We are in the midst of a digital revolution, where the line between our physical world and cyberspace is blurring. Tech Tonic is the show that investigates the promises and perils of this new technological age.
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Introducing Untold: Power for Sale
Introducing Power for Sale, a new season of Untold from the Financial Times. In Untold: Power for Sale, host Valentina Pop and a team of FT correspondents from all over Europe investigate what happened in the Qatargate scandal, where EU lawmakers were accused of accepting payments from Qatar to whitewash its image.Subscribe and listen on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
5/30/2024 • 2 minutes, 25 seconds
Introducing: Swamp Notes from The FT News Briefing
If you have questions about this year's US presidential election, we have answers.Swamp Notes is a new podcast from the FT News Briefing. Listen every Saturday morning as our journalists analyse and discuss the latest happenings in US politics. We’ll go beyond the horse race for the White House and offer a global perspective on the election. You can subscribe to Swamp Notes here or wherever you get your podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2/5/2024 • 1 minute, 11 seconds
Introducing Untold: The Retreat
Introducing Untold, a new podcast from the special investigations team at the Financial Times. In Untold's first series, The Retreat, host Madison Marriage examines the world of the Goenka network, which promotes a type of intensive meditation. Thousands of people go on Goenka retreats every year. People rave about them. But some go to these meditation retreats, and they suffer. They might feel a deep sense of terror, or a break with reality. And on the other side, they’re not themselves anymore. Untold: The Retreat launches Jan. 24.Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
1/12/2024 • 1 minute, 57 seconds
Coming soon: Can AI help us speak to animals?
Some scientists believe that rapid advances in artificial intelligence may also hold the key to decoding animal sounds, allowing us to ‘translate’ them into human language. In a new season of Tech Tonic, FT innovation editor John Thornhill and series producer Persis Love explore how the same technology that powers ChatGPT is being applied to research in animal communication. Could we one day learn to ‘speak whale’ or even chat with bats? And if so, can we trust ourselves to do so responsibly?Presented by John Thornhill, produced by Persis Love, sound design by Breen Turner and Sam Giovinco. The executive producer is Manuela Saragosa and Cheryl Brumley is the FT’s head of audio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
9/12/2023 • 1 minute, 9 seconds
Introducing: The Russian Banker
Who is Sergei Leontiev? To the US asylum system, he’s an exiled Russian banker who was persecuted by the state and forced to flee. To Russia, he’s guilty of massive fraud. On The Russian Banker, a new series from the Financial Times, reporters Courtney Weaver and Stefania Palma try to uncover the truth, and find a story that tells us about Russia today and how people in the west build stories about who’s good and who’s bad. The Russian Banker is a special series that will run on the Behind the Money podcast starting Aug. 30. Listen to The Russian Banker by subscribing to the Behind the Money podcast here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
8/18/2023 • 1 minute, 44 seconds
Introducing Behind the Money: Night School
There’s been a lot of big finance and economics news in 2023. Whether it's stories about rising interest rates, tech industry layoffs or bank runs, it can almost feel like you need an MBA just to make sense of it all. That’s why the Financial Times is launching a bonus series called Behind the Money: Night School. Over the next five weeks, this show will help you understand the concepts behind the biggest economic stories of this year. U.S. managing editor Peter Spiegel chats with FT journalists as they unpack the basics around things like energy markets, inflation and the rise of artificial intelligence. This series is supported by Blinkist. If you want to find out more about conversations like this, check out the Blinkist app.Behind the Money: Night School is out now. Find it by subscribing to the Behind the Money podcast wherever you listen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
4/21/2023 • 1 minute, 23 seconds
Behind the Money is back!
