Podcasts about stanford phd

Patrick Molloy, Principal at RMI's Climate-Aligned Industries program and co-host of Everything About Hydrogen, joins the Hydrogen Innovators Podcast to explore ammonia's rapidly expanding role in the clean energy transition—as a shipping fuel, hydrogen carrier, and critical input for fertilizers. This episode also marks the debut of our new co-hosts, Stanford PhD students Milenia Rojas Mendoza and Emma Kerr, who bring fresh insight and sharp questions to the conversation. Together, they discuss the impact of recent policy developments like the IMO carbon levy, the balance between centralized and decentralized production, and the global lessons emerging from hydrogen and ammonia deployment efforts. Patrick shares his personal path into the hydrogen space and reflects on the visionary leadership of Amory Lovins, offering a wide-ranging and thoughtful discussion on where this market is headed next.

Shalika Neelaveni is a Stanford PhD studying mechanical engineering. Shalika and I have a conversation about women in stem. Shalika shares her journey.

Episode SummaryAnton Jackson Smith is a synthetic biologist, Stanford PhD, and founder of b.next—a startup building synthetic cells from scratch to make biology truly programmable. Think of it as rewriting life's codebase, with applications ranging from cancer treatments and diagnostics to lab-grown foods and smart crops.In today's episode, Anton breaks down what synthetic cells actually are (and why they matter), how his open-source platform Nucleus is changing the way biology is engineered, and why the future of medicine, agriculture, and climate tech might be written in DNA.We also dig into his journey, from coding in Queenstown and law school in Otago, to cutting-edge research in Silicon Valley, and how a random article on programmable E. coli changed everything.In this conversation, we cover:• How synthetic cells could power the next generation of therapeutics and diagnostics• Why biology needs its own “AWS moment” and how open source can unlock it• The real business model behind synthetic biology (and why it's not just science)• How Kiwi strengths in agriculture and biotech could shape a global future• What New Zealand needs to do to retain and return its brightest mindsAnton also shares his vision for a safer, more ethical bio-economy, and how we can build powerful new tools without repeating the mistakes of the past.Time Stamps01:21 What is a synthetic cell—and why should you care?06:44 How Anton fell into biology (thanks to an E. coli article in Vietnam)11:12 Why modifying real cells isn't enough—and what BNext is doing differently16:30 The near-term use cases: cancer, diagnostics, and food22:47 How Nucleus is creating the open-source toolkit for biology30:14 Three phases of BNext's business model: Boot → Build → Bazaar37:10 The big vision: programmable biology that saves lives44:18 What New Zealand's biotech future could look like47:30 Returning talent, building bridges, and bringing brains back homeResources

Dan Berkenstock is an entrepreneur, aerospace engineer, and Stanford PhD who co-founded Skybox Imaging, a satellite imaging company acquired by Google in 2014. He is a Distinguished Research Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, focusing on space and defense policy research and recommendations. Dan sits on several boards of venture-backed aerospace start-ups and teaches aerospace entrepreneurship in the Stanford School of Engineering. On this episode of the Defense Tech Underground, Dan describes the journey of building Skybox Imaging, launching SkySat-1, and joining Google post-acquisition. He discusses his recent Hoover publication, the Defense Tech Playbook, designed to help new founders in defense build a strategic, financial path to quickly transition capabilities to the warfighter. Dan shares detailed recommendations for expanding the impact of the STRATFI program and how the DoD can better articulate demand signals to the startup ecosystem.  This episode is hosted by Helen Phillips and Jon Hoey.    Full Bio: Dan Berkenstock is a distinguished research fellow at the Hoover Institution. His work aims to ensure sustained American aerospace leadership well into the twenty-first century and provides space-related scholarship and policy recommendations through Hoover's Technology Policy Accelerator. From 2008 to 2017, Berkenstock was the founding chief executive officer, later chief product officer, of Skybox Imaging. In his policy research, Dan focuses on the critical advancements needed to reduce the risk of conflict in space during a forthcoming period of rapid expansion. His technical research focuses on expanding convex and polynomial optimization techniques to identify globally optimal vehicle designs in aerodynamic shape optimization problems, with a focus on low-observability hypersonic vehicles. At Skybox, he oversaw the fundraising of more than $100 million in venture capital, helped reset the benchmark for performance in the optical, small satellite arena, and led the company through a $500 million acquisition by Google. The twenty-one Skybox satellites continue to operate as the world's largest high-resolution commercial imaging constellation, providing timely imagery of major conflicts that is often featured in major media outlets and imagery used daily by defense and intelligence customers. For his work at Skybox, Dan was recognized as Via Satellite magazine's Satellite Executive of the Year in 2014 and was named to MIT Technology Review's “Innovators under 35” in 2011. He continues to engage with the space start-up community by serving as an independent director on several boards of venture-backed aerospace start-ups and teaching aerospace entrepreneurship in the Stanford School of Engineering. Dan completed his PhD in aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford University, where he also received a master of science. He graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelor of science in aerospace engineering. During this time, he completed four tours as a cooperative education student at NASA's Johnson Space Center.

How do you turn a research idea into a successful BioTech startup? What does it take to raise funding and scale in Silicon Valley? How can a PhD background shape an entrepreneur's journey?  In this episode, Nurlybek Mursali, founder of Biodock, shares his journey from being a Stanford PhD student to launching an AI-powered biotech company. He talks about the ups and downs of fundraising, how his team secured half of their investment round in just one day, and what it was like going through Y Combinator. We also get into the Kazakh startup scene, the future of Biodock, and what makes Stanford such a unique place for entrepreneurs. Plus, Nurlybek opens up about the lessons he's learned, the historical figures that inspire him, and some of his most unconventional takes on startups and innovation. Enjoy the conversation! Arman Suleimenov: https://www.instagram.com/armansu/ Nurlybek Mursali: https://www.instagram.com/nurlybek_mursaliyev/ Produced by Daniyar Akhmetzhanov: https://www.instagram.com/good.years/ Our Telegram channel: https://t.me/nfactorialpodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nfactorialpodcast/ TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@nfactorialpodcast

Part 1 of 2: Our guest today is Oguzhan Atay, Co-founder & CEO of BillionToOne. BillionToOne is a precision diagnostics company that quantifies biology to create powerful molecular diagnostics. They work to improve disease detection by counting molecules with their proprietary molecular counting platform. They place patients at the forefront of everything they do and are currently applying their proprietary technology to non-invasive prenatal screening and liquid biopsy. Oguzhan holds a Ph.D. from Stanford in Systems Biology, where he implemented machine learning algorithms and mathematical models to solve specific problems in cellular biology and developed a data-driven mathematical framework to simplify the analysis of complex biological networks. He also has a degree in Molecular Biology from Princeton, as well as minors in Computer Science, Physics, and Applied Mathematics.

Stanford PHD, Charlotte speaks with Fr Toby about her research interests and points to three key factors behind the astonishing growth of the Society of Jesus in its early years. THE FRIARSIDE airs live on Radio Maria on Mondays and Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 11:15am and is rebroadcast at 11:15pm on the same days. Our Priest Director Fr Toby reads through a spiritual book, pausing and providing commentary as he goes. If you enjoyed this programme, please consider making a once off or monthly donation to Radio Maria England by visiting www.RadioMariaEngland.uk or calling 0300 302 1251 during office hours. It is only through the ongoing support of our listeners that we continue to be a Christian voice by your side.

Today's guests are Ali Sarilgan, CEO & Ozge Islegen-Wojdyla, CTO at EcoTrove. Founded in 2023, EcoTrove's mission is to use technology to build a cheaper, greener and predictable energy ecosystem. They register as your automated energy agent to replace your utility bills with lower-cost, greener, fixed-price payment plans. Backed by leading Silicon Valley investors, EcoTrove are saving each customer an average of 7% off their power bills and 32% off their carbon emissions. CEO and Co-Founder Ali previously led corporate strategy for consumer technology companies and clean technology providers, and advised energy utilities. He also graduated with MS and BS from Stanford. CTO and Co-Founder Ozge is a former Assistant Professor at Northwestern and Stanford PhD focused on energy markets. She previously led statistical interventions and testing as Senior Data Scientist at Instacart. In this episode, Ali and Ozge talks about: Their career journey and passion to create AI for cleaner energy, Their AI-driven energy agent offering cheaper, greener utility solutions, How AI forecasts energy needs and optimizes usage for savings, Becoming an AI-powered energy advisor by optimizing utility relationships and efficiency, Expanding the team to enhance platform and marketing efforts, Seeking passionate candidates for greener energy solutions, Prioritizing carbon reduction, expanding markets and growing their team

Rhana Hashemi is a psychologist, researcher, investigator, and drug educator, currently doing her PhD in Social Psychology at Stanford University. Her specialty is in addiction, overdose prevention, and harm reduction, especially among youth. She founded "Know Drugs", the first drug education organization in the U.S. that integrates harm reduction approaches into educational institutions, policies, and curriculum. رعنا هاشمی روان‌شناس، پژوهشگر، محقق و آموزش‌دهنده مواد است که در حال حاضر در مقطع دکتری روان‌شناسی اجتماعی در دانشگاه استنفورد تحصیل می‌کند. تخصص او در زمینه اعتیاد، پیشگیری از اوردوز و کاهش آسیب، به‌ویژه در میان نوجوانان است. او مؤسس سازمان Know Drugs، اولین سازمان آموزشی درباره مواد مخدر در ایالات متحده که رویکردهای کاهش آسیب را در نهادهای آموزشی، سیاست‌ها و برنامه‌های درسی ادغام کرده است. https://www.instagram.com/rhana.hashemi https://www.instagram.com/mehran_soma https://www.instagram.com/ravannamacommunity https://knowdrugs.com/ https://www.mindbodyintegration.ca Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of The Cognitive Revolution, Nathan delves into the fascinating world of AI-generated research ideas with Stanford PhD student Chenglei Si. They discuss a groundbreaking study that pits AI against human researchers in generating novel AI research concepts. Learn about the surprising results that show AI-generated ideas scoring higher on novelty and excitement, and explore the implications for the future of AI research and development. Join us for an insightful conversation that challenges our understanding of AI capabilities and their potential impact on scientific discovery. Link to the research paper being discussed: https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.04109 Be notified early when Turpentine's drops new publication: https://www.turpentine.co/exclusiveaccess SPONSORS: Weights & Biases RAG++: Advanced training for building production-ready RAG applications. Learn from experts to overcome LLM challenges, evaluate systematically, and integrate advanced features. Includes free Cohere credits. Visit https://wandb.me/cr to start the RAG++ course today. Shopify: Shopify is the world's leading e-commerce platform, offering a market-leading checkout system and exclusive AI apps like Quikly. Nobody does selling better than Shopify. Get a $1 per month trial at https://shopify.com/cognitive Notion: Notion offers powerful workflow and automation templates, perfect for streamlining processes and laying the groundwork for AI-driven automation. With Notion AI, you can search across thousands of documents from various platforms, generating highly relevant analysis and content tailored just for you - try it for free at https://notion.com/cognitiverevolution Brave: The Brave search API can be used to assemble a data set to train your AI models and help with retrieval augmentation at the time of inference. All while remaining affordable with developer first pricing, integrating the Brave search API into your workflow translates to more ethical data sourcing and more human representative data sets. Try the Brave search API for free for up to 2000 queries per month at https://bit.ly/BraveTCR Oracle: Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is a single platform for your infrastructure, database, application development, and AI needs. OCI has four to eight times the bandwidth of other clouds; offers one consistent price, and nobody does data better than Oracle. If you want to do more and spend less, take a free test drive of OCI at https://oracle.com/cognitive CHAPTERS: (00:00:00) About the Show (00:00:22) Sponsors: Weights & Biases RAG++ (00:01:28) About the Episode (00:05:30) Introducing Chenglei Si (00:06:22) Path to Automating Research (00:07:58) Notable AI Research Projects (00:15:26) Evaluating Research Ideas (Part 1) (00:19:39) Sponsors: Shopify | Notion (00:22:33) Evaluating Research Ideas (Part 2) (00:25:49) Research Setup and Design (00:29:38) AI Prompting and Idea Generation (00:34:40) Diversity vs. Quality of Ideas (Part 1) (00:34:40) Sponsors: Brave | Oracle (00:36:44) Diversity vs. Quality of Ideas (Part 2) (00:42:05) Inference Scaling and Execution (00:45:04) Anonymizing and Evaluating Ideas (00:53:22) Headline Results and Analysis (00:58:45) Observations and Insights (01:09:02) Novelty Indicators and Deception (01:11:59) Top AI-Generated Ideas (01:14:41) Next Steps and Future Directions (01:20:43) Expectations for the Future (01:23:14) Outro

