Podcasts about Sidewalk Labs

Hello Interactors,I was in Santa Barbara recently having dinner on a friend's deck when a rocket's contrail streaked the sky. “Another one from Vandenberg,” he said. “Wait a couple minutes — you'll hear it.” And we did. “They've gotten really annoying,” he added. He's not wrong. In early 2024, SpaceX launched seven times more tonnage into space than the rest of the world combined, much of it from Vandenberg Space Force Base (renamed from Air Force Base in 2021). They've already been approved to fly 12,000 Starlink satellites, with filings for 30,000 more.This isn't just future space junk — it's infrastructure. And it's not just in orbit. What Musk is doing in the sky is tied to what he's building on the ground. Not in Vandenberg, where regulation still exists, but in Starbase, Texas, where the law doesn't resist — it assists. There, Musk is testing how much sovereignty one man can claim under the banner of “innovation” — and how little we'll do to stop him.TOWNS TO THRUST AND THRONEMusk isn't just defying gravity — he's defying law. In South Texas, a place called Starbase has taken shape along the Gulf Coast, hugging the edge of SpaceX's rocket launch site. What looks like a town is really something else: a launchpad not just for spacecraft, but for a new form of privatized sovereignty.VIDEO: Time compresses at the edge of Starbase: a slow-built frontier where launch infrastructure rises faster than oversight. Source: Google EarthThis isn't unprecedented. The United States has a long lineage of company towns — places where corporations controlled land, housing, labor, and local government. Pullman, Illinois is the most famous. But while labor historians and economic geographers have documented their economic and social impact, few have examined them as legal structures of power.That's the gap legal scholar Brian Highsmith identifies in Governing the Company Town. That omission matters — because these places aren't just undemocratic. They often function as quasi-sovereign legal shells, designed to serve capital, not people.Incorporation is the trick. In Texas, any area with at least 201 residents can petition to become a general-law municipality. That's exactly what Musk has done. In a recent vote (212 to 6) residents approved the creation of an official town — Starbase. Most of those residents are SpaceX employees living on company-owned land…with a Tesla in the driveway. The result is a legally recognized town, politically constructed. SpaceX controls the housing, the workforce, and now, the electorate. Even the mayor is a SpaceX affiliate. With zoning powers and taxing authority, Musk now holds tools usually reserved for public governments — and he's using them to build for rockets, not residents…unless they're employees.VIDEO: Starbase expands frame by frame, not just as a company town, but as a legal experiment — where land, labor, and law are reassembled to serve orbit over ordinance. Source: Google EarthQuinn Slobodian, a historian of neoliberalism and global capitalism, shows how powerful companies and individuals increasingly use legal tools to redesign borders and jurisdictions to their advantage. In his book, Cracked Up Capitalism, he shows how jurisdiction becomes the secret weapon of the capitalist state around the world. I wrote about a techno-optimist fantasy state on the island of Roatán, part of the Bay Islands in Honduras a couple years ago. It isn't new. Disney used the same playbook in 1967 with Florida's Reedy Creek District — deeding slivers of land to employees to meet incorporation rules, then governing without real opposition. Highsmith draws a straight line to Musk: both use municipal law not to serve the public, but to avoid it. In Texas, beach access is often blocked near Starbase — even when rockets aren't launching. A proposed bill would make ignoring an evacuation order a Class B misdemeanor, punishable by jail.Even if Starbase never fully resembles a traditional town, that's beside the point. What Musk is really revealing isn't some urban design oasis but how municipal frameworks can still be weaponized for private control. Through zoning laws, incorporation statutes, and infrastructure deals, corporations can shape legal entities that resemble cities but function more like logistical regimes.And yet, this tactic draws little sustained scrutiny. As Highsmith reminds us, legal scholarship has largely ignored how municipal tools are deployed to consolidate corporate power. That silence matters — because what looks like a sleepy launch site in Texas may be something much larger: a new form of rule disguised as infrastructure.ABOVE THE LAW, BELOW THE LANDElon Musk isn't just shaping towns — he's engineering systems. His tunnels, satellites, and rockets stretch across and beyond traditional borders. These aren't just feats of engineering. They're tools of control designed to bypass civic oversight and relocate governance into private hands. He doesn't need to overthrow the state to escape regulation. He simply builds around it…and in the case of Texas, with it.Architect and theorist Keller Easterling, whose work examines how infrastructure quietly shapes political life, argues that these systems are not just supports for power — they are power. Infrastructure itself is a kind of operating system for shaping the city, states, countries…and now space.Starlink, SpaceX's satellite constellation, provides internet access to users around the world. In Ukraine, it became a vital communications network after Russian attacks on local infrastructure. Musk enabled access — then later restricted it. He made decisions with real geopolitical consequences. No president. No Congress. Just a private executive shaping war from orbit.And it's not just Ukraine. Starlink is now active in dozens of countries, often without formal agreements from national regulators. It bypasses local telecom laws, surveillance rules, and data protections. For authoritarian regimes, that makes it dangerous. But for democracies, it raises a deeper question: who governs the sky?Right now, the answer is: no one. The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 assumes that nation-states, not corporations, are the primary actors in orbit. But Starlink functions in a legal grey zone, using low Earth orbit as a loophole in international law…aided and abetted by the U.S. defense department.VIDEO: Thousands of Starlink satellites, visualized in low Earth orbit, encircle the planet like a privatized exosphere—reshaping global communication while raising questions of governance, visibility, and control. Source: StarlinkThe result is a telecom empire without borders. Musk commands a growing share of orbital infrastructure but answers to no global regulator. The International Telecommunication Union can coordinate satellite spectrum, but it can't enforce ethical or geopolitical standards. Musk alone decides whether Starlink aids governments, rebels, or armies. As Quinn Slobodian might put it, this is exception-making on a planetary scale.Now let's go underground. The Boring Company digs high-speed tunnels beneath cities like Las Vegas, sidestepping standard planning processes. These projects often exclude transit agencies and ignore public engagement. They're built for select users, not the public at large. Local governments, eager for tech-driven investment, offer permits and partnerships — even if it means circumventing democratic procedures.Taken together — Starlink above, Boring Company below, Tesla charging networks on the ground — Musk's empire moves through multiple layers of infrastructure, each reshaping civic life without formal accountability. His systems carry people, data, and energy — but not through the public channels meant to regulate them. They're not overseen by voters. They're not authorized by democratic mandate. Yet they profoundly shape how people move, communicate, and live.Geographer Deborah Cowen, whose research focuses on the global logistics industry, argues that infrastructure like ports, fiber-optic cables, and pipelines have become tools of geopolitical strategy. Logistics as a form of war by other means. Brian Highsmith argues this is a form of “functional fragmentation” — breaking governance into layers and loopholes that allow corporations to sidestep collective control. These aren't mere workarounds. They signal a deeper shift in how power is organized — not just across space, but through it.This kind of sovereignty is easy to miss because it doesn't always resemble government. But when a private actor controls transit systems, communication networks, and even military connectivity — across borders, beneath cities, and in orbit — we're not just dealing with infrastructure. We're dealing with rule.And, just like with company towns, the legal scholarship is struggling to catch up. These layered, mobile, and non-territorial regimes challenge our categories of law and space alike. What these fantastical projects inspire is often awe. But what they should require is law.AMNESIA AIDS THE AMBITIOUSElon Musk may dazzle with dreams full-blown, but the roots of his power are not his own. The United States has a long tradition of private actors ruling like governments — with public blessing. These aren't outliers. They're part of a national pattern, deeply embedded in our legal geography: public authority outsourced to private ambition.The details vary, but the logic repeats. Whether it's early colonial charters, speculative land empires, company towns, or special districts carved for tech campuses, American history is full of projects where law becomes a scaffold for private sovereignty. Rather than recount every episode, let's just say from John Winthrop to George Washington to Walt Disney to Elon Musk, America has always made room for men who rule through charters, not elections.Yet despite the frequency of these arrangements, the scholarship has been oddly selective.According to Highsmith, legal academia has largely ignored the institutional architecture that makes company towns possible in the first place: incorporation laws, zoning frameworks, municipal codes, and districting rules. These aren't neutral bureaucratic instruments. They're jurisdictional design tools, capable of reshaping sovereignty at the micro-scale. And when used strategically, they can be wielded by corporations to create functional states-within-a-state — governing without elections, taxing without consent, and shaping public life through private vision.From a critical geography perspective, the problem is just as stark. Scholars have long studied the uneven production of space — how capital reshapes landscapes to serve accumulation. But here, space isn't just produced — it's governed. And it's governed through techniques of legal enclosure, where a patch of land becomes a jurisdictional exception, and a logistics hub or tech campus becomes a mini-regime.Starbase, Snailbrook, Reedy Creek, and even Google's Sidewalk Labs are not just spatial projects — they're sovereign experiments in spatial governance, where control is layered through contracts, tax breaks, and municipal proxies.But these arrangements don't arise in a vacuum. Cities often aren't choosing between public and private control — they're choosing between austerity and access to cash. In the United States, local governments are revenue-starved by design. Most lack control over income taxes or resource royalties, and depend heavily on sales taxes, property taxes, and development fees. This creates a perverse incentive: to treat corporations not as entities to regulate, but as lifelines to recruit and appease.Desperate for jobs and investment, cities offer zoning concessions, infrastructure deals, and tax abatements, even when they come with little democratic oversight or long-term guarantees. Corporate actors understand this imbalance — and exploit it. The result is a form of urban hostage-taking, where governance is bartered piecemeal in exchange for the promise of economic survival.A more democratized fiscal structure — one that empowers cities through equitable revenue-sharing, progressive taxation, or greater control over land value capture — might reduce this dependency. It would make it possible for municipalities to plan with their citizens instead of negotiating against them. It would weaken the grip of corporate actors who leverage scarcity into sovereignty. But until then, as long as cities are backed into a fiscal corner, we shouldn't be surprised when they sell off their power — one plot or parking lot at a time.Highsmith argues that these structures demand scrutiny — not just for their economic impact, but for their democratic consequences. These aren't just quirks of local law. They are the fault lines of American federalism — where localism becomes a loophole, and fragmentation becomes a formula for private rule.And yet, these systems persist with minimal legal friction and even less public awareness. Because they don't always look like sovereignty. Sometimes they look like a housing deal. A fast-tracked zoning change. A development district with deferred taxes. A campus with private shuttles and subsidized utilities. They don't announce themselves as secessions — but they function that way.We've been trained to see these projects as innovation, not governance. As entrepreneurship, not policy. But when a company owns the homes, builds the roads, controls the data, and sets the rules, it's not just offering services — it's exercising control. As political theorist Wendy Brown has argued, neoliberalism reshapes civic life around the image of the entrepreneur, replacing democratic participation with market performance.That shift plays out everywhere: universities run like corporations, cities managed like startups. Musk isn't the exception — he's the clearest expression of a culture that mistakes private ambition for public good. Musk once tweeted, “If you must know, I am a utopian anarchist of the kind best described by Iain Banks.” In a New York Times article, Jill Lepore quoted Banks as saying his science fiction books were about “'hippy commies with hyper-weapons and a deep distrust of both Marketolatry and Greedism.' He also expressed astonishment that anyone could read his books as promoting free-market libertarianism, asking, ‘Which bit of not having private property and the absence of money in the Culture novels have these people missed?'”The issue isn't just that we've allowed these takeovers — it's that we've ignored the tools enabling them: incorporation, annexation, zoning, and special districts. As Brian Highsmith notes, this quiet shift in power might not have surprised one of our constitution authors, James Madison, but it would have troubled him. In Federalist No. 10, Madison warned not of monarchs, but of factions — small, organized interests capturing government for their own ends. His solution was restraint through scaling oppositional voices. “The inference to which we are brought is, that the causes of faction cannot be removed...and that relief is only to be sought in the means of controlling its effects.”— James Madison, Federalist No. 10 (1787)Today, the structure meant to restrain factions has become their playbook. These actors don't run for office — they arrive with charters, contracts, and capital. They govern not in the name of the people, but of “efficiency” and “innovation.” And they don't need to control a nation when a zoning board will do.Unchecked, we risk mistaking corporate control for civic order — and repeating a pattern we've barely begun to name.We were told, sold, and promised a universe of shared governance — political, spatial, even orbital. But Madison didn't trust promises. He trusted structure. He feared what happens when small governments fall to powerful interests — when law becomes a lever for private gain. That fear now lives in legal districts, rocket towns, and infrastructure built to rule. Thousands of satellites orbit the Earth, not launched by publics, but by one man with tools once reserved for states. What was once called infrastructure now governs. What was once geography now obeys.Our maps may still show roads and rails and pipes and ports — but not the fictions beneath them, or the factions they support.References:Brown, W. (2015). Undoing the demos: Neoliberalism's stealth revolution. Zone Books.Cowen, D. (2014). The deadly life of logistics: Mapping violence in global trade. University of Minnesota Press.Easterling, K. (2014). Extrastatecraft: The power of infrastructure space. Verso Books.Highsmith, B. (2022). Governing the company town: How employers use local government to seize political power. Yale Law Journal.Madison, J. (1787). Federalist No. 10. In A. Hamilton, J. Madison, & J. Jay, The Federalist Papers. Bantam Books (2003 edition).Slobodian, Q. (2023). Crack-Up Capitalism: Market radicals and the dream of a world without democracy. Metropolitan Books. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit interplace.io

