Alle afleveringen
221 afleveringen, van nieuw naar oud
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Building a Better Public Bathroom
16 oktober 2025 · 38 min
Fletcher Wilson is the CEO and co-founder of Throne Labs. Lees meer
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.
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Could Autonomous Diggers Unleash a Building Boom?
2 oktober 2025 · 31 min
Boris Sofman is the co-founder and CEO of Bedrock Robotics. Lees meer
Boris' problem is this: How do you teach machines not just to drive, but also to work: to grade roads, move heavy objects and dig big holes at construction sites.
On today’s show, Boris talks about how his work at Waymo led him to found Bedrock, and he explains how autonomous construction equipment could help unleash an American building boom.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Growing Meat from Cells
25 september 2025 · 48 min
Justin Kolbeck is the co-founder and CEO of Wildtype, a company making seafood without killing fish. Lees meer
Their first product is cultivated salmon, which is made from real salmon cells that are grown in a stainless steel vat.
Justin's problem is this: How to sell no-kill, vat-grown salmon for the same price, or better, as wild-caught salmon? On today’s show, Justin explains how Wildtype will scale, what’s going on across the cultivated and plant-based meat industries, and how new state bans on cultivated foods are shaping the future of his business.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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The Ordinary Stuff Behind Technological Breakthroughs
18 september 2025 · 44 min
Ed Conway is an economics journalist and author of the book “Material World: The Six Raw Materials that Shape Modern Civilization.” Lees meer
On today’s show, Ed reveals how three of those often-overlooked materials—iron, copper, and sand—shaped human advancement from the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution to the digital age. And he talks about what they mean for our future.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Carbon Capture at Rock-Bottom Prices
11 september 2025 · 38 min
Shashank Samala is the CEO and co-founder of Heirloom, a carbon capture start-up. Lees meer
His problem is this: Can you use crushed up rocks to permanently suck carbon out of the atmosphere? And can you do it cheaply enough to have a global impact?
On today’s show, Shashank explains why he believes rocks could be the backbone of carbon capture, how his childhood in India shaped his outlook on climate change, and how government policy is shaping today’s direct air capture industry.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Why Amazon Built a Spatula-Wielding Robot
4 september 2025 · 44 min
Aaron Parness is a director of applied science at Amazon Robotics. Lees meer
His problem is this: How do you build a robot that can put stuff on shelves.
Today on the show, Aaron explains why this is a surprisingly hard problem – and why the solution Aaron’s team came up with may ultimately have uses beyond the warehouse.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Drilling Smarter Wells to Unleash Geothermal Energy
28 augustus 2025 · 37 min
In many places on Earth, there’s steam just below the surface. We don’t know where those places are — but if we could figure it out, we could unlock a lot of clean energy. Lees meer
Carl Hoiland is the co-founder and CEO of Zanskar, a geothermal energy company.