Behind the Money is back with all-new episodes! From hostile takeovers to C-suite intrigue, Behind the Money takes you inside the business and financial stories of the moment with reporting from Financial Times journalists around the world. The podcast returns May 25. You can follow the show now! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
5/19/2022 • 1 minute, 21 seconds
Season 2 coming soon
There is a huge amount of hype surrounding AI. It powers technology that can detect disease through scent, translate between languages in milliseconds, and write music almost as good as Bach. Yet this vast potential also stirs a great deal of fear. The power of AI is used to develop weapons and increase surveillance. We unwittingly encode our biases into its systems. The question of who is crafting AI and for what becomes increasingly important. Season two of Tech Tonic, explores the philosophical, ethical and technological cruxes of AI’s ever expanding role in medical research, modern warfare and investments. FT innovation editor John Thornhill and FT journalists take the listener on a journey through Google DeepMind’s turbo-powered scientific discoveries, to a hospital in rural India. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
6/13/2021 • 44 seconds
A new season of Tech Tonic
The show that investigates the promises and perils of our digital age is back with a new season. FT innovation editor John Thornhill will take us into the emergency rooms, city centres and even cruise ships where tech innovation is solving some of the unprecedented challenges brought about by the pandemic, as he explores what this tech-driven world means for us all. Tech Tonic returns on Monday, March 1. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2/26/2021 • 46 seconds
AI research and big tech
John Thornhill talks to David Barber, director of the UCL Centre for Artificial Intelligence in London, about how academic researchers can work with business and the wider community to create the best outcomes for society. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
12/16/2019 • 31 minutes, 16 seconds
Niklas Zennström and Tom Wehmeier on the state of European tech
Niklas Zennström, founder of Skype and Atomico and Tom Wehmeier, Atomico partner and author of The State of European Tech report, talk to the FT's John Thornhill about whether Europe is becoming a tech hub. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
12/9/2019 • 22 minutes, 28 seconds
Dave Ferrucci on teaching computers to think
Dave Ferrucci, CEO, founder and chief scientist of Elemental Cognition, talks to Richard Waters, the FT's West Coast editor, about his efforts to train computers to use language to reason. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
12/2/2019 • 26 minutes, 23 seconds
Google's Kate Brandt on sustainable tech
Kate Brandt talks to John Thornhill about Google’s drive to minimise and offset the energy used in its operations and supply chains, and about its environmental insights explorer which helps cities find ways to reduce their carbon emissions. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
11/25/2019 • 23 minutes, 49 seconds
Digital technologies and the developing world
Economist Stefan Dercon tells John Thornhill about the findings of a research project he led, showing how, used wisely, technology can enable development, rather than just replace labour and put people out of work. Read his report here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
11/18/2019 • 26 minutes, 48 seconds
ENCORE: Jeni Tennison on open data
John Thornhill talks to Jeni Tennison, chief executive of the Open Data Institute, about her work in helping to develop best practice for the use and sharing of data, and about how Brexit will affect Britain's data economy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
11/11/2019 • 24 minutes, 48 seconds
Scott Kupor on VC funding
John Thornhill talks to Scott Kupor, managing partner at Andreessen Horowitz, about his book Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It, about the conditions needed to grow tech companies and the potential drawbacks of a venture capital dominated market. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
11/3/2019 • 31 minutes, 7 seconds
Rana Foroohar on taming big tech
John Thornhill talks to FT colleague Rana Foroohar about her book Don’t Be Evil - How Big Tech Betrayed Its Founding Principles - And All Of Us Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
10/28/2019 • 22 minutes, 51 seconds
Stuart Russell on losing control of AI
John Thornhill discusses how to make artificial intelligence safe for humans with Stuart Russell, professor of computer science and engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of new book ‘Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control’. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
10/21/2019 • 30 minutes, 35 seconds
Jaan Tallinn on AI safety
John Thornhill talks to Jaan Tallinn, founding engineer at Skype and Kazaa, about his subsequent career as a tech investor and his concerns about AI safety. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
10/14/2019 • 22 minutes, 5 seconds
Wanted: work for humans
Madhumita Murgia discusses what happens when robots can do most of the work humans do with Calum Chace of the Economic Singularity Club, Mike Wooldridge, professor of Computer Science at Oxford University and Kathryn Parsons, founder of Decoded Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
10/7/2019 • 25 minutes, 13 seconds
What kind of art can AI produce?
Mathematician Marcus du Sautoy puts his theories about creative AI to the test before a live audience at the recent FT Weekend Festival in London. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
9/30/2019 • 19 minutes, 55 seconds
John Maeda on designing the future
Design guru John Maeda tells Tim Bradshaw why he thinks a diversity of viewpoints and listening to what consumers want will be more valuable to the companies of the future than creating the next breakthrough technology. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
9/23/2019 • 28 minutes, 3 seconds
Sarah Chan on neural interfaces
Bioethicist Sarah Chan contributed to a report this month on neurotechnology by the UK’s senior scientific academy. She talks to John Thornhill about the potential health benefits of neural interfaces but also the difficulty of regulating the commercial use of devices that interact with our brains. Read the Royal Society's report hereAll FT stories will be free to read on Wednesday September 18th when there will be a 24-hour paywall freeze. Here are a couple of recommendations to get you started:Neural interfaces should upgrade, not degrade, humansHow China dodged a trade war recession Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