The New York City's Department of Parks' first Director of Data Analytics who contributed the key ingredients to the success of the city's Million Trees Research Conference and knows her way around urban forests discusses her new venture, Helpful Places, and how digital trust can be imbedded in the organization of community governments.  It's a fascinating conversation with one of the world's most sought-after speakers. Canadian-based Lu, who also discusses what she learned from her work on the highly controversial Sidewalk Labs project in Toronto tells The INTELLIGENT Community audience how it went “sideways” and what she learned Jacqueline advances technology transparency and legibility for people-centered smart(er) cities. She leads Helpful Places, a social impact enterprise advancing the adoption and stewardship of Digital Trust for Places and Routines (DTPR.io), an open-source visual language and nutrition label standard designed to increase transparency and legibility for urban technology. She is a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on Data Equity, Council for the Connected World and a working group member and contributor to the G20 Smart Cities Alliance. Jacqueline's experience spans public, private and non-profit sectors. As Data Lead at Mozilla Foundation, Jacqueline led the development and implementation of their data strategy. As Director of Digital Integration at Sidewalk Labs, she led incorporating innovation objectives, technology policy and data ethics into the company's approach to urban development projects. As the inaugural Director of Data Analytics at the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, she developed the agency's data strategy, developed the open data program and founded its first data science team. Jacqueline also spearheaded the largest participatory street tree mapping project in U.S. history, culminating in the NYC Tree Map, a digital platform for the collaborative management of NYC's urban forest.

The New York City's Department of Parks' first Director of Data Analytics who contributed the key ingredients to the success of the city's Million Trees Research Conference and knows her way around urban forests discusses her new venture, Helpful Places, and how digital trust can be imbedded in the organization of community governments.  It's a fascinating conversation with one of the world's most sought-after speakers. Canadian-based Lu, who also discusses what she learned from her work on the highly controversial Sidewalk Labs project in Toronto tells The INTELLIGENT Community audience how it went “sideways” and what she learned Jacqueline advances technology transparency and legibility for people-centered smart(er) cities. She leads Helpful Places, a social impact enterprise advancing the adoption and stewardship of Digital Trust for Places and Routines (DTPR.io), an open-source visual language and nutrition label standard designed to increase transparency and legibility for urban technology. She is a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on Data Equity, Council for the Connected World and a working group member and contributor to the G20 Smart Cities Alliance. Jacqueline's experience spans public, private and non-profit sectors. As Data Lead at Mozilla Foundation, Jacqueline led the development and implementation of their data strategy. As Director of Digital Integration at Sidewalk Labs, she led incorporating innovation objectives, technology policy and data ethics into the company's approach to urban development projects. As the inaugural Director of Data Analytics at the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, she developed the agency's data strategy, developed the open data program and founded its first data science team. Jacqueline also spearheaded the largest participatory street tree mapping project in U.S. history, culminating in the NYC Tree Map, a digital platform for the collaborative management of NYC's urban forest.

This series aims to demystify Medicaid, starting with insights from federal and state agencies, FQHCs, and managed care organizations, before exploring successful founders' strategies. Readour primers on the key players and innovations here, and stay tuned for upcoming posts featuring interviews with key opinion leaders, purchasers, and startup founders.Cityblock Health is a value-based healthcare provider focused on the complex clinical, behavioral health, and social needs of dually eligible and Medicaid recipients. Cityblock offers the only fully integrated and multi-modal solution that directly delivers clinical care to one of the most at-risk and hardest-to-reach populations. Powered by advanced technology that provides its care team with a data-driven understanding of member needs and risks, Cityblock has demonstrated industry-leading engagement, member retention, meaningful reductions in avoidable hospital readmissions, and reduced total cost of care.Founded in 2017, spun off by Sidewalk Labs, and based in New York, Cityblock has raised nearly $900M to date from investors such as SoftBank, Tiger Global, Maverick Ventures, General Catalyst, Thrive Capital and 8VC, among others. It is now valued at $5.7B. Cityblock currently serves more than 100,000 members, and partners with four national Medicaid health plans and several health systems in 15 cities across seven states.Mike's career has spanned both legal and healthcare leadership roles, starting as a commercial litigator before joining UnitedHealth Group as National Vice President of Medicaid Policy and Product. He went on to serve as CEO of UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Ohio, then as Chief Transformation Officer and President of Government Programs for Optum BH Solutions, and later as Chief Growth Officer and SVP of Growth and Product at UnitedHealth Community and State. In 2024, he joined Cityblock as President to help drive the company's next phase of growth.Mike holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame, a JD from Notre Dame Law School, and attended an Executive Education Program at Stanford Graduate School of Business.In this episode, we learn about how health plans evaluate startups, the complexities of improving access for Medicaid and dual-eligible populations, and Cityblock's innovative approach to building trust and engagement.

Michael Healey's award-winning play “The Master Plan” is a biting satire about the Sidewalk Labs fiasco in Toronto, when the Google sister company attempted to build a smart city in an underdeveloped neighbourhood on the city's waterfront. It's based on the book “Sideways: The City Google Couldn't Buy” by tech reporter Josh O'Kane, and it's now being remounted at the Soulpepper Theatre in Toronto. Michael joins Tom Power to talk about the play and the clash of Big Tech and municipal politics. Plus, he reflects on his life in theatre, from the success of “The Drawer Boy” to the controversy around “Proud,” his satirical play about Stephen Harper.

"The Master Plan" is a play about the failure to build a city of the future along Toronto's historic waterfront. This satire of the messy drama between Google's Sidewalk Labs and Waterfront Toronto is currently running at Soulpepper Theatre in Toronto's Distillery District.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Quayside development on Toronto’s waterfront was supposed to be the shining example of a tech-optimized smart city, an urban environment reinvented “from the internet up,” as it was described by Sidewalk Labs. That was a sister company to Google, which won a government bid in 2017 to modernize the 12 acres of former dockland. There would be robotaxis, heated sidewalks, adaptive traffic lights and lots of data collection. But in 2020, Sidewalk Toronto suddenly shut down before a single ribbon had been cut, turning a shining example into a cautionary tale. It’s all chronicled in a new book from Globe and Mail reporter Josh O’Kane called “Sideways: The City Google Couldn’t Buy.” Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with O’Kane about what went on behind the scenes of the Sidewalk Toronto project.

The Quayside development on Toronto’s waterfront was supposed to be the shining example of a tech-optimized smart city, an urban environment reinvented “from the internet up,” as it was described by Sidewalk Labs. That was a sister company to Google, which won a government bid in 2017 to modernize the 12 acres of former dockland. There would be robotaxis, heated sidewalks, adaptive traffic lights and lots of data collection. But in 2020, Sidewalk Toronto suddenly shut down before a single ribbon had been cut, turning a shining example into a cautionary tale. It’s all chronicled in a new book from Globe and Mail reporter Josh O’Kane called “Sideways: The City Google Couldn’t Buy.” Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with O’Kane about what went on behind the scenes of the Sidewalk Toronto project.

The Quayside development on Toronto’s waterfront was supposed to be the shining example of a tech-optimized smart city, an urban environment reinvented “from the internet up,” as it was described by Sidewalk Labs. That was a sister company to Google, which won a government bid in 2017 to modernize the 12 acres of former dockland. There would be robotaxis, heated sidewalks, adaptive traffic lights and lots of data collection. But in 2020, Sidewalk Toronto suddenly shut down before a single ribbon had been cut, turning a shining example into a cautionary tale. It’s all chronicled in a new book from Globe and Mail reporter Josh O’Kane called “Sideways: The City Google Couldn’t Buy.” Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with O’Kane about what went on behind the scenes of the Sidewalk Toronto project.