Empowering Women in AgriFood Tech: A Conversation with Amy Wu of From Farms to Incubators - In this episode of the Leading Voices in Food podcast, host Norbert Wilson speaks with Amy Wu, the creator and content director of From Farms to Incubators. Amy shares her inspiring journey in highlighting and supporting women, particularly women of color, in the agri-food tech industry. Learn about the origins of her groundbreaking documentary and book, her vision for a vibrant community of women innovators, and the crucial role of education, mentorship, and policy in advancing women's roles in this sector. Interview Summary I have a great set of questions for you. So, the first thing, could you just tell our listeners a little bit more about From Farms to Incubators? Sure. From Farms to Incubators is a special initiative and project that tells the stories of women in this fast-growing field known as ag tech, sometimes interchangeably used as Agri food tech as well. The mission of it is really to get more women involved in ag tech through storytelling, through resources, and also through education and training. I also would describe it as a multimedia content platform. I actually came to this as a journalist and as a storyteller that uses storytelling to amplify the voices of women leaders and entrepreneurs in this field. It's also a documentary and a book and also a website where we archive their stories and their biographies as well. Thanks for that overview, and you just talked about the book and the documentary From Farms to Incubators: women innovators revolutionizing how our food is grown, which uses storytelling to highlight women innovators and how women innovators in the Agri food tech are doing their best. But there's also a movement and the community and this multimedia platform. Why did you expand from the book and documentary into this larger network? That's a really good question. Briefly, as some context, I kind of fell into this project. It was a bit of serendipity. I was a reporter in Salinas, California, which is the vegetable salad bowl of the world. Ag is a huge industry, a 10 billion industry. And I was covering government and agriculture. And I observed that there were not a lot of women at the helm of the table, whether it be at farms or also in this growing field of ag tech as well. So it started off as a documentary. I got a grant from the International Center for Journalists, and then ultimately I got another grant from the International Media Women's Foundation to do a short documentary to profile three women who are entrepreneurs in ag tech. It was great. It was at the time in 2016, which now was ages ago, I guess. It was really hard to find women in ag, in this field of ag tech, women creating the innovations to tackle some of the biggest challenges that farmers are facing, especially under climate change. So, it could have ended there because the documentary turned out to be very, very well received. It's screened at hundreds of places, and I would have panels and discussions and the women would look at each other like, 'my gosh, I didn't know there were other women doing this too. Can you connect us? We'd love to convene further.' And then educators, community leaders, agribusinesses, investors just didn't know they existed as well. So, what happened was the stories kind of multiplied and multiplied as the more that I collected them. And then I decided to put it into a book profiling about 30 women in this growing field. And to answer your question, Norbert, why is it continuing is that I saw a real need for women to have a community, women in agriculture and innovation and food systems to have a community to connect with one another, to potentially build friendship, build collaboration, build partnership, creating a collective vision sometimes and a place for them. I didn't plan on it. So, I guess the storytelling connects them. We've also have resources like a database that connects them and the goal is really so that they can have a community where they can build more. They can either build out their own startups. They can build their careers, build their professions. And then it kind of grew more legs. Now we're also extending into the area of education and training to try to get younger women, young people, youth. To see that agriculture, hey, may not be traditionally sexy. I mean, tractors and overalls are still what a lot of people think about it, but there are so many other opportunities in the food system for young people as well, especially since we all have to eat. So, how are farmers going to be producing the food for 10 billion people in 2050, right? Who's going to produce the food? How are we going to do it? Especially under the auspices of climate change, the weather's getting crazier and crazier. That's sort of why it has expanded from the stories all the way to what it is today. This is a great story and I would love to hear a little bit more about some of the women and their innovations. And if I may, I would like for you to actually even explain a little bit about what you mean by the ag food tech or Agri food tech as you're talking about these women. Broadly defined, is any kind of innovation that makes it easier, frankly, for farmers to do their work, to grow more efficiently, and to also increase [00:06:00] their yield. I can give some examples of what innovation is. Blockchain addresses food safety, really. It traces everything from the seed to all the way on the shelf, right? So if there's any safety issues, it's used to trace back, where did that seed come from? Where was it grown? What field was it in? And that really helps everybody in the food systems a lot more, right? We have sensors connected with drones. I forgot to mention robotics as well, which is a fast-growing area of ag tech. Everything from self-driving tractors to laser scarecrows to another level of robots that are picking specific kinds of fruits and vegetables that's tackling labor challenges. I don't foresee that ag tech necessarily is a replacement by the way of people. It's actually offering more opportunities because we need people who are very knowledgeable that kind of innovation. And then you also asked a bit about the stories of the women in ag tech, for example, in the film and in the book and so forth. Soil sampling is a fast-growing area of ag tech. There's the story that I have in the book and also in the movie of two young women who are Stanford PhD graduates. Who created a soil testing kit that makes it easy for farmers to just test their soil for diseases, for pests, and soil testing is traditionally, you know, very, very expensive for most farmers actually. Not easy for farmers to get access to it and to get the data, but the soil testing kit that they created makes it a lot easier for farmers, small farmers even, to access it. And why is that important is because the more knowledge, the more data that, and analytics that farmers can get, the more that they can make smart decisions about how much to fertilize, how much to irrigate. And that connects with the yield and their success. You know, another company that I can think about, another amazing woman. I just like her story, the story of AgTools and the story of Martha Montoya, who was actually an award-winning cartoonist. And she doesn't come from agriculture at all, and that's actually something that I want to highlight is a lot of these women are not farmers and don't come from agriculture. But she was a award winning cartoonist. I believe she was also a librarian and she fell into the food industry, and saw a need for having more data, offering more data and analytics to farmers. She created a system a little bit like a Bloomberg for farmers, where they can get real time data immediately on their phones, on their watches, so that they can get second by second data to make decisions on specific crops. Those are a couple of the stories that are in the book, but really what I want to highlight is that all of the innovation that they are creating addresses some of the biggest challenges that farmers are facing, whether it be labor issues,lack of water, some areas of our country are becoming more wet, others are becoming more dry, drones that are actually doing the irrigation now or drones taking photos to give more data to farmers as well on what is their land look like. You know, it could also be human resources related as well to manage staff. So mobile apps to manage staff on cattle farms. I mean, how big are the cattle farms sometimes, you know, 50,000 acres. So, it's really to save money and to create efficiency for farmers. If farmers are able to do their work more efficiently, they're able to generate greater profits, but it also allows for food prices not to rise. This has really big implications. Thank you for sharing those stories. And I love hearing about some of the individuals, but here's the question. I mean, why focus on women? What's important about what women contribute to this? And also, why are you also considering race as an important lens in this sector? Well, I would say, why not women? Because women have already been contributing to the global food system, whether in the production end or the decision makers at the head of the dinner table for thousands of thousands of years, arguably. So what I discovered is that their stories, their contributions, existing contributions were not being celebrated and were not being amplified. And I actually discovered that a lot of the women that I connected with were a bit shy about even telling their story and sharing it like kind of like, 'what is my contribution?' And I'm like, 'well, why aren't you sharing your story more?' So the goal of it really is to document and celebrate their contributions, but also to inspire. As I said, young women, next generation, all of us have daughters, nieces, granddaughters, you know, and then future generations to consider opportunities in a field where we need people. We need people who are smart and you don't have to be from a generation of farmers. You could be in science, engineering, technology, and math. You could just be passionate about it and you could be in the field. So that's the first aspect of it. And in terms of the lens of gender and race, there are not enough women in terms of just the startups in ag tech right now, only 2 percent of the billions of dollars being invested in ag tech startups. Only 2 percent are going into women led companies. It is very, very little. It is a problem that is deep rooted. And it starts with [00:12:00] funding. One problem is where is the funding coming from. Venture capitalists, traditional avenues of funding, where it is traditionally male dominated. So, there are many studies that show that investors will invest in companies where they connect with those who are leading the companies, right? So similar gender, similar backgrounds, similar stories. So, we're really looking to have a paradigm shift and move the needle of sorts and say that if there are more investors, there are more board members who are from a diversity backgrounds, then there will be more funding for women and those who are traditionally not leading agriculture, not in the leadership positions, not in the decision-making roles, right? There is a problem. There is a, what is a grass ceiling, not just glass ceiling, but grass ceiling. I hear you. I hear you. Now this is really fascinating. I know from colleagues who are in agriculture that there is this demand for more agricultural workers throughout the Agri food system. And if there is a demand, we're saying that our colleges that produce the potential workers aren't meeting those demands. One of the ways we can see that change is by having more women and more people of color join in. And so, this is a critical thing. And I would imagine also the experiences that people bring may be a critical part of coming up with new innovations. Diversity can do that. This is exciting that you're exploring this. I love what you're saying Norbert. I know I wanted to touch upon that about what you just noted is that it's also to create a pipeline, right? Education training is just so critical. And it makes me so happy to see that there are more and more programs at universities and colleges that are addressing programs in food systems, in agriculture, and increasingly in ag tech. So, whether it be courses or programs or certificates or eventually minors and majors, developing the pipeline of talent is really important and having mentors and mentees, which is something that now we're working on. This fall we'll have launched a menteeship program for women and for young people interested in ag tech and the first collaborator is the UC Merced in California. So, thanks for bringing that up. We have a couple of young people ready at the starting gates. Really excited. I will say just on a personal note, I was active in 4 H for most of my youth and that's the way I got involved in agriculture. So, touching or reaching out to folks in their youth is critical to get them excited and help them to make the connection so that they can do that work further. I'm glad to hear this work. In your view, what are some of the ongoing challenges and opportunities that women face in the ag tech sector or the Agri food sector? What are some of the things you're observing? Well, a continued challenge is having a place at the table, meaning at the leadership and decision-making level. And actually, as I noted earlier, the access to funding and not just the money, but the access to resources, meaning could be legal operational. Just how to get their startups or get their ideas out there. One example that I'm seeing that's again positive is that there's a growing number of incubators and accelerators specifically in food tech or ag tech that are is actually looking for candidates who are women or who are from underrepresented communities. The first thing is that they have a great innovation, of course, but the next thing that the incubators and accelerators are looking for is to have a diversity of perspectives. And to have representation, so seeing a lot more of that, whether it be. Individual accelerators, or even once at the university, right? Universities and colleges and the governmental level. The other challenge is access to farmers and connecting them with the farmers themselves. Cause farmers are very, very busy and that's highlighted and bolded. Increasingly just dealing with this chess game that's very hard to play with the weather, but also with their own resources. It's expensive being a farmer, equipment, labor. They don't often have the time, frankly, to beta test some of the innovations coming out. So how best to connect innovators with the farmers and to have them communicate with each other: like this is the innovation. This is how it's going to help your problem. Educating the farmers and allowing them to see that this is how it's going to address the problem that I have. So, the two are still kind of separate and access to each other is still, I would say, a major challenge. But right now, some of the solutions are, as I've noted, networking at conferences and convenings. Also, under the grant programs sometimes under the National Science Foundation or USDA, they are allowing more collaborative initiatives where you have educators, where you have policy, where you have the innovators, where you have the young people. Increasingly, seeing more and more of those kinds of projects and initiatives happen. So hopefully everybody will have a seat at the table and that would help women out a lot in the field as well. Awesome. Thank you for sharing those. And I love the fact that you're looking at not just identifying issues, but also trying to find ways of connecting folks to help overcome those challenges that women and women of color are facing in the marketplace. And it's the connections that are really critical. I appreciate you highlighting that. So, what is your ideal vision? Oh, one more thing I forgot to note is that in terms of connecting, there's also a database - a women in Agri food tech database, and I, and at least four or five other women in the field have been working on for at least four or five years now. We now have more than a thousand members. It's an open-source database where you can click on a form, put your name there and information takes a few minutes and then you're added to this database where the women can be connected to each other as well. So that's another resource. Yeah. And I mean, even just having peer mentors, not just mentors who are above you and they've like solved all the problems, but having people to go along with you as you're developing and as they are developing can be a critical part. I know as an academic, that's important for me and has been important for me. And I can imagine the same is true in this space as well. So, I'm so grateful to hear about this work. Yeah. What is your ideal vision for women in Agri food tech in the next, say, five years? And how will the digital network for from farms to incubators play a role in achieving that goal or those goals? So, my dream - it always starts, I think, in the dreaming phase and then connecting that with also resources along the way. But if I could wave my magic wand, I would say that. We would have a lot more women in leadership and thought decision making positions in ag tech to the point where maybe we won't even need something like From Farms to Incubators anymore because they'll be already equal. The stories will be out there. So, it might be questionable as to why we have a special subgroup or network for this now. How to get to that vision, I think is the three components of increasingly having more stories, and the women tell their stories at public outreach. You know, it could be at conferences, it could be in their own communities, sharing their story out to the community of farmers, of local government, of schools, local schools and colleges and universities, gardening clubs. The second component is education and training, building a pipeline. A vision that I have is actually having a campus. A virtual, and also in-person campus where women, especially from women in underprivileged communities will have the opportunity to have training and to be connected with mentors and the rock stars in the ag tech and Agri food tech field. Where they will also be able to have a project and initiative and test it out and have something to add to their portfolio. To have classes and people who are teaching those courses as well, ultimately. And then also to just build up a hub of resources. Like I mentioned the database. I mentioned that we'd like to extend it to having resources where folks can easily access internships, fellowships, granteeships, where they can be connected to funding. If they need help with legal, HR, just all components of everything that's needed to have a successful organization. And it doesn't have to just be their own startup. It could be a job database of where we have larger organizations and companies that are building up their own ag innovation or food innovation center as well. So that is the vision. It's a big vision. It's a big dream. So we're going to have to kind of break it down into components. But I think taking it step by step is the way to go kind of like climbing Everest or doing a long distance swim. Yes, I can see where you're trying to go in this vision and I'm interested to know what, if any role policy could play and help advance that vision. Yeah, so what role could policy play in advancing this vision? Currently, when it comes to diversity inclusion in the ag tech field or even in agriculture, there is somewhat a lack of policy in a way. But then also with individual organizations and corporations, obviously, there is the movement of diversity inclusion. But also, I think it's very much with the hiring practices with HR. I think it's up to individual organizations, whether they be small, larger ones, governmental, to look at their own hiring practices. To look at who they are, how are they crafting the language when they look for a job, when they look at their leadership team, are there ways to further diversify it and when it comes to, gender, ethnicities, people who come from a rural area, urban. I mean, we all come with, from a diversity of perspectives and stories. I think a lot of it will come down to hiring practices and advancing this vision and with the individuals who are already working at those organizations to be more thoughtful and conscious about giving those who don't have a place at the table, a place and a voice at the table, giving everybody a chance. Because we have some amazingly talented and knowledgeable people who just traditionally in agriculture don't have families and generations who come from an ag background. But they do come with so much that they could offer. I would say that those are a couple of examples of that as well. And maybe, more discussion about policy is really needed on a larger level when it comes to farmers, when it comes to government leaders, when it comes to innovation leaders as well. And when it comes to educators and schools. I think the more the merrier when it comes to bringing folks at the table to open it up for discussion on solutions. I appreciate this. And, this idea of not just welcoming people so that they get in the door, but also creating change. Environments and spaces where people are actually welcomed once they're there. That it becomes a place where folks can be themselves and bring all of who they are to the work that they're doing. This is critical. Yes, absolutely. I want to touch upon that. My own story is I don't have an agricultural background myself. But when I first , landed in a place like Salinas, very much sort of an outsider because I'm not from there anyway, but also not in agriculture and then being a woman and being, you know, a Chinese American woman too, you know, I, I did feel that there was a challenge to kind of break into certain circles and to be welcome. Even despite my passion and enthusiasm, there was a little bit like, 'what is she? Why? Why? What? She, she doesn't know anything.' But I felt like it was the people who in the beginning, it was just a couple of people who were like, 'Hey, this is somebody who really wants to tell the story of what we're doing. Give her a chance.' You know, having advocates, frontline advocates made a huge difference. So that's what I'm hoping for, more frontline advocates. Amy, I want to pick up on a personal story out of this. I did my graduate training out at UC Davis, at University of California, Davis. And I worked on dairy policy, which I do not have a dairy background. And it was great to have a mentor who actually helped me. Who introduced me to a number of folks and working through extension and the California Department of Food and Ag. Folks made space for me, and they understood that I was interested in this particular policy and trying to understand what it meant. And I actually got to learn so much. It was because people just said, okay, we'll give you a try. And I did the best I could. I'm grateful for that. Creating these spaces is not hard. It's not impossible. It can be done. I'm really appreciative of your efforts to keep furthering that story. I love that story. And indeed Norbert it's like what you said, creating the space and even, even in the beginning and just having a couple of folks just to make space. And then I think the space is going to grow from there. I fully agree. I've got one last question for you. And it's, sort of related to the vision, but just also thinking long term. What impact do you hope your work will ultimately have on society. I hope that my work will create a bit of a shift ultimately. I mean, that's a rather large goal, but it's not just myself. As this project has grown and extended and expanded. It's really a joint team effort. I mean, along this journey, I've met folks who are mission aligned. And they also see the value in this, and they believe in something similar. Whether it be that they contribute their story, whether it be that they help write the stories, whether it be that they come be a guest speaker, and they share their career, and then they end up connecting with the younger person, every person counts in this. In making a shift. And it might take generations to completely have a paradigm shift, but I think that just moving the needle a bit is ultimately the goal, certainly. And in terms of the bigger picture of things, I'm hoping that it will continue to spark a discussion and ongoing conversation about the importance and the value of bringing different voices and people who traditionally were not given a space at the table when it comes to the food systems and agriculture. But who brings so much talent, so much to the table already. How we can make greater space for them as well, and how we can incorporate their talent and create a better food system for everybody. We all eat and we're looking at 10 billion people in 2050. So, looking at the people who are making those contributions and telling their stories and especially for those who traditionally have not had their voices told, I think is really, really important. I just keep the fire going, I guess. BIO Amy Wu is an award-winning writer for the women's Ag and Agtech movement. She is the creator and chief content director of From Farms to Incubators, a multimedia platform that uses documentary, video, photography, and the written word to tell the stories of women leaders and innovators in Agtech. It has a mission of highlighting women in food, farming, and farmtech, especially women of color. From Farms to Incubators includes a documentary and a book that spotlights women leaders in Ag and Agtech. The documentary and stories have been screened and presented at SXSW and Techonomy. The initiative was awarded grants from the International Center for Journalists and International Women's Media Foundation's Howard G. Buffett Fund. Amy was named on Worth magazine's “Groundbreakers 2020 list of 50 Women Changing the World” list. Since 2018 she has served as the communications manager at the Hudson Valley Farm Hub in Hurley NY where she runs the website, digital newsletter, and social media. Prior to starting From Farms to Incubators, Amy spent over two decades as an investigative reporter at media outlets including the USA Today Network where she reported on agriculture and Agtech for The Salinas Californian. She's also worked at Time magazine, The Deal and contributed to The New York Times, The Huffington Post and The Wall Street Journal. She earned her bachelor's degree in history from New York University, and master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.  

Due to the sheer scale of the climate crisis, many efforts dedicated to environmental preservation seem all for naught. Small-scale climate solutions, even though established with good intentions, cannot simply catch up with today's rapid ecological decline. Let us hear from Dr. Robert Eberhart, associate professor of management at the University of San Diego, on how to solve this alarming problem. He explains how to get rid of individualism and entrepreneurial ideology that prevent us from achieving collective impact. Dr. Eberhart also discusses how to rebalance our economy and build a better world by taking action against big banks, privatizations, political oppositions, and the destructive MAGA mindset.About Guest:Robert N. Eberhart is an Associate Professor of Management at the University of San Diego, where he studies how entrepreneurship shapes society. He earned his Ph.D. from Stanford University. His research spans topics such as how institutional change has complex effects on new firms and how an ideology of entrepreneurship affects society. He won awards from Responsible Research in Business and Management (2020), Organizations and Management Division Best Theory Paper (2017), Outstanding Scholar Award at SCU (2017), and Best Paper Award at the Western Academy of Management (2016). He is also visiting faculty at Oxford University, where he explores space entrepreneurship. He served as the Vice Chairperson of the U.S. Dept. of State and METI's Japan-US Innovation and Entrepreneurship Council.Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reberhart/ Guest Website: https://www.reberhart.org Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, & share! https://caremorebebetter.com Follow us on social and join the conversation! YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/caremorebebetter Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/CareMore.BeBetter/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CareMoreBeBetter LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/care-more-be-better Support Care More. Be Better: A Social Impact + Sustainability PodcastCare More Be Better answers only to our collective conscience and aims to put more good into the world. As a listener, reader, and subscriber you are part of this pod and this community and we are honored to have your support.

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Response to Dileep George: AGI safety warrants planning ahead, published by Steve Byrnes on July 8, 2024 on The AI Alignment Forum. (Target audience: Dileep George himself, and anyone coming from a similar place.) Dileep George is a researcher working at the intersection of AI and neuroscience. He started his career by co-founding Numenta in 2005 with Jeff Hawkins (while a Stanford PhD student), then he left to co-found Vicarious in 2010 with D. Scott Phoenix, and moved to DeepMind in 2022 when DeepMind acquired Vicarious. Dileep was recently interviewed by Daniel Faggella on his "The Trajectory" podcast: YouTube, Apple podcasts, X/Twitter. It's a fun interview that touched on many topics, most of which I'll ignore, in favor of one very important action-relevant disagreement between Dileep and myself. …And this is the point where everyone these days seems to assume that there are only two possible reasons that anyone would ever bring up the topic of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) safety in conversation: The person is advocating for government regulation of large ML training runs …or the person is advocating against government regulation of large ML training runs. But, no! That's not my disagreement! That's not why I'm writing this post!! Quite the contrary, I join Dileep in being basically unenthusiastic about governmental regulation of large ML training runs right now. Instead, this post is advocating for Differential Intellectual Progress within technical AI research of the type that Dileep is doing - and more specifically, I'm advocating in favor of figuring out a technical approach to sculpting AGI motivations in docile and/or prosocial directions (a.k.a. "solving the technical alignment problem") before figuring out the exact data structures and parameter-updating rules that would constitute an AGI's ability to build and query a powerful world-model. The first half of this post (§1-2) will try to explain what I'm talking about, what it would entail, and why I think it's critically important. The second half of this post (§3) is more specifically my pessimistic response to Dileep's suggestion that, as AGI is gradually developed in the future, people will be able to react and adapt to problems as they arise. I really think Dileep is a brilliant guy with the best of intentions (e.g. he's a signatory on the Asilomar AI Principles). I just think there are some issues that he hasn't spent much time thinking through. I hope that this post will help. Post outline: Section 1 lists some areas of agreement and disagreement between Dileep and me. In particular, we have a giant area of agreement in terms of how we expect future AGI algorithms to work. Our massive common ground here is really why I'm bothering to write this post at all - it makes me hopeful that Dileep & I can have a productive exchange, and not just talk past each other. Section 2 argues that, for the kind of AGI that Dileep is trying to build, there's an unsolved technical alignment problem: How do we set up this kind of AGI with the motivation to behave in a docile and/or prosocial way? Section 3 is my pessimistic push-back on Dileep's optimistic hope that, if AGI is developed gradually, then we can regulate or adapt to problems as they arise: Section 3.1 lists some big obvious societal problems that have been around for a long time, but nevertheless remain unsolved, along with generic discussions of some underlying challenges that have prevented them from being solved, and why those challenges may apply to AGI too. Section 3.2 dives more specifically into the question of whether we can "keep strong AI as a tool, not a successor", as Dileep hopes. I think it sounds nice but will be impossible to pull off. Section 3.3 comments that, even if we could react and adapt to AGI given enough time - an assum...

New Sode of #GlitterLedger.  Alas, I put a majority of my trust fund into Eclipse, the scientific phenomenon not the L2, and a minority in GME so suffice it to say; its been an a week of deep introspection. Writ large. On the topic of disgraced Eclipses, Licensed Detective Glitter, C'est moi, was appointed to the dramatic Me Deux Harvey Weinstein on chain case by vote EIP-69. The only conclusion I can surmise is that L2s on the Solana Virtual Bedazzled Machine have not prevented harassment;  resulting in my passionate bullish sentiment. Ipso facto, I called Sue Wagner and asked her to purchase some more Eclipses, and she reminded me to stop mixing my medications and that I still owe her $1000 and my bad kid for my Kentucky Derby losses. Merde.  She'll have to wait, as I am Louboutin ankle deep in due diligence given my detective status in a cutting edge protocol. I orchestrated the investors in such a manner that Jump and Sequoia are co- leading both thinking they are the lead. The techstack is a Jesus Christ stroke of genius you see, a blockchain that already accomplishes what Avalanche does, both the token and the mountain, and tokenizes tasteful X - rated films using zk fruit rollupsSaid founder is a 23-year-old Stanford PhD dropout known for a physical fight with a tenured Professor over a heated debate surrounding an allegedly falsified email exchange between Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth Holmes and Queen Elizabeth. #DarkAcademia is where the crème de la crème of crypto emerges.  I digress. My guest. Wendy Diamond.  Entrepreneur. Author. Homeless Animal Saver. Founder. Crypto investor. Friends with Michael Saylor and the President of Mexico. W and I met at the Upper East Side's Italian Consulate raising money for Teen Mums with poorly decorated homes, a noteworthy and underfunded cause. Wendy is the founder of Wedo a globally internationally reckoned with organization that empowers women from all walks of life to stay the heck away from poverty buy BTC, not dr*gs.  We immediately bonded over our love for empowering women from Gstaad to @Monaco to Moscow, the brilliance of a two state solution, and an undying obsession with Coinfund. I knew Wendy was a glittering soul when I met her armed with her dog and infectious energy. She had daring ability to fight off a 5 year stalker while promoting homeless animal rights on the 2day Show. Like most eccentric, smokeshows deeply committed to ending sex slavery, she found Bitcoin. We discussed our thoughts on Merkle Trees and Hash Power and how taxes are ruining NYC. Bitcoin will save us from the bottom of Botswana to the 9th floor at Bloomingdale's 40 Karats. Wendy is a force, with the energy of a preschooler  and will stop at nothing to educate, empower, and support, elevate and celebrate women. Wendy also has endless documented dating advice. She was truly a Rolls-Royce Royce L1 Raw Bitcoin Caviar kind of pod guest who gave me a run for my dwindling money with her humor. #GlitterLedger 

Aaron Barzilai has a Stanford PhD and has worked for multiple NBA teams. He has also founded HerHoopStats.com, a comprehensive site for women's college basketball and WNBA analytics, and joins the show to discuss the 2024 Final Four. Highlights include: South Carolina, coach Dawn Staley vs North Carolina State (0:42). Iowa vs Connecticut (8:50). Offensive, defensive efficiency for Final Four contenders (12:56). Stanford PhD to the NBA (17:34). The origins of HerHoopStats (24:40). The growth in women's basketball (32:32). The Football Analytics Show is presented by The Power Rank, a site devoted to predictive analytics for football betting. To get 5-Nugget Saturday, a curated list of bets and analytics, sign up for the free newsletter here: https://thepowerrank.com/

Ed Feng has a Stanford PhD and is the mastermind behind The Power Rank. Ed explains how analytics led to sports betting, how he dabbles at the blackjack table, his feelings on networking at BetBash, and the ever-present need to feel "alive" and how betting can feed that.   Use promo code "YOELEVEN" for 11% off at The Bettor Life online shop: www.bettormerch.com Want to launch your own podcast? Use promo code "BETTOR" at sign up for 2 months free when you sign up for a plan at Libsyn, my podcast hosting service of choice. https://signup.libsyn.com/?promo_code=BETTOR Please, take a moment to leave us a rating and review in your podcast app of choice like iTunes, Stitcher, or Spotify.