9/16/2019 • 23 minutes, 57 seconds
Alice Bentinck on harnessing tech talent
Alice Bentinck, co-founder of Entrepreneur First, tells John Thornhill about her mission to harness the entrepreneurial talents of a new generation of people from diverse backgrounds. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
9/9/2019 • 24 minutes, 12 seconds
Improving decision making through AI
Vishal Chatrath, chief executive and co-founder of Prowler, tells John Thornhill how his company is helping to improve decision making in the worlds of finance and logistics. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
9/2/2019 • 25 minutes, 44 seconds
Priya Lakhani on AI's power to transform education
Priya Lakhani, founder and chief executive AI company Century Tech, talks to John Thornhill about her mission to improve the life chances of students around the world using AI-assisted learning. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
8/26/2019 • 30 minutes, 10 seconds
Nicolas Berggruen on democracy in the digital age
John Thornhill talks to the billionaire investor and philanthropist Nicolas Berggruen about his book: Renovating Democracy: Governing in the Age of Globalization and Digital Capitalism Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
8/19/2019 • 24 minutes, 22 seconds
Ben Goertzel on benevolent robots
Ben Goertzel talks to John Thornhill about his work for Hanson Robotics, the company that created the robot Sophia, about SingularityNET, the blockchain-based AI marketplace he founded, and about his belief that artificial general intelligence, transhumanism and benevolent robots are not too far in the future Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
8/12/2019 • 35 minutes, 30 seconds
Frances Arnold on directed evolution of enzymes
Nobel laureate Frances Arnold talks to Anjana Ahuja about her pioneering a work harnessing the power of nature to engineer enzymes, her long career and the challenges faced by women in science. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
8/5/2019 • 30 minutes, 18 seconds
Digital printing for the fourth industrial revolution
Joseph DeSimone, chief executive of Carbon, talks to Richard Waters about the manufacturing technique he invented that can craft objects in seconds using the power of light and digital projection systems Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
7/29/2019 • 28 minutes
Directing innovation towards sustainable growth
John Thornhill talks to economist Mariana Mazzucato about her work to promote collaboration between governments and companies to direct innovation towards sustainable and inclusive growth. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
7/22/2019 • 32 minutes, 27 seconds
Paul Clarke on robotics and digital twins
Paul Clarke, chief technology officer at the online grocery Ocado, talks to John Thornhill about how the use of robotics, machine learning and digital twins is taking the business to a new level and even helping to plan the cities of the future. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
7/15/2019 • 31 minutes, 5 seconds
Jennifer Doudna on gene editing
Jennifer Doudna talks to Richard Waters, the FT's San Francisco bureau chief, about how she discovered the CRISPR Cas-9 system and how it is transforming the world of gene editing. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
7/8/2019 • 30 minutes, 23 seconds
John Browne on engineering the future
John Thornhill talks to Lord John Browne, former chief executive of BP, about his book: Make, Think, Imagine on engineering and the future of civilisation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
7/1/2019 • 25 minutes, 36 seconds
Nathan Jurgenson on social media and the selfie
Nathan Jurgenson, sociologist at Snapchat’s parent company Snap, talks to Tim Bradshaw about his book The Social Photo and about how the smartphone camera is changing the way we communicate Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
6/24/2019 • 31 minutes, 56 seconds
Eric Topol on making healthcare more human
Hannah Kuchler talks to American cardiologist Eric Topol about his book Deep Medicine, which looks at the potential for artificial intelligence technology to help free up doctors to spend more time with their patients. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
6/17/2019 • 29 minutes, 27 seconds
New season starts on Monday
Tech Tonic, the podcast that looks at the way technology is changing our lives, is returning for a news season starting on Monday 17th June. We’ll be talking to Eric Topol, the US cardiologist, about the ways in which the work of doctors can be enhanced by AI, Nathan Jurgenson on social media and the selfy, and John Browne, former head of BP, on engineering and the future of civilisation, and many more. So tune in next week Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
6/12/2019 • 50 seconds
Andrew Ng on building an AI workforce
Artificial intelligence expert Andrew Ng talks to John Thornhill about his concern that AI technology is concentrating wealth in the hands of a few and why we need to spread AI skills and understanding across society. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
4/17/2019 • 24 minutes, 23 seconds
Rana Yared on investing in fintech
John Thonhill talks to Rana Yared, a partner and managing director at Goldman Sachs’ Principal Strategic Investments, about how technology is transforming the banking industry. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
4/10/2019 • 23 minutes, 24 seconds
Marcus du Sautoy on creative AI
John Thornhill talks to Oxford mathematician Marcus du Sautoy about his book: The Creativity Code: How AI is Learning to Write, Paint and Think Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
4/3/2019 • 26 minutes, 52 seconds
James Vlahos on voice technology
Elaine Moore talks to American journalist James Vlahos about the chatbot he created to keep the memory of this father alive and about the potential uses and misuses of voice technology. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
3/27/2019 • 23 minutes, 4 seconds
Peter Schwartz on automating the brain
Peter Schwartz, senior vice-president of strategic planning at Salesforce, futurist and author, talks to John Thornhill about the impact on our society of the next wave of technology. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
3/20/2019 • 24 minutes, 25 seconds
Tim Berners-Lee on reshaping the web
