The Times Tech Podcast

What if robots thought like animals? Nov 01, 2024

If we made robots think more like animals, how clever could they be? This week we hear from David Rajan, CEO of Opteran, a pioneering AI company which is reverse engineering biological brains to create a "radical new scientific approach to doing AI". And, Danny, the cat and the Tesla.

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Satya Nadella, Microsoft's Chairman and Chief Executive Oct 25, 2024

Satya Nadella is only the third boss in the tech giant's 50 year history, but he has pivoted Microsoft towards accelerating technology, and forging partnerships with leading companies including OpenAI. On a whistle-stop AI tour of the world and in his only UK interview this year - this exclusive conversation with Satya Nadella covers the dangers, pitfalls and growth of AI. What better time to sit down with the Microsoft supremo than almost two years after the public launch of ChatGPT? He tells Katie that his major worry is that nations miss the opportunity to take advantage of AI and technological innovation for economic growth "ultimately the benefits of it being much more broad spread are, I think... the real dream."

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Al Gore, Tech and Climate Oct 18, 2024

Katie and Danny are joined by Al Gore for big thoughts on how to take on the big challenges. Outside of AI, there is one area that is still getting a good amount of venture capital dollars and that's tackling climate change. But what's the right way to invest and will it work? Who decides the way forward, the investors, the tech giants or the politicians? And who better to answer these questions than Al Gore, former US Vice-President and now guru to climate campaigners worldwide. He's our guest this week. Follow us now for more big interviews coming up.

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Robinhood's Vlad Tenev (Plus, Nobel Prizes for A.I.) Oct 11, 2024

This week - money, invention and regulation as we delve deep into the mind of Vlad Tenev, the co-founder and CEO of Robinhood, a hugely influential App designed in their words to “democratise finance”.

And did Danny cleverly predict in our first episode, that Sir Demis Hassabis would indeed win a Nobel Prize?

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The First Episode: Google DeepMind's Sir Demis Hassabis Oct 04, 2024

Danny joins Katie in London for the Times Tech Summit, where the co-founder and boss of Google DeepMind Sir Demis Hassabis sets out his startling view that AI has the potential "to cure all diseases" and could 'have general human cognitive abilities within ten years." But fundamentally - do we really understand what AI is? Professor Neil Lawrence, the inaugural DeepMind Professor of Machine Learning at Cambridge University, Faculty AI CEO, Marc Warner, and Naila Murray, Director of AI Research at Meta share their views. And Danny and Katie ponder whether AI mania could be more about money than the mind?

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Coming soon: The Times Tech Podcast with Danny and Katie Oct 01, 2024

Danny Fortson in California - 'Danny in the Valley' - joins Katie Prescott in London to talk to the people changing tech across the world. As The Sunday Times’ West Coast Correspondent, Danny Fortson has witnessed first hand the technological whirlwind coming from Silicon Valley. Katie as Technology Business Editor at The Times has reported on how digital technology is transforming businesses and society around the world. Now ‘Danny in the Valley’ meets ‘Katie in the City’ - with a podcast presented from San Francisco and London. Each week sees a fresh interview with pioneers in tech from the brightest start-ups to the tech giants as they chronicle the AI revolution. Sounds good, but what will it sound like? Here's a taste.

'What Occurs' by Islands is used by permission.

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Danny in the Valley meets Katie in the City Sep 27, 2024

'For nearly seven years Danny Fortson has made the Valley his own, interviewing the newcomers and the established; the inventors and the entrepreneurs; the brightest minds and most daring doers in Silicon Valley. Now the show gets an extra dimension as he is joined by London Technology Business Editor, Katie Prescott for the new Times Tech Podcast as they look at who is shaping tech not just in Silicon Valley, but around the world. It will be with you very soon, but first a special edition of Danny in the Valley, where Danny talks Katie through the people and the themes from the journey so far.

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Tech legend John Chambers: “Don’t do the right thing for too long” Sep 20, 2024

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on John Chambers, former chief executive of Cisco, to talk about artificial intelligence (4:30), why booms are necessary (8:00), coming to Silicon Valley (12:15), Cisco (14:15), buying 180 companies (19:00), the dotcom bust (23:00), how the old startups have grown up (29:15), whether founder shares are a good thing (31:00), still working at 75 (34:00), competition (35:40), why he has bet on the startup Humane (40:45), spending his own money (45:00), how AI will change everything (48:15), and his worst day (53:15).

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HourOne’s Natalie Monbiot: “Building the virtual human economy” Sep 13, 2024

The gig economy is coming for your soul. The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Natalie Monbiot of HourOne, to talk about the digital clone company starting before the ChatGPT moment (4:15), turning 5 minutes of footage into a digital clone (7:10), the hunt for the “killer app” for virtual humans (13:25), how the company started (18:20), Hollywood (24:00), bringing the dead back to life (27:20), your rights over what your clone does (32:40), and virtual human marketplaces (37:20).

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Hebbia’s George Sivulka: “Bots will be most of the economy within decade” Sep 07, 2024

Artificial intelligence “agents” will create more economic value than humans within ten years. Sound outlandish? That is the prediction of this week’s guest, George Sivulka, founder of AI startup Hebbia, who comes on to talk about building AI that actually works for business (3:20), AI orchestra conductors (9:15), coral reefs and why he called the company Hebbia (10:30), why he started the company (19:30), being a “disappointment” to his athlete parents (29:30), working at NASA as a teen (33:00), meeting Peter Thiel (36:45), and how AI is going to revolutionize the economy (42:00).

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Captura’s Steve Oldham: “Removing a drop of ink from a swimming pool” Aug 30, 2024

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Steve Oldham of Captura, to talk about why sucking CO2 out of the air is not a bad idea (6:30), using the ocean (10:00), their contraption (11:15), whether it can be done at scale (16:45), the maths of climate solutions (19:00), paying for it (21:00), the evolution of carbon removal tech (26:00), moving to Canada from England (30:00), how the space industry is like climate (31:45), the role of regulation (34:15), raising $60m (37:45), and politics (41:30).

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Refactor's Zal Bilimoria: “I am the investment committee” Aug 09, 2024

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Zal Bilimoria to talk about being a solo venture capitalist (3:15), how he decided on investments (6:30), happening into climate tech (9:30), raising $50m every three years (10:45), learning at his dad’s business (12:20), bouncing around the tech industry (14:30), his first job as a kid (21:40), focusing on hard tech (28:00), where he won’t invest (31:00), hunting for the “fund returner” (35:30), why venture is not glamorous (37:00), reinventing IVF (43:20), and the potential backlash (46:00).

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How lab-grown meat company SciFi Foods failed - and why many others may soon follow Aug 02, 2024

It wasn’t long ago that lab-grown meat was booming. Startups raised billions of dollars. Investors boldly predicted the large scale slaughter of cows, chickens and fish would soon end. Then it all went pear-shaped. This week Joshua March and Kasia Gora come on to talk about how their startup, SciFi Foods, failed after raising more than $40 million on how the market turned against their company and the industry broadly (3:30), being affected by the downturn in plant-based meat (7:30), the Gamechangers documentary (10:30), being transparent with staff (15:10), the importance of failing well (19:30), the progress they made (27:30), Big Meat’s lobbying efforts (30:45), whether they would do it again (32:45), the Silicon Valley machine (37:00), venture debt (40:30), and the next thing (42:30).

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Mike Lynch’s first post-acquittal interview Jul 27, 2024

British tech tycoon Mike Lynch faced potentially dying in a federal prison. But in a 12-week trial in America, he beat all the odds and was found “not guilty” last month on 15 counts of fraud brought by the Department of Justice. He comes on the show to talk about the insight gleaned from a 12-year legal fight (5:30), the need for a British “Innocence Project” (11:30), going back to the origin of the case in 2011 (16:15), how the Autonomy sale went pear-shaped (18:45), why the boring nature of the case may have helped (23:15), what he would say to HP’s former chief executive Meg Whitman (26:15), getting smeared (29:15), how he won (36:30), most deals fail (43:30), getting extradited (48:20), his family (53:00), spending tens of millions of pounds on his defence (56:00), his treatment in British business and society (58:30), advising startups and the public conversation about AI (1:01:15), acquittal day (1:03:00), overhauling the US extradition treaty (1:04:30), how his wife managed (1:08:00), watching the Super Bowl (1:10:30), and feeling like he has won a second life (1:13:40).

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Conservation X Labs’ Alex Deghan: “Why go to Mars? it’s a failed version of earth” Jul 19, 2024

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Alex Deghan, founder of Conservation X Labs, to talk about avoiding the sixth mass extinction (3:00), getting near a tipping point in the Amazon (11:40), raising money from tech billionaires (14:40), growing up in northern Idaho (17:50), almost dying from malaria (20:00), rebuilding science in Iraq (23:30), close calls (30:40), setting up the first national park in Afghanistan (33:10), optimism (39:15), air conditioning (42:15), and building their own products (47:10).

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UC Berkeley’s Hany Farid: “AI is a misinformation amplifier” Jul 12, 2024

The Sunday Times tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Hany Farid, a digital forensic professor, to talk about launching a cybersecurity startup called Get Real Labs (3:00), the growing capability of AI to create totally believable images (6:45), and video (9:00), the Slovakia election example (12:00), the end of shared truth (15:30), why we might learn the lessons from social media regulation failures (20:50), how AI could make things far worse, pre and post election in America (23:45), and how he managed to start a company while also being a university professor (27:00).

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Deep Sky’s Fred Lalonde - Holiday replay! Jul 06, 2024

Happy July 4th! Running back one of our favorite episodes from last summer - Fred Lalonde of Deep Sky, who speaks eloquently about the need to bury every ton of CO2 emitted since the Industrial Revolution. Enjoy!

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PagerDuty's Jennifer Tejada: "Going public is the wedding, staying public is the marriage" Jun 28, 2024

When a website goes down, companies lose an average of $500,000 per minute. The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Jennifer Tejada, chief executive of PagerDuty, a company founded to keep that from happening (2:45). She talks about growing up in a small town (8:00), using supercomputers in the 1990’s to sell consumer products (12:30), coming to the West Coast via Australia (14:00), working around the world (16:30), operating as an outsider (18:15), defending DEI (21:00), the crossover of pro sports and tech (25:00), and going public (28:30).

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Limbic’s Ross Harper: “AI won’t replace doctors, it will enhance them” Jun 21, 2024

The world is aflutter with talk of "AI doctors". A UK company has actually built one. The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Dr Ross Harper, co founder and chief executive of Limbic to talk about creating a clinical AI chatbot (4:30), how it works (6:40), starting out four years ago 13:40), getting in with 40% of mental health care providers in Britain (17:40), being certified as a medical device (22:40), targeting America (24:40), studying computational neuroscience (27:00), starting the company (33:40), the future of AI in medicine (38:00), and the comparison to self-driving vehicles (41:15).

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Galvanize's Tom Steyer: "We're winning the climate fight" Jun 14, 2024

The climate fight is going far better than you realise. So says this week’s guest, Tom Steyer, former presidential candidate and founder of Galvanize Climate Solutions. He comes on to talk with Sunday Times correspondent Danny Fortson about why doomerism doesn’t work (4:30), beating Big Oil (8:45), when theory meets reality (15:10), whether the climate argument has been won (21:30), his life before dedicating his career to climate (30:20), dabbling in politics (36:30), running a climate investment firm (41:00), running for president (44:00), and the possibility that the oil industry will transform (51:10).

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X Prize's Peter Diamandis: "Talking to your dog and extending life" Jun 08, 2024

Do you want to talk to your whales? Monkeys? Your dog? AI will make it possible. The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Peter Diamandis to talk about why he set up an $111m longevity prize (2:30), using AI to prevent death from “something stupid” (8:30), growing up in the Bronx (11:50), falling in love with space exploration (14:00), launching the X Prize (19:50), doing 30 of them in 30 years (26:30), his approach to AI innovation (29:15), speaking to animals (30:00), the power of a prize (33:00), why its hard to get the mega-rich to fund ideas (39:30), optimism (44:50), climate change (47:00), the future of longevity (51:00), and bitcoin (57:00).

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Renaissance's Tom Kalil: "Transforming philanthropy" May 31, 2024

There are about 1,200 billionaires in Europe and America. Why don't they do more good with their money? This week's guest reckons he can get them to do just that. The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Tom Kalil, founder of Renaissance Philanthropy, to talk about why he created the organisation (4:15), nationalism (8:00), the problem with the current philanthropy model (11:15), leveraging tech and science (16:40), his background in Washington DC and the White House (22:20), working for Eric Schmidt (31:20), taking big swings (33:45), and the changing nature of giving (38:00),

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Tortus' Dom Pimenta: "AI is the answer to NHS doctor burnout" May 24, 2024

AI will save the NHS - but not the wya you think. The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Dom Pimenta, a cardiologist and co-founder of Tortus, to talk about the potential of its artificial intelligence interface (AI) for doctors (5:00), preventing burnout (11:00), naming the tool OSLER (18:30), how it works (20:45), why he became a doctor (26:00), founding a charity during Covid (29:15), quitting the NHS (32:45), getting Khosla Ventures to invest (35:35), trying to get the product into market (40:00), and AI's potential in medicine (45:00).

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Gigascale's Mike Schroepfer: "From building Meta to investing in climate" May 17, 2024

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on MIke Schroepfer, Meta’s former CTO, to talk about why he left Meta (3:00), growing up working his parents’ radio station (9:00), going to Stanford (12:00), getting into tech startups (14:15), the dotcom boom (17:15), going to Mozilla (21:15), joining Facebook when MySpace was bigger (23:00), Mark Zuckerberg (26:30), lessons from scaling to a giant company (31:40), the climate opportunity (35:10), focussing on hardware (39:40), using his money (43:30), the talent influx (44:40), the AI moment (47:30), and his climate tech predictions (51:05)

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Openwater’s Mary Lou Jepsen: “We'll save your mind - then read it” May 10, 2024

Imagine if you shrunk all of the machines in a hospital and crammed them into a single device the size of an iPhone that could diagnose and treat hundreds of diseases. That is what this week’s guest is trying to do. The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Mary Lou Jepsen to talk about building a mobile device to diagnose stroke at her startup Openwater (4:30), killing cancer cells with infrared light (8:45), how it takes 13 years to create a new medical device (14:45), why MRI’s are so expensive (18:00), her history in consumer electronics (21:10), convincing investors that open-source is the best approach (25:30), when she nearly died (28:20), using the tools of our time (30:30), the device (38:50), the handheld hospital (41:20), a medical app store (51:00), telepathy (52:00), her friendship with Peter Gabriel (57:30), and building a new medical business model (1:00:30).

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Enhanced Games’ Aron D’Souza: “The Olympics are broken” May 03, 2024

Would you watch an Olympics where everyone was doping? The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Aron D’Souza, co-founder and president of the Enhanced Games, to talk about launching a new competition where everyone is pharmacologically enhanced (6:00), the events (10:00), why he started it (14:50), meeting Peter Thiel (18:20), leading the Gawker case (19:30), the response from the Olympics (23:00), how it could go wrong (26:00), making sure noone dies (28:10), adding robotics and cybernetics (32:20), the funders (35:00), lining up media rights (39:00), the most recent doping scandal (41:00), and the coming legal fight (41:45).

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Rainmaker's Augustus Doricko: "Cloud seeding is a risk worth taking" Apr 26, 2024

The Sunday Times’s tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Augustus Doricko to talk about becoming a Thiel fellow (3:15), looking for the proof of God (5:45), starting his first company (9:30) cloud seeding (11:30), the history of cloud seeding (13:30), on whether silver iodide is safe (17:00), how it would work in practice (20:30), how it could go wrong (27:30), geo-engineering (30:45), why now (23:15), the Dubai example (35:00), and finding God (38:45).

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DoNotPay's Josh Browder: "We need laws to protect AI's" Apr 19, 2024

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on DoNotPay's Josh Browder to talk about how artificial intelligence is changing his business (4:20), paying a dividend (8:15), blowing up the myth that you have to lose money to get big (11:00), the coming AI crash (13:00), the path forward for DoNotPay (16:40), San Francisco’s moment (19:30), his biggest mistake (21:30), protecting AI’s (24:00), and ambient intelligence (27:40).

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Arbol's Sid Jha: "Insurance in the era of climate calamities" Apr 12, 2024

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Sid Jha of Arbol to talk about the importance of insurance (3:45), using data to change how it works (8:20), how climate has scrambled the industry (10:30), regulation (14:20), creating a new asset class (16:40), weather (24:10), growing up in India (29:20), going to Wall Street (30:40), launching Arbol (33:00), the space revolution (35:40), using blockchain (37:30), and why life is more expensive in an era of climate change (42:45)

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Orchid's Noor Siddiqui: "Super-babies" Apr 05, 2024

The Sunday Times correspondent brings on Noor Siddiquui, founder of Orchid, to talk about screening embryos (5:00), starting the company (9:30), hiring people as a first time founder (13:00), targeting ageing at the very beginning (15:00), how it works (18:20), why she thinks this is the future of conception (22:00), the need for regulation (31:00), the potential to exacerbate societal problems (38:00), why longevity enthusiasts invested (40:30), and the potential conservative backlash (49:40).

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Replika’s Eugenia Kuyda: “Your AI soulmate” Mar 29, 2024

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Eugenia Kyuda, founder of Replika, to talk about AI friends (4:00), growing up in Russia (6:45), her dad’s experience at Chernobyl (9:00), applying to Y Combinator (12:30), her first idea that didn’t work (16:30), losing her best friend (17:30), launching Replika (20:00), building a bot with pre-written answers (23:40), the key to good conversation (24:30), the bot before the ChatGPT moment (27:15), the changing AI landscape (29:20), how it works (31:50), securing people's secrets (33:50), and disrupting death (39:10).

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Perplexity.ai’s Dmitry Shevelenko: “The battle for the front page of the Internet” Mar 22, 2024

The Sunday Times; tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Dmitry Shevelenko of Perplexity.ai, to talk about finding the company though the Uber mafia (5:00), taking on Google (6:30), the founders' start as AI researchers (8:45), why he joined (11:35), what he did before this (17:00), closing his startup (20:15), hypergrowth lessons (24:40), the business model (28:00), the Gemini disaster (32:35), and doing it differently (36:00).

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Eion's Ana Pavlovic Hans: “Rocks that clean up the planet” Mar 15, 2024

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Ana Pavlovic Hans to talk about using rocks to cut carbon (3:00), coming up with the best “recipe” (8:00), the measurement breakthrough (11:00), bringing the cost down (20:00), making rock weathering “sexy’ (25:45), being raised in mining country in America and Australia (27:00), the partnership with Stripe (37:40), raising $12 million (41:30), and critter stories from Australia (42:40).

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Andreessen Horowitz's Chris Dixon: "Back to the future of the Internet" Mar 08, 2024

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Chris Dixon, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, to talk about writing a book on blockchain and crypto (4:00), why it’s still early (9:30), NFT’s (14:30), the computer versus the casino (18:30), boom and bust (23:00), his vision for a blockchain-based web (27:15), the rise of a new social media model (32:30), overcoming inertia (39:20), bitcoin v everything else (42:10), central bank digital currencies (44:00), and the ethereum economy (48:50).

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Pachama's Diego Saez Gil: "Building software to save nature" Mar 01, 2024

The Sunday Times; tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Diego Saez GIl, founder of Pachama, to talk about carbon reduction (4:00), hist first startups (6:10), Pachama’s start (12:00), building tools to catalyse climate projects (16:00), how it works (19:10), net zero pledges (22:00), when his house burned down (24:50), the carbon market (27:40), raising $90 million (32:00), and his worst day (36:00).

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Expensify's David Barrett: "Venture capital is a scam” Feb 23, 2024

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on David Barrett, founder of Expensify, to talk about creating a “remote-first” company (3:15), the lounge (6:45), the return-to-office movement (14:15), going public and then getting its shares smashed (17:15), why venture capital is a scam (23:30), why he likes public market investors (30:25), keeping people happy when shares lose 95% of their value (33:35), and the artificial intelligence boom (35:25).

PLUS: The link to our previous episode with Delian Asparouhov, founder of Varda, whose space-factory startup just had its first craft land safely back to earth.

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Climactic's Raj Kapoor: "We need 1,000 climate tech unicorns" Feb 16, 2024

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Raj Kapoor, co-founder of Climactic, to talk about growing up in Pennsylvania (3:10), his early days in Silicon Valley (8:00), making himself president of the Internet (club) (10:30), his first startup (16:30), Cleantech 1.0 (22:00), joining Lyft (25:00), self-driving cars (28:30), raising a first fund at Climactic (32:15), using software to cut emissions (37:00), and remaking the electric grid (45:00).

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The Hacking Games' Fergus Hay: "Most hackers are kids" Feb 09, 2024

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Fergus Hay, founder of The Hacking Games, to talk about why he started the company (5:00), the difference between the real and online worlds (9:30), why everyone gets caught (15:15), his plan for a documentary and television series (21:00), the Hollywood angle (25:45), making hacking sexy (30:30), the cybersecurity industry’s stance on hackers (35:05), how much of cybercrime is invisible (40:45), and reaching young people (44:10).

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Investing in Us’ Dmitri Mehlhorn: “Tech and America’s $30bn election year” Feb 02, 2024

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Dmitri Mehlhorn to talk about Investing in Us (4:45), what it invests in (7:30), funneling cash into election groups (13:20), why America’s election will be decided by the finest of margins (16:50), how artificial intelligence fits with democracy (21:15), the dangers (26:05), Silicon Valley’s attitude to politics (32:50), what works when it comes to changing people’s minds (37:30), why age might not be Joe Biden’s biggest problem (41:40), and a terrifying thought experiment (45:00).

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Longevity enthusiast Bryan Johnson Jan 26, 2024

A throwback conversation with Bryan Johnson, a billionaire techie turned longevity enthusiast who goes to extreme measures to "reverse" his age.

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Khan Academy’s Sal Khan: “Building an AI tutor for every student” Jan 19, 2024

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy, to talk about how he started tutoring family members (4:30), doing startups in the dotcom boom (5:50), starting to do videos in 2006 (10:15), building a business from his closet (14:15), linking up with openAI (16:30), building an AI tutor (19:40), dealing with hallucinations (22:30), moving from text to voice and video (25:55), the Covid effect (30:30), an education co-pilot (33:45), the relationship with schools (38:00), and his new book (42:50).

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Metaphysic’s Martin Adams: “Copyrighting humans” Jan 12, 2024

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Martin Adams of Metaphysic to talk about using artificial intelligence in entertainment (3:20), the Tom Cruise moment (5:50), how the technology is accelerating (9:20), what it means for Hollywood (13:10), scaling humans (17:35), how much data is needed (22:40), copyrighting people (25:20), the election (30:10), his early days running raves in London (34:35), growing up in Essex (37:40), going to Harvard law (38:45), and the first AI feature film (40:00).

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Common Sense's Jim Steyer: "I'm more worried than ever for our democracy" Dec 22, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Jim Steyer, founder of Common Sense Media, the leading online advocacy group, to talk about 2024 as a pivotal year for democracy (4:20), whether Facebook is ready (8:30), Tiktok (10:10), AI-powered misinformation (12:30), why he’s more worried than ever for democracy (17:10), why he thinks regulation will come, but not from Washington (21:30), X under Musk (27:40), the low-hanging fruit (32:00), and the best and worst case for 2024 (33:50).

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Babson’s David Stein: “Succeeding where Theranos failed” Dec 15, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on David Stein, chief executive of Babson Diagnostics, to talk about the importance of blood testing (4:49), why Babson is not Theranos (6:47), trying to compete with that idea (9:26), why they succeeded where Theranos failed (14:34), using a tiny amount of blood (18:23), fighting against the Theranos effect (24:37), being owned by a company they aim to disrupt (26:28), liquid biopsies (28:02), the new age of biological data (32:23), regulatory approval (37:09), and avoiding the spotlight (39:03).

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Apeiron’s Christian Angermayer: “AI, psychedelics and living for hundreds of years” Dec 08, 2023

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Christian Angermayer, founder of Apeiron Investments, to talk about psychedelics in Oregon (4:15), the spiritual experience of a “trip” (11:30), progressing toward the first FDA approval (15:30), how this will be introduced into the market (21:10), why having a qualified guide/therapist is critical (25:30), gaining societal acceptance (30:20), why he funded the longevity XPrize (34:20), the new approach to ageing (41:00), why we are on the cusp of a breakthrough in life span (42:30), the Ozempic effect (49:00, thriving in a toxic society (56:20), and how AI dovetails with psychedelics and longevity (1:01:50).

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Founders Fund’s Keith Rabois: “The joy of missing out” Dec 01, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Keith Rabois of Founders Fund to talk about leaving San Francisco for Miami (4:00), why San Francisco is a “black hole” (7:00), why remote work is broken (11:00), staying on the AI sidelines (16:30), running Openstore (18:40), the Paypal story (26:50), hiring well (30:00), shrinking their fund (33:50), and why big venture capital funds won’t make money (38:20).

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Stories of our times- Five days of chaos at ChatGPT HQ: The Sam Altman saga Nov 24, 2023

A special episode for your from our daily podcast from The Times:

Last week, Sam Altman the CEO of OpenAI - the makers of ChatGPT - was sacked by his board. After a dramatic few days, he is back at the company along with a new board. But is it really business as usual at OpenAI?

Guest: Danny Fortson, West Coast Correspondent, The Sunday Times.

Host: Manveen Rana.

Listen to the Stories of Our Times podcast - https://www.thetimes.co.uk/podcasts/stories-of-our-times

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MosaicML's Naveen Rao: "Bio-inspired AI" Nov 17, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Naveen Rao, founder of MosaicML, to talk about the efficiency of the human brain (3:30), slashing the cost to train AI models (8:00), how this is like the evolution of the car (11:40), selling to Databricks (14:30), how the AI market will evolve (17:00), the fallacy of AI doomerism (21:00), growing up in eastern Kentucky (22:30), plunging into the dotcom boom (24:50), why he studied neuroscience (27:10), selling his previous startup to Intel (32:00), solving intelligence (34:40), and what he tells his kids about the future (40:00).

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Rewind AI’s Dan Siroker on honesty through AI eavesdropping Nov 10, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Dan Siroker, founder of Rewind AI, to talk about why he started the company (4:40), recording everything you do, see and read (7:10), living life on a “hot mic" (10:20), the pendant (12:45), bringing Black Mirror to life (17:00), AI as cognitive butler (23:45), growing up surrounded by tech in Palo Alto (28:00), working on the Obama campaign (29:00), making mistakes at other companies (34:00), his view of Sam Altman (37:35), how he uses Rewind (43:00), and dealing with the hallucination problem (44:30).

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One doctor's experience inside Babylon Health Nov 03, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Hugh Harvey, managing director of consultancy Hardian Health, to talk about his time at Babylon Health (4:30), his first look at the company’s “artificial intelligence” (7:00), why it’s hard to build a medical chatbot (11:30), the siloed nature of the company (14:30), its regulatory loophole (16:20), Ali Parsa’s obsession with creating an “AlphaGo moment" (21:10), the gong (24:15), how the company became more brazen with its marketing (27:10), why getting chatbots certified as medical devices is so hard (29:45), and why the Silicon Valley way often doesn't work in medicine (33:00).

Link to The Sunday Times' investigation: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rise-and-fall-of-babylon-healthcare-the-doctor-in-your-pocket-3p6q6jjfx

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AI Chats with Vinod Khosla and Tyler Cowen Oct 27, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on two guests to talk about artificial intelligence. The first is Vinod Khosla, the legendary tech investor and founder of Khosla Ventures, to talk about how the rise of AI compares to previous breakthroughs (4:00), how it is like the Manhattan Project (8:00), why universal basic income may be necessary (16:20), and the culture war aspect of AI (20:25). Then, Tyler Cowen, the George Mason University economist, blogger and author, comes on to talk about this moment in history (26:00), AI doomerism (28:40), the open v closed debate (31:50), why he’s not too worried about misinformation (35:25), why AI will save crypto (40:30), the return of ‘moving history’ (42:50), how he has changed how he teaches (45:20), the end of the smartphone (47:20), the future of work (51:50), AI as a doomsday weapon (55:30), why he published the world's first “generative’ book (1:00:15), and the end of the browser (1:05:20).