For this episode of the Data Center Frontier Show podcast, we sit down with Brian Kennedy, Director of Business Development and Marketing at Natron Energy. As recounted by Kennedy in the course of our talk, Colin Wessells founded Natron Energy as a Stanford PhD student in 2012. His vision in building the company, which started in a garage in Palo Alto, was to deliver ultra-safe, high-power batteries.  As stated on the company's website, "After countless hours of development with an ever expanding team of scientists and engineers, Natron now operates a state of the art pilot production line for sodium-ion batteries in Santa Clara, California." The company notes that most industrial power utilizes decades-old, more environmentally hazardous battery technology such as lead-acid and lithium-ion.  In contract, Natron says its "revolutionary sodium-ion battery leverages Prussian Blue electrode materials to deliver a high power, high cycle life, completely fire-safe battery solution without toxic materials, rare earth elements, or conflict minerals." In 2020, Natron became the world's first sodium-ion battery to achieve a UL 1973 listing for its battery product, and commercial shipments to customers in the data center, forklift, and EV fast-charging markets soon began.  Natron notes that its technology leverages standard, existing li-ion manufacturing techniques, allowing the company to scale quickly. With U.S. and Western-based supply chain and factory agreements in place, Natron says it saw its manufacturing capacity increase 200x in 2022.  In the course of the podcast discussion, Natron's Kennedy provides an update on Natron's data center industry doings this year and into next year. Here's a timeline of key points discussed: :29 - 7x24 Fall Conference Memories :51 - Teeing Up Sodium Ion 1:18 - Talking Pros and Cons, Sustainability 2:15 - Handing It Over to Brian 2:30 - Background on Natron Energy and founder/CEO Colin Wessells 2:55 - Background on Sodium Ion Technology 3:11 - Perfecting a New Sodium Ion Chemistry and Manufacturing with 34 International Patents In Play 3:28 - The Prominent Feature of Sodium-Ion Technology Is Its Inherent Safety; Eliminates Risk of Thermal Runaway 3:51 - U.S. Government ARPA-E Advanced Technology Grants Have Been Pivotal Funding for Natron 4:13 - Sodium Ion Battery Technology Comparison and Value Proposition 5:28 - How Often Is A Data Centers Battery Punctured? Ever Seen a Forklift Driven Through One? 6:10 - On The Science of the Natron Cell's Extremely High Power Density, Fast Discharge and Recharge 6:55 - Comparing Sodium-Ion to Most of the Lithium Chemistries 7:25 - The Meaning of UL Tests 8:00 - Natron Has Published Unredacted UL Test Results 8:35 - On the Longevity of Sodium Ion Batteries 9:51 - "There's No Maintenance Involved." 10:18 - Natron Blue Rack: Applications 10:52 - How Natron Is In the Process of Launching Three Standard Battery Cabinets 11:20 - Performance Enhancements Will Take Standard Data Center Cabinets "Well North" of 250 kW 11:45 - Though Data Centers are Its Largest Market, Natron Also Serves the Oil and Gas Peak Load Shaving and Industrial Spaces  12:21 - Sustainability Advantages 12:51 - ESG Is About More Than Just Direct Emissions 13:15 - The Importance of Considering the Sourcing and Mining of Battery Elements 14:09 - "That Fact That You May Be Pushing [Certain] Atrocities Up the Supply Chain Where You Can't See Them, Doesn't Make It OK" 14:34 - Notes On Supply Chain Security with Secure, U.S.-Based Manufacturing 15:45 - Wrapping Up: Global UPS Manufacturer Selects Natron Battery Cabinet; Looking Ahead to 2024. Here are links to some related DCF articles: Will Battery Storage Solutions Replace Generators? New NFPA Battery Standard Could Impact Data Center UPS Designs Microsoft Taps UPS Batteries to Help Add Wind Power to Ireland's Grid Data Center of the Future: Equinix Test-Drives New Power, Cooling Solutions Corscale Will Use Nickel-Zinc Batteries in New Data Center Campus

Stanford PhD, working with exceptional individuals & impact-oriented teams for high performance 

Wikipedia refers to him as the Co-Founder of the Blockchain. But Dr. Stornetta identifies himself first as a 'Grandfather,' on his LinkedIn profile, illustrating perfectly how humbly this Stanford PhD (physics) and CEO thinks about what matters most.  What a privilege it is to get inside the mind of such an accomplished yet meek achiever, as Scott (his preference) previews where he feels blockchain technology will benefit us most and also how faith and science-based worldviews can co-exist.  

Emily and Alex are joined by Stanford PhD student Haley Lepp to examine the increasing hype around LLMs in education spaces - whether they're pitched as ways to reduce teacher workloads, increase accessibility, or simply "democratize learning and knowing" in the Global South. Plus a double dose of devaluating educator expertise and fatalism about the 'inevitability' of LLMs in the classroom.Haley Lepp is a Ph.D. student in the Stanford University Graduate School of Education. She draws on critical data studies, computational social science, and qualitative methods to understand the rise of language technologies and their use for educational purposes. Haley has worked in many roles in the education technology sector, including curriculum design and NLP engineering. She holds an M.S. in Computational Linguistics from the University of Washington and B.S. in Science, Technology, and International Affairs from Georgetown University.References:University of Michigan debuts 'customized AI services'Al Jazeera: An AI classroom revolution is comingCalifornia Teachers Association: The Future of Education?Politico: AI is not just for cheatingExtra credit: "Teaching Machines: The History of Personalized Learning" by Audrey WattersFresh AI Hell:AI generated travel article for Ottawa -- visit the food bank! Microsoft Copilot is “usefully wrong”* Response from Jeff Doctor“Ethical” production of “AI girlfriends”Withdrawn AI-written preprint on millipedes resurfaces, causing alarm among myriapodological communityNew York Times: How to Tell if Your A.I. Is Conscious* Response from VentureBeat: Today's AI is alchemy.EUYou can check out future livestreams at https://twitch.tv/DAIR_Institute. Follow us!Emily Twitter: https://twitter.com/EmilyMBender Mastodon: https://dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/emilymbender.bsky.social Alex Twitter: https://twitter.com/@alexhanna Mastodon: https://dair-community.social/@alex Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/alexhanna.bsky.social Music by Toby Menon.Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. Production by Christie Taylor.

Dr. Ernestine Fu, Stanford PhD and Venture Capitalist (Alsop Louie & Brave Capital) joins forces with Dr. Tom Ehrlich, Fmr. Stanford Law School Dean, Provost of UPenn and lifetime public Servant- To talk about the importance of civic duty. Whether you are advising the President on public policy, nurturing new ventures that will support front-line troops or working at your local community kitchen, it starts with you. Democracy is not a spectator sport and requires Good People to get involved with making our today and future better. Tom shares that one of his keys to success has been working with folks that don't look, think or act like him. The best ideas are when we have diversity of thought and allow the best solutions to rise to the top. Ernestine also shares that curiosity, intent and effort are the hallmarks of folks that ultimately make a difference. In her experience, the best entrepreneurs are the ones that have a passion for changing the world. Both Dr. Fu and Dr. Ehrlich value the education and say that it is not just the academics that prove to be valuable, but the diversity of thought and the creativity of others that one get's exposed to. Civic contributions are not easy and while making the world a better place, it's critical that we don't lose our way. A strong moral compass to keep you on track is paramount, especially when dealing with the complexities of politics and business. The act of one person matters and the collections of these works add up to preserving and enhancing a world, for the next generation. Learn more about Dr. Ernestine Fu and Dr. Tom Ehrlich through their co-authored book: Civic Works, Civic Lessons. Check out other ways Joseph and Team are serving other Leaders at www.cabreratoro.com Follow @cabreratoro_explore (Instagram) Follow www.youtube.com/@JosephCabreraExplore LinkedIn: CabreraToro

Google was founded 25 years ago by two Stanford PhD students, Larry Page and Sergei Brin. The company went on to shape the internet and now, after a quarter century, finds itself at a turning point. With the rise of AI and social media platforms like TikTok, its continued dominance is not assured.NPR's Ari Shapiro talks to Nilay Patel, editor-in-chief of The Verge, about Google's legacy and what the future holds for the company.Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

 Guillem Pratx from Stanford PhD clever single cell imaging for everyoneWe chat to an A Prof Pratx from Stanford who's team has made possible single cell nuclear medicine imaging for under $100. nuccast.com,NIF,UOM,nuclearmedicine,theranostics,cancer,radioactive,mbciu,SNNMI,nuccast.com,NIF,UOM,nuclearmedicine,theranostics,cancer,radioactive,mbciu,PET,imaging,stanfordPlease let me know what you think about the video versions of the podcast.I am also looking for new material so please get in touch with me if you can contributewith an interview.Direct link to iTuneshttps://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/the-nuclear-medicine-and-molecular-medicinie-podcast/id1444565219?mt=2Older podcastshttps://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-nuclear-medicine-and-molecular-medicine-podcast/id94286547You can get the podcast page at both http://nuccast.com and http://www.nuccast.com with the feed to put into iTunes or juice or your favourite podcast software can be found at http://molcast.com/.The cardiac subset of the podcast can be found at http://cardiac.nuccast.com/Please pass on information about this podcast to your colleagues and to your CPD provider.Link to Video Link to Video fileLink to Audio file Link to Audio fileOr you can subscribe by entering your email address below and you will be informed of new episodesEnter your email address:Delivered by FeedBurnerMost importantly of all please help this podcast by contributing your opinions, Sound files, and emailsnucmedpodcast@gmail.comAll contributions welcome, especially as sound files to nucmedpodcast@gmail.com.@font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language:EN-GB; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;}

 Guillem Pratx from Stanford PhD clever single cell imaging for everyone!We chat to an A Prof Pratx from Stanford who's team has made possible single cell nuclear medicine imaging for under $100. nuccast.com,NIF,UOM,nuclearmedicine,theranostics,cancer,radioactive,mbciu,SNNMI,nuccast.com,NIF,UOM,nuclearmedicine,theranostics,cancer,radioactive,mbciu,PET,imaging,stanfordPlease let me know what you think about the video versions of the podcast.I am also looking for new material so please get in touch with me if you can contributewith an interview.Direct link to iTuneshttps://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/the-nuclear-medicine-and-molecular-medicinie-podcast/id1444565219?mt=2Older podcastshttps://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-nuclear-medicine-and-molecular-medicine-podcast/id94286547You can get the podcast page at both http://nuccast.com and http://www.nuccast.com with the feed to put into iTunes or juice or your favourite podcast software can be found at http://molcast.com/.The cardiac subset of the podcast can be found at http://cardiac.nuccast.com/Please pass on information about this podcast to your colleagues and to your CPD provider.Link to Video Link to Video fileLink to Audio file Link to Audio fileOr you can subscribe by entering your email address below and you will be informed of new episodesEnter your email address:Delivered by FeedBurnerMost importantly of all please help this podcast by contributing your opinions, Sound files, and emailsnucmedpodcast@gmail.comAll contributions welcome, especially as sound files to nucmedpodcast@gmail.com.@font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language:EN-GB; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;}

 Guillem Pratx from Stanford PhD clever single cell imaging for everyoneWe chat to an A Prof Pratx from Stanford who's team has made possible single cell nuclear medicine imaging for under $100. nuccast.com,NIF,UOM,nuclearmedicine,theranostics,cancer,radioactive,mbciu,SNNMI,nuccast.com,NIF,UOM,nuclearmedicine,theranostics,cancer,radioactive,mbciu,PET,imaging,stanfordPlease let me know what you think about the video versions of the podcast.I am also looking for new material so please get in touch with me if you can contributewith an interview.Direct link to iTuneshttps://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/the-nuclear-medicine-and-molecular-medicinie-podcast/id1444565219?mt=2Older podcastshttps://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-nuclear-medicine-and-molecular-medicine-podcast/id94286547You can get the podcast page at both http://nuccast.com and http://www.nuccast.com with the feed to put into iTunes or juice or your favourite podcast software can be found at http://molcast.com/.The cardiac subset of the podcast can be found at http://cardiac.nuccast.com/Please pass on information about this podcast to your colleagues and to your CPD provider.Link to Video Link to Video fileLink to Audio file Link to Audio fileOr you can subscribe by entering your email address below and you will be informed of new episodesEnter your email address:Delivered by FeedBurnerMost importantly of all please help this podcast by contributing your opinions, Sound files, and emailsnucmedpodcast@gmail.comAll contributions welcome, especially as sound files to nucmedpodcast@gmail.com.@font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language:EN-GB; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;}

 Guillem Pratx from Stanford PhD clever single cell imaging for everyone!We chat to an A Prof Pratx from Stanford who's team has made possible single cell nuclear medicine imaging for under $100. nuccast.com,NIF,UOM,nuclearmedicine,theranostics,cancer,radioactive,mbciu,SNNMI,nuccast.com,NIF,UOM,nuclearmedicine,theranostics,cancer,radioactive,mbciu,PET,imaging,stanfordPlease let me know what you think about the video versions of the podcast.I am also looking for new material so please get in touch with me if you can contributewith an interview.Direct link to iTuneshttps://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/the-nuclear-medicine-and-molecular-medicinie-podcast/id1444565219?mt=2Older podcastshttps://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-nuclear-medicine-and-molecular-medicine-podcast/id94286547You can get the podcast page at both http://nuccast.com and http://www.nuccast.com with the feed to put into iTunes or juice or your favourite podcast software can be found at http://molcast.com/.The cardiac subset of the podcast can be found at http://cardiac.nuccast.com/Please pass on information about this podcast to your colleagues and to your CPD provider.Link to Video Link to Video fileLink to Audio file Link to Audio fileOr you can subscribe by entering your email address below and you will be informed of new episodesEnter your email address:Delivered by FeedBurnerMost importantly of all please help this podcast by contributing your opinions, Sound files, and emailsnucmedpodcast@gmail.comAll contributions welcome, especially as sound files to nucmedpodcast@gmail.com.@font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language:EN-GB; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;}

 Guillem Pratx from Stanford PhD clever single cell imaging for everyoneWe chat to an A Prof Pratx from Stanford who's team has made possible single cell nuclear medicine imaging for under $100. nuccast.com,NIF,UOM,nuclearmedicine,theranostics,cancer,radioactive,mbciu,SNNMI,nuccast.com,NIF,UOM,nuclearmedicine,theranostics,cancer,radioactive,mbciu,PET,imaging,stanfordPlease let me know what you think about the video versions of the podcast.I am also looking for new material so please get in touch with me if you can contributewith an interview.Direct link to iTuneshttps://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/the-nuclear-medicine-and-molecular-medicinie-podcast/id1444565219?mt=2Older podcastshttps://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-nuclear-medicine-and-molecular-medicine-podcast/id94286547You can get the podcast page at both http://nuccast.com and http://www.nuccast.com with the feed to put into iTunes or juice or your favourite podcast software can be found at http://molcast.com/.The cardiac subset of the podcast can be found at http://cardiac.nuccast.com/Please pass on information about this podcast to your colleagues and to your CPD provider.Link to Video Link to Video fileLink to Audio file Link to Audio fileOr you can subscribe by entering your email address below and you will be informed of new episodesEnter your email address:Delivered by FeedBurnerMost importantly of all please help this podcast by contributing your opinions, Sound files, and emailsnucmedpodcast@gmail.comAll contributions welcome, especially as sound files to nucmedpodcast@gmail.com.@font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language:EN-GB; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;}

In episode 25 of The Really Rich Podcast with Nicholas Crown, I sit down with Founder, CTO, Stanford PhD, and unlikely mushroom farmer; Wilson Ruotolo, of Hedgehog. A company that builds robotic fungi farms. Listen to Wilson discuss designing gentle robots, pricey artisan mushrooms, and keeping an open mind in business. (If you missed episode 24, check it out HERE) Love the content? Subscribe on YouTube --- All Links: The Really Rich Journal (My weekly newsletter) FastOutreach.ai (My AI Startup) TikTok Instagram LinkedIn Facebook Twitter

Born and raised in a blue-collar family in Chicago, Brian Linden first came to China nearly 40 years ago as a language student. He has followed a varied career path that has included but not limited to being the leading actor in China's first movie to cast a foreigner, cameraman for CBS' Beijing bureau, Stanford PhD candidate and education agent in East European countries. But eventually, he decided to return to China, where he realized his dream of a better and fuller life through involvement in China's rural and cultural development over the past few decades. In this special episode, we talk to Brian Linden, founder of the Linden Center, a chain of boutique hotels converted from historic buildings in rural China.

Episode 23 titled "How Do Ants Live?", has Stanford PhD student, Mila Pamplona, take you on a journey into the fascinating world of ants. Episode Summary: This episode features a discussion with Mila Pamplona, a Stanford PhD student who has studied the biological rhythms of foraging and leafcutting activities on colonies of leafcutter ants and developed machine learning software to identify and count ants in their ant trail. Listen as Mila Pamplona explains the social structure of ant colonies, how ants communicate with each other, and the role of the queen ant. In this episode we discuss: 00:00 - Feeling Low by Times & Places 01:19 - Introducing Mila Pamplona 09:32 - Journey to Stanford 16:17 - Ants Communicating 19:28 - Foreign Ants & Predators 22:54 - Species of Ants 27:53 - Invasive Ants 40:35 - Colony Social Structure 47:08 - The Numbers 52:32 - Cultivating Fungi 1:07:59 - Closing Remarks 1:11:31 - Conclusion and Information Resources: Mila Pamplona's Podcast & Blog Ants Canada The World War of the Ants The Billion Ant Mega Colony and the Biggest War on Earth Best Of Ants | BBC Earth

Our guest for this episode is Matthew S. Stanford, PhD, CEO of the Hope and Healing Center & Institute (HHCI) in Houston, Texas. He is also adjunct professor of psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine and the Houston Methodist Hospital Institute for Academic Medicine. A fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, Dr. Stanford's research on the interplay between psychology and faith has been featured in the New York Times, USA Today, Christianity Today, and U.S. News & World Report. He is the author of several books, including Grace for the Afflicted, Grace for the Children, and The Biology of Sin. His most recent book featured in this episode is Madness & Grace: A Practical Guide for Pastoral Care and Serious Mental Illness. This is the first in a series of four episodes on Faith, Mental Health, and the Church. Our guest co-host for the series is Leona Satterburg, who received a doctorate from Southern California Seminary with a focus on mental health and the Church. Her passion grows from her own experience having a son diagnosed at age seven with bipolar disorder and later with schizoaffective disorder.

