Core Memory
- Episodes
- 98
- Released
- weekly
- Latest episode
- Nov 12, 2026
About the podcast
Core Memory is a podcast about science and technology hosted by best-selling author and filmmaker Ashlee Vance. Vance has spent the past two decades chronicling advances in science and tech for publications like The Economist, The New York Times and Bloomberg Businessweek. Along with the stories, he's written best-selling books like Elon Musk’s biography, made an Emmy-nominated tech TV show watched by millions and produced films for HBO and Netflix. The goal has always been to bring the tales of complex technology and compelling people to the public and give them a path into exceptional and unusual worlds they would not normally have a chance to experience.
Episodes 98
He Spent $100 Million On A Sky Computer - EP 96 Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen
This week’s guest is Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen, the founder and CEO of Sceye. (It’s pronounced like “Sky.”)Mikkel is a fascinating dude. His family started a sewing business in Denmark back in 1957. Over the …
Show notes
This week’s guest is Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen, the founder and CEO of Sceye. (It’s pronounced like “Sky.”)
Mikkel is a fascinating dude. His family started a sewing business in Denmark back in 1957. Over the years, Mikkel helped transform the company and parlayed its materials expertise into some very well-known humanitarian efforts, including the PermaNet for fighting mosquitoes and malaria and LifeStraw for potable water.
We talk about all this on the podcast, but, if you’re watching the episode, you’ll see that the focus is on the giant airship-looking thing in the background, which belongs to Sceye.
Sceye has created what it calls a High-Altitude Platform System. (It’s a mouthful, and we won’t fault you for calling it a blimp or an airship, although people in these fields will fault you.) This inflatable craft can travel for thousands of miles and then keep its position over a particular location for very long periods of time. It’s meant to beam down telecommunications and internet services to people who can’t be reached by other means, and/or to take photographs and video, and/or do whatever a machine dangling underneath it can do.
The aircraft can get closer to its targets than, say, a satellite and can also be present for much longer periods of time than, say, a drone.
The airship behind us in this episode ended up flying to Japan for a test run. SoftBank liked the results enough to order a fleet of HAPS for nationwide mobile broadband across Japan.
I’m into airships. Like, really into airships. As proof, I will link to this mini-documentary we made on them for Bloomberg instead of linking to something else on the Core Memory YouTube channel, which is really where you should go for all your science and technology video needs.
I’m also skeptical that these things can have a big enough market to justify all the cost and effort that go into making and flying them. Mikkel takes offense at my position and sees a future full of thousands upon thousands of HAPS in the sky. We’re into what Sceye is doing and hope Mikkel proves us wrong.
SPONSOR
This podcast is sponsored by Brex, the intelligent finance platform built to help companies spend smarter and move faster. Learn more here.
Timestamps
0:00 Intro4:38 From Denmark to Lagos11:06 LifeStraw and Mosquito Nets19:54 The Leap Into Aerospace24:57 Airships, Balloons, and Staying Put32:12 What About Starlink?39:06 Watching Wildfires From Above42:51 A $100 Million Bet49:26 The Fabric That Holds Helium55:27 Broadband Straight to Your Phone59:18 Flying First, Talking Later
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribeThe Boy Wonder Of India’s New Tech Scene - EP 95 Naman Pushp
This week’s guest is Naman Pushp, the founder and CEO of Airbound.Pushp is all of 21 years old and trying to build an aerospace giant in India. His company, Airbound, produces carbon fiber to create very …
Show notes
This week’s guest is Naman Pushp, the founder and CEO of Airbound.
Pushp is all of 21 years old and trying to build an aerospace giant in India. His company, Airbound, produces carbon fiber to create very lightweight, very efficient aircraft used for the moment to deliver small packages of cargo around the country. Pushp’s core thesis is that the aviation industry has not been aggressive enough with its use of carbon fiber and that he can uses materials advances to outflank drone delivery companies first and then perhaps create a new class of planes for humans too.
These are big hopes and dreams and very big claims! And the company has a long, long way to go. But this is all to be expected.
I recently visited Airbound’s headquarters and test sites in Bangalore and came away rather impressed with Pushp and his team. They’ve built two versions of their aircraft, and we watched dozens of them fill the skies. The machines take off vertically and then zoom off like airplanes. They’re quiet, and they can hover.
Pushp is a self-taught engineer who learned how to build things with carbon fiber by watching YouTube videos and then began constructing aircraft in his teenage bedroom. He got into Carnegie Mellon but skipped university to build Airbound instead. He’s bright and (very) confident.
He’s also representative of a new era in Indian technology. Some of the country’s brightest, most ambitious youngsters are opting to stay at home and to try and build hard tech companies that do real innovation, as opposed to mimicking what has happened elsewhere.
We get into ALL of this on the podcast. And this marks the start of a series of videos, podcasts, and stories we have coming on the rise of the Indian tech scene. I’ve already managed to anger a large swath of the Indian venture capital industry with this story and am sure to anger others as we go on this journey.
SPONSOR
The wonderful people at Brex helped make these stories from India possible. You can catch a taste of the adventures here.
I’ve worked at large companies like The New York Times and Bloomberg, and their expense systems were terrible. Brex’s expense management systems, by contrast, are fantastic. AI agents run around taking care of tons of stuff for you and give you back your time.
Your company should switch to Brex to make life better for everyone. Find out more here.
TIMESTAMPS
CHAPTERS0:00 Intro6:01 Replacing Roads With Aircraft7:37 Designing Around Carbon Fiber14:23 Taking On Drone Delivery21:29 From Deliveries to Passengers23:09 Aircraft From a Bedroom32:38 From Project to Company37:53 Choosing Aircraft Over College41:11 Why Build in India?48:13 Life With Instant Delivery52:28 India's New Hardware Generation1:01:48 Why Skip Defense Contracts?1:04:35 Democracy and Getting Things Built1:07:40 India Between America and China1:13:18 Can Carbon Fiber Get Cheaper?1:21:44 The Trouble With Scaling
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribeThe Man Who Sees The Future - EP 94 Neal Stephenson
Neal Stephenson came on the podcast. What else do I have to tell you?The man has a weird mind portal into how technology will develop and has influenced generations of nerds. As a result, I seem to have spent …
Show notes
Neal Stephenson came on the podcast. What else do I have to tell you?
The man has a weird mind portal into how technology will develop and has influenced generations of nerds. As a result, I seem to have spent my career covering things that Stephenson predicted in his best-selling books.
He’s out with a new book now, D: Heavy Water, which served as a lovely excuse to get Neal on the show.
In the episode, we talk space, brain computer interfaces, swords, Hollywood and much more. Oddly, Stephenson says that the rapid development of AI caught him off guard. Go figure.
Anyway. Living Legend. Go listen and watch.
SPONSOR
Some of you will be wondering, “Is this episode sponsored?”. Yeah, it is. By the wonderful people at Brex.
I’ve worked at large companies like The New York Times and Bloomberg, and their expense systems were terrible. Brex’s expense management systems, by contrast, are fantastic. AI agents run around taking care of tons of stuff for you and give you back your time.
Your company should switch to Brex to make life better for everyone. Find out more here.
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro1:53 D and the Atomic Race4:34 Inside the Book Tour8:21 AI Caught Him Off Guard11:09 Is This the Singularity?15:27 AI's Manhattan Project Moment28:32 Brains, Bodies and Words38:31 What Actually Worries Neal40:11 Can Fiction Inspire Progress?49:56 Why No Snow Crash?55:06 Jane Austen Meets Fortnite1:03:21 Inside Early Blue Origin1:13:43 Rockets, Guns and Giant Towers1:20:36 Why Radical Rockets Struggle1:23:05 Swords and Selective Technology1:27:15 Can AI Fix Education?1:32:31 Storytelling Versus Predicting the Future
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribeThe Future Of Fighter Jets - EP 93 Hermeus With Zach Shore And A.J. Piplica
We’re heading into fighter jet territory this week with Zach Shore (CEO) and A.J. Piplica (Co-Founder and Executive Chairman) of Hermeus.Founded in 2018, Hermeus has set out to make supersonic and even …
Show notes
We’re heading into fighter jet territory this week with Zach Shore (CEO) and A.J. Piplica (Co-Founder and Executive Chairman) of Hermeus.
Founded in 2018, Hermeus has set out to make supersonic and even hypersonic jets that can fly themselves. They’re part of this new wave of defense startups trying to prove that the U.S. can still produce technological marvels in a timely and not criminally expensive fashion. Hermeus’s planes would be a new breed of fighter jets that can use their speed and autonomy to carry out missions without putting pilots at risk.
We conducted this interview with Shore and Piplica a couple of months back at Spaceport America just ahead of a test flight of Hermeus’s Quarterhorse Mk 2.1 plane. I’m pleased to tell you that the plane did indeed go supersonic, and it was awesome to behold. We’ll have a video on the experience soon on our YouTube channel.
This interview covers Hermeus’s journey, the state of the U.S. defense industry, plane design and how the U.S. hopes to keep pace with China in areas like hypersonic flight.
Hermeus’s planes are remotely piloted for now, but it has partnered with Anduril to give its aircraft autonomous mission capabilities. For hypersonic flight, it’s developing a fascinating hybrid engine design intended to switch from a turbine to a ramjet midair.
