Special Episode: The Trial of Sam Bankman-Fried

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Sam Bankman-Fried, the former crypto mogul, is on trial for fraud. On today’s show, we talk to Lidia Jean Kott, who is covering the trial for another Pushkin show, about a dramatic day in court. Caroline Ellison, former co-CEO of Alameda Research and Sam Bankman-Fried’s ex-girlfriend, took the stand. She recently pleaded guilty to fraud, and is cooperating with the prosecution.

Hear Against the Rules with Michael Lewis: The Trial of Sam Bankman-Fried wherever you get your podcasts.

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Getting Yeast to Make Medicine

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Christina Smolke is the co-founder and CEO of Antheia. Antheia is a synthetic biology company — they’re in the business of genetically engineering microorganisms to produce commercial products.

Christina’s problem is this: How do you turn yeast cells into tiny factories to create the active ingredients in generic drugs. If Christina and her team solve this problem, they won’t solve the drug shortage problem entirely. But they might help make it better.

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Could a Robot Make Your Salad?

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Stephen Klein is the co-founder and CEO of Hyphen, a company that is developing an automated make line. Stephen’s problem is this: How do you make restaurant food from fresh ingredients… cheaper?

Chipotle invested in Hyphen, whose automated system could soon be preparing online orders at thousands of Chipotle outlets.

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What the Industrial Revolution Teaches Us About the AI Revolution

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Simon Johnson is an MIT economist and the co-author of a new book called “Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle over Technology and Prosperity”.

Simon’s problem is this: How do you create the conditions for technological change to benefit many people, rather than just a powerful few?

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Can AI Tutors Help Kids Learn? Khan Academy Thinks So

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Sal Khan is the founder and CEO of Khan Academy. Sal’s problem is this: How do you design an AI that can give students the kind of benefits they’d get from working with a human tutor?

Earlier this year, Khan Academy launched Khanmigo, an AI tutor built on top of GPT4.  The idea is to use AI to give more kids access to one-on-one tutoring, and help human teachers with their work as well.

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Smallpox: Gone but Not Forgotten from Incubation

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What can we learn from the centuries-long quest to eradicate smallpox, once the scourge of humanity? And how did it set the stage for all vaccines to come? First we meet Edward Jenner, a doctor in 18th century Britain who learned about the folk practice of “variolation” and found a safer way to inoculate people against smallpox. Then, Donald Hopkins of the Carter Center takes us back to the 1960s in Sierra Leone, where he discovered that successfully eradicating smallpox could be a feasible goal worldwide. Enjoy this episode from Incubation, another Pushkin podcast.

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Going to the Doctor Sucks. Can AI Make it Better?

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Allon Bloch is the co-founder and CEO of K Health. Allon’s problem is this: Can you use AI to make seeing a doctor easier and more helpful?

Today, thousands of patients a month are treated through K Health. The company has an AI-based patient interface and it employs about 150 doctors. And K Health has plans to expand beyond primary care — and they just raised another 50 million dollars to help them get there.

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Spotting Wildfires with AI

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Sonia Kastner is the founder and CEO of Pano. Sonia’s problem is this: How do you use data and machine learning to mitigate the damage caused by climate change?

Pano mounts cameras on remote mountaintop towers, then sends images from the cameras to an AI model trained to spot wildfire smoke. The goal is to alert fire crews early, before the fire spreads.

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Is the Era of Free Returns Over?

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Amit Sharma is the founder and CEO of Narvar. Narvar works with companies such as Sephora, Lululemon and Home Depot to manage the post-purchase phase of online shopping — tracking, alerts and returns. Around 10 percent of online purchases are returned and every return cuts into retailers’ profits.

Amit’s problem is this: consumers have learned to love free returns, but can retailers afford them?

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Creative Technology at Pixar

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Danielle Feinberg is a Visual Effects Supervisor at Pixar Animation Studios. Danielle’s problem is this: How do you optimize technology so that you can spend more time being creative?

Danielle Feinberg has worked at Pixar for 26 years. Earlier in her career, she was the director of photography on movies like Coco and Wall-E. She talks about how new software shapes creative work.

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