Times Tech

Latest Episodes:

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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).

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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

Show notes

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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