traces the scale of these accomplishments in detail. He also documents how pervasive this engineering mindset is by diving into the one-child and zero-Covid policies, and the brutally efficient ways they were carried out.

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Wang contrasts China’s engineering-first culture with the US’s regulation-first culture. China’s top politicians are mostly engineers. The US’s top politicians are mostly lawyers. Wang argues that the US once built like China until the 1960s came, and the US began regulating itself into a collective torpor.

As you’ll find in the book and hear in our discussion, Wang is not a China propagandist. Far from it. He offers a sober look at the pros and cons of both China and the US and points out that the two cultures have remarkable similarities.

In this episode, we explore the book and much beyond it, discussing what hope, if any, the US has of competing against China in the coming century.

Enjoy!

The Core Memory podcast is sponsored by Brex, the intelligent finance platform. Like thousands of ambitious, innovative companies, we run on Brex so we can spend smarter and move faster. And you can too. Learn more at www.brex.com/corememory

The podcast is also made possible by E1 Ventures, which backs the most ambitious founders and start-ups.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribe

Can California Ever Build Again? - EP 34 Jan Sramek Sep 17, 2025

Show notes

This week, we bring you the story of California Forever in all its “never told before” glory.

For the past eight years, Jan Sramek and a group of wealthy investors have been buying up land in Solano County with the hopes of creating a great new city in Northern California. All told, the California Forever group has spent $1 billion to acquire 68,000 acres (100 square miles) in an area about halfway between San Francisco and Sacramento. Their goal is to create a community of 400,000 people who can live and work together and to make it possible for California to manufacture more of the things that it invents in state.

The Czech-born Sramek became consumed by the idea of founding a new city after experiencing California’s well-known problems – expensive real estate/lack of housing, long commutes in heavy traffic, loss of manufacturing jobs and skills, and over-regulation – firsthand. And, sort of insanely, he decided to try and do something about it. He set out to see if California still had the will and the way to make a shining new city.

(TL;DR: In this episode, Sramek tells the full story (for the first time) of how California Forever was created and pushed forward, including the incredible lengths he had to go through to keep the project secret. We, of course, also get into much of Sramek’s reasoning for wanting to dedicate his life to this project and why he cares about trying to help California thrive.)

Sramek managed to convince an all-star cast of investors to buy into his plan. California Forever is backed by the likes of Patrick and John Collison, Michael Moritz, Laurene Powell Jobs, Marc Andreessen, Daniel Gross and Nat Friedman. Together, these people bought up the Solano County land in relative secrecy over the course of about six years and have set to work putting in the regulatory structure needed to get building. Their current plan includes not just the city itself but also nearby manufacturing and shipbuilding hubs.

The project has, naturally, run into controversy. People have grumbled about the billionaires being up to something shadowy. Others have complained about building on land historically used for ranching and about potential environmental concerns. At one point, local politicians even suggested that perhaps China was buying up the land so that it could spy on Travis Air Force Base.

For a while, it appeared that the naysayers might win and stall California Forever indefinitely. But the combination of a second Donald Trump election and the widespread feeling that California is over-regulating itself into oblivion have injected new life and enthusiasm into the California Forever effort. Many people and politicians in Solano County are now looking to join up with the project and help make it happen.

Not everyone will agree with me here. This is natural. But, for me, California Forever represents an existential moment for the wonderful state that I call home.

Nowhere on Earth do people have it better than Californians. But we are on the verge of the greatest economic self-own in history if we can’t learn how to build and develop and do big things again. We must get out of our own way and create a system that allows for hope and optimism and the notion of creating a better future.

Building a picturesque city where people can live close to their jobs and manufacture the products that they invent on underutilized land should not be controversial. It should just happen.

If we can’t let something like California Forever flourish, we’re signaling that California has lost its way, its spirit and its ability, and this strikes me as profoundly sad.

The podcast is also made possible by E1 Ventures, which backs the most ambitious founders and start-ups.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribe

The Man Who Changed Policing In America - EP 33 Rick Smith Sep 10, 2025

Show notes

Most of you have not heard of Axon Enterprise. But there it is – a $57 billion company that has reshaped pretty much every police department in the United States. (San Francisco being the major exception.)