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Sima.ai's Krishna Rangasayee: “Plumbers of the AI age” Oct 20, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Krishna Rangasayee, founder and CEO of Sima.ai, to talk about why we need to remake the tech infrastructure for the AI age (5:10), what the “edge” is (8:30), why he started the company (11:00), the problem with the cloud (15:00), developing a new architecture (19:00), growing up in India (20:45), coming to Mississippi (25:20), starting the company at age 50 (30:00), why being the boss has been so challenging (34:40), the future (37:00), and why AI is like teenage sex (41:00).

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Age1’s Alex Colville: “Inventing the anti-ageing pill” Oct 13, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Alex Colville, co-founder of Age1, to talk about funding longevity science (3:15), studying the biology of ageing (5:10), the snake oil problem (11:05), the rise of “geroscience” (15:15), healthspan (23:05), the ageing hypothesis (26:55), the potential of metformin (30:05), working on an anti-ageing treatment (34:15), and how long he thinks we’ll live (38:45).

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Climate Overshoot Commission’s Pascal Lamy: “Solar geoengineering should be explored” Oct 06, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Pascal Lamy, chairman of the Climate Overshoot Commission to talk about climate migration (7:30), the huge cost of adaptation (12:40), solar geoengineering (14:40), the attraction of a sticking plaster solution (21:25), termination shock (26:40), carbon takeback obligations (32:30), pollution removal (37:00), and how Britain fights into this fight (41:10)

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Worldcoin's Alex Blania: "Proof of personhood in an age of AI fakery” Sep 29, 2023

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson rings on Alex Blania, chief executive of Worldcoin developer Tools for Humanity, to talk about launching its iris-scanning orb around the world (5:00), testifying in Nairobi (9:40), signing people up (12:45), what problems it is trying to solve (16:10), proof of personhood in the age of fakery (19:20), the role of cryptocurrency (22:30), not offering crypto in America (26:10), the guiding philosophy (28:20), universal basic income (30:30), growing up in Germany (34:40), getting an email from Sam Altman (36:00), his worst day (40:10), privacy (42:45), and having their orbs seized (45:40).

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Pangea Biomed’s Ranit Aharonov: “Cancer-hunting AI” Sep 22, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Ranit Aharonov to talk about this moment for artificial intelligence (3:15), studying the brain (6:30), Project Debater (8:30), neural networks (11:30), language’s AlphaGo moment (14:50), the big idea at Pangea (19:20), getting it into the hands of doctors and drug communities (23:25), the role of AI in this tool (26:15), the regulatory limits (32:15), and why she didn't debate the AI she created (37:25).

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Walter Isaacson: “The light and darks strands of Elon Musk” Sep 17, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Walter Isaacson, the biographer of Elon Musk, to talk about his new book (3:10), Musks’ “heartlessness” (6:15), his maniacal sense of mission (10:50), his approach to pro-creation and children (18:00), his fear of loneliness (21:55), and why he can’t smell the flowers (25:00), the reaction to the book (28:35), why Isaacson doesn’t make judgments (30:10), “demon mode’ (34:30), the Twitter deal (38:45), and his political tack right (40:00).

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Air Company’s Gregory Constantine: “Turning CO2 into vodka” Sep 08, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Gregory Constantine, co-founder of Air Company, to talk about turning CO2 into fuel, booze and perfume (2:30), why they chose to do consumer products first (5:05), growing up in Australia (6:20), landing in New York (9:15), starting the company (12:00), its first product in 2019 (15:15), raising the first round of venture capital (20:40), shooting for fuel (21:40), their years couch-surfing (25:50), scaling up the technology (28:10), and the immigrant mindset (31:40).

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Pinecone's Edo Liberty: "AI is infrastructure" Sep 01, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Edo Liberty, founder of Pinecone, to talk about the state of artificial intelligence (4:00) the ‘hallucination’ problem (7:10), giving AI’s memory (10:30), starting out in Israel and in academia (17:15), starting pinecone in 2019 (20:30), raising money (24:05), creating a “handshake” between LLM’s and specialised knowledge (26:30), the AI bubble (30:20), and why he chose the name pinecone (39:50).

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Just Climate's Shaun Kingsbury: "We've never built a rainforest" Aug 04, 2023

The Sunday times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Shaun Kingsbury to talk about the Green Investment Bank (3:40), whether he is optimistic (9:15), taking on harder-to-clean industries at Just Climate (13:30), teaming up with Al Gore (16:30), why he is not focussed on climate change adaptation (24:00), trying to create the Tesla of green finance (29:30), what he wants to crack (32:00), why carbon removal is hard (35:30), and the importance of the IRA (39:30).

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Deep Sky's Fred Lalonde: "We need to bury every ton of CO2 emitted since the Industrial Revolution" Jul 28, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Frederic Lalonde, founder of Deep Sky, to talk about why it is already too late to address climate change (3:10), terraforming earth (14:00), the terrifying math of exponential systems (19:45), the breakdown in insurance models (23:05), what Deep Sky is doing (27:00), starting companies before Deep Sky (33:35), draught and famine (37:50), the waking up of capital markets to the climate crisis (42:00), sea level rise (47:00), why he is an optimist (51:20), how he talks to his kids (1:01:20), raising 470m (1:07:15),

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IRL415’s Philip Rosedale: “Heading toward software’s Hiroshima moment” Jul 21, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Philip Rosedale, founder of Second Life and IRL415, to talk about the Apple’s Vision Pro augmented reality goggles (3:30), digital eyes (6:40), the weight challenge (7:50), on whether there is a key breakthrough that will lead to adoption (11:50), how artificial intelligence and goggles come together, or not (16:10), starting a community lab (19:20), AI girlfriends and matchmakers (22:00), on whether software development is heading toward a “Hiroshima moment” (24:20), why he is optimistic (28:00), and why phones will be the dominant interface for the next decade (30:50).

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AstroForge's Matt Gialich: "We can eradicate mining on earth” Jul 14, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Matt Gialich, founder of AstroForge, to talk about what he did before attempting asteroid mining (3:40), working at Virgin Orbit (6:00), what he learned at Bird, the struggling scooter company (8:05), jumping to asteroid mining (10:30), the problem with platinum (13:40), targeting metal-rich asteroids (15:40), the first launch (20:45), the space revolution (21:40), raising money (24:20), trying to do a submarine startup before asteroids (27:10), coming from a family of teachers (30:45), the upcoming mission to deep space (32:45), and how the miners have reacted (35:00).

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SciFi Foods' Joshua March: "Most 'clean meat' startups won't be successful" Jul 07, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Joshua March, co-founder and chief executive of SciFi Foods, to talk about the first approvals for lab-grown meat in America (4:45), building their pilot plant (6:45), using Crispr to engineer cells (7:50), the industry's dominant technology approach (12:30), why most of the 150 cultivated meat startups will fail (16:10), why clean meat will ultimately supplant slaughterhouses and industrial agriculture (17:50), the Biden administration’s support of the industry (21:00), leaning into the science fiction aspect of lab-grown meat (24:00), and the coming shake-out (25:10),

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Lumo's Devon Wright: "Helping farmers save water" Jun 30, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Devon Wright to talk about moving from a boat to the country (4:00), starting agricultural and water tech startup Lumo (7:15), inventing a smart valve (11:40), quitting his old job (15:50), his previous companies (17:50), being in a band (20:30), coming to Silicon Valley (25:20), how farmers view drought and extreme weather (28:00), making water systems more efficient (36:40), pitching investors (40:00), and his worst day (41:30).

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Trevor Neilson: “I helped start Extinction Rebellion. Here is why they are getting it wrong” Jun 25, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Trevor Neilson, founder of startup Wastefuel and the Climate Emergency Fund, to talk about how he helped launch and finance Extinction Rebellion (XR) (4:50), how the Malibu wildfires inspired him to act (8:20), meeting Roger Hallam, founder of XR and Just Stop Oil (16:00), bankrolling protestors (18:00), why he thinks the movement has gone off the rails (22:50), whether he is worried about what his former colleagues will think (32:00), how XR has experimented with changing tactics (40:30), where and how he grew up (43:30), getting a job at the White House (46:30), working with Bono on AIDS (50:00), starting his own company (55:00), why he does not think we will meet the 1.5 degree goal (58:10), telling the truth (1:09:00), and the children suing Montana (1:11:50)

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Securiti’s Rehan Jalil: “Where there’s chaos, there’s opportunity” Jun 16, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Rehan Jalil, founder of Securiti, to talk about trying to grab control of data (3:00), the generative AI boom (7:35), growing up in Karachi, Pakistan (10:05), getting one of 200 slots in a top engineering school (14:35), going to America (18:15), the dotcom boom (18:45), his first two companies (21:00), taking advantage of market chaos (25:15), and what he learned from three startups (27:40)

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UC Berkeley’s Hany Farid: “With AI, we’re making the same mistakes that we did with social media” Jun 09, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Hany Farid, of UC Berkeley’s School of Information, to talk about the new age of AI (artificial intelligence) misinformation (4:00), the proliferation of new tools (6:40), AI doomerism (9:50), regulation (13:10), history repeating itself (15:40), the AI election (18:20), simple ways to regulate AI (22:45), why imposing rules is easier than the industry would have us believe (28:50), the challenge presented by the open-source approach (30:30), and how the 2024 election could go wrong (34:00).

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Sightful's Tamir Berliner and Tomer Kahan: "The world's first augmented reality laptop" Jun 02, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Tamir Berliner and Tomer Kahan, founders of Sightful, to talk about inventing the world’s first “augmented reality” laptop (4:30), the end of the screen (8:10), what they learned from Magic Leap (10:30), making technology disappear (12:00), raising money (18:30), the advantages of starting the company in Israel (21:45), Apple’s big announcement (25:00), getting past the “Glasshole” problem (26:15), their backgrounds (29:00), and selling the first 1,000 laptops (31:30)

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Outreach’s Manny Medina: “Most founders give up too soon” May 26, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Manny Medina, chief executive of Outreach, to talk about how artificial intelligence is invading the sales business (2:30), why it will enhance humans (6:10), growing up farming shrimp in Ecuador (7:45), communism (9:30), coming to America (11:45), his original startup idea, and abandoning it (14:50), why his capitalist life does not conflict with his communist upbringing (18:50), what is happening in the economy (21:30), moving from a tiny apartment (25:20), and the power of belief (32:00).

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Runway’s Cristobal Valenzuela: “Pushing AI-generated film past the ’mom threshold’” May 19, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Cristobal Valenzuela, founder of Runway, to talk about using AI to edit and create videos (3:00), starting out at art school (6:50), quitting his job and starting the company in 2018 (8:30), his art career (9:30), rushing to raise money before his visa ran out (14:10), the critical breakthroughs (16:45), what “diffusion” is (18:30), the future of film (21:00), zero-cost content (28:30), coming to America from Chile (33:00), and the challenge of recruiting people (36:20).

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Stability.ai's Emad Mostaque: "We're all going to die - but not from AI" May 12, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Stability.ai's founder Emad Mostaque, to talk about whether artificial intelligence (AI) is going to kill us all (3:30), why AI is the most important invention since the internal combustion engine (8:00), the next leap (12:40), the explosion of large language models and chatbots (17:00), why he is being sued (21:40), how AI can improve humans (25:30), how it will serve as the new platform (31:00), how he plans to make money (33:30), growing up in London (35:30), his charity (39:10), London's status as a hub (44:50), the most vulnerable industries (49:10), and his problem with OpenAI (56:10).

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Loyal's Celine Halioua: "The first life extension drug for dogs" May 05, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Loyal founder Celine Halioua, to talk about extending the life of dogs (3:00), pushing to get first product on market in 2025 (6:10), the regulatory path (10:40), growing up in Texas (15:40), how health anxiety seeded her passion for longevity science (21:00), leaving Oxford after being sexually harassed (25:10), coming to San Francisco to work with Laura Deming on longevity (28:50), choosing to work on dogs (31:30), raising money (39:35), convincing top people to join Loyal (42:30), the development timeline (47:00), and the future of longevity science (50:45).

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Andreessen Horowitz's Vijay Pande: "AI doctors" Apr 28, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Vijay Pande, head of Andreessen Horowitz’s $1.5bn bio fund, to talk about how artificial intelligence is impacting healthcare (3:30), tools that “understand” biology (8:50), trying to eliminate cancer (12:50), trying to get techie founders to get into healthcare (14:25), America’s plunging life expectancy (18:00), the (potential) end of radiology (21:10), AI’s “hallucination" problem in healthcare (25:55), the future of therapy (29:00), putting healthcare on the Moore’s Law curve (33:10), using automation to slash the industry’s costs and inefficiencies (37:30), the next trillion dollar company (40:00), if capitalism is the best way to crack healthcare (45:40), and solving the billing problem(48:35).

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SuperFocus.ai's Stephen Hsu: “AI study buddies” Apr 21, 2023

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Stephen Hsu, founder of SuperFocus.ai, to talk about genetic testing of children (5:15), his new startup SuperFocus (9:15), the hallucination problem for artificial intelligence (11:40), how the Ai revolution could go very badly (17:55), creating an army of AI workers (24:00), how companies are reacting (27:30), starting a company amid the Cambrian explosion of AI companies (32:35), creating AI study buddies (37:00), the “who owns the data” question (43:15), and how education is the tip of the spear in the age of AI (48:45).

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Precision Neuroscience's Ben Rapoport: "Write an email with your thoughts" Apr 14, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Ben Rapoport to talk about his plan it implant his first brain-computer interface in a human this year (5:00), his background in neurosurgery and electrical engineering (10:30), why BCI’s are ready now (13:30), Precision’s approach (16:45), preventing the device being rejected by the body (23:15), what this device will allow (24:45), restoring sense of touch to paralyzed people (32:55), exoskeletons (32:45), his time at Elon Musk’s Neuralink (41:00), and the dawning age of brain computer interfaces (44:00).

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Fixie.ai's Matt Welsh: "The 12-cent engineer" Apr 07, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Matt Welsh, founder of Fixie.ai, to talk about how artificial intelligence will replace human programmers (3:25), its growing capabilities (8:20), the power of natural language prompts (13:20), running the numbers (16:15), historical precedents (21:30), on whether there is a development “brick wall” coming (25:00), why this AI moment has arrived (27:50), whether OpenAI will have a defensible business model (32:30), Fixie’s plan (35:40), a world of bespoke AIs for different industries (41:20), Welsh’s history at Google, Apple and startups (43:50), starting Fixie (46:30), and the societal shift to come (50:45).

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Interlude: Back next week Mar 31, 2023

Danny in the Valley will back next week. Jury duty forced me to cancel all meetings and pods this week!

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Rippling’s Parker Conrad: “We raised $500m in one day to survive the SVB collapse” Mar 24, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Parker Conrad, founder and chief executive of Rippling, to talk about getting caught in the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (3:30), receiving a call at 5:30 am (8:30), how wide the SVB blast radius was (11:00), moving $130m to JP Morgan in three hours (13:45), raising $500m in a day (17:00), why some people still didn’t get paid (23:40), the growing vulnerabilities of regional banks (30:20), the importance of SVB to tech (32:30), Conrad's experience at Zenefits (37:15), why automating things with software is harder than it seems (42:30), and operating in a slowing economy and tighter funding environment (44:40).

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Primer’s Sean Gourley: “AI is the biggest change to war since the internal combustion engine” Mar 17, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson things on Sean Gourley, founder of Primer AI, to talk about how he got into the industry (3:45), and then getting into counterintelligence (6:40), the image recognition revolution (9:00), raising money from the CIA (11:00), AI in war (16:30), how machines beat human Top Gun pilots (20:00), AI as the “third offset” (22:00), how the US is still living with a Cold War mentality (27:30), the AI arms race with China (30:00), the long ties between the Pentagon and Silicon Valley (34:15), how it has become easier to recruit (37:30), the Chat GPT effect (40:40), the next weapon of mass destruction (45:00), and Tiktok and the information war (48:00).

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Earth’s Tom Harries: “Turning people into soil” Mar 10, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Tom Harries to talk about his previous cremation startup (3:20), how he got into human composting (5:00), the problems with burial and cremation (8:20), society’s changing attitude toward funerals (13:50), perfecting the microbial breakdown process (14:50), controlling temperature (21:10), using human remains to reforest land (24:20), raising $10m (27:15), why it takes 45 days to compost a body (33:05), building a household death brand (34:40), and how he got into the death business (36:50).

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UC Berkeley’s Stuart Russell: “ChatGPT is a wake-up call” Mar 03, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Stuart Russell, professor at UC Berkeley and one of the world’s leading experts on artificial intelligence (AI), to talk about working in the field for decades (4:00), AI’s Sputnik moment (7:45), why these programmes aren’t very good at learning (13:00), trying to inoculating ourselves against the idea that software is sentient (15:00), why super intelligence will require more breakthroughs (17:20), autonomous weapons (26:15), getting politicians to regulate AI in warfare (30:30), building systems to control intelligent machines (36:20), the self-driving car example (39:45), how he figured out how to beat AlphaGo (43:45), the paper clip example (49:50), and the first AI programme he wrote as a 13-year-old. (55:45).

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Character.ai's Noam Shazeer: "Replacing Google - and your mom" Feb 24, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Noam Shazeer, founder of Character.ai, to talk about his work at Google (4:00), joining the search giant in 2000 (6:50), what is deep learning (5:10), starting on language models in 2015 (9:10), starting the company in 2021 (10:50), virtual therapists (15:00), monetizing (20:40), what is possible (23:00), growing up coding and doing maths (31:00), winning the international Math Olympiad (32:20), how this compares to the Internet itself (34:30).

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Forum Mobility’s Matt LeDucq: “Electrifying trucking” Feb 17, 2023

The Sunday Times tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Matt LeDucq, founder of Forum Mobility, to talk about drayage (4:25), its health impacts (6:20), starting out in renewable energy twenty years ago (9:10), how drayage is like solar decades ago (12:10), the coming wave of electric lorries (13:30), building giant depots (16:45), the cost question (18:20), and electric grid challenge (20:20), being the tip of the spear (23:25), deciding to start the company (28:50), putting steel in the ground (34:10), learning to be a CEO (39:45), and what the rest of the world is doing (42:10).

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Giant's Cameron McLain: "Buddhism, music and venture capital" Feb 10, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Cameron McLain, co-founder of Giant, to talk about why he chose the name (3:05), what he did before starting a venture fund (7:00), moving to America (8:30), dabbling in Buddhism philosophy (10:30), getting into the music industry (12:45), starting and selling a company (15:25), finding good founders (17:30), bringing in Lord Browne as an advisor (24:50), the importance of timing (26:20), raising money right as the pandemic hit (29:40), the climate opportunity (33:15), betting on biology (36:00), and his worst day (41:00).

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Now's Lara Hodgson: "Don't follow your passion" Feb 03, 2023

The Sunday Times’ correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Lara Hodgson, founder of NOW, to talk about her previous companies (3:15), how a payment problem led to the launch of Now (8:55), meeting US political star Stacey Abrams (12:15), the Now account (15:15), the origins of the “net 30 “ payment model (22:00), the state of the economy (23:30), her meandering career (28:15), taking advantage of being a women in a male-dominated industry (33:15), focusing on impact rather than your passions (38:00), and why she looks out the window (40:40).

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Mammoth’s Trevor Martin: “Programming the code of life” Jan 27, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Trevor Martin of Mammoth Biosciences, to talk about “programming biology” (4:10), the slow grind of innovation (7:25), CRISPR (10:20), the problems he’s trying to solve (16:15), curing thousands of diseases (19:40), reaching for a science fiction future (24:40), meeting Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna (27:40), starting the company (35:00), becoming the chief executive (38:50), raising $265m (43:45), and what comes next (47:15).

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Formic’s Saman Farid: “A robot arm can do the work of eight humans” Jan 20, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Saman Farid, founder of Formic, to tlak about why we need more robots (3:40), the labour shortage (7:20), the growing universe of jobs that are automatable (10:00), the latest AI bubble (13:45), growing up in China (21:20), being inspired by China’s rapid industrialization (23:30), how AMerica is losing 10,000 factory workers each day (25:20), starting his first couple companies in China (29:30), the deep learning revolution (31:15), convincing factory owners to install their robots (36:40), why he thinks more robots is better for society (40:00).

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TrueMed’s Calley Means: “Sugar, kids, and the crime of the century” Jan 13, 2023

The Sunday Times tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Callery Means, founder of TrueMed, to talk about his early days in politics (4:20), how the food industry avoided sugar taxes (7:45), the links between industry and institutions of trust (12:00), the “food compass” and why it says Lucky Charms is better than chicken breast (18:00), why we consume 100 times more sugar than we used to (23:45), what TrueMed is (29:45), how he aims to rebalance incentives in the healthcare industry (35:10), food as medicine (39:00), and trying to spark a movement (43:00).

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Frore's Seshu Madhavapeddy: "Centuries-old tech and the tyranny of heat" Jan 06, 2023

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Seshu Madhavapeddy co-founder and chief executive of Frore Systems, to talk about why our devices underperform and we don;t know it (4:20), the problem with fans (8:00), inventing a new chip (13:00), how it works (17:30), why he started the company (20:30), getting into an IIT in India (21:40), leaving Nortel at the peak of the dotcom boom (26:00), startup lessons (28:10), raising $116 million (33:00), getting Frore’s chips into computers (34:50), the recruiting challenge (41:40), and his worst day (44:00).

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Akili's Eddie Martucci: "The world's first prescription video game" Dec 16, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Eddie Martucci, co-founder and chief executive of Akili Interactive, to talk about making the first prescription video game (3:40), the original pitch (6:10), sweeping the floors of his parents’ pharmacy (13:20), how he landed on video games as medicine (16:40), why ADHD is more present that it used to be (19:00), targeting a “weak link” in the brain (24:00), how the game algorithmically hones it treatment to each player (27:55), targeting conditions like depression and MS (29:40), getting insurance and health systems to pay for it (33:00), looking abroad (43:30), and running a public company (46:40).

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Benedict Evans: “What Chat GPT is - and isn’t” Dec 09, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on analyst Benedict Evans to talk about Chat GPT and machine learning (5:00), how it gets things wrong (10:00), the “fluent bullshit” problem (12:00), whether this is a genuine breakthrough moment (15:20), what this means for humans (18:25), “prompt engineering” (23:00), humans as curators rather than creators (26:40), tech’s mid-life crisis (27:45), the future of “search” (32:10), using AI do make “no-code” software (35:00), where we go from here (39:00), and the illusion of creativity (42:45).

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Kernel's Bryan Johnson: “Dinner at 11:00 am and reversing age” Dec 02, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Bryan Johnson, tech entrepreneur and Kernel founder, to talk about reversing his biological age with “the blueprint” (4:50), eating dinner at 11:00 am (12:15), pleasure through pain (15:45), rethinking what it means to be human (17:30), changing society (23:00), how this philosophy dovetails with his startup Kernel (24:50), the “cognitive crisis" (26:45), living outside the norm (30:45), the autonomous self (33:15), assembling a team of 25 people to create the blueprint (36:50), being a “rejuvenation athlete” (38:40), firing himself (43:50), creating a community of rejuvenation enthusiasts (47:15), how long he wants to live (50:50), the rise of the machines (52:50), and automating away willpower (57:50).

Bryan Johnson's Blueprint: https://blueprint.bryanjohnson.co/

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SciFi Foods' Joshua March: "Brewing a $1 lab-grown burger” Nov 25, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Joshua March, founder of SciFi Foods to talk about why he is trying to brew burgers (3:30), mixing meat and plants (6:00), the cost challenge (8:00), growing up in small town England and his first startup (11:50), launching a social media software company (15:00), finding a technical co-founder and starting a meat company (17:20), leaning into the science with its branding (25:20), the cost challenge (30:30), the road to regulatory approval (37:40), winning hearts and minds (40:15), and the vegan mafia (41:10).

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Neoplants' Lio Mora & Partick Torbey: "A houseplant that eats carcinogens" Nov 18, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Patrick Torbey and Lio Mora about engineering plants (3:45), the age of biology (6:15), their $180 houseplant (11:25), indoor pollution (13:45), meeting at a startup incubator (17:30), founder dating (20:55), raising money (24:30), spending four years developing the first plant (27:25), the market education problem (33:00), why certifications is more difficult than it seems (39:30), the maintenance challenge (41:45), and their worst day (47:05).

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Obvious Ventures’ Andrew Beebe: “Do stuff that matters” Nov 11, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Andrew Beebe, to talk about “world positive” investing (4:00), the dotcom boom (5:30), zeroing in on climate years ago (10:10), how a cold call to Google worked (12:10), how he met Twitter founder Ev Williams (16:00), investing in the downturn (19:10), screening for world positive companies (23:45), how he coaches founders (28:20), climate tech whiplash and why this time is different (32:000), and his worst day of work (40:30).

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Mayfield's Navin Chaddha: “The best companies get bought, not sold” Nov 04, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Navin Chaddha of Mayfield Fund, to talk about the future of work (3:10), and Silicon Valley (9:50), managing $2bn with seven people (13:55), his first startup in the dotcom boom (18:00), the importance of timing (22:50), holding his nerve at the recent peak (28:10), the other two companies he started (33:10), the lessons from he took from them (38:10), the current downturn (42:05), how he made it here from India (46:50), going through the IIT system (50:00), and what he’s excited to back (55:05).

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Blackrock Neurotech's Marcus Gerhardt: "An inflection point for brain-computer interfaces" Oct 28, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Marcus Gerhardt, chief executive of Blackrock Neurotech, to talk about his boarding school days in Wales (4:00), his dotcom adventures (10:00), pivoting to brain-computer interfaces (16:00), the “Utah array” (18:40), how in 2006 the first person sent an email with his thoughts (20:30), starting the company (23:00), the state of the technology today (26:40), targeting tetraplegics (33:00), getting investment (38:15), going to market (41:30), and reaching an inflection point (47:40).

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Checkerspot’s Charles Dimmler: “Using algae to make skis” Oct 21, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on co-founder and chief executive of Checkerspot, to talk about using algae to make skis (3:55), what he leaned at pioneer Solazyme (8:30), naming the company after a butterfly (16:10), how synthetic biology is like computers were in the 1980’s (18:00), starting out as an investment banker (21:15), switching to biotech (27:00), and then to Solazyme (28:30), algae oil skis (32:15), convincing investors (36:30), the rise of climate tech (42:00), and his worst day (48:00).

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Finless Foods’ Michael Selden: “The tuna roadster” Oct 14, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Michael Selden, co-founder and chief executive of Finless Foods, to talk about growing tuna in a lab (2:45), getting the price down from $300,000 to $150 per pound (5:45), a publicly available bluefin tuna genome (8:45), replacing fetal bovine serum (11:30), using plant based material for the flesh “scaffolding” (14:20), scaling up (16:10), aiming for the mass market (19:55), why almost all American seafood is imported (21:20), the problems with seafood (22:40), the hardest moment(s) (27:30), the challenge of turning “clean meat” into an industry (32:00), and the science that is yet to be figured out (35:40).

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Charm's Peter Reinhardt: "Turning plants into barbecue sauce" Oct 07, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Peter Reinhardt, co-founder and chief executive Charm Industrial, to talk about a different approach to carbon capture (3:30), overshooting our emissions (7:25), starting the company after a career in software (11:35), finding the Tesla roadster of CO2 removal (14:30), the potential (16:55), scaling up (19:40), attracting investors (22:00), and the CO2 scoreboard (24:00).

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Source Water's Cody Friesen: "Turning sunlight into water" Sep 30, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Cody Friesen, founder of Source Water, to talk about using solar to solve the water problem (4:30), the messy energy transition (9:15), our reliance on “dino-juice” (11:00), how its panels work (13:00), improving performance (22:00), starting the company (24:55), luring investors (27:00), going from scientist to founder (30:50), creating a battery company (38:00), scaling up (40:00), and solving problems for seven generations hence (44:45).

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Empower's Warren Hogarth: "Giving credit to 100 million people" Sep 23, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Warren Hogarth, founder of Empower, to talk about solving the credit score quandary (3:20), how his struggle to buy a car planted a seed for the company (6:20), tapping in to bank account data (8:05), his first job shoveling poop (13:00), trying his hand at fuel cell technology (14:40), then doing a fintech startup (15:50), joining the legendary venture firm Sequoia Capital (18:00), not investing in Lyft (19:55), launching Empower (21:50), the problem with credit scoring (28:05), learning how fintechs got built at Sequoia (31:10), raising $150 million after staying lean for years (34:10), completely automating credit approval (34:30), keeping an eye on employment amid economic turmoil (36:35), and operating remote-first (39:50).