John Thornhill talks to Tim Berners-Lee about the achievements of the world wide web which he invented 30 years ago, what he thinks has gone wrong and what he is doing to help fix some of these problems. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
3/12/2019 • 25 minutes, 17 seconds
Jack Conte on crowdfunding for creators
John Thornhill talks to Jack Conte about Patreon, the platform he invented to help creative artists receive a steadier income from modern-day patrons. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
3/6/2019 • 25 minutes, 33 seconds
Jeni Tennison on data ethics
John Thornhill talks to Jeni Tennison, chief executive of the Open Data Institute, about her work in helping to develop best practice for the use and sharing of data. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2/27/2019 • 24 minutes, 46 seconds
James Williams on the attention economy
Former Google employee James Williams talks to John Thornhill about his book: Stand Out of Our Light: Freedom and Resistance in the Attention Economy and why he turned to philosophy to try to understand how the tech industry is undermining our free will. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2/20/2019 • 25 minutes, 47 seconds
Shoshana Zuboff on surveillance capitalism
John Thornhill talks to the social scientist Shoshana Zuboff about her book, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, and what we need to do to reclaim the more benign impacts of the digital revolution. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2/13/2019 • 27 minutes, 5 seconds
Will Marshall on mapping the earth
John Thornhill talks to Will Marshall, whose San-Francisco-based start-up is helping companies like Google and Monsanto, as well as governments and NGOs, to observe day-to-day changes on the earth’s surface using data gathered in space. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2/6/2019 • 24 minutes, 51 seconds
Taavet Hinrikus on disrupting the banks
John Thornhill talks to Taavet Hinrikus, co-founder of Transferwise, about shaking up the lucrative money transfer business and how he helped build a tech unicorn that is not only highly valued but is profitable too. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
1/30/2019 • 23 minutes, 40 seconds
AI and software's 'singular moment'
John Thornhill talks to Chris Bishop, director of Microsoft’s Cambridge research lab, about the potential for exponential growth in the development of software, thanks to machine learning. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
1/23/2019 • 28 minutes, 34 seconds
The risks and rewards of gene-editing
Robin Lovell-Badge, developmental biologist and geneticist, talks to FT science columnist Anjana Ahuja about the gene-edited babies controversy in China and about the potential for new gene-editing techniques to transform the treatment of diseases like cancer and muscular dystrophy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
1/16/2019 • 29 minutes, 57 seconds
Vivienne Ming on solving human problems
John Thornhill talks to Vivienne Ming, a theoretical neuroscientist, entrepreneur and artificial intelligence guru about her work in trying to make technology work for the benefit of humans Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
1/9/2019 • 31 minutes, 30 seconds
Diego Piacentini on GovTech
The former Amazon executive tells John Thornhill how he applied the lessons he’d learnt at the US technology company to help transform Italians’ experience of dealing with government. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
1/2/2019 • 27 minutes, 57 seconds
Trust in the digital age
John Thornhill talks to the academic and author Rachel Botsman about the evolution of trust in the digital age and the way technology has undermined our faith in institutions Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
12/26/2018 • 31 minutes
Graphcore's next generation chip technology
Nigel Toon, founder and chief executive of Graphcore, talks to John Thornhill about the chip technology his company is developing and its potential to speed the advance of machine learning. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
12/19/2018 • 25 minutes, 28 seconds
What robots can teach humans
John Thornhill talks to Maja Pantic, Professor of Affective and Behavioural Computing at Imperial College in London, about her work testing the boundaries of human robot interaction. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
12/12/2018 • 35 minutes, 26 seconds
Making the most of work chat
Stewart Butterfield, co-founder and chief executive of San Francisco-based Slack tells John Thornhill how his fascination for technology that facilitates human interaction came about. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
12/5/2018 • 26 minutes, 21 seconds
Artificial intelligence that learns on the fly
Physicist Zdenka Kuncic tells FT science editor Clive Cookson about the difference between software-based and hardware-based approaches to artificial intelligence and her work to develop autonomous intelligent systems for potential use in space and in medical devices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
11/28/2018 • 18 minutes, 10 seconds
The business of cybercrime
Sociologist Jonathan Lusthaus spent seven years talking to cyber criminals. He tells Hannah Kuchler what he discovered about the extent of their involvement with organised crime and what he thinks it would take to persuade them to put their talents to better use. His book: Industry of Anonymity: Inside the Business of Cybercrime, was published by Harvard University Press. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
11/21/2018 • 23 minutes, 59 seconds
Technology and the human brain
Murali Doraiswamy, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, Duke University Health System, tells Shannon Bond about his research into potential technological solutions to neurological and mental health disorders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
11/14/2018 • 26 minutes, 1 second
Investing in deep tech
Investor Alice Newcombe-Ellis tells John Thornhill about her strategy for discovering and investing in the next generation of disruptive technology companies Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
11/7/2018 • 21 minutes, 44 seconds
Puncturing the AI hype
Zia Chishti's latest business venture Afiniti uses artificial intelligence to match customers and employees, but he tells John Thornhill he sees the technology as evolutionary, rather than revolutionary, and offers his thoughts on the dos and don'ts of investing in AI. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
10/31/2018 • 23 minutes, 45 seconds
Who sets the internet standards?