In this episode of Better Buildings for Humans, host Joe Menchefski welcomes Dean Lewis, Director of Mass Timber for the U.S. market at Skanska. Dean shares his journey from a construction-focused upbringing to leading mass timber innovations at Skanska, including his work on groundbreaking projects and involvement with Sidewalk Labs. The conversation highlights the rapid growth of mass timber, its sustainability benefits, and the industry's challenges, such as supply chain issues and code adoption. Dean discusses Skanska's approach to navigating these challenges and expanding mass timber projects across the U.S., focusing on responsibly sourced timber and the potential for reusing building materials. Joe and Dean explore why mass timber is gaining popularity among developers and architects for its biophilic and environmental qualities. Tune in for insights into the evolving world of mass timber construction and Skanska's dedication to sustainable practices that benefit communities. About Dean Lewis Dean Lewis is the Director of Mass Timber and Prefabrication at Skanska USA, a position he was hired for in March 2023. Lewis is based in Seattle and is responsible for overseeing mass timber and prefabrication projects across the United States. Before joining Skanska, Lewis was with Alphabet-funded Sidewalk Labs for two years, working on new construction technologies in the mass timber space. He has also worked for Swinerton Mass Timber (Timberlab) (2019-2021), DCI Engineers (2010-2019) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (2009-2010). During his career, Lewis has overseen multiple mass timber construction projects including office buildings, campus dorms, multi-family developments, and hotels. He has an extensive experience with design and fabrication, project management and delivery, logistics, and procurement, among other aspects of the construction process. He has also been part of published research projects within the mass timber space. Lewis graduated from Washington State University (WSU) where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and a Master of Science in Structural Engineering. At WSU, he studied under Dr. J. Daniel Dolan, P.E., a premier figure in the mass timber industry, who inspired him to pursue a career in the field. Lewis is following a similar career path to his father, who worked in construction, and his grandfather, an architect. CONTACT: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dean-lewis-96362445/ https://www.usa.skanska.com/who-we-are/contact-us/contacts/media/dean-lewis/  Where To Find Us: https://bbfhpod.advancedglazings.com/ www.advancedglazings.com https://www.linkedin.com/company/better-buildings-for-humans-podcast www.linkedin.com/in/advanced-glazings-ltd-848b4625 https://twitter.com/bbfhpod https://twitter.com/Solera_Daylight https://www.instagram.com/bbfhpod/ https://www.instagram.com/advancedglazingsltd https://www.facebook.com/AdvancedGlazingsltd

Welcome to another episode of Pearls On, Gloves Off with your host, Mary O'Carroll, Chief Operating Officer at Goodwin. After a brief hiatus, we're back, and this episode features a fascinating conversation with Alyssa Harvey Dawson, Chief Legal Officer at HubSpot. With over 20 years of experience leading legal teams at major companies like Gusto, Sidewalk Labs, Netflix, and Autodesk, Alyssa shares her insights on navigating AI challenges, the evolving role of legal leadership, and what it takes to build strong legal operations in today's complex, tech-driven landscape. In this episode: ·         The evolving role of general counsel as a strategic partner in business growth. ·         The importance of trust and data governance in legal teams' approach to AI. ·         The challenges of balancing global regulations, customer expectations, and innovation. ·         Building a legal team that fosters business alignment and addresses customer needs. ·         Insights into HubSpot's legal operations and their approach to managing AI, compliance, and data security. ·         Alyssa's thoughts on the skills needed to succeed in today's legal operations roles, including business judgment and adaptability. ·         The unexpected benefits of improv in developing leadership skills in a corporate setting. Enjoyed this conversation? Don't forget to subscribe to Pearls On, Gloves Off for more insightful discussions with leading figures in the legal and corporate sectors. Share your thoughts and join the conversation on our social media channels. Follow Mary on LinkedIn Rate and review on Apple Podcasts

On this long holiday weekend, some recent book interviews:Nicholas Kristof, opinion columnist for The New York Times and author of several books, including a new memoir, Chasing Hope (Penguin Random House, 2024), reflects on his long career covering tough stories, including war, genocide and addiction, and explains how he remains optimistic despite it all.Luis A. Miranda, Jr. , founder of the political consulting firm MirRam, founding president of the Hispanic Federation and the author of Relentless: My Story of the Latino Spirit that is Transforming America (Hachette Books, 2024), shares his story of his life and work in NYC politics (and as the father of Lin Manuel).Richard Ocejo, professor of sociology at John Jay College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York, and the author of Sixty Miles Upriver: Gentrification and Race in a Small American City (Princeton University Press, 2024), examines the effect on racial and income balance in the Hudson Valley's Newburgh, NY, of an influx of wealthier remote workers from NYC and its suburbs.Now facing a diagnosis of ALS, Dan Doctoroff, founder and chairman of the research foundation Target ALS, former president and CEO of Bloomberg LP and Sidewalk Labs, New York City deputy mayor for economic development and rebuilding (2002-2007) and the subject of The Urbanist: Dan Doctoroff and the Rise of New York (Phaidon, 2024), looks about his impact on the City after 9/11 under Mayor Bloomberg and the new book that celebrates his achievements.Anne Curzan, University of Michigan professor of English language and literature, linguistics, and education and the author of Says Who?: A Kinder, Funner Usage Guide for Everyone Who Cares About Words (Crown, 2024), offers her guide to English usage, where the 'rules' started and how to use them. These interviews were lightly edited for time and clarity and the original web versions are available here:Nicholas Kristof's Optimism (May 15, 2024)Luis Miranda's 'Latino Spirit' (May 7, 2024)When Gentrification Leaves the City (May 30, 2024)Dan Doctoroff's New York (Apr 18, 2024)A 'Funner' Guide to Language Usage (Mar 26, 2024)

On inefficiency of single-use spaces. Questioning the norm of planning for exceptions rather than the rule. Cities and individuals make choices based on rarer needs, leading to underutilized spaces. In homing differing usages in one space — like a morning coffee shop turning into a bar at night, or a parking lot hosting a farmer's market — we can deduplicate resources, overhead, and infrastructure. We discuss: 00:00 Shared space. 01:46 Decision-making for the exception, vs. the rule. 06:29 Examples of shared spaces, and deduplicating resources and infrastructure. 10:54 On Stoa. 13:54 Combining retail-specific spaces. 17:52 Upcoming topics and conversation. Further context: On Stoas (via Sidewalk Labs).

Nicole LeBlanc (BBA'00) is a partner with Woven Capital in Tokyo, focusing on investments in mobility, energy, and sustainability that support and accelerate Toyota's mission to build the safest mobility in the world. Prior to that she was a partner in Denmark with 2150, an urban tech & sustainability fund focused on supporting the growth of sustainable cities. She's held previous positions as director of investments for Alphabet's Sidewalk Labs in Toronto, and as director at BDC Capital and at the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation.   Nicole is also a founder and investor in Sandpiper.vc, a women-led venture fund based in Atlantic Canada aiming to support women as both founders and investors. She's a huge proponent of encouraging and supporting women in the venture capital sector, and I'm very excited to talk with her about why that's so important, as well as why she feels so strongly in investing in technology for our collective future.  In this episode:    How Nicole first started in venture capital and the opportunities around the world that led her to becoming an expert in the field  Her position in Toronto at Sidewalk Labs that hooked her on green cities and urban tech.  Why corporate companies have growth/venture capital firms.   How companies can implement sustainability implement solutions in their systems – and why Nicole is excited about startups providing those solutions.   The role of corporate venture capitalist  How smaller municipalities can have a great impact on lives and drive change.  The Copenhagen urban model.  How engaging everyone in communities is key to finding solutions and capital sources.   Why there is a low rate of women in venture capital and how more women can break into it.  How Atlantic Canadian communities can be successful in building smart, sustainable places to live and work, even with fewer resources.   Links and resources:    Nicole's LinkedIN  Woven Capital  Sandpiper Ventures  Thanks to:    Our alumni host, Katie Davey  Music by alumni artist, Beats of Burden   Our alumni Affinity Partners, TD Insurance and Manulife    To listen to UNBeknownst and for more info on the podcast, the hosts and how to subscribe to new episode alerts, visit our website. 

Now facing a diagnosis of ALS, Dan Doctoroff, founder and chairman of the research foundation Target ALS, former president and CEO of Bloomberg LP and Sidewalk Labs, former New York City deputy mayor for economic development and rebuilding (2002-2007) and the subject of The Urbanist: Dan Doctoroff and the Rise of New York (Phaidon, 2024), talks about his impact on the city after 9/11 under Mayor Bloomberg and the new book that celebrates his achievements.

Laura Fox is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Streetlife Ventures, a seed-stage venture fund investing in B2B urban climate solutions to transform sectors including mobility, buildings, energy, waste, and water. She joins to discuss the challenges and opportunities in improving quality of life in cities and the urban climate space Takeaways Street Life focuses on the climate transition in the mobility and logistics industry, seeking opportunities beyond traditional big players. The MORE framework (enablement, rebuild, mobility solutions, maintenance) guides Street Life's approach to addressing mobility challenges. Infrastructure rebuilding and reimagining are crucial, as a significant portion of urban infrastructure needed by 2050 does not exist yet. Balancing business goals and impact is a challenge, but partnerships with the public sector can be a major accelerant to growth. Policy plays a vital role in driving change, and resistance to change can be navigated through thoughtful implementation and clear benefits. Chapters Introduction and Background Defining the Problem of Improving Life in Cities Choosing the Right Size Problem to Solve Adaptation and the Changing Environment Electrification and Closing the Gap Core Thesis of Street Life and Opportunities in Mobility and Logistics The MORE Framework for Mobility Infrastructure Rebuilding and Reimagining Mobility Solutions and Maintenance Balancing Business Goals and Impact The Role of Policy in Driving Change Navigating Resistance to Change Street Life's Role in Solving Mobility Problems Encouraging Different Approaches to Problem-Solving The Economic Opportunity in the Transition to Net Zero Links: Show notes: http://brandonbartneck.com/futureofmobility/laurafox https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauraafox/ Streetlife website  Pre-seed or seed B2B startup in the Streetlife thesis space? Pitch Streetlife here  Bio Laura Fox speaks on mobility, city, and climate topics globally, and is on ‘Transportation Power 100' and ‘Top Women in Mobility' lists. She is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Streetlife Ventures, a seed-stage venture fund investing in B2B urban climate solutions to transform sectors including mobility, buildings, energy, waste, and water. Previously, Laura was the General Manager of Citi Bike at Lyft and built it into a $100M+ ARR business and one of the country's largest transportation systems, led diligence on urban climate tech companies at Sidewalk Labs, launched new mobility products with Boston Consulting Group's digital ventures team, and advised Bloomberg Philanthropies on their urban investment strategy. Laura also teaches MBA strategy courses at NYU Stern, and is on the board of Governors Island, which will be the test bed for climate innovation in NYC. She is a Senior Fellow with MIT's Mobility Initiative, and on the urban-focused Expert Taskforce for the World Economic Forum (WEF). Fun fact: Laura's friends call her ‘20 Questions' since she loves getting to the heart of a good idea - and she's given a TED Talk on the topic. Streetlife Ventures description Streetlife Ventures invests in pre-seed and seed B2B startups at the intersection of cities and climate, across the building, energy, mobility and logistics, waste and water, and adaptive tech sectors. Future of Mobility: The Future of Mobility podcast is focused on the development and implementation of safe, sustainable, effective, and accessible mobility solutions, with a spotlight on the people and technology advancing these fields. Edison Manufacturing and Engineering: Edison is your low volume contract manufacturing partner, focused on assembly of complex mobility and energy products that don't neatly fit within traditional high-volume production methods. linkedin.com/in/brandonbartneck/ brandonbartneck.com/futureofmobility/

In this episode host Stephen Goldsmith interviews Jacqueline Lu, co-founder of Helpful Places, exploring her journey from public service to spearheading innovative digital privacy initiatives. Lu discusses the challenges and opportunities of deploying digital infrastructure in public spaces, emphasizing the importance of building trust and transparency. They delve into the Digital Trust for Places and Routines standard, its potential to empower communities, and how Helpful Places is driving efforts to reshape data governance and foster inclusive urban environments.Music credit: Summer-Man by KetsaAbout Data-Smart City SolutionsData-Smart City Solutions, housed at the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University, is working to catalyze the adoption of data projects on the local government level by serving as a central resource for cities interested in this emerging field. We highlight best practices, top innovators, and promising case studies while also connecting leading industry, academic, and government officials. Our research focus is the intersection of government and data, ranging from open data and predictive analytics to civic engagement technology. We seek to promote the combination of integrated, cross-agency data with community data to better discover and preemptively address civic problems. To learn more visit us online and follow us on Twitter. 

