Danielle Newnham Podcast

Today’s guest is Kelsey Hightower, a distinguished engineer and developer advocate at Google and speaker known for his work with Kubernetes, open source software and cloud computing.As a curious and motivated self-learner, Kelsey dropped out of College and taught himself the skills required to start his career as an independent contractor for BellSouth – a telecoms company in Atlanta helping the community to get online. From there, Kelsey set up his own business – an electronics store before becoming involved in the open source world, working at New Relic, CoreOS, Puppet Labs, and most recently at Google.A self-taught developer, Kelsey’s work on Kubernetes and at Google, from which he just retired, is well-known* so I wanted to focus our conversation on his life - how he got into tech, his love of learning, what drives him, what it means to be hopeful and the one piece of advice he would offer a younger Kelsey.I know I am not meant to have favourites – these conversations are like children - but I have to say this is up there with one of my most loved conversations. I learned so much from Kelsey and I think you will too.Enjoy!Kelsey on TwitterDanielle Twitter / Instagram / NewsletterPhoto of Kelsey is part of the Faces of Open Source Project by Peter Adams*If you want to learn more about Kelsey's work history, give this episode  from Ardan Labs a listen.

What does the future of education look like? This is a question I have pondered for the last ten years or so and today’s guest - Josh Dahn – has the answer. Eight years ago, Josh Dahn was teaching Elon Musk’s kids at Mirman – a private school for highly gifted children in LA when Elon approached him about rethinking the traditional education model. Josh jumped at the opportunity and in today’s episode, Josh talks me through that first meeting with Elon and how they worked together to found the Ad Astra school based at SpaceX. Based at the SpaceX site, it was a school where the children weren’t separated out by year group or grades as you say in the US, but instead, the education matched the aptitude of the children, and the education was focused around problem solving and teaching to the problem, as opposed teaching to the tools.Josh went on to co-found Synthesis which is an innovative online school, helping students to prepare for the future by getting them engaged and excited about complexity and solving for the unknown. Josh is Founder and Executive Director of Astra Nova School (previously Ad Astra) in Los Angeles.Enjoy!NB This interview was recorded in August of last year and first appeared in Series 4 of the podcast.Josh  Twitter Synthesis website / Twitter / LinkedIn / InstagramDanielle Twitter / Instagram / NewsletterEpisode edited by Jolin Cheng  

Today’s guest is James Vincent who spent eleven years working directly with Steve Jobs to help build Apple’s narrative for some of its hugely ground-breaking products including the iPod, iPhone, iTunes, App Store and iPad.He also founded and was CEO of Media Arts Lab which was a bespoke agency working exclusively for Apple and is host of Fast Company's Innovation in Leaders Podcast.A master storyteller, James is now Founder and CEO of FNDR - an agency which works with game changing entrepreneurs such as Brian Chesky of Airbnb and Evan Spiegel of Snap to help them harness the immense power of an intentional narrative to bring voice to their vision. In this episode, James and I discuss what he was like growing up and how he felt like an outsider to getting the call to come and work with Steve and what was the greatest lesson he learned from him.I found this to be a really insightful conversation and a first-hand glimpse into what it was like working at Apple with both Steve and legends like Jony Ive on campaigns for some of the most iconic products of recent times. I think you will really enjoy it too.James Vincent on Twitter / FNDR / Leaders in Innovation Podcast Danielle Twitter / Instagram / Substack Newsletter Mentioned in this episode:Apple's Mother Nature adApple's iPod Silhouette campaignLeaders in Innovation Podcast 

Today’s guest is Anna Anderson, founder of Kindred – a co-working and events space in West London, beloved by founders and creatives alike.Anna Anderson spent her career in social work before founding Kindred in 2019 to help forge human connection between founders. Her goal with Kindred is to create a space that feels inclusive and provides fellow founders and small businesses with the community they need to thrive.In this conversation, we discuss all things community from how communities have evolved over time to what is needed in a post-pandemic world, how Kindred survived the pandemic and Anna also opens up about her childhood, religion and losing her sister tragically as well as how she sought joy following that grave loss. This is the post I mention in the episode from father Chris Anderson after Zoe's passing.Anna believes very much in the power of community and is optimistic about our ability as founders to shape the future for the better and it’s this level of optimism and heart that we need right now.So, please enjoy my conversation with Anna Anderson.Kindred website / Instagram / Anna on LinkedInDanielle Twitter / Instagram / Substack Newsletter