Hannah Kuchler talks to American social scientist and cyber security expert Andrea Little Limbago about the worrying lack of agreement among governments on how best to promote the beneficial aspects of the internet. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
10/24/2018 • 24 minutes, 29 seconds
David Sanger on cyber warfare
John Thornhill talks to the New York Times journalist about his latest book: The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage and Fear in the Cyber Age. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
10/17/2018 • 30 minutes, 44 seconds
Adrian Lovett on fighting for a better web
Web Foundation president and CEO Adrian Lovett talks to John Thornhill about open data, net neutrality and widening global internet access.Web Foundation website Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
10/10/2018 • 27 minutes, 14 seconds
Jocelyn Bell Burnell on new frontiers in astronomy
Clive Cookson talks to astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell about her decision to give away her $3m Breakthrough Prize in physics and about what she sees as the most exciting new areas of future research. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
10/3/2018 • 22 minutes, 26 seconds
Tristan Harris on digital Frankensteins
The former Google employee turned campaigner has made it his mission to alert society about the dangers of using computer algorithms to capture our attention. He tells John Thornhill why he co-founded the Centre for Humane Technology and what it does. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
9/26/2018 • 28 minutes
Liberty and morality in the AI era
Jamie Susskind, author of Future Politics, Verity Harding of Google DeepMind, and Tabitha Goldstaub, co-founder of CognitionX, discuss liberty and morality in the AI era in a panel debate recorded at the FT’s recent FT Weekend Festival in London. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
9/19/2018 • 25 minutes, 5 seconds
Irene Ng on redistributing the economic power of data
Entrepreneur and academic Irene Ng talks to John Thornhill about the Hub of all Things - a microserver that allows people to own and control their own data. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
9/12/2018 • 23 minutes, 51 seconds
What's next for Dropbox?
Drew Houston, co-founder of the business software company, tells John Thornhill how he caught the entrepreneurial bug and what's next for Dropbox. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
9/5/2018 • 26 minutes, 24 seconds
Tech Tonic returns
John Thorhill and guests return for a news series of Tech Tonic, the show that looks at the way technology is changing our lives. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
8/29/2018 • 1 minute, 35 seconds
How can we make governments smarter?
Robyn Scott talks to John Thornhill about her company Apolitical, a global news and networking site that seeks to share knowledge and spread best practice among the world's top civil servants Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
5/9/2018 • 24 minutes, 27 seconds
The new AI battleground
Nicole Eagan, chief executive of Darktrace, tells John Thornhill corporate networks have become the new battleground in a cyberwar waged by criminals and state actors using artificial intelligence Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
5/2/2018 • 22 minutes, 9 seconds
Terah Lyons on fashioning the AI future
John Thornhill talks to Terah Lyons, founding executive director of the Partnership on AI, a US initiative that brings civil society groups into a debate with big tech companies to promote the benefits of machine intelligence. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
4/25/2018 • 27 minutes, 32 seconds
What we can learn from ancient DNA
David Reich, professor of genetics at Harvard, talks to Clive Cookson, the FT's science editor, about how the genomic revolution is affecting paleontology and the study of human pre-history. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
4/18/2018 • 21 minutes, 10 seconds
Julia Shaw on a bot you can trust
Psychologist Julia Shaw talks to John Thornhill about her research into the fragility of human memory and how this helped her design a software tool that can be used to record and report workplace harassment Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
4/11/2018 • 25 minutes, 30 seconds
The consumer awakening
How can we fix the digital future? Writer and Silicon Valley critic Andrew Keen tells John Thornhill our best resource is human agency and the power of consumers to reject products that they have lost faith in Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
4/4/2018 • 29 minutes, 52 seconds
Facebook and Google: platforms or publishers?