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Faeth's Anand Parikh: "Nutrition as the fourth pillar of cancer care" Sep 16, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Anand Parikh, co-founder and chief executive of Faeth Therapeutics, to talk about using nutrition to treat cancer (3:30),

pairing it with chemotherapy (8:45), growing up in London (10:00), moving from corporate law to a startup (12:00), starting Faeth (17:10), a dream team of cancer scientists (18:30), seeking FDA approval (26:10), operating fully remotely (29:50), food as medicine (32:15), and his worst day of work (34:40).

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Overemployed’s Isaac P: “The days of the employee are dead” Sep 02, 2022

The Sunday Times’s tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Isaac P, a tech worker secretly working multiple full-time jobs, to talk about the “overemployed” phenomenon (4:30), making $1 million a year (6:05), why the days of the employee are dead (8:25), the rise of remote monitoring tools (13:10), a typical day (14:30), his view of employers/companies (15:30), starting the website, Discord and Reddit (18:30), burnout (21:20), whether a slowing economy will kill the “overemployed” era (23:30), whether going to university is the best plan (28:00), and decoupling your identity from your job (30:10).

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SUMMER INTERLUDE! Aug 19, 2022

I'm taking a couple weeks off. Will be back with you first thing in September. Thanks for listening!

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Lightship's Ben Parker: "Electrifying a beige industry" Aug 12, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Ben Parker, co-founder and chief executive of Lightship, to talk about electrifying the recreational vehicle industry (3:30), starting out in electric racing (6:00), getting a job at Tesla (7:40), the food truck problem (12:30), leaving Tesla (19:25), starting Lightship (25:25), rethinking design from the ground up (31:00), the pickup truck tipping point (33:00), raising $23m (36:20), lessons from Tesla (39:00), and why RV’s are beige (43:50).

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Buck Institute’s Eric Verdin: “Half of children born today will live to 100” Aug 05, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Eric Verdin, president of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, to talk about metformin (5:20), his background (9:30), the origin of the Buck (12:30), getting support from techies (14:50), the birth of geroscience (19:20), exercise and the 10,000 steps phenomenon (27:10), tracking down the pathways of ageing (28:55), what the research looks like five years from now (35:10), healthspan (41:20), the Moore’s Law of ageing (46:20), how post codes are the single biggest determinant of longevity (50:25), age reversal (57:00), the longevity dividend (1:00:40) and the value of a glass of wine (1:09:45).

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Synchron's Tom Oxley: "Implanting the first brain-computer interface” Jul 29, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Tom Oxley, founder of Synchron, to talk about putting the first brain implant into a US patient (3:50), helping paralysed patients (6:55), getting the device into the brain (11:00), what this means for humans (14:25), understanding the brain (18:30), how he got started (24:00), creating Synchron (30:05), and the how the Pentagon helped fund the company (32:20).

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Cervest's Iggy Bassi and Karan Chopra: "Creating a climate risk X-ray” Jul 22, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Iggy Bassi and Karan Chopra of Cervest to talk about measure climate risk (4:40), launching Cervest after starting a company in Ghana (8:40), what they learned from growing rice (11:55), climate data (17:00), how they sell it (22:00), raising money (27:00), how climate intelligence is used by businesses (33:30), climate health scores (40:20), the problem with heat (43:15), and integrating climate risk scores into (47:30)

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Investor and author Matthew Ball: "The metaverse's time is nigh" Jul 15, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Matthew Ball, investors and Author of The Metaverse, and How it Will Revolutionize Everything, to talk about why the time is near for the metaverse (3:45), the metaverse economy (8:40), bringing together different technological and cultural strands (10:15), what’s going to be different (12:30), the importance of generational shifts (15:05), the definition (18:45), why there are no legs in Meta’s Horizon Worlds (23:55), the hardware challenge (26:00), who loses (31:55), Netflix (34:00), and why foresight and resource may not matter (35:45).

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Mike Alfred & Zume's Alex Garden on crypto, pizza and the future of humanity Jul 08, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on investor Mike Alfred to talk about the crypto meltdown (8:50), why this is different than the 2008 financial crisis (12:20), why more pain is coming (18:00), why he was worried about Celsius and BlockFi (22:10), and what the collapse means for the economy (28:05). THEN: Alex Garden of Zume comes on to talk about the food supply chain (32:20), alighting on pizza (37:35), replacing plastic with compostable packaging (41:50), the problem with plastic (45:05), how soggy pizza led to a pivot (51:00), scaling up (56:50), days that end in “why?” (1:06:50), and the painful decisions required to survive (1:08:50).

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Ample's John de Souza: "Electric car charging is broken" Jul 01, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on John de Souza, to talk about replacing car batteries, not charging them (6:20), starting with fleets (11:30), growing up in Africa and Dubai (15:00), producing a movie (19:00), entering uni at 16 (22:10), selling his first startup to Bill Gates (24:05), becoming an investor (27:40), then doing a few more startups (32:25), alighting on EV charging (33:40), getting the car companies to buy in to swappable batteries (39:20), raising $260 million (42:40), why superchargers aren’t enough (44:35), the future of the energy transition (48:20), and his deal with Uber (50:40).

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Shopify's Harley Finkelstein: “There’s room for us and Amazon” Jun 24, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Harley Finkelstein, president of Shopify, to talk about the market mayhem (3:50), Shopify coming out of the shadows (5:25), how it got started (11:30), how Amazon have up on the online stores business (19:35), getting into delivery (22:45), the renewed Amazon threat (27:45), the future of direct-to-consumer commerce (31:30), how Apple has upended online ads (36:10), and the best and worst of going fully remote (38:30).

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Persefoni’s Kentaro Kawamori: “Capitalism created the climate problem - and will solve it” Jun 17, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Kentaro Kawamori to talk about starting out in the oil industry (3:30), growing up all around the world (8:00), doing esports (10:00), going to three universities at once (13:30), dealing with drunken Japanese salarymen (14:40), the need for carbon accounting (17:30), how Persefoni works (24:15), Big Oil billionaires backing climate tech (27:15), raising $100 million (29:00), what happens after measurement (32:30), why Exxon’s loss to green investors was a big deal (34:30), the SEC pushing through with climate disclosure rules (38:10), and his worst day of work (41:50).

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Wired’s Steve Levy on Meta and What3words’ founder Chris Sheldrick on mapping the world Jun 10, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on two guests this week. First up is Steven Levy, editor-at-large at Wired and author Facebook: The Inside Story, to talk about Sheryl Sandberg’s original “deal” with Mark Zuckerberg (5:00), what Facebook was in the early days (7:10), the failure of the Zuck-Sheryl partnership (9:30), consolidation of Zuckerberg’s power (19:00), the Washington DC operation (21:00), what Sandberg does next (26:30), and what Meta does next (31:20). Then Chris Sheldrick, co-founder and CEO of What3words, comes on to talk about dividing the world into 57 trillion squares (36:30), the origin of the idea (38:40), getting the world to sign up (42:00), partnering with Jaguar Land Rover (44:10), breaking into America and other markets (46:50), the battle for mapping dominance (50:15), the business model (54:20), translating the system into different languages (55:50), and getting its first contract - in Mongolia (57:40)

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Starling's Anne Boden: "The banks have lost their confidence" Jun 03, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Anne Boden, founder of fintech unicorn Starling Bank, to talk about the post-pandemic workplace (3:30), the market collapse (8:40), starting a bank after the recession (11:50), growing up in South Wales (14:25), why banks aren’t good at tech (17:45), how people reacted to her as a first-time, 50-something entrepreneur (22:00), the first “yes” after 400 “no’s” (25:00), the banks’ lack of confidence (30:00), getting to 3 million customers in three years (33:40), sexism (39:40), breaking out of being a “trial bank” (42:20), crypto (43:40), and money laundering in London (46:25).

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Arrival's Avinash Rugoobur: "No one has ever made vehicles this way" May 27, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Avinash Rugoobur, president of Arrival, to talk about the challenge of creating an electric vehicle company from scratch (3:30), micro-factories (6:20), how the EV shift has already happened (10:30), why small is beautiful (15:50), the problem with paint (19:50), starting at GM’s innovation unit (24:20), when he started a “chocolate lounge” (25:45), meeting Arrival founder Denis Sverdlov (30:10), the importance of mentors (35:10), what keeps him up at night (38:30), and operating in a bear market (42:00).

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Miss Excel's Kat Norton: "How I made millions doing Tiktok videos - about Microsoft Excel” May 20, 2022

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Kat Norton, creator of Miss Excel, to talk about what she did before Miss Excel (3:30), declaring she would be “rich and famous” (7:30), deciding to try Tiktok (9:50), hitting 100,000 views with an early video (11:50), creating an Instagram presence (13:55), quitting her job (15:30), webinars (17:10), going from zero to seven figures in a year (19:00), on whether the pace is sustainable (24:10), social media negativity (27:10), the new world of Excel creators (28:45), and leaving New York (31:20).

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Mitra Chem's Vivas Kumar: "Building a US battery champion" May 13, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Vivas Kumar, founder of Mitra Chem, to talk about batteries (4:00), starting out at Tesla (8:10), launching his company (9:50), the race for battery resources (12:40), iron and China (14:00), meeting Chamath Palihapitya (18:10), going from India to Singapore to Texas to California (21:40), the Tesla roller coaster (26:30), making cathode powder (34:15), and the million-mile battery (39:30).

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UC Berkeley’s Hany Farid and James Currier of NFX on Musk’s Twitter takeover and the state of social media May 06, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on two guests, Hany Farid of UC Berkeley’s School of Information, and James Currier, general partner at NFX, to talk about Twitter and social media. Farid is up first to talk about free speech (4:50), the ideal of the Internet (10:00), the content moderation challenge (14:45), Musk’s plan for Twitter (18:50), why Farid’s optimistic (23:00), the cost of misinformation (27:00), and his prediction for Twitter (30:30). NFX’s James Currier then comes on to talk about the state of social media (33:35), taming the savageness of man (40:40), the bot problem (42:35), the uniqueness of Twitter (44:35), the Tiktok effect (46:50), the rise and fall of consumer products (51:55), the return to social media normalcy (54:25), the value of a social graph and Twitter’s future (57:45), and the crash in tech markets (1:02:10).

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Spring Free EV's Sunil Paul: "I've been trying to give away this idea for 10 years" Apr 29, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Sunil Paul to talk about how the “orange day” inspired him to start Spring Free (4:00), pioneering car-sharing and ride-sharing (9:50), why his company Sidecar didn’t work (14:35), the idea behind Spring Free (17:35), the Airbnb of electric vehicles (21:50), finding enough cars (27:40), getting billionaires to back him (32:10), applying the lessons form ride-sharing (33:00), building Spring Free as a consumer fintech brand (38:40), comparing the climate opportunity to the dawn of the web and his early days at AOL (40:00), and his worst day (47:25).

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Second Life's Philip Rosedale: "Metaverse millionaires" Apr 22, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Philip Rosedale, founder of Second Life, to talk about why he has returned as an advisor and investing the virtual world years after having left (4:30), how many people are on Second Life today (10:05), the $650m Second Life economy (12:05), digital goods millionaires (14:20), the dangers of an ad-driven model (16:40), how you govern a metaverse with 1 billion people (24:40), moderating (28:30), the future of the metaverse (36:00), whether Mark Zuckerberg can pull it off (40:40), and the concept of race in virtual worlds (43:30).

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Bimble’s Francesca Howland and Julia Mallaby: “We launched a travel startup in Covid” Apr 15, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Francesca Howland and Julia Mallaby, co-founders of Bimble, to talk about what they did before launching their travel startup (3:50), when they decided to team up (8:10), starting a company mid-career (10:20), raising money (15:05), launching the app (18:35), their worst day (19:40), setting up their tech team in Ukraine (22:20), building up a social network (28:35), coming up with the name (32:15), and influencer marketing (33:00).

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Kraken's Jesse Powell: "Currencies have a finite life" Apr 08, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Jesse Powell, founder of crypto exchange Kraken, to talk about his first startup selling video game virtual goods (3:00), reading about bitcoin (9:40), why he thinks bitcoin will replace gold (12:00), launching Kraken (12:50), getting a banking license (15:00), selling tens of thousands of bitcoin (17:00), how widespread crypto actually is (20:40), the inherent weakness in the market (26:00), the Mt Gox bankruptcy (27:40), the impending failure of fiat currency (31:40), the power of the current system (34:35), raising just $20 million (36:00), and reaching the masses (40:00).

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Powerhouse's Emily Kirsch: “Investing in saving our species” Apr 01, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Emily Kirsch, founder of Powerhouse, to talk about starting the company in 2013 (2:50), launching a pilot venture capital fund (5:50), working as a community organiser and getting funding from Prince (7:00), taking lessons from her parents’ non-profit (10:00), starting in a bear market for green technology (13:20), the talent shift (16:45), getting big corporates to really change (20:00), why the software layer is important (24:30), choosing investors (31:05), creating a female-only firm (34:05), and the green investing wave (38:40).

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Aeromobil's Patrick Hessel: "This is a car that flies" Mar 25, 2022

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Patrick Hessel, chief executive of Aeromobil, to talk about the company's flying car (4:10), why he thinks the world needs it (9:00), the business model (12:00), fender benders (14:40), trying to raise money (16:10), who they are marketing to (19:25), going from investor to chief executive (25:00), the EVTOL boom (26:35), and what keeps him up at night (32:40).

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Cana's Matt Mahar: "The world's first beverage 'printer'" Mar 18, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Matt Mahar, chief executive of Cana, to talk about the problem with the $2 trillion drinks company (5:55), the science of Cana (8:00), how the company started (10:00), where he worked before Cana (16:40), the product (18:15), getting people to buy in (20:00), whether “printed” drinks are good for you (23:30), providing every drink from morning to night (26:00), except for milk and beer (28:40), the specter of Juicero (31:15), and trying to find the right people (34:20).

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Genomic Prediction’s Stephen Hsu: “Making superhumans will be possible” Mar 11, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Stephen Hsu, co-founder of Genomic Prediction, to talk about the plummeting price of genomic sequencing (5:00), predicting height and cancer (9:10), mining biobanks (14:25), scoring embryos (19:00), why investors are staying anonymous (28:00), the need for a society-wide discussion (32:30), when he was accused of being a eugenicist (37:25), how powerful genetic prediction can be (43:15), genetic engineering (49:45), and why Denmark is the future (59:30).

See Stephen Hsu's podcast here: https://www.manifold1.com/

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Baroness Beeban Kidron: "A generational injustice" Mar 04, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Baroness Beeban Kidron to talk about the crackdown on Silicon Valley over how they treat children online (4:30), the age-appropriate design code (8:45), creating a window into the child’s experience online (13:10), the regressive effect of social media on girls and young women (18:00), the fallout from Frances Haugen’s whistleblowing (23:15), why she let he career as a film director (26:30), joining the House of Lords (31:30), leaving school at 15 (33:20), starting the 5 Rights Foundation (35:15), getting the Age Appropriate Design Code passed (41:00), and enforcing the code (45:40).

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Bessmer's David Cowan: A primer on quantum computing Feb 25, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Bessemer Venture Partners’ David Cowan to talk about the potential end of Moore’s law (4:55), the double slit experiment (6:45), quantum computing (15:30), the traveling salesman problem (22:15), what quantum computers look like (2:30), the problems they will solve (30:35), and the impending quantum heist (35:15).

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Better Meat's Paul Shapiro: "Where's the beef? In the fermented mushroom roots" Feb 18, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Paul Shapiro, founder and chief executive of Better Meat, to talk about making meat alternatives, (4:00), the $300,000 burger (11:00), using fungi (12:00), turning mushroom roots into steak (16:35), becoming an ingredient company (18:00), growing up an animal lover (19:45), starting an animal rights NGO (23:00), changing his approach (26:30), writing a book (28:40), starting Better Meat (31:50), experimenting with alternatives (33:45), his first hire (35:20), scaling up (39:20), the slow rate of innovation (43:10), his worst day of work (47:25), and society’s stubborn views on meat (49:05).

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Kernel's Bryan Johnson: "Measuring the mind and reengineering society" Feb 11, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Bryan Johnson, founder of Kernel, to talk about creating a new brain-measuring device (4:20), why he did it (7:10), launching a new layer of brain data in society (10:00), bringing the product to market (14:30), taking inspiration from Sir Ernest Shackleton (18:10), selling the Kernel Flow for smartphone price (20:40), creating new markets (24:30), funding it himself (28:00), measuring willpower (30:30), his startup as a reaction to Big Tech (35:3), choosing a Shackleton-type voyage over retiring to a farm (39:40), and Danny's brain results (43:10).

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Pivot Bio's Karsten Temme: "Microbial factories" Feb 04, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Karsten Temme, co-founder of Pivot Bio, to talk about engineering microbes (4:30), the problem with fertilizer (7:50), why agriculture needs to be remade (12:00), starting a company (15:15), finding farmers (20:00), tuning their microbes (23:35), the century of biology (30:10), overcoming skeptics (31:40), raising $430 million (36:50), and when birds ruined his day (37:50).

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Relativity Space’s Tim Ellis: “Building the world’s first 3D-printed rocket” Jan 28, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Tim Ellis, co-founder of Relativity, to talk about why he chose 3D printing (5:00), reducing the ways things can go wrong (11:25), how it works (15:00), the cost difference vs traditional manufacturing (26:05), why Mars (30:10), leaving Blue Origin to start the company (40:15), raising money and getting into Y Combinator (46:25), manufacturing on Mars (52:45), selling investors on the idea (59:00), and the impending launch (1:05:30).

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Parler's George Farmer: "Hate speech is subjective" Jan 21, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on George Farmer, chief executive Parler, to talk about how he started there (5:40), growing up in London (9:15), backing Brexit (14:40), getting married at Eric Trump’s winery (16:05), his plans for Parler (17:05), what’s the problem with social media (19:00), the echo chamber (23:55), how Parler moderates content (30:25), defining hate speech (32:20), the right’s victim mentality (37:40), traditional versus social media (40:05), the problem with Section 230 (45:35), diversifying (51:20), the luxury of being small (56:50), and Trump’s new social media app (59:20).

Want to hear our interview with Parler's founder? It's here:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/parlers-john-matze-hate-speech-is-free-speech/id1233991021?i=1000494947820

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Celsius’ Alex Mashinsky: “This is a fight for all the money in the world” Jan 14, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Alex Mashinsky, founder of Celsius, to talk about creating a crypto fund manager (3:25), managing risk (8:40), growing up in Israel (11:50), buying a one-way ticket to New York (14:10), his first startup (16:10), launching a voice-over-IP company (22:50), getting kicked out of his own company (27:50), trying to build Uber before Uber (30:10), putting wifi in the New York subway (34:10), getting into crypto (37:10), getting rejected by 200 venture capitalists (42:15), going from zero to $24 billion in assets under management (44:00), “centralised finance” (48:35), why he put $300 million of his own cash into Celsius (50:25), the future of crypto (55:05), and Web 3 and the fight for the future of money (1:02:40).

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SeedInvest’s Ryan Feit: “The best founders are drop-outs and criminals” Jan 07, 2022

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Ryan Feit, co-founder of SeedInvest, to talk about creating the Robinhood for private startups (3:45), working at Lehman Brothers before the recession (6:45), scratching the entrepreneurial itch (12:45), business school (16:30), the idea for SeedInvest (18:30), getting a law passed in Congress (20:20), making the regulator’s job harder (28:45), pondering giving up (31:45), finally getting regulations passed (34:20), the average SeedInvest investor (37:50), what’s in it for founders (42:10), and frothy markets (46:40).

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Glorify's Ed Beccle: "James Corden, Michael Bublé and God" Dec 22, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Ed Beccle, co-founder of Glorify, to talk about his being a teenage entrepreneur (3:30), moving to London (8:00), his other businesses (10:45), starting Glorify (14:00), religion and faith (16:20), how the app took off in Brazil (20:00), raising money for a religion business (24:15), rubbing elbows with Hollywood A-listers (27:40), eyeing becoming a Christian social network (29:40), working with the church (33:00), how he met his biggest investors (35:00), Michael Ovitz (40:45) doing carpool karaoke with James Corden - and getting him to invest (45:55).

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Benedict Evans Dec 17, 2021

This week Danny speaks with Benedict Evans, a technologist. In this episode they cover a range of things including web 3.0, cryptocurrency regulating tech and the future of tech as a whole.

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Cambrian Biopharma's James Peyer: "70 will be the new 50" Dec 10, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on James Peyer, co-founder of Cambrian Biopharma, to talk about the unique structure of his startup (6:30), the goal (8:45), alighting on longevity as a 15-year-old (12:45), why the field has matured (15:40), what he chooses to focus on (19:50), getting drugs to market (24:55), raising money (32:00), why he chose the name (38:30), why dying of old age not necessarily an evolutionary inevitability (41:00), and the vaccine model (45:00),

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Genomic Prediction’s Elizabeth Carr: “Scoring embryos” Dec 03, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Elizabeth Carr, America’s first baby conceived by in-vitro fertilization and patient advocate at Genomic Prediction, to talk about the new era of pre-natal screening (5:45), the dawn of in-vitro fertilization (8:40), the technology’s acceptance (12:10), what Genomic Prediction does (13:40), scoring embryos (16:30), the slippery slope (19:20), selecting for smarts (24:15), the cost (25:00), and the future of conception (28:30). PLUS Dan Benjamin, bio economist at UCLA, comes on to talk about why he and others raised the alarm about polygenic scoring (30:20), drawing the line between prevention and enhancement (34:15), limits of the tech (37:15), what else we can select for (40:00), and unexpected consequences (42:00).

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Thanksgiving! Nov 26, 2021

We take a break this week in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday. Back next week with a new episode!

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Cruise’s Oliver Cameron: “The Everest of self-driving tech” Nov 19, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Oliver Cameron, founder of Voyage and VP of product at Cruise, to talk about the arrival of self-driving cars (3:40), dropping out of uni to develop apps (14:40), getting a spot at Y Combinator (17:20), the difference between America and Britain (18:20), becoming an executive at Udacity (20:25), his disastrous first fundraising pitch (23:55), launching his self-driving car startup Voyage (28:10), selling it to Cruise (30:40), what does “self-driving” mean (33:30), launching commercial services in San Francisco (38:30), his worst day (42:20), and his best (43:20).

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Think Better's Heath Jansen: "Riding the millennial super cycle" Nov 12, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Heath Jansen, founder of Think Better Group, to talk about his start running an aluminium smelter (3:30), coming to London (7:00), his ‘Jerry Maguire’ moment (8:25), creating a coffee company (12:40), why he quit the City(19:40), how his former colleagues reacted (21:25), building the Unilever for millennials (25:35), nappies (26:50), the millennial consumer (33:30), and whether sending premium products to rich people make a difference (40:30).

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A taste test of lab-grown chicken with Upside Foods' Uma Valeti Nov 05, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Uma Valeti, founder of Upside Foods, to talk about creating “cultivated meat” doing a taste test (4:00), the process (6:00), why he is working on this (10:20), his “aha” moments (12:15), signing a release to eat chicken (19:55), cutting out fetal bovine serum (23:10), the scaling challenge (26:00), and the importance of transparency (29:40).

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Bessemer’s David Cowan: “The more off-the-wall the better” Oct 29, 2021

The SundayTimes’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on David Cowan to talk about Bessemer Venture Partners' anti-portfolio (4:00), missing Google (6:05), why tech is accelerating (7:25), why he bet on space (10:00), why colonizing space is “inevitable” (12:45), the rise of micro satellites (15:30), backing Rocket Lab (21:30), the privatisation of weather (25:00), backing off-the-wall ideas (27:30), the future of Silicon Valley (34:45), his mock-umentary Bubbleproof (38:00), and the FOMO epidemic (41:40).

Want a FREE TRIAL of The Times and The Sunday Times? Click here to sign up: thetimes.co.uk/dannyinthevalley

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Twilio’s Jeff Lawson: “Build or die” Oct 22, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Jeff Lawson, founder of Twilio, to talk about what the company does (3:15), starting out in 2008 (9:15), running an extreme sports retailer (11:40), tapping into the magic of software (16:00), why the Internet is just getting started (19:45), the Darwinian fight for survival (24:00), how Covid accelerated the digital shift (28:10), growing up in Detroit (31:40), creating a note-taking startup in university (35:45), riding the first dotcom wave (39:40), why he has stuck in San Francisco (42:10), the responsibility of companies (45:20), his very first business (51:25), his worst day of work (53:40), and the act of kindness he remembers (56:30).

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Open Philanthropy's Holden Karnofsky: "Artificial intelligence and the most important century" Oct 15, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Holden Karnofsky, founder of GiveWell, to talk about philanthropy (3:30), teaming up with Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskowitz and hits-based giving (6:40), the most important century (12:50), how artificial intelligence could be about to change everything (15:55), deep learning (21:00), becoming a spacefaring civilization (24:45), living in a really weird time (27:30), treating AI like climate change (30:00), effective altruism (37:00), and the need for long-term thinking (42:30).

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Planet's Will Marshall: "Taking care of spaceship earth Oct 08, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Will Marshall, founder of Planet, to talk about going public (4:20), sneaking smartphones onto a rocket (5:40), starting Planet (9:30), photographing earth every day (14:40), what its data is used for (16:00), selling to the military (20:10), leveraging computer vision and machine learning (22:45), building a telescope at age 15 (25:00), the opportunity presented by climate change (28:15), launch costs (32:10), replacing satellites when they burn up in the atmosphere (38:40), creating an ethics committee (40:15), taking responsibility for technology’s power (42:50), and getting rich (47:30).

Start you FREE trial of The Times and The Sunday Times by going to: www.thetimes.co.uk/dannyinthevalley

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Sila's Gene Berdichevsky: "The world's going 100% electric" Oct 01, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Gene Berdichevsky, founder of Sila, to talk about the sudden global decision to electrify transport (4:30), his history at Tesla (7:50), creating a new battery technology (12:00), black magic dust (16:00), launching Sila a decade ago (23:30), the shift within the financial community (28:50), the million-mile battery (32:50), emigrating from the former Soviet Union (38:30), solar-powered cars (42:15), and the shift toward climate tech in Silicon Valley (46:00).

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Colossal's George Church: "Elephants in Alaska" Sep 24, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on George Church, co-founder of Colossal, to talk about genetically bringing back the wooly mammoth (3:40), what has made this possible (7:00), co-founding 38 companies (9:40), science fiction made real (11:20), reversing aging (14:50), the typical pushback to the mammoth idea (19:40), the climate change angle (22:10), raising money (25:40), and growing elephants in a lab (27:40).

!Flash sale for The Times and The Sunday Times! Click here to get the offer: www.thetimes.co.uk/dannyinthevalley

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Kettle's Nat Manning: "Insuring the 'biblical stuff'" Sep 17, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Nat Manning, founder of Kettle, to talk about how climate change is upending insurance (5:00), the role of reinsurers as “the second parachute” (10:40), updating risk models with machine learning (14:45), building a better mousetrap (20:30), how meditation lent clarity (28:0), getting into disaster relief (31:30), the long tail of suffering (33:00), starting Kettle (37:40), getting rejected by Y Combinator (42:20), raising money (44:35), the clash between regulators and the industry (47:00), and the opportunity (51:20).

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High Fidelity's Philip Rosedale: "The trouble with building the metaverse" Sep 10, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on High Fidelity’s Philip Rosedale to talk about virtual worlds before the Internet (4:00), founding Second Life (8:00), capturing the zeitgeist (11:00), Second Life today (16:05), the current metaverse hype (20:10), the challenge of living a virtual life (23:10), the folly of the “hybrid” workplace (29:20), the dangers of virtual life (31:30), the importance of business model (35:00), the hardware challenges (39:30), and of augmented reality (44:00), tech’s misunderstanding of human behaviour (47:10), the dystopic idea that yielded the metaverse (51:00), and Burning Man in the time of Covid (59:40).

For a FREE trial subscription to The Times, go to: thetimes.co.uk/dannyinthevalley

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Houzz's Adi Tatarko: "From nightmare project to home-improvement unicorn" Sep 03, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Adi Tatarko, founder of unicorn Houzz, to talk about the home improvement boom pandemic (2:45), the pandemic (5:15), ending up in California from Israel (9:30), a renovation project gone wrong (15:00), getting the first cheque for Houzz (20:50), raising $600 million more as a husband and wife team (27:40), on whether she plans to go public (30:00), how Houzz makes money (30:45), and drawing inspiration from her Holocaust-surivor grandmother (34:15).