Our guest for this episode is Matthew S. Stanford, PhD, CEO of the Hope and Healing Center & Institute (HHCI) in Houston, Texas. He is also adjunct professor of psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine and the Houston Methodist Hospital Institute for Academic Medicine. A fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, Dr. Stanford's research on the interplay between psychology and faith has been featured in the New York Times, USA Today, Christianity Today, and U.S. News & World Report. He is the author of several books, including Grace for the Afflicted, Grace for the Children, and The Biology of Sin. His most recent book featured in this episode is Madness & Grace: A Practical Guide for Pastoral Care and Serious Mental Illness. This is the first in a series of four episodes on Faith, Mental Health, and the Church. Our guest co-host for the series is Leona Satterburg, who received a doctorate from Southern California Seminary with a focus on mental health and the Church. Her passion grows from her own experience having a son diagnosed at age seven with bipolar disorder and later with schizoaffective disorder.

Contact: cosmicdancerpodcast@gmail.com I like to disseminate love, kindness and knowledge. Please respect yourself, your people and the earth. Take care, and thanks for supporting me with Paypal. Peace! https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=5E6WCP8KAS4NG Podcast Episode Cover, produced by me using the Photoleap app, available on iOS and Android - Photoleapapp.com. This new series of episodes on the Cosmic Dancer podcast channel aims to disseminate the theoretical teachings of Vedanta philosophy (dating back nearly 7,000 years) through the practical experiences of daily life. This is through the involvement of guests from the world of music, art, literature, science, etc... Topic: Discussing the Divine Comedy and Bhagavad Gita. Guests: William Franke and Jayashankar Krishnamurty. William Franke is an American academic and philosopher, a professor of Comparative Literature at Vanderbilt University. The main exposition of his philosophical thinking is A Philosophy of the Unsayable (2014), a book which dwells on the limits of language in order to open thought to the inconceivable. On this basis, the discourses of myth, mysticism, metaphysics, and the arts take on new and previously unsuspected types of meaning. Franke holds degrees in philosophy and theology from Williams College and Oxford University and in comparative literature from UC Berkeley and Stanford (PhD 1991). He lectures and teaches in English, German, French, and Italian. He is a member of "HolyLit: Religion and Literature," of the Freie Universität Berlin and Harvard University and has been a member of the Dante Society Executive Council by the general election of the Dante Society of America. Franke's philosophical work intertwines with his production as a theorist in comparative literature. His interdisciplinary approach focuses on Dante's Divine Comedy read as a theological revelation in poetic language. Jayashankar Krishnamurty: A senior disciple of Swami Parthasarathy, is a graduate of science from the University of Madras and a postgraduate in Packaging Technology from Mumbai. He had a distinguished corporate career. Seeking answers to questions pertaining to life and living he sought the guidance of his guru and spent four years full-time at Vedanta Academy. For over two decades he has been researching and propagating the knowledge of Vedanta, in Telangana State, through Swamiji's publications. He is the Executive Trustee of Vedanta Institute Hyderabad, a Charitable Trust registered in Telangana (Formerly Andhra Pradesh). Divine Comedy and Bhagavad Gita. Two extraordinary works. The first dates back to 1300 AD and the other probably to 10,000 BC but united by numerous aspects. One above all: the earthly path towards the divine, the evolution of the two protagonists, Arjuna and Dante, in the direction of love. This is thanks to the wisdom and support of two extraordinary guides: Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita and Virgil in the Divine Comedy. The "dialogue" that exists between these extraordinary works of the perennial philosophy, thousands of years and miles apart, is incredible. The two great protagonists Dante and Arjuna are two great personalities, one Prior of the very rich city of Florence, the other an important warrior prince of the Pandavas. Dante and Arjuna receive teachings to be practically experienced through love. They will discover that everything is driven by love and that it will always save us even in the darkest moments of our lives. Love will always win over darkness. In each, during their respective inner journeys, the concepts of justice, peace, freedom, dharma, of doing one's duty for the benefit of all are instilled. Dante and Arjuna in dismay prepare for war and struggle to emerge from the darkness of consciousness and enter the light.

TIMESTAMPS00:52 - Introduction of how he entered the start-up world02:35 - How Photon Commerce Started04:05 - Where is Language Monetizable?10:38 - Difference between marketing and sales12:09 - How do you find your market?18:15 - Success in finding the right people/customers19:37 - How do you know when to adapt your messaging based on the feedback you are gettingGUEST BACKGROUNDMichael Young is the founder & CEO of Photon Commerce. Photon accelerates customer acquisition for fintech leaders using instant payments and invoicing through AI and is supported by a venture firm funded by Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates. After dropping out of a Stanford PhD, Michael led advanced R&D programs funded by the Department of Defense, created hundreds of jobs, raised $50M across his venture-backed startups, and took them to acquisitions.MORE FROM PHOTON COMMERCEPhoton Commerce's financial AI platform empowers fintech leaders to instantly process B2B payments, invoices, statements, and receipts. Photon's intelligent platform understands and harmonizes data, down to even line-item purchase analytics and prediction. Learn more at photoncommerce.comReach out to Michael at linkedin.com/in/michaelyoungphotonMAIN INSIGHTSales and marketing should blend together, especially for an early-stage startup, so you can learn more about your customer and find a product-market-fit fast.KEY TAKEAWAYSMarketing is all about communicating the problem you are solving to the worldMarketing is a job of story-telling amazing stories to your team, your investors, your customers, and the worldExperiment and try different things to see what will work for your companyContent should be optimized for SEO and engagement, and repostLook for a direct marketing strategyDistributing content and getting more traffic is as important as producing contentTreat every single market conversation as uniqueTest your messagesCreate different landing pagesUtilize email marketingVisual thumbnail and title are two of the most important components of your contentEngagement is as important as creating contentA/B test your contentPRACTICAL STEPSFind the biggest problem that is worth solvingIdentify your WHY for solving this problemShare your why to your team and customer to inspire and motivate themTIPS FOR SUCCESSUnderstand what tools you should useTest your websites and landing pagesUse Hotjar to see heatmaps on your website and the behaviors of your usersEncourage your marketing team to be analytical and technicalDon't hesitate to share some of your content directly and add a personal touch to itTiming on presenting the content is also importantWant summaries, show notes, and more? Subscribe to the Forward Launch Your SaaS newsletter

TIMESTAMPS 00:52 - Introduction of how he entered the start-up world 02:35 - How Photon Commerce Started 04:05 - Where is Language Monetizable? 10:38 - Difference between marketing and sales 12:09 - How do you find your market? 18:15 - Success in finding the right people/customers 19:37 - How do you know when to adapt your messaging based on the feedback you are getting GUEST BACKGROUND Michael Young is the founder & CEO of Photon Commerce. Photon accelerates customer acquisition for fintech leaders using instant payments and invoicing through AI and is supported by a venture firm funded by Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates. After dropping out of a Stanford PhD, Michael led advanced R&D programs funded by the Department of Defense, created hundreds of jobs, raised $50M across his venture-backed startups, and took them to acquisitions. MORE FROM PHOTON COMMERCE Photon Commerce's financial AI platform empowers fintech leaders to instantly process B2B payments, invoices, statements, and receipts. Photon's intelligent platform understands and harmonizes data, down to even line-item purchase analytics and prediction. Learn more at photoncommerce.com Reach out to Michael at linkedin.com/in/michaelyoungphoton MAIN INSIGHT Sales and marketing should blend together, especially for an early-stage startup, so you can learn more about your customer and find a product-market-fit fast. KEY TAKEAWAYS Marketing is all about communicating the problem you are solving to the world Marketing is a job of story-telling amazing stories to your team, your investors, your customers, and the world Experiment and try different things to see what will work for your company Content should be optimized for SEO and engagement, and repost Look for a direct marketing strategy Distributing content and getting more traffic is as important as producing content Treat every single market conversation as unique Test your messagesCreate different landing pages Utilize email marketing Visual thumbnail and title are two of the most important components of your content Engagement is as important as creating content A/B test your content PRACTICAL STEPS Find the biggest problem that is worth solving Identify your WHY for solving this problem Share your why to your team and customer to inspire and motivate them TIPS FOR SUCCESS Understand what tools you should use Test your websites and landing pages Use Hotjar to see heatmaps on your website and the behaviors of your users Encourage your marketing team to be analytical and technical Don't hesitate to share some of your content directly and add a personal touch to it Timing on presenting the content is also important

In this episode, we join Professor Kim Nicholas of Lund University's Centre for Sustainability Studies to talk about her work and experiences as a climate researcher and activist. Dr. Nicholas is an expert on high impact actions one can take to reduce one's carbon footprint. We also talk to her about her earlier research on wine, as a Californian from Sonoma Valley with a Stanford PhD focused on climate and agriculture.

Episode 14: Interview with Danqi Chen, Assistant Professor of CS at Princeton. Stanford PhD. IOI Gold Medal Winner (only woman to win Gold in 2008!). Student in famous Yao Class at Tsinghua University.

It's the Rambling and Gambling pod's first-ever guest with a Stanford PhD!! Ed Feng of The Power Rank joins Josh to talk best bets for NFL week 12, why he left academia for gambling, a little college football, and Ed throws out a few book recommendations too. 

Michael Young is Silicon Valley entrepreneur and Founder & CEO of Photon Commerce. Photon Commerce accelerates customer acquisition for fintech leaders by automating invoicing and payments using AI. Partnered with First Data, Stripe, Microsoft, and Nvidia, it processed $11B in purchases. After dropping out of a Stanford PhD, Michael led advanced R&D programs funded by the Department of Defense, created hundreds of jobs, raised $50M across his venture-backed startups, and took them to acquisitions. Feel free to connect with him on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/myoung88/ Learn more about his business and company link here: http://photoncommerce.com

Faith + Mental Health Podcast Season 2 Episode 5 Madness and Grace: A Practical Guide for Pastoral Care and Serious Mental Illness with Dr. Matthew S. Stanford, PhD --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/faithmentalhealth/support

The simple story of Yahoo! Is that they were an Internet search company that came out of Stanford during the early days of the web. They weren't the first nor the last. But they represent a defining moment in the rise of the web as we know it today, when there was enough content out there that there needed to be an easily searchable catalog of content. And that's what Stanford PhD students David Philo and Jerry Yang built. As with many of those early companies it began as a side project called “Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web.” And grew into a company that at one time rivaled any in the world. At the time there were other search engines and they all started adding portal aspects to the site growing fast until the dot-com bubble burst. They slowly faded until being merged with another 90s giant, AOL, in 2017 to form Oath, which got renamed to Verizon Media in 2019 and then effectively sold to investment management firm Apollo Global Management in 2021. Those early years were wild. Yang moved to San Jose in the 70s from Taiwan, and earned a bachelors then a masters at Stanford - where he met David Filo in 1989. Filo is a Wisconsin kid who moved to Stanford and got his masters in 1990. The two went to Japan in 1992 on an exchange program and came home to work on their PhDs. That's when they started surfing the web. Within two years they started their Internet directory in 1994. As it grew they hosted the database on Yang's student computer called akebono and the search engine on konishiki, which was Filo's. They renamed it to Yahoo, short for Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle - after all they maybe considered themselves Yahoos at the time. And so Yahoo began life as akebono.stanford.edu/~yahoo. Word spread fast and they'd already had a million hits by the end of 1994. It was time to move out of Stanford. Mark Andreesen offered to let them move into Netscape. They bought a domain in 1995 and incorporated the company, getting funding from Sequoia Capital raising $3,000,000. They tinkered with selling ads on the site to fund buying more servers but there was a lot of businessing. They decided that they would bring in Tim Koogle (which ironically rhymes with Google) to be CEO who brought in Jeff Mallett from Novell's consumer division to be the COO. They were the suits and got revenues up to a million dollars. The idea of the college kids striking gold fueled the rise of other companies and Yang and Filo became poster children. Applications from all over the world for others looking to make their mark started streaming in to Stanford - a trend that continues today. Yet another generation was about to flow into Silicon Valley. First the chip makers, then the PC hobbyists turned businesses, and now the web revolution. But at the core of the business were Koogle and Mallett, bringing in advertisers and investors. And the next year needing more and more servers and employees to fuel further expansion, they went public, selling over two and a half million shares at $13 to raise nearly $34 million. That's just one year after a gangbuster IPO from Netscape. The Internet was here. Revenues shot up to $20 million. A concept we repeatedly look at is the technological determinism that industries go through. At this point it's easy to look in the rear view mirror and see change coming at us. First we document information - like Jerry and David building a directory. Then we move it to a database so we can connect that data. Thus a search engine. Given that Yahoo! was a search engine they were already on the Internet. But the next step in the deterministic application of modern technology is to replace human effort with increasingly sophisticated automation. You know, like applying basic natural language processing, classification, and polarity scoring algorithms to enrich the human experience. Yahoo! hired “surfers” to do these tasks. They curated the web. Yes, they added feeds for news, sports, finance, and created content. Their primary business model was to sell banner ads. And they pioneered the field. Banner ads mean people need to be on the site to see them. So adding weather, maps, shopping, classifieds, personal ads, and even celebrity chats were natural adjacencies given that mental model. Search itself was almost a competitor, sending people to other parts of the web that they weren't making money off eyeballs. And they were pushing traffic to over 65 million pages worth of data a day. They weren't the only ones. This was the portal era of search and companies like Lycos, Excite, and InfoSeek were following the same model. They created local directories and people and companies could customize the look and feel. Their first designer, David Shen, takes us through the user experience journey in his book Takeover! The Inside Story the Yahoo Ad Revolution. They didn't invent pay-per-clic advertising but did help to make it common practice and proved that money could be made on this whole new weird Internet thing everyone was talking about. The first ad they sold was for MCI and from there they were practically printing money. Every company wanted in on the action - and sales just kept going up. Bill Clinton gave them a spot in the Internet Village during his 1997 inauguration and they were for a time seemingly synonymous with the Internet. The Internet was growing fast. Cataloging the Internet and creating content for the Internet became a larger and larger manual task. As did selling ads, which was a manual transaction requiring a larger and larger sales force. As with other rising internet properties, people dressed how they wanted, they'd stay up late building code or content and crash at the desk. They ran funny cheeky ads with that yodel - becoming a brand that people knew and many equated to the Internet. We can thank San Francisco's Black Rocket ad agency for that. They grew fast. The founders made several strategic acquisitions and gobbled up nearly every category of the Internet that has each grown to billions of dollars. They bought Four 11 for $95 million in their first probably best acquisition, and used them to create Yahoo! Mail in 1997 and a calendar in 1998. They had over 12 million Yahoo! Email users by he end of the year, inching their way to the same number of AOL users out there. There were other tools like Yahoo Briefcase, to upload files to the web. Now common with cloud storage providers like Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, and even Office 365. And contacts and Messenger - a service that would run until 2018. Think of all the messaging apps that have come with their own spin on the service since. 1998 also saw the acquisition of Viaweb, founded by the team that would later create Y Combinator. It was just shy of a $50M acquisition that brought the Yahoo! Store - which was similar to the Shopify of today. They got a $250 million investment from Softbank, bought Yoyodyne, and launched AT&T's WorldNet service to move towards AOL's dialup services. By the end of the year they were closing in on 100 million page views a day. That's a lot of banners shown to visitors. But Microsoft was out there, with their MSN portal at the height of the browser wars. Yahoo! bought Broadcast.com in 1999 saddling the world with Mark Cuban. They dropped $5.7 billion for 300 employees and little more than an ISDN line. Here, they paid over a 100x multiple of annual revenues and failed to transition sellers into their culture. Sales cures all. In his book We Were Yahoo! Jeremy Ring describes the lays much of the blame of the failure to capitalize on the acquisition as not understanding the different selling motion. I don't remember him outright saying it was hubris, but he certainly indicates that it should have worked out and that broadcast.com was could have been what YouTube would become. Another market lost in a failed attempt at Yahoo TV. And yet many of these were trends started by AOL. They also bought GeoCities in 99 for $3.7 billion. Others have tried to allow for fast and easy site development - the no code wysiwyg web. GeoCities lasted until 2009 - a year after Google launched Google Sites. And we have Wix, Squarespace, WordPress, and so many others offering similar services today. As they grew some of the other 130+ search engines at the time folded. The new products continued. The Yahoo Notebook came before Evernote. Imagine your notes accessible to any device you could log into. The more banners shown, the more clicks. Advertisers could experiment in ways they'd never been able to before. They also inked distribution deals, pushing traffic to other site that did things they didn't. The growth of the Internet had been fast, with nearly 100 million people armed with Internet access - and yet it was thought to triple in just the next three years. And even still many felt a bubble was forming. Some, like Google, had conserved cash - others like Yahoo! Had spent big on acquisitions they couldn't monetize into truly adjacent cash flow generating opportunities. And meanwhile they were alienating web properties by leaning into every space that kept eyeballs on the site. By 2000 their stock traded at $118.75 and they were the most valuable internet company at $125 billion. Then as customers folded when the dot-com bubble burst, the stock fell to $8.11 the next year. One concept we talk about in this podcast is a lost decade. Arguably they'd entered into theirs around the time the dot-com bubble burst. They decided to lean into being a media company even further. Again, showing banners to eyeballs was the central product they sold. They brought in Terry Semel in 2001 using over $100 million in stock options to entice him. And the culture problems came fast. Semel flew in a fancy jet, launched television shows on Yahoo! and alienated programmers, effectively creating an us vs them and de-valuing the work done on the portal and search. Work that could have made them competitive with Google Adwords that while only a year old was already starting to eat away at profits. But media. They bought a company called LaunchCast in 2001, charging a monthly fee to listen to music. Yahoo Music came before Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, and even though it was the same year the iPod was released, they let us listen to up to 1,000 songs for free or pony up a few bucks a month to get rid of ads and allow for skips. A model that has been copied by many over the years. By then they knew that paid search was becoming a money-maker over at Google. Overture had actually been first to that market and so Yahoo! Bought them for $1.6 billion in 2003. But again, they didn't integrate the team and in a classic “not built here” moment started Project Panama where they'd spend three years building their own search advertising platform. By the time that shipped the search war was over and executives and great programmers were flowing into other companies all over the world. And by then they were all over the world. 2005 saw them invest $1 billion in a little company called Alibaba. An investment that would accelerate Alibaba to become the crown jewel in Yahoo's empire and as they dwindled away, a key aspect of what led to their final demise. They bought Flickr in 2005 for $25M. User generated content was a thing. And Flickr was almost what Instagram is today. Instead we'd have to wait until 2010 for Instagram because Flickr ended up yet another of the failed acquisitions. And here's something wild to thin about - Stewart Butterfield and Cal Henderson started another company after they sold Flickr. Slack sold to Salesforce for over $27 billion. Not only is that a great team who could have turned Flickr into something truly special, but if they'd been retained and allowed to flourish at Yahoo! they could have continued building cooler stuff. Yikes. Additionally, Flickr was planning a pivot into social networking, right before a time when Facebook would take over that market. If fact, they tried to buy Facebook for just over a billion dollars in 2006. But Zuckerberg walked away when the price went down after the stock fell. They almost bought YouTube and considered buying Apple, which is wild to think about today. Missed opportunities. And Semmel was the first of many CEOs who lacked vision and the capacity to listen to the technologists - in a technology company. These years saw Comcast bring us weather.com, the rise of espn online taking eyeballs away from Yahoo! Sports, Gmail and other mail services reducing reliance on Yahoo! Mail. Facebook, LinkedIn, and other web properties rose to take ad placements away. Even though Yahoo Finance is still a great portal even sites like Bloomberg took eyeballs away from them. And then there was the rise of user generated content - a blog for pretty much everything. Jerry Yang came back to run the show in 2007 then Carol Bartz from 2009 to 2011 then Scott Thompson in 2012. None managed to turn things around after so much lost inertia - and make no mistake, inertia is the one thing that can't be bought in this world. Wisconsin's Marissa Mayer joined Yahoo! In 2012. She was Google's 20th employee who'd risen through the ranks from writing code to leading teams to product manager to running web products and managing not only the layout of that famous homepage but also helped deliver Google AdWords and then maps. She had the pedigree and managerial experience - and had been involved in M&A. There was an immediate buzz that Yahoo! was back after years of steady decline due to incoherent strategies and mismanaged acquisitions. She pivoted the business more into mobile technology. She brought remote employees back into the office. She implemented a bell curve employee ranking system like Microsoft did during their lost decade. They bought Tumblr in 2013 for $1.1 billion. But key executives continued to leave - Tumbler's value dropped, and the stock continued to drop. Profits were up, revenues were down. Investing in the rapidly growing China market became all the rage. The Alibaba investment was now worth more than Yahoo! itself. Half the shares had been sold back to Alibaba in 2012 to fund Yahoo! pursuing the Mayer initiatives. And then there was Yahoo Japan, which continued to do well. After years of attempts, activist investors finally got Yahoo! to spin off their holdings. They moved most of the shares to a holding company which would end up getting sold back to Alibaba for tens of billions of dollars. More missed opportunities for Yahoo! And so in the end, they would get merged with AOL - the two combined companies worth nearly half a trillion dollars at one point to become Oath in 2017. Mayer stepped down and the two sold for less than $5 billion dollars. A roller coaster that went up really fast and down really slow. An empire that crumbled and fragmented. Arguably, the end began in 1998 when another couple of grad students at Stanford approached Yahoo to buy Google for $1M. Not only did Filo tell them to try it alone but he also introduced them to Michael Moritz of Sequoia - the same guy who'd initially funded Yahoo!. That wasn't where things really got screwed up though. It was early in a big change in how search would be monetized. But they got a second chance to buy Google in 2002. By then I'd switched to using Google and never looked back. But the CEO at the time, Terry Semel, was willing to put in $3B to buy Google - who decided to hold out for $5B. They are around a $1.8T company today. Again, the core product was selling advertising. And Microsoft tried to buy Yahoo! In 2008 for over 44 billion dollars to become Bing. Down from the $125 billion height of the market cap during the dot com bubble. And yet they eventually sold for less than four and a half billion in 2016 and went down in value from there. Growth stocks trade at high multiples but when revenues go down the crash is hard and fast. Yahoo! lost track of the core business - just as the model was changing. And yet never iterated it because it just made too much money. They were too big to pivot from banners when Google showed up with a smaller, more bite-sized advertising model that companies could grow into. Along the way, they tried to do too much. They invested over and over in acquisitions that didn't work because they ran off the innovative founders in an increasingly corporate company that was actually trying to pretend not to be. We have to own who we are and become. And we have to understand that we don't know anything about the customers of acquired companies and actually listen - and I mean really listen - when we're being told what those customers want. After all, that's why we paid for the company in the first place. We also have to avoid allowing the market to dictate a perceived growth mentality. Sure a growth stock needs to hit a certain number of revenue increase to stay considered a growth stock and thus enjoy the kind of multiples for market capitalization. But that can drive short term decisions that don't see us investing in areas that don't effectively manipulate stocks. Decisions like trying to keep eyeballs on pages with our own content rather than investing in the user generated content that drove the Web 2.0 revolution. The Internet can be a powerful medium to find information, allow humans to do more with less, and have more meaningful experiences in this life. But just as Yahoo! was engineering ways to keep eyeballs on their pages, the modern Web 2.0 era has engineered ways to keep eyeballs on our devices. And yet what people really want is those meaningful experiences, which happen more when we aren't staring at our screens than when we are. As I look around at all the alerts on my phone and watch, I can't help but wonder if another wave of technology is coming that disrupts that model. Some apps are engineered to help us lead healthier lifestyles and take a short digital detoxification break. Bush's Memex in “As We May Think” was arguably an Apple taken from the tree of knowledge. If we aren't careful, rather than the dream of computers helping humanity do more and free our minds to think more deeply we are simply left with less and less capacity to think and less and less meaning. The Memex came and Yahoo! helped connect us to any content we might want in the world. And yet, like so many others, they stalled in the phase they were at in that deterministic structure that technologies follow. Too slow to augment human labor with machine learning like Google did - but instead too quick to try and do everything for everyone with no real vision other than be everything to everyone. And so the cuts went on slowly for a long time, leaving employees constantly in fear of losing their jobs. As you listen to this if I were to leave a single parting thought - it would be that companies should always be willing to cannibalize their own businesses. And yet we have to have a vision that our teams rally behind for how that revenue gets replaced. We can't fracture a company and just sprawl to become everything for everyone but instead need to be targeted and more precise. And to continue to innovate each product beyond the basic machine learning and into deep learning and beyond. And when we see those who lack that focus, don't get annoyed but instead get stoked - that's called a disruptive opportunity. And if there's someone with 1,000 developers in a space, Nicholas Carlson in his book “Marissa Mayer and the Fight To Save Yahoo!” points out that one great developer is worth a thousand average ones. And even the best organizations can easily turn great developers into average ones for a variety of reason. Again, we can call these opportunities. Yahoo! helped legitimize the Internet. For that we owe them a huge thanks. And we can fast follow their adjacent expansions to find a slew of great and innovative ideas that increased the productivity of humankind. We owe them a huge thanks for that as well. Now what opportunities do we see out there to propel us further yet again?