For three decades, Dan Doctoroff's vision for cities–and how technology can make them better–has shaped how we think about urban centers in the US. Perhaps more than anyone, he brought forward the initiatives that made NYC what it is today: the Highline, Barclays Center, Long Island City Waterfront, Hudson Yards and Citi Bike, among many. Doctoroff's dreams, sweat, and speed are behind all of them.In this conversation, hosted by Thesis Driven editor Brad Hargreaves, Doctoroff walks us through 30 years beginning with NYC's ambitious bid to host the Olympics. While the bid failed, it became a blueprint of values and plans that would drive his priorities as NYC's Deputy Mayor for Economic Development, the leader of the PlaNYC initiative, and the founder of Sidewalk Labs, a company dedicated to improving cities through technology.Doctoroff draws upon his experience with large projects to discuss how he tackles complex initiatives with multiple stakeholders, including his success and failures along the way. Through it, he has advice for entrepreneurs and innovators with big aspirations, from building new cities to getting companies off the ground. He also discusses the importance of storytelling and narrative when doing anything meaningful at scale.The conversation wraps with Doctoroff discussing the path he has taken since leaving Sidewalk Labs. Four years ago, he was diagnosed with ALS and has since dedicated himself to researching, changing and funding how science and industry approach finding a cure. Lessons abound in this conversation for developers, legislators, entrepreneurs, investors and frankly anyone who cares about cities. Listeners will likely be inspired by Doctoroff's optimism, tenacity, and passion. Enjoy!

Welcome to the Thesis Driven Leader Series hosted by Brad Hargreaves. The Leader Series Podcast is an accompaniment to our weekly Thesis Driven newsletter, one of Substack's top 15 business newsletters. https://www.thesisdriven.com/This podcast will feature conversations with the leading voices at the intersection of real estate, cities, innovation and the built world. We'll talk about how technology is going to shape real estate investing over the coming years, what new sectors and consumer preferences changes mean for real estate development and how entrepreneurs might be able to play to these trends.Here are some of the outstanding real estate leaders we'll speak with over the next three months:Spencer Rascoff, the Founder of Zillow, Pacaso and heyLibby. Spencer is one of the most successful tech entrepreneurs in real estate and has a wealth of insights for real estate investors and innovators alike.MaryAnne Gilmartin, the Founder and CEO of MAG. MaryAnne is one of the top real estate developers in New York City and now she's taking her show on the road and redeveloping a substantial part of downtown Baltimore.Dan Doctoroff, the founder of Sidewalk Labs and the former NYC Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding. Dan is the foremost expert on improving life in cities for everyone through the application of technology to solve urban problems.Please join us for 12 weekly episodes this season!

We're diving into the archives to resurface this top downloaded episode from last year. Dan Doctoroff joined Patient Empowerment Program in February 2023 to talk about his mission to support a world where everyone with ALS lives. Dan is the former NYC deputy mayor for economics and former CEO of both Bloomberg L.P. and Sidewalk Labs. In this episode, Dan discusses his family's battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), his own inspiring story of how his diagnosis completely changed his outlook on life and his work with the foundation he started, Target ALS.

Dan Doctoroff had a storied career as Deputy Mayor of New York City during the first two Bloomberg administrations. In six years, Doctoroff helped rebuild the city after 9/11. He later oversaw the terminal and media business at Bloomberg before joining forces with Google on (the now defunct) Sidewalk Labs mission to define the future of cities. These days, he's taking on a new challenge: ALS, a.k.a Lou Gehrig's disease. Doctoroff was hit with the neurodegenerative disease in 2021. He speaks candidly about how this challenge has helped him stay present and let go of the future — except, of course, in the search for a cure. Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on social media. We're on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher and @nayeemaraza Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tameka talks abot what it means to be a social futurist, how her diverse family origin has influenced what she cares about and Jason and Tameka dig in on tech for the sake of tech.Tameka Vasquez is a social futurist, foresight strategist, professor, and speaker. She is Founder & Principal of The Future Quo, an advisory that supports visionary companies with concepts and tools for futures thinking. Tameka partners with startups to Fortune 500 enterprises who are driven by a heightened social responsibility and redefining their purpose to enact meaningful societal change. Tameka is also Associate Faculty for the Future of Work course at Columbia University. Before launching The Future Quo, Tameka was a marketing strategist who led brand and growth programs for global technology startups and enterprises for over 12 years. In her last role, she served as the first head of marketing for Sidewalk Labs, an urban innovation and sustainability unit at Google. Download the latest report from The Future Quo, "Incubation: Concepts for Futures Thinking" at http://www.thefuturequo.comhttp://www.linkedin.com/in/tamekavasquez@tamekavasquez_Find the show at all of the cool spots below and find us at jasonfrazell.com/podcasts. Facebook Instagram

It's the last show of the month, which means it is time for a roundtable! Today we are discussing three news stories, including Amazon's Sidewalk Labs, a court case in California involving Cisco and the Great Firewall of China, and yet another data breach.

Michael DeLucia  is the Sector Lead for Climate Investing at Wellington, an investment management firm with over $1 trillion assets under management. Before joining Wellington Management in 2021, Mike was a founding partner at ⁠Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners⁠ (SIP), where he led all aspects of the investment process for companies and projects in the infrastructure technology space, focusing.  Prior to joining Wellington Management in 2021, Mike was a founding partner at Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (SIP), where he led all aspects of the investment process for companies and projects in the infrastructure technology space, with a focus on investments in the energy transition and the built environment. SIP is a spin-off of Alphabet's cities-of-the-future arm, Sidewalk Labs, where he worked as associate director, of investments.  He was also previously a vice president in the Energy Markets Division of Macquarie Group, investing directly in the energy and power sectors. Mike began financing energy companies as a project finance analyst at HSH Nordbank, then as an investment associate at Nereus Capital.  Mike holds a B.A. in philosophy and economics from Brown University. About VSC Ventures: For 20 years, our award-winning ⁠⁠PR agency VSC⁠⁠ has worked with innovative startups on positioning, messaging, and awareness. We are bringing that expertise to help climate startups with storytelling and narrative building. Last year, general partners Vijay Chattha and Jay Kapoor raised a $21M fund to co-invest in the most promising startups alongside leading climate funds. Through the conversations on our show CLIMB by VSC, we're excited to share what we're doing at VSC and VSC Ventures on climate innovation with companies like ⁠⁠Ample⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Actual⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Sesame Solar⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Synop⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Vibrant Planet⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠Zume⁠⁠ among many others.

The smart city movement — driven by the idea that we can leverage data and technology to optimize life in our cities — is attractive for many reasons. But critics say that smart cities may not be so wise, and in some cases, they've proven to be dangerous for democracy. In the first episode of season three, we're doing a deep dive into this very concept: What are smart cities, and who are they for? Where has smart-city technology helped, and when does it start to wade into surveillance-capitalism territory ? Adrian speaks to John Lorinc, an urban affairs journalist and the author of Dream States: Smart Cities, Technology, and the Pursuit of Urban Utopias, about how the perception of smart cities has shifted over the years, and how smart city technology can both improve and disrupt our lives. Plus, Globe and Mail reporter Josh O'Kane shares his reporting from his new book, SIDEWAYS: The City Google Couldn't Buy, which looks at Alphabet's failed attempt to build a smart city in Toronto and what that high-profile example tells us about citizen engagement and good governance around the world. 

Examining the pioneering ways that smart infrastructures could drive efficiencies.The energy transition will put a huge pressure on the grid. In order to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, annual investment must increase from today's 1 trillion to 4 trillion by 2030. This will fund new technologies such as renewables and storage, but also upgrade the energy grid for transmission and distribution. Outdated power grids in urban areas are currently largely unable to integrate necessary renewable energy sources. The technology to propel us through the energy transition already exists. The puzzle to solve is how to use it most efficiently. There's not a one size fits all solution to upgrading the grid, but data and smart infrastructure are emerging solutions that promise to drive efficiencies across the network. Every percentage point increase in energy efficiency or energy reduction moves the needle globally in tackling climate change. On the Interchange: Recharged, host David Banmiller chairs a panel discussion with three experts in grid innovation. Rachel Steinberg is Head of Mesa, an initiative from Google's Sidewalk Labs on a mission to drive energy efficiencies in buildings. Josh Chappell is Head of Engineering on the project and also joins us to discuss the technology behind it. The modernisation of the grid is crucial for the energy transition, so understanding these elements is key. To explore the policy reforms and investment driving the changes to the grid is Wood Mackenzie's Sam Howe, Research Analyst in Building Decarbonisation. Together, they examine the pioneering ways that clean electricity is directed to the right place. Follow @InterchangeShow and subscribe so you don't miss an episode. View the landing page to find all episodes of The Interchange Recharged. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dan Doctoroff joins the Patient Empowerment Program to talk about his mission to support a world where everyone with ALS lives. Dan is the former NYC deputy mayor for economics and former CEO of both Bloomberg L.P. and Sidewalk Labs. In this episode, Dan discusses his family's battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), his own inspiring story of how his diagnosis completely changed his outlook on life and his work with the foundation he started, Target ALS. On This Episode We Discuss: Dan's inspiration to bring the Olympic Games to NYC 3 things he learned as a CEO Dealing with the reality of being diagnosed with ALS Shifting his perception of life How ALS has impacted his bloodline Scaling up Target ALS and fighting for the lives of every ALS patient

