Danielle Newnham Podcast

Today’s guest is 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 

Today’s special guest is Dex Hunter-Torricke, a speechwriter and Communications leader who has had the unique experience of working closely with top tech leaders including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page and Eric Schmidt.After starting his career at the UN, where Dex worked with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, Dex moved to Google before heading to Facebook where he led executive communications and served as Mark Zuckerberg’s personal speechwriter. He then went to SpaceX where he worked with Elon and the senior management team as Head of Communications there.Dex is currently Head of Communications at the Oversight Board, an independent body that was created to help Facebook and Instagram make the most informed decisions when it comes to content permissions – essentially, what posts to leave up, which to take down and why. In this wide-ranging conversation, we discuss Dex’s upbringing as the son of a Burmese refugee, what tech companies get right and wrong about storytelling, and the importance of independent bodies like Oversight when it comes to content moderation in our digital age.Enjoy!Dex on Twitter / Instagram / Oversight BoardDanielle Twitter / Instagram / Newsletter

Today’s guest is Brit inventor Tom Lawton who has married the skill of design and engineering to create some really special products including BubblePix which would allow you to take 360 degree panoramic views, way before smartphones and beloved by many including Apple’s design team.In this wide-ranging conversation, we discuss Tom’s childhood and inclination towards curiosity and truth telling, his ability to persist in the face of adversity and how his latest design – Wonder - is taking the world by storm.. and currently trending on Reddit.Mentioned in this episode:Tom Lawton InventionsWakeyooBubbliePix (originally called BubbleScope)UpliftWonderTom website / Twitter / InstagramDanielle Twitter / Instagram / Newsletter----------As always, if you like the show, please do take a minute to write a review or hit the subscribe button so that you can be the first to hear all the new episodes before everyone else.  NCRJohWO8GagSHuH4HSC

Today’s guest is Ayah Bdeir, a Lebanese engineer, interactive artist, social activist, and founder and inventor of littleBits.  Pioneering in the open source hardware space, littleBits is the easy-to-use electronic building blocks used by millions of kids all over the world and was acquired by Sphero in 2019. (The prototype also holds a place in the permanent collection at MoMA).Growing up in Beirut, Ayah always had a deep love of design and engineering and focused her career making engineering fun whilst on democratising open source hardware to ensure tech education and innovation became accessible to all, regardless of age, gender or background. Her passion was always to make it accessible and encourage more girls to get excited about engineering. She is also co-founder of the Open Hardware Summit, a TED Senior Fellow, and an alumna of the MIT Media Lab where she did her Masters.In this conversation, Ayah and I discuss her passion for engineering and making it accessible, her call to activism in Lebanon and even, the significance of someone like Elon Musk owning Twitter and the impact it could have. This is a wonderfully wide-ranging conversation which I thoroughly enjoyed and think you will too.-------Ayah Bdeir Twitter / Instagram / websitelittleBits websiteDanielle Twitter / Instagram / Newsletter----------As always, if you like the show, please do take a minute to write a review or hit the subscribe button so that you can be the first to hear all the new episodes before everyone else.  

Today’s guest is Jane Metcalfe, co-founder of WIRED and founder of NEO.LIFE.In 1993, Jane and Louis Rossetto founded WIRED leading the charge in informing, education and exciting the world about the digital revolution – a term Lewis coined.25 years later and Jane is doing it all over again with NEO.LIFE and what she calls the neobiological revolution. NEO.LIFE is a digital media and events company set up to explore the rapid developments at the intersection of tech and biology and how its marriage will shape the future of our species.A serial entrepreneur, innovator and investor, Jane was also President of WIRED ventures, author of Neo Life: 25 Visions for the Future of Our Species and she also started a premium chocolate brand which was acquired in 2018.In this conversation, we talk about feeling like a misfit, the genesis of one of the most important publications of our time and how it is inevitable that we will all become cyborgs. Jane on Twitter / NEO.LIFE website Buy Neo Life: 25 Visions for the Future of Our Species hereDanielle Twitter / Instagram / Newsletter----------As always, if you like the show, please do take a minute to write a review or hot the subscribe button so that you can be the first to hear all the new episodes before everyone else.  Image of Jane taken by Christopher Michel 

Today’s guest is Ken Miller who was employee number twenty two at PayPal. Having originally joined Elon Musk’s X.com, Ken was in charge of anti-fraud which was a difficult job at the best of times, not least at the dawn of the internet. Ken spent seven years at PayPal dealing with everything from fraudulent accounts, the death of a much-loved colleague to the unceremonious ousting of then-CEO Elon Musk and even the Russian mafia.In today’s conversation, Ken also talks to me about his upbringing and how that instilled a sense of grit and self-reliance which would serve him well at PayPal and beyond, as an entrepreneur himself.This is a wide-ranging and fun conversation which I think you will really enjoy!Ken on Twitter / LinkedInDanielle Twitter / Instagram / Newsletter----------As always, if you like the show, please do take a minute to write a review or hot the subscribe button so that you can be the first to hear all the new episodes before everyone else. ----------Mentioned in the episode:The Max that Ken refers to is Max LevchinThe Founders: The Story of PayPal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon ValleyMy interview with Jimmy Soni