Rick Smith founded the company in 1993 and turned its major invention – the TASER – into a blockbuster product. Smith hoped the taser would lessen cops’ inclination to grab their guns by giving them a non-lethal option for dealing with dangerous situations. In more recent years, Axon has moved into body cameras, drones and software and data systems used by police forces.

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The taser was never going to be without controversy, and Smith and Axon have found themselves under scrutiny time and again. John Oliver recently spent thirty minutes on a taser takedown and mocked Smith. In 2023, Reuters also went at Axon, accusing Smith of making up the company’s founding story, over-paying his executives and maintaining an “unusual” workplace culture. (In this podcast, Smith answers the founding story accusations for the first time with a journalist.)

Despite the digs and plenty of lawsuits, Smith has spent three decades on this singular quest of changing the nature of policing. Axon can point to plenty of data that show tasers have reduced officer shootings, and body cams have added transparency to the actions of both cops and criminals.

In its next turn, Axon hopes to build taser-equipped drones that can be used to assess and deal with incidents. Smith has even talked about using these types of drones to patrol schools and protect against active shooters – yet another controversial idea.

In this episode, we get into the history of Smith and Axon, how the company’s technology works, all of the controversies and where Axon is heading.

Enjoy!

The podcast is also made possible by E1 Ventures, which backs the most ambitious founders and start-ups.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribe

She's Ready To Gene Edit Babies - EP 32 Cathy Tie Sep 03, 2025

Show notes

Cathy Tie has been having an eventful year.

First she co-founded a company determined to gene edit animals and build literal unicorns. Then she held a wedding ceremony in China with Dr. Jiankui He - the controversial scientist who spent three years in prison for performing gene editing procedures on twins. And then, in May, we brought you the story of Tie being banned from China with government officials apparently not liking the idea of her teaming up with Dr. He romantically and/or professionally.

Well, Tie is back in the U.S. now and has just started the Manhattan Project – a start-up that unapologetically seeks to perform gene editing on embryos to block them from inheriting diseases. It’s controversial and then some just like Tie herself.

In this exclusive podcast, Tie discusses her plans for the Manhattan Project, her whirlwind 2025 and her efforts to push the bio-tech field into a new era.

Enjoy!

The podcast is also made possible by E1 Ventures, which backs the most ambitious founders and start-ups.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribe

The History And Future Of Brain Implants - EP 31 Sumner Norman Aug 27, 2025

Show notes

Into the brain we go.

Sumner Norman, the co-founder and CEO of Forest Neurotech, comes on the show to take us on a journey across the history and future of brain implants. We start with the first experiments prodding the body and mind with electricity and end up in mind uploading land. Along the way, we cover many of the major brain-computer interface technologies and advances.

Norman has a unique perspective in this field. He’s a mechanical engineer by training but can talk neuroscience with the best of them. I’ve always found him to be realistic and fair with his assessment of various brain-computer interface approaches.

Forest Neurotech makes a brain implant that uses ultrasound to analyze the mind. The company argues that its approach allows it to see more of what’s happening in a brain than electrode-based implants - from Neuralink, Synchron, et al. - that can only probe the small areas where they sit next to neurons. It has been running trials with its implant in a bid to help doctors and patients better understand the nature of mental disorders.

In a fascinating turn, Forest has started to detect "covert consciousness" in comatose patients who are otherwise completely unresponsive. The people appear to be able to hear and interpret what is being said around them. This is both comforting and not.

The ultrasound approach that Forest helped pioneer is now starting to look like a thing with other start-ups using similar techniques.

Beyond Forest, we get into the economics of the BCI industry, its promises and limitations and, of course, cover much sci-fi ground.

Enjoy!

The podcast is also made possible by E1 Ventures, which backs the most ambitious founders and start-ups.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribe

Life Beyond Blueprint - EP 30 Bryan Johnson Aug 20, 2025

Show notes

Well, here we go. Bryan Johnson has come to the pod.

You have likely heard an interview with Johnson before, since he’s become such an object of love, hate and fascination among the media over the past couple of years. That said, you will not have heard an interview like this with Johnson.