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Nobell Foods’ Magi Richani: “I refused to accept life without cheese” Aug 27, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Magi Richani to talk about cheese (4:15), how her lactose intolerance led her to start a company (7:30), the inefficiency of the cow (10:40), moving from Lebanon to Texas (15:50), becoming an engineer (20:45), starting out in the oil industry (24:15), rescuing animals (27:20), quitting Shell (30:00), coming from an entrepreneurial family (31:30), agricultural subsidies (37:00), getting her first investor (38:45), deciding on soybeans (43:10), slashing the environmental footprint of cheese production (46:00), using existing infrastructure (49:20), measuring up against the real thing (51:20), choosing the name (57:15), and launching a brand (58:30).

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The Production Board’s Dave Friedberg: “Technology will save the day - hopefully” Aug 20, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Dave Friedberg, founder of The Production Board, to talk about the western US’s ‘mega-drought’ (5:15), attracting cash to climate tech (8:30), the economic consequences of climate change (13:15), creating the Climate Corporation (16:15), getting investment from Larry Page (22:10), and Koch Industries (25:25), the future of food (28:00), “printing” drinks (34:05), water (39:15), climate migration (43:45), and how technology has saved the day before (45:45).

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Hinge's Justin McLeod: "Engineering intimacy" Aug 13, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Justin McLeod, founder of Hinge, to talk about dating in the pandemic (2:41), launching an app (4:33), his early years as a “hot mess” (5:51), cleaning up his act (6:50), loneliness (9:45), overhauling the app (12:15), the irony of maximizing for “time in app” (15:03), injecting friction into the process (18:10), introducing a “vaccine status” badge (23:28), Facebook dating (27:00), the future of dating (30:03), the 36 questions to find love (32:14), his worst day of work (38:14), reconnecting with his wife (39:49), video first dates (41:49), and selling to IAC (43:20).

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Pearson's Andy Bird: "Our business model was broken" Aug 06, 2021

Pearson’s Andy Bird: “Education is going to be disrupted like music”

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Andy Bird, chief executive of Pearson, to talk about transforming the education giant (5:40), creating textbook “playlists” (8:30), growing up in Manchester (14:45), getting into the entertainment industry (16:10), being recruited by Bob Iger (21:30), remaking Disney's foreign operations (23:05), cutting ties with Netflix (27:40), failing at Disney’s first streaming attempt (29:10), retiring (34:25), un-retiring and join Pearson {38:00), the backlash over his ‘golden hello’ (41:00), the breakdown of the higher education business model (43:40), the future of Pearson (49:40), overhauling a 177-year-old company (52:40), and learning from failure (57:40).

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Stephen Levy: "Peak Facebook" Jul 30, 2021

Amid Facebook's record-setting financial performance and its pivot toward become a "metaverse" company, we air a revealing interview from last year (March 2020) with Stephen Levy, author of Facebook: The Inside Story, Levy talks about the moment he decided to write the book (4:15), the first time he met Zuck (8:55), the “book of change” (10:30), why Zuckerberg didn’t need an “adult in the room” (14:00), his deification in Silicon Valley (17:15), how Trump used Facebook (19:15), dark profiles (22:00), why Facebook is still moving fast (25:15), Facebook’s antitrust fight (28:45), on whether encryption changes things (31:15), Facebook as a utility (34:15), Zuckerberg’s shrinking inner circle (36:00), the hardest thing about writing the book (39:45), how Zuckerberg has changed (44:15), the Facebook phone (48:30), Cambridge Analytica (49:30), and whether Facebook is too big to control (53:45).

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Antonio Garcia Martinez: "Silicon Valley's necessary delusions" Jul 23, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Antonio Garcia Martinez, to talk about his winding career in tech and media (3:25), living in the woods (7:25), his Facebook memoir (11:00), criticizing tech but also defending it (15:55), landing a gig at Apple and then getting fired (20:10), the Silicon Valley culture wars (23:25), launching a newsletter (30:25), the breakdown of the media business model (37:45), the tectonic plates shifting in the ad world (42:20), the privacy push (45:20), Apple and Google tightening their grip on the web (49:05), whether we should care (55:00), and living in Reno (58:30).

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Sofar’s Tim Janssen: “Google Maps for the ocean” Jul 16, 2021

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Tim Janssen of Sofar to talk about the paucity of ocean data (3:30), creating an ocean sensing network (6:15), the engineering challenge (8:30), modeling (10:30), why he left academia (15:15), raising money (19:20), coming here from the Netherlands (21:10), his customers (22:30), what’s happening in the oceans (33:25), and dropping the first sensor in the water (37:30).

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Throwback edition! A deep dive into the space race Jul 15, 2021

We repost a podcast from Tales of Silicon Valley, the narrative podcast that Danny did two years ago. In the week that Sir Richard Branson touched space, and just days before Jeff Bezos prepares to do so as well, we go back to this investigatio into how billionaires are racing to become the first to settle on the moon. We talk to astronauts, and the billionaires themselves, about their plans to turn humans into a multi-planetary species.

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Atai’s Christian Angermeyer: “Funding the psychedelic renaissance” Jul 09, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Christian Angermeyer to talk about spending $40 million on his own money to reinvent the psychedelics industry (3:46), his first magic mushroom experience (6:58), convincing investors (11:09), targeting opioid addiction (17:35), the stoned ape theory (21:06), the legal challenge (24:33), the timeline (28:35), the social media effect (29:43), bad trips (39:56), developing a network of professionals to guide therapy (42:47), plus his view on the return of live events (46:23), the epidemic of undocumented mental health issues (50:27), and how he made his money (53:37).

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Archer Aviation’s Brett Adcock and Adam Goldstein: “The world is rooting for our air taxis” Jul 02, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Brett Adcock and Adam Goldstein, co-founders of Archer Aviation, to talk about their air taxi startup (6:00), starting out in recruiting (9:00), how they pivoted to flying cars (12:30), setting up an aeronautics lab (18:20), designing a plane (21:30), finding a billionaire backer (30:00), and then United Airlines (33:00), launching by 2024 (37:45), working toward test flights (41:10), the talent war (42:10), unveiling a plane that hasn’t flown (45:10), what air taxis will be able to do (49:15), and the adoption period (54:40).

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Bonus Episode; Secrets of the Side Hustle- Tech for good with OLIO co-founder Tessa Clarke Jun 28, 2021

Danny will be back later this week with more tales from the valley. But first, here's a special extra episode from the team behind "Secrets of the Side Hustle"

Food waste is one of the biggest contributors to the climate crisis. Could sharing be the solution? Tessa Clarke, co-founder of the OLIO app thinks so.

She sat down with host, Laura Jackson, to talk about how tech companies can change the world for the better, the struggles many female founders find when seeking investment and even more.

Subscribe now to hear more from "Secrets of the Side Hustle"

Guest

Tessa Clarke, co-founder of food sharing app, OLIO

Host:

Laura Jackson

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Whatnot’s Grant Lafontaine: “Creating an eBay for millennials” Jun 25, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Grant LaFontaine, co-founder of Whatnot, to talk about creating the successor to eBay (3:40), the collectibles boom (7:50), his first startup (12:30), his early interest in marketplaces (14:25), working at Youtube (17:40), launching Whatnot in 2019 (23:45), starting with Funkopops (27:55), what’s happening in China (33:30), what works about live shopping (35:40), the Pokemon phenomenon (41:15), luring star investors (45:15), his worst day (49:15), and the future of eBay (51:20).

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Gridware’s Tim Barat: “A Fitbit for power poles” Jun 18, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Tim Barat, founder of Gridware, to talk about dropping out of school at 15 (4:30), his first company (11:30), moving to California (17:50), getting into college (22:30), the problem he's targeting (25:00), wildfires (28:20), building a super sensor (34:00), starting a company (36:30), raising money (42:30), how the tech works (51:50), how he sells it (59:10), and the what's left to do (1:02:50).

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Yield Guild Games’ Gabby Dizon: “This video game is saving lives” Jun 11, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Gabby Dizon, founder of Yield Guild Games, to talk about starting a gaming guild (4:10), the crypto winter (8:25), Axie Infinity (10:00), an in-game economy (13:55), creating a scholarship programme (17:55), the perception of value (25:00), raising $1.3 million (28:00), struggling to keep his gaming studio alive (29:05), growing up in Manila (30:40), the metaverse (33:50), why he never left the Philippines (36:50), and the future of work (39:00).

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A very quick pause... Jun 04, 2021

But we're back next week!

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Endless West’s Alec Lee: “We make aged whisky - in 24 hours” May 28, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Alec Lee, founder of Endless West, to talk about re-engineering whiskey (2:45), starting out in stem cells (6:15), how a Napa wine trip inspired their startup (7:45), the regulatory hurdles (10:50), pitching investors (13:45), the key tech advances (16:45), how he makes whiskey (20:50), reducing to hours what takes years (26:00), how he’ll spend the $21 million he just raised (32:30), on celebrity tine-ins (34:00), why they chose whiskey (36:20), why sustainability in marketing is hard (38:00), and the hangovers (40:00).

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Jim Mellon: "Cultured meat will be bigger than electric vehicles" May 21, 2021

The Sunday Times tech correspondent brings on Jim Mellon, the billionaire investor and co-founder of Agronomics, to talk about the lab-grown meat revolution (2:40), why he thinks he’s not too early (7:40), the dairy industry example (9:30), replacing traditional industries (11:00), why cultured meat will be bigger than electric vehicles (15:00), the carbon crackdown coming for meat (16:45), foetal bovine serum (20:40), what keeps him up at night (22:50), how cultured meat works (24:30), and the labelling fight (29:45).

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BitBio’s Mark Kotter: “A single cell to feed the world” May 14, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Dr Mark Kotter, co-founder of Meatable and Bit Bio, to talk about the synthetic biology revolution (4:10), growing flesh (7:00), the field’s “big bang” (9:15), lab-grown meat (16:30), how far we are from a reverse-engineered ribeye (20:00), the “Meat 2.0” era (22:00), the branding challenge (26:30), creating a synthetic biology platform (28:00), the human cell atlas (32:00), cells as a smartphone (37:10), selling cells to pharmaceutical companies (41:15), the stem cell issue (45:45), living forever (49:45), and raising money (52:50).

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DoNotPay's Josh Browder: "San Francisco is a sinking ship" May 07, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Josh Browder, founder of DoNotPay, to talk about leaving San Francisco (4:15), the quiet exodus (7:15), why San Francisco is “unfriendly” to business (11:30), why Miami feels real (14:04), DoNotPay’s plans (18:00), privacy (21:35), the future of San Francisco (22:40), and the straw that broke the camel’s back (24:25).

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Beacon's Fraser Robinson: "The more swear words people use to describe a problem, the bigger the opportunity" Apr 30, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Fraser Robinson, founder of Beacon, to talk about solving supply chains (2:45), the problem (5:10), his first startup (11:15), becoming the “adult in the room” (18:30), the early days at lastminute.com (19:50), starting another business in 2010 (22:30), getting recruited to Uber (24:45), running Uber in Europe (27:10), how to move fast and not break things (30:00), on whether Uber can survive (32:00), the mistakes in London (36:20), doing the big deal with Saudi Arabia (38:30), leaving in 2018 (42:10), getting sued (45:20), and being left on the tarmac by an oligarch (46:50).

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Gitlab’s Sid Sidbrandij: “Meetings are expensive” Apr 27, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Sid Sijbrandij, co-founder of Gitab, to talk about running a remote-first company (2:45), how it works (5:45), organising informal communication (8:30), minimising meetings (9:45), on-boarding (12:30), convincing investors (14:15), the problem with “hybrid” work models (15:50), the future of cities (18:15), and inventing ways to measure success (19:30).

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Cade Metz: “The human didn’t have a chance” Apr 23, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Cade Metz, New York Times tech journalist and author of Genius Makers, to talk about the rise of artificial intelligence (3:00), the most important auction in tech (4:35), Europe’s AI crackdown (7:40), Geoff Hinton and neural networks (10:00), how AI starts to spread (13:00), Deepmind’s Demis Hassabis (18:20), why he turned down Facebook’s takeover bid (21:00), Project Maven (23:20), the AI “arms race” with China (25:25), whether artificial general intelligence is possible (29:20), the AlphaGo moment (33:00), Move 37 (38:10), what AI disrupts next (42:00), bias (45:05), the robot arm room (51:30), and the Rubik’s cube solution (56:15)

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Larva Labs’ Matt Hall: “Creating cryptopunks" Apr 16, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Matt Hall, founder of Larva Labs, to talk about creating cryptopunks (3:00), what he did before this (4:30), creating cryptopunks in 2017 (9:00), cryptokitties (11:00), how it works (12:45), giving them away (14:00), from zero to a $250m market (15:15), why NFTs took off (20:05), who is buying them (24:20), trying 50 other things before this (25:45), Autoglyphs (27:00) and what’s next (29:25).

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Terraformation’s Yishan Wong: “Forest as a service” Apr 09, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Yishan Wong, founder of Terraformation, to talk about his plan to plant a trillion trees (3:30), his days running Reddit (8:10), on whether social media is manageable (10:50), working at Paypal and Facebook in the early days (13:15), marrying tech and tree planting (15:15), how he got into climate change (18:00), making tree-planting a business (23:15), the first project (28:20), the reforestation bottleneck (33:20), why solar is key (36:05), raising venture capital (44:00), selling forest “kits” (47:30), banking on a shift in thought (52:10), his lessons from scaling Facebook (57:45), why trees are the easiest answer (1:02:15), and why the goal is 1 trillion (1:04:50).

PLUS: Gianni Settino on why he joined an investor group that spent $208,000 on a Lebron James video highlight (1:06:40), tinkering with ethereum (1:08:50), cryptokitties (1:11:45), building a crypto football card experience (1:15:40), NBA Top Shot (1:16:30), buying the Lebron James card (1:19:00), what his parents said (1:22:00), and whether this is a bubble (1:25:15).

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Alchemy's Nikil Viswanathan: "NFTs are the future" Apr 02, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Nikil Viswanathan, co-founder of Alchemy, to talk about the boom in non-fungible tokens (NFT’s) (3:00), his first app (7:50), what Alchemy does (10:10), how much NFT sales have grown since January (14:00), fads and staying power (17:30), the value of digital goods (20:20), the weirdest NFTs (23:30), the future (25:15), how Alchemy makes money (30:30), growing up in small-town Texas (34:00), Stanford (35:15), his worst day (36:35), and his investors (40:00). PLUS: Raj Choudhury, of Harvard Business School, comes on to talk about the return to work (42:00), the 25% model (44:20), engineering random interactions (48:40), getting senior people to buy in (51:30), the problem with our “meeting culture” (54:10), the financial benefits of “work from anywhere” (58:30), recreating the office (1:00:45), and reversing the rural brain drain (1:01:15).

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Tim O'Reilly: "Silicon Valley: turning idealists into monopolists" Mar 26, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Tim O’Reilly to talk about the end of Silicon Valley as we know it (3:30), how the markets were designed to give us monopolies (6:30), his history in tech (90), incentives (10:30), the coming crash (17:00), the tech industry’s changing culture (23:15), how venture investors now pick the winners (26:15), on whether Silicon Valley can do deep tech (29:15), the antitrust backlash (38:20), how the industry is moving away from its ideals (38:35), how that tax code powers the bubble (40:55), and the next opportunities (45:00).

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Chargepoint's Pat Romano: "We just had to wait it out" Mar 19, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Pat Romano, chief executive of Chargepoint, to talk about taking a company public in a pandemic (4:20), the electric car revolution (7:30), about whether there are enough chargers (11:40), why charging cars will be completely different from filling up at a petrol station (11:20), how long before we think of EV’s as just cars (16:50), the lack of standards (18:00), going to the market via SPAC (20:15), the rush of electric car companies to the market (23:15), and investor interest (25:50), the race between electric cars and the infrastructure they will require (34:00), subsidies (34:35), how he makes money (37:55), and how the world changed in 10 years (40:30).

Click here for Pat Romano's first interview more than two years ago:

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/chargepoints-pat-romano-hiding-in-plain-sight/id1233991021?i=1000425353783

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Timnit Gebru: "Google's ethical AI fig leaves" Mar 12, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Timnit Gebru, former co-head of Google’s ethical AI research team, to talk about how she arrived at Google (3:30), starting Black in AI (5:30), why diversity matters (8:40), her work at Google (12:30), gender shades research (15:50), the paper that got her booted from Google (19:10), large language models (20:50), what her paper addressed (27:30), why AI matters (30:15), the danger of undermining independent research (33:15), her co-founder getting fired (35:40), getting harassed online (37:20), and the tension between corporations and academia (39:00).

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Zeus Living’s Kulveer Taggar: “It was all unravelling before my eyes” Mar 05, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Kulveer Taggar, founder of Zeus Living, to talk about a year like no other (2:50), the first wave of cancellations 6:230), choosing to give money back (10:10), getting blanked by investors (11:40), his “Jerry Maguire” moment (14:15), Zoom layoffs (16:00), regaining ground (20:10), his co-founder’s wife getting cancer (23:10), getting back to growth (30:20), the hotel industry (34:15), changing how he works (36:30), and hearing from ex-employees (42:40).

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Nurx’s Varsha Rao: “The simplest things were incredibly hard” Feb 26, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Varsha Rao, chief executive of Nurx, to talk about running a women’s health company in Covid (2:50), seeing demand double (6:40), the staying power of telehealth (8:50), doing a startup in the first dotcom boom (13:35), what she learned (16:35), being a female founder (18:20), joining as an early executive at Airbnb (20;50), shifting to healthcare (25:30), starting at Nurx at a difficult time (27:55), launching migraine and acne treatments (31:30), convincing insurance companies to pay (33:10), what’s changed since the first bubble (36:40), and her best and worst days (38:05).

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Varda’s Delian Asparouhov: “The space gold rush” Feb 19, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Delian Asparouhov, founder of Varda Industries, to talk about manufacturing in space (3:00), the collapse in launch costs (6:45), SpaceX’s Starship (8:55), coming to America from Bulgaria (11:30), the math Olympiad (12:20), his previous tech jobs (14:55), founder dating (17:45), building space factories (24:20), the ‘coming down’ challenge (26:05), setting a 2-year timeline (29:20), the pitch to investors (30:50), what else can be made in microgravity (34:05), and what you can do in two days in space (41:20).

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Jason Calacanis: Silicon Valley v the media Feb 12, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Jason Calacanis, to talk about the de-platfroming of Trump (4:45), the revelation that is Trump-less Twitter (9:15), Silicon Valley v the media (12:15), the editing process (17:30), his term “late-stage journalism” (19:50), subscriptions and popularity (23:25), the direction of journalism (28:00), the increased scrutiny of Big Tech (30:30), free agent journalists (34:15), Twitter v Clubhouse (36:30), and Robinhood (41:45).

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Shift4's Jared Isaacman: "Commanding the first civilian mission to space" Feb 05, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Jared Isaacman, founder of Shift4 Payments, to talk about flying the first civilian mission to space (4:15), on whether he is scared (7:00), starting a company at 16 (8:15), early success (11:15), creating the world’s largest air force (12:35), buying fighter jets around the world (16:05), training for space (17:50), funding kids cancer research (22:50), being a billionaire (24:25), the space flight (26:15), what his company is seeing amid Covid-19 (30:25), going public in a pandemic (32:00), giving away his money (33:15), flying Russian MiG fighter jets for fun (36:40), and breaking a round-the-world flying record (37:40).

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Cover’s Alexis Rivas: “Lego houses” Jan 29, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Alexis Rivas of Cover to talk about rebuilding home-building (3:45), starting small (7:40), using software to automate the process (9:00), the original idea (11:20), getting into Y Combinator (13:45), the Lego method (15:45), the mini-boom in construction tech (18:20), the homelessness problem (21:30), the cost difference (25:05), overhauling the industry (27:45), and his worst day of work (31:45).

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Economist Eli Dourado: "City lights on the moon and living past 130" Jan 22, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Eric Goldman, law professor at Santa Clara University, to talk about what tech regulation will look like under Joe Biden (4:00), Congressional gridlock (7:00), the importance of Section 230 (8:15), social media’s Lehman Brothers moment (10:25), cable news’ central role in disinformation (12:40), what he would do as tech czar (14:05), and the effectiveness of labelling posts (17:05).

THEN: Utah State economist Eli Dourado comes on to talk about the biggest tech innovations of the next decade, like life extension (18:45), being a different kind of economist (24:00), the prize of increasing healthspan (26:10), turning back the clock (27:45), the Apple Watch replacing your doctor (30:15), when electric cars take over (32:20), machine learning enabling super human performance (36:10), why he focuses on innovation (39:50), why the future is in space (41:05), outer space manufacturing (45:50), glasses as the next frontier of computing (50:15), and the 1960’s as the golden age of productivity (53:20).

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Neeva's Sridhar Ramaswamy: "We can do better than Google" Jan 15, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Sridhar Ramaswamy to talk about the problem with search engines (3:45), leaving Google (6:15), where Google went wrong (10:30), on whether people actually care about privacy (14:00), why the government's antitrust suit doesn’t help (19:00), how you build a search engine without the resources of Google (21:45), the importance of the cloud (25:45), the challenge of going from free to paid (28:30), how his former colleagues reacted (31:00), and what keeps him up at night (35:10). PLUS, Miami mayor Francis Suarez comes on to talk about Miami’s moment (35:45), that tweet (37:40), the Covid factor (39:00), why he thinks he’ll succeed his city can rival Austin as America's second tech hub (41:50), how low taxes help (44:30), and telling the story (50:00).

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Investing in US's Dmitri Mehlhorn: “The business of making Trump a one-term president” Jan 08, 2021

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Dmitri Mehlhorn, head of Investing in US, to talk about the business of unseating Trump (3:45), what he saw as an existential threat (8:25), linking up with Reid Hoffman (10:50), the problem he sought to solve (13:00), investing hundreds of millions to make Trump a one-term president (15:55), the importance of Big Data in politics (20:15), piloting a new approach in Virginia (22:30), upsetting the apple cart (25:40), being seen as “knife-fighters” (30:20), what happens now (33:40), good v evil (40:30), the key investments (43:20), the importance of the web (46:40), his biggest mistake (49:50), winning without becoming what you are trying to defeat (56:20), the death of truth (59:40), Silicon Valley’s conflict between backing Biden while battling against the impending antitrust crackdown (1:01:00), Zuckerberg’s major role in the election (1:04:30), and the future of media (1:07:15).

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Substack's Chris Best: "We knew we were walking into a firestorm” Dec 18, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Chris Best, founder of Substack, to talk about how he got started (6:40), newsletters v newspapers (11:20), Silicon Valley’s disgust with the media (13:10), helping writers make money (16:20), Substack’s top earner (22:00), the danger of hardening silos (25:40), giving writers more resources (30:55), the value of editors (34:10), how Substack makes money (38:25), following in Patreon’s footsteps (40:05), free versus paid (43:10), and his worst day of work (47:10).

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Compass Pathways' George Goldsmith: "Medical magic mushrooms" Dec 11, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on George Goldsmith to talk about how he started looking into psilocybin (3:45), its history of research (7:00), what he and his wife did before starting Compass (10:15), the 100 million people suffering treatment-resistant depression (14:15), launching the company (17:15), finding investors (18:45), being worth $800 million (23:00), what therapy looks like (26:20), patenting a natural substance (32:00), the legalisation movement (42:00), shooting for 2025 (44:30), his worst day of work (47:30), and building a business around an illegal drug (51:50).

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Tim O'Reilly: "The landlords of the Internet" Dec 04, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Tim O’Reilly, founder of O’Reilly Media and prominent tech commentator, to talk about algorithmic rent (0:00), the Facebook case (5:15), how tech companies quietly changed the terms of engagement (7:40), getting investment from Pierre Omidyar (12:40), how his work got started on algorithmic rent (13:20), monitoring Big Tech’s behaviour change (16:15), Facebook’s rents (23:35), the importance of framing a problem (26:00), how to protect our 'tenants’ rights' (29:40), building a case (36:00), getting inspiration from Microsoft (37:40), and the toxicity of the Big Tech debate (41:20).

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Ripple’s Brad Garlinghouse: “Replumbing the financial system” Nov 27, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Brad Garlinghouse, to talk about remaking the global financial system (2:45), when it could happen (5:30), the cross-border payment challenge (7:10), replumbing the system (12:00), going through the first dotcom bubble (14:20), suing Youtube (16:20), getting impersonated (21:40), China’s control of bitcoin (22:20), the future of finance (24:20), considering moving to London (29:00), operating with a hand behind his back (30:45), and how chaos helps (33:30).

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Stanford Internet Observatory’s Renee Diresta: “Sharpies, CIA supercomputers and human antennas” Nov 20, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Renee DiResta of the Stanford INternet Observatory to talk about how Twitter handled 2020 (3:30), mainstream media getting a pass (40), Facebook groups (9:45), Sharpiegate (8:30), the election day war room (11:45), conspiracy “tickets” (15:00), how conspiracies spread (16:45), Trump’s centrality to the voter fraud posts (21:40), how these theories play out in the real world (26:40), the low cost to spreading misinformation (28:45), how 2020 compares to 2016 (33:30), Covid vaccines as the next target (36:20), whats changed between the first tech hearing and the most recent (39:00), and what Tiktok learned (41:30).

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Plenty's Nate Storey: "Kale outta Compton" Nov 13, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Nate Storey, co-founder of indoor farming unicorn Plenty, to talk about tearing down and rebuilding farms (3:40), the problem he’s trying to solve (6:40), breeding food for transport (8:50), building a farm in Compton (10:45), leveraging Hollywood (13:40), how he got into agriculture (17:10), leaving his first startup (22:10), what an indoor farm looks like (24:00), the industry boom (31:10), luring infrastructure investors (33:45), falling costs (37:30), how traditional farmers have responded (40:45), and putting orchards inside (44:00).

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Ruben Harris: "A backwards version of the Wu-Tang clan” Nov 06, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Ruben Harris, co-founder of Career Karma, to talk about starting out as a cellist (3:10), why music convinced him to get into business (6:50), buying a one-way ticket (8:55), his first tech job (11:00), working in political technology (17:30), how starting a podcast led to his startup (18:50), quitting his job (20:30), creating Career Karma (22:00), on whether coding boot camps work (23:50), income-sharing agreements (26:15), how work is changing (28:20), being black in Silicon Valley (30:15), his worst day (34:30), and addressing the laptop shortage (36:20).

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Mmhmm's Phil Libin: "Hospital clowns to investment bankers” Oct 30, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Phil Libin, founder of Mmhmm, to talk about fasting (3:35), starting the company (5:00), what it does (9:15), the end of the social media ice age (13:20), a trillion dollar shift (17:00), why he’s not worried about rivals copying him (24:30), who uses it (27:00), how he came up with the name (30:45), what goes wrong at startups (34:20), what skydiving taught him (39:35), the new hybrid world (43:30), and why he plans to leave San Francisco (46:30).

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Avalanche Insights' Michiah Prull: “Measuring oomph” Oct 23, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Michiah Prull, founder of Avalanche Insights, to talk about setting up a company after the 2016 election (3:00), starting as a community organiser (5:00), the problem with messaging (6:30), using AI to understand emotions (8:35), finding the right people (11:00), how an algorithm intuits human motivations (13:15), crafting a message (15:45), why the left is bad at it (19:45), fighting polarisation (22:30), levelling the misinformation/information playing field (26:00), whether he will go corporate (27:30), what went wrong in 2016 (31:30), the future of elections (33:00), the outlook for November 3 (35:45), and the evolution of the public’s view of climate change (37:35).

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Parler's John Matze: "Hate speech is free speech" Oct 16, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on John Matze, founder of Parler, to talk about starting a social network (4:10), its first viral moment (7:05), reacting to the banning of people online (8:10), echo chambers (11:10), Parler’s hyper-partisan power users (13:25), the site’s rules (15:50), why he doesn’t regulate hate speech (19:50), how the app helps people find others (24:10), why he welcomes the rush of Q Anon users (28:50), why he doesn’t think Parler is pushing people apart (33:25), his investors (36:50), trying to build Parler into a business (39:00), why misinformation is fair game (42:15), and how Katie Hopkins’ arrival attracted users (45:20).

