The Times Tech Podcast

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Warren Hogarth, founder of Empower, to talk about solving the credit score quandary (3:20), how his struggle to buy a car planted a seed for the company (6:20), tapping in to bank account data (8:05), his first job shoveling poop (13:00), trying his hand at fuel cell technology (14:40), then doing a fintech startup (15:50), joining the legendary venture firm Sequoia Capital (18:00), not investing in Lyft (19:55), launching Empower (21:50), the problem with credit scoring (28:05), learning how fintechs got built at Sequoia (31:10), raising $150 million after staying lean for years (34:10), completely automating credit approval (34:30), keeping an eye on employment amid economic turmoil (36:35), and operating remote-first (39:50). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Anand Parikh, co-founder and chief executive of Faeth Therapeutics, to talk about using nutrition to treat cancer (3:30), pairing it with chemotherapy (8:45), growing up in London (10:00), moving from corporate law to a startup (12:00), starting Faeth (17:10), a dream team of cancer scientists (18:30), seeking FDA approval (26:10), operating fully remotely (29:50), food as medicine (32:15), and his worst day of work (34:40). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’s tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Isaac P, a tech worker secretly working multiple full-time jobs, to talk about the “overemployed” phenomenon (4:30), making $1 million a year (6:05), why the days of the employee are dead (8:25), the rise of remote monitoring tools (13:10), a typical day (14:30), his view of employers/companies (15:30), starting the website, Discord and Reddit (18:30), burnout (21:20), whether a slowing economy will kill the “overemployed” era (23:30), whether going to university is the best plan (28:00), and decoupling your identity from your job (30:10). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm taking a couple weeks off. Will be back with you first thing in September. Thanks for listening! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Ben Parker, co-founder and chief executive of Lightship, to talk about electrifying the recreational vehicle industry (3:30), starting out in electric racing (6:00), getting a job at Tesla (7:40), the food truck problem (12:30), leaving Tesla (19:25), starting Lightship (25:25), rethinking design from the ground up (31:00), the pickup truck tipping point (33:00), raising $23m (36:20), lessons from Tesla (39:00), and why RV’s are beige (43:50). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Eric Verdin, president of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, to talk about metformin (5:20), his background (9:30), the origin of the Buck (12:30), getting support from techies (14:50), the birth of geroscience (19:20), exercise and the 10,000 steps phenomenon (27:10), tracking down the pathways of ageing (28:55), what the research looks like five years from now (35:10), healthspan (41:20), the Moore’s Law of ageing (46:20), how post codes are the single biggest determinant of longevity (50:25), age reversal (57:00), the longevity dividend (1:00:40) and the value of a glass of wine (1:09:45). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Tom Oxley, founder of Synchron, to talk about putting the first brain implant into a US patient (3:50), helping paralysed patients (6:55), getting the device into the brain (11:00), what this means for humans (14:25), understanding the brain (18:30), how he got started (24:00), creating Synchron (30:05), and the how the Pentagon helped fund the company (32:20). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Iggy Bassi and Karan Chopra of Cervest to talk about measure climate risk (4:40), launching Cervest after starting a company in Ghana (8:40), what they learned from growing rice (11:55), climate data (17:00), how they sell it (22:00), raising money (27:00), how climate intelligence is used by businesses (33:30), climate health scores (40:20), the problem with heat (43:15), and integrating climate risk scores into (47:30) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Matthew Ball, investors and Author of The Metaverse, and How it Will Revolutionize Everything, to talk about why the time is near for the metaverse (3:45), the metaverse economy (8:40), bringing together different technological and cultural strands (10:15), what’s going to be different (12:30), the importance of generational shifts (15:05), the definition (18:45), why there are no legs in Meta’s Horizon Worlds (23:55), the hardware challenge (26:00), who loses (31:55), Netflix (34:00), and why foresight and resource may not matter (35:45). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on investor Mike Alfred to talk about the crypto meltdown (8:50), why this is different than the 2008 financial crisis (12:20), why more pain is coming (18:00), why he was worried about Celsius and BlockFi (22:10), and what the collapse means for the economy (28:05). THEN: Alex Garden of Zume comes on to talk about the food supply chain (32:20), alighting on pizza (37:35), replacing plastic with compostable packaging (41:50), the problem with plastic (45:05), how soggy pizza led to a pivot (51:00), scaling up (56:50), days that end in “why?” (1:06:50), and the painful decisions required to survive (1:08:50). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.