I was covering Johnson’s exploits in the brain-computer-interface and health fields in-depth before anyone else. Back then, my editors and others often seemed to think too much ink was being spilled on the man. But, in January of 2023, I wrote the story that turned Johnson into an overnight sensation, and, well, people just could not get enough Johnson after that.

Alongside the director Chris Smith, I also made the film Don’t Die on Johnson and his longevity pursuits for Netflix.

Over the course of reporting on Johnson for so long and doing the film, I’ve gotten to know our world-famous vampire quite well. So, we tried to go in some more personal directions - erections, cults, smoking toads - with this interview and to chart Johnson’s evolution from someone Silicon Valley shunned to resident longevity guru and blossoming cult leader for some futuristic religion.

Johnson also speaks at length for the first time about his decision to pull away from the Blueprint business and his struggles to figure out what’s next for his Don’t Die movement.

Enjoy!

The podcast is also made possible by E1 Ventures, which backs the most ambitious founders and start-ups.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribe

How North Korea Infiltrated American Companies With Fake Tech Workers - EP 29 Bob McMillan Aug 13, 2025

Show notes

For the past few months, The Wall Street Journal’s Bob McMillan has been writing a series of stories on fake North Korean workers who have infiltrated American companies. In this episode, we break the whole situation down with McMillan, who is a longtime friend and a top-notch security reporter.

The short of the tale is this: North Koreans hop on LinkedIn and other job sites and pose as American remote workers looking for gigs. Once they get hired, the North Koreans then recruit Americans to help them deal with some of the job mechanics like submitting tax paperwork and running company laptops from inside the US.

McMillan has found some Americans who are managing dozens of laptops at their homes on behalf of these North Korean workers. Each morning, the American patsy wakes up, turns the laptops on, and then logs their North Korean workers into their jobs. It’s a practice now known at laptop farming.

The North Koreans tend to be pretty good workers! That is until they start siphoning off money and intellectual property for the Great Leader.

Last month, Arizona resident Christina Marie Chapman pled guilty to wire fraud and other crimes linked to this scheme. Per the Department of Justice, Chapman “was sentenced today to 102 months in prison for her role in a fraudulent scheme that assisted North Korean Information Technology (IT) workers posing as U.S. citizens and residents with obtaining remote IT positions at more than 300 U.S. companies. The scheme generated more than $17 million in illicit revenue for Chapman and for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea).”

All told, the DoJ reckons North Korea has pulled in hundreds of millions of dollars from its network of laptop farmers. McMillan writes about it all here.

If you’re an employer on the lookout for one of these fake remote workers, you’ll want to scan for Kevins in your organization who are really into the Minions. We explain in the episode - promise.

Enjoy!

The Core Memory podcast is made possible by the genius investors at E1 Ventures. We’re not sure if E1 is into the Minions or not, but they are into investing in great companies.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribe

The Company Putting A Score On Your Life - EP 28 Dugal Bain-Kim Aug 06, 2025

Show notes

We are awash in longevity tests and services. There are ones that measure your blood, others that measure the quality of your DNA and others that check on your gut and brain. You can Blueprint, Viome, Function Health and on and on.

To figure out how at least one of these longevity programs actually works, we decided to have Dugal Bain-Kim from Lifeforce on the pod.

As you will notice, the dude is jacked and does indeed seem quite healthy.

Lifeforce provides - for a montly fee - a lot of what a decent national healthcare system might do in a different universe. It sends a phlebotomist to your home to take a blood draw and performs a wide range of tests on the sample. It then puts you in touch with a medical team for some health counseling and tries to identify areas that will help you become a better you.

Instead of doing this once, you repeat the cycle every three months and try to push what the company calls your Lifescore ever higher.

Bain-Kim is not a doctor and comes from the business world, and two of Lifeforce’s co-founders are Tony Robbins and Peter Diamandis. Robbins obviously has a reputation as a self-improvement guru, and some of Diamandis’s ventures center on selling optimism. The company also offers supplements and other products. This combination of things will put some people off.

