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  • 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…


  • 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 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…


  • 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…


  • 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,…


  • 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…


  • 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…


  • 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…