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  • Making a Universal Flu Vaccine

    Jacob Glanville is the founder and CEO of Centivax. Jacob’s problem is this: Can you create a vaccine that protects people against almost all strains of flu – even strains that haven’t evolved yet? Get…

  • Teaching Computers to Smell

    Alex Wiltschko got obsessed with perfume when he was 12 years old. He grew up to be an AI researcher at Google. Then he started Osmo, a company that fused his job at Google with…

  • China’s Race to Dominate: Listen to Global Tech Wars

    For decades, China’s economic rise has been symbolized by its unstoppable force of low-cost manufacturing. Now, it’s the leading country in cutting-edge industries like artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, surveillance technology, and more. In Global Tech…

  • Can a Chatbot Treat Depression?

    Nick Jacobson and his team at Dartmouth medical school spent over 100,000 hours trying to build an AI chatbot that can serve as a safe, effective therapist. After a few false starts, they seem to…

  • Will AI Radically Change the World by 2027?… from Risky Business

    This week, Nate and Maria discuss AI 2027, a new report from the AI Futures Project that lays out some pretty doom-y scenarios for our near-term AI future. They talk about how likely humans are…

  • Is the Future of Flight Supersonic?

    Blake Scholl is the founder and CEO of Boom Supersonic. Blake’s problem is this: Can you build a commercial airplane that flies faster than the speed of sound – and that makes economic sense? See…

  • The Secrets of Silk

    Fiorenzo Omenetto is a professor of biomedical engineering at Tufts University and the director of Silklab. Fiorenzo’s problem is this: How do you turn a material people have been using for thousands of years into…

  • Infiltrating an International Ransomware Gang

    A few years ago, a ransomware gang called LockBit rose from obscurity to extort over $100 million from organizations around the world. A security strategist named Jon DiMaggio wanted to understand how the organization worked.…

  • Preparing for the Future of War

    Christopher Kirchhoff helped launch a Defense Department office that aimed to bring Silicon Valley technology to the US military.  Christopher’s problem is this: How can the giant bureaucracy that is the US military keep up…

  • Stopping HIV Without a Vaccine

    Jared Baeten is senior vice president in virology at Gilead Sciences. Jared’s problem is this: In a world without a vaccine, how do you make a medicine that people will actually take to help prevent…