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  • Building a Plane to Help Save the World

    Does flying have to be bad for the environment? Val Miftakhov, the founder and CEO of ZeroAvia, doesn’t think so. His company built a plane that’s powered by hydrogen fuel, which produces zero carbon emissions.…


  • The AI that Might Take My Job (And Yours)

    Andrew Mason is the founder and CEO of Descript. Descript’s software has made editing audio and video much simpler.  The company recently received a large investment from OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. It’s a sign that…


  • The Hottest Thing In Energy Storage

    Andrew Ponec is co-founder and CEO of the energy storage company Antora Energy.  Andrew’s problem is this: How can you store renewable energy in a way that is cheap enough and reliable enough for industrial…


  • Using Bacteria to Dye Jeans

    Tammy Hsu and Michelle Zhu are the cofounders of Huue.  Their problem is this: how do you get bacteria to produce indigo dye? And how do you do it cheaply and reliably enough to replace…


  • The Quest for the Factory-Built House

    Today’s show is about a problem people have been trying to solve for a hundred years: how can we mass produce houses, like we do cars? Listen for a house that looks like a UFO,…


  • Building Houses Like Tesla Builds Cars

    Alexis Rivas is the co-founder and CEO of Cover. His problem is: How do you build houses in a factory, the way you build cars? And how do you do it so they’re cheaper and…


  • Human Bones, Made In the Lab

    Nina Tandon is the co-founder and CEO of a tissue engineering company called EpiBone. Her problem is this: How do you grow custom bone from patients’ stem cells, at a price that makes sense? See omnystudio.com/listener…


  • Tiny Chips, Giant Stakes

    Microchips are the most important driver of technological progress in the modern world, and governments are fighting over who gets to make them. Right now, most cutting-edge chips are made in Taiwan, a country that…


  • Problems Solved: Drones, Bananas and Real Estate*

    It’s our first anniversary and—almost 50 episodes in—Jacob Goldstein checks in with three past guests. Drone delivery guy Keenan Wyrobek thinks he has solved a big problem holding back commercial drone delivery in America. Fruit-ripening maven…


  • 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…