On today’s show, Carl makes the case for geothermal in the energy transition and explains how the company is developing new ways to identify exactly where to dig a geothermal well.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Inventing a Better Pain Pill
21 augustus 2025 · 32 min
Dr. Stephen Waxman is a professor of neurology, neuroscience and pharmacology at Yale. His research on pain helped pave the way for a newly approved, non-addictive pain drug called suzetrigine. Lees meer
On today’s show, he explains why he thinks suzetrigine is a promising step, but why much more work is needed to develop better pain drugs. He also gets into his work on ion channels—critical to unlocking the pain puzzle— and a rare condition known as Man on Fire syndrome.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Mapping the Unmappable
14 augustus 2025 · 36 min
Philipp Kandal is the chief product officer of Grab, an app that serves several countries across Southeast Asia. Two of Grab’s main businesses are delivery and mobility – like a combination between Instacart and Uber. And maps are at the core of its business. Lees meer
On today’s show, Philipp talks about improving online maps for places like Southeast Asia, where streets are often winding, narrow, and harder to access than those in the US and other developed countries.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Reinventing Blood
7 augustus 2025 · 36 min
Dr. Allan Doctor is the co-founder and chief scientific officer at Kalocyte, a company that is developing dried red blood cells that can be rehydrated and used in medical emergencies. Lees meer
On today’s show, Dr. Doctor explains the complex science behind artificial blood, and how this innovation could help save millions of lives.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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The AI Pioneer Developing New Kinds of Medicine
17 juli 2025 · 47 min
Jakob Uszkoreit is the CEO and co-founder of Inceptive, a biotech start-up. He’s also a co-author of “Attention is All You Need,” the paper that created transformer models. Today, transformers power chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude. They’ve also led to breakthroughs in everything from generating images to predicting the structure of proteins. Lees meer
On today’s show, Jakob talks about the invention of transformer models. And he discusses how he’s using those models to try to invent new kinds of medicine, with a particular focus on RNA.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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A Billion-Dollar Bet on Carbon Removal
10 juli 2025 · 43 min
Nan Ransohoff is the head of climate at Stripe. The company is known mainly for facilitating online payments, but it’s become a key driver of the nascent carbon-removal industry. Lees meer
On today’s show, Nan explains how she used a clever economic idea to get companies to spend $1 billion on carbon removal. And she talks about the different approaches startups are pursuing to pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Giving Old Batteries New Life
3 juli 2025 · 35 min
Megan O’Connor is the co-founder and CEO of Nth Cycle. Megan’s problem is this: How do you create a new system that can both refine the raw metals we need for new batteries and recycle metal from old batteries? Lees meer
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Engineering the Future of Fusion
26 juni 2025 · 41 min
Getting energy from nuclear fusion has been a dream for decades; it would be cheap, abundant, and safer than today’s nuclear fission reactors. Billions of dollars have flowed into fusion startups in recent years, but reliable, economic fusion power may still be decades away. Lees meer
Greg Piefer is the founder of a fusion company called Shine, where he’s pursuing a different path. Rather than go straight to fusion as a source of energy, he’s using fusion to pursue more profitable markets right now – with the hope that what he learns today will eventually help lead to cheap, abundant fusion energy.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Can Robots Fix Recycling?
19 juni 2025 · 33 min
Recycling plants take in a huge amount of random (and occasionally hazardous) stuff, which they then have to turn into reliable outputs that their customers will buy. That’s why Rebecca Hu Thrams calls recycling “the most demented form of manufacturing on the planet.” Rebecca is the co-founder of Glacier, and her problem is this: Can you use AI and robots to make recycling a somewhat less demented business? Lees meer
Get early, ad-free access to episodes of What's Your Problem? by subscribing to Pushkin+ on Apple Podcasts or Pushkin.fm. Pushkin+ subscribers can access ad-free episodes, full audiobooks, exclusive binges, and bonus content for all Pushkin shows.
Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkin
Subscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.com/plusSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Inside the Mind of an AI Model
12 juni 2025 · 43 min
AI might be the most consequential advancement in the world right now. But – astonishingly – no one fully understands what’s going on inside AI models. Josh Batson is a research scientist at Anthropic, the AI company behind Claude, one of the world’s leading language models. Josh’s problem is this: How do we learn how AI works? Lees meer
Get early, ad-free access to episodes of What's Your Problem? by subscribing to Pushkin+ on Apple Podcasts or Pushkin.fm. Pushkin+ subscribers can access ad-free episodes, full audiobooks, exclusive binges, and bonus content for all Pushkin shows.
Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkin
Subscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.com/plusSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Teaching Robots How to Do Everything
5 juni 2025 · 37 min
AI is better than humans at a lot of things, but physical tasks – even seemingly simple ones like folding a shirt – routinely stump AI-powered robots. Chelsea Finn is a professor at Stanford and the co-founder of Physical Intelligence. Chelsea's problem is this: Can you build an AI model that can teach any robot to do any task, anywhere? Lees meer
Get early, ad-free access to episodes of What's Your Problem? by subscribing to Pushkin+ on Apple Podcasts or Pushkin.fm. Pushkin+ subscribers can access ad-free episodes, full audiobooks, exclusive binges, and bonus content for all Pushkin shows.
Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkin
Subscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.com/plusSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Making a Universal Flu Vaccine
29 mei 2025 · 38 min
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? Lees meer
Get early, ad-free access to episodes of What's Your Problem? by subscribing to Pushkin+ on Apple Podcasts or Pushkin.fm. Pushkin+ subscribers can access ad-free episodes, full audiobooks, exclusive binges, and bonus content for all Pushkin shows.
Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkin
Subscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.com/plusSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Teaching Computers to Smell
22 mei 2025 · 36 min
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 his childhood obsession: Osmo is using AI to teach computers to smell. Lees meer
The company is getting into the perfume business, and it plans eventually to use scent to diagnose disease and detect security risks.
Get early, ad-free access to episodes of What's Your Problem? by subscribing to Pushkin+ on Apple Podcasts or Pushkin.fm. Pushkin+ subscribers can access ad-free episodes, full audiobooks, exclusive binges, and bonus content for all Pushkin shows.
Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkin
Subscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.com/plusSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Can a Chatbot Treat Depression?
24 april 2025 · 46 min
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 be on to something. Lees meer
Note: This episode contains references to self harm.
Get early, ad-free access to episodes of What's Your Problem? by subscribing to Pushkin+ on Apple Podcasts or Pushkin.fm. Pushkin+ subscribers can access ad-free episodes, full audiobooks, exclusive binges, and bonus content for all Pushkin shows.
Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkin
Subscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.com/plusSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Will AI Radically Change the World by 2027?... from Risky Business
23 april 2025 · 47 min
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 to be misled by rogue AI, and whether current conflicts between the US and China will affect the way this all unfolds. Plus, Nate talks about the feedback he gave the AI 2027 writers after reading an early draft of their forecast, and reveals what he sees as the report’s central flaw. Lees meer
Enjoy this episode from Risky Business, another Pushkin podcast.
The AI Futures Project’s AI 2027 scenario: https://ai-2027.com/
Get early, ad-free access to episodes of What's Your Problem? by subscribing to Pushkin+ on Apple Podcasts or Pushkin.fm. Pushkin+ subscribers can access ad-free episodes, full audiobooks, exclusive binges, and bonus content for all Pushkin shows.
Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkin
Subscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.com/plusSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Is the Future of Flight Supersonic?
17 april 2025 · 41 min
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? Lees meer
Get early, ad-free access to episodes of What's Your Problem? by subscribing to Pushkin+ on Apple Podcasts or Pushkin.fm. Pushkin+ subscribers can access ad-free episodes, full audiobooks, exclusive binges, and bonus content for all Pushkin shows.
Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkin
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The Secrets of Silk
10 april 2025 · 25 min
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 useful, cutting edge tools that improve everything from vaccine delivery to food waste? Lees meer
Get early, ad-free access to episodes of What's Your Problem? by subscribing to Pushkin+ on Apple Podcasts or Pushkin.fm. Pushkin+ subscribers can access ad-free episodes, full audiobooks, exclusive binges, and bonus content for all Pushkin shows.
Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkin
Subscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.com/plusSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Infiltrating an International Ransomware Gang
8 april 2025 · 33 min
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. So he used the techniques of World War II-era spycraft to make contact with the hackers. Lees meer
On today’s show, Jon tells the story of LockBit – from the way it borrowed techniques from mainstream companies to market itself and attract talent, to the response from international governments that used the gang’s own tactics against it. And he talks about how he got the hackers to talk to him.