Hermeus achieved supersonic flight on Mk 2.1’s third test flight and is betting it can keep building and testing new prototypes much faster than traditional defense contractors. You can see its planes and timelines here.
SPONSOR
Some of you will be wondering, “Is this episode sponsored?”. Yeah, it is. By the wonderful people at Brex.
I’ve worked at large companies like The New York Times and Bloomberg, and their expense systems were terrible. Brex’s expense management systems, by contrast, are fantastic. AI agents run around taking care of tons of stuff for you and give you back your time.
Your company should switch to Brex to make life better for everyone. Find out more here.
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro3:39 Supersonic With Nobody Aboard6:21 Building an Aircraft Company17:02 From Turbines to Ramjets22:18 The Unmanned Bomb Truck30:25 Will Passengers Fly Hypersonic?31:56 America's Flight Testing Bottleneck40:08 Who Actually Flies It?45:12 Rebuilding the Skunk Works47:06 China and America's Aerospace Bet
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribeRobots Like Us - EP 92 Andrew Kiguel and Matt McMullen From Realbotix
Our guests this week are Andrew Kiguel and Matt McMullen from Realbotix.Realbotix makes humanoid robots that actually look like humans. McMullen, who founded the company, has spent years refining the …
Show notes
Our guests this week are Andrew Kiguel and Matt McMullen from Realbotix.
Realbotix makes humanoid robots that actually look like humans. McMullen, who founded the company, has spent years refining the animatronics and materials needed to create lifelike machines. His past creations have received tons of media attention both because they’re striking and because they veer into companionship and sex territory.
Lars and the Real Girl? Yep, that’s Matt’s work.
Realbotix, though, is an attempt to take the technology in a different direction. The company has made AI-infused bots that it wants to put to work out in the world. The bots could greet guests at hotels, provide information at hospitals or perhaps tutor students at schools. The Realbotix bots can carry on conversations and use vision systems to recognize people and take in their surroundings.
We conducted this interview in Las Vegas where Realbotix has its headquarters. In a future video on our YouTube channel, which is awesome and you should subscribe to, I head out into Vegas with a bot named Aria, and we have a delightful afternoon together.
Some of you will think these robots are weird. And I get this.
I will, however, add that most of the humanoids out there are very boring. Companies have focused on what the robots can do rather than what they look like. The folks at Realbotix, by contrast, have put a lot of time and energy into trying to figure out how humans and robots will interact and progress together. We get into all of this on the show.
SPONSOR
Some of you will be wondering, “Is this episode sponsored?”. Yeah, it is. By the wonderful people at Brex.
I’ve worked at large companies like The New York Times and Bloomberg, and their expense systems were terrible. Brex’s expense management systems, by contrast, are fantastic. AI agents run around taking care of tons of stuff for you and give you back your time.
Your company should switch to Brex to make life better for everyone. Find out more here.
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro3:31 Robots Built for Conversation5:58 An Artist Builds a Robot15:31 Faces You Can Swap23:40 What Does a Robot Cost?26:17 Giving the Robot a Personality28:32 The RealDoll Question33:32 Can Robots Ease Loneliness?43:52 Hotel Clerks and Robot Tutors46:41 Hands, Eyes, and Memory56:31 Escaping the Uncanny Valley1:04:41 China and the Robot Bubble1:09:24 How Unfiltered Should AI Be?
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribeHe Bought A Ghost Town And Became A YouTube Star - EP 91 Brent Underwood
This week’s guest is Brent Underwood, the proud owner of Cerro Gordo Mines.That’s right. In 2018, Underwood bought the ghost town of Cerro Gordo, located near Death Valley in California, and its old mining …
Show notes
This week’s guest is Brent Underwood, the proud owner of Cerro Gordo Mines.
That’s right. In 2018, Underwood bought the ghost town of Cerro Gordo, located near Death Valley in California, and its old mining operations for $1.4 million. This was a legit crazy thing to do. But, here we are eight years later, and Underwood has turned his sidequest into his mainquest, and he now has a booming YouTube channel in which he documents life at Cerro Gordo. This includes exploration of the mines and Underwood’s attempt to restore the ghost town into a habitable site that people can visit.
You will notice (if you’re viewing instead of just listening) that the set for this podcast is awesome. That’s because we went to visit Underwood a couple of months back for this podcast and for a video that will be coming out on our own booming YouTube channel.
We spent a couple of nights at Cerro Gordo, living in an old miner’s house, and we explored the grounds with Underwood.
As you’ll hear in this episode, Cerro Gordo was a long-running silver mine and, at its peak, had 4,000 people living in the mountains and working the many miles of mines. It’s quite well preserved. You can see the old brothel, theater, and store. And Underwood has been rebuilding the American Hotel that once served as the centerpiece of the town.
Underwood does crazy things at Cerro Gordo. He’ll lower himself down the main mine shaft and then spend days underground. He’s used his exploring to help build out the history of Cerro Gordo and wrote an amazing book about Cerro Gordo and his adventures. You should probably buy it and read it.
We obviously get into all of the above with Underwood, who is a wonderful storyteller and a good dude.
SPONSOR
Some of you will be wondering, “Is this episode sponsored?”. Yeah, it is. By the wonderful people at Brex.
I’ve worked at large companies like The New York Times and Bloomberg, and their expense systems were terrible. Brex’s expense management systems, by contrast, are fantastic. AI agents run around taking care of tons of stuff for you and give you back your time.
Your company should switch to Brex to make life better for everyone. Find out more here.
Timestamps
0:00 Intro4:53 How to Buy a Town11:29 The American Hotel Burns17:36 History Meets the YouTube Algorithm22:46 Five Days Below Ground28:29 The West Was Brutal33:33 Who Actually Got Rich?40:37 Where the Water Went44:31 California Versus the Hotel49:14 Can a Ghost Town Live?
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribeHe’s Here To End Death - EP 90 Dr. Emil Kendziorra
A few years ago, some people put me in a van and drove me to the edge of Moscow. And by “the edge of Moscow,” I mean where things started to get a bit rural. We turned off a road and went toward what looked …
Show notes
A few years ago, some people put me in a van and drove me to the edge of Moscow. And by “the edge of Moscow,” I mean where things started to get a bit rural. We turned off a road and went toward what looked like a modest farmhouse with a shed. After exiting the van, we entered said shed and found two large metal containers that were full of human bodies and heads along with the bodies of many animals, including dogs, cats, and a hummingbird. Have a look.
These bodies were being cryopreserved with liquid nitrogen in the hope that they could be reanimated at some point in the future when science has advanced and more illnesses can be cured.
Cryopreservation/reanimation is not a new idea. It’s been contemplated in literature for hundreds of years. Alcor, perhaps the most well-known cryopreservation company, was founded way back in 1972. The field, though, has suffered from questionable science and been seen as a scientific backwater.
Our guest this week wants to add scientific, intellectual, and pragmatic rigor to the cryopreservation field or what he calls the biostasis field. He’s Dr. Emil Kendziorra, the founder and CEO of Tomorrow Bio.
Tomorrow Bio has a team that will show up at the end of life and prepare someone’s body for preservation and then store their body in a Swiss vault.
In this episode, we get into the mechanics behind Tomorrow Bio and the pros and cons of biostasis. Kendziorra is a sober, deep thinker on this topic and a great listen.
OUR SPONSOR
BREX
The Core Memory podcast is sponsored by Brex, the intelligent finance platform built to help companies spend smarter and move faster.
We run on Brex and so should you. Learn more about Brex right here.
TIMESTAMPS (they link out to YouTube)
CHAPTERS0:00 Intro5:08 Cryonics Without the Ice8:45 Heads in a Russian Shed12:26 Longevity's Backup Plan19:39 The First Hours After Death30:11 Funding a Second Life37:15 Does Cryonics Actually Work?43:40 Preserving Brains Without Bodies50:52 Why Not Reverse Aging?55:21 Can the Company Outlive You?1:03:37 Waking Up Centuries Later1:08:28 The Problem of Rewarming1:15:14 Selling Hope Without Overselling Science1:19:40 Would Longer Lives Be Better?1:23:42 Elective Cryonics and Family Life
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribeThe Wordcel Queen Of Silicon Valley — EP 89 Anna Gát
We’ve heard a lot of moonshot ideas on this podcast, but this week’s guest may have the most impossible one yet: making tech more cultured.In this episode, Ashlee sat down with Anna Gát, a Hungarian …
Show notes
We’ve heard a lot of moonshot ideas on this podcast, but this week’s guest may have the most impossible one yet: making tech more cultured.
In this episode, Ashlee sat down with Anna Gát, a Hungarian philosopher, playwright, and founder of Interintellect, a platform for hosting intellectual conversations online. She calls herself “the bridge” between the humanities, academia, and the tech world, which in practice means getting engineers to read Goethe.
Gát grew up on a TV set in communist Hungary. Her parents made the country’s biggest shows in an era when there was one channel available on Saturdays. In 2015, a family crisis left her starting over in London with two suitcases, one of them for books. She rebuilt her life on Twitter, DM’d Sam Altman, and got him as her first meeting on her first trip to America.