2020 was an incredible year for AI. We saw powerful hints of the potential of large language models for the first time thanks to OpenAI's GPT-3, DeepMind used AI to solve one of the greatest open problems in molecular biology, and Boston Dynamics demonstrated their ability to blend AI and robotics in dramatic fashion. Progress in AI is accelerating exponentially, and though we're just over halfway through 2021, this year is already turning into another one for the books. So we decided to partner with our friends over at Let's Talk AI, a podcast co-hosted by Stanford PhD and former Googler Sharon Zhou, and Stanford PhD student Andrey Kurenkov, that covers current events in AI. This was a fun chat, and a format we'll definitely be playing with more in the future :)

I'm excited to have Hannah on the show today. Hannah Wastyk is a Stanford PhD candidate and fermented food researcher who will share a little more about what are fermented foods, why are people so obsessed with them, and why might they be good for you to include in your diet? I personally love eating fermented foods and have a huge interest in nutrition and how it relates to health. I'm super excited to bring someone very knowledgeable in this space to share our thoughts about microbiomes and tasty foods. To start off, can you share with the listeners a little bit about yourself and your interest in fermented foods? [[We'll be going over the following topics:]] - What are fermented foods? - What are the most popular fermented foods? - Why are they so beneficial? - Can you make fermented foods on your own? - Are there any safety issues with fermented foods? - How did you get into fermented foods? - What is your fermented food research about? - What does your company do? - Besides fermented food, what other hobbies do you have? - Wrapping up are there any last things you want to share? - Where can people find more about you? Thanks for coming on the show today. Read some of Hannah's papers here: A randomized crossover trial on the effect of plant-based compared with animal-based meat on trimethylamine-N-oxide and cardiovascular disease risk factors in generally healthy adults: Study With Appetizing Plantfood—Meat Eating Alternative Trial (SWAP-MEAT) https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/112/5/1188/5890315 --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/qpod/support

We're diving into a deep discussion with Gigi Langer, who shares her tumultuous journey from childhood, alcoholism, and more. Now 35 years sober, with a Stanford PhD, and Author of an award-winning book, Gigi is helping other struggling with anxiety and self esteem. To learn more about Gigi, and to pick up a copy of her book, visit www.gigilanger.com

Degrees from Dartmouth, Cambridge and Stanford (Phd), Patrick Byrne was not a Trump supporter but clearly says the 2020 US election was rigged. He has known for sometime of the deep banking corruption in the United States --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/iantrottier/support

PETE SANTILLI SHOW - #2371 - 6PM TUESDAY - MARCH 16, 2021 LIVE BROADCAST: 9AM https://vimeo.com/event/706533 6PM https://vimeo.com/event/706574    EP 2379-6PM PATRICK BYRNE LIVE! DOMINION VOTING MACHINES MADE IN CHINA & CHINA IS BEHIND THE PSY-OP Special Guest: Patrick Byrne is the former CEO of Overstock.com and served in executive leadership over several other large companies in the tech and manufacturing industries. He is a classical liberal who fights now for a healthy free market and sound education. He is a co-chair of the Milton & Rose Friedman Foundation for Education Choice. He also leads the fight against corruption in our capital markets and runs the Deep Capture website. https://www.deepcapture.com/ Patrick Byrne earned a Certificate from Beijing Normal University, a Dartmouth BA, Cambridge M.Phil (as a Marshall Scholar), and a Stanford PhD. Twenty years later, Byrne was named National Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young. That 20 years was one of toil, sweat, David vs. Goliath matches, breakthrough discoveries, losses, and (occasionally) victories. Along the way, in 2004 Byrne and the oligarchy got cross-wise, and they have been at odds ever since. He believes the oligarchy has two wings, Wall Street and the Deep State, and that he has them cornered. Byrne, Patrick, M. The Deep Rig: How Election Fraud Cost Donald J. Trump the White House, By a Man Who did not Vote for Him (p. 244). Deep Capture LLC. Kindle Edition. https://thepetesantillishow.com/archives/17215 

MIT undergrad. FAANG internships. Antitrust economic consulting. Stanford PhD candidacy. No question Allison Koenecke is an academic force. Beyond impressive institutional associations -- which she seldom spotlights -- what has made her a true force of nature (or shall we say, software?) is the research she's leading to address equitability in mainstream technologies. Specifically, Allison's bringing visibility to the blind spots tech companies have been operating with while training their machine learning models. For instance, did you know voice assistants (i.e. Siri, Alexa) register twice as many errors when processing African American colloquial English? Allison is a researcher who's working towards a tech future that is built on the foundation of a more diverse set of colors, creeds, and communities. Beyond chatting about her journey to and within her PhD candidacy at Stanford's Institute for Computational & Mathematical Engineering, we talk about parental expectations, leading teams, and quick tips to getting more done during the day. More Allison: Twitter @allisonkoe Allison's research on racial disparities in automated speech recognition software PhD Profile Level up your math & science skills @ brilliant.org (as mentioned in the episode!) More Hot & Sour Soup for the Soul: ✋Not Your Auntie's Jade Jewelry ✋

Sharon is a Stanford Computer Science Ph.D. student advised by Andrew Ng and Michael Bernstein working on generative models. Popularly known for her Coursera course on building GANs, she talks more about the use of AI in medicine, what product management is about, some philosophical fun chat and interpretability, and the future of AI in healthcare.Also check-out these talks on all available podcast platforms: https://jayshah.buzzsprout.comAbout the Host:Jay is a Ph.D. student at Arizona State University, doing research on building Interpretable AI models for Medical Diagnosis.Jay Shah: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shahjay22/You can reach out to https://www.public.asu.edu/~jgshah1/ for any queries.Stay tuned for upcoming webinars!***Disclaimer: The information contained in this video represents the views and opinions of the speaker and does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of any institution. It does not constitute an endorsement by any Institution or its affiliates of such video content.***

Over Coffee® is on holiday hiatus.  Please enjoy the rebroadcast of one of our most popular episodes of 2020! (Photo courtesy of Aditya Vishwanath, and used with permission.) What if, when you were back in school, you had been able to go inside a microscope?  Or witness, firsthand, the destruction of a coral reef?  Or even experience life, for a day, as someone from another culture, of a different gender, or of a different age? All of these are possible for today's students, with virtual reality. And education researcher/entrepreneur Aditya Vishwanath is at the forefront of making it happen. Aditya, who is a Knight-Henessy Scholar and Stanford PhD candidate, describes himself on his website as a "passionate technology and education enthusiast".  He is both the CEO of Palo Alto startup Inspirit, and the director of Mumbai community-run makerspace MakerGhat.   With Inspirit, he and his team are developing both immersive and interactive labs as teaching tools. Meanwhile, MakerGhat is currently focused on home-based STEAM education, with a series of lessons in areas including design, science and mathematics. Prior to his presentation at last summer's first-ever VRARA Global Summit Online, we talked about Aditya's research and his experiences as an education professional, as well as the ways educators can implement and use VR to supplement lesson plans. On this edition of Over Coffee®, we cover: What first inspired Aditya in his calling as an education and technology professional; How his early experience introducing a new VR technology led to his current work; Adiya’s guidelines to creating good educational VR experiences; The story of Inspirit VR; How Inspirit engages students with free-roam VR experiences; The ares in which VR is a “home run” for education and training; Some of the considerations involved in working with students in VR; A discussion of the barriers to implementing VR into education; Some of Aditya’s favorite VR resources; A look at MakerGhat and they ways they’re building community through making; One of Aditya’s best lessons learned, in his own journey as an education professional.  

