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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.

What's Your Problem?

Nina Mohanty is the founder and CEO of Bloom Money. Nina’s problem is this: How do you build an app to help immigrants manage their money? 

On today’s show, Nina talks about bringing a saving and lending practice into the 21st century, navigating regulators who’ve never seen anything like it, and what global traditions can teach us about the future of money.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The App Where Strangers Lend Each Other Money

What's Your Problem? host Jacob Goldstein has a new show: Business History. 

How did Hitler’s favorite car become synonymous with hippies? What got Thomas Edison tangled up with the electric chair? Did someone murder the guy who invented the movies? On Business History, Jacob and fellow former Planet Money host Robert Smith examine the surprising stories of businesses big and small and find out what you can learn from those who founded them.

In this episode: The inventor that transformed America and the world. Thomas Alva Edison registered over one thousand patents before he died in 1931—and we can thank him for advances in electric power, communications technology, music recording and even the movies. But his biggest breakthrough doesn't get nearly enough attention. In many ways, Edison invented modern inventing. Jacob and Robert they trace the life story of a scrappy young boy with bad hearing who almost singlehandedly invented R&D. This is the first of a three part series on Edison—if you want to hear the full series, ad-free, right now, join Pushkin+ on the Business History show page on Apple Podcasts or at pushkin.fm/plus.
 
Find Business History (00:10) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get podcasts.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Introducing Business History: The Edison Invention People Don't Talk About

Mike Blue is the CEO of HistoSonics. The company recently developed a device that uses ultrasound to destroy tumors.

On today’s show, Mike talks about how a garage-built prototype became an FDA-approved machine; changing the company’s story after a failed clinical trial; and why he loves being a salesman but hates most sales pitches.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Using Sound Waves to Destroy Tumors

Chris Urmson is the co-founder and CEO of Aurora, a company trying to bring autonomous driving to commercial trucking.

Chris led a team at the 2004 DARPA challenge that launched the autonomous vehicle industry. Then he held a senior role at Google’s self-driving car project, which later became Waymo.

On the show today, he talks about the long arc of autonomous driving, why he left Google, and the future of autonomous trucking.

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From Desert Robots to Driverless Trucks

Michael Porter is the Chief Technology Officer of OceanWell.

Michael's problem is this: How can you desalinate water at the bottom of the ocean – and deliver it to land at a cost that’s competitive with other sources of fresh water?

On today’s show, Michael explains how he built OceanWell’s prototype in his kitchen, what it takes to make a system that’s less disruptive to marine life, and why innovations from the oil and gas industry are making his work possible.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Is the Future of Fresh Water Under the Sea?

Justin Lopas is the COO and co-founder of Base Power, a battery and power company based in Texas. 

Justin’s problem is this: How can you deliver more energy to more people without having to build so much more grid?

On today’s show, Justin explains why the grid needs a major upgrade, and how putting batteries next to homes could help. Also: what Texas’ embrace of renewable energy could mean for the future of power in the U.S.

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Could Home Batteries Save the Grid?

Fletcher Wilson is the CEO and co-founder of Throne Labs.

Fletcher’s problem is this: How can you create public toilets that people actually want to use?

On today’s show, Fletcher explains how his company is trying to make public bathrooms cleaner, safer and more accessible. The conversation also points to a bigger idea: why it’s so hard for cities to build and maintain pretty much anything.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Building a Better Public Bathroom

Boris Sofman is the co-founder and CEO of Bedrock Robotics. 

Boris' problem is this: How do you teach machines not just to drive, but also to work: to grade roads, move heavy objects and dig big holes at construction sites. 

 On today’s show, Boris talks about how his work at Waymo led him to found Bedrock, and he explains how autonomous construction equipment could help unleash an American building boom.

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Could Autonomous Diggers Unleash a Building Boom?

Justin Kolbeck is the co-founder and CEO of Wildtype, a company making seafood without killing fish. 

Their first product is cultivated salmon, which is made from real salmon cells that are grown in a stainless steel vat.

Justin's problem is this: How to sell no-kill, vat-grown salmon for the same price, or better, as wild-caught salmon? On today’s show, Justin explains how Wildtype will scale, what’s going on across the cultivated and plant-based meat industries, and how new state bans on cultivated foods are shaping the future of his business.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Growing Meat from Cells

Ed Conway is an economics journalist and author of the book “Material World: The Six Raw Materials that Shape Modern Civilization.” 

On today’s show, Ed reveals how three of those often-overlooked materials—iron, copper, and sand—shaped human advancement from the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution to the digital age. And he talks about what they mean for our future.

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The Ordinary Stuff Behind Technological Breakthroughs

Laura Niklason is the co-founder and CEO of Humacyte. Laura's problem is this: How can you use human cells to create blood vessels that surgeons can pull out of a bag and implant into patients? Although still awaiting FDA approval in the U.S., Humacyte's vessels have already been used to treat wounded soldiers in Ukraine.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Making Blood Vessels in a Factory

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