Before Interintellect, Gát did just about every wordcel job you can do: playwright, screenwriter, script doctor. She holds graduate degrees in philosophical aesthetics and linguistics, currently splits her time between SF and NYC. The company that would become Interintellect began in London in 2016 as an AI tool for helping “humans have categorically better conversations.” On the side, she angel invests in aerospace.
The two get into why X was once the French café that could publish you and is now a place you can’t get discovered from, why the East Coast’s healthiest, wealthiest people are so convinced the future is doomed, and the duty AI builders have to explain themselves. Gát also admits, on the record, that she’s a sucker for Elon Musk’s syntax. Ashlee tries to convince her that kids don’t read books anymore. She tries to convince him Silicon Valley should fund symphonies.
IN THIS EPISODE
Interintellect — https://www.interintellect.com
The Hope Axis — https://twitter.com/TheHopeAxis
Anna on X — https://x.com/TheAnnaGat
OUR SPONSORS
BREX
The Core Memory podcast is sponsored by Brex, the intelligent finance platform built to help companies spend smarter and move faster.
We run on Brex and so should you. Learn more about Brex right here.
SENDCUTSEND
You know who else makes stuff for America? That would be SendCutSend. If you want to celebrate our great nation by building a metal part, then head on over to SendCutSend where you’ll get a 15 percent discount thanks to Core Memory on whatever you’re trying to build. We believe in you.
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 — Intro
2:56 — The science of dialogue
6:34 — Growing up famous in communist Hungary
13:06 — Nobody saw 1989 coming
16:43 — Losing everything in 2015
20:57 — Silicon Valley as the new Ellis Island
28:38 — Balaji's DAO campaign33:42 — Elon's syntax
39:18 — Why does America hate tech?
46:25 — Engineers took over the world
53:20 — Have LLMs solved language?
1:01:29 — Are books dying?
1:06:51 — No Pop-Tarts
1:10:46 — Who funds culture?
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribeSolar Energy's Second Act — EP 88 Joel Jean
In this episode, Ashlee sits down with Joel Jean, CEO of Swift Solar, a San Carlos-based startup trying to create new solar technology using perovskite. We previously published a story about Swift, if you’re …
Show notes
In this episode, Ashlee sits down with Joel Jean, CEO of Swift Solar, a San Carlos-based startup trying to create new solar technology using perovskite. We previously published a story about Swift, if you’re wondering what the f*ck perovskite is! In short, it’s a synthetic crystal that turns sunlight into electricity better and cheaper than the silicon currently used in solar panels. This stuff is finicky though, and experts have doubts, as they always do — but Jean explains how Swift is closing in on a solution.
“Everyone and their mom can make a perovskite that’s decently efficient,” Jean says, but no one seems capable of making it as durable as silicon. The material degrades under heat, light and its own moving ions. This is obviously not the ideal situation for an energy grid.
So why not stick with silicon? Well, the laws of physics haven’t quite blessed it. A silicon panel can turn, at most, about 30 percent of the sunlight it gets into electricity, and today’s panels usually churn out about 25 percent. If they’re able to successfully layer perovskite on top, that pushes the ceiling to 45 percent.
These are fabulous gains in the solar nerd world, and we could really use some innovation here because we are one very, very energy-hungry species. And of course, this is Core Memory, so you know where this is headed: China and AI.
China makes 90 percent of the world’s solar cells and wafers, installs more panels than the rest of the planet combined, and builds the machines that nearly every U.S. solar factory runs on. (Except for Swift, apparently!). That dependency is, as always, a risk.
Meanwhile, AI data centers need more power than God, and the folks making models are happy to welcome any new gains in that department. Some are even putting their money on it; renowned AI researcher Jeff Dean has invested Swift.
Charge your crystals, folks. We’re perovskite-maxxing.
IN THIS EPISODE
This Is The U.S.’s Last Chance At Solar — Core Memory
OUR SPONSORS
BREX
The Core Memory podcast is sponsored by Brex, the intelligent finance platform built to help companies spend smarter and move faster.
We run on Brex and so should you. Learn more about Brex right here.
SENDCUTSEND
You know who else makes stuff for America? That would be SendCutSend. If you want to celebrate our great nation by building a metal part, then head on over to SendCutSend where you’ll get a 15 percent discount thanks to Core Memory on whatever you’re trying to build. We believe in you.
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 — Intro
04:56 — How The U.S. Lost Solar1
2:36 — Maxed-Out Physics
20:03 — How China Won
27:53 — What Is Perovskite?
36:52 — The 30-Year Problem
45:41 — China's Scale-First Bet
51:00 — The Meyer Burger Deal
58:50 — Can Solar Power AI?
1:09:43 — Patents, China And The Machines
1:22:15 — Solar For AGI
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribeThe Xbox Nearly Destroyed Him - EP 87 Seamus Blackley
This episode is nerd catnip unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.Ashlee sat down with Seamus Blackley, who you might know as the man who talked Microsoft into building the Xbox. Nowadays, you can find Blackley …
Show notes
This episode is nerd catnip unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.
Ashlee sat down with Seamus Blackley, who you might know as the man who talked Microsoft into building the Xbox. Nowadays, you can find Blackley in a Pasadena laboratory making the world’s best chocolate. If you’re just here for the cacao, well, we did a video on it.
Blackley grew up in rural New Mexico and studied electrical engineering, then physics, at Tufts University. He spent years working on titles you know and love, like Madden, and ones perhaps you don’t, like Jurassic Park: Trespasser, a flop notorious enough to earn him his first death threats.
Also, Ashlee is away for a few weeks on a big video shoot in India, which means I, Kylie, will be filling in on all the writing stuff. Now that you know who the voice of God is here, let’s get into the most important thing — what I think about this episode!
Blackley is totally captivating and eccentric, exactly the way you’d expect a physicist who builds holograms and runs a chocolate farm to be. He got deep in ways I didn’t expect, about his abusive childhood and what it was like working at Microsoft. I particularly loved this line from him:
“The khaki pants wearing guys, the lifers, they show up and we had fought them to keep them away from [the Xbox]. The more we kept them away from it, the more consumers got excited because we were talking about things with the power of Microsoft and not the b******t of Microsoft. That was incredibly effective. But it was exhausting and it was a conscious effort of will to fight it. At some point it was going to destroy me and I had to stop.”
Blackley seems to talk at 2x speed naturally, and I’m grateful for it, because he has no shortage of brain-exploding lore to fit into these 80 minutes. He describes his whole career as “one long tale of woe and rapid dancing in the face of failure,” which is a very modest way to describe inventing the Xbox, shepherding Guitar Hero into existence, and abducting Jimmy Fallon. You’ll have to listen for that last one.
IN THIS EPISODE
Core Memory on Seamus Blackley's chocolate experimentSmithsonian Magazine on Blackley's ancient Egyptian bread projectPacific Light & Hologram
OUR SPONSORS
BREX
The Core Memory podcast is sponsored by Brex, the intelligent finance platform built to help companies spend smarter and move faster.
We run on Brex and so should you. Learn more about Brex right here.
SENDCUTSEND
You know who else makes stuff for America? That would be SendCutSend. If you want to celebrate our great nation by building a metal part, then head on over to SendCutSend where you’ll get a 15 percent discount thanks to Core Memory on whatever you’re trying to build. We believe in you.
TIMESTAMPS
* 00:00:00 — Intro
* 00:02:38 — Why Tech Hype Sucks
* 00:07:37 — Why Talking About Your Work Kills It
* 00:10:42 — Early Life, Physics, and Jazz
* 00:21:57 — Fermilab & Academic Politics
* 00:30:47 — Building the First 3D Video Game Engines
* 00:34:18 — Early Game Development Culture
* 00:38:37 — DreamWorks & Working for Steven Spielberg
* 00:44:32 — Joining Microsoft & Pitching the Original Xbox
* 00:54:04 — Fighting Corporate Bureaucracy to Save Xbox
* 01:03:42 — Abducting Jimmy Fallon
* 01:07:20 — Baking Bread with 4,500-Year-Old Egyptian Yeast
* 01:10:40 — Growing Cacao Trees in a Lab
* 01:17:09 — Accidentally Launching a Chocolate Empire
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribeGene Therapies That Work? - EP 86 Adrian Veres
We have been promised glorious gene therapies for decades. This is supposed to be the stuff of reprogramming the body to blunt or cure diseases with something approaching a permanent fix. While gene therapy …
Show notes
We have been promised glorious gene therapies for decades. This is supposed to be the stuff of reprogramming the body to blunt or cure diseases with something approaching a permanent fix. While gene therapy progress has been made, treatments remain rare and expensive, and it’s very tough to get the therapies to go into the desired parts of the body.
Our guest this week is here to help. He’s Adrian Veres, the chief scientific officer and co-founder of Dyno Therapeutics. Founded in 2018, Dyno has been pursuing new and better ways to deliver gene therapies via modified viruses.
Dyno was well ahead of the AI meets biotech curve, using AI models to design new viral shells that let genetic instructions get into the right places of the body. For the moment, Dyno has focused on creating delivery mechanisms for companies working on therapies aimed at the brain, eye and muscles.
In this episode, we talk with Veres about the promise and perils of gene therapy technology, some of the most recent cases where gene therapies worked and how Dyno’s technology came to be and functions. And we get Veres’s take on whether or not we’re entering a golden age of biotech on the back of AI.