Building your tech stack as a startup can either help you soar to new highs, or become your biggest nightmare and slow you down. Our guest today is helping founders navigate that path, Taylor Lint is Co-Founder and CEO of Swantide, a platform that automates the configuration and management of your GTM tech stack.Before this week's episode, we welcome back John Ruffolo to chat about the news making headlines in the Canadian and global tech markets.About Taylor Lint:Taylor Lint is the Founder & CEO of Swantide. Prior, Taylor led engineering and product at Replica, an analytics company that spun out of Alphabet's Sidewalk Labs. Previously she led engineering for the launch of LinkedIn's Talent Insights product. Taylor studied Information Science and German at Cornell.In this episode we discuss:(0:00:26)  News Roundup with John Ruffolo talking about ClearCo, BMO x Georgian Partners, Quantum Computing, Sequoia's make good, IP Law, and Microsoft as king of M and A(0:20:10)  Taylor's journey into the tech world(0:21:58)  Lessons launching LinkedIn Talent(0:23:28)  What Taylor learned at Sidewalk Labs(0:26:32)  The process of spinning out Sidewalk Labs into a separate entity from Alphabet(0:27:39)  Why Taylor decided to tackle the GTM Tech stack problem(0:29:34)  Data you need to infor your GTM strategy(0:31:13)  When is the right time to invest in GTM(0:32:36)  Typical startup GTM strategies and mistakes(0:35:18)  Goal setting for GTM(0:36:06)  How Swantide makes the GTM better(0:39:23)  Eliminating isolated documents and data with Swantide(0:41:18)  Best practices to set up and maintain your CRM(0:44:30)  Advice for early-stage startups around data collection(0:46:25)  Other considerations around preparing to scale later(0:48:49)  How Swantide's $7M Seeed round came together with Menlo Ventures alongside Village Global, NEO, and a handful of strategic angelsFast Favorites:*

Richard Buery, co-chair of the 'New' New York Panel, CEO of Robin Hood and former NYC deputy mayor for strategic policy initiatives, and Daniel Doctoroff, co-chair of the "New" New York panel; and former CEO, Sidewalk Labs, explain what's in a new joint New York City/State plan to "reimagine" New York, including ideas to transform business districts and improve transportation and economic mobility.

As you might have heard, Sidewalk Labs became a part of Google at the beginning of 2022. So City of the Future has been on hiatus...BUT I'm still creating podcasts that I think CotF listeners would like. And I'd like to share them with you all! Urban Roots. If you enjoyed City of the Future season 4, which was all about equitable development, then you should definitely check out Urban Roots. We not only tell the histories of women and people of color that you probably don't know, we also draw the throughline from the past to the present, and talk to folks who are doing equitable, preservation-based development that takes those histories into account. Our two-part series on Indianapolis is a great place to start, but we have episodes on Brooklyn, Cincinnati, and Los Angeles, too. Learn more about it by visiting urbanistmedia.org or emailing urbanrootspodcast@gmail.com. Uncertain things. Less for the urbanist than for the person who is seeking to pop their media bubble, my journalist roommate and I created this interview show back in 2020. We purposely seek out academics, writers, journalists, thinkers across the political spectrum — people who actually want to enter into conversation and debate and leave their silos behind. The nice thing about Uncertain things is that I get to talk with whomever I find interesting and insightful, like evolutionary biologist Nicholas Christakis, historian Niall Ferguson, and journalist Caitlin Flanagan. We do sometimes talk to urbanists, too — like Vishaan Chakrabarti, Justin Davidson, and Michael Kimmelman (coming soon). You can subscribe to it at uncertain.substack.com and email us theuncertaintimes@gmail.com. Last two things — I'd love to hear from City of the Future fans! Reach me via vanessaquirk.com. And if you're an urbanism company who would like to hire me for my podcasting/comms expertise, reach out! Again, at vanessaquirk.com I hope you all have a very happy, safe holiday season. Hopefully I'll be seeing you — in the future!

This week we're profiling Adrian Aoun, who founded Forward into 2017 to turn healthcare from a service into a product and reach 1B+ people globally. Before founding Forward, Adrian served as the Director of Special Projects for Google CEO Larry Page, founded Sidewalk Labs, and served as an advisor to the White House on the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Here are the 3 big ideas in this week's Cheat Sheet: Principle: Be problem obsessed, not solution obsessed. Framework: How to predict the future from first principles. Insight: Why healthcare should be a product—not a service. Read the newsletter companion to this episode: https://www.cheatsheetnewsletter.com/p/problem-obsessions-and-predicting-the-future Listen, watch, or explore more of this week's episodes: Forward's Adrian Aoun | My Favorite Books, Tools, Habits and More Listen Now | Watch Now | Episode Guide | Transcript Forward: Bringing Healthcare as a Product to a Billion People | Adrian Aoun, Founder & CEO Listen Now | Watch Now | Episode Guide | Transcript Get the Cheat Sheet newsletter in your inbox: https://www.cheatsheetnewsletter.com

This week we're profiling Adrian Aoun, who founded Forward into 2017 to turn healthcare from a service into a product and reach 1B+ people globally. Before founding Forward, Adrian served as the Director of Special Projects for Google CEO Larry Page, founded Sidewalk Labs, and served as an advisor to the White House on the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Here are the 3 big ideas in this week's Cheat Sheet: Principle: Be problem obsessed, not solution obsessed. Framework: How to predict the future from first principles. Insight: Why healthcare should be a product—not a service. Get the Cheat Sheet newsletter in your inbox: https://www.cheatsheetnewsletter.com

Paris Marx is joined by Josh O'Kane to discuss how Sidewalk Labs decided to build a city “from the internet up” in Toronto, the concerns that existed with the project, and why it ultimately fell apart.Josh O'Kane is an award-winning technology reporter at the Globe and Mail and the author of Sideways: The City Google Couldn't Buy. Follow Josh on Twitter at @joshokane.Tech Won't Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, support the show on Patreon, and sign up for the weekly newsletter.The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network.Also mentioned in this episode:An excerpt of Josh's book was published in the Globe and Mail.Josh wrote about how Canada's Liberal government under Justin Trudeau isn't as friendly with tech companies as it was earlier in its time in power.Around the time of Sidewalk Toronto, opponents were able to defeat Amazon's HQ2 project in New York, Google's Berlin startup hub, Apple's planned central Stockholm store, and its planned store in Melbourne's Fed Square.Bianca Wylie was one of the prominent critics of the project, and was called the “Jane Jacobs of the smart city.”In 2019, documents leaked showing Sidewalk Labs wanted a lot more power and access to more land than was agreed upon, and that further fueled opposition.In May 2020, Wylie wrote about the cancelation of the project and the lessons that should be learned.Support the show

In a world of continuous innovation, it seems like our healthcare system has been left behind. The hassles of health insurance have become the status quo, and far too many of us have fallen victim to the abhorrent costs of medical services. Few of us have the time or wherewithal to battle with insurance companies or chase down medical providers. So, where do we go from here? Is there a way to effectively deliver low-cost healthcare to large numbers of people? According to Adrian Aoun, CEO of Forward – an AI-based healthcare company – the solution is simple: redesign healthcare as a product.In this episode, Catherine and Adrian discuss his journey to becoming the CEO of Forward, how productizing healthcare can lower costs and boost innovation, why health insurance is the biggest obstacle in healthcare, and much more.Topics Include: How Adrian's childhood shaped his pursuit of knowledgeThe enormous challenges our healthcare system facesHow to migrate the work of doctors and nurses to hardwareHow our current healthcare system disincentivizes innovation and fails to keep up with its challengesThe Forward business modelHow to raise millions of dollars as a startupAnd other topics…Adrian Aoun is the founder and CEO of Forward, an AI-based healthcare system combining world-class private doctors with new technology to enable proactive, data-driven primary care. Most recently, he was the head of Special Projects for the CEO of Google/Alphabet, where he founded one of the Alphabet companies Sidewalk Labs. Adrian arrived at Google upon the acquisition of his AI startup Wavii, and spent his first year at Google helping to create and build their AI division. Additionally, Adrian is an active angel investor and advisor to a number of technology startups and funds.Resources Mentioned:Factfulness by Hans Rosling

Dan Doctoroff is the Chairman and Founder of Target ALS, a nonprofit medical research foundation focused on finding treatment for ALS, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Dan was previously New York City's longest-serving Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding and the former CEO and President of Bloomberg LP. He led NYC2012, New York City's bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics, and most recently founded Sidewalk Labs in 2015, a Google subsidiary that uses and innovates technologies to improve urban infrastructure.

Adrian Aon is the founder & CEO of Forward. They've raised more than $225mil from the world's leading VCs to "build an insurance-free healthcare system from the ground-up”. Before that, he was the Director of Special Projects for Google's CEO & founder of Sidewalk Labs, the startup at Google tasked with re-inventing cities & sold Wavii to Google for $30mil. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/IwO12HgtWqw Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro     (00:00:31) - Sponsor: Justworks     (00:03:21) - Sidewalk Labs     (00:11:40) - Director Of Special Projects at Google     (00:15:23) - What Is Forward     (00:18:43) - What Is Wrong With The US Health Care System     (00:22:15) - Life Expectancy In The Bronze Age     (00:24:11) - Sponsor: Bambee (00:25:21) - Sponsor: Linkedin Jobs     (00:26:24) - How US Health Care Can Be Improved (00:33:07) - Using Technology To Improve Health Care     (00:35:45) - What Is The Body Scanner Doing That We Couldn't Do Before (00:42:45) - Prenuvo Whole Body Scan (00:49:28) - Best Way To Go About Health Care     (00:52:59) - Health Care As A Product (00:56:11) - Outro Subscribe & watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/IwO12HgtWqw Thank you to our sponsors: Linkedin Jobs - helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post a job for free on linkedin.com/creator Bambee - get access to your own dedicated HR Manager starting at just $99/month. Visit bambee.com/lab JustWorks - makes it simple to hire and manage remote employees across all 50 states, visit JustWorks.com

John Nantz is the Founder and Strategic Consultant of Redwood Advisors, a business consulting and services firm focused on delivering strategic, organizational, and digital consulting projects to executives at large and high-growth mid-sized companies. Formerly with McKinsey & Company, John has accomplished more than 50 consulting projects while working as a management consultant over the last ten years.John's academic portfolio includes earning a BA with distinction in Economics and an MS in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University. Under Redwood, John and his team have rendered consulting services to the Unified Physician Management, BioScrip, National Veterinary Associates, Johnson & Johnson Diabetes Solutions, Sidewalk Labs, Ares Private Equity, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, National Geographic, NASA Education, and among others.Aside from being a Stanford-educated and McKinsey-trained strategy consultant, John is the author of "Rediscovering Republicanism," a political history book.Enjoying taking on significant challenges in the company of great people, John specializes in serving outpatient healthcare, business service, and technology companies. He is also passionate about Kite surfing and yoga outside his professional work. He is looking forward to getting booked on your show!Click here to subscribe to The Sell My Business Podcast to save time and effort.SELECTED LINKS FOR THIS EPISODEjohn.a.nantz@rwadvisors.comRedwood Advisorshttps://www.facebook.com/john.a.nantz/John Nantz - Founding Partner - Redwood Advisors | LinkedInWatch John Nantz's Newest TikTok VideosThe Deep Wealth Sell My Business PodcastCockroach Startups: What You Need To Know To Succeed And ProsperFREE Deep Wealth eBook on Why You Suck At Selling Your Business And What You Can Do About It (Today)Book Your FREE Deep Wealth Strategy Call