The big tech platforms where many people get their news wield significant power. How do they work with publishers, and are they doing enough to combat "fake" news? FT global media editor Matt Garrahan put the questions to a panel of experts at the FT's Future of News conference in New York earlier this month. Guests are Campbell Brown, head of news partnerships at Facebook, Emily Bell, director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, Jason Kint, chief executive of Digital Content Next and Richard Gingras, vice president of news at Google. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
3/28/2018 • 47 minutes, 5 seconds
Removing bias from AI
Kriti Sharma talks to John Thornhill about her work for the UK software company Sage and about her mission to bring greater diversity and accountability to the algorithms that guide our decisions. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
3/21/2018 • 25 minutes, 23 seconds
Rethinking the way we earn money
Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes joins the FT's Hannah Kuchler to talk about economic inequality in the age of "big tech", and his proposal to shrink the income gap in the US. It's the subject of his book Fair Shot: Rethinking inequality and how we earn. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
3/14/2018 • 22 minutes, 34 seconds
Erel Margalit on investing in peace
John Thornhill talks to Erel Margalit, founder and chairman of Jerusalem Venture Partners, about his plan to help create a regional hub for tech startups and how he believes business collaboration in the region can help ease tensions when politicians fail. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
3/7/2018 • 29 minutes, 7 seconds
Is there anyone out there?
Clive Cookson, FT science editor, discusses the possibility of alien life and whether we would recognise it if we encountered it with British astrophysicist Paul Davies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2/28/2018 • 21 minutes, 19 seconds
ENCORE: When data rules the world
In this encore episode, John Thornhill talks to author and historian Yuval Noah Harari about his vision of a future when humans are no longer the smartest algorithm on the planet. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2/21/2018 • 26 minutes, 15 seconds
Road testing self-drive cars
John Thornhill talks to nuTonomy's Gretchen Effgen about why the company chose Singapore as well as Boston to test its self-drive cars and why it uses a formal methods approach to developing its software. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2/14/2018 • 23 minutes, 23 seconds
Jacqueline Poh on digital government
John Thornhill talks to the head of Singapore's GovTech about her work in advancing the country's Smart Nation ambitions Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2/7/2018 • 23 minutes, 8 seconds
Martin Rees on saving the planet
John Thornhill talks to leading astrophysicist Martin Rees about why he thinks we need to pay greater attention to the risks posed by environmental damage and the rapid adoption of new technologies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
1/31/2018 • 27 minutes, 19 seconds
Silicon Valley's coming of age
Historian Leslie Berlin talks to the FT's Hannah Kuchler about the generation of entrepreneurs and investors, from Mike Markkula to Sandra Kurtzig, who transformed the tech hub in the 1970s and 1980s. It's the subject of her latest book "Troublemakers: Silicon Valley's Coming of Age". Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
1/24/2018 • 28 minutes, 49 seconds
Calum Chace on a world without work
Business and science fiction writer Calum Chace talks to John Thornhill about the exponential growth of AI and why we need to start planning now for a world without work. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
12/27/2017 • 24 minutes, 47 seconds
Social media in the classroom
How is the use of mobile technology and social media affecting the lives of children and adolescents? Sonia Livingstone, professor of psychology at the LSE in London, examined the issue in her book: The Class: Living and Learning in the Digital Age. She talks to Madhumita Murgia about her findings. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
12/20/2017 • 29 minutes, 16 seconds
Garry Kasparov on the risks and rewards of AI
Artificial intelligence is an important tool, but human beings have to be creative to understand how best to make use of it, former world chess champion Garry Kasparov tells John Thornhill Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
12/13/2017 • 24 minutes, 12 seconds
Guarding against the next cyber attack
Army veteran and cyber security expert Rick Howard talks to the FT's Hannah Kuchler about the current state of cyber security, what we have learned from recent large-scale attacks known as WannaCry and NotPetya and what companies can do to try to guard against the next attack. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
12/6/2017 • 26 minutes, 5 seconds
Why AI is the future
Phil Libin, former chief executive of Evernote, tells John Thornhill why he thinks artificial intelligence will soon be part of the fabric of all our lives and about his plan to create a global AI incubator Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
11/29/2017 • 24 minutes, 35 seconds
Using tech to fight poverty
Elisabeth Mason, founding director of the Stanford Poverty & Technology Lab, talks to the FT's Hannah Kuchler about solving problems such as education inequality and job retraining the Silicon Valley way. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
11/22/2017 • 29 minutes, 30 seconds
What has gone wrong with the internet revolution?