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Standard Cognition's Jordan Fisher: "Cashierless stores are coming" Oct 09, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Jordan Fisher, founder of Standard Cognition, to talk about creating a video game (5:00), being rejected from venture capitalists (7:20), helping the financial regulator catch fraudsters (9:30), jumping into cashierless checkouts 12:10), the future of retail (16:30), launching in three stores (21:00), not using check-in gates (23:30), the very analogue backend of cashierless checkout (28:00), raising $86m - thanks to Amazon (32:15), what this means for retail (36:30), the effect of “Bodega-gate” (39:10), getting people used to not paying for stuff (41:10), the facial recognition issue (43:00), selling the system as a DIY kit (46:20), and the moments he thought it wouldn’t work (48:30).

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Higher Ground Labs' Shomik Dutta: "Nothing clarifies the mind like losing” Oct 02, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Shomik Dutta, founder of Higher Ground Labs, to talk about funding democracy tech (3:30), what happened after 2016 (5:30), losing the technology edge every four years (9:10), transforming the Democrats’ technology stack (11:15), creating a master voter database (15:15), Reid Hoffmann’s role (18:30), how to avoid funding the next Cambridge Analytica (22:00), making political investments that are good business (27:15), why social media is the battleground (29:45), his lack of confidence in Facebook (32:20), greasing the wheels of mail-in voting (35:50), the importance of cyber security (37:00), and the run-up to November 3 (38:15).

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NYU's Paul Romer: "An evil decision" Sep 25, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Paul Romer, the Nobel prize-winning economist, to talk about the choice between killing people and killing the economy (3:00), the policy failures of the Covid response (7:30), what happens when we reopen (11:35), the state of the economy (16:15), why going back to “normal” is doomed to fail (22:00), why undermining institutions is a problem (26:10), why now is not a good time for entrepreneurs (30:35), undermining the foundations of the economy (32:45), an alternative tech tax (36:45), and where the action is (38:00).

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DoNotPay’s Josh Browder: “A bot to build bots” Sep 18, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Josh Browder to talk about building a robot lawyer DoNotPay (3:40), raising money (7:10), overturning parking tickets (10:10), targeting problems that affect at least 50 million people (12:05) his bot builder (13:00), his Silicon Valley evolution (14:55), becoming an investor himself (16:40), becoming a Thiel fellow (18:00), staying in the Bay Area (20:50), the free trial scam (23:10), the porn industry’s dirty tricks (24:50), getting more cynical (27:15), the importance of having a business model (30:00), and suing robo-callers (31:10).

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Bollinger Motors’ Robert Bollinger “I've spent tens of millions on a childhood dream” Sep 11, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Robert Bollinger to talk about hiss previous career selling shampoo (4:25), moving to Detroit (7:05), why he wanted to founded an electric car company (8:35), the Tesla effect (11:00), why pick-up trucks are important (14:35), how parts have become cheaper (20:00), funding the company himself (21:50), how the world has changed (25:00), the turning point (27:00), why subsidies are vital (28:00), why the legacy brands will be ok (31:45), why his ignorance was a good thing (34:10), the importance of hiring well (35:55) and his worst day of work (39:20).

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Paypal's Dan Schulman: “The best way to win a fight is to avoid one” Sep 04, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Dan Schulman, chief executive of Paypal, to talk about how the smartphone has changed everything (3:10), the evolution of Paypal (6:00), spending 24 hours as a homeless person (9:05), the wave of corporate 'wokeness' (13:40), how employee expectations have changed (17:20), how Covid has upended its (23:50), beating Sir Richard Branson at tennis (26:35), and why he does mixed martial arts (27:30).

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Color of Change’s Arisha Hatch: “Silicon Valley is living a lie” Aug 28, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Arisha Hatch, head of campaigns at Color of Change, to talk about organising the Facebook ad boycott (5:00), why she chose to focus on the tech industry (8:55), trying to force change (11:40), whether it feels futile (15:00), what comes next in the civil rights campaign v Big Tech (17:20), the political exception on Facebook (21:00), the coming regulatory crackdown (22:30), tech’s tipping point (24:40), Silicon Valley’s grand delusion (27:15), pressuring Airbnb, Twitter and Google (32:00), ensuring a new civil rights executive is brought in at Facebook (33:40), and the dissonance between Silicon Valley’s marketing and the reality (35:00).

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Blendjet’s Ryan Pamplin: “I’ll never sell out again” Aug 21, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Ryan Pamplin, founder of Blendjet, to talk about living the Silicon Valley dream (2:45), suffering a traumatic brain injury (6:00), post-concussive syndrome (9:30), living in purgatory (12:45), changing his priorities (15:15), not wanting to sell out again (17:30), augmented reality’s potential (19:50), switching to blenders (24:55), getting his product on Silicon Valley, the TV series (29:45), competing with McDonald’s (31:45), creating a direct-to-consumer brand online (34:45), fighting fakes (36:45), the power of Facebook (39:00), marketing to Gen Z (43:00), the shadow of Juicero (44:50), influencer marketing (47:30), manufacturing in China (51:20), his health (52:30), brain computer interfaces (55:00), and the dark side of tech (58:30).

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Web Summit’s Paddy Cosgrave: “Throwing virtual tomatoes” Aug 14, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Paddy Cosgrave, founder of Web Summit, to talk about the big virtual conference experiment (3:00), random online meetings (6:00), why 24 hours a day is too much (8:10), when the check-in tech failed (10:15), whether virtual conferences are viable (12:35), his plans for Web Summit (15:30), spinning up micro-conferences (18:15), why he insisted on making software (20:00), on how the pandemic may be an opportunity (22:10), the sheer size of the business conference industry (26:30), the surprises (30:20), the business case of online conferences (32:35), and Siyabulela Mandela’s message on social justice (34:15).

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Bonus Episode; Stories of our times - Tik Tok and the data war Aug 11, 2020

A special extra episode for you from the daily podcast from The Times;

President Trump has ordered firms to stop doing business with social media giant TikTok over security concerns. Microsoft was the front-runner to buy the company, but now Twitter has emerged as a possible suitor. What has made the app so popular and so controversial? If you like this episode please rate and subscribe. Simply search for Stories of our times on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Acast or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Guests:

Danny Fortson Sunday Times west coast correspondent.

Host: Manveen Rana.

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Flexport's Ryan Petersen: "Plan for the unimaginable" Aug 07, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Ryan Petersen, founder of Flexport, to talk about being a canary in the coalmine (3:00), where the economy is recovering (5:00), what happens when planes stop flying (6:30), how he got involved in PPE shipping (9:20), working with the NHS (13:00), starting out in his twenties importing Chinese motorcycles (14:30), learning that it is hard to make money (17:15), starting Flexport (19:15), having entrepreneurial parents (21:45), the Trump factor (24:30), how he makes money (26:05), his worst day of work (27:30), remote work (29:10), raising $1bn (31:50), and getting backed by Softbank (37:10).

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DuckDuckGo's Gabriel Weinberg: "Google's privacy washing" Jul 31, 2020

The Sunday Times tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Gabriel Weinberg, founder of DuckDuckGo, to talk about the early days of starting the search engine (3:30), the erosion of Google’s results (7:40), how big DuckDuckGo is now (9:35), raising venture capital (12:30), how we as users get bid on (15:40), why he proposed a “Do Not Track” law (18:30), what the crackdown could look like (21:10), on whether people actually care about privacy (25:00), why Apple’s new operating system could be a game-changer (28:40), why Silicon Valley argues data is important (33:30), on whether breakups are the answer (34:50), and his jousting with Google (37:10).

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Tradeshift's Christian Lanng: “Covid-19 has created a generation of zombie companies” Jul 24, 2020

The Sunday Times tech correspondent brings on Christian Lanng, founder of Tradeshift, to talk about relocating to Alaska (3:30), remote working (6:30), creating Tradeshift (9:30), becoming a unicorn (13:30), what is happening in supply chains with Covid 19 (14:30), why the UK is underperforming (15:45), why companies need early repayment (19:00), when he saw the first signs of slowdown (22:30), how the pandemic could lead to ‘multi-shoring’ (25:30), the end of the high street (31:40), how he started out in Denmark (35:35), why traditional venture capital isn’t the best option (38:10), his worst day of work (40:45), why no one understands how software works (41:40), and paying hackers (43:20).

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Blue Zones’ Dan Buettner: “The longevity All-Stars” Jul 17, 2020

The Sunday Times’ west coast correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Dan Buettner, founder of Blue Zones, to talk about longevity in the era of Covid, finding the oldest people on earth (4:10), the common denominators (6:20), why you can’t pursue health (8:40), how cities are using Covid to change how they are set up (11:00), his pitch (12:55), why the built environment is so important (16:45), starting out with a National Geographic story (18:40), trying out his idea in Minnesota (21:00), why Covid could also be a hindrance (23:10), why trees are important (27:10), the Covid silver linings (31:40), why purpose is good for health (34:00), and life-extending minestrone (36:00).

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Algorithmic Justice League’s Joy Buolamwini: “Pale male data” Jul 10, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson bring on Joy Buolamwini, founder of the Algorithmic Justice League, to talk about pole vaulting (3:50), meandering from Ghana to Mississippi to Oxford (5:50), how her upbringing shaped her work (8:20), founding the Justice League (10:10), the lack of transparency in artificial intelligence (12:30), on how we’ve already lost our faces (14:20), the problems with data (15:40), Amazon’s failing system (21:10), why companies sell flawed product (26:10), the problem of standards (28:10), what she expects to happen with facial recognition (31:20), the regulatory backlash (33:35), why she chose the Justice League name (35:50), why she backs films and art (36:35) and being joined by others (38:50).

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1QBit's Andrew Fursman: "We’ve explored zero percent of what’s possible” Jul 03, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Andrew Fursman, co-founder of 1Qbit, to talk about quantum computing (4:00), how close we are to useful applications (7:00), simulating worlds (9:30), desktop carbon sequestration (13:00), what quantum computers look like (16:20), the race to develop hardware (20:00), if we are approaching a quantum “moment” (22:00), what he did before 1QBit (25:40), his pitch to investors (27:40), and investing in quantum as an insurance policy (29:15).

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Johns Hopkins University’s Dr Amesh Adalja: “We failed miserably” Jun 30, 2020

The Sunday Times tech correspondent brings on Dr Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Health Security, to talk about what we’ve learned about coronavirus (2:55), why we should be wearing face shields (8:25), whether we should sanitise our groceries (11:05), why outdoors is better (12:25), the second wave (13:45), lockdowns (15:05), the differences from 1918 (18:25), how who is getting sick influences the response (23:00), why he’s confident a vaccine is coming (26:45), living with risk (29:25), the importance of leadership (33:00), and what we know about immunity (36:40).

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Zyper’s Amber Atherton: “From ‘Made in Chelsea’ to a garage in Palo Alto” Jun 26, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Amber Atherton, founder of Zyper, to talk about brand “super-fans” (4:45), finding them (6:55), starting as an intern at Vogue (7:35), starting her first company in her teens (8:30), moving to California for Y Combinator (11:20), why super fans are important (12:55), the problem with influencer marketing (15:35), why rampant online fakery is good for Zyper (19:45), being anti-influencer (21:45), creating brand “clubs” (23:00), starring in Made in Chelsea (26:10), leaving the show (30:25), the wild ride of fame (31:05), and transforming into a remote-only company (33:35).

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Trint’s Jeff Kofman: “Rise of the voice economy" Jun 19, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Jeff Kofman, founder of Trint, to talk about creating a transcription startup (4:30), solving the problem (7:30), what to do when others start giving it away for free (8:45), why competition isn't a bad thing (11:00), the history of speech-to-text (18:00), how being a journalist trained him to be an entrepreneur (20:50), how digital shifted to the front foot (23:30), being terrified by rivals (28:50), expanding beyond his first idea (31:30), lettuce (34:50), raising $10 million (35:50), and his worst day of work (37:50).

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AI Now's Rashida Richardson: "Free-range facial recognition" Jun 15, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Rashida Richardson, head of policy research at AI Now, to talk about tech’s pang of conscience about facial recognition technology (3:40), predictive policing (5:20), the problem with the technology (8:15), how pervasive it is (11:30), the laws (13:40), the visceral effect of this technology (18:00), how AI is seeping into law enforcement (20:25), the data problem (25:20), whether this moment will lead to a crackdown (27:05), if a ban is realistic (29:25), and the race to the bottom (33:45).

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Web Summit’s Paddy Cosgrave: “We’re in the hands of the gods” Jun 12, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Paddy Cosgrove, founder of tech conference Web Summit, to talk about doing a virtual event in a pandemic (6:00), the hit to cities and vendors (10:15), the existential threat to events (13:15), why software might help (15:30), cancelling (18:30), what happens to flagship event Web Summit (22:30), the collapse in costs (24:15), algorithmically-engineered random meetings (28:10), how potential attendees have reacted (34:25), negotiating with cities (36:15), why he prizes having a non-techie slate (40:00), the problem with tech journalism (42:30), and the unknowable future (45:10).

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A moment to honor George Floyd Jun 05, 2020

A moment to honor George Floyd

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Udacity’s Sebastian Thrun: “A watershed moment for online education” May 29, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Sebastian Thrun, founder of Udacity and chief executive of Kitty Hawk, on the turning point for online education (6:40), the slow evolution of university (8:10), the broken business model of higher education (11:20), the importance of social cache (16:05), how he got started (18:40), doing it despite Stanford’s resistance (22:00), competing against the big brands (25:40), the limits of online learning (28:20), how the pandemic has impacted his other passion, flying cars (30:40), how he got started (34:40), what flying cars could do to transport (37:10), the hurdles (40:10), why history is important (42:40), the fear of uncertainty (46:00), and using AI in cancer (49:55).

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NFX’s James Currier: “The end of the social media ice age” May 22, 2020

The Sunday Times tech correspondent Danny Fortson, managing partner at venture capital firm NFX, to talk about the golden age of social media (3:00), the early social network he founded (5:10), the ice age (7:20), how social media is like railroads (9:10), the opportunity for social work apps (11:50), the chilling Facebook effect (13:00), the early days of Houseparty (16:), its moment arriving five years later (20:00), the buzzy Clubhouse app (21:00), how the idea of identity has changed (22:40), his involvement in the founding of Bebo (25:15), why being first isn't necessarily best (27:50), the paucity of founders (32:10), and why we shouldn’t underestimate Facebook (32:20).

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Inrupt’s John Bruce “The web we could have” May 15, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on John Bruce, co-founder with Sir Tim Berners-Lee of Inrupt, to talk about remaking the web (3:40), putting data back in users’ control (5:30), data pods (6:50), getting “paid” for your data (8:50), why progress will be gradual (10:50), the underlying tech (13:20), how close it is to coming to market (15:00), the pilot with the NHS (17:00), how the incumbents might react (19:10), how Covid could create an opening (22:00), how 20 people can change the web (27:00), bypassing Silicon Valley venture capital (30:10), what happens next (32:15), and what a better internet could look like (35:00).

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Curative’s Fred Turner: “A million tests a week” May 08, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Fred Turner, founder of Curative, to talk about creating a new coronavirus test (3:55), hiring 200 people in 7 weeks (5:35), what’s different about Curative’s test (7:10), how he got involved (10:40), who is backing him (13:25), starting with cows (16:00), then moving to STD’s (19:10), sepsis testing (25:20), coming from a tinkering family (26:), getting rejected by the NHS (29:00), the bottlenecks (33:10), moving to California as a teenager (35:20), raising money in a pandemic (37:30), singing up the US Air Force (41:00), and how he tests his employees (41:25).

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Mojo Vision's Steve Sinclair: “Tech in your eye” May 01, 2020

The Sunday Times tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Steve Sinclair, product head at Mojo Vision, to talk about "smart" contact lenses (2:00), why glasses are harder (4:00), working on this for ten years (7:30), gambling as a killer app (10:00), the possibilities of “invisible computing” (14:00), uses in conjunction with brain-computer interface tech (17:00), raising $159 million (20:40), how it works (23:10), the movement toward less screen time (28:20), the military applications (30:10), why now (32:50), and what else needs to be figured out (37:00).

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Moneyball's Michael Lewis: “The Trump Death Clock” Apr 29, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and The Big Short, to talk about government as a manager of risk (3:35), the fifth risk (5:0), how Trump’s handling of the transition from Obama foreshadowed crisis (8:10), what he found inside the government (10:20), when he realised the nightmare scenario had arrived (12:50), why Donald Trump is responsible (15:50), why no one is surprised (19:35), the death clock (23:25), and why cowardice is dangerous (24:50).

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Lean Startup's Eric Ries: "The cavalry is not coming" Apr 24, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Eric Ries, author of Lean Startup and founder of the Long-Term Stock Exchange, to talk about trying to build a PPE procurement website (2:55), the problem (5:40), what he can do as a techie (10:35), starting a hotline (13:35), waiting for the government (13:45), the bottlenecks (18:00), fears of oversupply (22:05) why the cavalry is not coming (25:00), the difference between demand and production capacity (28:20), and launching a stock exchange in a pandemic (31:55).

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Special Episode: Stories of our times - could tech giants get us out of lockdown? Apr 23, 2020

Today an edition of our new daily podcast - Stories of our times. Our new free daily news podcast takes you to the heart of the stories that matter, with exclusive access and reporting. Published for the start of your day, it is hosted by Manveen Rana and David Aaronovitch.

Technology might be the answer to our problems - but could we be giving up our privacy in return for our liberty?

Guest: Danny Fortson, The Sunday Times West Coast correspondent

Host:David Aaronovitch

If you want to hear more please search for Stories of our times and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

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AI Now's Meredith Whitaker: "Exploitation by design" Apr 17, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Meredith Whitaker, founder of AI Now and organiser of the Google walk-out, to talk about how she arrived at the search giant 13 years ago (3:40), delving into tech’s effects on society (4:30), becoming a critic (6:15), and then a labour organiser (8:40), the debate on Silicon Valley working with the Pentagon (11:30), AI bias (14:50), sentencing algorithms (17:00), the Google walk-out (19:45), retaliation (22:30), the dangers of government co-opting Big Tech in the coronavirus response (25:25), how AI can reinforce societal divides (32:30), and the plight of “essential” workers (34:15).

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Agility Robotics’ Damion Shelton: “Legs over wheels” Apr 15, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings Damion Shelton, founder of Agility Robotics, to talk about what he did before robots (3:00), making a humanoid robot (5:20), legs v wheels (10:30), the Covid effect (12:45) the public acceptance challenge (15:30), going to market as quickly as possible (17:40), how the smartphone changed the game (23:10), delivering parcels (26:40), where he draws the line with military uses (30:05), how long before it will be this robot is in the wild (34:30), how the machines will be like volunteer firefighters (38:05), and his worst day of work (41:00).

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10x Genomics’ Serge Saxonov: "Never has so much brainpower been focussed on one problem" Apr 10, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Serge Saxonov, founder of 10x Genomics, to talk about the end of normalcy (3:00), his high-end espresso machine for biology (4:20), delivering on the promise of genomics (6:20), how 10x is contributing to the coronavirus vaccine race (8:00), why a vaccine is theoretically achievable (10:15), the global shift to Covid research (13:15), leaving the Soviet Union and landing in New York (15:30), starting 23andMe (19:20), starting 10x (22:00), why it was hard to raise money (23:25), luring Softbank as an investor (25:55), 10x's footprint (26:50), the importance of resolution (28:10), and his worst day of work (32:00)

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Zipline’s Keller Rinaudo: “Teleporting medicines” Apr 03, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Keller Rinaudo, founder of Zipline, to talk about using drones to deliver medical supplies (3:25), dropping blood from the sky (6:10), the fast-forwarded plan for America (7:10), why drone delivery has been so slow to roll out (10:00), how the coronavirus pandemic will sweep away obstacles (11:50), the future of pandemic treatments (14:40), how drone delivery works (17:35), the way Africa is responding to coronavirus (20:00), the rise of the robots (22:00), what Zipline's planes can do (24:15), and why the future is now (25:00).

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NYU's Paul Romer: “Killing people or killing the economy” Mar 27, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Paul Romer, Nobel Prize-winning economist, to talk about making our way out of the coronavirus crisis (2:15), the two key investments (5:35), mass testing (9:25), the future of work (14:00), how long can we do lockdown (16:30), whether private industry can rise to the occasion (18:30), how the world will bifurcate (23:10), what life looks like in two months (25:30), the debt bomb (27:45), the metrics to watch (30:15), and the dangers of a failed state (33:30).

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Fifty Years‘ Seth Bannon: “When a bear chases you into a tree, how do you get down?" Mar 26, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech corespondent brings on Seth Bannon, co-founder venture capital firm Fifty Years, to talk about fighting the coronavirus (3:25), the coming destruction of Silicon Valley’s startup ecosystem (5:00), the funding crunch for venture capital (7:00), backing Covid-19 companies (13:20), the problem with home-testing (16:10), why this will be worse than the tech bubble implosion for startups (19:20), and if universal basic income’s moment has come (21:20).

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Coronavirus Special: Dr John Ioannidis: "Minimal evidence, monumental decisions" Mar 20, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Dr John Ioannadis to talk about why the coronavirus response could be an “evidence fiasco" (0:00), the China model (3:20), the importance of testing (5:00), the case of the Diamond Princess (6:35), and of Italy (9:45), Imperial College's estimates (13:25), the problem with models (16:45), a lack of historical precedent (18:20), the monumental failure of not having tests (21:35), scaling up testing (24:25), and herd immunity (27:25). PLUS, Claes Gustafsson, co founder of ATUM Bio, to talk about the company’s work making copies of coronavirus (33:00), how this compares to other outbreaks (34:25), the rush for a cure (38:15), and being partially shut down by the government (41:00).

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Stephen Levy: "Peak Facebook" Mar 13, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Stephen Levy, author of Facebook: The Inside Story, to talk about the moment he decided to write the book (3:30), the first time he met Zuck (8:10), the “book of change” (9:45), why Zuckerberg didn’t need an “adult in the room” (13:15), his deification in Silicon Valley (16:30), how Trump used Facebook (18:30), dark profiles (21:20), why Facebook is still moving fast (24:30), Facebook’s antitrust fight (28:00), on whether encryption changes things (30:30), Facebook as a utility (33:30), Zuckerberg’s shrinking inner circle (35:20), the hardest thing about writing the book (39:00), how Zuckerberg has changed (43:30), the Facebook phone (47:45), Cambridge Analytica (48:45), and whether Facebook is too big to control (53:00).

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Beeflow's Matias Viel: "Building better bees" Mar 06, 2020

The Sunday Times tech correspondent Danny Fortson travels to an almond orchard in central California to talk to Matias Viel, founder of Beeflow, to talk about bees (4:00), creating an insect superfood (7:30), the great bee migration (11:45), measuring bee strength (16:00), why the agro-industrial model doesn’t work (17:25), the almond milk boom (22:10), the rise of consumer pressure (23:55), and the molecules Beeflow extracts from plants (28:20). Then, Morgan Woolf comes on to talk about almond farming (31:10), creating a certificate akin to the “Dolphin-safe tuna” labelling (37:40), and the water fight in the almond industry (44:45).

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Stanford’s Matthew Jackson: “You’re not as popular as you think” Feb 28, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Matthew Jackson, Stanford professor and author of The Human Network, about why you live matters (2:20), the universal basic income illusion (5:50), how social media puts networks on steroids (7:00), his work with Silicon Valley giants (10:50), how politics has changed (14:40), the hollowing out of the middle class (17:00), why war doesn't happen as much any more (20:50), the double-edged sword of globalization (24:45), how do we craft the best network (27:00), why having friends is important (30:30), the friendship paradox (34:20), avoiding sameness (37:20), quotas (40:30), what parents can do (42:40) and whether tech means that this time is different (45:20).

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Expensify's David Barrett: “Any good idea has to sound bad” Feb 21, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on David Barrett, founder of Expensify, to talk about competing for talent with unicorns (2:00), the odd reason for the company’s founding (5:15), creating a fictional expense-reporting startup (6:20), the deification of serial founders (10:30), why he promotes from within (14:15), the expenses industry (16:20),why he takes the whole company overseas every year (18:30), why he doesn’t like venture capitalists (25:40), buying out his investors (28:30), the stages of development (30:45), using a subscription model (32:00), why it took 12 years to get where they are (36:30), whether he wants to go public (38:15), the homelessness problem (41:30), the great rewards/points scam (43:45), his worst day of work (49:30), and the time when his employees got dengue fever (54:30).

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Shorter's Alex Soojung-Kim Pang: "Arguing for the four-day work week” Feb 14, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, author of Shorter, to talk about why we work 40 hours per week (2:30), why he wrote the book (4:50), why working less is gaining traction (8:00), why working too much is like smoking (9:00), the difficulty instituting shorter work weeks (11:00), how it can be done (18:00), fighting against the gig economy (22:15), why big companies would ever want to do this (26:45), whether this is different between generations (29:35), the power of mothers (31:55), why rest is key (5:20), the culture of overwork (38:10), partnering with automation (42:30), and getting unstuck from the 40-hour week (45:30).

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Virgin Galactic’s George Whitesides: “Democratising space” Feb 07, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on George Whitesides, chief executive of Virgin Galactic, to talk about the new space race (3:00), doing more with less (4:15), rethinking space travel (6:45), moon hotels (8:15), democratising space (10:00), being an astronaut (12:15), why space travel is important (13:15), bringing the price down (17:30), avoiding disaster (18:30), governing who gets the lunar spoils (22:00), where space exploration sits in the history of humanity (25:00), and moving to the moon (27:20).

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Zeus Living's Kulveer Taggar: "The Greek god of corporate housing" Jan 31, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Kulveer Taggar, founder of Zeus Living, to talk about the Greek god of corporate housing (3:00), growing up in London (5:15), getting into Y Combinator (7:30), teaming up with Stripe founder Patrick Collison (10:40), becoming a millionaire at 24 (12:15), becoming a comedian (14:25), coming back to San Francisco to do Y Combinator again (18:00), why media coverage is not all it’s cracked up to be (23:40), pivoting to property management (26:40), how it works (31:00), why this is different from his other companies (33:15), the importance of location (36:25), his plan for life (39:50), living as a service (42:20), and his worst day (45:50).

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Fifty Years’ Seth Bannon: “Passing the Mr. Burns test” Jan 24, 2020

The Sunday Times tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Seth Bannon, founder of venture capital firm Fifty Years, to talk about targeting the truly big problems (1:00), why it took 18 months to raise $5m (2:40), targeting lab-grown meat (6:30), getting the met lobby on their side (8:30), backing birth control (12:00), taking left-field approaches to climate (13:50), taking advantage of the Silicon Valley cultural crisis (17:15), the need for big winners (21:00), the slow death of the Fridman doctrine (26:00), how he started out as a young idealist (28:30), (33:30), when he faked it but didn’t make it (38:20), confessing his sins (41:05), and his worst day of work (42:15).

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Caliva's Dennis O'Malley: "We're simple farmers - of cannabis" Jan 17, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Dennis O’Malley, head of cannabis startup Caliva, to go from the buttoned-up corporate world to the weed industry (2:45), the ‘green rush’ (5:10), running a federally illegal business (7:50), the friction involved with buying weed products (13:00), their target market (14:40), raising $75m (16:30), charting a path toward legitimacy (20:00), partnering with Jay Z (22:30), trying to replace alcohol and pharma (29:10), not being able to advertise (34:15), the vaping crisis (38:35), whether it will ever go mainstream (40:30), the coming green crash (46:15), whether he needs black market expertise (48:15), his worst day of work (50:40), and whether filter bubbles help (55:20).

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Socos Labs' Vivienne Ming: “I want to build better people” Jan 10, 2020

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Vivienne Ming, founder of Socos Labs, to talk about ethics in artificial intelligence (2:25), passing on a job at Amazon (7:55), why its hiring algorithm failed (11:0), the death of professional human judgment (13:30), how work will have to change (23:15), the bifurcation of society (26:00), what Socos Labs is (31:30), why universal basic income is not the answer (39:00), the importance of learning to learn (45:25), creating a tech wise council (50:30), AI as an expert witness (59:45), how transitioning genders has coloured her views (1:03:40).