Jon described the rise and fall of the company in a series of posts he called the Ransomware Diaries. You can read those here: https://analyst1.com/ransomware-diaries-volume-1/
Note: This bonus episode of What’s Your Problem? is sponsored by Microsoft.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Preparing for the Future of War
3 april 2025 · 55 min
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 with technological change? Lees meer
Get early, ad-free access to episodes of What's Your Problem? by subscribing to Pushkin+ on Apple Podcasts or Pushkin.fm. Pushkin+ subscribers can access ad-free episodes, full audiobooks, exclusive binges, and bonus content for all Pushkin shows.
Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkin
Subscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.com/plusSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Stopping HIV Without a Vaccine
13 maart 2025 · 28 min
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 HIV? Lees meer
There’s already a daily pill that reduces the risk of getting HIV, but a majority of people who are at high risk are unwilling or unable to take it.
So Jared and his colleagues are developing a new drug, lenacapivir, designed to be given as a shot once every six months.
Note: The views and opinions expressed in this episode are those of the guest and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent.
Get early, ad-free access to episodes of What's Your Problem? by subscribing to Pushkin+ on Apple Podcasts or Pushkin.fm. Pushkin+ subscribers can access ad-free episodes, full audiobooks, exclusive binges, and bonus content for all Pushkin shows.
Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkin
Subscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.com/plusSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Harnessing the Heat Deep Beneath Our Feet
6 maart 2025 · 49 min
Carlos Araque is the co-founder and CEO of Quaise Energy. Carlos' problem is this: How do you make drilling for geothermal energy as routine, widespread, and profitable as drilling for oil or gas? The answer involves digging deeper into the Earth than anyone has ever dug before. Lees meer
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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The Brain Implant That Could Change Medicine
27 februari 2025 · 29 min
Ben Rapoport is the co-founder and CSO of Precision Neuroscience. Ben's problem is this: Can you build a device that allows a paralyzed person to use a computer with only their thoughts – without damaging their brain? Lees meer
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Building a Mass Market Robot
20 februari 2025 · 45 min
Jeff Cardenas is the co-founder and CEO of Apptronik. Jeff's problem is this: Can you make a safe, reliable humanoid robot – for less than $50,000? Lees meer
In the short term, Apptronik’s robots will work in factories. But Jeff’s long-term goal – based on the experience of his own grandparents – is to build robots that can help care for the elderly.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Solving Solar’s Biggest Problem
13 februari 2025 · 44 min
We need better, cheaper ways to store solar and wind energy when it’s dark out and the wind isn’t blowing. Lees meer
One option: Compressing air in underground caverns when energy is abundant, then blowing it back out to create energy when you need it. It’s an old idea, but it has some fundamental problems.
Curtis VanWalleghem, the co-founder and CEO of Hydrostor, thinks his company has solved those problems with a new approach. If he’s right, his firm will help fix the biggest bottleneck slowing down the adoption of solar and wind power.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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How Bubbles Power Breakthroughs
6 februari 2025 · 55 min
There are moments in history when people make huge technological advances all of a sudden. Think of the Manhattan Project, the Apollo missions, or, more recently, generative AI. But what do these moments have in common? Is there some set of conditions that lead to massive technological leaps? Lees meer
Byrne Hobart is the author of a finance newsletter called The Diff, and the co-author of Boom: Bubbles and the End of Stagnation. In the book, Bryne makes the case for one thing that is really helpful if you want to make a wild technological leap: a bubble.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Teaching AI to Build Stuff in the Physical World
30 januari 2025 · 51 min
AI works well in the virtual world. That’s partly because the internet provides so much data to train AI models. But there’s no analogous data set for the physical world – and as a result, AI doesn’t work as well there… yet. Lees meer
Edward Mehr is the co-founder and CEO of Machina Labs. Edward's problem is this: How can you use AI to turn robots from dumb, inflexible machines into skilled, versatile craftsmen?
