Author: What’s Your Problem?

  • Faster, Cheaper Drugs with AI

    Alice Zhang is the co-founder and CEO of Verge Genomics. Alice’s problem is this: How do you use artificial intelligence to drive down the price of developing new drugs?

    The company is using AI to find new disease mechanisms to target, and to speed up drug development. If using AI can help experimental drugs succeed even a little more often than they do now, it’ll be a big win. 

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  • Creating the Uncrashable Car

    When Austin Russell was 17 years old, he founded Luminar Technologies to work on a remote sensing technology called Lidar. 

    Today, Austin is one of the world’s youngest self-made billionaires, and Luminar may be on the verge of solving Austin’s problem: How do you make Lidar cheap enough and good enough to use in millions of cars?

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  • The Electric Truck that Went Viral on TikTok

    Chace Barber is the co-founder of Edison Motors. Chace’s problem is this: How do you build electric logging trucks in rural Canada, with money you raised from people who follow you on TikTok?
    Chace started his career driving logging trucks. He loved the idea of Tesla’s electric semi, but when it never arrived, he decided to build his own.

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  • Introducing Other People’s Pockets: Mistress Marley, Financial Dominatrix

    Here’s a bonus episode of a new show from Pushkin, Other People’s Pockets.

    Have you ever wondered how your friend bought that vacation home or why that colleague of yours makes everyone meticulously split the tab down to the last Diet Coke? Other People’s Pockets is a show about other people’s money. Host Maya Lau asks people from all walks of life to get radically transparent about their personal finances in order to learn more about who we are and level the playing field a little bit along the way.

    In this episode, Maya sits down with Mistress Marley, a financial dominatrix who makes money from people whose kink is simply giving her lots of cash, without being physically touched in return. Hear more from Other People’s Pockets at https://podcasts.pushkin.fm/opp?sid=wyp.

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  • Running in Recycled Shoes

    Caspar Coppetti is the co-founder of On, a company that makes athletic shoes. Caspar’s problem is this: How can you sell tens of millions of shoes a year — and then take them all back, to turn them into new shoes?

    The company’s latest bid to attract new customers? A shoe subscription service.

    If you’d like to keep up with the most recent news from this and other Pushkin podcasts be sure to subscribe to our email list.

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  • 355 Days in Space: Finding Meaning with Astronaut Mark Vande Hei

    After a historic 355 days in orbit, NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei returned to Earth on March 30, 2022, breaking the record for the longest single spaceflight by an American. In this episode of Smart Talks with IBM, Malcolm Gladwell and Mark Vande Hei discuss conducting experiments in space, the impact of extended spaceflight on humans, and the spiciness of space chili peppers.

    This is a paid advertisement from IBM.

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  • Turning Garbage Into Food

    Matt Rogers is the co-founder of Mill. Matt’s problem is this: How do you turn garbage into food?
    Before Mill, Matt co-founded Nest, a smart thermostat company. Now, he wants to take on the garbage in our kitchens with a high tech garbage can that can transform food waste. 

    This is the fourth and last episode of What’s Your Problem’s four-part series on the future of food. 

    If you’d like to keep up with the most recent news from this and other Pushkin podcasts be sure to subscribe to our email list.

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  • The Fake-Meat Frontier

    Jacob Goldstein co-hosts today’s show with Dan Pashman, host of The Sporkful. Jacob and Dan eat their way through the history of fake meat — from Gardenburger hockey pucks, to meatier Impossible burgers. And they get a report from the fake-meat frontier, where scientists are trying to make lab-grown chicken breasts.

    This is the third episode of What’s Your Problem’s four-part series on the future of food. 

    If you’d like to keep up with the most recent news from this and other Pushkin podcasts be sure to subscribe to our email list.

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  • From Impossible Burgers to Fake Steak

    Pat Brown is the founder of Impossible Foods. Pat’s problem is this: How can you make meat without animals?

    Pat’s goal isn’t to make better burgers for vegetarians; he wants to sell to meat eaters. To succeed, he’ll have to figure out how to make fake meat that is at least as good — and as cheap — as the real thing.

    This is the second episode of What’s Your Problem’s four-part series on the future of food. 

    If you’d like to keep up with the most recent news from this and other Pushkin podcasts be sure to subscribe to our email list.

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  • Small Pizza Shops Want a Bigger Slice

    Ilir Sela is the co-founder and CEO of Slice. His problem: How do you bring the technological revolution to thousands of tiny mom and pop pizza shops?

    Most local pizza shops haven’t adapted well to consumers’ appetites for online ordering. Ilir’s mission is to make sure that the technology powering Big Pizza can also benefit smaller businesses.

    This is the first episode of What’s Your Problem’s four-part series on the future of food. 

    If you’d like to keep up with the most recent news from this and other Pushkin podcasts be sure to subscribe to our email list.

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.