Making the switch to online shopping has been easier in some cases than others. Buying laundry detergent online, sight unseen doesn’t feel quite as high-risk as a larger purchase like say a car or a house. It makes sense, then, that certain industries have been slower to fully embrace the Ecommerce experience. Bridal is one of those industries, but Leslie Voorhees Means thinks that it’s time to shake things up. Leslie is the co-founder and CEO of Anomalie, an online-only custom wedding dress company, and on this episode of Up Next in Commerce, Leslie explains why she thinks her model is going to be the one to disrupt the market. Thanks to a blend of tech and human stylists all focused on customization and personalization as well as taking control of the supply chain, Leslie says that Anomalie has found a way to solve many of the pain points brides run into during a traditional wedding dress shopping experience. Thousands of customers agree so far, and as growth continues, Leslie has her eyes set on new technologies that she believes will lead to a sea of change in the entire Ecommerce world. 3 Takeaways: Understanding and owning your supply chain is becoming more of a focus for D2C brands and it will be a differentiator moving forward. Building a strong supply chain presence allows you to have more flexibility, agility, and ability to scale Transparency and communication is a business advantage when competing against bigger brands When tailoring custom unique experiences, tech can’t completely replace a human element For an in-depth look at this episode, check out the full transcript below. Quotes have been edited for clarity and length. --- Up Next in Commerce is brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Respond quickly to changing customer needs with flexible Ecommerce connected to marketing, sales, and service. Deliver intelligent commerce experiences your customers can trust, across every channel. Together, we’re ready for what’s next in commerce. Learn more at salesforce.com/commerce --- Transcript: Stephanie: Hey everyone, welcome back to Up Next In Commerce. This is Stephanie Postles, your host. And today we have Leslie Vorhees on the show, co-founder and CEO at Anomalie. Leslie, thanks for coming on. Leslie: Thanks for having me. Happy to be here. Stephanie: Yeah, we're really excited. So, where are you located at right now? What are you up to? Leslie: We are in San Francisco. So, the company was founded and is headquartered here, but we have a couple offices around the U.S and the world. We've got our customer service stylist operations in Scottsdale, Arizona. And then we've got a team that manages our supply chain operations in Hong Kong. Stephanie: Oh, very cool. Hong Kong sounds awesome. So, I'd love to hear a little bit about Anomalie then. We're jumping into it quick, but yeah, talking about offices in Hong Kong, it sounds like it's expanded quickly and grown from where you started. So, I'd love to hear a little bit of the background there and what brought you to Anomalie. Leslie: Yeah, for sure. So, I never actually expected to be founding a company and was not expecting to be in bridal. This idea for the company came about through my own frustration when I got engaged and shopped around for my perfect wedding dress and had a really, really hard time finding, I had this picture of a dress that I really wanted and couldn't find it in boutiques and was pretty horrified by the prices. Leslie: My background is in mechanical engineering and manufacturing. I've always worked for big companies. Started my career at Nike and fell in love with the factory environment and product development and being able to create real physical products. And was working at Apple at the time that I got engaged and was working on the launch of the Apple Watch and was in China quite a bit. Did a little bit of research because I knew co-workers of mine had custom clothing made, mostly men's shirts and suits and things. Leslie: And ended up finding Suzhou, China, which is outside of Shanghai, which makes most of the world's wedding dresses. 80% of the world's wedding dresses are made in and around this amazing supply chain hub of expertise and craft. And worked directly with one of the workshops there when I was out in China for work and was just absolutely floored by the price but also the quality and the levels of customization. Leslie: I could pick out everything from the lace to have it be custom-tailored to my body. And mentioned it to a couple of friends and almost immediately started getting requests for orders before this was even really a company and realized pretty quickly that other women felt the same frustrations that I was feeling around not quite finding what they want for, arguably, the most important garment that you're ever going to wear. Leslie: And then another interesting insight besides just the virality of those original orders was the first couple dozen requests were coming from women that said they wanted something really special, and really different, and really unique. And in reality, the dresses looked very, very similar. People were like almost ordering the same dress because wedding dresses are uniquely low variable. It's white, it's ivory, has lace or no lace, there's limited silhouettes, there's limited styles, has a longer product life cycle than a lot of garments and fashion. Leslie: And so, there were the seeds of this idea for mass customization that was really exciting to me as an engineer to think about how we could scale this to give tons and tons of options to brides, but on the operations side be really efficient and be able to have the benefits of scale by thinking about these modules that can be customized. So, the skirt, or the neckline, or the straps, or the sleeves, et cetera. Leslie: So, we've thought about that a lot as we've grown in the past. So, that was about three years ago, a little over three years ago that we started and since then have grown to serve thousands and thousands of brides. And are building, from the technology side, a way to be able to visualize the dress in an easy and fun way, given that we don't have brick and mortar shops. Stephanie: That's amazing. Yeah. It's very interesting hearing the story of your background of being like, "I need a wedding dress," and actually going to the district in China where they're made. I can't think of many people who would solve their own problem like that. Was there any surprises when you were going and meeting these companies there and just thinking through, "Hey, this could actually be a business," or any findings when you went there that you weren't expecting? Leslie: Yeah. I think one thing that was really stark that I noticed right away was I was the only foreigner in this area. It was very apparent that Chinese women knew that this is where you can get really high quality, almost like haute couture type of like custom garments. But I was the only foreigner, the only white person walking around getting a lot of stares. Leslie: I think that was really representative that there was a secret that was being uncovered. That was how I was thinking of it was, this is something that can be untapped. And just given my conversations with friends, and then friends of friends, and then friends of friends of friends, as the idea started growing was, women really want to be able to tap into that but need a trusted source. Leslie: There's a lot of direct from China websites and horror stories about women ordering a dress and then when it actually shows up it's low quality or not what they were expecting at all. And given, again, this is a very emotional important purchase. Having someone that you know and trust on the ground, I thought was something that was going to be really important and that has remained important the entire history of the company. Leslie: And then I think the other thing that was surprising was just the breadth of quality in Suzhou. It was, you could get everything from a very, very, very inexpensive cheap wedding dress for a couple of bucks all the way up to dresses that were almost as much as it would cost in America and wide ranges of quality. Leslie: I remember I vetted probably a hundred or so factories when we were first starting up and it was pretty apparent the ones that didn't take quality as seriously. There was one factory that I remember where everyone in the factory was smoking cigarettes- Stephanie: Oh my God. Leslie: ... which is not something that you would want in a high quality [crosstalk 00:07:03]. Stephanie: What's their reviews on Amazon? People are like, "Hey, it smells smoky. I wonder why. Now we know." Leslie: Yeah, exactly. So, that one was an easy one to cross off the list. But then on the flip side, there were a lot of really, really sophisticated entrepreneurial factories that we met with that I think could feel the shift that's happening in bridal, which is that it's one of the, I think, last verticals that hasn't really been disrupted by an online presence. Wedding dresses are still 95% brick and mortar in the U.S. Leslie: And a couple of years ago, it would have been crazy to say that you're buying your eyeglasses, or mattresses, or TVs, or books, or whatever on online. And it's still a little bit crazy to say that with wedding dresses, but I think that's exactly why I was so interested in it because it felt new and different. I think that that's the making of a really good startup, a good, crazy idea. Stephanie: Yep. Yeah. I completely agree. It seems like there could be a lot of D2C opportunities that go directly to the source like you did. Because a lot of them, people are coming online. They want not go through someone else to sell right now. Is there any other areas that you can see going direct to actually help with the business model, or maybe friends, or mentors in the industry where they realize, hey, there's a lot of opportunity if you go directly to the factories and see how they make it and develop your own relationship, instead of always relying on a wholesaler, or drop-shipping, or whatever it may be? Leslie: Yeah. I have to credit my internship when I was in business school. I was really, really lucky enough to be a part of the core founding team of M.Gemi, which is direct to consumer high, high quality Italian footwear. And I was able to go with the founder over to Italy that summer- Stephanie: Wow. Leslie: ... which was the coolest internship ever. Much more glamorous than some of the factories in China. Stephanie: Wow. I want that internship now. Leslie: Yeah, exactly. Stephanie: Can I sign up for that? Leslie: It might be the coolest job I've ever had. But it was really, really interesting because they had set up relationships with these Italian craftsmen that make shoes for, I mean, the factories we saw were for Yves Saint Laurent, and Prada, and Valentino. And the same hands that were making those shoes had extra capacity to make high quality shoes that didn't have the designer label and then designer price tag. Leslie: And tapping into that direct to the workshop and direct to the craft idea was something that I got to see that M.Gemi was doing and is apparent all over e-commerce with, I know Away luggage, I think, started with making partnerships directly with the workshops and, I'm trying to think of another. Oh, the mattress, a lot of the mattress companies are... There are these pockets of expertise and by being able to sell direct to consumer, it cuts out the middlemen and obviously cuts out a lot of the costs. Leslie: And then also for us, especially being able to centralize stylist operations, and tech, and our finances, and all of that allows us to scale nationwide without having those costly retail footprints. And then also we can scale the experience from a customer experience side. Stephanie: Very cool. So, if you're looking back now on picking factories and workshops to work with directly, what were some of the lessons that you took away from it where you were like, "I would do this over again," or, "I did it this way and it worked out really well," if someone were to try and start this process from scratch? Leslie: Yeah. Well, I'd say definitely no cigarettes present in the factory. Stephanie: Step one. Leslie: Yep, step one. Stephanie: All right everyone, that's all you need to know. Leslie: That's the secret. No, I think also the appetite for international partnerships. And we were lucky because we started really small with just a few orders. And a lot of partners, especially in China, require minimum order quantities to be able to produce with them. And we found partners that were aligned with our vision of entrepreneurship and scale, but we really had to sell the vision probably similar to fundraising and selling the ideas to venture capitalists to get funding. Leslie: We had to sell the idea to the workshop managers as well to buy into this idea because we did not have massive amounts of orders at beginning. And so, definitely alignment on a strategy of customization and a strategy around scaling through tech and having technology-enabled operations to be able to get bigger and better. That helped a lot to be able to find some partners that were really, really aligned with that vision. Stephanie: Yeah. That definitely makes sense. It's like when you're looking for a contracting job or something like that, the people who apply maybe aren't the ones you always want versus going out and actually sourcing the exact person that you want to work on your project, or employee, or whatever it may be. Leslie: Exactly. Stephanie: Always seems to work a little bit better. Leslie: Yeah. Stephanie: So, for Anomalie, when I was thinking about, I've had a wedding before, I've bought dresses, and I was thinking, "Oh man, that seems like it could be pretty hard to do direct to consumer online because of the measurements, and making sure it fits, and wanting to feel the fabric and all that. How can technology replace that kind of experience that makes the consumer more comfortable with buying something so important online? Leslie: Yeah, it's a great question and a great call out. It is hard. It is a hard hurdle. We have a really, really high bar of trust. This is a really, really important garment. I think what's really exciting to us is that a digital experience solves a lot of the pain points for brides' shopping experience in brick and mortar boutiques by offering, one, a much better price. Leslie: So, high quality brick and mortar boutiques you wouldn't balk at a price tag from, the average is in the two to $5,000 ranges where the bulk of the dollars are in the market. And designer dresses can cost $10,000 or more. And by being able to cut out the cost of the shop and then also having a stylist we're able to offer a much better price. So, our average dress right now is right around 1700, which is- Stephanie: That's really good for custom. Leslie: ... [crosstalk] in industry standard. Yeah, we think so too. And then another pain point that we hear over and over from brides is around inclusive sizing. So, the average American bridal boutique doesn't carry the average American woman's size, which is a bridal size 14, normal size 12. Leslie: And the inventory is expensive and boutiques have a limited set of gowns. And that gets even smaller when you think about sizes that can include plus size women. And so, by making our dresses made to order, made to measure, we're able to make the pattern to fit the woman's body, regardless of whether you're a sample size or up to a size, I think it was made up for a size 32 before. Leslie: So, that I think addressing the inclusive sizing has been a big unlock for us. And then I think the biggest advantage we have is we can offer dramatic advantages with customization of the design because we can bring together any element that a woman wants. So, more often than not, we hear a bride say, "I tried on dresses, I have a Pinterest board with all my dream wedding dresses, and I love this element of this dress and this element of this dress. I love this skirt and I love this top and I wish I could make it long sleeves." Leslie: Or, "I wish I could swap out the lace." And so, from a supply chain perspective, that's exactly how we're thinking about building every single dress is with those modular components to be customized. And because we don't have to hold inventory, we can offer literally billions of permutations of designs to bring together all of the parts of different dresses that brides want. Leslie: And so, we're really empowering brides to discover and then also create the exact product that they want. And then that tech is supplemented by a human component, which is still really important to have a stylist on the other side of the phone to bounce ideas off of, talk about pros and cons of different design elements, and really reaffirm the decisions. Yeah, because it is hard, because she's not trying it on in a store. Leslie: But the question is always the same, which is, I want this dress to fit, I want this dress to look beautiful and flattering on me. And that is a problem that we can solve with tech and with data. We're collecting hundreds of thousands of custom measurements right now, and developing IP around pattern making, and fit, and have a fit guarantee that you're not going to have any more than $499 of alterations. And if so, we'll cover the costs. That's something that we just launched last month. Leslie: And so, we feel confident that we can tackle the challenges with not having an in store experience, but actually offer much, much more value through better price and sizing and fit. And then also that customization element. Stephanie: Very cool. So, when it comes to entering in data for sizing, do you have the user do that? Do you have the stylist work with them? Because that seems like it could be a process where it could be painful if you're measuring your wrist, measure your shoulder area. I mean, it seems like there's a lot of spots that you'd have to measure to know how to get an exact fit. So how do you work with customers on that to where they don't bail? Like 50% of the way in they're like, "Ooh, there's a lot of work. I'm out." Leslie: Yeah. We benefit because women are really committed to getting this garment right. Stephanie: Got it. Leslie: So, it's shows up in lots of different areas. For example, we have a really long, intense survey and we have a crazy, crazy high completion rate. If it ever drops below 95% completion, we're thinking something's wrong with the website, because this isn't just purchasing a pair of pants or a pair of earrings or something online, this is your wedding dress. So, women are really, really okay with sharing a lot of data. Leslie: So, that shows up with measurements too. So, process-wise, we send a little fit box, which includes physical swatches of our fabric, because that's something that we've found is really hard to digitize, the color, and then also being able to touch and feel the quality and what the fabric feels like. Leslie: And that includes measuring tape. And then we've got pretty in-depth instructions on how to have someone take your measurements, whether that's your fiance or a friend. We also have a connection with local tailors. So, if women want to go in and get measured by an expert, we cover the cost of that. But what we've seen over time now is actually, we have hundreds and hundreds of thousands of these points of measurement. And so, our system can algorithmically flag if something looks off too. Leslie: So, oftentimes, we'll come back to a bride and say, "Hey, this measurement doesn't quite look right and it's a typo that we were able to catch." And so, by just having that back and forth, and then also this foundation of data to ensure that the measurements are accurate helps a lot. And then, in the future, I mean, we've seen a lot of technology pop up around digital measurements. I'm hoping someone else can solve that problem. And then we can fold in the technology through our process because it is for sure a challenge. Leslie: What we're thinking more about is once we have measurements that we feel really, really good about, how does that translate to the pattern making and being able to create a 3D physical garment that will fit a 3D object, which is a woman's body? Which is hard, but that's something that I think, in particular, our investors are really excited about. Because once we figure out that part of the problem, that can be applied to other things besides wedding dresses. That can be applied to garments just overall for women. So, thinking a little bit longer term about how we can build some really cool IP around women's fit. Stephanie: Yeah, that's awesome. I was just thinking about how nice it would be to have someone take a quick video of you doing a spin, where then it has all your measurements there, so then you can actually virtually try on the dresses and see how they look, because that seems like it'd be hard to know how something would look on your body without actually seeing it on the computer screen or something like that. Stephanie: At what point did you realize, like, "Hey, we're getting a bunch of data." We probably should incorporate machine learning or build an algorithm that helps with either recommending styles or like you said, checking the fits or the measurements that the potential bride was putting into the tool? At what point were you like, "This is a lot of data, we need to actually implement some type of technology," and how did you go about that? Leslie: Yeah. It's funny. I would say it's probably the way we figure out anything else with the company and probably other startups will empathize with this as well. It's like, once things start breaking, that's where you're like, "Oh, okay, we got to fix this." It's like the leaky faucet or the balancing plate's analogy. It's once things really start to wobble, it's like that's where time and attention and resources need to be applied. Leslie: But another part of this is that I've always really, really admired startups and D2C startups in particular that have this differentiation with tech, or data, or supply chain, or operations. So in particular, I really, really admire Stitch Fix and Rent the Runway, which Stitch Fix famously has said they employ more data scientists and engineers than they do merchandisers, and they're a fashion company. Leslie: I think they recognized really early how much leaning into that data strategy can help them scale and get really, really good at what their core value proposition is, which is similar to ours in terms of personalization. And so, we've always tried to follow after their ways because they've been so successful. And so, that's been on my mind since day one as like, this is going to be an important part of how we can scale successfully. Stephanie: Yeah. Stitch Fix is definitely a good example. It's amazing how much data they use and how they are working to perfect every single fit of clothing and using all the feedback they get every single second to make it better and better. Leslie: Yeah. What I love is it's not data just for data's sake or tech just for tech's sake. It's like really core to how they're delivering personalization to their customers. And they see it as a big competitive advantage, which I think is why they've been one of the few successful e-commerce exits. You haven't seen that many in B2C, I think, because it is really hard, but that seems to be a really, really smart way to differentiate your company and your brand. Stephanie: Yeah. I completely agree. Do you have a model that you're looking at right now where you're like, "We're going to spend this amount of time thinking through the tech and the future of where our industry is headed to get ahead of it, and then this percent is spent on the product right now?" Or how do you think about balancing those two initiatives? Leslie: Yeah, I wish it was that organized. We're probably not quite there strategically yet, but it's always been these three core pillars of our business, which is the tech and the visualization really around solving these frustrations around visualization, and measurements, and fit, and developing a really amazing digital experience through our tech. And then second is our human part of the customer experience. So, our stylists team that is just really smart, and empathetic, and helpful and, I think, necessary to make this big decision, this big purchase online. Leslie: And then third is our supply chain operations and being really on the cusp of vertical integration and being super, super involved in our workshops on the ground to make sure that we're maintaining a really high level of quality and that we're covering all the areas of ambiguity that comes from making custom garments. Stephanie: Yeah. Awesome. So, right now when I think of the wedding industry, I think of the big brands, the major players. How do you think about building a bigger share of the market or getting a bigger piece of the pie when you're competing with companies like that? Leslie: Yeah, it's something that we've thought about since day one. And because bridal is so unique, I think we're really uniquely suited to disrupt the market. So, as I said earlier, bridal is still 95 plus percent in brick and mortar. And then the other funny thing is that it's really fragmented. So, the biggest player in the market is David's Bridal, which is a third of the market. And then the rest, there's no one with more than a 1% market share. Leslie: So, it's just super fragmented, independent, usually mom-and-pop boutiques. And the crazy thing about David's Bridal is they're failing, they filed for chapter 11 in November of 2018 and have been repackaged and sold off to a number of different private equity firms and just continues to be- Stephanie: That's not good. Leslie: Yeah, really I think struggling because of the costs of their retail. They have over 300 stores in the U.S, and salespeople, and I think it's a model that's not going to work long-term. And so, we have our sights set on taking that big of a share of the market similar to David's Bridal. And we think we're really well set up to do that because we're doing it in a direct to consumer way. We're not burdened by the cost of having a retail presence. Stephanie: Yeah. Yeah. I read a really interesting report about the David Bridal's of the world, where once retail locations are bought by PE firms, that there's a very high correlation of them going bankrupt because of just how- Leslie: It's not a good sign. Stephanie: Yeah. Yeah. I think Toys "R" Us was the same way and there was a whole list of them. Leslie: That was actually the, I think it was Oak Tree or Oak Hill that took Toys "R" Us into liquidation. And they were the same ones that just purchased David's Bridal in [inaudible 00:27:54]. Yeah, it's not looking great for them, but it's wild that there's still one in every three wedding dresses in America and no one else is really stepping in to take them on. Leslie: And we're going big here. The answer I think is not to just open up another boutique or another online boutique, I think the answer to unlocking a big portion of the bridal market is around price, and customization, and fit, which is why we're spending a lot of time and a lot of dollars on building tech to support that. Which is hard and our investors understand that, but I think it's also why we're a great venture opportunity is because there's a lot yet to be discovered, which is what we're working really hard to build right now. Stephanie: Yeah. I completely agree. When it comes to your marketing efforts and getting that market share and growing bigger, what kind of tactics do you use right now to either convince the buyer who's maybe very skeptical of buying online to come and try you guys out and making it a easy process for them just to get involved versus the people who you can tell are like, they're in it, they're ready, they've already paid the stylist fee, they're here? How do you think about advertising those two different types of audiences to make sure they convert to hopefully customers? Leslie: Yeah. For us, it comes down to transparency, which is very authentically Anomalie, especially in the early days when we were first starting out. It's not trying to make us bigger than what we were, it's acknowledging, "Hey, we're a young upstart, but we're going to work really hard to make your wedding dress perfect." And being really upfront about the challenges and being upfront about the questions that are in bride's minds. Leslie: It doesn't help to gloss over the fact that you're not going to be trying on the dress until it arrives, but having an honest conversation with our customers around that has always helped. And what also helps is that we've got a lot going for us in terms of, again, the price and being able to bring together all these design elements that you could never find in a store. Leslie: So, yeah, it's addressing concerns around what customers might be thinking of, and then also just education around this new experience. And what's cool is I think our authenticity really shines through our social. So, we have really, really great word-of-mouth viral growth, but more and more finding new customers through Instagram and Facebook. Which we have a pretty cool way of reaching our customers because oftentimes if women become engaged, they change their relationship status on Facebook, and so they're easy to find. Leslie: Also, especially newly engaged women love content. They want to read all of the wedding blogs and browse Pinterest for hours. And so, we're working a lot on how we can make our digital experience really fun and easy to browse tons and tons of potential dresses and then also real dresses. Leslie: So, our Instagram account is just chock-full of women, real women, not models on the happiest day of their life with our product being the centerpiece on the bride. It's a really cool evergreen content machine too, because every day we get dozens of new wedding photos from women who have professional hair, and professional makeup, and professional photography on this very happy day. And it's just really easy to- Stephanie: Perfect. Leslie: ... feed that back to potential customers to show the breadth and depth of our customers and customer types and body types, and also design. And I think it's a really cool way to communicate our value proposition to potential brides. Stephanie: Yeah. That definitely makes it much easier. How do you think about encouraging the brides to share that, not only with you, but also in their socials? Because I could see some people being hesitant to show where they got their dress from, because then everyone knows about it and it's not as special and fancy. I've just seen this hesitancy in brides to tell you like, "Hey, I got this bracelet from here and this dress from here. And here's where I got my veil from." It seems like it's an industry or, at least, a group of people that sometimes don't always want to share that. Have you experienced that? Leslie: Yeah, it's funny. And this is another funny thing with bridal. I mean, we've never developed an influencer strategy. We've never had to work hard or twist a bride's arm to post pictures because it's almost always a really, really happy customer experience. Brides are shouting it from the rooftops, especially brides that had frustrations finding a dress that they wanted and then discovered us. They want to tell their friends about it. They want to help future brides know about us, which is just super cool. Leslie: And I think it's something that we've worked really hard to develop because, again, this idea of having a lot of trust, but we've earned that by going above and beyond to make sure our original customers were advocates for our brand by delivering a really, really amazing experience and a really, really beautiful, perfect dress. Leslie: And so, it still amazes me how much brides love to share about their experience. It's funny also because oftentimes the wedding dress is a secret, especially to the fiance. So, women will go as far as posting on their Instagram stories their sketch for their custom dress, but then we'll scribble out so you can't quite see what the dress looks like, but they still want to post the fact that they are so excited about getting their sketch, even though you can't even see it. It's pretty amazing. Stephanie: That's great. Yeah, that's really awesome. I'm sure also having that relationship with them, I mean, by the time they get to the very end, I'm sure they feel very connected with you, and the stylist, and your team, so it probably makes that better. Leslie: Oh, we've had stylists invited to so many weddings. It definitely is a relationship that is, I think, pretty unique. I think other companies would kill for this type of loyalty we have. Our stylists, we joke, get presents all the time, cupcakes and flowers and things delivered to the office because the bride was just so delighted with our experience, which is so cool. Leslie: It's really empowering, I think, to know that you've had a difference in what should be the most fun, enjoyable time in a woman's life and unfortunately oftentimes it's super stressful. So, I think just having an ally through that and then really wowing her with the delivery of the dress is the experience that we want to deliver every time. Stephanie: Yeah. I think a lot of brands would kill for that kind of relationship. And it's just a really good reminder of how important it is as a lot of companies are either coming online or moving more to direct to consumer that keeping those relationships, even if they're virtual, is super important to get that trust and to make sure it's, even after the sale, you have champions who are talking about your brand and wanting to send more people your way. Because, like you said, word of mouth is key. Leslie: Absolutely. And that becomes something very defensible as well, more so than a cool brand or, potentially even those tech and operational differentiators. Having customers that are singing your praises and having that community of advocates is something that we really, really want to keep building. Stephanie: Are there any digital e-commerce trends or patterns that you're really excited about or that you see coming down the pike? Leslie: Yeah, and I'm biased, of course, but I think the idea of personalization and customization is so, so key. And I love other brands that are tackling that as well, like Stitch Fix. I also think the idea of vertical integration and being really involved in your supply chain has popped up. And I'm a supply chain nerd, so I always appreciate other companies taking action there as well. Leslie: So some of the razor companies, [inaudible] of them purchased an actual razor factory in Germany. And I was just talking with the founder of Haus, which is a new liquor brand direct to consumer [crosstalk 00:37:29]. Stephanie: We just had them on the show. Leslie: Oh, amazing. Stephanie: Yeah, Helena. Yeah, she came on. Leslie: Helena is awesome. And I think there is a lot of innovation happening right now in terms of the front end, which the customer's experience, how you're interacting with brands in a digital way versus in a physical store. But I think the innovation from a supply chain side will also be really, really important for brands to differentiate, especially if they're making things in a new way. So, I'm feeling good about our investment in time and resources with developing a really strong supply chain presence. And I'm hoping it'll benefit us long-term. Stephanie: That's great. Are there any channels, like digital channels that you guys are looking into to expand to? Whether it's, I know a couple of brands we've talked to have talked about TikTok, which people laugh when I say that. But I mean, they've said that they've had great success on there. Is there any areas where you're seeing success that maybe others aren't trying out right now? Leslie: Yeah. It's funny you bring up TikTok, because months ago I would not have even really known what that was. TikTok is going to be very important for brands. We had a woman post just a quick little video around like, "Hey guys, if you are bored in quarantine, check out this website, you can visualize your own dress. I'm not even engaged, but it's pretty cool." It was something literally that simple. Her post went viral. We had over 200,000 people sign up in one day last week. Stephanie: Oh my gosh. Leslie: Or about a week and a half ago, crashed our website, our engineers were working until four in the morning trying to get our capacity back to where we could actually serve our customers, just bombarded with TikTok traffic. So, it was half the team trying to fix the website issues, and then half the team just trying to figure out what tikTok was. And quickly getting up [crosstalk 00:39:36]. Stephanie: What is the source? Leslie: Yeah. So, it's, I just saw a stat this week that they were the fastest social media company to get to a billion users. It's just amazing what they've built and the speed at which they've built it. And I think it's something for sure that leaders of brands will need to keep an eye on just given how viral it is. Stephanie: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I know people are still questioning how many of the users are real versus not, but I brought this up in a team meeting with my team. I'm like, "We should try out TikTok. One, it looks fun. And two, I've actually heard of quite a few brands saying that it's working well." And my entire team laughed at me and said, "No," so. Leslie: Well, they will be eating their words now, I think you were ahead [crosstalk 00:40:23]. Stephanie: I agree. I agree. So, 200,000 signups, crashed your website, that's a great segue into building platforms for e-commerce. How are you thinking now about, I mean, it sounds like you could be at a place where you're maybe outgrowing the platform or you're experiencing some friction because you guys are growing and you're going to have large spikes in volume coming your way. How are you thinking about developing a platform that fits you where you are now and where you're headed? Leslie: Yeah, I mean, it's a balance of building a robust tech foundation and serving up an experience that customers really want. It has to be a balance of both of those for us... Leslie: (Silence). Leslie: About six months ago. And being able to tie any possible design element and having logic built into it to not show a sketch to a customer of a dress that can't be created. We worked really, really hard to do that. That being said, it's a big load on our tech. And so, we're thinking about ways to, from a technology perspective, how do we continue to have a really cool mind reading type of experience, but also be able to potentially surge to have sketches available for hundreds of thousands of people in one day? Leslie: And one thing that we're building right now is, you mentioned earlier, there are a number of different types of brides that come. So, some brides come in and are like me, and they have an idea of exactly what they want and having a very mind reading survey experience works really well for that type of customer. But where we're moving to right now, and the team's building a brand new browsing experience that should be online just hopefully within the next couple of weeks is this idea of being able to filter down based on a couple of different elements and being able to view lots and lots of designs side by side. Stephanie: That's great. Leslie: Other Ecommerce companies have the same type of experience in terms of filtering down based on different price ranges, or colors, or sizes. And we're thinking a lot about that. And then also building that in a way now with the TikTok viral event fresh in our minds with a way that we can access our amazing data and logic that we've worked really hard to build, but also be able to have an easy load on our servers to be able to show this to hundreds of thousands of people at the same time. Stephanie: Yeah, that's great. I was actually just thinking when thinking through your business model of like, I'm probably the consumer that wants to... I don't know what I want until I see it. So, I would probably instead want to come in and be able to see different designs maybe on models that look like me so then I can choose it that way. Yeah, if someone were to say, "Hey Stephanie, design your own wedding dress." I'd be like, "Ah, it's white. It's all I got." Leslie: Such a big task. Yeah, for sure. We just created this algorithm within the last couple of months called... it's called a similar dresses algorithm, which takes all of these, I think we have millions of photos now at this point of real women, real weddings, real dresses, real Anomalie dresses. And based on the sketch that you get served up, you can see what that dress would look like on women that look similar to you. Leslie: If you've used Rent the Runway, which I'm a big consumer of Rent the Runway, you can see what does this look like on a woman that looks like me, which I think is really helpful in terms of addressing that question around the visualization and like, what is this actually going to look like? Stephanie: Yeah. Yeah. That's great. I'm excited to hear how that goes. How are you thinking about measuring performance when you have these two different types of models now? How do you think through, is our website working? Is it converting well? Yeah, what's your process around that? Leslie: Yeah. Well, our conversion tank, as you can imagine, just within the last couple of days, it was really exciting to see the site traffic and just the number of sketches being generated and just, I think overall excitement. Which isn't quantitative, but just the qualitative excitement and virality around the promise of what we're building was really, really exciting. Leslie: As far as like our KPIs, it's really just around growth. It's like we have a lot of interests. We need to make sure we're converting that interest into real purchases and real dresses being made with Anomalie. So, that takes a little bit more time than that initial visit to our site to get a sketch. And what we really look is the conversion of interactions with stylists. Our process right now is that you pay a small design deposit, so $29 to be able to connect with a stylist, and talk through the design, and talk about pros and cons, and iterate the sketch to be absolutely perfect. Leslie: And then the decision to move forward with Anomalie is after that call. And so, that's what we're really, really focused on is just making sure that we're converting the interest from our cool tech and our cool website experience to actual dresses. And that's where we're growing a lot right now, too, which is exciting. The conversion is not looking good right now- Stephanie: Temporary. Leslie: ... in terms of all the TikTokers, but that's where the rubber hits the road in terms of dresses actually going to the factory. Stephanie: That's awesome. Have you seen any hesitancy with paying that $29 fee? Have you seen traffic come there and hover a bit and be like, "I'm not so sure." And then people bounce because they don't want to pay something right upfront? And have you thought about maybe a quick freemium model where maybe they have a stylist for a couple minutes or would that ruin the business model of making it super personal and the relationship? Leslie: Yeah. We've thought about this a lot. And this actually is something that we're talking about as a team quite a bit right now is, is $29 too high? Is it too low? I think having a posture of confidence in our process that this is a good value is really important and we've adjusted the price and also if it's refundable or not, and then also having the calls be completely free or not it's something that we're looking at really closely and just continue to listen to what our customers like. Leslie: And we've got enough of a growth team set up now where we can measure that quantitatively rather than just viewing it qualitatively. So, yeah, it's a great question and something that we're thinking about a lot. What we want to communicate is, speaking with a stylist is important and absolutely necessary before you purchase the dress. This is not a typical e-commerce experience where you drop something into your cart and purchase it. This is your wedding dress. And so, making sure that we're delivering a really positive high quality customer experience and making sure brides are feeling good before they make that final decision is important. Leslie: And the exact makeup has changed a little bit over time and probably will continue to change over time, especially as we add more and more features to our website. But yeah, it's an exciting challenge that we're working on every day. Stephanie: Yeah. Yeah. I liked the idea too of sticking with your guns to keep that quality high. I know when I was looking through your website and you were mentioning transparency earlier, but you have a whole section where it says, can I get my wedding dress in six months and I still want a custom? And at one point you're like, "No, you can't do this, this, and this. If it's seven months, yes, we can do it for you. Eight months, here's what we can do for you." Stephanie: And I thought that was really smart to just show like, "Here's our boundaries and here's what we can and can't do." So, let's just set expectations up front and same with that stylist fee. It's like, "Here's how we work." If you go, "Well, this is the process where we see works best right now." Leslie: Yeah. And what's great is we've got a couple years under our belt now and have made thousands and thousands of dresses, so we know what's best. Which in the early days, I think we're a little apologetic and wanted to be super flexible, but now we have a lot of confidence in our process as it stands right now. Another place that shows up is the pricing of the actual dress. Leslie: A lot of brides come to us with a tight budget for their wedding, rightfully so. Weddings are really expensive. And so, being able to talk through with the stylist, what are the big price drivers of a dress? So, for us it's, there's hand beading. That takes a really long time and it's really expensive and adds a lot of costs to the dress. And so, being able to talk to a stylist about how to bring in elements of sparkle with less expensive elements is, I think, something that really appeals to brides. Stephanie: Yeah, that's great. So, we have a couple minutes left. And I want to jump into the lightning round, brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. It's where I ask you a quick question and you have a minute or less to answer. Are you ready, Leslie? Leslie: I am. Stephanie: All right. What is up next for your travel destinations? Any factories you're visiting? Where are you headed? Leslie: Yeah. Well, right now everything is still locked down for quarantine, so it is really hard to think too far in the future. I mean, in 2017, when we were starting this company, I was in China pretty much half the year. I think it was like every month I was out there. So, thankfully we've got an amazing team on the ground, so I'm not having to travel out there as much. And it'll be more traveling to our Scottsdale, Arizona office to chat with our stylists and customer experience. So, that's taking much more of my time now versus to China in the old days. Stephanie: Yeah, very cool. What kind of hobbies do you have or ones that you have on the map that you want to try out? Leslie: Almost none, I would say, which I don't know if- Stephanie: Work. Work. Work. Leslie: ... this is the most healthy answer, but starting a company and building a company is all consuming, which I love. That was exactly what I wanted. And that's what I'm dedicating my life to right now. My husband also is my co-founder, which is crazy. Stephanie: Sounds similar. Leslie: So, we don't have a personal life, but that's what we want right now. And we love what we're building and it still remains exciting, and cool, and our biggest hobby for sure. Stephanie: Yep. Completely agree on this side too. What's up next on your reading list or podcast list? Leslie: Oh, I'm just finishing a book called The Upside of Stress, which is super fascinating. It's a Stanford PhD researcher. She had done a ton of research on how stress can impact people's health in a negative way. But what she started uncovering is that it was believing that stress is bad for your health is what was making people unhealthy. Leslie: And so, the book is all around how you can... stress isn't going to go away, especially in meaningful lives or meaningful parts of your life that stress represents that you care about something and something is important. So, she has really practical tips for how to hone and manage stress in a way that helps. Which is focus, and energy, and care in what you're stressed about, which I'm really, really enjoying reading that and would highly recommend it. Stephanie: That sounds like a good one. I'd love to check that out too. All right. And the last, a little bit harder of a question, what's one thing that will have the biggest impact on e-commerce in the next year? Leslie: Oh, I mean, I have to say right now COVID is going to really, really append retail. With retail essentially being completely shut down in the U.S right now, I wonder about if there are decisions being made at both startup companies and large companies about what value they're getting out of their stores. And they are a lot of really expensive components of having a physical presence and we're benefiting from the value of having a digital experience in terms of the data, and the personalization, and delivering value to our customers. Leslie: And I wonder if we're just going to see a lot fewer stores. It's probably a pendulum and we'll swing another way in the future. But yeah, I just have to imagine that a lot of stores are going to be closed once the economy opens up and once quarantine is over. That's what I'm thinking about. Stephanie: Yeah. That's a great answer. Well Leslie, it's been a blast having you on the show. Yeah. Good luck with everything and we'll see you next time. Leslie: Thank you so much for having me.