Adrian Aoun is the founder and CEO of Forward, an AI-based healthcare system combining world-class private doctors with new technology to enable proactive, data-driven primary care.Most recently, he was the head of Special Projects for the CEO of Google/Alphabet, where he founded one of the Alphabet companies Sidewalk Labs. Adrian arrived at Google upon the acquisition of his AI startup Wavii and spent his first year at Google helping to create and build their AI division.Additionally, Adrian is an active angel investor and advisor to a number of technology startups and funds.SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER & STAY UPDATED > http://bit.ly/tfh-newsletterFOLLOW TFH ON INSTAGRAM > http://www.instagram.com/thefounderhourFOLLOW TFH ON TWITTER > http://www.twitter.com/thefounderhourINTERESTED IN BECOMING A SPONSOR? EMAIL US > partnerships@thefounderhour.com

Adrian Aoun is the founder and CEO of Forward, an AI-based healthcare system combining world-class private doctors with new technology to enable proactive, data-driven primary care. Most recently, he was the head of Special Projects for the CEO of Google/Alphabet, where he founded one of the Alphabet companies Sidewalk Labs. Adrian arrived at Google upon the acquisition of his AI startup Wavii and spent his first year at Google helping to create and build their AI division. Additionally, Adrian is an active angel investor and advisor to a number of technology startups and funds. Aoun discusses the world of artificial intelligence, his time at Google and the scaling potential offered by AI technology. Then, he explains how healthcare has lagged behind other industries transformed by tech and offers his vision for the future of healthcare powered by AI. ——————————————————————Watch this video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/SALTTube/videosFor podcast transcripts and show notes, visit https://www.salt.org/Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. Developed, created and produced by SALT Venture Group, LLC.

Drew Foulkes of Mesa by Sidewalk Labs (now part of Google), discusses new plug-and-play energy optimization technology for reducing tenant temperature complaints and increasing energy cost savings for Class B and C commercial buildings. 

This week Oliver interviews Laura Fox, General Manager of the Citi Bike bike sharing service in New York, and Senior Director of Lyft Bikes. This podcast was also released on our sister podcast project, Infinite Block.Laura has a very deep background and thinking about the future of cities, not only in an operational sense - running a Micromobility firm, before that working for Sidewalk Labs for Google and working with former world bank urban economist, with whom she edited one of Oliver's favourite books on urban economics “Order Without Design.” In this episode, Laura talks with Oliver about the implications of Micromobility on the city and also new forces calling upon her background at Sidewalk Labs, and consulting on the interplay of regulations and housing supply in Mexico City with Alain Bertaud.In this weeks episode, they talk specifically about:- How Citi Bike is a novel means of accessing high performance city vehicles, but it's highly dependent on government interventions for things like street space, allocation and funding. What would happen if NYC voted in a new council that took Citi Bike very seriously as a transport option? - Laura reflects on her time at Sidewalk Labs: What went well, and whether their new focus on software enabled tools is a step down. - A city often builds up complex regulations over time, and that deregulation, especially around things like zoning and building codes (for example in Mexico) can unlock cities to be more responsive to their citizens. Oliver and Laura discuss how this can be achieved. - Where are there cities who are not as fast at responding to tech advances, and how the process can be accelerated. - How we can trust in governance in an age of quicker change, and what countries are doing this well.- Whether there have been any alternative methods for infrastructure funding that have been successful. Check out Citi Bike and their developments within New York right hereOur sponsor for this episode is Joyride.

This week Oliver interviews Laura Fox, General Manager of the Citi Bike bike sharing service in New York, and Senior Director of Lyft Bikes.    Laura has a very deep background and thinking about the future of cities, not only in an operational sense - running one of the worlds leading micromobility operations, but also before that working for Sidewalk Labs for Google and with former world bank urban economist Alain Bertaud, with whom she edited one of Oliver's favourite books on urban economics “Order Without Design.”   In this episode, Laura talks with Oliver about the implications of micromobility on the city and also new forces calling upon her background at Sidewalk Labs, and consulting on the interplay of regulations and housing supply in Mexico City with Alain.   Listen in, and learn more about Citi Bike right here.

This week Matt is joined by Bjarke Ingels, Roni Bahar, and Nick Chim from Nabr, a real estate development company specializing in sustainable, customizable apartments. Nabr's mission is to address the housing crisis with a unique approach: a business platform that creates, at scale, well designed, attainably-priced apartment units on a homeownership model.Its founding team comes well-qualified for the task. Bjarke is one of the world's leading architects and the founder of BIG, the Bjarke Ingels Group architectural firm; Roni came to Nabr via his role as WeWork's Director of Development; and Nick boasts a background with Sidewalk Labs and Google.The trio reveals that the secret to Nabr's business model and designs is that they are inspired by consumer productization. Too many developers build cookie-cutter housing that is not consumer-friendly in terms of technology, delivery, and design. Nabr is breaking the mold by pulling inspiration from consumer companies like Lego, Tesla, and Apple. Matt highlights a throughline between his conversation with Bjarke, Roni, and Nick and the Terra Search merger with ZRG Partners, as both are intent on building businesses of scale with a bespoke consulting model.

