What’s Your Problem?
In recent decades, medical research has fundamentally changed how we think about heart disease. This fresh understanding has opened up new ways to prevent heart attacks. Eric Topol is a cardiologist and the founder of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in San Diego. Eric’s problem is this: How can doctors use recent technological developments to do a better job at preventing heart attacks?
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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…
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…