What's Your Problem?
iHeartPodcasts and Pushkin Industries
Every week on What's Your Problem?, former Planet Money host Jacob Goldstein talks with entrepreneurs and engineers tackling the biggest challenges at the forefront of technology. How do you make a trip to space as routine as a plane flight? How do you turn solar energy into clean fuel? How do you use AI to stop deadly infections before they spread? We hear a lot these days about how the world is getting worse. What's Your Problem? learns from the thinkers and doers trying to make our future better.
iHeartMedia is the exclusive podcast partner of Pushkin Industries.
iHeartMedia is the exclusive podcast partner of Pushkin Industries.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Aug 24, 2023 • 24min
Is the Era of Free Returns Over?
Amit Sharma, the founder and CEO of Narvar, discusses the challenges of offering free returns and whether retailers can afford them. They explore the evolution of online returns, the value proposition of companies, and the future of returns in a changing economic landscape. They argue for a more transparent conversation about return costs and propose that customers should bear the cost to create a fairer system. The chapter also shares valuable insights from their experiences at Apple and Walmart.
6 snips
Aug 17, 2023 • 36min
Creative Technology at Pixar
Danielle Feinberg, Visual Effects Supervisor at Pixar Animation Studios, discusses optimizing technology for creativity. She shares insights on the role of director of photography at Pixar, innovative lighting techniques, and the impact of technological advancements on creative storytelling in computer animated films. She also shares her experiences as the only woman in a room full of men at work.
6 snips
Aug 10, 2023 • 29min
How To Make AI Safer & More Reliable
Yaron Singer is the founder and CEO of Robust Intelligence. Yaron’s problem is this: How do you reduce AI’s security and reliability risks? Yaron was a computer science professor at Harvard and worked at Google before starting Robust Intelligence. The company’s software tests AI models and datasets for problems with performance and security.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
4 snips
Aug 3, 2023 • 24min
Quantum Computers Could Change Everything
Chris Monroe is the co-founder and chief scientist of IonQ. Chris’s problem is this: How do you build a quantum computer that will actually work? Quantum computing has the potential to transform fields from drug development to clean energy to cybersecurity, but so far no one has been able to build a quantum computer that can reliably outperform existing computers. Monroe is also a physics professor at Duke University, and he talks Jacob through the principles that make quantum computing possible.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jul 27, 2023 • 21min
The 2023 Unhedged Stock Draft
Seven stocks are powering the market: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla. How will they do in the second half of this year? Ethan Wu hosts as Rob ‘Value This’ Armstrong takes on Elaine ‘The Lex Flex’ Moore. In three rounds they pick their winners for the second half of 2023, and tell us why they chose them. If you enjoyed this preview of the new podcast Unhedged, subscribe to the show now: https://apple.co/478A3VSSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
6 snips
Jul 6, 2023 • 33min
Predicting Human Health with AI
Charles Fisher is the co-founder and CEO of Unlearn AI. Charles’ problem is this: How do you build an AI model that can predict human health? Charles and his colleagues have built a predictive model of health that is already being used in clinical trials, and might one day be deployed to predict individuals’ health outcomes.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jun 29, 2023 • 30min
Breastfeeding, Black Market Baby Formula, and Bobbie
Laura Modi is the founder and CEO of Bobbie, a company that makes baby formula and sells it directly to parents. Laura’s problem is this: how do you launch a startup in a highly regulated industry that has pretty much been a duopoly for decades? Part of Laura’s answer is marketing, which raises another question: how do you get people to consider formula despite so much messaging that breastfeeding is better?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jun 22, 2023 • 30min
Making Immigration Cheaper & Easier
Xiao Wang is the founder of a company called Boundless. Xiao’s problem is this: How do you make it cheaper and easier for people to navigate the U.S. immigration system? Xiao moved to the U.S. from China when he was three years-old. For many years, he took for granted that immigration was slow, complicated, and expensive to navigate. With Boundless, he’s built a platform to help people who try to figure out that system every year.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jun 15, 2023 • 23min
The Wind Power Pioneer Still Pushing the Frontier
Henrik Stiesdal got his start in wind power back in the 70s. The price of oil had gone way up, and he wanted to help his parents figure out a cheaper source of electricity for their farm. He went on to help create the modern wind industry. Five decades later, he’s still pushing the frontier.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
21 snips
Jun 8, 2023 • 32min
The Mystery at the Heart of ChatGPT
One of the most amazing things about ChatGPT and other, similar AI models: Nobody really understands what they can do. Not even the people who build them. On today’s show, we talk with Sam Bowman about some of the mysteries at the heart of so-called large language models. Sam is on the faculty at NYU, he runs a research group at the AI company Anthropic and he is the author of the illuminating paper Eight Things to Know About Large Language Models.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
