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The Times Tech Podcast

Latest episodes

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Sep 8, 2023 • 34min

Air Company’s Gregory Constantine: “Turning CO2 into vodka”

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Gregory Constantine, co-founder of Air Company, to talk about turning CO2 into fuel, booze and perfume (2:30), why they chose to do consumer products first (5:05), growing up in Australia (6:20), landing in New York (9:15), starting the company (12:00), its first product in 2019 (15:15), raising the first round of venture capital (20:40), shooting for fuel (21:40), their years couch-surfing (25:50), scaling up the technology (28:10), and the immigrant mindset (31:40). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Sep 1, 2023 • 43min

Pinecone's Edo Liberty: "AI is infrastructure"

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Edo Liberty, founder of Pinecone, to talk about the state of artificial intelligence (4:00) the ‘hallucination’ problem (7:10), giving AI’s memory (10:30), starting out in Israel and in academia (17:15), starting pinecone in 2019 (20:30), raising money (24:05), creating a “handshake” between LLM’s and specialised knowledge (26:30), the AI bubble (30:20), and why he chose the name pinecone (39:50). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Aug 4, 2023 • 45min

Just Climate's Shaun Kingsbury: "We've never built a rainforest"

The Sunday times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Shaun Kingsbury to talk about the Green Investment Bank (3:40), whether he is optimistic (9:15), taking on harder-to-clean industries at Just Climate (13:30), teaming up with Al Gore (16:30), why he is not focussed on climate change adaptation (24:00), trying to create the Tesla of green finance (29:30), what he wants to crack (32:00), why carbon removal is hard (35:30), and the importance of the IRA (39:30).  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Jul 28, 2023 • 1h 14min

Deep Sky's Fred Lalonde: "We need to bury every ton of CO2 emitted since the Industrial Revolution"

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Frederic Lalonde, founder of Deep Sky, to talk about why it is already too late to address climate change (3:10), terraforming earth (14:00), the terrifying math of exponential systems (19:45), the breakdown in insurance models (23:05), what Deep Sky is doing (27:00), starting companies before Deep Sky (33:35), draught and famine (37:50), the waking up of capital markets to the climate crisis (42:00), sea level rise (47:00), why he is an optimist (51:20), how he talks to his kids (1:01:20), raising 470m (1:07:15), Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Jul 21, 2023 • 35min

IRL415’s Philip Rosedale: “Heading toward software’s Hiroshima moment”

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Philip Rosedale, founder of Second Life and IRL415, to talk about the Apple’s Vision Pro augmented reality goggles (3:30), digital eyes (6:40), the weight challenge (7:50), on whether there is a key breakthrough that will lead to adoption (11:50), how artificial intelligence and goggles come together, or not (16:10), starting a community lab (19:20), AI girlfriends and matchmakers (22:00), on whether software development is heading toward a “Hiroshima moment” (24:20), why he is optimistic (28:00), and why phones will be the dominant interface for the next decade (30:50). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Jul 14, 2023 • 38min

AstroForge's Matt Gialich: "We can eradicate mining on earth”

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Matt Gialich, founder of AstroForge, to talk about what he did before attempting asteroid mining (3:40), working at Virgin Orbit (6:00), what he learned at Bird, the struggling scooter company (8:05), jumping to asteroid mining (10:30), the problem with platinum (13:40), targeting metal-rich asteroids (15:40), the first launch (20:45), the space revolution (21:40), raising money (24:20), trying to do a submarine startup before asteroids (27:10), coming from a family of teachers (30:45), the upcoming mission to deep space (32:45), and how the miners have reacted (35:00). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Jul 7, 2023 • 30min

SciFi Foods' Joshua March: "Most 'clean meat' startups won't be successful"

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Joshua March, co-founder and chief executive of SciFi Foods, to talk about the first approvals for lab-grown meat in America (4:45), building their pilot plant (6:45), using Crispr to engineer cells (7:50), the industry's dominant technology approach (12:30), why most of the 150 cultivated meat startups will fail (16:10), why clean meat will ultimately supplant slaughterhouses and industrial agriculture (17:50), the Biden administration’s support of the industry (21:00), leaning into the science fiction aspect of lab-grown meat (24:00), and the coming shake-out (25:10),  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Jun 30, 2023 • 46min

Lumo's Devon Wright: "Helping farmers save water"

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Devon Wright to talk about moving from a boat to the country (4:00), starting agricultural and water tech startup Lumo (7:15), inventing a smart valve (11:40), quitting his old job (15:50), his previous companies (17:50), being in a band (20:30), coming to Silicon Valley (25:20), how farmers view drought and extreme weather (28:00), making water systems more efficient (36:40), pitching investors (40:00), and his worst day (41:30). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Jun 25, 2023 • 1h 17min

Trevor Neilson: “I helped start Extinction Rebellion. Here is why they are getting it wrong”

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Trevor Neilson, founder of startup Wastefuel and the Climate Emergency Fund, to talk about how he helped launch and finance Extinction Rebellion (XR) (4:50), how the Malibu wildfires inspired him to act (8:20), meeting Roger Hallam, founder of XR and Just Stop Oil (16:00), bankrolling protestors (18:00), why he thinks the movement has gone off the rails (22:50), whether he is worried about what his former colleagues will think (32:00), how XR has experimented with changing tactics (40:30), where and how he grew up (43:30), getting a job at the White House (46:30), working with Bono on AIDS (50:00), starting his own company (55:00), why he does not think we will meet the 1.5 degree goal (58:10), telling the truth (1:09:00), and the children suing Montana (1:11:50) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Jun 16, 2023 • 33min

Securiti’s Rehan Jalil: “Where there’s chaos, there’s opportunity”

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Rehan Jalil, founder of Securiti, to talk about trying to grab control of data (3:00), the generative AI boom (7:35), growing up in Karachi, Pakistan (10:05), getting one of 200 slots in a top engineering school (14:35), going to America (18:15), the dotcom boom (18:45), his first two companies (21:00), taking advantage of market chaos (25:15), and what he learned from three startups (27:40) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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