Due to some poor camera work on my part, Veres, who is a tall man, looks particularly giant. Fear not, he did not harm me and was actually quite nice.
OUR SPONSORS
BREX
The Core Memory podcast is sponsored by Brex, the intelligent finance platform built to help companies spend smarter and move faster.
We run on Brex and so should you. Learn more about Brex right here.
SENDCUTSEND
You know who else makes stuff for America? That would be SendCutSend. If you want to celebrate our great nation by building a metal part, then head on over to SendCutSend where you’ll get a 15 percent discount thanks to Core Memory on whatever you’re trying to build. We believe in you.
IN THIS EPISODE
Dyno Therapeutics: https://www.dynotx.com/
The FDA framework for individualized ultra-rare disease therapies: https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-launches-framework-accelerating-development-individualized-therapies-ultra-rare-diseases
Core Memory on Baby KJ and the new gene therapy playbook: https://www.corememory.com/p/the-new-gene-therapy-playbook-babykj
Core Memory’s gene-editing conversation with Eryney Marrogi: https://www.corememory.com/p/the-state-of-gene-editing-eryney-marrogi
Core Memory’s podcast with Jennifer Doudna: https://www.corememory.com/p/the-present-and-future-of-gene-editing-jennifer-doudna-crispr
TIMESTAMPS (they link out to YouTube)
0:00 Intro
3:34 Why Does Gene Therapy Still Feel Rare?
7:38 What Is Gene Therapy, Really?
14:48 How Do You Deliver DNA?
17:47 Turning a Virus Into Medicine
21:53 The 700-Letter Box
28:20 Testing a Million Designs at Once
34:28 Why Does the Liver Steal the Cure?
36:43 Getting Past the Brain’s Bouncer
43:04 Is Delivery the Missing Piece?
47:24 Can Million-Dollar Therapies Get Cheap?
52:10 Did Dyno Start Too Early?
1:00:03 Was Biology Oversold?
1:09:36 Will We Cure Every Disease in 10 Years?
1:18:20 Should You Build Your Own Peptide Stack?
1:20:55 Is China Winning the Biology Race?
1:27:40 What Baby KJ Changed
1:32:34 Should the Next Generation Study Biology?
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribeThe Realest Longevity Guru - EP 85 Alex Colville
Over the past five years, Alex Colville has become one of the most influential figures in the longevity and aging fields.There’s a decent chance you have not heard of him, which is a bit by design. Unlike many …
Show notes
Over the past five years, Alex Colville has become one of the most influential figures in the longevity and aging fields.
There’s a decent chance you have not heard of him, which is a bit by design. Unlike many longevity gurus, Colville does not seek much attention and, for the most part, operates in the background where he’s been doling out many millions of dollars in investments. Today, Colville runs age1, a venture capital firm that has backed the likes of Loyal, Science, Conception and a bunch of other companies listed as “Stealth” on its web site.
Colville is the guy I call to reality check whatever is being hyped up in Longevity Land. He studies the actual science. He reaches sober conclusions. He’s honest about where the technology is today and what might show promise in the future.
In this episode, we get into Colville’s takes on GLP-1s, partial cell reprogramming, China’s biotech rise, the odd animals teaching us the most about longevity and, well, the prospects of living forever. We also get into Colville’s life and unusual rise as the longevity kingmaker, and, of course, we discuss keeping a human head alive without a body because what choice did we have.
If you can spare a minute, please do us a favor by filling out this ever so brief survey, so we can learn a bit more about our subscribers. Help us be better for you. Thanks!!
OUR SPONSORS
SendCutSend
You know who else makes stuff for America? That would be SendCutSend. If you want to celebrate our great nation by building a metal part, then head on over to SendCutSend where you’ll get a 15 percent discount thanks to Core Memory on whatever you’re trying to build. We believe in you.
Brex
The Core Memory podcast is also sponsored by Brex, the intelligent finance platform built to help companies spend smarter and move faster.
Did we go to Texas, find a telescope ranch and then obtain an entire nebula in Brex’s honor? Oh yes, we did.
We run on Brex and so should you. Learn more about Brex right here.
Timestamps (they link out to YouTube)
0:00 Intro2:41 Meet the Switzerland of Aging8:01 Why Did Aging Become the Enemy?10:28 What Can an Axolotl Teach Us?26:23 What Works in Worms, but Not Yet in Humans?30:16 The Longevity Expert Who Takes Nothing34:37 Are GLP-1s Already Anti-Aging Drugs?44:14 Can We Make Old Cells Young Again?58:48 What Do Hibernating Squirrels Know?1:05:02 When Does Medicine Become an Upgrade?1:09:57 Has CRISPR Lived Up to the Hype?1:12:43 What Are Altos and Calico Really Doing?1:20:24 The Breakthrough That Could Change Everything1:25:14 Will China Win the Biology Race?1:28:24 Why a Virtual Cell Is Not a Cell1:30:28 A Head in a Waymo?
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribeAI Will Cure Us All!! Or Not!! - EP 84 Abhi Mahajan
Every couple of days, a new AI-meets-biotech startup sends me a pitch, and the pitches all sound the same. AI is amazing, and it can now tame biology. We’re on the cusp of producing new cures for diseases at a …
Show notes
Every couple of days, a new AI-meets-biotech startup sends me a pitch, and the pitches all sound the same. AI is amazing, and it can now tame biology. We’re on the cusp of producing new cures for diseases at a rapid rate, and these startups know just how to get the job done. To which you should wonder – is this at all true?
On this week’s Core Memory episode, we have brought in the big brains to answer – or at least debate – this question. Our resident science whiz and medical professional Eryney Marrogi takes on the hosting duties to interview Abhishaike Mahajan, he of Owl Posting and now OpenAI Foundation fame.
These two men of science take hold of this AI/biotech moment to explore where we’re seeing the most promise from this new wave of technology and where the messiness of biology continues to confound AI. They also get into some lighter topics like our collective death from AI bioweapons and China’s impending biotech dominance. Good times.
You’re all probably buzzing over Moderna’s stock price doubling and the end of cancer. So ride that enthusiasm right into this podcast and see how you’re feeling on the other side.
If you can spare a minute, please do us a favor by filling out this ever so brief survey, so we can learn a bit more about our subscribers. Help us be better for you. Thanks!!
OUR SPONSORS
SendCutSend
You know who else makes stuff for America? That would be SendCutSend. If you want to celebrate our great nation by building a metal part, then head on over to SendCutSend where you’ll get a 15 percent discount thanks to Core Memory on whatever you’re trying to build. We believe in you.
Brex
The Core Memory podcast is also sponsored by Brex, the intelligent finance platform built to help companies spend smarter and move faster.
Did we go to Texas, find a telescope ranch and then obtain an entire nebula in Brex’s honor? Oh yes, we did.
We run on Brex and so should you. Learn more about Brex right here.
Timestamps (they link out to YouTube)
0:00 Intro4:24 Is Intelligence the Bottleneck?6:58 A Thousand von Neumanns12:29 The Cancer Drug That Failed21:15 Can AI Read a Tumor?31:38 Is Text All You Need?44:39 The Machine Nobody Built54:16 A Trillion Dollar Organoid?1:02:26 Biosecurity Lost the Plot1:06:02 ChatGPT vs. a Virus1:19:13 Why the Terrorists Failed1:24:37 Who Gets to Order DNA?1:42:41 China Wins Biology1:53:41 The Lab Nobody Funds
Thanks for listening!
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribeThe Google Engineer Who Set The Skydiving Record At 58 - EP 83 Alan Eustace
Most people think that the Red Bull guy Felix Baumgartner holds the skydiving record. But this is not the case.The real record-holder is Alan Eustace. In 2014, at age 58, the Google engineer rode a …
Show notes
Most people think that the Red Bull guy Felix Baumgartner holds the skydiving record. But this is not the case.
The real record-holder is Alan Eustace. In 2014, at age 58, the Google engineer rode a helium-filled balloon into the stratosphere and then fell back to Earth from 135,890 feet. Eustace’s fall lasted 4 minutes and 27 seconds, and he broke the sound barrier, reaching a max speed of 822 mph. And now, in a very rare appearance, Eustace has come on the podcast to discuss his adventure.
Baumgartner, who dropped from 128,852 feet, received tons of attention because Red Bull turned his jump into a media spectacle. Eustace, by contrast, came up with the plan for his jump and spacesuit at his kitchen table, paid for a small team to help him build his suit and then did his skydive with just a single reporter there as a witness.
This all fits with Eustace’s personality. He’s quite private and just goes about his work.
It took several months of begging to get Eustace on the show, and I don’t think he’s ever discussed his skydive in this type of detail before.
In this episode, we get into what drove a 58-year-old man to want to chase this feat, the rich history of stratosphere jumping and Eustace’s remarkable career as one of the key Google engineers who built the modern internet. We also hear Eustace’s thoughts on AI and his latest quest to search the ocean floor.
(I apologize for saying that Eustace jumped from space in the episode. It was the stratosphere. I was excited.)
If you can spare a minute, please do us a favor by filling out this ever so brief survey, so we can learn a bit more about our subscribers. Help us be better for you. Thanks!!