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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NVIDIA: At the Heart of the AI Boom
23 januari 2025 · 44 min
In the past few years, NVIDIA has become one of the most valuable and important companies in the world by making GPUs, the chips powering the AI boom. But where did the company come from, and why are NVIDIA chips the ones that dominate AI? Lees meer
Tae Kim is the author of a new book called The Nvidia Way. In his book, he tells the story of how NVIDIA’s founder and CEO, Jensen Huang, set NVIDIA on the path to becoming what it is today.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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What Claude Shannon Figured Out
16 januari 2025 · 42 min
Claude Shannon is a major figure in the history of technology. Known as the father of information theory, Shannon spent decades at Bell Labs and MIT. But what exactly did Claude Shannon figure out, and why is it so important? Lees meer
To answer that question, Jacob talked with David Tse, a professor of electrical engineering at Stanford who studied under one of Shannon’s students, and who teaches Shannon to his own students today. David used Shannon's work to make a breakthrough in wireless communication that underpins every phone call we make today.
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Measles: The Cancer Killer?... from Incubation
19 december 2024 · 30 min
We thought we knew everything there was to know about measles. But in recent years, new research has revealed that the virus attacks the immune system and creates effects far more dramatic than a rash and fever. For this episode we’re joined by Michael Mina, a former Harvard epidemiologist now at eMed, who helped discover how measles was causing “immune amnesia.” Our second guest is Stephen Russell, a former Mayo Clinic researcher who co-founded a company called Vyriad. Russell is trying to use the measles virus to treat cancer. Enjoy this episode from Incubation, another Pushkin podcast. Lees meer
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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RoboPod and the Perpetual Money Machine – Cautionary Questions 2… from Cautionary Tales
12 december 2024 · 43 min
What really drove the 2008 financial crash? What’s a shadow bank? And what’s the connection between NIMBYs and BANANAs? Tim Harford and Jacob Goldstein answer more of your questions. Enjoy this episode from Cautionary Tales, another Pushkin Podcast. Lees meer
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Turning Solar Energy Into Fuel (The Solar Era, Part 3)
2 december 2024 · 51 min
Solar power and batteries are becoming cheap and ubiquitous. Great. But there are problems batteries can’t solve – like fueling ships and planes. One way to solve those problems: Use solar power to create hydrogen, and turn that hydrogen into fuel. Lees meer
Today’s guest is Raffi Garabedian, the co-founder and CEO of Electric Hydrogen. Raffi’s problem is this: How do you turn solar and wind energy into clean hydrogen that’s cheap enough to compete with fossil fuel?
This is the last of three episodes we’re doing about the solar-power revolution. Listen to the previous episodes on your podcast player or at our website: https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/whats-your-problem
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Can Hot Bricks Save the World? (The Solar Era, Part 2)
28 november 2024 · 31 min
This is the second of three episodes about the solar-power revolution. Last week, we talked about how solar power got so cheap. This week, we’re talking with someone who is building giant plants around the world to take advantage of all that cheap, intermittent energy. Lees meer
John O'Donnell is the co-founder of Rondo Energy. John’s problem is this: How do you turn intermittent energy into the cheap, reliable, intense heat that companies around the world need to make everything from steel beams to t-shirts?
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How the Sun Won (The Solar Era, Part 1)
21 november 2024 · 44 min
In the past 20 years, the price of solar panels has fallen by more than 97 percent. This extraordinary decline is good news for the world – and it’s transforming the way energy is produced and consumed. Lees meer
For the next few episodes, we’ll be talking to people who are in the middle of this solar power revolution to find out how it happened, and what it will mean for the world.
Today, Jenny Chase, the author of Solar Power Finance Without the Jargon, tells the story of how solar power got so cheap and where it’s exploding today, and she explains what problems we still need to solve to pull off a worldwide energy transition.