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Atari’s Al Alcorn: “The dog who caught the car” Dec 20, 2019

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Al Alcorn, video game pioneer and co-founder of Atari, to talk about when he first met co-founder Nolan Bushnell (2:30), breaking into a world dominated by pinball machines (6:30), making Pong (9:00), taking it to a bar (12:00), starting a manufacturing company (14:30), hiring hippies to work in a former roller rink (18:30), when copycats emerged (22:00), almost going bust (25:50), creating the first mass-market home console (28:45), striking a deal with Sears (30:30), building a company of young people (36:30), the hot tub announcement (40:10), why they sold to Warner (44:30), the culture clash (47:30), obsoleting their own products (52:00), hiring Steve Jobs (55:10), funding his trip to India (58:00), turning down Jobs’ offer to invest in Apple (1:00:00), and how Silicon Valley culture has changed (1:03:15)

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Tulip's Tom Harries: "Ashes to airmail" Dec 20, 2019

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Tom Harries, founder of Tulip, to talk about disrupting the cremation industry (0:30), starting with an obituary app (2:20), selling it and selling Tulip (3:45), what’s wrong with funerals (6:00), the fragmented death market (9:00), sending ashes through the post (11:45), cremating 10,000 people in two years (14:00), scaling from 5 to 95 people (17:40), hiring a professional chief executive then quickly selling (21:00), losing control of his baby (25:00), spreading the word online (28:30), the lows of starting a business (30:50), making mistakes (32:30), being a non-technical founder (34:20), why bring in a CEO went wrong (35:50), and raising $10 million (41:00).

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Openwater's Mary Lou Jepson: "Telepathy is inevitable" Dec 13, 2019

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Mary Lou Jepsen, founder of Openwater, to talk about how her near-death experience (3:05), and how it inspired her to start Openwater (5:50), developing a way to see inside our bodies (9:00) how it works (12:30), telepathy (19:45), the brain as the last bastion of privacy (24:20), the future of depression (26:40), the death of language (31:10), the brain as the final frontier (333:55), why she is so open about the issues this technology conjures (38:30), the problem with MRI’s (43:10), and why decoding the brain is inevitable (51:50).

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Pinscreen's Hao Li: "Deepfakes have been democratised Dec 06, 2019

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Hao Li, the world’s top deepfake artist and founder of Pinscreen, to talk about the role of the Fast and Furious in the rise of deepfakes (3:30), spending millions to do create a digital replica of Paul Walker (7:00), creating a deepfake for free in a few days (10:30), the democratisation of deepfakes (15:30), the end of trust (21:00), how the Pentagon is getting involved (23:15), overcoming the uncanny valley problem (25:00), why all you need is a comuputer (28:00), and why detection tools are imperfect (32:00),

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Square Roots' Kimbal Musk: “Working in tech was like chewing sawdust” Nov 29, 2019

The Sunday Times tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Kimbal Musk, brother of Elon Musk and found of Square Roots, to talk about going to culinary school after selling his first company with Elon for $307 (4:00), living in New York during Sept 11 (5:45), how cooking for the firefighters inspired him to start a restaurant (8:30), leaving New York (11:00), going back to tech (14:45), breaking his neck (16:15), quitting tech for good (18::30), hitting on the farm-to-table movement (21:00), backing meatless meat (23:45), his warehouse farm startup (25:55), how Tesla began (23:50), space tourism (30:00), working at a meat-packing factory (31:45), growing up in an entrepreneurial family (34:40), setting up gardens at school (36:50), taking inspiration from Jamie Oliver (38:45), having dinner with Prince Charles (41:10), why he invested in eSports (43:00), and the plan for Mars.

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Lily.ai’s Purva Gupta: “Why do these shorts make me sad?” Nov 22, 2019

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Purva Gupta, founder of Lily.ai, to talk about algorithms of emotion (5:40), creating psychographic profiles of shoppers (7:45), drawing on 15,000 data points to predict what people want (10:45), bring brands out of the dark ages (12:45), starting her company (14:45), testing her idea (17:45), having no technical background (20:15), having six different visas (23:00), using numbers to replicate emotions (24:15), her plan to access new data sources (26:15), why social media data is not that attractive (30:55), building an immunity to rejection (32:35), almost giving up (35:15), founder dating (37:25), and breaking up (41:25), her moment of inspiration (43:30), and why she won’t work for some companies (47:30).

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Humm’s Iain McIntyre and Tim Fiori: “A brain-enhancement subscription” Nov 15, 2019

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Iain McIntyre and Tim Fiori of Humm to talk about creating brain prosthetics, starting out in Australia (3:20), turning a room-sized machine into a band-aid (7:10), improving working memory (8:45), and what that means (11:25), the miniaturisation process (13:40), my own brain test (14:35), tuning the brain’s orchestra (17:55), the business plan (21:20), targeting old people (23:20), marketing it as a wellness product (24:40), bifurcating the human race (27:35), why someone else isn’t doing this (31:20), compounding interest in your brain (35:05), why others have failed (36:40), and a better brain subscription (38:30).

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Stratechery's Ben Thompson: "Apple's App Store is textbook anti-competitive" Nov 08, 2019

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Ben Thompson, the tech commentator behind Stratechery, to talk about the antitrust issues stalking Big Tech (2:50), why Google is most vulnerable (4:40), convenience versus abuse (9:35), why Facebook’s antitrust case is much less clear (10:40), why Instagram was so clearly a step too far (15:20), the consumer harm problem (17:50), Amazon as a niche player (19:00), why the App Store is a clear cut case of monopoly (21:20), Apple’s self-appointed role as the guardian of privacy (24:35), why Silicon Valley is branching into new industries (27:10), is regulation too late or even important (29:00), why Big Tech is big (32:20), and the future of the gig economy (34:25).

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Microsoft's Brad Smith: "Orwell's 1984 was a warning" Nov 08, 2019

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson bring on Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, to talk about suing the government (3:00), working at Microsoft for a quarter of a century (5:00), how battling the government changed the company’s approach (7:00), whether Silicon Valley will do the same (9:40), calling for a cultural revolution (11:40), being careful about who they sell their tech to (14:30), the rising demands of tech employees (19:00), why this time is different with artificial intelligence (21:200), the new age of anxiety (29:10), the culture of tech (31:35), how Silicon Valley is like the Galapagos (34:10), how it is changing (36:00), the primacy of data centres (37:30), how tech companies are like banks (40:55), and data privacy as a human right (44:30).

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Atari's Nolan Bushnell: "I started tinkering in third grade and never stopped" Nov 02, 2019

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari, to talk about growing up in Utah (0:45), setting up his first business at age 10 (3:00), managing the games department (4:20), coming to Silicon Valley (7:10), working at Ampex (8:30), playing Space War (9:30), starting a gaming company with $500 (12:30), creating Pong (16:20), running on a shoestring (19:15), selling to Warner (23:30), the Atari culture (24:40), hiring Steve Jobs (27:00), making more than all of Hollywood combined (32:00), turning down an offer to be the first investor in Apple (34:40), his worst day of work (38:15), why the tech industry took root in Silicon Valley (39:00), why he’s excited about tech in 2019 (41:00), his other ventures (45:20), what Steve Jobs got right (48:25).

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Ben Horowitz: "Jeff Bezos should be more like Genghis Khan” Nov 01, 2019

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Ben Horowitz, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz, to talk about company culture (2:15), the Amazon example (7:), what’s wrong with new Uber (9:45), Uber’s old culture (12:15), Silicon Valley’s moment (15:55), how culture can be a company-killer (20:00), on whether capitalism is changing (25:15), why there aren’t more outsiders in venture capital (31:15), seeing what you don’t have (37:1), how lack of diversity creates product problems (39:55), and seeing culture early (43:05).

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Stuart Russell: “When machines become smarter than us, there will be no 'reset' button” Oct 25, 2019

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on artificial intelligence expert Stuart Russell to talk about AI’s King Midas problem (3:00), dismissiveness about general AI (8:00), and why we are not close to developing it (13:10), the future of work (16:20), happiness engineering (21:00), humanity’s last invention (25:30), slaughter-bots (31:05), whether he is an optimist (37:40), how we can control something more powerful than us (39:30), conscious machines (45:30), the social media experiment (48:30), writing minimally-invasive algorithms (53:40), the brain-computer interface (55:30), and how we can save ourselves (59:50)

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Lilium's Daniel Wiegand: "Flying hairdryers" Oct 25, 2019

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Daniel Wiegand, founder of Lilium, to talk about how he got hooked on the idea of air taxis (3:00), being a first-time founder (4:20), reimagining the hair dryer (6:20), building the first prototype (8:30), why science is his friend (11:10), starting with pilots (13:05), why silence is golden (15:20), how Lilium plans to launch its own air taxi service (17:50), being as cheap as ride-hailing (21:00), why cities are interested (23:20), learning on the job (24:05), what China wants (27:00), what the world looks like in 2039 (29:35), why he doesn’t just want to be a manufacturer (31:40), looking at Africa (35:50), why batteries are critical (36:35), his worst day of work (38:10), and why the air taxi boom is happening now (40:20).

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Prellis Biologics’ Melanie Matheu: “Lab-grown kidneys" Oct 18, 2019

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Merlanie Matheu, founder of Prellis Biologics, to talk about 3D-printing organs (2:15), cellular scaffolding (3:35), implanting lab-grown tumours in rats (5:15), why this is a big deal (6:35), solving the kidney (7:55), the magic of 3D printing (12:00), how she got into tissue engineering (13:45), filing a patent before knowing she could pull off the technology (18:10), the sector’s hype cycle (19:45), the future of organ printing (22:35), printing blood vessels first (25:20), why it was hard to raise money (29:35), getting regulatory approval (31:00), her worst day of work (35:00), creating the world’s first laser-based bio-printer (37:10), and where she gets the cells (40:05).

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We're back! Season 4 launch Oct 16, 2019

The Sunday Times’s tech correspondent Danny Fortson is back with a new season of interviews with the most intriguing personalities in tech.

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Andreessen Horowitz's Scott Kupor: "Sand Hill Road 'frenemies'" Jul 05, 2019

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Scott Kupor, managing partner of Andreessen Horowitz, to talk about why this boom is different from 2000 (1:50), if it is easier today to start a company (6:10), and why it is harder to get big (7:50), the rise of the “mullet” (9:20), why he wrote a book (12:00), why Y Combinator is important (13:20), the investor profiles it keeps (15:40), being “frenemies” with Y Combinator (17:05), the weirdness of venture capital competition (18:25), what goes wrong (20:00), dealing with ego (22:50), what happens when companies fail (24:05), whether Facebook should be broken up (26:50), the changes coming to antitrust laws (30:30), the opportunity to build a decentralised giant (32:00), managing conflict (34:05), and the importance of the “warm intro” (35:50).

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Center for Human Technology’s Tristan Harris: “Tech’s inconvenient truth” Jun 28, 2019

The Sunday Times tech correspondent brings on Tristan Harris, founder of the Centre for Humane Technology, on becoming a tech critic (2:00), leaving Google (6:20), how 2016 woke up the world (8:00), being at the Persuasive Technology Lab in Stanford (9:00), the “Time Well Spent” movement (12:00), why it’s hard to remake the “attention economy” (14:25), the conspiracy correlation matrix (18:05), the danger of Facebook Groups (19:15), the slow awakening amongst rank and file techies (22:45), why he is confident things can change (27:25), Apple as the Federal Reserve of the Attention Economy (28:15), living in a downgraded world (31:25), and the plan (34:10).

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LabGenius' James Field: "The dawn of super-humans" Jun 21, 2019

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on James Field, founder of LabGenius, to talk about taking humans out of drug discovery (2:15), working in a biscuit factory (4:20), how artificial intelligence can revolutionise research (6:25), the inevitability of “designing humans” (8:10), the moral quandaries that generates (10:25), the dramatic improvements in AI (13:35), breaking free of human cognition (15:35), what happens to the human race when we live longer and healthier (16:00), and discovering and testing drugs autonomously (17:55).

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Sila Nanotechnologies' Gene Berdichevsky: “The million-mile battery” Jun 14, 2019

The Sunday Times tech correspondent brings on Gene Berdichekvsy, founder of Sila Nanotechnologies, to talk about being the seventh employee at Tesla (2:35), making the Roadster’s lithium battery (6:30), developing the first new battery technology in 30 years (7:15), the dawn of the electric car age (10:55), what Sila is doing (12:35), starting in smart watches (16:20), being born in Russia (20:05), air taxis (22:25), the rise of autonomous cars (23:15) the second order effects of electric cars (30:30), making a million-mile battery (28:35), why ‘peak lithium’ is nonsense (32:55), on keeping investors on side (36:30), the most expensive real estate in the world (40:05), being handed his first $5m (44:15), the end of the engine (45:55), and when he almost destroyed Tesla (48:30).

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Yelp's Jeremy Stoppelman: "15 years battling Google" Jun 07, 2019

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Jeremy Stoppelman, founder of Yelp, to talk about the early days of "user-generated content” (3:50), when ‘Yelp’ became a verb (7:10), when Google took notice (9:00), becoming a resource for the search giant (11:35), when Google tried to buy Yelp (12:40), testifying in Congress (13:40), Google’s dirty deeds (16:00), Google’s unseen power (18:50), whether Trump is good for Yelp (23:20), the coming crackdown (25:50), if it is possible to survive (28:50), being targeted by an activist investor (33:00), the evolution of the internet (36:10), being the David to Google’s Goliath (39:20), getting targeted by critics (45:45), and the Silicon Valley bubble (48:30).

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Five questions with.... Andreessen Horowitz's Angela Strange May 31, 2019

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Angela Strange, partner at Andreessen Horowitz, to answer five questions on the future of finance: 1. What do Internet keywords tell us about the power of finance (3:00). 2. How will insurance be transformed in ten years’ time? (5:45) 3. Why is it expensive to be poor? (15:50) 4. Is Silicon Valley starting companies to capitalise on the impending recession (24:20) 5. Is there more opportunity in the developing world, where it is largely free of legacy businesses? (26:30)

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Mr Nice's Neil Mahapatra: "Every mammal can get high" May 24, 2019

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Neil Mahapatra, founder of Kingsley Capital and Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies, to talk about his early days in investment banking (3:30), getting a job with Lord Rothschild (5:50), setting up his own investment firm (7:30), how his mother’s lung cancer changed everything (8:15), why the stoners won’t make it (12:45), carving out a beachhead (15:15), building credibility for weed (18:40), the plant’s legal status in Britain (22:30), its potential as a cancer treatment (23:00), what a cannabinoid is (25:50), getting Snoop Dogg as an investor (28:15), developing drugs (29:50), and a consumer brand (32:30), Mr Nice (33:45), Oprah’s cannabis venture (36:15), sourcing the plant (38:50), and waiting for the laws to catch up (39:45).

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Kai Fu Lee: "AI isn't biased, humans are" May 17, 2019

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Kai Fu Lee, former head of Google China and founder of Sinovation Ventures, to talk about the dawning of the age of artificial intelligence (3:35), why this is the tip of the iceberg (5:50), why up to 40% of jobs will be replaced (7:30), how China’s approach differs (9:40), how AI is like nuclear technology (10:05), whether it should be a human right (17:15), tech colonialism (19:25), the dystopian elements (23:45), AI bias (26:10), the existential threat it poses (30:40), and remaking education for a new era (32:40).

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Blue Zones' Dan Buettner: "Fine-tuning the human machine" May 10, 2019

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Dan Buettner to talk about how to live a longer, healthier life (6:00), keeping it simple (8:55), what happens when a spouse dies (11:15), what are “blue zones” (11:30), the secret to longevity (14:30), why happiness doesn’t include a car (16:15), why genes don’t matter that much (18:40), why happiness is important (20:30), the sleep industry (23:10), where we have gone wrong (24:40), designing cities (27:40), how he set records cycling around the world (33:00), testing his “blue zones” theories (35:40), death by over-nutrition (38:05), the ‘food as medicine’ movement (39:30), and leaving the last piece of mutton (41:55).

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Apeiron’s Christian Angermayer: "Magic mushrooms' long, strange trip" May 03, 2019

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Christian Angermayer, entrepreneur and investor, to talk about magic mushrooms (4:00), why he is investing now (6:55), the lack of new drugs for mental illness (9:50), why it’s worse in the West (12:00), his first “trip” (17:10), the psilocybin company he has backed with Peter Thiel (21:55), creating a new body of clinical research (25:45), growing up in a village in Germany (27:00), starting a biotech at age 21 (28:50), selling it (30:25), investing in Hollywood (31:30), living in London (35:30), being a micro-dosing sceptic (38:30), and why backing films requires a different approach (39:35).

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Esther Wojcicki: “Kids do what you do, not what you say” Apr 27, 2019

The Sunday Times tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Esther Wojcicki, educator and mother of Susan Wojcicki, CEO of Youtube, and Anne Wojcicki, founder of 23AndMe, to talk about the crisis in parenting (2:35), how her upbringing affected her approach (4:45), using TRICK (7:10), journalism as a tool to teach kids (9:55), the value of money (13:10) the coddling of children (16:50), the importance of trust (19:15), why memorisation is dumb (20:40), how to deal with the smartphone (22:05), how she feels about Youtube (27:20), student suicides in Palo Alto (30:50), why you shouldn’t get divorced (33:40), making herself obsolete (35:25), having Steve Jobs hang out at her class (37:40), how to teach purpose (41:00), how Susan started at Google (42:25), giving kids more agency (44:15), and the raising stakes (46:20).

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GoCardless' Hiroki Takeuchi: "We thought about quitting once a week" Apr 26, 2019

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Hiroki Takeuchi, founder of GoCardless, the payment processor and biggest fintech company you have never heard of, to talk about starting at Y Combinator 8 years ago (3:00), the first idea he had with Tom Blomfield and Matt of Monzo (6:00), switching ideas (9:20), why big businesses didn’t so this themselves (11:30), laying the payment plumbing of the Internet (13:55), raising $75m in venture capital funding (16:25), growing up in Swindon (18:30), meeting his co-founders at Oxford (19:25), losing his co-founders (20:30), the dark moments of running a startup (22:30), the rise of the London fintech scene (25:30), the cycling accident that paralysed him (28:20), how it changed his focus (31:30), and the next five years (33:20).

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Clara Foods' Arturo Elizondo: "Eggs - without the chicken" Apr 19, 2019

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Arturo Elizondo, the 27-year-old founder of Clara Foods, to talk about his plan to make eggs with the chicken (3:25), how eggs are produced today (4:10), bioengineered birds (7:00), his lightbulb moment (8:40), not being a scientist (11:00), coming to San Francisco (13:15), repurposing an old technology (15:15), designing egg proteins (19:20), taking chickenless eggs to the market (21:50), creating consumer products (24:20), whether it will taste good (27:05), how science and millennials have come together to create opportunity (30:00), and getting into a McMuffin (32:35).

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Arch Mission Foundation’s Nova Spivack: “Humanity's billion-year backup” Apr 12, 2019

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Nova Spivack, founder of the Arch Mission Foundation, to talk about the lunar library (3:10), how is started in 2015 (6:40), doing a test mission with Elon Musk (7:55), packing 30m pages of data into a CD (9:25), safekeeping the keys to civilisation (13:10), storing special data in “vaults” (15:30), why he’s doing it (17:45), looking for billionaire benefactors (20:10), settling the moon (23:25), getting funding from the Charney family (25:20), what happens if the landing is successful (26:30), the fears driving the project (28:20), private enterprise in space (30:00), keeping the project private (31:05), and creating a permanent record for an impermanent time (36:30).

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UC Berkeley's Alison Gopnik: "Babies are the ultimate supercomputers" Apr 05, 2019

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Dr Alison Gopnik, a developmental psychologist, to talk about why babies could be the key to artificial intelligence (3:45), the limits to current systems (5:40), infants as supercomputers (8:00), the power of experimentation (10:15), how young brains learn (12:50), coding curiosity (16:15), how the tech industry has come around to kids (17:35), recreating the human brain (20:30), what electricity can tell us about AI regulation (23:00), whether we should be worried (25:35), why we’re just starting to understand the brain (33:20), why we should expect unexpected outcomes (34:35), nerd machismo (37:15), and why babies can teach engineers to improve the world (39:50)

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Humu's Laszlo Bock: "Nudge, nudge" Mar 29, 2019

Humu’s Laszlo Bock: “Nudges”

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Laszlo Bock, founder of Humu, to talk about the fish that inspired him (3:00), coming to America as a refugee (4:15), why he chose human resources (5:05), becoming Google’s first head of people operations (6:20), why “open plan” offices are terrible (8:30), trusting people (11:15), experimenting on Google’s workforce (14:30), dealing with Google’s elitism (16:50), building a tool to find better workers (20:25), Google’s lack of diversity (23:30), whether diversity matters (25:45), using AI to make people feel “psychologically safe” (28:15), personalising motivation (31:45), how money isn't the best motivator (33:45), whether companies are willing to buy in to “people analytics” (35:05), and the crisis at Google (36:40).

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Dr Phyllis Gardner, Stanford professor and Theranos critic: "I'll only really feel good if she's convicted" Mar 22, 2019

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Dr Phyllis Gardner, the Standord medical professor who came across Elizabeth Holmes before she started Theranos and then worked behind the scenes to expose her, to talk about her background at Stanford (4:00), and in industry (5:00), meeting a young Elizabeth Holmes (6:55), rejecting her first idea (8:10), using her “charm” to accumulate prominent men (10:30), how Gardner got drawn in to the group of Theranos doubters (12:45), meeting John Carreyrou, The Wall Street Journal reporter who uncovered the scandal (16:50), how Holmes was appointed to Harvard’s Medical Board of Fellows (17:40), feeling lonely as a Theranos sceptic (21:45), the whistleblowers (23:00), why “fake it till you make it” doesn’t work in medicine (24:30), hurting the cause of women in business (25:45), Theranos’ legal attack dog (28:10), Holmes’ new company (30:00), the human costs of the fraud (31:55), the employees who quit (35:45), and why more women did not speak (38:20).

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Troy Carter: "There was no Plan B" Mar 15, 2019

The Sunday Times’s tech correspondent brings on Troy Carter, Lady Gaga’s former manager and music executive, to talk about the importance of radio (3:40), why streaming is still evolving (6:10), the death of the album (7:20), showing up at Spotify (9:50), the music industry’s history of screwing artists (13:50), why artists are less desperate than they used to be (15:20), growing up as an aspiring rapper in West Philadelphia (21:40), doorstepping Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff (24:30), dropping out and failing (26:50), promoting Wu-Tang Clan in Philadelphia (28:55), working at Bad Boy when Tupac Shakur got shot (30:30), becoming Eve’s manager (32:40), what works in music (33:40), negotiating with Taylor Swift (36:55), becoming Lady Gaga’s manager (39:30), how they used social media to build a following (42:10), becoming a tech investor (40:55), how the techlash has created opportunity (43:40), investing early in Uber (47:55), the merging of culture and tech (49:10), whether we should worry about algorithm-led art (51:40), how the music industry will change (55:40), his worst day of work (58:40), and managing Prince’s estate (1:01:00).

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Jon Vlassopulos: "We're all nano-influencers" Mar 08, 2019

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Jon Vlassopulos to talk about the early days of digital music (3:30), investing in Napster (4:55), when ringtones were big business (10:20), getting into television with Deal or No Deal (16:15), Facebook’s interactive TV show (20:45), why lists are a good way to consume content (24:30), the problem with chronological feeds (27:00), how he plans to monetize lists (30:20), where journalists fit in this world (32:10),turning everyone into a curator (36:45), DJing in Beijing (39:45), creating community online (43:15), people as brands (48:00), and the future of the "interest graph" (49:15).

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BeeFlow's Matias Viel: "Bionic Bees" Mar 01, 2019

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Matias Viel, founder of Beeflow, to talk about why bees are a big deal (3:05), why they need him (4:50), the almond industry (7:20), the booming bee rental business (9:55), making bees bionic (12:20), training them to pollinate the right plants (15:05), starting out in Argentina (18:50), ending up at IndieBio in San Francisco (23:00), using insects to increase crop yields (25:30), the potential risks involved in bee biotech (27:20), the decline in bee populations (30:20), getting farmers to buy in (32:35), trying to grow the company (35:05), and the coming revolution in agriculture (38:05).

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Renee DiResta: "Information gone haywire" Feb 22, 2019

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Renee Diresta, expert in online propaganda, to talk about the 2016 election as the web’s Lehman Brothers moment (3:45), why Facebook got rid of human curators (4:45), the problem with Facebook groups and the anti-vaccination movement (8:40), amoral algorithms (13:40), the war for time and attention (18:25), the “likes” black market (21:25), how Amazon gets gamed (23:00), how trying to get her son into preschool got her in to propaganda research(26:45), how conspiracy theories spread (31:30), why tech giants claim to be platforms, not media companies (34:40), Google’s “your money or your life” search function (37:45), why “host not promote” is a better alternative (38:45), the fixes for misinformation (39:50), her work on ISIS’ online strategy (43:20), the slippery slope argument (47:35), and why she is optimistic (52:05).

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Patreon's Jack Conte: “People used to pay for things” Feb 15, 2019

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Jack Conte, founder of Patreon, to talk about busking as a business model (2:10), the web’s weird love triangle (4:40), sending $500m to creators this year (5:05), how platforms work (9:00), what kind of stuff is successful on Patreon (11:30), like gaming (14:40), people looking for their tribe online (16:35), getting money from the Kushner family (18:10), how he started (19:45), launching a company (23:10), needing to raise more venture capital (25:10), how he polices the platform (26:55), the problem with the word “influencer” (29:10), how micropayments could change the way the internet works (32:35), why he doesn’t call them “fan clubs” (34:10), the changing nature of the web (37:40), the predictability of donations (39:30), and the rise of the creators (41:25).

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Academia.edu's Richard Price: "The end of the paywall" Feb 08, 2019

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Richard Price, founder of Academia.edu, yo talk about how academic publishing works today (4:00), doing to publishing what Napster did to music (6:15) starting out with banana cakes (7:20), raising his first round of money (11:45), going from 50 sign-ups-a-day to 72m users (12:30), getting to 20m research papers uploaded (14:15), taking on a centuries-old business model (15:45), the importance of prestige (19:55), quality control (21:05), the last bastion in publishing untouched by the Internet (25:30), and bankrolling free access with a core of subscribers (28:15). PLUS: Jeffery Mackie-Mason, head librarian at the University of California, comes on to talk about his showdown with Elsevier over the publisher’s “extortionary” prices (32:10), how subscription rates have soared (35:05), unleashing scientific progress (37:15), playing hardball (39:00), how publishing giants have defended their turf (40:45), reaching a tipping point (42:45), the publishers beginning to break ranks (46:10), and the key to the traditional players’ power (47:15).

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Uber's Mark Moore: "Don't call them flying cars" Feb 01, 2019

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Mark Moore, head of engineering at Uber Elevate, to talk about flying cars (2:05), starting out at NASA (2:35), why air taxis are inevitable (4:05), why were are in a “Wright Brothers era” of air taxis (6:50), planning to launch in five years (8:05), the gridlock problem (10:35), going pilotless (12:15), taking air taxis to the mass market (15:25), seeding a manufacturing boom (17:20), the pilot shortage (18:20), why our skies are about to get very crowded (20:45), how much it will cost (23:25), and why air taxis could convince us to give up our cars (25:25).