OUR SPONSORS
SendCutSend
You know who else makes stuff for America? That would be SendCutSend. If you want to celebrate our great nation by building a metal part, then head on over to SendCutSend where you’ll get a 15 percent discount thanks to Core Memory on whatever you’re trying to build. We believe in you.
Brex
The Core Memory podcast is also sponsored by Brex, the intelligent finance platform built to help companies spend smarter and move faster.
Did we go to Texas, find a telescope ranch and then obtain an entire nebula in Brex’s honor? Oh yes, we did.
We run on Brex and so should you. Learn more about Brex right here.
Timestamps (they link out to YouTube)
00:00 Intro03:26 Chasing Alan Eustace07:42 Rocket Sleds and Seatbelts10:38 Why Build a Capsule?13:00 Kittinger’s Three Jumps18:11 The Idea Takes Hold21:07 Elon’s Mars Greenhouse23:18 The Jump That Failed28:37 Solving the Death Spin30:07 Racing Red Bull32:26 One Reporter, No Livestream34:12 The Kittinger Coincidence38:26 Not Your Typical Daredevil40:43 Goodbye Videos for His Kids44:35 The First Spacesuit Jump48:37 Two Hours to Space50:53 Google Earth in Reverse54:36 Can I Get a Countdown?58:55 Breaking the Sound Barrier1:00:08 The Crash Landing1:02:16 What It Really Cost1:08:28 The Magic of Gas Balloons1:10:30 Did the Jump Change Him?1:17:03 The VLSI Golden Age1:22:56 Is AI Revolutionary?1:29:20 The Google Translate Story1:35:49 The Fall of DEC1:41:09 Reinventing the Data Center1:48:51 Impossible to Inevitable1:51:40 Inside Commonwealth Fusion1:56:21 Hunting Amelia Earhart2:03:21 What’s Under the Golden Gate?
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribeAn Implant That Tracks And Treats Cancer Tumors - EP 82 Ben Woodington
Treating cancer remains a crude practice. We cut, burn and poison tumors, and we do all this with relatively little precision around both the initial treatment and our ongoing monitoring of how effective the …
Show notes
Treating cancer remains a crude practice. We cut, burn and poison tumors, and we do all this with relatively little precision around both the initial treatment and our ongoing monitoring of how effective the treatment is. You show up for scans now and again and hope that whatever you’ve been doing has been working.
Ben Woodington - who is an absolute unit - and the team at Coherence have come up with a new way to monitor and treat tumors. They’ve built an implant that, as the name suggests, gets placed inside the body to keep a constant watch on a tumor’s behavior. The chip also brings with it the ability to deliver electrical signals that may blunt a tumor’s growth. We’re talking constant monitoring of a tumor to see if treatments are working and the ability to read and write electrical signals as part of a totally novel bio-tech device.
In this episode, Ben explains how this technology works and, more broadly, he walks us through the emerging field of neuro-oncology or cancer neuroscience. We have a look at Coherence’s device, which is reminiscent of Neuralink’s implant, and rival technology.
Since we recorded this episode, Coherence has begun a study in Australia where its device is being used to record and stimulate brain activity in patients having brain tumors removed. The company has also put out a paper detailing some of its work and has brought on Neuralink’s neurosurgery lead Matthew MacDougall as an advisor and investor.
This episode was a treat for me because I had no idea this type of technology even existed, and because Coherence seems to have made a remarkable amount of progress on its hardware in a short time.
If you can spare a minute, please do us a favor by filling out this ever so brief survey, so we can learn a bit more about our subscribers. Help us be better for you. Thanks!!
OUR SPONSORS
SendCutSend
You know who else makes stuff for America? That would be SendCutSend. If you want to celebrate our great nation by building a metal part, then head on over to SendCutSend where you’ll get a 15 percent discount thanks to Core Memory on whatever you’re trying to build. We believe in you.
Brex
The Core Memory podcast is also sponsored by Brex, the intelligent finance platform built to help companies spend smarter and move faster.
Did we go to Texas, find a telescope ranch and then obtain an entire nebula in Brex’s honor? Oh yes, we did.
We run on Brex and so should you. Learn more about Brex right here.
Timestamps (they link out to YouTube)
0:00 Intro3:54 Cut It, Poison It, Burn It. Is There a Fourth Way?6:16 Your Tumor Is Rewiring Your Brain8:29 The Clunky Device That Somehow Already Works11:35 Why Patients Take It Off15:12 Inside the Implant: A Neuralink for Tumors20:32 Could a Chip Replace the MRI?27:13 What the Mice Are Already Telling Them31:38 First Humans, and Why It's Always Australia35:36 "They Should Have Hired a Few Apple Engineers"43:24 Neuralink vs ONWARD: Who's Right About the Spine?47:09 The Idea Nobody Else in Neurotech Had1:01:45 Cut One Nerve and the Cancer Stops Spreading1:06:12 A Cancer Sensor Inside All of Us?1:09:12 Do Cancer Drugs Work Better Before 11 a.m.?1:14:59 If AI Ran Medicine, It Would Build This
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribeInside The Media Marvel That Is TBPN
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.corememory.comRunning a media business is hard. You’re competing for people’s attention. You must produce a relentless stream of new things that …
Show notes
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.corememory.comRunning a media business is hard. You’re competing for people’s attention. You must produce a relentless stream of new things that are good and different. And you’re often dependent on the ever-changing whims of the public and advertisers.
John Coogan and Jordi Hays somehow made all of this look easy when they started TBPN in late 2024. The daily tech ne…
Quantum Everything Explained - EP 81 Prineha Narang
Prineha Narang is one of the rising stars of science and the field of quantum technology.She earned her PhD in applied physics at Caltech, taught materials science at Harvard and now has her own lab at UCLA …
Show notes
Prineha Narang is one of the rising stars of science and the field of quantum technology.
She earned her PhD in applied physics at Caltech, taught materials science at Harvard and now has her own lab at UCLA. The lab focuses on quantum materials, non-equilibrium dynamics, photonics, quantum information science and other easily digestible areas. Beyond her academic career, Narang is a science advisor to the government and a venture capitalist at DCVC.
As you might imagine, we get into quantum computing and quantum technology in this episode. Quantum vs. AI, the US vs. China, when quantum tech will break encryption, quantum sensing and whether or not quantum technology actually has a bright future. The quantum sensing portion of the chat was all new to me and rather astonishing.
Since Narang is also a competitive runner and mountaineer, we provide some top tips on gear because that is just the kind of all-purpose podcast that we deliver.
And, if you can’t get enough quantum computing, come check out our video episode on PsiQuantum building the largest quantum machine in history.
Enjoy!
OUR SPONSORS
SendCutSend
You know who else makes stuff for America? That would be SendCutSend. If you want to celebrate our great nation by building a metal part, then head on over to SendCutSend where you’ll get a 15 percent discount thanks to Core Memory on whatever you’re trying to build. We believe in you!
Brex
The Core Memory podcast is also sponsored by Brex, the intelligent finance platform built to help companies spend smarter and move faster.
Did we go to Texas, find a telescope ranch and then obtain an entire nebula in Brex’s honor? Oh yes, we did.
We run on Brex and so should you. Learn more about Brex right here.
Narang Lab at UCLA:
https://naranglab.ucla.edu
DCVC:
https://www.dcvc.com
Oratomic (the Caltech neutral atom spinout):
https://www.oratomic.com
Atom Computing:
https://atom-computing.com
Mesa Quantum:
https://mesaquantum.com
Google's work on the cost of quantum factoring: https://blog.google/security/tracking...NIST Post-Quantum Cryptography: https://csrc.nist.gov/projects/post-q...DARPA Quantum Benchmarking Initiative: https://www.darpa.mil/research/progra...Hyperlite Mountain Gear (the Dyneema packs Prineha swears by):
https://www.hyperlitemountaingear.com
Timestamps (they link out to YouTube)
00:00 Intro02:17 The Physicist Who Almost Became a Pro Runner13:39 A Cold Email, a Full Ride, and the Road to Caltech26:15 How Video Game Chips Quietly Took Over Science31:56 Is Quantum Losing the Spotlight to AI?40:50 "I Still Don't Believe in Quantum": Answering the Skeptics46:28 The Google Result That Could Break Encryption53:44 Is It Time to Panic About Q-Day?1:06:48 Quantum Sensing and the Case of Who Sneezed1:17:30 Does Consciousness Run on Quantum Rules?1:22:28 The Advice She Gives Terrified Students1:30:20 So When Does Quantum Actually Get Real?
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribeHe Came From Oz To Save American Manufacturing - EP 80 Chris Power
A few years ago, I was lunching with a young Australian man who told me he hoped to modernize manufacturing in America. This man seemed enthusiastic and ambitious, but I must confess to holding some serious …
Show notes
A few years ago, I was lunching with a young Australian man who told me he hoped to modernize manufacturing in America. This man seemed enthusiastic and ambitious, but I must confess to holding some serious doubts about the dramatic scope of his plans and his ability to pull them off.
This man was Chris Power, and, well, he did the thing. He’s the founder and CEO of Hadrian, which has a growing empire of mega factories packed full of machines that cut, bend and weld metal. Hadrian has become a workhorse for defense and aerospace and other big industries. It has used software to make it easier for people to control many machines at once and to keep track of the manufacturing process in a bid to add more quality control to industry.
