The Production Board’s Dave Friedberg: “Technology will save the day - hopefully”
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.
20 Aug 202151min
Hinge's Justin McLeod: "Engineering intimacy"
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.
13 Aug 202145min
Pearson's Andy Bird: "Our business model was broken"
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.
6 Aug 202158min
Stephen Levy: "Peak Facebook"
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.
30 Jul 202156min
Antonio Garcia Martinez: "Silicon Valley's necessary delusions"
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.
23 Jul 20211h 3min
Sofar’s Tim Janssen: “Google Maps for the ocean”
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.
16 Jul 202142min
Throwback edition! A deep dive into the space race
We repost a podcast from Tales of Silicon Valley, the narrative podcast that Danny did two years ago. In the week that Sir Richard Branson touched space, and just days before Jeff Bezos prepares to do so as well, we go back to this investigatio into how billionaires are racing to become the first to settle on the moon. We talk to astronauts, and the billionaires themselves, about their plans to turn humans into a multi-planetary species. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
15 Jul 202130min
Atai’s Christian Angermeyer: “Funding the psychedelic renaissance”
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Christian Angermeyer to talk about spending $40 million on his own money to reinvent the psychedelics industry (3:46), his first magic mushroom experience (6:58), convincing investors (11:09), targeting opioid addiction (17:35), the stoned ape theory (21:06), the legal challenge (24:33), the timeline (28:35), the social media effect (29:43), bad trips (39:56), developing a network of professionals to guide therapy (42:47), plus his view on the return of live events (46:23), the epidemic of undocumented mental health issues (50:27), and how he made his money (53:37). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
9 Jul 202156min
