The Times Tech Podcast

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Nat Manning, founder of Kettle, to talk about how climate change is upending insurance (5:00), the role of reinsurers as “the second parachute” (10:40), updating risk models with machine learning (14:45), building a better mousetrap (20:30), how meditation lent clarity (28:0), getting into disaster relief (31:30), the long tail of suffering (33:00), starting Kettle (37:40), getting rejected by Y Combinator (42:20), raising money (44:35), the clash between regulators and the industry (47:00), and the opportunity (51:20). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on High Fidelity’s Philip Rosedale to talk about virtual worlds before the Internet (4:00), founding Second Life (8:00), capturing the zeitgeist (11:00), Second Life today (16:05), the current metaverse hype (20:10), the challenge of living a virtual life (23:10), the folly of the “hybrid” workplace (29:20), the dangers of virtual life (31:30), the importance of business model (35:00), the hardware challenges (39:30), and of augmented reality (44:00), tech’s misunderstanding of human behaviour (47:10), the dystopic idea that yielded the metaverse (51:00), and Burning Man in the time of Covid (59:40).For a FREE trial subscription to The Times, go to: thetimes.co.uk/dannyinthevalley Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Adi Tatarko, founder of unicorn Houzz, to talk about the home improvement boom pandemic (2:45), the pandemic (5:15), ending up in California from Israel (9:30), a renovation project gone wrong (15:00), getting the first cheque for Houzz (20:50), raising $600 million more as a husband and wife team (27:40), on whether she plans to go public (30:00), how Houzz makes money (30:45), and drawing inspiration from her Holocaust-surivor grandmother (34:15). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Magi Richani to talk about cheese (4:15), how her lactose intolerance led her to start a company (7:30), the inefficiency of the cow (10:40), moving from Lebanon to Texas (15:50), becoming an engineer (20:45), starting out in the oil industry (24:15), rescuing animals (27:20), quitting Shell (30:00), coming from an entrepreneurial family (31:30), agricultural subsidies (37:00), getting her first investor (38:45), deciding on soybeans (43:10), slashing the environmental footprint of cheese production (46:00), using existing infrastructure (49:20), measuring up against the real thing (51:20), choosing the name (57:15), and launching a brand (58:30). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Dave Friedberg, founder of The Production Board, to talk about the western US’s ‘mega-drought’ (5:15), attracting cash to climate tech (8:30), the economic consequences of climate change (13:15), creating the Climate Corporation (16:15), getting investment from Larry Page (22:10), and Koch Industries (25:25), the future of food (28:00), “printing” drinks (34:05), water (39:15), climate migration (43:45), and how technology has saved the day before (45:45). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Justin McLeod, founder of Hinge, to talk about dating in the pandemic (2:41), launching an app (4:33), his early years as a “hot mess” (5:51), cleaning up his act (6:50), loneliness (9:45), overhauling the app (12:15), the irony of maximizing for “time in app” (15:03), injecting friction into the process (18:10), introducing a “vaccine status” badge (23:28), Facebook dating (27:00), the future of dating (30:03), the 36 questions to find love (32:14), his worst day of work (38:14), reconnecting with his wife (39:49), video first dates (41:49), and selling to IAC (43:20). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pearson’s Andy Bird: “Education is going to be disrupted like music”The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Andy Bird, chief executive of Pearson, to talk about transforming the education giant (5:40), creating textbook “playlists” (8:30), growing up in Manchester (14:45), getting into the entertainment industry (16:10), being recruited by Bob Iger (21:30), remaking Disney's foreign operations (23:05), cutting ties with Netflix (27:40), failing at Disney’s first streaming attempt (29:10), retiring (34:25), un-retiring and join Pearson {38:00), the backlash over his ‘golden hello’ (41:00), the breakdown of the higher education business model (43:40), the future of Pearson (49:40), overhauling a 177-year-old company (52:40), and learning from failure (57:40). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Amid Facebook's record-setting financial performance and its pivot toward become a "metaverse" company, we air a revealing interview from last year (March 2020) with Stephen Levy, author of Facebook: The Inside Story, Levy talks about the moment he decided to write the book (4:15), the first time he met Zuck (8:55), the “book of change” (10:30), why Zuckerberg didn’t need an “adult in the room” (14:00), his deification in Silicon Valley (17:15), how Trump used Facebook (19:15), dark profiles (22:00), why Facebook is still moving fast (25:15), Facebook’s antitrust fight (28:45), on whether encryption changes things (31:15), Facebook as a utility (34:15), Zuckerberg’s shrinking inner circle (36:00), the hardest thing about writing the book (39:45), how Zuckerberg has changed (44:15), the Facebook phone (48:30), Cambridge Analytica (49:30), and whether Facebook is too big to control (53:45). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Antonio Garcia Martinez, to talk about his winding career in tech and media (3:25), living in the woods (7:25), his Facebook memoir (11:00), criticizing tech but also defending it (15:55), landing a gig at Apple and then getting fired (20:10), the Silicon Valley culture wars (23:25), launching a newsletter (30:25), the breakdown of the media business model (37:45), the tectonic plates shifting in the ad world (42:20), the privacy push (45:20), Apple and Google tightening their grip on the web (49:05), whether we should care (55:00), and living in Reno (58:30). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Tim Janssen of Sofar to talk about the paucity of ocean data (3:30), creating an ocean sensing network (6:15), the engineering challenge (8:30), modeling (10:30), why he left academia (15:15), raising money (19:20), coming here from the Netherlands (21:10), his customers (22:30), what’s happening in the oceans (33:25), and dropping the first sensor in the water (37:30). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.