Power has become one of the main players in the Reindustrialization movement and one of its more direct and critical voices.
We did this interview at Hadrian’s headquarters in Los Angeles with factories humming behind us, and we’ll have a video with all the machines soon on our YouTube channel. Chris and I get into his history, Hadrian’s history and the state of American manufacturing.
To celebrate AMERICAN MANUFACTURING and AMERICA and THE WORLD CUP and BEING SUBJECTED TO A BROKEN HEALTH INSURANCE SYSTEM, we’re offering a magnificent 4th of July merch SALE, SALE, SALE. Come get 30 percent off Core Memory’s hats, shirts and hoodies by using the promo code AMERICAAA right here.
OUR SPONSORS
SendCutSend
You know who else makes stuff for America? That would be SendCutSend. If you want to celebrate our great nation by building a metal part, then head on over to SendCutSend where you’ll get a 15 percent discount thanks to Core Memory on whatever you’re trying to build. We believe in you.
Brex
The Core Memory podcast is also sponsored by Brex, the intelligent finance platform built to help companies spend smarter and move faster.
Did we go to Texas, find a telescope ranch and then obtain an entire nebula in Brex’s honor? Oh yes, we did.
We run on Brex and so should you. Learn more about Brex right here.
Timestamps (they link out to YouTube)
00:00 Intro
04:07 From Melbourne to a California Factory Floor
07:37 The Thesis He’d Work On for the Rest of His Life
10:00 How America Gave the Whole Farm Away
14:46 Why We Can’t Rebuild Our Own Missiles
19:08 Can You Really Put a Master Machinist Into Software?
24:38 From Missile Parts to the Entire Missile
29:19 The China Problem Nobody Wants to Say Out Loud
33:40 How Far Behind Is America Really?
41:45 “You Can’t Automate This.” Answering the Critics
45:22 Why Can’t Anyone Else Copy Tesla and SpaceX?
53:03 Can America Actually Build Its Own Shenzhen?
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribeThe Manufacturing Phenomenon That Is SendCutSend - EP 79 Jim Belosic
If you spend any time inside a company that actually makes things in the U.S., then you’ll hear about SendCutSend.Started in 2018, SendCutSend has become an American manufacturing phenomenon. The company makes …
Show notes
If you spend any time inside a company that actually makes things in the U.S., then you’ll hear about SendCutSend.
Started in 2018, SendCutSend has become an American manufacturing phenomenon. The company makes metal parts for more than 300,000 customers, ranging from giants of aerospace and defense to hobbyists working on their cars. You ship SendCutSend a computer file of what you want built, and it often arrives at your house or factory the next day.
Jim Belosic started the company because he always had hardware side projects running in the background and wanted something like SendCutSend to exist. He spent $750,000 on his first metal cutting machine and then soon discovered that there were lots of other people like him who also wanted something like SendCutSend to exist.
The company has since evolved into one of the few homegrown options that can compete with China in terms of getting metal parts to customers quickly and at a reasonable price.
SendCutSend had been flying under the radar of the wider public for years with Belosic building the business largely with his own money and some smaller investments. Recently, though, SendCutSend raised $110 million from Sequoia, Paradigm, and Stripe founders Patrick and John Collison is now valued at $1 billion.
Our interview with Jim was conducted at SendCutSend’s headquarters in Reno and covers his history, the company’s history and the state of manufacturing in the U.S.
Full Disclosure: SendCutSend is a sponsor of the Core Memory podcast. This interview, for what it’s worth, took place before the company came on as a sponsor when my brain and soul were still objective.
Jim and I subsequently found a lot of overlap in what we care about and how we go about things. Our readers and viewers will know that we’re rather into folks who make things, and so is SendCutSend, so it’s quite the natural fit.
OUR SPONSORS
SendCutSend
Do you make stuff? Do you need metal parts fast and believe in truth and justice? Then head on over to SendCutSend where you’ll get a 15 percent discount thanks to Core Memory on whatever you’re trying to build. We believe in you.
Brex
The Core Memory podcast is also sponsored by Brex, the intelligent finance platform built to help companies spend smarter and move faster.
Did we go to Texas, find a telescope ranch and then obtain an entire nebula in Brex’s honor? Oh yes, we did.
We run on Brex and so should you. Learn more about Brex right here.
Timestamps (Links head to YouTube)
00:00 Intro
04:09 What Does SendCutSend Actually Do?
06:01 The Black Market for One-Off Parts
08:31 The $750,000 Bet That Started It All
11:22 From Facebook Software to Cutting Metal
18:02 What on Earth Is a Teslonda?
24:31 The One Thing Nobody Else Tried
30:28 300,000 Customers, From Rockets to His Mom
35:23 Is Reindustrializing America Just Theater?
42:20 Why “Software First” Is a VC Trap
50:22 Is U.S. Manufacturing Stronger Than We Think?
1:03:42 Anodizing, Nevada, and What They Can Build Now
1:13:29 The One Competitor That Scares Him
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribeBody Scanners, Banned Models, and DeepMind's Space Game Obsession - EP 78 Ashlee Vance And Kylie Robison
Did Kylie and I attend the Midjourney Scanner event? Yes, we did. Did Kylie compare notes on her skincare routine with Bryan Johnson at the event? Also, yes. Meanwhile, I formed more wrinkles by downing …
Show notes
Did Kylie and I attend the Midjourney Scanner event? Yes, we did. Did Kylie compare notes on her skincare routine with Bryan Johnson at the event? Also, yes. Meanwhile, I formed more wrinkles by downing cocktails while all this happened.
Since the Midjourney pivot into medical devices and health spas is all the rage, we had no choice but to dive right in on this week’s episode. We also explored the government’s ban of Anthropic’s latest model, the odd tie-up between DeepMind and Eve Online, Noam Shazeer leaving Google for OpenAI, Snapchat’s Snapcrap glasses, the Rafael Nadal documentary (naturally) and a robot that kills fish in the name of better sushi.
Come get it.
OUR SPONSORS
SendCutSend
Do you make stuff? Do you need metal parts fast and believe in truth and justice? Then head on over to SendCutSend where you’ll get a 15 percent discount thanks to Core Memory on whatever you’re trying to build. We believe in you.
Brex
The Core Memory podcast is also sponsored by Brex, the intelligent finance platform built to help companies spend smarter and move faster.
Did we go to Texas, find a telescope ranch and then obtain an entire nebula in Brex’s honor? Oh yes, we did.
We run on Brex and so should you. Learn more about Brex right here.
Timestamps (links go to the YouTube channel)
0:00 Intro0:38 Inside Midjourney's Secret MRI Machine15:42 What Does Brian Johnson's Skin Really Look Like?21:14 The First AI Model America Ever Banned36:26 Why Is DeepMind Obsessed With a 20-Year-Old Space Game?45:47 The Transformer Inventor Just Switched Sides49:36 Whatever Happened to "Scaling Hit a Wall"?52:26 Who on Earth Is Buying $2,200 Smart Glasses?1:00:34 Dating in San Francisco, COVID Shots, and the World Cup1:05:32 The Time Ashlee Nearly Pocketed Rafael Nadal's Racket1:16:21 A Robot That Kills Fish the Japanese Way1:19:31 Is Ashlee Turning Republican? Plus Where Batteries Go to Die
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribeThe Future Of Our Brains And Bodies - EP 77 Max Hodak Live Event
Max Hodak is back.The co-founder and CEO of Science Corp. joined me for our first-ever live podcast recording, which took place at the Brex headquarters in San Francisco. Thanks so much to all the Core Memory …
Show notes
Max Hodak is back.
The co-founder and CEO of Science Corp. joined me for our first-ever live podcast recording, which took place at the Brex headquarters in San Francisco. Thanks so much to all the Core Memory subscribers who turned up.
Max walked us through Science’s technology aimed at restoring vision in the blind, and the company’s new product lines focused on organ transplants and extending the abilities of brains. So, like, totally normal, everyday stuff.
Mostly, we talked about the merger of humans and machines and the progression of bio-tech and AI technology.
We’ve had Max on the show twice now because, for our money, he’s one of the most daring minds in the neuroscience and bio-tech fields, and there’s a decent chance that Science becomes one of the most fascinating companies in the world.
Thanks, of course, to Brex for hosting this event and to you guys for all the great questions.
The Core Memory podcast is on all major platforms and on our YouTube channel over here. If you like the show, please leave a review and tell your friends.
Timestamps
0:00 Intro4:23 One Company or Three? Inside Science's Real Master Plan6:25 Why Is Humanity So Bad at Curing Disease?9:12 Implants That "Work" But Don't: Miracle or Mirage?13:34 Restoring Sight to the Blind: How PRIMA Really Works22:34 The BCI Gold Rush and the Money Problem No One Talks About31:44 Keeping Human Organs Alive Outside the Body36:52 Artificial Wombs and Bodies Grown Without a Brain?41:23 Audience Q&A: Is the AI Biotech Boom Actually Real?47:53 The Bet Every Other Bionic Eye Company Missed56:02 Can a Brain Implant Make Us Superhuman?1:05:04 What Will Surprise Us Most by 2035?