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Five questions with... Benedict Evans Jan 25, 2019

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Benedict Evans of Andreessen Horowitz to answer five big tech questions. 1. The smartphone era is over, now what? (1:50), 2. What is the state of artificial intelligence and machine learning, and should we be worried? (5:50), 3: What does good regulation of tech look like? (20:10), 4. What does the Consumer Electronics Show tell us about the next frontier in tech? (29:35), 5. Have driverless cars sputtered? (36:45)

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Credit Karma's Nichole Mustard: "Self-driving finance" Jan 18, 2019

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Nichole Mustard, co-founder of fintech unicorn Credit Karma, to talk about credit scores as a means to an end (2:20), the evolution of the credit score (4:45) how she ended up starting Credit Karma in 2007 (10:40), studying zoology at uni (12:35), buying a one-way ticket to California (13:35), working at Pizza Hut (14:50), leaving pizza for financial planning (16:30), starting Credit Karma on the cusp of the financial crisis (18:20), and the opportunity created by the Great Recession (24:25), building trust but also collecting bounties (26:50), the virtualisation of finance (29:50), how personal finance will become more like self-driving clike (32:50), the road to a stock-market float (37:05), and her worst day of work (41:15),

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DoNotPay's Josh Browder: "Your very own robot lawyer” Jan 11, 2019

The Sunday Times tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Josh Browder, the 22-year-old founder of robot lawyer Donotpay, to talk about the end of the legal profession as we know it (2:25), getting 10,000 Uber refunds (4:35), how parking tickets led to him starting a company (6:10), and getting $15m in parking tickets overturned (8:55), expanding his bot's capabilities (11:50), his deep disdain for lawyers (13:15), his family’s rebel history (14:15), eliminating the need for lawyers (17:25), the inevitability of automation (20:35), the weaknesses of artificial intelligence (22:10), targeting vested interests (25:00), his new privacy bot in Europe (26:50), creating a business around a free core service (27:45), the most endangered white-collar jobs (30:55), the ethics of AI (31:55), the tech backlash (34:00), and the possibility of generalised AI (36:55),

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Y Combinator's Michael Seibel: "Stupidity or genius" Dec 21, 2018

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Michael Seibel, chief executive of Y Combinator, the storied Silicon Valley startup bootcamp, to talk about why chaotic markets are good for startups (3:50), how he ended up at YC (6:20), the importance of clarity (7:50), why it’s both easier and harder than ever to launch a company (9:10), the power of the big guys (11:35), the need for regulation (13:45), what has changed since he arrived to Silicon Valley in 2006 (18:05), why bigger is better for YC’s model (20:30), peak accelerator (24:05), getting pitched his own idea (26:10), tackling the diversity challenge (27:30), tech’s number one problem (30:10), how startups are like the NBA (34:30), stupidity vs genius (37:00), how Facebook and Google are cautionary tales (39:30), competing against Big Tech’s money (42:45), artificial intelligence (46:40), and whether scooters are overhyped (49:20)

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Pioneer's Daniel Gross: “Everything big starts small” Dec 14, 2018

The Sunday Times’s tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Daniel Gross, founder of Pioneer, to talk about growing up as an Orthodox Jew in Jerusalem (2:40), applying to Y Combinator (3:40), escaping Army duty (5:40), having his first startup crash right before Demo Day (7:10), building a new product in 48 hours (8:55), selling to Apple (10:20), finding the next generation of geniuses (11:15), creating a “digital Ivy League” (13:10), using a leaderboard (14:55), how he gets the word out (16:25), the gamification of finding genius (20:00), why money is not the most important factor (23:10), how to win the Pioneer game (23:55), the importance of accountability (27:30), why he brings people to Silicon Valley (29:00), addressing the tech industry’s “sameness” problem (31:50), using video game mechanics to aid productivity (38:40), fighting the dumbing down of tech (42:40), and the intimidating “bigness” of big ideas (45:40).

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Chargepoint's Pat Romano: "Hiding in plain sight" Dec 07, 2018

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Pat Romano, chief executive of Chargepoint, the world’s largest electric car charging company, to talk about the rise of the electric car (3:00), its genesis of the company 10 years ago (5:30), the importance of Elon Musk (11:20), California’s electric car policy as a model for the world (13:00), getting over charging's engineering hurdles (15:50), the end of the internal combustion engine (19:40), the cost of an (electric) fill-up (24:15), the problem with different plugs (28:55), the danger of an oil price drop (30:20), how self-driving technology will revolutionise transport (33:45), how to please the petrolheads (35:35), a dangerous and messy transition (37:40), how Chargepoint makes money (41:15), and the “fleetification” of cars (43:00).

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Five Questions with... Tim Draper Nov 30, 2018

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Tim Draper, co-founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, to answer five big questions. Question 1: Why does he hold $140m in bitcoin? (3:05), Question 2: Why he wants to split up California (12:40), Question 3: Why does he still believe in Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes (25:1), Question 4: What was his worst miss, biggest hit and weirdest pitch? (30:40), Question 5: Is money ruining Silicon Valley? (44:25).

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IndieBio’s Arvind Gupta: “Recoding life” Nov 23, 2018

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Arvind Gupta, founder of IndeBio, to talk about why he founded his laboratory-venture capital hybrid (4:00), putting all the world’s knowledge into a test tube (4:30), the synthetic biology revolution (7:45), starting as an options trader (9:35), then moving to IDEO (11:00), how IndieBio works (13:00), base-jumping on the side (14:25), how jumping off buildings is like investing (16:30), why faster science means a revolution is coming (20:25), the future of food (22:15), designing super-humans (24:30), his bet to cure cancer (27:10), making bionic bees (28:40), creating a brain - computer interface for stroke victims (31:05), pes as guinea pigs for human therapies (33:10), finding companies (34:40), and what he is most excited about (36:00).

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Houseparty’s Ben Rubin and Sima Sistani: “An epidemic of loneliness” Nov 16, 2018

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Ben Rubin and Sima Sistani, founders of video chat app Houseparty, to talk about trying and failing multiple times (3:00), why live streaming didn’t work (5:50), telling investors that their company was a bust - three months after raising $14m (8:50), focussing on the 99% (10:45), how Sima and Ben teamed up (14:15), building an alternative to “performative” social media (17:35), Sima’s background in banking (21:00), countering the loneliness epidemic (22:40), launching Houseparty (26:00), reengineering the app after it took off (29:30), raising $50m from Sequoia Capital (32:10), on everyone copying everyone in Silicon Valley (33:10), how Houseparty works (37:30), how both being immigrants influenced how they built the product (39:05), on not having a plan to make money (46:10), and their worst days of work (47:30).

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Five Questions with... Louis Hyman Nov 09, 2018

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Louis Hyman, Cornell University professor and author of the book Temp, to answer five big about the present and future of work in the age of automation: 1. Is technological progress bad for workers? (2:45). 2. How does reality differ from the myth of automation? (7:00), 3. Is the corporation dead? (14:30), 4. Are unions also going extinct? (25:10), and 5. What does history tell us about the future of work? (28:35).

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Index Ventures' Danny Rimer and Jan Hammer: "Quinoa-bots and sneaker heads" Nov 02, 2018

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Index Ventures’ Danny Rimer and Jan Hammer to scooters (3:05), flying cars (6:), self-driving cars (7:00), why Deliveroo will stay independent (9:15), the future of insurance (10:30), changing the approach to data privacy (15:20), robo-restaurants (19:00), the rise of "mass-scale artisanal" brands (20:40), getting inside the minds of young people (24:10), how Softbank is changing the Valley (26:45), how money is changing the tech landscape (29:30), is the end of cash nigh (34:45), and the problem of Silicon Valley's monoculture (39:20),

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89up's Mike Harris: "Hiding in plain sight" Oct 26, 2018

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Mike Harris, founder of 89up, to talk about his work uncovering Russia’s election meddling in Brexit (2:25), the importance of Facebook groups in spreading misinformation (4:10), making an enemy of Russia (7:00), the government’s impending ‘fake news’ report (8:10), the “Mainstream Network” (9:20), Facebook’s complicity in anonymity (14:15), the problem with the master algorithm (17:30), how to fix it (19:45), and the business of chaos (22:35)

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Mick Batyske: "DJing is like angel investing" Oct 26, 2018

The Sunday Times tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Mick Batyske, to talk about becoming Big Tech’s chosen DJ (4:30), paying his way through grad school (5:30), moving to New York (8:05), bidding goodbye to “Mick Boogie” (9:10) rebranding (11:10), DJing Andreessen Horowitz’s annual barbecue (14:30), the intersection of technology and culture (17:00), doing parties for Lebron James and Jay Z (20:10), breaking into tech (24:05), growing a Silicon Valley network (25:30), becoming an investor (29:30), playing to techie crowds (33:00) the marriage of culture and tech (36:30) delving into e-sports (38:10) how music consumption has changed (39:50), and how deejaying taught him how to “pivot” (41:10).

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Naveen Jain: "Moon babies and optional illness" Oct 19, 2018

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on tech tycoon Naveen Jain to talk about solving bigproblems (2:30), turning the moon into the “eighth continent” with his company Moon Express (6:25), getting approval for interplanetary travel (8:10), the new space race and moon (10:15), modifying humans to live in space (12:30), why we should bother (15:00), spending $50m to get to a moon launch (17:00), how outer space is like the Internet (18:30), the first baby born on the moon (21:50), making illness “optional” (22:45), the universe of universes in our guts (24:45), faecal matter transplants (27:15), poop by post (29:00), how spinach is toxic for many people (31:10), how chronic disease is a subscription business (33:00), growing up poor (37:30), food as personalised medicine (39:50), why we need to relax before we eat (42:20), starting out as an intern on $3 per hour (44:20), why expertise is useless (45:45), what lesson you can learn from X-Prize (47:15), the death of scarcity (48:30), and how individuals are solving problems once left to nation-states (50:30).

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Longevity Fund’s Laura Deming: “Age is a disease” Oct 12, 2018

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Laura Deming, a 24-year-old longevity investor to talk about young scientists (3:05), the goal of the Longevity Fund (4:30), her incubator Age 1 (5:55), starting out as a 11-year-old (7:00), skipping school (10:00), getting funded by Peter Thiel (11:40), raising a venture capital fund as a teenager (13:15), targeting ageing through specific diseases (15:00), her goal (16:20), trying to become superhuman (18:45), “de-ageing” beetles (21:00), whether we should actually try to defeat ageing (23:00), how a little money can go a long way (25:10), who has invested in her fund (27:25), the key scientific advancements (28:35), the effects we’ll start to see first from this revolution (32:30), turning off menopause (34:45), the next step in our evolution (38:50), and winning over the sceptics (40:45).

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Former Google PR chief Jessica Powell: "Light-sabre aerobics" Oct 05, 2018

TheThe Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Jessica Powell, former Google communications chief, to talk about her new satire of Silicon Valley, The Big Disruption (2:35), how at her old job she called a hookup site a “meeting platform” (5:55), when noone was interested in a Silicon Valley satire (8:00), the lack of nuance in the industry’s perception (9:20), the growing number of critics (12:40), problem of the tech industry’s ‘sameness’ (14:30), how living in London made her look differently at the industry (20:45), the great oatmeal revolt (24:30), what made her leave and publish the book (26:00), the risk in criticising her own industry (29:55), the most urgent changes required (31:40), the value of diversity (34:15), how free speech is vaunted but devalued (37:25), and her most quintessential Silicon Valley moment (40:40).

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Lambda School's Austen Allred: "Go to university - if you can pay for it in cash" Oct 04, 2018

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Austen Allred, founder of Lambda School, to talk about how he moved to Silicon Valley and lived in his car (2:50), getting his first job (5:05), his first failed startup (6:05), trying to kill payday loans (9:05), landing on his current startup idea of offering free university in exchange for a cut of students’ income (9:50), the education problem (11:50), going to Y Combinator (113:50), expanding the model into other industries (15:00), soaring university costs (17:35), the reasons behind it (21:30), why education has been overlooked as a target for disruption (23:00), the cultural role of university (24:25), how he chooses students (27:45), how universities have responded (29:35), raising venture capital (31:10), the importance of Twitter as a marketing tool (31:40), betting all of his money on Tesla (34:40), finding professors for his school (38:05), and his plans to offer free room and board as well (39:35).

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Five Questions with... Amazon's former chief scientist Andreas Weigend Sep 28, 2018

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson takes a "Monks to Metallica" tour of the Dreamforce conference in San Francisco before sitting down with Andreas Weigend, Amazon's first chief scientist, to cover five big questions: 1. Is china's social credit score a glimpse of the future? (12:30), 2. Is privacy dead? (24:55), 3. Is the concept of data being used for rather than against every people a realistic prospect? (33:45), 4. What does Amazon do that other's don't that makes it so successful? (38:00), 5. Does the rise of AI signal an epochal shift for humanity, or is this just another false dawn? (47:15).

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Babylon Health's Ali Parsa: "A doctor in your pocket" Sep 21, 2018

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Ali Parsa, founder of Babylon Health, to talk about ending healthcare as we know it (4:00), doing to medicine what Google did to information (5:45), using artificial intelligence to diagnose patients (7:20), overcoming the trust issue (9:10), the problem with humans (11:30), the complete automation of healthcare (14:05), the challenge of pushing technology into hospitals (17:30), the limitations of remote care (22:40), the half of the world with no access to medicine (24:30), how Babylon’s AI does a consultation every few seconds (25:45), and the hurdles that stand in the way of AI-powered medicine (27:05).

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Five Questions with.... Adam Fisher Aug 03, 2018

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Adam Fisher, author of Valley of Genius: the Uncensored History of Silicon Valley as told by the Hackers, Founders and Freaks who Made it Boom, to answer five questions. 1. Who is Nolan Bushnell and why is he one of the most important figures in Silicon Valley? (7:40), 2. How did LSD and the hippie counterculture lead us to where we are today? (13:00), 3. Who are the forgotten “other guys” who have founded the biggest companies? (17:25), 4. How big a role has the stealing of ideas played in the valley's history? (29:00) 5. Are the efforts to create “another Silicon Valley” by cities round the world futile? (35:30).

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HVMN's Geoff Woo and Brianna Stubbs: "Metabolic Dominance" Jul 27, 2018

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Geoff Woo and Dr Brianna Stubbs of HVMN, developer of a synthetic ketone drink to “optimise humans,” to talk about Woo's his early days tinkering “nootropics” (3:30), experimenting on himself (7:10), tapping the biobacker community (10:00), getting investment from Silicon Valley A-listers (11:30), the Pentagon’s super-solder programme “Metabolic Dominance” (14:30), ketones and ketogenic diets (15:55), turning ketone ester into a product (22:15), how fasting led to the creation of the company (24:20), how Brianna Stubbs’ became the youngest person to row the English Channel (28:20), trying the first ketone “space milkshake” (30:30), the early days when ketones costs thousands of pounds per drink (33:10), meeting Woo (34:50), who is using it today (38:45), raising $7m from sports and tech investors (40:30), and my totally unscientific ketone test (42:30).

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Calm's Michael Acton Smith: "Dopamine-frazzled zombies" Jul 20, 2018

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Michael Acton Smith, co-founder of Calm, the hit meditation app, to talk about starting out with the idea five years ago (4:40), the rise and fall of his previous company Mind Candy (8:30), moving to San Francisco (13:20), trying to build a “moat” around around the app (14:45), how meditating is like jogging (16:45), why Calm uses the smartphone as the delivery mechanism (19:45), the death of boredom (21:15), creating a profitable business (23:30), why sleep is a growth industry (26:35), the science of meditation (28:10), trying to sell rocks as a child (33:10), setting up an Internet retailer in 1998 (35:40), why he thinks Calm is going to be a billion-dollar business (38:45), his plans to buy an island (41:35), and why the world’s top two meditation apps have been created by Brits (43:45).

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Five Questions with... Jason Calacanis - PART 2 Jul 17, 2018

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Jason Calacanis, prominent angel investor, for the second part of their interview, in which he answers the final two of five big tech questions, which are 4. What is the next foundational technology or development? (2:10) And 5. Where are we in the cryptocurrency boom-and-bust cycle, and will it yield the next big tech giant? (23.45).

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Five Questions with... Jason Calacanis - PART 1 Jul 13, 2018

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Jason Calacanis, prominent angel investor, to answer five big questions. In part 1 of a two-part podcast, he answers: 1. Can Facebook be defeated, and should it be? (2:10) 2. Is a world awash in “fake news” the new normal? (19:45), 3. The worst pitch he’s ever heard, he best pitch he’s ever heard, and did he invest? (38:10).

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Color Genomics’ Othman Laraki: “A crystal ball for cancer” Jul 06, 2018

The Sunday Times tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Othman Laraki, founder of Color Genomics, to talk about taking genomics to masses by reducing the cost by an order of magnitude (4:45), the importance of genetic counselling (6:45), the ‘value for money’ equation (12:35), how data is treated (14:55), starting the company after leaving Twitter (20:35), the slow evolution of genomics’ role in consumer health (23:00), how these tests may be abused by insurers (25:50), raising $150m (28:45), the coming healthcare revolution (31:15), and choosing treatable diseases (34:20). PLUS: Ellen Matloff, a genetic counselor and founder of My Gene Counsel, to talk about whether ignorance is bliss (36:40), the danger of misdiagnosis (38:25), why consumer genetics is here to stay (41:20), and why your genetic data may already be in a company’s hands (43:00).

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What3words' Chris Sheldrick: "Driver, take me to 'Table Chair Spoon'" Jun 29, 2018

The Sunday Times’ Danny Fortson brings on Chris Sheldrick, founder of what3words, to talk about the problem with addresses (4:25), why we need a new system (5:10), the challenge of convincing people to leave old way behind (7:15), who is using what3words today (8:55), competing with GPS (11:10), the “killer app” he is looking for (12:45), how wheeled suitcases are like addresses (14:05), starting out as a musician (17:10), how a sleep-walking accident changed his life (19:00), how he settled on three words (20:20), pitching the idea to investors (22:15), how he plans to not be another good idea that dies on the vine (24:20), raising $50m and creating a business model (26:35), taking on “Big Address” (28:45), starting the company with a dictionary (32:25), and choosing languages (34:25).

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WeTransfer's Damien Bradfield: "The future of the paid Internet" Jun 22, 2018

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Damian Bradfield, co-founder of file-sharing company Wetransfer, to talk about setting up near Muscle Beach (3:30), being the alternative to Dropbox (4:30), how Wetransfer makes money (6:30), how the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal has helped (9:15), why Facebook shouldn’t become a ghost town (12:25), starting the company in Amsterdam (13:50), creating the ‘sex lottery’ ad campaign (14:45), missing the golden age of advertising (15:50), building the Volkswagen Beetle beetle of data sharing (18:10), giving away space to artists (20:10), prospering in a world where data is harder to mine (21:30), turning a profit (22:55), why he did not raise venture capital for years (24:25), before finally bringing in $25m in 2016 (26:40), coming to America (28:30), his worst day at work (31:40), working in Russia (33:05), the future (33:50), and how “mission” helps retain people (35:55).

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EVelozcity's Stefan Krause: "Skateboards, top hats and the future of the car" Jun 15, 2018

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Stefan Krause, founder of $1bn electric car startup Evelozcity, to talk about why cars look like they do (5:40), why electric vehicles will be dramatically different (6:30), a car for megacities (10:00), raising $1bn (13:05), the importance of batteries (14:30), pricing the car at $35,000 (18:00), ending up in California (22:45), developing their first car in 5 months (24:45), the death of ‘range anxiety’ (28:55), not being the next Studebaker (29:45), going from giant companies to a startup (32:30), how he built a casino (34:00), handling Deutsche Bank during the financial crisis (35:15), whether Detroit think’s electric cars are coming (39:10), and growing up in Pablo Escobar's Colombia (42:50).

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Boris Sofman: "Engineering emotion" Jun 08, 2018

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Boris Sofman, founder of Anki, a maker of AI-powered toys, to talk about why he chose toys (2:45), convincing investors to back him (5:25), starting out making a real life Mario Kart (7:20), using a prototype to pitch (9:50), creating a Pixar-style robot (13:05), putting software at the heart of its toy (17:00), engineering emotion (18:05), the importance of eye contact (21:15), if toys can get ‘too good’ (23:50), the difference from old-school companies (25:25), the future of ‘the family robot’ (27:15), why Anki won’t be a toy company for long (31:40), growing up in Russia and Texas (34:30), studying robots at Carnegie Mellon (35:30), and the explosion of the robotics industry (37:30).

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Five Questions with... cyber-security expert Dan Woods Jun 01, 2018

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Dan Woods, cyber security expert at Shape Security, to answer five big question about hacking and online crime. 1. How likely is it that your online details are for sale online right now? (3:10) 2. What are the weirdest scams he has found? (6:40) 3. Are state actors or criminal gangs the biggest threat? (11:35), 4. Why is being a cyber criminal so easy (20:35) and 5. What should you do to protect yourself (24:40).

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Beyond Meat's Ethan Brown: "Burger 2.0" Jun 01, 2018

The Sunday Times’s tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Ethan Brown, founder of Beyond Meat, on why he got into “clean meat” (4:15), treating the problem like climate change (6:00), the four building blocks of meat (8:15), the problems he is trying to solve (9:15), growing up around a farm (13:00), his first career in green energy (15:00), starting in 2009 with "chicken wood chips" from Taiwan (17:30), why smell matters (18:45), the centrality of meat in life (21:30), recreating the cow through plants (23:45), attracting Kleiner Perkins, Bill Gates and other investors (25:15), going into battle over the word “meat” (29:15), how scientific progress has made “clean meat” possible (33:00), coming to Europe (35:15), why it costs more (36:55), whether we are at “peak cow” (40:10), his worst day of work (42:15), why he invited “Big Meat” into the company (44:00), and the taste test (45:25).

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Sir Richard Branson: "Moon hotels" May 25, 2018

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Sir Richard Branson to talk about how he chooses ideas (4:40), investing in Memphis Meats (7:00), bringing billionaires together on Necker Island to invest in startups (8:30), setting up a $2bn fund with TPG (11:45), starting Virgin at 15 (13:00), what works (15:30), why he has backed Hyperloop (18:25), what problem it is solving (20:10), how short haul flights will be hurt by Hyperloop (23:15), why India will start with passengers by 2022 (25:40), the bar at Necker (26:20), why he has spent $1bn on space tourism (27:35), launching the first satellite rocket in September (30:30), and the first commercial space flight this year (31:50), lunar tourism (33:30), the resurgence of vinyl (37:15), whether #metoo has changed how he markets and does business (38:40), why he’s not interested in eternal life (39:50), kite surfing (41:20), and why he hasn't retired (42:45).

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Jaron Lanier: "The bummer machine" May 18, 2018

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Jaron Lanier, virtual reality pioneer, computer scientist, and author, to talk about being a “traitor” to Silicon Valley (3:40), the “bummer machine” (7:10), being purposefully alarmist (7:50), why nastiness is the crude oil of social media (9:10), why technology's role in social movements is misleading (12:20), why we should be like cats (16:25), why the incentives need to be remade (18:45), how the industry could be overhauled (21:05), on whether the tech industry is having an identity crisis (23:30), the death of context (28:10), the survival of the human race (32:20), aiding the education of artificial intelligence (34:05), and AI marketing nonsense (41:20).

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PlateJoy’s Christina Bognet: “Healthy-eating algorithms” May 11, 2018

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Christina Bognet, founder for PlateJoy, to talk about changing how people eat (3:10), combating diabetes virtually (5:35), weighing in online (11:05), going to MIT (13:40), gaining and losing 50 lbs (14:55), getting inspiration from Stripe’s Patrick Collison (18:15), nabbing investment from her first pitch (19:15), getting into Y Combinator (20:15), the importance of education (22:30), why she doesn’t use the “D” word (27:00), the rise of preventative medicine (28:00), food photographers (33:00), why fasting may not be a terrible idea (34:05), and making this available to the poor (39:45)

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SPECIAL: Inside the world of Esports May 04, 2018

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson takes a deep dive into the esports world, starting in Los Angeles, home of the new Overwatch League, (4:00). We examine how gaming could become a spectator sport (6:00), what it takes to be a pro (12:25), why life is tough as a pro (15:00), the importance of streaming (17:50), selling the dream (21:55), esports youth leagues (26:15), why careers are brutally short (27:30), and the need to bring more women into the fold (29.30).

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TheBoardlist's Sukhinder Singh Cassidy: "Women are the new unicorns" Apr 27, 2018

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Suhkinder Singh Cassidy, founder of theBoardlist, to talk about the lack of women in tech (3:00), why that’s a problem (4:05), how scandal has created urgency (6:40), working at Amazon pre-bubble (9:45), losing 95% of her fortune (11:30), launching a fintech startup in 2003 (13:10), helping start Google Maps (13:45), starting a rival to Home Shopping Network (15:05), and then theBoardlist (16:30), the lack of demand for female board members (18:20), the problem with the obsession with growth (19:55), why senior women are unicorns (21:35), the venture capital boys club (22:40), her experience with sexism (24:20), the reaction to #metoo (28:50), what works in startups (31:40), why ‘product market fit’ is the key (34:20), why she spends so much time on hiring (34:15), and why living a balanced life is not possible (35:00).

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Five Questions with.... NYU's Scott Galloway Apr 20, 2018

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent brings on Scott Galloway, NYU professor and author of The Four, to answer five big tech questions in 2018. 1. Is the (ad-based) Internet broken? (2:00), 2. Should Facebook be broken up? (3:40), How has Amazon managed to avoid the backlash? (6:00), 4. Why have advertisers not flexed their muscles (9:40), and 5. Is this any different from the robber barons or other eras where a handful of companies dominated industries? (13:45).

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Vicarious founder Scott Phoenix: "Humanity's last invention" Apr 20, 2018

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Scott Phoenix, founder of artificial intelligence startup Vicarious, to talk about the dawn of the robot age (4:30), the “last invention” (6:05), replicating the human brain (8:55), putting robots in the wild (10:00), how he got into AI (11:15), why he’s not 500 years too early (12:20), why Elon Musk is wrong (13:15), having Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos as investors (16:55), not wanting to be an investment banker (18:05), launching a Y combinator startup (19:00), AI’s evolution (20:10), solving Captcha’s (22:05), understanding how the brain works (25:40), why general AI could change everything (28:10), the danger of bias (29:50), in-home robots (33:45), and what society looks like when AI takes over (36:10).

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Bill Gates: "The report card of humanity" Apr 13, 2018

The Sunday Times tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Bill Gates to talk about being the world’s biggest philanthropist (3:00) eradicating malaria (1:40), saving Africa’s children (6:10), wiping polio off the planet (7:40), applying big data to public health (9:30), why he cares (11:10), whether the new generation of billionaires care (14:20), launching the Giving Pledge with Warren Buffett (16:10), the economic dividend from saving kids (18:05), Africa’s exploding population (19:30), creating new multinational organisations (23:15), the malaria crisis (24:25) the need for a technology leap (25:40), how this compares to Microsoft (27:35), partnering with Warren Buffett (30:10), whether he has tried to tackle mass-shootings (31:25), the inevitability that AI will replace human work (32:45), whether we need a robot tax (35:20), the Facebook problem (36:55), the danger of cryptocurrencies (38:20).

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Zipline's Keller Rinaudo: "Blood from the sky" Apr 06, 2018

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Keller Rinaudo, founder of drone developer Zipline, to talk about air-dropping blood in Rwanda (5:35), whether this can be used in the developed world (8:45), how he came up with the idea (10:40), the rise of instant delivery (13:05), why smartphones are important (14:25), ramping up operations by ten-times this year (15:45), how a toy gave him credibility (16:15), why they went to Africa first (18:00), how regulations are catching up (19:10), building the fastest delivery drone in the world (21:00), why crashing is important (22:50), and saving more than 1,000 lives (24:40).

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Five questions with... Benedict Evans Mar 30, 2018

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Benedict Evans, partner at Andreessen Horowitz, to answer five big questions about tech: One, How long will it be before self-driving cars take over (1:55), Two, Will cryptocurrencies replace the dollar, pound and other fiat currencies (8:40),Three, Is Big Tech too big (17:05), Four, How worried should we be about the march of the machines (28:15), Five, What is the next revolutionary technology (35:20).

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Former Facebook executive Antonio Garcia Martinez: "A gaping wound of data" Mar 23, 2018

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Antonio Garcia Martinez, one of the architect’s of Facebook’s ad system, to talk about his days at the social media giant (2:15), what Cambridge Analytica did (4:55), the Wild West of online information (7:45), how Facebook has responded to the scandal (10:00), on how trust has been broken (12:40), why a subscription model would be hard to implement (14:30), whether Facebook is too big to govern (17:05), if it can recover (18:45), how Facebook backed into its ad-driven model (21:45), why breaking it up may not solve the problem (24:15), why #deleteFacebook won’t move the needle (25:00), and the Facebook buffalo (27:00).

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Ethereum’s Joe Lubin: “Building a crypto-Google” Mar 23, 2018

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on billionaire entrepreneur Joe Lubin, co-founder of cryptocurrency ethereum, to talk about his pre-crypto career (4:05), producing reggae in Jamaica (5:00), meeting Vitalik Buterin (6:00), getting ethereum off the ground from an Airbnb in Miami (6:50), setting up HQ in Switzerland (8:55), the coming regulation on cryptocurrencies (11:10), why he’s a believer (13:25), spawning dozens of ethereum-based businesses (15:25), the dawn of the new Internet (19:05), hiring Silicon Valley refugees (20:30), paying workers in cryptocurrencies (21:05), setting up a “cryptopia” (22:55), the debate over Ethereum as a non-profit (23:40), bring the “legacy” economy titans into the fold (26:05), and how much ether he still holds (29:10).

