Inventing a Vaccine for Bees

Dalial Freitak and Annette Kleiser are the co-founders of Dalan Animal Health, a company that has brought to market the first vaccine for insects. Their problem is this: How do you turn a discovery about insect immune systems into a vaccine that can protect the bees we need to grow everything from almonds to blueberries? … Read more

How Refrigeration Changed the World

Refrigeration is an underrated technology. It completely transformed what billions of people eat every day.  Today’s guest, Nicola Twilley, tells the story of refrigeration in her new book, Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves. Topics under discussion include: Why brewers were key drivers of refrigeration technology; the extraordinary technology inside a … Read more

Detecting Deepfakes With AI

As generative AI tools improve, it is becoming easier to digitally manipulate content and harder to tell when it has been tampered with. Today we are talking to someone on the front lines of this battle. Ali Shahriyari is the co-founder and CTO of Reality Defender. Ali’s problem is this: How do you build a … Read more

Turning Old Cans Into Clean Energy

Aluminum is the most abundant metal in the Earth’s crust. It’s cheap, ubiquitous, and surprisingly energy dense. Peter Godart is the co-founder and CEO of Found Energy. Peter’s problem is this: How can you use aluminum as a source of clean, renewable energy? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Scanning Every Muscle to Help Olympians Get Stronger

On the next few episodes of What’s Your Problem, Jacob Goldstein is talking with people working at the frontiers of technology to help elite athletes perform better.  Today’s guest is Silvia Blemker, a professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Virginia and the co-founder of Springbok Analytics. Silvia’s problem is this: How do you … Read more