Today, we’re doing things a little bit differently because I felt it was the right time to bring on Syreeta Challinger, a founder, a coach,  podcaster and an incredible human whom who I first interviewed five years ago when I had a company called F= which was all about empowering women and Syreeta had started MOSS – Moments of Sense and Style where she sold her beautiful products such as notebooks and candles, all heavily influenced by her story which she so graciously shares today.Syreeta grew up in South East London and as a child of mixed heritage, experienced regular racism from people on the streets to teachers in the classroom. A creative and sensitive soul like so many of us, Syreeta went on to forge a career in design and product development before meeting the love of her life in Hong Kong.However, this wonderful love story had a very difficult obstacle to overcome when her then-boyfriend Rob had a catastrophic brain haemorrhage and stroke in 2014 when he was just 37 and Syreeta was 32. It left him paralysed and unable to speak.Rob and Syreeta’s story is one of hope and love and resilience and strength and I can’t think of a better time than now to release it. Because I think we could all do with a little bit of hope right now.It’s an emotional conversation so I hope you will forgive me for choking up. But I think it’s a necessary one. Syreeta is a life coach now and when you hear her story, you will understand why this is the perfect role for her.Syreeta website /  Instagram/ PodcastDanielle Twitter / Instagram / NewsletterMentioned in this episode:Stephen LawrenceBNPSyreeta and Rob TED talk  

Today’s guest is Dame Stephanie "Steve" Shirley - a hugely successful tech entrepreneur and now philanthropist as well as author of her memoir, Let It Go. I actually recorded this interview back in 2016 for my book Female Innovators at Work and you can find the full interview on my YouTube channel, thanks to my friends at Bullet Media who filmed it.But now feels like a good time to release this episode on the podcast for several reasons, not least because Dame Stephanie turned 90 last month and it was Ada Lovelace day this week – which is a celebration of all the incredible achievements by women in STEM.And Dame Stephanie is an incredible woman. Having escaped the Nazi regime as an unaccompanied five year old child on the Kindertransport, Dame Stephanie settled in the UK and went on to huge success as a technology and entrepreneurial pioneer when she founded an all-woman software company called F International that pioneered remote working and redefined the expectations and opportunities for working women at that time. It was ultimately valued at almost $3 billion and made 70 of her staff millionaires - but this was against many odds as she describes in this interview – from being a child refugee to dealing with sexism and knockbacks in the industry to the heartbreak of losing her beloved autistic son, Giles. Dame Stephanie Shirley is a huge inspiration to me and after you have listened to her story today, I know she will inspire you too.So please do enjoy my conversation with the amazing Dame Stephanie Shirley. Dame Stephanie Shirley website / book / TwitterDanielle Twitter / Instagram / NewsletterPS Another quick shout out to Wave coaching app - the sponsor of last week's episode. Check them out hereYou can watch this interview on YouTube hereImage via TED 