Are you watching your adolescent struggle with mental health? Are you ever torn between faith and your own mental health recovery? Matt Stanford works right at that intersection. He reminds those of us who have adolescents dealing with mental and emotional health issues to check our preconceived notions at the door. Forgetting where they should be and helping them recover gracefully. Matthew S. Stanford (PhD, Baylor University) is CEO of the Hope and Healing Center & Institute in Houston, Texas, and adjunct professor of psychiatry at Baylor College. A Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, he is the author of several books including Grace for the Afflicted: A Clinical and Biblical Perspective on Mental Illness and Grace for the Children: Finding Hope in the Midst of Child and Adolescent Mental Illness. WHAT WE CHAT ABOUT: the church’s response to assisting with mental health issues over-spiritualizing mental health identifying when your child needs outside help steps to getting an accurate diagnosis encouragement for moms who have received a hard diagnosis removing the stigma of a mental health diagnosis how to talk to your child about their diagnosis good mental health practices while sheltering in place LINKS MENTIONED: Between the World and MeWhite FragilityGrace for the ChildrenGrace for the Afflicted CONNECT WITH MATT: website CONNECT WITH EMILY: website | instagram | facebook | patreon EPISODE SPONSORS: Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls: a fairytale podcast for kids about extraordinary women from all over the world Everlywell: get 20% off an at-home lab test when you visit everlywell.com/msw and use promo code MSW Little Spoon: get 20% off your first 3 orders when you visit littlespoon.com/msw SUPPORT THE SHOW: Patreon  SHARE THE STRUGGLE! If you've been encouraged, share this episode with a friend.  The struggle is real.  We might as well do this together! Do you love Mom Struggling Well? Please leave a review here!

Biology is the new frontier. At NFX, we’ve been investing in this space. And in this episode of the NFX podcast, we talk to Trevor Martin, the CEO and Co-Founder of Mammoth Biosciences, an NFX company, that is now the largest repository of CRISPR IP in the world. They are developing the Google of biology where they will help anyone find what they are looking for in the genome. They are also working on a rapid COVID-19 test that uses CRISPR. Today we will talk about the cutting edge of what’s happening and why the future will be defined by biology. Read more at - www.nfx.com/essays

In 1992, Dr. Jonathan Buckheit came to Stanford when internet growth was in its heyday. There he collaborated on writing software in a competitive space when Stanford was just pivoting to become entrepreneurial. Choosing entrepreneurship over academics proved to be a smart move. Nearly 30 years later, everything about the Internet has changed - including our views on its multitude of uses. Listen in as Dr. Bruckheit tells us what it was like being among the first successful entrepreneurs when the worldwide web (www) was newly launched and accelerating exponentially through the Internet.

How does your data tell your story? Is historical data political? What do our archives have to do with defining the future of our technology? To answer these questions and more The Radical AI Podcast welcomes Stanford PhD. Student and Archivist Eun Seo Jo to the show.    Eun Seo Jo is a PhD student in History at Stanford University. Her research broadly covers applications of machine learning on historical data and the ethical concerns of using socio-cultural data for AI research and systems.    Full show notes for this episode can be found at Radicalai.org   If you enjoy this episode please make sure to subscribe, submit a rating and review, and connect with us on twitter at twitter.com/radicalaipod    

On this episode of Fault Lines, hosts Garland Nixon & Lee Stranahan discussed the release of Chelsea Manning and Jeremy Hammond, the impact of the coronavirus on sports, the markets, and the election, and we talked to the head of a team developing an app to help people track their COVID-19 exposure.Guests:Medea Benjamin - Co-Founder of Human Rights Group Global Exchange and Peace Group 'CODEPINK' | Chelsea Manning & Jeremy Hammond Released and the United States' Wikileaks Grand Jury ClosedNetra Halperin - Producer/Director for foreign policy documentaries at Peace Films | Joe Biden's Dementia and The Democratic PartyEric Ladny - Former Fault Lines Senior Producer and Savage Sports Correspondent | Sport CancellationsTina White - PhD Candidate at Stanford, developing app to track COVID-19 | Tracking COVID-19 with an AppRichard Wolff - American Marxian Economist | Two Takes on the Market's Steep, Virus-Driven DownturnTom Luongo - Geopolitical Analyst & Publisher of the Gold Goats 'n Guns Newsletter | Two Takes on the Market's Steep, Virus-Driven DownturnAfter Chelsea Manning reportedly attempted to end her own life, she and fellow inmate Jeremy Hammond were released from detention while the Grand Jury in the case against Wikileaks was dropped. We were joined by Medea Benjamin to talk about the releases, the conditions of her detention, and what this move might mean for Julian Assange.We were joined by Netra Halperin to look at possible signs of dementia in Joe Biden's media appearances and whether cognitive deterioration might be the real explanation for his many gaffes and misstatements.All of America's major sport associations are cancelling or suspending their events for the foreseeable future in order to reduce the rate of spread of COVID-19. We spoke with Eric Ladny about the psychological impacts of these closures for tens of millions of Americans, the impact this will have on the economy, and what folks can do instead of rooting for their favorite teams and watching the contests they love.We were joined by a Stanford PhD candidate who is developing an app to help individuals track the spread of the coronavirus. She talked to us about what the app would do to help, the efforts that her and her team are taking to keep user's privacy secure, when we can expect it, and where you can subscribe for updates.We were joined for our last half hour by two very different economic thinkers with two broadly similar takes: the coronavirus is not just a large economic event in itself, it's also revealing the underlying instability in our markets. We were joined by the Marxian economist Richard Wolff and the libertarian economic writer Tom Luongo to look at what's really happening in the economy after yesterday the Dow suffered its worst single-day drop since 1987.

A Stanford PhD student and a San Francisco arborist talk about the urban forest, bicycles, crazy old trees, and pooping!

Dave and Evan chat with Milton Chen, founder and CEO VSee. Milton is a video pioneer that has built VSee into a powerful telemedicine platform. Telemedicine is no longer a fringe idea, in fact, some insist on dropping the "tele" part because it's just medicine now. It can save lives, and improve healthcare, and reduce costs. VSee serves over 1000 companies including Walgreens, MDLIVE, Trinity, DaVita, HCA, Seton, McKesson-US Oncology, and others. VSee was founded in 2008 by two Stanford PhD students, Milton and Erika Chuang. The original VSee platform was coded by Milton who did his PhD research on the psychology of video communications. Milton has deployed VSee for former President Obama’s Inauguration, for the Navy Seals, for Hillary Clinton, and Angelina Jolie in their refugee work. He is a genius at video, but needs to improve his skills around podcast audio.

Zebra Medical Technologies is part of a new breed of medical device companies. They understand the reality that the funding market for truly novel, innovative devices is tight along with a host of other hurdles so they are always looking for advantageous ways to get more done with less resources. Based in the heart of Silicon Valley in Mountain View and hatched out of work done in the Stanford PhD program, Zebra Medical is creating a novel imaging system to permit live cellular pathology with cutting tissue. Their aim is to transform patient care across multiple medical regimes, and their current focus is to improve the diagnostics and treatment of skin cancers. Today we're join by Gabriel Sanchez, Zebra's founder and CEO, and Kate Montgomery, their lead R&D scientist who both have quite the impressive backgrounds. Gabriel got his BS in Mechanical Engineering at MIT before getting both his MS and PhD in the same discipline at Stanford. Kate also received her PhD from Stanford, hers being in Bioengineering, and it was there at the Stanford PhD lab that they first met. Having spent the last two years developing their technology at the prestigious Fogarty Institute of Innovation, they've also discovered some great business insights, such as the importance of quality management, and how leveraging technology has enabled them to be more efficient and pass a quality audit with flying colors even though they were going through the process for their first time. Specifically, some of the topics you'll hear about today include: ● Gabriel's and Kate's backgrounds that have led them to Zebra Medical Technologies. ● How greenlight.guru has helped Zebra Medical Technologies reach some of their milestones and put off hiring a consult or full time quality resource ● Kate's experience during an audit: How she prepared, stayed confident and passed with flying colors even though it was their first time going through one ● What to expect to see and hear in the future from Zebra Medical Technologies. ● Some information about the company's novel imaging system, which provides an alternative to the current method of surgical biopsies for live cellular pathology evaluation.