That said, Lifeforce also has a deep medical bench, and there’s real – and ever-improving - science backing up its measurements and therapies.

I’m broadly excited for services like Lifeforce but also fearful that consumers have little means of judging these various programs and separating the good stuff from the snake oil.

We touch on all of these issues and much more in the show. Have a listen and judge for yourself.

This podcast is made with support from the fine people at E1 Ventures. Your company will almost certainly live longer with E1 Ventures on your cap table.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribe

The Forrest Gump of Silicon Valley - EP 27 Leslie Berlin Jul 31, 2025

Show notes

This week’s guest is Leslie Berlin, the author, historian and executive director of the Steve Jobs Archive.

My first encounter with Berlin’s work happened when I picked up The Man Behind the Microchip: Robert Noyce and the Invention of Silicon Valley, which is Berlin’s biography of the Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel co-founder. Noyce, of course, was many things. He co-invented the integrated circuit and reshaped the trajectory of the world in the process. He ran one of Silicon Valley’s most iconic companies. He mentored people like Steve Jobs. And he was the Valley’s first real engineer playboy star.

Berlin’s book is one of my all-time favorite reads and a wonderful example of what a biography can be.

Berlin, of course, is many things as well. She’s been one of the most influential historians when it comes to Silicon Valley and the technology industry. She used to run Silicon Valley Archives at Stanford University, and now heads up the Steve Jobs Archive. Berlin is also the author of another tremendous book - Troublemakers: Silicon Valley's Coming of Age, which chronicles the work of several people who had distinctive roles across the tech industry.

In this chat, we get into Noyce’s life and what he meant to Silicon Valley, the semiconductor industry, the fall of Intel, the Valley’s history overall and Berlin’s current work.

There’s basically no one I would rather talk to, and we’re thrilled that Berlin joined the pod.

Huge thanks to everyone who has been supporting the Core Memory podcast. It’s been surging up the charts of late. We’re grateful. Don’t be shy. Tell your friends.

A huge thanks, as always, as well to E1 Ventures for they are noble venture capitalists who have great taste and have backed us from the start. Follow them on X.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribe

The Iranian Scientist Leading America’s Nuclear Rebirth - EP 26 Kurt Terrani Jul 24, 2025

Show notes

Our guests this week are Kurt Terrani, an Iranian-born nuclear scientist, and Tommy Hendrix, a Green Beret turned venture capitalist, and they arrive with an exceptional story.

Terrani is the co-founder and CEO of Standard Nuclear, and Hendrix is the company’s Chairman and main investor through his firm Decisive Point. Standard has started making a nuclear reactor fuel known as TRISO (Tri-structural ISOtropic) that comes with the promise of being very safe and with the ability to power a new breed of small nuclear reactors that can be placed anywhere someone needs a lot of power.

Standard Nuclear popped out of stealth mode last month via a fascinating story in The Wall Street Journal.

It turns out that Standard’s predecessor - Ultra Safe Nuclear – had been backed for years by a wealthy ex-CIA operative named Richard Hollis Helms. When Helms passed away in 2024, the company was left in financial peril. Terrani and Hendrix pulled the venture out of bankruptcy and saved its prized TRISO technology.

As we explain in the episode, TRISO is a type of nuclear reactor fuel that the U.S. has been working on for decades. It places a protective coating around fuel particles that makes them incredibly safe, and the U.S. and other countries have proven this out through vast amounts of research. China, of course, has TRISO reactors already as does Germany.

Standard Nuclear hopes to make a lot of TRISO for a coming wave of nuclear start-ups building SMRs, or Small Modular Reactors. These reactors come in various shapes and sizes, but the general idea is that they’re small enough to be shipped to any place that needs serious power – be it an AI data center, an overseas Army supply line or even an industrial hub in space.

I recently visited Standard’s TRISO plant in Tennessee, which is right next door to Oak Ridge National Laboratory where Terrani and much of his team used to work. We’ll have a video on the visit coming soon.

During our chat, we get into the U.S.’s nuclear failings and aspirations, Standard’s wild history and the future of nuclear technology.

This episode was made possible by the fine people at E1 Ventures. You can find them here and on X here.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribe

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