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PODCAST

What"s Your Problem?

iHeartPodcasts and Pushkin Industries

Every week on What"s Your Problem?, former Planet Money host Jacob Goldstein talks withentrepreneurs and engineerstackling 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

technology entrepreneurship

All Episodes

45:24

Building a Mass Market Robot

What"s Your Problem? ·

2025/02/20

Jeff Cardenas is the co-founder and CEO of Apptronik. Jeff's problem is this: Can you make a safe, reliable humanoid robot – for less than $50,000? In the short term, Apptronik’s robots will work in factories. But Jeff’s long-term goal – based on the experience of his own grandparents – is to build robots that can help care for the elderly.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

en-US

43:35

Solving Solar’s Biggest Problem

What"s Your Problem? ·

2025/02/13

We need better, cheaper ways to store solar and wind energy when it’s dark out and the wind isn’t blowing. One option: Compressing air in underground caverns when energy is abundant, then blowing it back out to create energy when you need it. It’s an old idea, but it has some fundamental problems. Curtis van Wallingham, the co-founder and CEO of Hydrostor, thinks his company has solved those problems with a new approach. If he’s right, his firm will help fix the biggest

en-US

54:43

How Bubbles Power Breakthroughs

What"s Your Problem? ·

2025/02/06

There are moments in history when people make huge technological advances all of a sudden. Think of the Manhattan Project, the Apollo missions, or, more recently, generative AI. But what do these moments have in common? Is there some set of conditions that lead to massive technological leaps? Byrne Hobart is the author of a finance newsletter called The Diff, and the co-author of Boom: Bubbles and the End of Stagnation. In the book, Bryne makes the case for one thing that is really helpful if you

en-US

51:24

Teaching AI to Build Stuff in the Physical World

What"s Your Problem? ·

2025/01/30

AI works well in the virtual world. That’s partly because the internet provides so much data to train AI models. But there’s no analogous data set for the physical world – and as a result, AI doesn’t work as well there… yet. Edward Mehr is the co-founder and CEO of Machina Labs. Edward's problem is this: How can you use AI to turn robots from dumb, inflexible machines into skilled, versatile craftsmen?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

en-US

44:24

NVIDIA: At the Heart of the AI Boom

What"s Your Problem? ·

2025/01/23

In the past few years, NVIDIA has become one of the most valuable and important companies in the world by making GPUs, the chips powering the AI boom. But where did the company come from, and why are NVIDIA chips the ones that dominate AI? Tae Kim is the author of a new book called The Nvidia Way. In his book, he tells the story of how NVIDIA’s founder and CEO, Jensen Huang, set NVIDIA on the path to becoming what it is today.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

en-US

42:05

What Claude Shannon Figured Out

What"s Your Problem? ·

2025/01/16

Claude Shannon is a major figure in the history of technology. Known as the father of information theory, Shannon spent decades at Bell Labs and MIT. But what exactly did Claude Shannon figure out, and why is it so important?To answer that question, Jacob talked with David Tse, a professor of electrical engineering at Stanford who studied under one of Shannon’s students, and who teaches Shannon to his own students today. David used Shannon's work to make a breakthrough in wireless

en-US

30:30

Measles: The Cancer Killer?... from Incubation

What"s Your Problem? ·

2024/12/19

We thought we knew everything there was to know about measles. But in recent years, new research has revealed that the virus attacks the immune system and creates effects far more dramatic than a rash and fever. For this episode we’re joined by Michael Mina, a former Harvard epidemiologist now at eMed, who helped discover how measles was causing “immune amnesia.” Our second guest is Stephen Russell, a former Mayo Clinic researcher who co-founded a company called Vyriad. Russell is

en-US

43:20

RoboPod and the Perpetual Money Machine – Cautionary...

What"s Your Problem? ·

2024/12/12

What really drove the 2008 financial crash? What’s a shadow bank? And what’s the connection between NIMBYs and BANANAs? Tim Harford and Jacob Goldstein answer more of your questions. Enjoy this episode from Cautionary Tales, another Pushkin Podcast.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

en-US

50:38

Turning Solar Energy Into Fuel (The Solar Era, Part 3)

What"s Your Problem? ·

2024/12/02

Solar power and batteries are becoming cheap and ubiquitous. Great. But there are problems batteries can’t solve – like fueling ships and planes. One way to solve those problems: Use solar power to create hydrogen, and turn that hydrogen into fuel. Today’s guest is Raffi Garabedian, the co-founder and CEO of Electric Hydrogen. Raffi’s problem is this: How do you turn solar and wind energy into clean hydrogen that’s cheap enough to compete with fossil fuel?This is the last of three episodes we’re

en-US

31:17

Can Hot Bricks Save the World? (The Solar Era, Part 2)