In Episode 5 of Series 7 of The Rights Track, Todd is in conversation with Amrit Dhir, Director of Partnerships at Recidiviz – a team of technologists committed to getting decision makers the data they need to drive better criminal justice outcomes.  Transcript Todd Landman  0:00  Welcome to the Rights Track podcast, which gets the hard facts about the human rights challenges facing us today. In series seven, we're discussing human rights in a digital world. I'm Todd Landman, in this episode, I'm delighted to be joined by Amrit Dhir. Amrit is the Director of Partnerships at Recidiviz, a team of technologists committed to getting decision makers the data they need to drive better criminal justice outcomes. He has previously spent over a decade at the intersection of technology and new business development, working, for example at Sidewalk Labs, Google for Startups and Verily. Today, we'll be exploring the practical uses of technology and data in the criminal justice system. So Amrit, it's great to have you on this episode of the Rights Track. Welcome from California. Amrit Dhir  0:44  Thank you so much, I'm really glad to be here. Todd Landman  0:46  It's great for you to join us. And I want to start with a simple question. We had a guest - Sam Gilbert - on our last episode, we made this distinction between the sort of data for good and data for bad and there's a very large sort of argument out there about surveillance capitalism, the misuses of data, you know, behavioural microtargeting and all these sorts of issues. And yet I see that where you're working at Recidiviz there's a kind of data for good argument here around using technology and data to help criminal justice systems and the healthcare sector. So just briefly, could you tell us about this data for good and data for bad distinction? Amrit Dhir  1:19  Yeah, well, as with most things, I think it's difficult to pigeonhole anything into one of those camps, everything it seems, can be used for good or bad. And so data itself is not one or the other. I think it's about the use, I think that's what Sam was getting at with you as well. With Recidiviz, you know, what we've understood is that data that's been collected over a long period of time, especially in the context of the United States, and our unfortunate kind of race to mass incarceration, from basically the 1970s until about mid-2010s. We've collected a lot of data along the way, and we're not actually using or understanding that data. And so what we do at Recidiviz is we bring that data together, so make it something that can be better understood and better utilised, to help reduce prison populations to help drive better outcomes. So we're focused on taking data that's been, again, collected over quite a long period of time and consistently collected, but also making it better understandable. Todd Landman  2:17  So this sounds like big, messy, disparate, fragmented data, is that correct? Amrit Dhir  2:22  Most of those things, most of the time. It's definitely fragmented most of the time, it's not always necessarily what we'd call big. Because, you know, coming from Google, I think of big in the terms of, you know, search query type volume. So in corrections, it's not necessarily that big, but it is certainly messy, and it is certainly fragmented. Todd Landman  2:42  You know we had a guest on Rights Track, some while back, David Fathi from the American Civil Liberties Union, he explained to us the structure of the American sort of prison system, not justice in itself, but prison system with, you know, 50 state prison systems, plus a federal prison system and a mix of public and private prisons. So it's a mixed picture in terms of jurisdiction, the use of incarceration and of course, the conditions of incarceration. So what's the sort of data that's being collected that you find useful at Recidiviz? Amrit Dhir  3:13  Yeah, I'll actually add a piece of that as well, you're exactly right to say, you know, every one of the 50 states has a different system, the federal system is itself separate. But then there's also county jails. And those systems are running completely separately from even the states that they're in. So it is messy. And the data also extends, by the way, so we're talking about what we consider the back half of the system. So once someone has already gone to prison, we think of that as the back half. Whereas there's a front half of the system as well, which is the courts, your prosecutor and defence attorneys, and up to policing. And so all of those different segments have their different datasets as well. At Recidiviz we're starting at the back half, largely, because we think there's a lot more impact to be had there, at least for now. And the data extends to many things. So it can be first of all, admissions data. When someone comes into a facility, what sentence did that person come in with? Where is that person going to be in the facility? As in like, where's that bed? And then, as often happens, there are transfers between prisons, within prisons. That's another set of data. There are programmes that the person may be participating in. Some of these are built with the spirit of rehabilitation and reintegration into society. Those are important and knowing how they work and when they work, and if they work is important. And then when someone gets out of prison, that's not the end either. We've whole infrastructure of supervision. And broadly, those are grouped into two categories - parole and probation. And someone may be back out in their community and still under a degree of supervision that's more than what someone who has not been in prison goes through. They have to check in with their parole officer. They have certain requirements, they have certain restrictions. All of those are data points as well. How are you checking in with your parole officer? Did you have to take a drug test? Did you ask for permission to leave the state, all of those things. And as you can imagine, even just by the list I've given you, which is just a very small percentage of it, all of those are sitting in different data silos and are interacted with by different people within the system and it gets pretty tricky. Todd Landman  5:21  And you collect data on the sort of sentencing? So you know an analysis of that plus demographic makeup of the prison population, time served? And also, the use of the death penalty and or deaths in custody - is that data that you can collect? Amrit Dhir  5:37  Yes, so we can do all that. And I'm glad you pointed out racial and demographic data, because that's a big part of what we do and what we highlight, because you may not be surprised to hear that in the US, there are like pretty severe disparities when it comes to race, ethnicity. And these are things that departments of corrections. So those are the executive agencies within each state, we usually call them department of corrections, although they'll have different names in different states. They have this data, and they want to make better sense of it. Their stakeholders want to understand it better. So generally, these agencies report to the governor, but they're also accountable to the legislature. So there's a degree of sharing that data or better unpacking that data that's important. Then we also have, I would broadly, categorise, and we say these kinds of things a lot where there's broad categorizations and then there's also much more detailed ones. But broadly, you can think of this as public data, and then departments of corrections data. So the public data is what's available anyway - we can go out there and find without any data sharing agreement with any agency. As these are government agencies where this data is required to be public. And so you'll find researchers and universities and different organisations accessing this data and publishing it or analysing it, we do that also. But we also get data sharing agreements directly with departments of corrections, and help them unpack that as well. So there's a kind of complimentary interaction there between the two datasets. Todd Landman  7:09  I understand. And how do you actually reduce incarceration through data analysis? I'm perplexed by that statement you made quite early on when you were talking to us. Amrit Dhir  7:18  There's a couple things and I'll categorise this. My broad categories into three categories. There are leadership tools, line staff tools, and then public tools. So let me start with public tools, because I think that's more related to what we just talked about in the previous question. The public tools are ones that are available to you and me. And so there's two that you can look on our website and find right now. One is a public dashboard that we call spotlight. As of the date of this recording there are two that have been published one for North Dakota and one for Pennsylvania. I encourage everyone to go check those out. If you just Google, you know our name Recidiviz and Pennsylvania, you'll see it come up as the first result. And there you can see that all the data in a accessible way. So the 'viz' in Recidiviz stands for data visualisation. We worked with the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, to better represent the data that they have, so that the public can see it. And you can see the breakdown, by ethnicity, by district, by sex by other filters, and really get in there in some detail and see what's happened also over time. So that's one that's the public dashboard. That's largely to raise awareness. And it's something that when you talk to departments of corrections, you learn that they have lots of FOIA requests, which are Freedom of Information Act requests, so requests from media, from researchers, from the public, but also from the legislature. And so that's one thing that we do that just broadens the conversation. Another are what we call policy memos. If you go to our website, and or if you just type in Recidiviz.org/policy, these are one-page memos that we have our data scientists put together that assess the impact of a particular administrative or legislative policy proposal. So imagine that you are looking to Pennsylvania for example, wanting to make a change to geriatric parole, or if you want it to end the criminalization of marijuana, we can then and we have gone in there and analyse the data that's publicly available. And sometimes we also access our data with collaboration with the DOC. And we can tell you what the both impact on the number of basic liberty person years that are returned. How people will get out of prison earlier or not go to prison at all, as well as how much money the state in these cases will save. And so that's a great way to inform policymakers to say hey, this is actually a good policy or a bad policy, because it's going to get people out of prison and it's going to also save you money. Todd Landman  9:57  Yeah the concept it's like a variable called liberty person years that you use. And then of course, it's almost like a time series interrupted model where if you get new legislation, you can look at that liberty person years before the legislation and after to judge the degree to which that legislation may or may not have made a difference, right? Amrit Dhir  10:16  Exactly right. And I encourage folks just to go check, check some of those memos out, there's probably like 50 on there now. And they're very easy to understand, very easy to access. They're all one page. They're all very beautifully visualised. Because you can take this very, as you said, messy and fractured datasets, but actually come to some pretty simple insights. And I would say simple and actionable. And so that's what we do there. And that was a long description of public data, but I can go into the other two, if you're ready for it. Todd Landman  10:43  Yes, please. Amrit Dhir  10:44  Okay. So working backwards, we'll go to line staff tools. And so this line staff, meaning people who are working within corrections or on supervision. And let me take the example of supervision first, because one thing that's interesting and that I actually learned only while at Recidiviz is that half of prison admissions in the US every year, come from supervision. Meaning people who are getting their parole or probation revoked and are going back to prison. That's half of the emissions we get every year. And that's a huge number. Todd Landman  11:15  Wow. Amrit Dhir  11:15  And so this, you can think of this as the back end of the back end, it's the very last piece. And so for Recidiviz we were kind of assessing where we should start, that seemed like the right place to do so because the impact was just so great. Now, put yourself in the shoes of a parole officer. These folks have pretty difficult jobs in that they often have, you know, up to 100 and sometimes more, we've seen up to 120 people that they are I'll use a verb 'serving' as a parole officer. So the idea is you got people that have been returned to the community, they've been in prison, they now are trying to get jobs, they're trying to get job training. They're trying to reintegrate into their communities, and the parole officer is there to help them do that, and keep track of how they're doing. Now, that's one thing to do if you got 20 people, you want to keep track of and help and connect to the right resources, but if you've got 100, and you're supposed to meet with them every month, it becomes impractical. And that ends up meaning sometimes that parole officers aren't doing as good a job as they'd like to do. Because it's just too hard, just too much to manage. Todd Landman  12:22  You need a structured database approach. Amrit Dhir  12:24  Exactly. So that's where data can be very useful, because we can automate a lot of what a parole officer needs to do. And rather than having to check, you know, we've heard up to 12 different datasets to figure out where are the programmes my the people I'm serving are have available to them? When do I know if I need to do a home visit? Where do I find a list of employers that I can send them to? Where are housing options for them? All these are in different places, but we at Recidiviz, bring them all together, give them an easy-to-use tool, so that we can actually service them even you know, on their smartphones, in an app, to show them, hey, did you know that this person is actually eligible to be released from parole if they just upload a pay stub? And hey, do you want to just take a pay stub with your phone, and we can do it for you? I mean, how much easier that is than you having to go through all 100, figure out who's eligible based on your own recall or some other antiquated system and kind of struggle to try to help people. We can help you do that. And that's a big thing that we've done. Todd Landman  13:22  I mean it's almost like an E-portfolio approach that there's this way to archive parolees meeting certain milestones and conditions. And it makes the management of those cases so much more straightforward. Whilst there's also a record of that management that makes it easier for the parole officer to serve the people that they are serving. Amrit Dhir  13:42  Exactly. You got it exactly right. And by the way, there's, you know, a degree of nudging that can be done in this as well, if you're familiar with like the Cass Sunstein and others, behaviour psychology, but how, you know, instead of saying, hey, this person needs a drug test, and have that'd be the first thing that you prioritise. I mean you can say, hey, this person needs help finding a job. And here are some resources, here's some employers in the area that we know employ people who are formerly incarcerated. It's a great way to actually not only automate and make the life of the parole officer easier and better, but also to kind of encourage the better behaviours within those communities. Todd Landman  14:16  Now that makes sense. So what's the third channel then? Amrit Dhir  14:18  Ahhh the third one is leadership tools. And this is for the directors and their deputies, the most senior people in a department of corrections, they may come in. And actually what we're seeing now is that a lot of the people who are coming in today and are sitting in these roles are reformers. They believe that the size of our criminal justice system in the United States is just too large. And they are motivated to improve outcomes. And they're focusing on things like recidivism, which is a term for people coming back to prison after being released. And that's a number you want to have low naturally. But historically, what happens - actually not even you know what historically -what happens today. He is that these recidivism reports will come out maybe every three years. Yeah. So if you're a director, and by the time they come out, they're almost three years old. So you're almost like because the six year timelines, and you want to know, hey, I instituted this new reform this new programme, I want to know if it's been successful, you won't know until a couple years out whether it worked. And so what we do instead is to give you real time data, we can tell you what's happening on your team and in your agency on a real time basis. And also project out based on what we're seeing with some meaningful kind of population projections as well. So that helpful. Todd Landman  14:34  That's fascinating. And let me ask you just another technical question. So when people are released from prison, is it typical for them to also have a sort of GPS tag on their leg for a certain period of time? And does that form any of the data that you look at? Amrit Dhir  15:52  So it depends? It's a very good question. And it's one of the more controversial topics today in this space, and especially in the Reform Movement, there's a concern that we may be heading towards, from mass incarceration to mass incarceration, and that people will be monitored and supervised within their communities. And I think that is a very meaningful concern that we need to be careful of, because we don't want that to happen. But to broadly answer your question about the state of this today, it depends on where you are, it depends on the county depends on the state depends on all those things, in terms of whether you are wearing a device that electronically monitors, you know, we don't track that ourselves, that's something that we do or want to do. Our approach is to helping people get off of supervision and get into programmes and other kinds of initiatives that help them on their way. Todd Landman  16:43  Excellent. So this discussion really opened up into, you know, the bad side of the question, I guess, you know, you just have to go into this with our eyes open, I suspect that you're triangulating a lot of data. You're providing that in real time on dashboards, a lot of it's in the public domain. What are the risks around this? What are the pitfalls? What's the risk of re-identification? What's the risk of, you know, lapsing into kind of credit scoring philosophies? And just, as you said about the tags, there's worry about that kind of, you know, E-surveillance and E- carceration. Equally, someone could backward engineer some of your data and actually profile people. So, what's the downside of this approach? Amrit Dhir  17:21  Yeah, that was a great list. So there's certainly a concern of bias entering any analysis of a dataset. And we are very careful about that. So one thing to note is that everything that we do is open source. So it's open to the technology community to take a look at what's kind of under the hood. And that's important, because we would do want to make sure that we are not only participating and contributing to the broader ecosystem that are, in this case, tech and criminal justice ecosystem, but that we're also held accountable to them. So that's the first thing that we do, we also are very mindful and transparent about our data ethics policies, and how we handle those kinds of questions and sometimes ambiguities. So if you look at, for example, the spotlight dashboard that I mentioned that you'd find for Pennsylvania, North Dakota, you will see in the methodology that we explain what happens when there's a question. So for example, if someone puts down three different ethnicities, how do we manage that in the data visualisation that just shows them as one. Our approach there is transparency and engagement. Todd Landman  19:31   Have you done any links with the ACLU on this? Because they're quite interested in prison conditions. They're interested in incarceration, sentencing, etc. Do you do any kind of briefing with the ACLU? Amrit Dhir  20:16  Yeah, so two things actually on that. I will take them in reverse order. So first of all, we do work with ACLU. If you look at our website, on the policy page, which again, are those one page memos, the ACLU has requested a number of those. And there's naturally different chapters of the ACLU in different states in different parts of the country. And we work with different stakeholders within the ACLU as well on those. The other piece, though, get one of the back to what you said about three strikes. There's another piece of that I think people may not be as familiar with it. I certainly wasn't, which is this issue of technical revocations. So if you're on supervision, like I said, half of prison emissions every year are from revocation of your supervision, meaning you're going back to prison, from parole or probation. But half of those, so a quarter of all emissions every year are from technical revocations. And those are when someone breaks a rule, that is not a law for the rest of us. Right. So it's not that they stole something, it's not that they got caught breaking a law, that they broke a rule of their parole, and sometimes these are ones that you and I would feel horrified to learn of. So that, you know, we've got examples of people, for example, going to an open mic night where there was alcohol presence, and that person wasn't allowed to be around alcohol. Being in the wrong County. Being out past curfew. All of these things that are, and you know there are anecdotes all over the place of the kinds of things that send people back to prison that we as society would not tolerate. And those are also some of what we're reducing. Todd Landman  21:49  That's amazing, that sort of distinction to draw between, you know, breaking a rule and breaking the actual law, I guess the rules follow from the law. But I get your point in terms of, you know, how would somebody know if they crossed the county line, particularly if they're at an area they don't know well. So this has been a fascinating exploration with the ways in which you have triangulated datasets, made them more visible, put them into real time, and I have to reflect on what you said. I mean, I grew up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. So I'm going to immediately read all your Pennsylvania data. I actually grew up near a prison in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, you know, so it'd be interesting to see how things have moved on from the time that I lived there many moons ago. I won't tell you how long ago that was. But, but this is a really good conversation for us to have around some of the ways in which different types of data can be leveraged for good. And also some of the challenges of that, or the misuse of that information, as well as the sort of things that you don't collect, you know, the fact that you don't collect data on these tags. And that that varies, of course, and the variation you see in terms of the population that you're collecting data on varies because of the fragmentation of the US prison system and the sort of federal system that the US is structured in, but also data that no one really brought together in one place before. And I think that when we hear this data for good argument, we hear a lot of people saying we're actually bringing datasets that haven't been brought together before in order to derive insights from those data and do something that is for good and brings about positive social changes result. So I just think this tour that you've given us today is absolutely fantastic. And on behalf of the Rights Track thanks so much for being on this episode with us today. Amrit Dhir  23:25  Oh, thank you for having me. It's been fun. Thank-you. Christine Garrington  23:29  Thanks for listening to this episode of The Rights Track, which was presented by Todd Landman and produced by Chris Garrington of Research Podcasts with funding from 3DI. You can find a detailed show notes on the website at www.RightsTrack.org. And don't forget to subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts to access future and earlier episodes.