Internet pioneer Martha Lane Fox talks to John Thornhill about her work in trying to ensure that the technology lives up to its early ideals and serves the interests of people rather than big companies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
11/15/2017 • 27 minutes, 30 seconds
Human friendly robotics
Artificial intelligence entrepreneur Mark Palatucci talks to John Thornhill about the consumer robot revolution and his efforts to help create empathy between humans and their robot toys Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
11/8/2017 • 20 minutes, 56 seconds
The social media effect
Microsoft researcher and Data & Society president danah boyd talks to the FT's Hannah Kuchler about the effect of everyday technology, such as Facebook, on society and culture. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
11/1/2017 • 30 minutes, 52 seconds
Reclaiming Europe's digital sovereignty
Francesca Bria tells John Thornhill how she is helping citizens in Barcelona design their digital future, moving from an economy fuelled by advertising and surveillance and towards transparency and a new social pact on the ownership of data. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
10/25/2017 • 26 minutes, 20 seconds
Seth Stephens Davidowitz on data mining
John Thornhill talks to Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, a former Google data scientist, about what our internet searches reveal about who we really are.Listen to Tech Tonic on iTunes or Stitcher. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
10/18/2017 • 21 minutes, 53 seconds
Mary Lou Jepsen on the wearable MRI
Scientist and former Facebook and Google executive Mary Lou Jepsen talks to the FT's Hannah Kuchler about her latest startup, Openwater, where she and a team of researchers are working to develop a ski helmet-sized imaging device that will one day read minds. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
10/11/2017 • 27 minutes, 42 seconds
Tech Tonic returns for a second series
Tech Tonic returns for a second series, starting next week. Our first guest is a former Google and Facebook executive who is working on a wearable diagnostic product that can read your mind. We’ll also be hearing how search engine data can be used to map our innermost thoughts, and we’ll be talking to experts in artificial intelligence, cyber security, robotics and much more. So look out for Tech Tonic, season 2, starting on Wednesday 11th October. You can subscribe on all the usual podcast platforms. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
10/4/2017 • 1 minute, 3 seconds
What lies ahead for AR
Matt Miesnieks, creator of one of the first augmented reality apps and co-founder of startup 6D, tells the FT's Tim Bradshaw about the technological advances that make AR possible, and what needs to happen if it is to fulfill its promise. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
6/21/2017 • 35 minutes, 12 seconds
Tim Wu on addictive apps
The author of "The Attention Merchants" talks to John Thornhill about his concerns about the way some web apps are eating into our time Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
6/14/2017 • 25 minutes, 33 seconds
The graphics chip powering AI technology
Jensen Huang, chief executive of graphics chipmaker Nvidia, tells the FT's Tim Bradshaw how the graphics processing unit, or GPU, the company pioneered in the 1990s is being used in everything from virtual reality to machine learning to autonomous cars, drawing investor attention. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
6/7/2017 • 22 minutes, 50 seconds
Silicon Valley's newest recruits
Jeremy Johnson, chief executive of Andela, talks to the FT's Hannah Kuchler about how his company recruits and trains software engineers from several African countries and then places them with the top tech companies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
5/31/2017 • 24 minutes, 1 second
The limits of artificial intelligence
Despite billions being spent on research, even our best deep learning neural networks look pitiful when compared to the intricate design of the brain of a bumble bee or even an ant, Peter Bentley tells John Thornhill. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
5/24/2017 • 26 minutes, 4 seconds
Using blockchain to fight fraud
Leanne Kemp's company Everledger uses blockchain technology to track the provenance of assets, from diamonds to fine wines. She talks to John Thornhill about the technology's potential to combat fraud. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
5/17/2017 • 23 minutes, 46 seconds
Uber's plans for aviation on demand
Jeff Holden, Uber's chief product officer, talks to the FT's Leslie Hook about the company's ambitious plan to start testing an aerial taxi service as soon as 2020. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
5/10/2017 • 22 minutes, 18 seconds
How US companies find the right talent
Mehul Patel, chief executive of Hired, talks to the FT's Hannah Kuchler about hiring trends in Silicon Valley and other technology hubs in the US, and what some companies are doing in response to President Donald Trump's executive action on immigration and the H-1B visa. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
5/3/2017 • 18 minutes, 58 seconds
What's next for Stripe and online payments
Stripe's John Collison speaks to the FT's Leslie Hook about what he and his co-founder brother have planned for the $9bn online payments company, why Silicon Valley is still their preferred place to have their headquarters and what it is like to be one of the Valley's youngest billionaire entrepreneurs. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
4/26/2017 • 23 minutes, 40 seconds
What self-driving cars could do for robotics
Jeremy Conrad, co-founder of hardware incubator and VC fund Lemnos Labs, talks to the FT's Tim Bradshaw about the way economies of scale in the self-driving car industry could bolster the field of robotics. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
4/19/2017 • 30 minutes, 10 seconds
How DeepMind vanquished Go
Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of DeepMind, talks about what he learnt from the Alpha Go experience and the complex problems his artificial intelligence company has been working on since it was acquired by Google in 2014. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