Episode 13 is with Dr. Matthew Stanford, CEO of the Hope and Healing Center & Institute in Houston, TX and adjunct professor of psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine and Houston Methodist Hospital Institute for Academic Medicine. Dr. Stanford’s research on the interplay between psychology and issues of faith has been featured in The New York Times, USA Today, Christianity Today, and U.S. News & World Report. Dr. Stanford earned his doctoral degree in behavioral neuroscience at Baylor University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. Professionally he has worked with a variety of clients with mental illness, including those with aggression, personality disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance dependence, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. As director of the Hope and Healing Center and Institute, he conducts training seminars and serves individuals living with mental illness and their families. He is the author of three books: 1) Grace for the Afflicted: A Clinical and Biblical Perspective on Mental Illness, Revised and Expanded 2) The Biology of Sin: Grace, Hope, and Healing for Those Who Feel Trapped 3) Grace for the Children: Finding Hope in the Midst of Child and Adolescent Mental Illness. Three main talking points: 1) Dr. Stanford talks to Virgil about how people often turn to their clergy for support around their mental health issues. In this light, congregations have the potential to act as a healing community for these individuals. But some clergy can “over spiritualize” mental illness and this is where training and awareness raising efforts for congregations can help to steer people towards the proper supports. 2) Dr. Stanford and Virgil then discuss a critical aspect of this issue: that clergy do not make a lot of referrals to mental health professionals. Dr. Stanford believes that with the proper training, clergy and leadership in congregations can help to spot, support, and refer parishoners at the right time to the right people, leveraging the trusting relationship they already have and helping get people the help they need. 3) And lastly, Dr. Stanford outlines some excellent resources for anyone who wants to learn more: a CBT-based curriculum and training he has developed that prepares people who are part of faith communities to act as mental health coaches, other training resources offered by the Hope and Healing Center and Institute, and an annual mental health conference they host.

In this week’s episode, we chat with Ben Fisch, Stanford PhD student working in Dan Boneh's applied cryptography group. In our conversation, we dig into accumulators, Merkle trees & vector commitments. We also learn a bit about the RSA Accumulator Paper - entitled Batching Techniques for Accumulators with Applications to IOPs and Stateless Blockchains (https://eprint.iacr.org/2018/1188.pdf) - that he co-authored with Benedikt Bünz and touch on some of the ways these RSA accumulators could potentially be used in a blockchain context. Here are a few previous episodes that might help you prep for this interview: Merkle Trees https://www.zeroknowledge.fm/57 MPCs https://www.zeroknowledge.fm/60 Here are a few concepts and links we mention: Batching Techniques for Accumulators with Applications to IOPs and Stateless Blockchains (https://eprint.iacr.org/2018/1188.pdf) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSA_(cryptosystem) https://github.com/cambrian/accumulator https://medium.com/@chia.net/chia-vdf-competition-guide-5382e1f4bd39 Thank you to our sponsor this week StarkWare (https://starkware.co) StarkWare will be presenting the StarkWare Sessions (https://starkware.co/starkware-sessions/) - on Sept 16th in Tel Aviv. The event will bring together some of the brightest minds in zero knowledge research from both the academic and application spheres. Topics that will be discussed are self-custodial trading, STARKs for Layer 1, STARK-friendly hash functions and other cool things you can do with STARK proofs. Use the code Zkpodcast for 20% off the tickets - > https://starkware.co/starkware-sessions/ If you like what we do: Follow us on Twitter - @zeroknowledgefm (https://twitter.com/zeroknowledgefm) Join us on Telegram (https://t.me/joinchat/B_81tQ57-ThZg8yOSx5gjA) Support our Gitcoin Grant (https://gitcoin.co/grants/38/zero-knowledge-podcast) Support us on the ZKPatreon (https://www.patreon.com/zeroknowledge) Or directly here: ETH: 0xC0FFEE1B5083230a5154F55f253B6b6ae8F29B1a BTC: 1cafekGa3podM4fBxPSQc6RCEXQNTK8Zz ZEC: t1R2bujRF3Hzte9ALHpMJvY8t5kb9ut9SpQ

This one begins pretty grim. In episode 49 of sh!tpost, host Jared Holt and co-host Jack discuss the New Zealand terrorist attack carried out by a white supremacist. Data & Society research affiliate and Stanford PhD student Becca Lewis joins us to talk further about networks of extremism online. We then move on to some lighter topics like Egg Boy, Shane Dawson's cat-sex denial, and Rep. Devin Nunes' LOLsuit against Twitter shitposters.SHOW NOTES: www.shtpostpodcast.com/episode-49-show-notes/Join the discussion at Discord: discord.gg/zWzUBbeThe call-in voicemail inbox is (202) 630-0580The Patreon: patreon.com/shtpostpodcastTwitter: twitter.com/shtpostpodcast Get on the email list at shtpost.substack.com

Hal Hershfield is the Associate Professor of Marketing at UCLA Anderson and a Stanford PhD in Psychology. Mike talks to him about life as a professor, his research, and gets his thoughts on recent business news.

Stanford PhD, Dr. Beverly Potter (goes by “Doc Potter”), author of Cannabis for Seniors, a book designed to educate seniors about marijuana so they can safely enjoy its therapeutic qualities. Is Marijuana Toxic To Pets? Plus More Cannabis Questions Answered: With marijuana legalization initiatives sweeping the U.S. – from recreational use to medical to President Donald Trump signing the Farm Bill into law, legalizing hemp – you’re bombarded with information about cannabis. But what’s true and what’s not? What exactly is that CBD oil you keep getting emails about? Should you cook with marijuana? How much is too much? Will weed smoke hurt your pets? What is the difference between CBD and THC? Fearful of getting addicted? How can you safely use cannabis for pain relief?

Dave, Nicole and Greg talk to Stanford PhD student Ava Carter about using stem cells to regenerate bones and what it's like on the "30 under 30" list, celebrate International Women and Girls in Science Day by discussing how women are (and aren't) recognized for their contributions, and explore the artificial intelligence needed to beat Starcraft.

Make your mark, make a difference, and make millions—on your own terms!  It's your time! It's women's history month - let's make history! Synergy Energy = Success!  MEET AND HEAR: Dr. Venus Opal Reese, The “Black Women Millionaires” Mentor™ Inspirational Speaker, Black Women Millionaire Mentor™, and Creator/CEO of Defy Impossible, Inc., Dr. Venus Opal Reese has been featured in Forbes, Ebony, Black Enterprise, on ABC News, CBS News, PBS, in Glamour magazine, Diversity Inc., the Associated Press, on the Tom Joyner Morning Show, MegaFeast and is a regular contributor to Heart and Soul Magazine/TV. She's the cover story in the upcoming SPEAKERS MAGAZINE too.  Dr. Venus was a walking statistic. She went from living on the “mean” streets of Baltimore, to Stanford PhD, to seven-figure sister. Her business, Defy Impossible, Inc., has grossed $4 million five years after launching. Her clients have generated over 8 million in revenue using her PROVEN programs, systems and strategies. Dr. Venus knows what it takes to break through inner glass ceilings that limit performance. She teaches purpose-driven, high-achieving Black Women professionals, entrepreneurs, how to defy their impossible to break the million-dollar mark—on their own terms. Now she's on tour with her best-selling book, HEAR HER on this podcast break it all down and equip YOU with the fuel you need to become a 7-Figure Success! Check out her tour stops here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-black-woman-millionairetm-tour-detroit-tickets-42476129246

A touching and honest non-narrated produced portrait of one of the first people to be detained at JFK under the initial Trump travel ban order. Stanford PhD student traveling from Sudan: Nisrin Abdelrahman Aired on: http://www.cbc.ca/listen/shows/the-doc-project/segment/13703580 https://www.radioproject.org/2017/09/arrival-trumps-travel-refugee-ban/ http://kalw.org/post/stanford-grad-student-was-one-first-trump-travel-ban-detainees#stream/0 “80s interlude” (Album: Or Up We Fall), by Fanas “Theme 4”, “Sleep”, “Intermission” & “In a Dream” (soundtrack for a film that doesn't exist), by Johnny Ripper “Data” (don't), by Johnny Ripper

This episode was scheduled to be released right after the New Year, so it’s a bit late in getting out. Neila and Andy recorded their 14th episode of ‘4 X Mindfulness’ while vacationing in Paris in early January. To kick start 2017 they both shared their recent insight and inspiration in regards to living a more mindful life, especially going into the new year. Andy’s first seed of mindfulness has to do with better dealing with the stressors that the holiday season can bring with it to our lives if we are not careful. Regardless of the time of year, vacations, celebrations, and other holidays can cause stress, anxiety, and tension as we tend to build these moments up to mean much more than they actually do. Without knowing it, we can unravel when things don’t go as planned during these big moments, causing even more stress. Andy shares a blog written by one of his favorite authors, Brene Brown, that is all about the importance of taking on a different perspective when it comes to holidays and celebrations. Andy’s second seed of mindfulness has to do with goal-setting and the anxiety that comes with it as we sometimes tend to focus only on the future without being grateful for the present moment when it comes to the small successes that we experience with the goals we set for ourselves. He was inspired to share this perspective on goal-setting after hearing Tim Ferriss and Tony Robbins speak about in a recent podcast. For Neila’s two seeds of mindfulness, she shares a very mindful Japanese way of looking at life and it’s difficult moments. She delves into how this perspective takes on a very mindful approach when dealing with potential difficulties that can arise in our lives. As well, Neila shares a 3-step strategy inspired by the work of Stanford PHD, BJ Fogg that has been proven to be successful in changing unwanted habits in our lives. In controlling what is within our spheres of influence, we can have much more success in creating the habits that we need to better serve us in life. Although an originally scheduled New Year’s episode, Andy and Neila hope you are able to capture a gem or two that can be applied to both your personal and professional life regardless of the time of year. Bio Neila Steele and Andy Vasily are international educators who have worked at fully authorized IB schools in 4 different countries over the past 16 years (Japan, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, and China). Andy is a consultant, workshop leader, presenter, and speaker. Neila presents and leads multiple workshops in the area of mindfulness. They have devoted themselves to sharing the powerful effects that mindfulness has on promoting greater mental, social, emotional, and physical well-being. Connect With Neila, Andy, and Mike Neila Twitter: @neilasteele Website: www.mindfulandpresent.com Andy Twitter: @andyvasily Website: www.pyppewithandy.com Themes Discussed: Tiny Habits, Gratitude, Perspective, Power to Change, Presence, Self-Awareness, Reflection, Goal-Setting, BJ Fogg, Brene Brown

Danielle Harlan is the author of “The New Alpha: Join the Rising Movement of Influencers and Changemakers who are Redefining Leadership.” She's also the Founder & CEO of the Center for Advancing Leadership & Human Potential. Growing up in a small oceanside town in California, Danielle’s perspective was slowly shaped by the conglomerate of open-minded, thoughtful people surrounding her, inciting her to question how she can go above and beyond individual success to truly benefit her community. Before pursuing a masters and PhD, Danielle worked for Teach for America and taught special education in a fairly under-resourced area of San Jose. She feels like she derived purpose and also gave back to her community through this area of strenuous, yet rewarding, work. Danielle says leadership and human potential have been woven into everything she’s done, right down to her doctorate-level dissertation for a Stanford PhD in political science. After earning several degrees as the first person in her family to graduate from college, Danielle wrote and published her book, as well as founded The Center for Advancing Leadership and Human Potential. Danielle’s work as both an author and CEO focuses on what our responsibilities as human beings are to others, and how we can maximize our impact on others and the world through leadership.

  Please Support The Show With a Donation   This week we talk to Emma Seppälä about success and happiness Emma Seppälä, Ph.D is Science Director of Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education and the author of The Happiness Track: How to Apply the Science of Happiness to Accelerate Your Success. She is also Co-Director of the Yale College Emotional Intelligence Project at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and a Lecturer at Yale College where she teaches The Psychology of Happiness.  She consults with Fortune 500 leaders and employees on building a positive organization and teaches in the Yale School of Management’s Executive Education program.  She graduated from Yale (BA), Columbia (MA), and Stanford (PhD).   In This Interview, Emma Seppälä and I Discuss... Her book, The Happiness Track: How to Apply the Science of Happiness to Accelerate Your Success The false notion that in order to be successful you have to work so hard that you postpone your happiness The 6 major false theories that are behind our current notions of success The false theory of "You can't have success without stress" That our stress response is only meant to be fight or flight, not "most of the time" That high adrenaline compromises our immune system, our ability to focus, make good decisions The role of meditation in one's success What prevents us from getting into a creative mindset How to manage your energy vs managing your time What we can learn from the resilience in children and animals Where veterans and civilians can go to learn the art of breathing to recover from trauma For Veterans: Project Welcome Home Troops For Civilians: Art of Living How "looking out for #1" can actually be harmful to you Why workplaces are incorporating compassion training     Please Support The Show with a Donation    

Zebra Medical Technologies is part of a new breed of medical device companies. They understand the reality that the funding market for truly novel, innovative devices is tight along with a host of other hurdles so they are always looking for advantageous ways to get more done with less resources. Based in the heart of Silicon Valley in Mountain View and hatched out of work done in the Stanford PhD program, Zebra Medical is creating a novel imaging system to permit live cellular pathology with cutting tissue. Their aim is to transform patient care across multiple medical regimes, and their current focus is to improve the diagnostics and treatment of skin cancers. Today we’re join by Gabriel Sanchez, Zebra’s founder and CEO, and Kate Montgomery, their lead R&D scientist who both have quite the impressive backgrounds. Gabriel got his BS in Mechanical Engineering at MIT before getting both his MS and PhD in the same discipline at Stanford. Kate also received her PhD from Stanford, hers being in Bioengineering, and it was there at the Stanford PhD lab that they first met. Having spent the last two years developing their technology at the prestigious Fogarty Institute of Innovation, they’ve also discovered some great business insights, such as the importance of quality management, and how leveraging technology has enabled them to be more efficient and pass a quality audit with flying colors even though they were going through the process for their first time. Specifically, some of the topics you’ll hear about today include: ● Gabriel’s and Kate’s backgrounds that have led them to Zebra Medical Technologies. ● How greenlight.guru has helped Zebra Medical Technologies reach some of their milestones and put off hiring a consult or full time quality resource ● Kate’s experience during an audit: How she prepared, stayed confident and passed with flying colors even though it was their first time going through one ● What to expect to see and hear in the future from Zebra Medical Technologies. ● Some information about the company’s novel imaging system, which provides an alternative to the current method of surgical biopsies for live cellular pathology evaluation.

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 146. Update: See also Thoughts on Walter Block on Voluntary Slavery, Alienability vs. Inalienability, Property and Contract, Rothbard and Evers (Jan. 9, 2022). Transcript below. See also KOL197 | Tom Woods Show: The Central Rothbard Contribution I Overlooked, and Why It Matters: The Rothbard-Evers Title-Transfer Theory of Contract. Today I had a discussion with Williamson Evers, about his pathbreaking 1977 article Toward a Reformulation of the Law of Contracts, which was the first article ever published in the Journal of Libertarian Studies (Evers's other JLS articles). This article was relied on heavily by Rothbard, in ch. 19 of The Ethics of Liberty, "Property Rights and the Theory of Contracts." I discuss this piece in detail in my 2003 JLS article "A Libertarian Theory of Contract: Title Transfer, Binding Promises, and Inalienability" (now in Legal Foundations of a Free Society (Houston, Texas: Papinian Press, 2023)), and I also discuss it in my post Justice and Property Rights: Rothbard on Scarcity, Property, Contracts…. See also my post Thoughts on Walter Block on Voluntary Slavery, Alienability vs. Inalienability, Property and Contract, Rothbard and Evers. A fascinating interview. We discussed the genesis of this important theory and related matters. I appreciate greatly Dr. Evers taking time to discuss this matter with me. Note: The purpose of talking to Evers was to ask him questions about his own theory of contract. I sent him a copy of my article as a way to persuade him to talk with me, but my purpose was not to discuss my article with him. However, Evers seemed to think this was the reason for my call and he kept bringing the topic back to my article, when I really wanted to discuss his. In any event, as he was my guest, I did not try too hard to change the topic, and did end up getting a great deal of useful information from him about his original paper and the origin of these ideas. Related links: KOL225 | Reflections on the Theory of Contract (PFS 2017) KOL197 | Tom Woods Show: The Central Rothbard Contribution I Overlooked, and Why It Matters: The Rothbard-Evers Title-Transfer Theory of Contract KOL 029 | First Degree Liberty Interview: Argumentation Ethics and the Title-Transfer Theory of Contract KOL338 | Human Action Podcast Ep. 308 with Jeff Deist: Rothbard on Punishment, Property, and Contract Youtube: https://youtu.be/4tIlPMJeilA   TRANSCRIPT Interview of Williamson Evers on the Title-Transfer Theory of Contract Stephan Kinsella and Williamson Evers August 5, 2014 00:00:01 STEPHAN KINSELLA: Okay, this is Stephan Kinsella.  I'm here with Mr. Williamson Evers who I've never met in person, and he has graciously agreed to discuss with me a topic that I've been interested in, in a number of years, the title-transfer theory of contract.  And Mr. Evers, how are you doing? 00:00:19 WILLIAMSON EVERS: I'm fine, thank you.  So I'm Bill Evers, Williamson M. Evers.  I'm a Stanford PhD in political science, and I currently am a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford.  I was a friend of Murray Rothbard for many years and discussed political theory and philosophy of law questions with him including questions about the law of contracts.  So I think that's what we're going to discuss today. 00:01:01 STEPHAN KINSELLA: Absolutely, and I'll just observe that I've been a fan of the Journal of Libertarian Studies, of course, since its inception, and I noticed that I think your article was the very first article every published in the JLS. 00:01:13 WILLIAMSON EVERS: That's right.  It was the lead article in Volume 1 No. 1. 00:01:19 STEPHAN KINSELLA: Yes, and you've had several others. 00:01:20 WILLIAMSON EVERS: Yes, and I was also the managing editor for awhile. 00:01:24 STEPHAN KINSELLA: And I think your article came out in 1977, and I'm a lawyer, and so I've written on this topic.

It’s not every day that we speak with a Stanford PhD in philosophy who has funded the construction of schools around the world. That same person started dabbling in ecommerce a decade or so ago and his company is now a publicly-traded retailing powerhouse. He’s Patrick Byrne and the company is Overstock.com. He joins Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock to discuss holiday sales strategies, among other ecommerce topics.

Melinda Belisle, a Stanford PhD student working with Professor Tad Fukami on floral ecology at Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve, discusses her work on nectar microbes in a varied landscape, its relevance for understanding historical contingency in ecological community assembly, and its potential significance to ecological restoration.

Welcome to the first episode of the Chat Sports podcast. The show was recorded right after Michael Jordans 50th birthday on February 19th 2013. On this initial episode Ryan Greenwald of Chat Sports hosts and interviews Corey Butler from Stanford Mens Basketball and Kwesi Adofo-Mensah from Stanfords Economics PhD department. The guys discuss MJ, LeBron, and Kobe, then get into societal views on genetic engineering, PEDs, and picking a mate.

Shocking stories of elders deceived by predators is chronicled in the DVD, Saving Our Parents. In Writing through the Darkness, Stanford PHD and bipolar depression sufferer Elizabeth Maynard Schaefer provides therapeutic writing techniques for the depressed. In T42, the Stella Donne Goddess Gals discuss the dynamics of relationships with Fight or Switch.