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The Times Tech Podcast

Latest episodes

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Apr 27, 2019 • 51min

Esther Wojcicki: “Kids do what you do, not what you say”

Esther Wojcicki, educator and mother of Susan Wojcicki and Anne Wojcicki, discusses the crisis in parenting, using TRICK, journalism as a teaching tool, the importance of trust, dealing with smartphones, and making herself obsolete. She also talks about student suicides in Palo Alto, the impact of divorce, teaching purpose, and giving kids more agency.
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Apr 26, 2019 • 38min

GoCardless' Hiroki Takeuchi: "We thought about quitting once a week"

Hiroki Takeuchi, founder of GoCardless, talks about starting at Y Combinator, switching ideas, laying the payment plumbing of the Internet, and the rise of the London fintech scene. He also shares his personal story of resilience after a cycling accident that paralyzed him and how it changed his focus.
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Apr 19, 2019 • 34min

Clara Foods' Arturo Elizondo: "Eggs - without the chicken"

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Arturo Elizondo, the 27-year-old founder of Clara Foods, to talk about his plan to make eggs with the chicken (3:25), how eggs are produced today (4:10), bioengineered birds (7:00), his lightbulb moment (8:40), not being a scientist (11:00), coming to San Francisco (13:15), repurposing an old technology (15:15), designing egg proteins (19:20), taking chickenless eggs to the market (21:50), creating consumer products (24:20), whether it will taste good (27:05), how science and millennials have come together to create opportunity (30:00), and getting into a McMuffin (32:35). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Apr 12, 2019 • 38min

Arch Mission Foundation’s Nova Spivack: “Humanity's billion-year backup”

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Nova Spivack, founder of the Arch Mission Foundation, to talk about the lunar library (3:10), how is started in 2015 (6:40), doing a test mission with Elon Musk (7:55), packing 30m pages of data into a CD (9:25), safekeeping the keys to civilisation (13:10), storing special data in “vaults” (15:30), why he’s doing it (17:45), looking for billionaire benefactors (20:10), settling the moon (23:25), getting funding from the Charney family (25:20), what happens if the landing is successful (26:30), the fears driving the project (28:20), private enterprise in space (30:00), keeping the project private (31:05), and creating a permanent record for an impermanent time (36:30). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Apr 5, 2019 • 44min

UC Berkeley's Alison Gopnik: "Babies are the ultimate supercomputers"

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Dr Alison Gopnik, a developmental psychologist, to talk about why babies could be the key to artificial intelligence (3:45), the limits to current systems (5:40), infants as supercomputers (8:00), the power of experimentation (10:15), how young brains learn (12:50), coding curiosity (16:15), how the tech industry has come around to kids (17:35), recreating the human brain (20:30), what electricity can tell us about AI regulation (23:00), whether we should be worried (25:35), why we’re just starting to understand the brain (33:20), why we should expect unexpected outcomes (34:35), nerd machismo (37:15), and why babies can teach engineers to improve the world (39:50) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Mar 29, 2019 • 40min

Humu's Laszlo Bock: "Nudge, nudge"

Humu’s Laszlo Bock: “Nudges”The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Laszlo Bock, founder of Humu, to talk about the fish that inspired him (3:00), coming to America as a refugee (4:15), why he chose human resources (5:05), becoming Google’s first head of people operations (6:20), why “open plan” offices are terrible (8:30), trusting people (11:15), experimenting on Google’s workforce (14:30), dealing with Google’s elitism (16:50), building a tool to find better workers (20:25), Google’s lack of diversity (23:30), whether diversity matters (25:45), using AI to make people feel “psychologically safe” (28:15), personalising motivation (31:45), how money isn't the best motivator (33:45), whether companies are willing to buy in to “people analytics” (35:05), and the crisis at Google (36:40). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Mar 22, 2019 • 42min

Dr Phyllis Gardner, Stanford professor and Theranos critic: "I'll only really feel good if she's convicted"

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Dr Phyllis Gardner, the Standord medical professor who came across Elizabeth Holmes before she started Theranos and then worked behind the scenes to expose her, to talk about her background at Stanford (4:00), and in industry (5:00), meeting a young Elizabeth Holmes (6:55), rejecting her first idea (8:10), using her “charm” to accumulate prominent men (10:30), how Gardner got drawn in to the group of Theranos doubters (12:45), meeting John Carreyrou, The Wall Street Journal reporter who uncovered the scandal (16:50), how Holmes was appointed to Harvard’s Medical Board of Fellows (17:40), feeling lonely as a Theranos sceptic (21:45), the whistleblowers (23:00), why “fake it till you make it” doesn’t work in medicine (24:30), hurting the cause of women in business (25:45), Theranos’ legal attack dog (28:10), Holmes’ new company (30:00), the human costs of the fraud (31:55), the employees who quit (35:45), and why more women did not speak (38:20). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Mar 15, 2019 • 1h 5min

Troy Carter: "There was no Plan B"

The Sunday Times’s tech correspondent brings on Troy Carter, Lady Gaga’s former manager and music executive, to talk about the importance of radio (3:40), why streaming is still evolving (6:10), the death of the album (7:20), showing up at Spotify (9:50), the music industry’s history of screwing artists (13:50), why artists are less desperate than they used to be (15:20), growing up as an aspiring rapper in West Philadelphia (21:40), doorstepping Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff (24:30), dropping out and failing (26:50), promoting Wu-Tang Clan in Philadelphia (28:55), working at Bad Boy when Tupac Shakur got shot (30:30), becoming Eve’s manager (32:40), what works in music (33:40), negotiating with Taylor Swift (36:55), becoming Lady Gaga’s manager (39:30), how they used social media to build a following (42:10), becoming a tech investor (40:55), how the techlash has created opportunity (43:40), investing early in Uber (47:55), the merging of culture and tech (49:10), whether we should worry about algorithm-led art (51:40), how the music industry will change (55:40), his worst day of work (58:40), and managing Prince’s estate (1:01:00). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Mar 8, 2019 • 52min

Jon Vlassopulos: "We're all nano-influencers"

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Jon Vlassopulos to talk about the early days of digital music (3:30), investing in Napster (4:55), when ringtones were big business (10:20), getting into television with Deal or No Deal (16:15), Facebook’s interactive TV show (20:45), why lists are a good way to consume content (24:30), the problem with chronological feeds (27:00), how he plans to monetize lists (30:20), where journalists fit in this world (32:10),turning everyone into a curator (36:45), DJing in Beijing (39:45), creating community online (43:15), people as brands (48:00), and the future of the "interest graph" (49:15). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Mar 1, 2019 • 41min

BeeFlow's Matias Viel: "Bionic Bees"

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Matias Viel, founder of Beeflow, to talk about why bees are a big deal (3:05), why they need him (4:50), the almond industry (7:20), the booming bee rental business (9:55), making bees bionic (12:20), training them to pollinate the right plants (15:05), starting out in Argentina (18:50), ending up at IndieBio in San Francisco (23:00), using insects to increase crop yields (25:30), the potential risks involved in bee biotech (27:20), the decline in bee populations (30:20), getting farmers to buy in (32:35), trying to grow the company (35:05), and the coming revolution in agriculture (38:05). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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