What"s Your Problem? ·

2024/11/28

This is the second of three episodes about the solar-power revolution. Last week, we talked about how solar power got so cheap. This week, we’re talking with someone who is building giant plants around the world to take advantage of all that cheap, intermittent energy.John O'Donnell is the co-founder of Rondo Energy. John’s problem is this: How do you turn intermittent energy into the cheap, reliable, intense heat that companies around the world need to make everything from steel beams to

en-US

44:08

How the Sun Won (The Solar Era, Part 1)

What"s Your Problem? ·

2024/11/21

In the past 20 years, the price of solar panels has fallen by more than 97 percent. This extraordinary decline is good news for the world – and it’s transforming the way energy is produced and consumed. For the next few episodes, we’ll be talking to people who are in the middle of this solar power revolution to find out how it happened, and what it will mean for the world. Today, Jenny Chase, the author of Solar Power Finance Without the Jargon, tells the story of how solar power got so cheap and

en-US

31:54

Drugs in Space

What"s Your Problem? ·

2024/11/14

Paul Reichert is a research scientist at Merck, working on improvements to how we administer drugs to patients. Paul's problem is this: How can you run experiments in space to learn how to make better drugs on Earth?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

en-US

44:32

The World Is Getting Better (Really)

What"s Your Problem? ·

2024/11/07

Hannah Ritchie is a data scientist and the deputy editor of Our World in Data. She is also the author of Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet. Hannah’s problem is this: How do you use data to get past the doomsday headlines and solve big problems to achieve sustainability? Check out Our World in Data: https://ourworldindata.org/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

en-US

28:32

Rabies: When Monsters are Real…from Incubation

What"s Your Problem? ·

2024/10/31

Why has rabies invaded our nightmares for centuries? Author and veterinarian Monica Murphy tells us about the cultural history of rabies (which involves vampires and werewolves!) and how our long nightmare with the disease came to an end. Then, wildlife biologist Kathy Nelson tells us about a surprising program that works to control raccoon rabies… from the sky. Enjoy this episode from Incubation, another Pushkin podcast. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

en-US

36:26

Using Gene Therapy to Help the Blind See

What"s Your Problem? ·

2024/10/17

After decades of research, gene therapy is starting to work. Shannon Boye is a professor of cellular and molecular therapeutics at the University of Florida. She is also the co-founder and chief scientific officer of Atsena Therapeutics. Shannon’s problem is this: How do you use gene therapy to cure certain forms of blindness? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

en-US

40:03

Bringing Back Mammoths and Dodos*

What"s Your Problem? ·

2024/10/10

*Or at least, sort of bringing back mammoths and dodos.Beth Shapiro is the chief scientific officer at Colossal Biosciences and the author of How to Clone a Mammoth: The Science of De-Extinction. Beth's problem is this: How do you use the tools of modern biology – and hundreds of millions of dollars – to bring back species that have been extinct for centuries? And on another level, Beth’s problem is explaining to the world what it really means (and doesn’t mean) to bring back an extinct species.See

en-US

36:50

What Elevators Teach Us About Technology, Design, and...

What"s Your Problem? ·

2024/10/03

The elevator made the modern city possible: No elevators, no skyscrapers. Today, people are working on entirely new kinds of elevators that can go higher and faster than ever. On today’s show, we talk about those innovations with Lee Gray, who is possibly the world’s leading elevator historian and definitely a professor of architectural history at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

en-US

38:34

Can the Plant Microbiome Revolutionize Farming?

What"s Your Problem? ·

2024/09/26

The invention of synthetic fertilizer was one of the key breakthroughs of the 20th century. It’s the reason we can grow enough food to feed billions of people. It’s also super energy intensive. Karsten Temme is the co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer at Pivot Bio. Karsten's problem is this: How can you use the tools of gene editing to get microbes in soil to provide more nitrogen for crops?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

en-US

38:45

Turning Pollution into Jet Fuel

What"s Your Problem? ·

2024/09/19

Jennifer Holmgren is the CEO of LanzaTech. Her problem is this: How do you capture pollution from factories, feed it to bacteria, and get the bacteria to produce ethanol, which can become everything from polyester to jet fuel?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

en-US

40:39

Reinventing Mining to Power the World

What"s Your Problem? ·

2024/09/12

Moving from fossil fuels to renewable energy will require huge amounts of copper, lithium, and other metals. Kurt House is the co-founder and CEO of KoBold Metals. The company recently made a huge copper discovery in Zambia, and is looking for other metals in other places. Kurt's problem is this: How do you use AI – machine learning, data science – to find the metals we'll need for the energy transition?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

en-US

224 results

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