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribeThe Space Race Is So Back — EP 76 Ashlee Vance And Kylie Robison
The theme for this week’s episode is tick, tick, boom.America is running out of time to catch up with China on manufacturing, and we’re physically incapable of spending an hour together without bringing it up …
Show notes
The theme for this week’s episode is tick, tick, boom.
America is running out of time to catch up with China on manufacturing, and we’re physically incapable of spending an hour together without bringing it up. Release the glorious machines please!! We also go behind the scenes on Kylie’s reporting on motors and actuators — the unglamorous parts that sit in every joint of a humanoid robot, account for roughly 60% of what that robot costs to build, and come almost entirely from China. Her piece profiles the two startups trying to change that. Plus a new proposed bill out of Congress that would kick Unitree’s robot doggies to the curb.
Then the rockets send Ashlee off on his space tangents. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin had an expensive mishap recently when an explosion took out the rocket, its launch pad, and possibly America’s dreams of beating China back to the moon. Ashlee walks through why a pad explosion can be a near-death moment for a rocket company, and why SpaceX — now flying roughly every two days while everyone else is grounded or behind — increasingly just wins by default. Plus the new Starfall capsule, SpaceX’s move into making medicine and maybe chips in orbit, and the wild logic behind a $1.77 trillion IPO.
We also got into the media drama consuming our X timeline: the firing of Scott Pelley from 60 Minutes. Ashlee tweeted an opinion, the trolls came for him hard, and he pleads his case here. We’re a little biased since, well, we’re off building this whole new-media thing ourselves. Will there still be a ticking clock and a man in a suit raking in views twenty years from now? Tune in for what we think, and leave your hot take in the comments.
The Core Memory podcast is on all major platforms and on our YouTube channel over here. If you like the show, please leave a review and tell your friends.
(Ed. Kylie - Don’t think I forgot to make you a playlist. “Lazy Eye” and “New Slang” were key to my college experience. I first crushed on Rivers Cuomo thanks to “Perfect Situation.” Listen to it here, and don’t forget to leave a comment to win tickets to their tour).
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Timestamps
* 00:00:00 – Intro
* 00:02:05 – The American Actuator Crisis
* 00:06:51 – WestMag vs. Atlas Motion Systems
* 00:14:21 – Uncle Sam Pays Attention
* 00:16:47 – Chinese Robot Ban
* 00:21:16 – A Robot in Every Home
* 00:24:29 – Are You AGI-pilled Yet?
* 00:27:23 – Shoutout to Micayla Sortland
* 00:31:01 – Blue Origin’s Explosive Launch
* 00:42:52 – Low Earth Orbit Drugs
* 00:49:42 – The Two-Trillion-Dollar Elon Bet
* 00:57:07 – Founders Fund’s Viral “Mafia” Game Night
* 01:01:23 – Ashlee Braves His Notifications
* 01:06:12 – Legacy Media vs. The World
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribeRedwood Materials Has Built A Recyling Empire
A couple of months ago, we went out to Nevada to hang with JB Straubel, the founder and CEO of Redwood Materials and the co-founder of Tesla. JB took us on a tour of Redwood’s massive battery recycling …
Show notes
A couple of months ago, we went out to Nevada to hang with JB Straubel, the founder and CEO of Redwood Materials and the co-founder of Tesla. JB took us on a tour of Redwood’s massive battery recycling operations and showed us the company’s next chapter, which centers on building battery and solar farms to power AI data centers.
The result of our time with JB is a different style of podcast episode. You’ll probably want to consume this on the Substack, Spotify or YouTube where there’s video, and you can see what’s happening.
If you’re not familiar with Redwood, well, it’s up to big things. Around 70 percent of all the lithium-ion batteries that have reached their end of life make their way to Redwood’s facility where they’re then broken down into their base elements, including lithium, cobalt and nickel. Redwood stands as the largest cobalt producer in the United States and does this all from recycling. As in, zero mining.
Redwood is now taking car batteries that still have some life left in them and clustering them together alongside solar panels to create giant energy storage systems. Naturally, it’s aiming these systems at the AI set first, offering power that does not depend on the grid or turbines or anything else in short supply and high demand.
In this episode, we go through Redwood’s entire recycling process and check out its first storage system. Along the way, we chat with JB about Redwood’s history and the recycling business. It’s a banger.
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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribeCan You Reverse Decades of Drinking Damage? Perhaps. - EP 75 Jacob Kimmel Is Back
Jacob Kimmel returns to the show. And he might have cured the hangover and liver disease. NBD.Kimmel is the co-founder and president of NewLimit and one of the deepest thinkers in the longevity field. His …
Show notes
Jacob Kimmel returns to the show. And he might have cured the hangover and liver disease. NBD.
Kimmel is the co-founder and president of NewLimit and one of the deepest thinkers in the longevity field. His company has been working to reverse the aging process in the body and has seen some stunning results with a new therapy that undoes liver damage in mice. We’re talking old mice that shrug off the effects of too much booze as if they were teenagers and that exhibit recoveries from long-term alcohol abuse.
The results have been good enough to help NewLimit raise another $435 million from the likes of Founders Fund and Thrive Capital. They’re also good enough to have NewLimit kick off a human trial of the therapy next year. And I’ll drink to that.
We discuss all of this on the podcast and then go much deeper on the longevity field, bio-tech and the collision of AI and biology.
The Core Memory podcast is on all major platforms and on our YouTube channel over here. If you like the show, please leave a review and tell your friends.
OUR SPONSORS
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Do you make stuff? Do you need metal parts fast and believe in truth and justice? Then head on over to SendCutSend where you’ll get a 15 percent discount thanks to Core Memory on whatever you’re trying to build. We believe in you.
Brex
The Core Memory podcast is also sponsored by Brex, the intelligent finance platform built to help companies spend smarter and move faster.
Did we go to Texas, find a telescope ranch and then obtain an entire nebula in Brex’s honor? Oh yes, we did.
We run on Brex and so should you. Learn more about Brex right here.
Timestamps
0:0) Intro3:50 What Is Epigenetic Reprogramming?7:16 Growing a Whole Animal From One Old Cell13:06 Meet Ambrosia, the AI Hunting for Youth22:44 $435 Million and the Race to Human Trials29:26 The Drunk Mice That Skip the Hangover36:48 Inside the First Human Trial43:14 Will There Ever Be a Hangover Pen?49:39 Beyond the Liver: The Delivery Problem1:03:27 Answering the Skeptics1:12:42 Will OpenAI Become a Drug Company?1:23:53 The Health Story Bigger Than AI?1:35:00 How Far Behind Is the US vs China?1:53:10 Can We Build Computers From Neurons?
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribeThe Startup Trying to Save Us From AI Bioweapons- EP 74 Hannu Rajaniemi
Our guest this week is the renowned science fiction author Hannu Rajaniemi. And he has come to terrify and then perhaps comfort you.Rajaniemi made an immediate name for himself in literary circles with his …
Show notes
Our guest this week is the renowned science fiction author Hannu Rajaniemi. And he has come to terrify and then perhaps comfort you.
Rajaniemi made an immediate name for himself in literary circles with his debut novel The Quantum Thief. He’s since written a string of novels that explore the directions technology might take in the future, and his work always stands out for its creativity and imagination.
These days, Rajaniemi is putting those skills to very practical use at Red Queen Bio. The company appeared near the end of last year with a focus on AI biosecurity. Red Queen’s main objective is to try and outthink and outflank bad actors and/or AI systems run amok that might unleash bioweapons onto the world. As such, Red Queen must concoct all sorts of dark scenarios and then come up with ways to undercut and defeat them.
Rajaniemi has a background in mathematics, physics and bio-tech and possesses one of those fast-twitch minds that makes the rest of us envious. We talked about his life and career and, obviously, the wild reality we now inhabit.
The Core Memory podcast is on all major platforms and on our YouTube channel over here. If you like the show, please leave a review and tell your friends.
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Do you make stuff? Do you need metal parts fast and believe in truth and justice? Then head on over to SendCutSend where you’ll get a 15 percent discount thanks to Core Memory on whatever you’re trying to build. We believe in you.
Brex
The Core Memory podcast is also sponsored by Brex, the intelligent finance platform built to help companies spend smarter and move faster.
Did we go to Texas, find a telescope ranch and then obtain an entire nebula in Brex’s honor? Oh yes, we did.
We run on Brex and so should you. Learn more about Brex right here.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribeSchmidt Out of Luck — EP 73 Ashlee Vance And Kylie Robison
We are back with another episode of Ashlee and Kylie gossiping about the latest in Silicon Valley.First, a re-cap of our Alexandr Wang interview — his first real sit-down in eleven months — and what it actually …
Show notes
We are back with another episode of Ashlee and Kylie gossiping about the latest in Silicon Valley.
First, a re-cap of our Alexandr Wang interview — his first real sit-down in eleven months — and what it actually revealed about Meta’s AI play. Wang seemed nervous hashing out the strategy in the studio, and we both keep circling the same puzzle: Meta has endless compute and top talent in Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross, so why does the model still feel underwhelming?
We get into Eric Schmidt getting booed off a commencement stage at the University of Arizona, which becomes a longer conversation about the generational fury aimed at AI. Everyone Kylie’s age seems to hate it, but is it due to misinformation or legitimate anger about jobs and data centers? Ashlee admits he’s more confused by this moment than anything he’s covered in tech: the predicted Wall Street collapse hasn’t come, the models keep getting better, and the valuations still make no sense.
