Podcast appearances and mentions of Jim Fruchterman

2512 Benetech Celebrates 25 Years of Making Books Accessible for Everyone (Mar. 19, 2025) Show Notes Benetech's work has transformed how people with disabilities access information. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with founder Jim Fruchterman and CEO Ayan Kishore about the evolution of Bookshare, the use of AI in accessibility, the Global Certified Accessible … Continue reading 2512 Benetech Celebrates 25 Years of Making Books Accessible for Everyone (Mar. 19, 2025) →

The following is a conversation between Jim Fruchterman, CEO of Tech Matters, and Denver Frederick, the Host of The Business of Giving.   Denver: There are many tech people who want to do good for the world, and Tech Matters is the organization that builds the bridges they need to do the most good. The organization helps social change leaders understand what tech can and can't do, and builds the tech solutions behind solving a social problem. And here to tell us more about this work is Jim Fruchterman, the founder and CEO of Tech Matters.

Technology is emerging as a crucial lever for climate action. However, there is also an urgent need to discuss its consequences. Is adopting tech truly the only low carbon answer or just a more profitable one? And who gets to control it? The big tech companies or the communities facing the devastating consequences of climate change on the ground? Jim Fruchterman, Founder and CEO of Tech Matters, and Trisha Ray, Deputy Director, Centre for Security, Strategy and Technology at Observer Research Foundation, explore the growing and sometimes unforeseeable impacts of tech on climate change. Host: Smarinita Shetty; Produced and edited by: Rachita Vora, Shreya Adhikari, and Smarinita Shetty. IDR is an online journal that publishes cutting-edge ideas, lessons and insights, written by, and for the people working on some of India's toughest problems. For more information, visit www.idronline.org, or follow IDR on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and Instagram. This podcast is a Maed in India production.Donate: https://idronline.org/donate/

Jim Fruchterman, Benetech's founder, was an engineering student at Caltech when he learned how pattern recognition technology could guide a missile to its target. “If you could use this technology to recognize tanks or bridges,” Jim thought, “perhaps you could also recognize letters and words. Then we could use software to read those words aloud to people who are blind.”

Jim Fruchterman is a leading social entrepreneur, a MacArthur Fellow, a recipient of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, and a Distinguished Alumnus of Caltech. Jim believes that technology has the power to improve—even transform—the lives of people around the world. As Founder and CEO of Benetech, he focused on bringing Silicon Valley’s technology innovations to all of humanity, not just the richest five percent. He is a former rocket engineer who also founded two successful for-profit technology companies. Under Jim’s leadership, Benetech created and scaled multiple software for social good enterprises spanning education, human rights, and environmental conservation. Jim has recently founded a new nonprofit, Tech Matters, to provide strategic technology services that maximize impact, not profit. Jim is active on Twitter as @JimFruchterman As with all of our episodes, this one also is accompanied by a transcript so that everyone can enjoy it. Click here to read a transcript of Episode 6.

Joyce welcomes Jim Fruchterman a leading social entrepreneur, MacArthur Fellow and CEO of Benetech, a nonprofit technology company based in Silicon Valley, which creates e-books and other technology innovations for people with disabilities. He will explain the mission of this organization in-depth.

How do we crack a problem that has existed for decades? Jobs in science, technology, engineering & mathematics (STEM) jobs are projected to grow 17 percent between 2014 and 2024; non-STEM jobs are expected to rise only 12 percent. Even so, minorities, women and people with disabilities are still severely underrepresented in STEM-related fields. And if innovation springs from looking at problems from a very different perspective, then coaxing people who bring diverse perspectives should become a national imperative. As part of Silicon Valley’s Commonwealth Club discussion series, EdSurge CEO and co-founder Betsy Corcoran spoke with three MacArthur Fellows actively involved in helping people from underrepresented populations enter and thrive in STEM careers. Deborah Bial, founder of the Posse Foundation, Jim Fruchterman, founder of Benetech and Dr. Manu Prakash, a physical biologist from Stanford University, bring powerful—and different—perspectives on how to over barriers so many confront when pursuing careers in STEM.