Today’s guest is Gil Perry, Co-Founder and CEO of D-ID the technology company behind the viral MyHeritage clips where old photos have been brought to life.A former Commander in the Special Forces unit of the Israeli Defence Forces, Gil and his army friends and co-founders started D-ID to work on protecting images and videos from facial recognition software but not long after and when Covid came, they pivoted their startup to focus on creating a suite of what they call Creative Reality tools that use their deep learning algorithms, image processing and neural networks to create high quality videos from still images. If you haven’t tried it yet, head to the MyHeritage site and give it a go - I can only describe the experience as magical.I have long-been interested in how we can preserve the memory of our loved ones so Gil and I talk about this, as well as holograms, deepfakes, how and why the company pivoted, what lesson Gil took from the special forces to entrepreneurship and, of course, D-ID’s incredible work – from bringing history to life, right through to the metaverse.Enjoy!Gil on LinkedIn / D-ID website / Twitter Danielle Twitter / Instagram / Newsletter-----Mentioned in the episode:MyHeritage Deep NostalgiaHologram of Robert Kardashian (gift from Kanye West to Kim Kardashian)Glimpse Group

Firstly, huge apologies for saying Juicero wrong during this episode - I should have looked up the pronunciation beforehand! I thought the company was called Juiceroo!Right, apology out of the way and back to today's episode. Today, I am answering listeners questions from why I started a podcast, what were the events that shaped me as a child and who my favourite guests were.Trigger warning, in the first answer, I talk about a sad situation which happened when I was young - I do suggest you pause the episode here if you have children around you.I really, really enjoyed doing this AMA and hope to do more in the future so let me know what you think! You can find me @daniellenewnham on Instagram and Twitter. And please don't forget to rate and review the podcast if you enjoyed it - it really does mean the world to me and helps others to find it too.Danielle Twitter / Instagram / Newsletter------------Mentioned in this episode:The story of Nicholas and Daniel Caffell In Search of the Rainbow's End (book written by the boys' father Colin Caffell)Richard Browning episode hereAndy Hertzfeld episode hereJuicero  

Today’s guest is Kevin Bethune – designer, innovator, founder, engineer and author.Kevin has had a multi-faceted career, starting out as a mechanical engineer in the nuclear power industry before focusing on business and design where he ended up at Nike designing two shoes despite being employed on the business side vs a product designer. But that’s Kevin all over – he follows his heart and passion and leads the path for others to do the same.Kevin is now the founder and Chief Creative Officer of dreams, design and life – a think tank that works with companies to deliver design and innovation services using a very human-centric approach – something much needed today. In this conversation, Kevin tells me how growing up feeling like an “other” whether it was in his school, his neighbourhood or workplace has somewhat shaped how he views what design should be today, and also how organisations should put design front and centre from the outset to ensure they create a more inclusive and forward-thinking business. And we talk about his great new book, Reimagining Design: Unlocking Strategic Innovation, published by MIT press which offers Kevin’s personal story as well as leadership lessons on design, innovation and forging a path which is aligned to your purpose.This was a wide-reaching conversation which I really enjoyed and think you will too.-----------Kevin Twitter / Instagram / dreams • design + lifeBuy Kevin's book hereDanielle Twitter / Instagram / Newsletter

It’s hard to believe it but has been a year now since I kicked off the show and as I have gained tens of thousands of new listeners since then, I thought it might be nice to head back in time and re-share my very first guest – the one and only - Andy Hertzfeld who also happens to be one of my favourite people in tech.  Andy helped revolutionise the home PC industry as part of the original Macintosh team before founding his own startups including General Magic which imagined the iPhone - seventeen years ahead of time. In this conversation which was recorded on 11th November 2020,  Andy Hertzfeld shares his inspiring story from childhood through to creating the Macintosh and on to General Magic including the highs and lows along the way.We discuss his career and friendship with Steve Jobs and what it takes to hold a seemingly impossible vision, build a pioneering team capable of achieving it and, most importantly, when and how best to execute.There are many great stories in this episode, and anecdotes of a pivotal time in tech history but, best of all, Andy shares the lessons he learned from the successes, and the failures.Enjoy!Andy Twitter / WebsiteDanielle Twitter / Instagram / NewsletterNotesIn this episode, Andy and I discuss:"Marc" which is Marc Porat - the co-founder of General Magic with Andy and Bill Atkinson. In 1990, Marc wrote the following note to John Sculley, imagining a truly smart phone: "A tiny computer, a phone, a very personal object . . . It must be beautiful. It must offer the kind of personal satisfaction that a fine piece of jewellery brings. It will have a perceived value even when it's not being used... Once you use it you won't be able to live without it." NB My interview with Marc can be found here.The General Magic documentary can be found on iTunes here.Andy's book - Revolution in The Valley: The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was Made - can be bought here.Series 1 of this podcast and the original episode with Andy was sponsored by Sensate and edited  by Jolin Cheng.