Then, the news that broke minutes before we hit record: OpenAI won the Musk lawsuit on statute-of-limitations grounds. We dig into whether OpenAI’s shift from open-source nonprofit to for-profit was an original sin or just the only way to pay for the compute. Also, Ashlee’s texts with Sam Altman being part of discovery?!
In more Musk news, Bloomberg reported that Musk’s xAI stiffed staff on the $420 they were promised for feeding their tax returns into Grok. One host would decidedly not trust a chatbot with their financials, and the other already has. We also get into the strange new bedfellows: SpaceX selling compute to Anthropic, a company Musk has long been philosophically against.
We even take you behind the scenes at Core Memory — so study up and watch our latest videos on Phantom Neuro and Starfront Observatories. Consider this your homework on mind-controlled arms and galaxy photography. Essay due on our desk by morning.
Don’t forget you could win tickets to the Weezer tour by leaving an amazing review for our podcast wherever you listen.
The Core Memory podcast is on all major platforms and on our YouTube channel over here. If you like the show, please leave a review and tell your friends.
OUR SPONSORS
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Do you make stuff? Do you need metal parts fast and believe in truth and justice? Then head on over to SendCutSend where you’ll get a 15 percent discount thanks to Core Memory on whatever you’re trying to build. We believe in you.
Brex
The Core Memory podcast is also sponsored by Brex, the intelligent finance platform built to help companies spend smarter and move faster.
Did we go to Texas, find a telescope ranch and then obtain an entire nebula in Brex’s honor? Oh yes, we did.
We run on Brex and so should you. Learn more about Brex right here.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribeThe Freshman Who Took Down Stanford's President And Its Perfect Image - EP 72 Theo Baker
As a freshman, Theo Baker signed up to write for The Stanford Daily on a lark. He thought it might be a fun way to spend some time when he wasn’t busy studying and coding. But then, he turned out to be quite …
Show notes
As a freshman, Theo Baker signed up to write for The Stanford Daily on a lark. He thought it might be a fun way to spend some time when he wasn’t busy studying and coding. But then, he turned out to be quite good at reporting and tips started coming his way. One of these tips included information suggesting that there were inconsistencies and perhaps massive errors in past scientific papers tied to Stanford’s then-president Marc Tessier-Lavigne.
Despite warnings to stay away from the story, Baker pursued it and produced a string of pieces that did, in fact, show a long history of shoddy research publications linked to Tessier-Lavigne. The mighty Stanford president, who had been a towering force in the scientific community, resigned by the end of Baker’s freshman year.
Baker has now written a book about his experience and joined the podcast to discuss it.
How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University is three things: a rollicking account of Baker’s takedown of Tessier-Lavigne, an indictment of the start-up-obsessed culture Stanford has fostered, and something of a memoir, describing what it’s like to endure one of the more unusual freshman years any student will ever have.
The bulk of the book focuses on Stanford and what it has become, which is a meat market of young, brilliant minds being wooed by the venture capitalists seeking to acquire their talents. There are investors paying students tens of thousands of dollars for connections to other students and inviting the kids to their mansions and sex parties. All very wholesome stuff.
The book is fantastic. Baker is a rare talent. We had a wonderful conversation. You will enjoy it.
The Core Memory podcast is on all major platforms and on our YouTube channel over here. If you like the show, please leave a review and tell your friends.
OUR SPONSORS
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Do you make stuff? Do you need metal parts fast and believe in truth and justice? Then head on over to SendCutSend where you’ll get a 15 percent discount thanks to Core Memory on whatever you’re trying to build. We believe in you.
Brex
The Core Memory podcast is also sponsored by Brex, the intelligent finance platform built to help companies spend smarter and move faster.
Did we go to Texas, find a telescope ranch and then obtain an entire nebula in Brex’s honor? Oh yes, we did.
We run on Brex and so should you. Learn more about Brex right here.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribeMeta's AI Chief On AI Beef, New Models And Life With Zuck - EP 71 Alex Wang
Last June, Meta pried Alex Wang away from Scale AI, the company he co-founded and ran, in a deal valued at $14 billion. Zuck could feel Meta fading in the AI race and decided that Wang was the rescue plan. He …
Show notes
Last June, Meta pried Alex Wang away from Scale AI, the company he co-founded and ran, in a deal valued at $14 billion. Zuck could feel Meta fading in the AI race and decided that Wang was the rescue plan. He would work full-time at Meta, assemble a super team and hopefully make the company more competitive against the likes of OpenAI, Anthropic and Alphabet.
Wang has basically been in hiding ever since. He moved from San Francisco to the South Bay to be closer to Meta’s headquarters and has been working non-stop. Last month, the world saw the first fruits of the revitalized AI effort in the form of Meta’s new Muse Spark model. And now Wang is speaking for the first time about the model, Meta’s grand AI ambitions and all the happenings over the last year in an exclusive interview here on the Core Memory podcast.
Wang arrived at our studio sporting a mullet and a powerful whitetail deer camouflage shirt. He was in good spirits and tried his best to convince us that Meta can catch up to its rivals.
We hit on his personal beef with Sam Altman, Zuck delivering soup to AI recruits, the incredible pay packages Meta has been handing out, the vast amount of work Meta still has to do and the Meta AI hierarchy that includes all-stars like Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross and Shengjia Zhao, who seems to have blocked me on X for reasons I know nothing about.
The Core Memory podcast is on all major platforms and on our YouTube channel over here. If you like the show, please leave a review and tell your friends.
Enjoy!
Do you make stuff? Do you need metal parts fast and believe in truth and justice? Then head on over to SendCutSend where you’ll get a 15 percent discount thanks to Core Memory on whatever you’re trying to build. We believe in you.
The Core Memory podcast is also sponsored by Brex, the intelligent finance platform built to help companies spend smarter and move faster.
Did we go to Texas, find a telescope ranch and then obtain an entire nebula in Brex’s honor? Oh yes, we did.
We run on Brex and so should you. Learn more about Brex right here.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribeEverything You Need To Know About The Nuclear Energy Boom - EP 70 James Krellenstein
We’re in the midst of a new nuclear energy boom. Start-ups – both fusion and fission – abound, and the U.S. government has cleared the way to build again. Meanwhile, China is racing ahead with nuclear plans …
Show notes
We’re in the midst of a new nuclear energy boom. Start-ups – both fusion and fission – abound, and the U.S. government has cleared the way to build again. Meanwhile, China is racing ahead with nuclear plans that dwarf those of the rest of the world combined.
As with any boom cycle, there is a lot of hype and a lot to understand if you want to get a handle on what’s real and what’s not. And so, we brought James Krellenstein onto the podcast. He’s the co-founder and CEO of Alva Energy and he’s sort of frightening in how much he knows about the nuclear industry. Like, really. You’ll see.
This episode runs long because we wanted to use it as a chance to go through the past few decades of history and really explain why the U.S. nuclear industry slowed and how the U.S. might fix the situation. We also wanted to explain how all these new technologies work and, of course, explore where China is heading.
Krellenstein is something of a contrarian and thinks many of the U.S. nuclear start-ups are misguided in their approach.
He’s also incredible to listen to. You will enjoy this one. I think it’s one of the best episodes we’ve ever done.
The Core Memory podcast is on all major platforms and on our YouTube channel over here. If you enjoy the show, please leave a review and tell your friends.
This podcast is sponsored by Brex, the intelligent finance platform built to help companies spend smarter and move faster.
We run on Brex and so should you. Learn more about Brex right here.
We’ve also brought on a new sponsor. Welcome, SendCutSend!! They are an American manufacturing powerhouse and will help you make your metal parts with speed and skill. Core Memory subscribers can get a 15 percent discount on their next parts right here.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribeThe Cyborgs Commeth - EP 69 Connor Glass
It is time to talk about robotic body parts.Connor Glass, this week’s guest, has a company called Phantom Neuro, and it makes a human machine interface. By this, we mean a computing device that gets implanted …
Show notes
It is time to talk about robotic body parts.
Connor Glass, this week’s guest, has a company called Phantom Neuro, and it makes a human machine interface. By this, we mean a computing device that gets implanted in your body and lets you control a robotic limb with your mind.
The first people using this technology are amputees. If, for example, you’ve lost your arm, you can get outfitted with a robotic prosthetic coupled with Phantom’s implant and then make your prosthetic move by thinking about what you’d like to do with it.
Phantom’s technology competes in places with implants from the likes of Neuralink and Synchron. The big difference is that nothing needs to be implanted in the patient’s brain. Phantom’s implant goes near the site of the amputation and links the robotic prosthetic with motor neurons to convey signals back and forth from the brain. It’s a simpler, faster surgery.
Where this technology is heading in the future is another story. Glass can see a day when humans have elective amputations to become, well, cyborgs.
We get into this weird and possibly wonderful future on the episode, along with Glass’s backstory and much more detail on how Phantom’s implant works.
The Core Memory podcast is on all major platforms and on our YouTube channel over here. If you enjoy the show, please leave a review and tell your friends.
This podcast is sponsored by Brex, the intelligent finance platform built to help companies spend smarter and move faster.
We run on Brex and so should you. Learn more about Brex right here.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribe
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