My HighlightsWhat problem was Sidewalk Labs trying to solve when it created Mesa? (8:56)Use cases for Mesa (16:07)How Mesa collects tenant feedback to optimize the heating and cooling of buildings (28:47)Mesa's success with schools and offices in reducing their energy consumption (33:22)How Mesa delivers a quick ROI to buildings (49:27)Carveouts (51:09)You can find Rachel and Josh on LinkedIn.Watch on YouTube or read on the web.Get full access to Nexus.

Dan Doctoroff, Founder and CEO of Sidewalk Labs and former CEO of Bloomberg joins World of DaaS host Auren Hoffman. Dan was also formerly the Deputy Mayor of Economic Development for New York City during the Michael Bloomberg administration and Managing Partner at the private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners. Auren and Dan dive into how cities are formed and how they can leverage data about the physical world to operate better. They also cover Sidewalk Labs' unique business structure (including its affiliation with Google's parent company Alphabet) and how Dan thinks about incubating and forming new businesses. This episode is dedicated to those who suffer from ALS. We encourage listeners to make a donation to Target ALS at: https://www.targetals.org/donate/World of DaaS is brought to you by SafeGraph. For more episodes, visit safegraph.com/podcastsYou can find Auren Hoffman (CEO of SafeGraph) on Twitter at @auren

Matt is joined by Dan Doctoroff, Chairman and CEO of Sidewalk Labs, an Alphabet/Google subsidiary, dedicated to urban innovation, on this latest episode of Leading Voices. Sidewalk Labs tackles “cities' greatest challenges by creating products and solutions, investing in new companies, and helping developers build more sustainable, innovative, and equitable places around the world”. Dan is a testament to what it means to be a leader in our industry. While Managing Partner of the private equity investment firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, he founded NYC2012, spearheading an Olympic City bid for NYC which resulted in a vision for urban redevelopment of the city. Under Mayor Bloomberg, he served as Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding, where he helped lead NYC's resurgence after 9/11 through a comprehensive five-borough economic development strategy. This included plans to redevelop areas that are now high-profile destinations like the High Line, Hudson Yards, and Governor's Island. Dan shares how large-scale redevelopment can happen under great leadership and how his new role with a technology giant can help tackle challenges in urban environments.From 2008 to 2014, Dan was President and Chief Executive Officer of Bloomberg L.P., the leading provider of news and information to the global financial community. Prior to joining Bloomberg L.P., Dan served as Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding for the City of New York. With Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, he led the city's dramatic economic resurgence after 9/11, spearheading the effort to reverse New York's fiscal crisis through a comprehensive five-borough economic development strategy. In that role, Dan oversaw the creation of PlaNYC, New York's pathbreaking sustainability plan. His memoir-manifesto, Greater than Ever: New York's Big Comeback, chronicled his experience in City Hall.  Before joining the Bloomberg Administration, Dan was Managing Partner of the private equity investment firm Oak Hill Capital Partners. While at Oak Hill, Dan founded NYC2012, the organization that spearheaded efforts to bring the Olympic Games to the city.Dan serves on the Boards of the University of Chicago and Bloomberg Philanthropies. He is the founder of Target ALS, which raises funds for and has established a new model of collaboration to advance ALS research. He is a founder and chairman of The Shed, an innovative new cultural institution on Manhattan's Far West Side. Dan is a graduate of Harvard College and The Law School at the University of Chicago. A native of Michigan, Dan has lived in New York for the past 37 years with his wife Alisa. 

Cityblock is a new kind of healthcare provider and technology company, based out of Brooklyn. Started in the fall of 2017, we have quickly grown to 600+ employees serving tens of thousands of members across the Northeast. Their focus is on medically complex and socially underserved Medicaid populations, and our doctors and nurses deliver a home-based intensive primary care model with integrated behavioral health, substance abuse counseling, and social benefits coordination (think: housing support, legal support). It's a fascinating and operationally complex business, and we have been building out an in-house Technology team from day one, with early teammates hailing from Google, Facebook, Artsy, Uber, Knewton, Compass, Oscar, and Squarespace. Today we are backed by $500M in venture capital, and hiring across the board.Prior to Cityblock, Bay was a product manager at Google working out of the Zurick and Bangalore offices and later part of the venture investment team at Thrive Capital, where he focused on the categories of developer tooling and consumer. Bay received his undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Yale University.Bay joins me today to discuss if healthcare can be improved by involving more people in the process. He shares with us more about Cityblock and how they are making a business out of providing this type of healthcare. He shares with us who the customer is; the patient, the healthcare professionals, or the government. Bay talks about how the mission impacts the team. “It's really about human relationships, you know, trained clinicians, trained social workers, working in person with empathy over many, many months, to turn lives around. And what we think of with technology is using technology to augment to speed up right to enforce right and to empower them, but they really go hand in hand. And so I think that healthcare is, you know, in 2021 is much, much better off because of technology.” -Bay GrossToday on Startups for Good we cover:-Maintaining the quality of healthcare when adding in technology-Preventative care-The learning curve when adding tech to the medical space.-Starting a company inside Sidewalk Labs.-Role of product leader and product organization in healthcareConnect with Bay on Twitter @BayGross and Cityblock at https://www.cityblock.comSubscribe, Rate & Share Your Favorite Episodes!Thanks for tuning into today's episode of Startups For Good with your host, Miles Lasater. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast listening app.Don't forget to visit our website startupsforgood.com/, connect with Miles on Twitter https://twitter.com/Startups4Good or LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/mileslasater/, and share your favorite episodes across social media. For more information about The Giving Circle https://www.startupsforgood.com/giving-circle/

“I wrote this book to make you mad.” So declares British writer and artist Woodrow Phoenix in the afterward of his new graphic novel Crash Course. Subtitled, “If You Want To Get Away With Murder, Buy a Car,” the book explores the powerful and toxic relationship between people and automobiles. With its stark and beautifully hand-drawn images of roads, traffic symbols, cities and highways, Crash Course takes aim at the ways in which cars have shaped the built environment, politics, and even the human psyche, largely for the worse. Crash Course unpacks the term “road rage,” explains why traffic accidents are anything but, and dispels the notion that people can be neatly separated into categories such as motorist, cyclist or pedestrian. It also examines the dangers of SUVs, the perils of driverless cars and the recent and growing trend of vehicles being used as weapons against demonstrators in places such as Charlottesville, Virginia. In this one-on-one conversation, Woodrow Phoenix talks to Doug about the unique combination of artistry and journalism that makes Crash Course an effective polemic, one that will hopefully persuade people to think carefully about their responsibility when they get behind the wheel of a car. This episode was sponsored by Sidewalk Weekly, the new podcast from Sidewalk Labs. Support The War on Cars on Patreon and get nifty rewards like stickers, t-shirts, and even a copy of Crash Course. Buy a famous “buttery soft” War on Cars t-shirt at Cotton Bureau. Rate and review the podcast on iTunes. SHOW NOTES:  Purchase Crash Course and other books featured on The War on Cars via our official Bookshop.org page. More about Woodrow Phoenix at Street Noise Books. Superman battles reckless drivers in Action Comics No. 12, May 1939. (The War on Cars on Twitter) The Solo Cup Bike Lane (BrookynSpoke) and the #RedCupProject (Bicycling Magazine). This episode was produced and recorded by Doug Gordon and edited by Ali Lemer. Find us on Twitter: @TheWarOnCars, Aaron Naparstek @Naparstek, Doug Gordon @BrooklynSpoke, Sarah Goodyear @buttermilk1.  Questions, comments or suggestions? Shoot us an email: thewaroncars@gmail.com https://thewaroncars.org

In the span of one month the StreetRiders have become a major presence in the Black Lives Matter movement in New York. Their weekly bike protests have taken over streets, bridges and highways and attracted thousands of people of all ages to rally against police violence. In this interview, Doug talks with StreetridersNYC co-founder Orlando Hamilton about how he found his voice as a political organizer, what bicycles bring to the protest movement and what it feels like to look out and see 10,000 people filling the streets of Times Square all in support of Black lives. This episode was sponsored by Sidewalk Weekly, the new podcast from Sidewalk Labs. Support The War on Cars on Patreon. Contribution levels start at just $2/month! Rate and review us on iTunes. Buy a famous “buttery soft” War on Cars t-shirt at Cotton Bureau. SHOW NOTES:  Learn more about the StreetRidersNYC and follow them on Instagram and Twitter.  “How Protestors Are Using Their Bikes to Fight Racism” (Bicycling) “‘There's no Bike Lanes. It's Not Even Nice Roads' - Biking As a Means of Protest and Exposing Racism” (Streetsblog) “10,000 bicyclists participated in Black Lives Matter bike ride” (Brooklyn Vegan) This episode was produced, recorded and edited by Doug Gordon.  Find us on Twitter: @TheWarOnCars, Aaron Naparstek @Naparstek, Doug Gordon @BrooklynSpoke, Sarah Goodyear @buttermilk1.  Questions, comments, ideas, complaints? Shoot us an email: thewaroncars@gmail.com https://thewaroncars.org