The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Paul Romer, the Nobel prize-winning economist, to talk about the choice between killing people and killing the economy (3:00), the policy failures of the Covid response (7:30), what happens when we reopen (11:35), the state of the economy (16:15), why going back to “normal” is doomed to fail (22:00), why undermining institutions is a problem (26:10), why now is not a good time for entrepreneurs (30:35), undermining the foundations of the economy (32:45), an alternative tech tax (36:45), and where the action is (38:00). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Josh Browder to talk about building a robot lawyer DoNotPay (3:40), raising money (7:10), overturning parking tickets (10:10), targeting problems that affect at least 50 million people (12:05) his bot builder (13:00), his Silicon Valley evolution (14:55), becoming an investor himself (16:40), becoming a Thiel fellow (18:00), staying in the Bay Area (20:50), the free trial scam (23:10), the porn industry’s dirty tricks (24:50), getting more cynical (27:15), the importance of having a business model (30:00), and suing robo-callers (31:10). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Robert Bollinger to talk about hiss previous career selling shampoo (4:25), moving to Detroit (7:05), why he wanted to founded an electric car company (8:35), the Tesla effect (11:00), why pick-up trucks are important (14:35), how parts have become cheaper (20:00), funding the company himself (21:50), how the world has changed (25:00), the turning point (27:00), why subsidies are vital (28:00), why the legacy brands will be ok (31:45), why his ignorance was a good thing (34:10), the importance of hiring well (35:55) and his worst day of work (39:20). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Dan Schulman, chief executive of Paypal, to talk about how the smartphone has changed everything (3:10), the evolution of Paypal (6:00), spending 24 hours as a homeless person (9:05), the wave of corporate 'wokeness' (13:40), how employee expectations have changed (17:20), how Covid has upended its (23:50), beating Sir Richard Branson at tennis (26:35), and why he does mixed martial arts (27:30). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Arisha Hatch, head of campaigns at Color of Change, to talk about organising the Facebook ad boycott (5:00), why she chose to focus on the tech industry (8:55), trying to force change (11:40), whether it feels futile (15:00), what comes next in the civil rights campaign v Big Tech (17:20), the political exception on Facebook (21:00), the coming regulatory crackdown (22:30), tech’s tipping point (24:40), Silicon Valley’s grand delusion (27:15), pressuring Airbnb, Twitter and Google (32:00), ensuring a new civil rights executive is brought in at Facebook (33:40), and the dissonance between Silicon Valley’s marketing and the reality (35:00). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Ryan Pamplin, founder of Blendjet, to talk about living the Silicon Valley dream (2:45), suffering a traumatic brain injury (6:00), post-concussive syndrome (9:30), living in purgatory (12:45), changing his priorities (15:15), not wanting to sell out again (17:30), augmented reality’s potential (19:50), switching to blenders (24:55), getting his product on Silicon Valley, the TV series (29:45), competing with McDonald’s (31:45), creating a direct-to-consumer brand online (34:45), fighting fakes (36:45), the power of Facebook (39:00), marketing to Gen Z (43:00), the shadow of Juicero (44:50), influencer marketing (47:30), manufacturing in China (51:20), his health (52:30), brain computer interfaces (55:00), and the dark side of tech (58:30). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Paddy Cosgrave, founder of Web Summit, to talk about the big virtual conference experiment (3:00), random online meetings (6:00), why 24 hours a day is too much (8:10), when the check-in tech failed (10:15), whether virtual conferences are viable (12:35), his plans for Web Summit (15:30), spinning up micro-conferences (18:15), why he insisted on making software (20:00), on how the pandemic may be an opportunity (22:10), the sheer size of the business conference industry (26:30), the surprises (30:20), the business case of online conferences (32:35), and Siyabulela Mandela’s message on social justice (34:15). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A special extra episode for you from the daily podcast from The Times;President Trump has ordered firms to stop doing business with social media giant TikTok over security concerns. Microsoft was the front-runner to buy the company, but now Twitter has emerged as a possible suitor. What has made the app so popular and so controversial? If you like this episode please rate and subscribe. Simply search for Stories of our times on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Acast or wherever you listen to your podcasts.Guests: Danny Fortson Sunday Times west coast correspondent.Host: Manveen Rana. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Ryan Petersen, founder of Flexport, to talk about being a canary in the coalmine (3:00), where the economy is recovering (5:00), what happens when planes stop flying (6:30), how he got involved in PPE shipping (9:20), working with the NHS (13:00), starting out in his twenties importing Chinese motorcycles (14:30), learning that it is hard to make money (17:15), starting Flexport (19:15), having entrepreneurial parents (21:45), the Trump factor (24:30), how he makes money (26:05), his worst day of work (27:30), remote work (29:10), raising $1bn (31:50), and getting backed by Softbank (37:10). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Gabriel Weinberg, founder of DuckDuckGo, to talk about the early days of starting the search engine (3:30), the erosion of Google’s results (7:40), how big DuckDuckGo is now (9:35), raising venture capital (12:30), how we as users get bid on (15:40), why he proposed a “Do Not Track” law (18:30), what the crackdown could look like (21:10), on whether people actually care about privacy (25:00), why Apple’s new operating system could be a game-changer (28:40), why Silicon Valley argues data is important (33:30), on whether breakups are the answer (34:50), and his jousting with Google (37:10). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.