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Drugs in Space
14 november 2024 · 32 min
Paul Reichert is a research scientist at Merck, working on improvements to how we administer drugs to patients. Paul's problem is this: How can you run experiments in space to learn how to make better drugs on Earth? Lees meer
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The World Is Getting Better (Really)
7 november 2024 · 45 min
Hannah Ritchie is a data scientist and the deputy editor of Our World in Data. She is also the author of Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet. Hannah’s problem is this: How do you use data to get past the doomsday headlines and solve big problems to achieve sustainability? Lees meer
Check out Our World in Data: https://ourworldindata.org/
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Rabies: When Monsters are Real…from Incubation
31 oktober 2024 · 29 min
Why has rabies invaded our nightmares for centuries? Author and veterinarian Monica Murphy tells us about the cultural history of rabies (which involves vampires and werewolves!) and how our long nightmare with the disease came to an end. Then, wildlife biologist Kathy Nelson tells us about a surprising program that works to control raccoon rabies… from the sky. Enjoy this episode from Incubation, another Pushkin podcast. Lees meer
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Using Gene Therapy to Help the Blind See
17 oktober 2024 · 36 min
After decades of research, gene therapy is starting to work. Shannon Boye is a professor of cellular and molecular therapeutics at the University of Florida. She is also the co-founder and chief scientific officer of Atsena Therapeutics. Shannon’s problem is this: How do you use gene therapy to cure certain forms of blindness? Lees meer
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Bringing Back Mammoths and Dodos*
10 oktober 2024 · 40 min
*Or at least, sort of bringing back mammoths and dodos. Lees meer
Beth Shapiro is the chief scientific officer at Colossal Biosciences and the author of How to Clone a Mammoth: The Science of De-Extinction. Beth's problem is this: How do you use the tools of modern biology – and hundreds of millions of dollars – to bring back species that have been extinct for centuries? And on another level, Beth’s problem is explaining to the world what it really means (and doesn’t mean) to bring back an extinct species.
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What Elevators Teach Us About Technology, Design, and Human Behavior
3 oktober 2024 · 37 min
The elevator made the modern city possible: No elevators, no skyscrapers. Today, people are working on entirely new kinds of elevators that can go higher and faster than ever. On today’s show, we talk about those innovations with Lee Gray, who is possibly the world’s leading elevator historian and definitely a professor of architectural history at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Lees meer
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Can the Plant Microbiome Revolutionize Farming?
26 september 2024 · 39 min
The invention of synthetic fertilizer was one of the key breakthroughs of the 20th century. It’s the reason we can grow enough food to feed billions of people. It’s also super energy intensive. Karsten Temme is the co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer at Pivot Bio. Karsten's problem is this: How can you use the tools of gene editing to get microbes in soil to provide more nitrogen for crops? Lees meer
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Turning Pollution into Jet Fuel
19 september 2024 · 39 min
Jennifer Holmgren is the CEO of LanzaTech. Her problem is this: How do you capture pollution from factories, feed it to bacteria, and get the bacteria to produce ethanol, which can become everything from polyester to jet fuel? Lees meer
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Reinventing Mining to Power the World
12 september 2024 · 41 min
Moving from fossil fuels to renewable energy will require huge amounts of copper, lithium, and other metals. Kurt House is the co-founder and CEO of KoBold Metals. The company recently made a huge copper discovery in Zambia, and is looking for other metals in other places. Kurt's problem is this: How do you use AI – machine learning, data science – to find the metals we'll need for the energy transition? Lees meer
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Inventing a Vaccine for Bees
5 september 2024 · 35 min
Dalial Freitak and Annette Kleiser are the co-founders of Dalan Animal Health, a company that has brought to market the first vaccine for insects. Their problem is this: How do you turn a discovery about insect immune systems into a vaccine that can protect the bees we need to grow everything from almonds to blueberries? Lees meer
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A Better Way to Make the Chemicals in Everything
29 augustus 2024 · 39 min
Sean Hunt is the co-founder and CTO of Solugen, a company that sells around $100 million a year of industrial chemicals. Sean's problem is this: How do you make the chemicals that go into everything around us -- our food, our clothes, our cars -- without using fossil fuels? Lees meer
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