Welcome to Leading Good, the podcast for leaders of social impact brands, social enterprise and nonprofits. Each episode is hosted by Leading Good co-creators, Rod Arnold & Hugh Weber, and features a leading voice in the social good sector. This episode is part of the Social Enterprise Alliance Series, a partnership with the key catalyst for the rapidly growing social enterprise movement. In this episode, Rod Arnold hosts Jim Fruchterman. Jim is Founder and CEO of Benetech, which was founded to be a different kind of tech company—a nonprofit—with a pure focus on developing technology for social good. But they also pride themselves on being a different kind of nonprofit—one with an approach that draws its inspiration from successful Silicon Valley businesses. To learn more, visit LeadingGood.com

1741 Together Again – Leaders Who Made a Difference (part 2 of 2) (Oct. 4, 2017) Show Notes Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey continue the conversation with three leaders in the field of assistive technology: Deane Blazie, Jim Fruchterman, and Ted Henter. They made pioneering contributions to the development of refreshable Braille displays, OCR, and … Continue reading 1741 Together Again – Leaders Who Made a Difference (part 2 of 2) →

1740 Together Again – Leaders Who Made a Difference (part 1 of 2) (Sep. 27, 2017) Show Notes This week hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey bring together three leaders in the field of assistive technology: Deane Blazie, Jim Fruchterman, and Ted Henter. They made pioneering contributions to the development of refreshable Braille displays, OCR, and … Continue reading 1740 Together Again – Leaders Who Made a Difference (part 1 of 2) (Sep. 27, 2017) →

1724 Encore of 1517 Jim Fruchterman – Social Entrepreneur (Jun. 7, 2017) Show Notes Jim Fruchterman is the founder and CEO of Benetech, which operates Bookshare, an accessible online library of e-books in audio, Braille, large font and other formats for people with print disabilities. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with him about how … Continue reading 1724 Encore of 1517 Jim Fruchterman – Social Entrepreneur (Jun. 7, 2017) →

Leading for-profit companies thrive by embracing data insights to drive increased efficiency, effectiveness, and scale. They view information and analytics as core strategic assets in running a modern business. In this talk from our 2017 Do Good Data | Data on Purpose conference, Jim Fruchterman, founder and CEO of the tech nonprofit Benetech, argues that the social sector must follow these companies’ lead. Drawing from his 2016 SSIR article “Using Data for Action and for Impact,” Fruchterman leads a discussion about how nonprofits can embrace the “Software for Good” movement characterized by data-driven decisions to better serve communities. https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/software_for_good_empowering_the_social_sector_data_revolution

Joining us today on the podcast is Brad Turner, Vice President of Global Literacy for Benetech, and Deborah Backus of All Children Reading. They talk about helping children with disabilities appreciate books and reading with a book distribution program that places books in Braille, audio, and mixed formats in the hands of children who need them. “Access to information is a basic human right,” Jim Fruchterman, Founder and CEO of Benetech has said.

1518 Global Reach of Benetech and Bookshare (Apr. 29, 2015) Show Notes Last week, hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talked with Jim Fruchterman, the founder and CEO of Benetech about his early work in OCR and starting Bookshare. This week we talk with him about Bookshare’s global reach and how it has helped to influence … Continue reading 1518 Global Reach of Benetech and Bookshare (Apr. 29, 2015) →

1517 Jim Fruchterman – Social Entrepreneur (Apr. 22, 2015) Show Notes Jim Fruchterman is the founder and CEO of Benetech, which operates Bookshare. This week hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with him about how he became interested in OCR, the founding of Arkenstone, and the inspiration behind Bookshare. Next week we speak more with … Continue reading 1517 Jim Fruchterman – Social Entrepreneur (Apr. 22, 2015) →

Aired: 03/24/13 This week I'm joined by RON SCHULTZ, editor of a new book, CREATING GOOD WORK, that brings together essays by social entrepreneurs that share their experiences as well as their insights and advice for others. Ron has invited a few of his book's contributors (PAUL HERMAN, founder/CEO, HIP Investor Inc; JIM FRUCHTERMAN, founder/CEO Benetech; CARRIE FREEMAN, Second Muse; formerly Intel) to join us, and I want to tap each person's individual story while asking some of these bigger questions -- What is a social entrepreneur? What's working in the field? Why is it working? What is the larger goal or vision? Why is social entrepreneurship important? What are the big challenges? What lessons have they learned? Where can listeners learn more? I hope someone new to the concept will understand what we're talking about and a knowledgeable listener will learn things they can put to use.

Harnessing engineering innovation and technology to further social causes is one path to social enterprise. In this university podcast, sponsored by Stanford's Center for Social Innovation, former rocket scientist Jim Fruchterman talks about how he created Benetech, an organization that uses technology innovation and business expertise to solve unmet social needs. He discusses how he has leveraged the intellectual capital and resources of Silicon Valley to create solutions that are truly life changing. https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/jim_fruchterman_-_harnessing_technology_for_social_enterprise

A talk show on KZSU-FM, Stanford, 90.1 FM, hosted by Center for Internet & Society Resident Fellow David S. Levine. The show includes guests and focuses on the intersection of technology and society. How is our world impacted by the great technological changes taking place? Each week, a different sphere is explored. This week, David interviews Jim Fruchterman, CEO of Benetech. For more information, please go to http://hearsayculture.com.