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Groupon founder Andrew Mason: “I may not be Jeff Bezos or Jesus Christ, but I've done ok” Mar 16, 2018

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Groupon founder Andrew Mason to talk about his new company Descript, launching his first startup in Chicago in the late 1990’s (4:30), turning it into Groupon (6:15), admitting he was fired (7:40), starting a guided-tour company (9:30), pivoting to podcasting (12:00), but keeping Detour alive (14:00), underestimating potential (16:00), the explosion of text-to-speech technology (17:00), raising venture capital from Andreessen Horowitz (21:30), learning from past mistakes (23:00), not wanting to be a public company chief executive (24:15), why he keeps working with a couple hundred million in the bank (26:30), his worst day of work (28:40), machine learning’s assault on the $10bn transcription industry (32:45), and the horse story (34:50).

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Sophia Mahfooz: “It’s torture or an adventure, depending on your perspective’” Mar 09, 2018

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Sophia Mahfooz, entrepreneur and former operations chief at Girls in Tech, on sharing a house with other Silicon Valley hopefuls (3:00), winning her first pitch competition (4:05), building a product in China (6:20), trying (and failing) to sell to the NHS (7:55), launching another company (10:25), growing up in Afghanistan (12:15), learning entrepreneurship at home (14:30), getting in to Draper University (17:20), going through hell to get funding (19:00), hitchhiking (23:00), giving the money back (29:05), starting at Girls in Tech (32:00), and leaving (33:45), the next thing (35:00), making a career in a male-dominated world (37:00), why she is so determined to work on the West coast (38:30) and meeting Elon Musk (40:15). PLUS: A quick chat with Michael Hughes, chief executive of LoopUp and founder of the Silicon Valley Internship Programme. (42:30).

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Stripe's Patrick Collison: "I'm petrified of getting too confident" Mar 02, 2018

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Patrick Collison, founder of $9bn payments startup Stripe to talk about building the financial plumbing of the Internet (2:45), why the web is just getting started (5:05), treating the big and small the same (8:45), the problem with ads (12:00), the origin of the name ‘Stripe’ (13:25), growing up in a village (14:45), trying to not be too “Silicon Valley” (18:35), going from 40 to 1000 people in four years (21:30), hiring adults (23:45), avoiding complacency (25:45), arriving in America (27:20), first mover disadvantage (30:15), America’s stagnant banking market (20:10), dissonance between Silicon Valley’s image and reality (32:00), the future of money (35:10), his worst day of work (37:55), and learning to fly (39:10).

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AirBnb's Brian Chesky: "We're the David to the hotel industry Goliath" Feb 23, 2018

The Sunday Times tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Brian Chesky, founder of Airbnb, to talk about the home-sharing giant’s tenth birthday (3:00) aiming for a billion guests (4:30), how he plans to grow without destroying communities (7:30), growing up in New York (13:30), convincing Y Combinator to invest $20,000 (16:00), doing 'an Amazon' (18:00), creating an airline (20:15), tech’s existential crisis (22:00), the limitations of algorithms (24:45), not floating on the stock market (26:15), bringing in $1bn each quarter (27:00), his worst day of work (28:45), giving away most of his money (32:15), stepping into controversies (35:00), the need for Silicon Valley to take responsibility (36:30), taxes (37:15), and fending off attacks from the hotel industry (39:30).

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SENS Foundation’s Aubrey de Grey: “You may live for a million years” Feb 16, 2018

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Aubrey de Grey, founder of the Sens Research Foundation, to talk the possibility of turning humans into a "multi-century species" (1:40), why rejuvenation is the key (4:40), aiming for “longevity escape velocity” (6:00), what’s wrong with the current approach to ageing, tackling the seven types of ageing damage (10:20), why the Google guys are wasting their money (11:30), getting funding from Peter Thiel and Vitalik Buterin (13:35), why cryptocurrency millionaires are enthused by living forever (15:25), why eternal life is the next step in evolution (18:45), what rejuvenation looks like (23:25), why he has no time for dystopic predictions (27:00), the coming war on ageing (31:20), how he ended up in Silicon Valley (35:45), why ageing doesn’t get much funding (38:20), and treating the human body like a car (39:30).

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Hooked’s Prerna Gupta and Parag Chordia: “We went from zero to 40 million users" Feb 09, 2018

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Prerna Gupta and Parag Chordia to talk about remaking reading for millennials (4:00), on reaching 40m people in a year (5:10) creating “chat fiction” (6:20), finding writers (8:10), how mobile reading is like film was at its outset (11:00), creating their first music-making apps (12:30), creating an antidote to social media addiction (19:30), trying to write a fantasy novel (22:00), translating the novel into mobile phone form (25:00), finding readers through Facebook ads (26:30), luring Snoop Dogg, Mariah Carey and Stephen Curry as investors (28:15), creating a “next generation” film studio (32:30), trying to create the next Harry Potter on the mobile (35:30), the power of teenage girls as early adopters (37:15).

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Finless Foods’ Mike Selden: “We brew fish meat” Feb 02, 2018

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Mike Selden, founder of Finless Foods, to talk about growing fish flesh without the fish (3:15) how it works (4:30), turning mush into fillets (7:00), why he started the company (8:50), the scourge of sea lice (10:40), blind tuna (12:05), how to avoid the public relations mistakes made by the GMO industry (13:35), leaving a medical career for a startup (16:10), why banana candy tastes terrible (17:10), being an environmental activist (18:20), the nascent ‘clean meat’ industry (19:40), the synthetic biology revolution (22:00), the ingredients (23:50), vegetable “scaffolding’ (25:45), taking on Big Fish (26:40) why Europe will be a challenge (28:00), being transparent in marketing (30:00), fish brewery tours (31:45), why cost is key (33:10), the beginning of the end of industrial livestock (36:05), and banishing vegetarianism (38:00).

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Tim O'Reilly: "It's our brains that are being hacked" Jan 26, 2018

The Sunday Times tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Tim O’Reilly, oracle of the tech industry, to talk about why 2017 may go down as a watershed year (3:00), how Facebook is like Microsoft (4:25), what’s wrong with tech’s “master algorithm” (7:15), exploding the myth of the rise of the machines (9:50), the era of surveillance (12:25), the danger of bad laws (15:20), creating the world’s first website and formalising the open-source movement (17:40), coining the term “Web 2.0” (19:35), what World War II can tell us about tech (21:50), the need to rebuild society as we know it (24:35), why we may need to get rid of advertising altogether (25:25), why he doesn’t buy the blockchain hype (28:00), why the marriage of AI and biotech is the next big revolution (31:00), the beginning of the end of the Internet duopoly (31:55), data as the point of control (36:00), and why the 21st will be China’s (37:00).

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Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales: "I have this crazy idea that people will pay for free news" Jan 19, 2018

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, to talk about his plan to save the news industry with his latest startup Wikitribune (3:15), what’s wrong with ad-driven media (4:35), crowdsourcing journalism (6:35), charity as a business model (11:20), why a pay wall won’t work (13:05), ‘disrupting’ the encyclopedia (14:50), growing up in an entrepreneurial family (16:30), why Wikipedia’s predecessor failed (19:30), not being a billionaire (24:40), being a pathological optimist (26:10), how blockchain could change everything (28:40), why it won’t work for Wikipedia (30:25), living in London (31:25) and why Brexit is the “dumbest thing ever” (32:35).

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ROBOTS SPECIAL: Inside the rise of the machines Dec 09, 2017

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson takes a deep dive into the world of robots to chart the the beginnings of the machine age (2:30), the creation of the now-ubiquitous (ROS) robot operating system (5:00), the rise of artificial intelligence (7:45), machines leaving the factory floor into the real world (9:40), and into the fields (12:00), the end of work for humans (14:25), why Bill Gates called for a “robot tax” (17:20), how to flummox the machines (19:00), the importance of self-driving cars (22:05), giant killer robots (24:00), why looks matter (28:25), machines that drop blood from the sky (30:20), invisible robots (35:35), and what the future holds (36:20).

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Trulia founder Pete Flint: “Either the world was ending, or we had an opportunity” Dec 02, 2017

The Sunday Times tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Pete Flint, founder of Trulia and partner at NFX, to talk about his plans to remake the venture capital industry (3:15), growing up in Essex (6:00), his brief investment banking experiment (8:00), helping lastminute.com get off the ground (9:45), surviving the dotcom bubble (11:00), decamping for California (12:45), starting Trulia (13:45), getting his first investors (16:05), being hit by the financial crisis (19:10), the famous ‘RIP Good Times’ memo (20:35), making the most out of a crisis (22:15), desperation cold-calling (24:40), floating in New York (25:45), selling his business for $3.5bn (27:15), celebrating a $150m payday (30:30), becoming an angel investor (32:00), being pitched a cyborg startup (33:45), starting at NFX (35:40), how the UK is catching up to Silicon Valley (36:30) why he will be staying in California (38:40), and his worst day of work (40:00).

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Comma.ai's George Hotz: "Computers don't get drunk" Nov 25, 2017

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on George Hotz, founder of Comma.ai to talk about how he plans to "win" the race to develop self-driving cars (2:45), improving autonomy (5:30), hacking the cars already on the road (7:10), developing the Android operating system of autmoobiles (9:00), why laser-based systems are "dumb" (10:35), why he doesn't plan to raise money (11:45), how self-driving will become a subscription service (13:00), trying to explain the unexplainable (15:10), Comma's army of DIY self-driving enthusiasts (18:30), why government should stay out out of the way (21:30), and creating a system based on human driving patterns (23:20).

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Baroness Beeban Kidron: "Kids are more than clickbait" Nov 18, 2017

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Baroness Beeban Kidron talk about her crusade against Big Tech, “age appropriate” design (1:40), turning 50 pages of terms and conditions into a couple sentences (2:50), the industry’s “category error” (4:30), why kids are considered kids online at 13 (7:50), how the smartphone changed everything (9:50), making the digital world look more like the real world (11:50), why the tech ‘nation-states’ need to assume more responsibilities (14:45), the turning tide of public opinion (16:00), industry being its own worst enemy (18:45), the tech ‘cartel’ (23:05), the “lost generation” (27:15), behaviour manipulation (29:30), and why tech isn’t like jazz or the novel (32:45).

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Tanium’s Orion Hindawi: “This is a snake-oil industry” Nov 11, 2017

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Orion Hindawi, cyber-security billionaire and founder of Tanium, to talk about how the world is waking up to the security problem (1:50), how criminals make more from hacking than from drugs (3:50), rogue states like North Korea using hacking as an income generator (5:15), hacks becoming unavoidable events like earthquakes and fires (7:20), the origins of the Tanium name (8:15), starting his first company at age 17 (9:25), leaving and beginning again (11:10), why most companies don’t know how many computers they own (13:00), the great anti-virus scam (14:55), secret breaches (17:00), on whether Tanium has a toxic culture and “Orion’s list” (19:20), Silicon Valley’s terrible culture (21:40), the niche security market for the super-rich (24:30), the industry’s “boy who cried wolf” problem (26:30), and the cryptocurrency fallacy (29:00).

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Martha Lane Fox: “A Geneva Convention for the web” Nov 04, 2017

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Martha Lane Fox, dotcom pioneer and Twitter board member, to talk about the tech industry’s hubris (2:00), joining Twitter (5:45), explaining the Internet in 1995 (8:50), launching lastminute.com (11:50), creating a unicorn twenty years ago (13:35), which quickly became a pariah (16:15), almost dying in a car accident (17:45), rebuilding a career (19:30), the need for a Geneva Convention of the web (21:35), tech’s sexism problem (24:05), the dangers of screen time (28:00), her worst day of work (29:55), creating a “fair trade” style brand for responsible websites (32:30), designing for the “furthest first” (35:15), London’s effort to rival Silicon Valley (37:05), and why the old Parliament building should be closed down (40:00).

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NYU's Scott Galloway: "Being an innovator doesn't make you Jesus" Oct 28, 2017

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Scott Galloway of NYU's Stern School of Business and author of The Four, to talk about how the big Internet companies Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google are like Darth Vader (2:10), Amazon's astoundingly low tax bill (5:45), its Jedi mind tricks (7:30), moving to a 'zero-click' model (9:30), the need to revisit antitrust laws (12:30), why Europe is going to lead the charge against Big Tech (14:30), how Google stockpiles geniuses (16:00), why Facebook is the most vulnerable (18:00), why the best thing it can do is overreact (21:45), Apple's historic ability to make money (22:45), how tech has replaced religion (24:30), its extraordinary concentration of power and wealth (27:00), what happens when Google gets hacked (30:30), Facebook's existential crisis (31:45), how the giants kill upstarts (33:15), and the coming war on Big Tech (37:00).

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SPECIAL: inside the cryptocurrency craze Oct 21, 2017

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson talks to cryptocurrency entrepreneurs and investors about the boom in initial coin offerings, or ICO’s, (1:45), why the underlying technology may be “bigger than the Internet” (2:45), living in an age of distrust (5:30), soaring digital currency values (6:30), how a former rapper is trying to get in on the craze (7:15), why most currencies are like Disney Dollars (9:50), the lack of regulation (12:25), the company trying to become the Goldmans Sachs of crypto (15:00), the industry’s links to gaming (17:40), the importance of blockchain (21:15), monetising human knowledge (23:00), limits to cryptographic security (27:40), North Korea’s hacking (29:45), blockchain’s electricity problem (31:25) and the future of everything (32:30).

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Scribd’s Trip Adler: “In the future, we won’t buy or own anything.” Oct 14, 2017

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Trip Adler, founder of Scribd, to talk about creating the “Netflix of reading” (2:00), teaming up with newspapers (4:30), the evolving attitude to subscriptions (5:50), why less than 1% of users are paid subscribers (7:45), pivoting and pivoting again (9:05), taking on Amazon (11:20), the parallels to the music business (12:15), the generation gap (14:35), being classmates with Mark Zuckerberg (15:35), starting at Y Combinator (16:55), experimenting with a ride-sharing service (18:35), going from zero to 100 million users (19:05), the end of ownership (21:00), raising the company’s first $12,000 and working out of the “Y-scraper” (23:30), luring in venture capitalists (25:15), paywalls (29:30), splitting the pie with publishers (32:00), Scribd’s trove of sheet music (33:10) and teaming up with The New York Times (33:45).

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Lightspeed’s Jeremy Liew: “People aren’t sneaking out of class to sext” Oct 07, 2017

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Jeremy Liew of Lightspeed Venture Partners, the first investor in Snapchat, to talk about moving to America from Australia (2:10), working for Uber’s Dara Khosrowshahi (4:00), the AOL diaspora (5:00), becoming a venture capitalist (7:15), tracking down Snapchat in 2012 (8:00), how a picture with Barack Obama helped sealed the deal (10:00), young women as a lead indicator (12:25), the sexting issue (15:05), the Snap rocketship (17:00), why Snapchat’s founders have created an ironclad grip over the shares (18:45), being on Evan Spiegel’s Christmas card list (21:25), Facebook’s copycat programme (22:00), Snap as the anti highlight reel (24:00), avoiding becoming Twitter (26:25), finding the next Snapchat (27:15), the power of GIF’s (29:15), investing in frivolity (31:00), on whether smartphones are ruining a generation (31:55), the next big thing (33:00) and how voice technology is going to transform the Internet (35:30).

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Twitter co-founder Ev Williams: “You’re selling attention” Sep 30, 2017

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Ev Williams, chief executive of online publisher Medium and Twitter co-founder, to talk about upping Twitter’s character limit (2:20), the dark side of the Internet (3:40), the power of the web in politics (6:00), starting four companies (7:15), the idea behind Medium (9:35), the problem with the ad-based web (11:30), pivoting (13:15), putting up a paywall (14:55), cat videos vs investigative journalism (16:40), his new “pay-for-claps” model (19:10), the broken media (20:00), why it’s so hard to make money from content online (24:00), Twitter’s problem with “trolls” (27:50), and anonymity (29:00), Silicon Valley’s awakening (30:55), and his worst day of work (34:30).

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Plenty's Matt Barnard: "You’re eating year-old apples” Sep 23, 2017

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Matt Barnard, co-founder of indoor-farming startup Plenty, to talk about building a ‘global agricultural utility’ (4:25), America’s outsized appetite (6:00), eating old apples (9:00), why tomatoes are terrible in Britain (11:20), building 500 city-centre farms around the world (14:30), luring Softbank as an investor (16:40), and Jeff Bezos (19:30), integrating with Amazon (20:20), why growing indoors works (22:50), using less than 1% the water that normal farms need (24:20), machine learning (26:30), selling cheap fruit and veg (28:00), recreating the Mediterranean in a warehouse (29:15), huge energy bills (30:15), and changing a 10,000-year old business model (31:30).

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Plug and Play's Saeed Amidi: "We invest a little money, then pray a lot" Sep 16, 2017

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Saeed Amidi, founder of Plug and Play, one of the world’s largest startup accelerators, to talk about how he invests in 150 companies each year (2:50), chickening out of an Airbnb investment (4:10), arriving from Iran (7:50), starting a bottled water company (9:00), becoming an angel investor (11:40), investing in Google when it was just three people (12:45), his $100m payday from Dropbox (14:30), backing Peter Thiel at Paypal (16:05), investing judo (17:20), why accelerators help (20:30), his London plans (22:50), trying to find the Uber of insurance (25:30), the problem with tech tourism (28:40), on whether unicorns face extinction (32:05), if the Silicon Valley model can be exported (35:00), and why he likes to back immigrants and foreigners (36:55).

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Uber's Frances Frei: "Culture can kill a company, full stop" Sep 09, 2017

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Uber’s new head of leadership and renowned company doctor Frances Frei to talk about what she found when she walked into Uber (2:30), its army of first-time managers (5:30), taking Uber to school (6:30), the company's ‘toxic’ culture (7:40), the problem with startups (9:15), arriving as a woman (11:00), the importance of culture (12:20) overhauling Harvard Business School (13:00), making the right diagnosis (17:40), taking advantage of a crisis (18:15), necessary turnover (20:00), the power of diversity (22:40), having less 'do-overs' (23:30), harnessing Uber’s aggression (25:30), being a college basketball player (27:10), stepping on toes (28:30), Uber’s board upheaval (29:45), leadership by committee (31:55), and office push-ups (36:15).

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Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer: "Make Data Great Again" Sep 02, 2017

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Steve Ballmer, former Microsoft CEO and one of the world’s richest men, to talk about retiring with a $33bn fortune (1:55), launching his new project USA Facts (3:00), losing his shirt investing in Twitter (3:55), starting as employee number 30 at Microsoft (5:20), what disruption looked like in 1980 (9:20), the most important negotiation of his life (11:25), being Microsoft’s biggest investor (13:00), why he started USA Facts (15:05), on “Making Data Great Again” (16:05), fake news (17:00), on whether he wants to run for office (22:10), spending $2bn on the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers (24:00), when he tried to buy Yahoo for $45bn (27:20), his biggest mistake (29:15), and the next big thing (30:20).

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Marc Andreessen: "Darwin has kicked in" Aug 26, 2017

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Marc Andreessen, founder of Internet pioneer Netscape and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, to talk about the early days of the Internet (2:45), the "absurd" power of the web giants (7:30), delivery robots (10:45), the ease of starting an web company today (12:00), the ideal time to invest (15:00), the truth about artificial intelligence (16:30), the “luddite” panic (25:45), industries tech is aiming for next (33:00), why the answer to our problems is more technology (36:00), whether the big Internet companies are too big (37:30), why he told Mark Zuckerberg to turn down a takeover from Yahoo (39:30), how he's not worried about screen time for his 2-year-old son (43:10), and why the disruption of all human activity is only just getting started (44:45).

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SPECIAL: inside Silicon Valley's quest to defeat ageing Aug 19, 2017

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson talks to the scientists and executives pledging to redefine life as we know it about why we may be finally on the cusp of an age revolution (2:00), taking the pain out of being old (6:00), the wonder drugs already in circulation (7:45), on whether we are playing god (17:45), the rejuvenating effects of young blood (22:30), freezing your stem cells (26:45), the merging of artificial intelligence and medicine (30:00), and what the future of ageing looks like (37:00).SUBSCRIBE: find all our episodes at sundaytimes.co.uk/dannyinthevalley and on Apple Podcasts: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/danny-in-the-valley/id1233991021

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Boxed.com's Chieh Huang: “1999 called, they want their business model back” Aug 12, 2017

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Chieh Huang, founder of Boxed.com, to talk about setting up the “Costco for millennials” in a two-car garage (1:30), why Brexit and small houses make coming to the UK hard (3:00), growing up as a son of immigrants (5:30), making his first fortune selling an office-decoration game to Zynga (9:00), the entrepreneurial itch (17:30), taking on the $200bn big-box retail industry (20:30), struggling for funding (23:00), the challenge of shipping giant boxes (26:30), being an “undercorn” (29:00), paying university fees for the children of his workers (30:00), unlimited maternity leave (31:15), the financial calculus behind those benefits (34:15), predictive shopping (37:15), and trying to please a Tiger Mom (39:45).

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Ring CEO Jamie Siminoff: "You just bankrupted the company." Aug 05, 2017

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Jamie Siminoff, founder of Ring, the video doorbell company, to talk about about getting rejected on national television (2:00), turning failure into funding (4:00), putting his email address on every box (11:00), being lambasted by "nasty" British customers (12:15), following the James Dyson model (14:00), doing 24 hours on the home shopping television, (17:00), starting ten other companies (19:00), getting his first outside money (21:45), spending $1m to buy the ‘ring.com’ domain (26:15), luring Sir Richard Branson as an investor (32:45), being sued by a giant rival (34:45), showing up at customers’ houses (38:00), and shipping a faulty product that nearly bankrupted him (39:45).

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Pullstring CEO Oren Jacob: “Alexa, order me 100 gallons of chocolate ice cream” Jul 29, 2017

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Oren Jacob, former CTO of film studio Pixar and founder of computer conversation startup Pullstring to talk about the new age of voice technology and talking Barbie (2:30), how the Amazon Echo ended the family shopping trip (7:30), his years at Pixar (12:00), building Mrs Potatohead (13:30), how a stuffed bunny inspired his startup (14:45), cold-calling speech experts (18:30), doing market research in a tent (20:30), raising the first round of venture capital (23:30), the difficulty of doing speech recognition for children (25:30), the many tech revolutions making voice systems possible (28:45), turning algorthms into characters (36:00), whether bots kill jobs (40:00), expecting too much from machines (46:00), and the importance of a voice assistant elegantly saying “I don’t know” (47:45).

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Headspace CEO Rich Pierson: ”This is my business partner, the ex-Buddhist monk.” Jul 22, 2017

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Rich Pierson, co-founder of Headspace, the popular meditation app, to talk about how it started in London nine years ago (6:30), meeting his co-founder (8:00), quitting his job marketing deodorant (9:15), starting out with group meditation events (13:00), accidental focus groups (16:00), moving to California (16:45), going from 18 to 170 employees (19:30), layoffs and mistakes (20:00), convincing investors to put money into mindfulness (21:30), competing with 3,000 rival apps (25:00), struggling to manage people (30:00), helping nurses with “compassion fatigue’ (34:00), and signing up big companies (34:45).

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Evernote founder Phil Libin: “I sold my first company for $500” Jul 16, 2017

The Sunday Times tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Phil Libin, founder of Evernote, one of the first companies to be labelled a “unicorn”, to talk about his plan to create the Netflix of artificial intelligence (1:00), growing up poor (3:30), selling his first company at 16 (6:00), starting another after September 11 (9:45), creating Evernote (11:00), being one of the first apps in the App Store (13:45), getting funding from fanboys (17:00), being saved by a random Swede (19:30), the downside of the hype cycle (21:30), leaving Evernote (24:30), becoming a venture capitalist (25:45), his worst day at work (29:30), bureaucracy robots (32:45), and building something for yourself (36:00).

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Planet CEO Will Marshall: "We swept the leaves out of the garage and started building satellites" Jul 08, 2017

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Will Marshall, founder of Planet, a billion-dollar startup that operates the world’s largest constellation of satellites, to talk about taking a picture of earth every day (2:30), making satellites the size of shoeboxes (4:30), the space renaissance (6:30) increasing crop yields from 300 miles overhead (10:30), selling data to hedge funds (14:45), buying Google’s satellite arm (15:45), the rocket bottleneck (16:30), how smartphones changed space (18:45), the perils of rubbish travelling at 20,000 mph (20:15), blowing up satellites (22:30), how he came to America from Britain (23:45), the future of the space business (28:30) and creating an accidental unicorn (29:45).

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True Ventures' Jon Callaghan: 'You've got to fail with class' Jul 01, 2017

The Sunday Times tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Jon Callaghan, founder of True Ventures, on investing in things before there is a market (3:15), finding Fitbit (6:00), backing big ideas (9:15), celebrating failure (16:00), a drone investment that crashed (21:00), backing Wordpress (26:00), why we're not in a bubble (27:15), turning computers on human health (32:00), why venture capital is a weird business (35:00), how money gets in the way of good ideas (39:45) and why robots are 'the next big thing' (42:15).

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Thumbtack CEO Marco Zappacosta: "We got 42 'no's' before we got a 'yes'" Jun 24, 2017

The Sunday Times tech corespondent Danny Fortson brings on Marco Zappacosta, the 31-year old founder of Thumbtack to talk about building a billion-dollar startup, getting rejected 42 times by venture capitalists (7:00), finally getting a "yes" (10:30), the importance of having entrepreneur parents (13:30), the myth of overnight success (14:30), competing with Amazon (17:30), insecurity in the "gig" economy (21:30), the atomisation of work (26:30), his worst day (31:30) and advice to his younger self (35:00).

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Mitch and Freada Kapor: "Uber is a seven-foot tall 12-year old" Jun 17, 2017

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Silicon Valley power couple and investors Mitch and Freda Kapor to talk about publicly challenging Uber, on Freada's pioneering work on workplace sexual harassment (6:30), on whether Uber can be fixed (9:45), their early days at Lotus (12:30), investing in startups (16:00), how they found Uber (18:45), how tech can fix itself (23:00), the evolution of hacking (27:30), the need for Internet "peace talks" (29:15), and the backlash from their Uber letter (32:15)

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Slack co-founder Cal Henderson: 'Email is the cockroach of the Internet' Jun 10, 2017

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Cal Henderson, co-founder and CTO of Slack, the wildly popular business messaging platform, on founding photo sharing company Flickr (2:30), its ill-fated sale to Yahoo (6:00), starting again (9:00), the accident that became Slack (10:30), being a unicorn (14:30), his early days in London (17:00), learning to be an optimist (19:15), why he's not worried by Microsoft (21:00), 'Calloween' (25:00), the power of emojis (28:00), what's it's like to be personally worth hundreds of millions of dollars (32:45) and loving Lego (34:00).

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Hyperloop's Dirk Ahlborn: “The moon landing of transport” Jun 03, 2017

The Sunday Times tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Dirk Ahlborn, chief executive of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies to talk about traveling at airline speeds over land, why the idea has failed in the past, (7:00) his part-time army of scientists (11:00), Trump putting a hyperloop on the wall with Mexico (17:30), the end of short-haul flights (26:00) bringing the first "pods" into service by 2020 (42:00) making it free to ride (45:00) and why using freelancers is the best way to make the hyperloop a reality (50:00)

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Meta AR's Ryan Pamplin: "The end of the flatties" May 27, 2017

The Sunday Times tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Ryan Pamplin of Meta, developer of augmented reality glasses, to talk about the next paradigm in computing and why it won't be the another Google glass (4:30), replacing the smartphone (7:00), the death of privacy (14:30), when holograms will replace text books (23:00), Disney's plans (27:00), a life full of spam (33:00), what Apple's going to do (35:00), typing with your mind (42:00) and hoverboards, obviously.

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Jason Calacanis: "A cacophony of idiots" May 20, 2017

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent brings on Jason Calacanis, one of Silicon Valley's most prolific "angel" investors, to talk about being one of the first investors in Uber (3:00), being the Cesc Fabregas of investing (9:00), how to fix Uber (12:00) how to make it as a foreign entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, Google and Facebook's damaging monopolies (28:00) having more Twitter followers than Barack Obama (38:00) and buying Tesla's very first Model S.

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Comet Labs' Saman Farid: "Let's be friends with the robots" May 12, 2017

The Sunday Times tech correspondent brings on Saman Farid, a investor who specialises in all things robotic to talk about how artificial intelligence is making machines smart (6:00), robots that pick apples (10:00), how China is planning to outlaw human drivers (15:00), why the building industry is about to be turned upside down, burger bots and maid bots (25:00), the end of accountants (33:00) and the future of humanity.

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