Today's guest is Mike Slade of Second Avenue Partners – an investor, advisor and seasoned storyteller who worked with Bill Gates, Paul Allen and Steve Jobs.Mike started his career at Microsoft in 1983 and spent seven years in a variety of product marketing roles launching hugely successful products including Excel, Works and Microsoft Office. He then went to work at NeXT as VP of Marketing, reporting directly to Steve Jobs.Paul Allen (Microsoft co-founder) then hired Mike as CEO of Starwave which was his trailblazing venture into the Internet and multimedia space. While building Starwave, Mike launched ESPN.com, NBA.com, NFL.com, and many other huge sites. Following the company’s sale to Disney, Mike went back to Steve Jobs and joined Apple’s executive team, as Steve’s strategic advisor.As I said before, Mike is an incredible storyteller so expect to hear some wonderfully funny, insightful and even touching stories about his time with these three innovators.But before we get into the episode, I wanted to tell you about today’s sponsor – Wave – the coaching app used by leaders at all the top tech companies from Google, to Amazon and Stripe. Check it out here. And for less than 20 euros a month, you too can access your very own executive coach and reach your work and life goals using the power of AI combined with actual human coaches.It’s funny because we expect to see elite athletes using coaches but just imgagine what applying that same support could do to your life and work?Whether you’re struggling with work challenges such as leadership, time management or problem solving, Wave is the app to use. I signed up last week and I am already looking forward to my first session next week.I know lots of founders and CEOs who need and want outside help but don’t know where to go or don’t have the time or money to get that help. And whilst many current apps and methodologies for professional growth are outdated, I think Wave is doing something completely different and innovative and is one of THE most time and cost effective ways I have seen to help you set, measure and achieve your goals. So what are you waiting for? Hit the link here to try Wave for under 20 Euros a month. It’s a bargain!-----------Mike Slade Twitter / Second Avenue Danielle Twitter / Instagram / NewsletterEpisode image: Mike SladeBecoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader by Brent Shlender and Rick Tetzeli       

In this episode, computer scientist Simon Peyton Jones discusses his love for programming, his approach to complex problems, Tim Sweeny's metaverse vision, and the importance of coding for children. They also delve into his journey with functional programming, the origins of Haskell, important lessons from designing the language, and the significance of teaching computer science in schools.

This is a REPLAY of last year's episode with Dr. Mary Lou Jepsen – serial entrepreneur, inventor, pioneer in VR, medical imaging and telepathic technology, former professor at MIT Media Lab and currently, founder of Openwater.Mary Lou spent many of her childhood years unwell before she was finally diagnosed with a brain tumour in her twenties. And going through that had a huge impact on her life as you might expect. For the many years she was quite literally dying, she decided she only wanted to work on really interesting projects - as she says to me in this interview, “I never really thought I would live very long and so I wanted to find really interesting things to do with my life for however long I might live.”Mary Lou became fascinated with holography and optics whilst at school and spent her career pioneering in VR and in the optics space as an engineering executive at Intuit, Google, Facebook, Oculus, and with her own four startups which included multi-billion dollar non-profit One Laptop Per Child.She is now using her decades long experience in this space and her experience with a brain tumour to spearhead Openwater where the goal is to create the technology to be able to see deep into the body with the detail of a 3D camera. The implications of this technology will make critical diagnostics healthcare far more affordable and accessible for millions but it could also mean we achieve telepathy which is hugely exciting. Mary Lou website / Openwater / Twitter Danielle Twitter / Instagram / NewsletterMentioned in this episode:I Know What You're Thinking: Brain Imaging and Mental Privacy 

Hello and welcome to the Danielle Newnham Podcast where I interview tech founders and innovators to learn the inspiring, human stories behind their work.Today’s guest is Nir Eyal - best-selling author, entrepreneur, investor and business consultant teaching about the intersection of psychology, technology and business.An American-Israeli immigrant, Nir co-founded and sold two tech companies before he started sharing the tricks of habit forming products that he had researched in his book, Hooked in 2013. Six years later and his second book - Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life became another bestseller.Nir also previously taught as a Lecturer in Marketing at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford.In this conversation, Nir and I discuss the fallacy that tech companies hold more agency over our habits than we do, how he learned to hack back his time and become indistractable and why school children have 10 times more restrictions placed on them than convicted felons in prison.This is a truly fascinating episode with someone I have long-admired and which I think you will really enjoy.Nir on Twitter / Instagram  / WebsiteDanielle on Twitter @daniellenewnham and  Instagram @daniellenewnham   / Newsletter Mentioned in this episode:Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your LifeWhy The Social Dilemma Is Wrong by Danielle Newnham