What’s Your Problem?
Fletcher Wilson is the CEO and co-founder of Throne Labs.
Fletcher’s problem is this: How can you create public toilets that people actually want to use?
On today’s show, Fletcher explains how his company is trying to make public bathrooms cleaner, safer and more accessible. The conversation also points to a bigger idea: why it’s so hard for cities to build and maintain pretty much anything.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Scanning Every Muscle to Help Olympians Get Stronger
On the next few episodes of What’s Your Problem, Jacob Goldstein is talking with people working at the frontiers of technology to help elite athletes perform better. Today’s guest is Silvia Blemker, a professor of…
Making Blood Vessels in a Factory
Laura Niklason is the co-founder and CEO of Humacyte. Laura’s problem is this: How can you use human cells to create blood vessels that surgeons can pull out of a bag and implant into patients?…
Creating the Second Atomic Age
As demand for clean energy grows, engineers around the U.S. are working on a new generation of nuclear reactors. These designs reflect how nuclear energy could fit into the power grid – and our lives…
Lifetime Terms, Lifetime Bans, and the Return of Roaring Kitty from Risky Business
This week on Risky Business, Nate and Maria discuss whether Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor should retire, the perils of sports betting among professional athletes, and what the return of Roaring Kitty means for traditional…
When the Robots Take Over… from Cautionary Tales
Tim Harford is joined by Jacob Goldstein to answer your questions. Does winning the lottery make you unhappy? Is Bitcoin bad for the economy? When does correlation imply causation? And what will Tim and Jacob…
Making Palm Oil Without Palm Trees
Palm oil is a cheap and remarkably versatile vegetable oil. It’s in a ton of products, from food to cosmetics, detergent, and chewing gum. But producing so much palm oil is really bad for the…
Fighting Cancer with CRISPR
Last year, the FDA approved a treatment for sickle cell disease using a revolutionary new gene editing technology called CRISPR. Rachel Haurwitz conducted pioneering research on CRISPR as a graduate student. Now she’s the co-founder…
How to Start 40 Companies (and Counting)
Robert Langer has co-founded dozens of companies, holds over a thousand patents, and is a pioneering figure in drug delivery and tissue engineering. Robert has solved a lot of problems, and is working on many…
The Cutting Edge of Energy Storage: Rust
Mateo Jaramillo is the co-founder and CEO of Form Energy. Mateo’s problem is this: How do you build batteries that can provide affordable backup power to the grid for days at a time? As it…
The First Pig to Human Kidney Transplant
This March, doctors successfully transplanted a pig kidney into a person for the first time in history. Mike Curtis is the CEO of eGenesis, the company that raised the pig whose kidney was used for…