4/12/2017 • 32 minutes, 4 seconds
Engineering your own chatbot
Lili Cheng and her team at Microsoft's FUSE Labs are at the forefront of research on social interaction with artificial intelligence. She joins the FT's Richard Waters to discuss the evolution of chatbot technology, what the company learnt from its experience with Tay, and the personalisation we can expect from the virtual assistants and chat apps of the future. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
4/5/2017 • 32 minutes, 6 seconds
Political disruption and the internet
Helen Margetts, head of the Oxford Internet Institute, talks to the FT's Madhumita Murgia about fake news, echo chambers, big data and why we need more research to be able to combat the "pathologies" of the internet. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
3/29/2017 • 20 minutes, 6 seconds
The virtue of cash
Rutger Bregman tells John Thornhill there is evidence to show that we can end poverty by handing out cash to those who need it. The idea of a universal basic income is one whose time has come, he says, and it is finding support in unexpected places like Silicon Valley. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
3/22/2017 • 23 minutes, 26 seconds
A look inside Uber
Uber investor and adviser Bradley Tusk talks to the FT's Leslie Hook about the highs and lows of the ride-sharing company's rapid expansion, and how companies in the sharing economy can manage regulatory hurdles. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
3/15/2017 • 27 minutes, 10 seconds
Science and security
Entrepreneur Tom Ilube talks about his work with scientists to deploy their research in the battle against cybercrime, tech advances and education in Africa and why companies need to take cyber security more seriously. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
3/8/2017 • 23 minutes, 34 seconds
Cracking the ed-tech market
Duolingo cofounder and chief executive Luis von Ahn talks to the FT's Tim Bradshaw about creating the snackable language learning app that now serves more than 150m global users, and how the company's model can be translated into other digital education tools. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
3/1/2017 • 34 minutes, 38 seconds
Coding for everyone
Madhumita Murgia speaks to Kathryn Parsons about her work in promoting digital literacy through the company she co-founded, Decoded, which aims to teach people to code in a day. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2/22/2017 • 24 minutes, 47 seconds
Sharing the cost of driving
Frédéric Mazzella tells the story of BlaBlaCar, the ride-sharing company he founded, which now operates in over 20 countries, and talks about the rise of tech entrepreneurship in France. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2/15/2017 • 24 minutes, 35 seconds
The future of work
What will displaced professionals and workers do when intelligent machines take their jobs? Will poets, thinkers and musicians become sought-after occupations? Or will people slump into a world of virtual reality entertainment? Tim Bradshaw discusses possible outcomes with tech investors Kai-Fu Lee and Joi Ito. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2/8/2017 • 23 minutes, 34 seconds
When machines outsmart their human designers
Stuart Russell, a professor of computer science and engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, was one of the first researchers to sound the alarm bell on the risks of developing artificial intelligence. He joins the FT's Richard Waters to discuss the state of AI, and how machines should be developed to avoid these risks. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2/1/2017 • 24 minutes, 42 seconds
Living in a modern surveillance state
Jennifer Granick, director of civil liberties at Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society, talks to the FT's Hannah Kuchler about government surveillance in the US after the Snowden revelations, and how it could all change under a Trump administration. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
1/25/2017 • 32 minutes, 21 seconds
Disrupting the banking industry
Mike Cagney, chief executive and founder of online lender SoFi, talks to the FT's Tom Braithwaite about building a fintech company from refinancing student loans; the high-income millennials the service targets; and why they use tools like job search and member networking events to retain customers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
1/18/2017 • 26 minutes, 50 seconds
The changing face of Russian cyber espionage
Kevin Mandia, chief executive of cyber security firm FireEye, joins the FT's Hannah Kuchler to discuss how Russian hackers changed the rules of engagement of cyber espionage. Mr Mandia and his company, Mandiant, came to prominence in 2013 when it released a report implicating China in cyber spying. The company was later sold to FireEye for $1bn. This interview was recorded in early December 2016. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
1/11/2017 • 32 minutes, 51 seconds
Blazing a trail for women in tech
Madhumita Murgia, the FT's European technology correspondent, talks to Dame Stephanie Shirley, a pioneer of the computer software industry and one the first female tech entrepreneurs, about how she fell in love with computers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
1/4/2017 • 20 minutes
Re-empowering the consumer
Nigel Shadbolt, co-founder of the Open Data Institute, talks to John Thornhill about the imbalance between the personal and private control of data and the need to re-empower the consumer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
12/28/2016 • 23 minutes, 4 seconds
Hacking foreign policy
As the first US ambassador to Silicon Valley, Zvika Krieger is trying to harness the tech capital's brain power to solve some of the country's biggest foreign policy challenges. He talks to the FT's Hannah Kuchler. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
12/22/2016 • 28 minutes, 50 seconds
Fighting back against the throwaway culture
Kyle Wiens, chief executive of iFixit, made his name by tearing apart mobile phones and laptops to understand how they were built and publishing his findings in open source repair manuals. He talks to the FT's Tim Bradshaw about the risks involved in the race for the thinnest tech devices, and what his company is doing to promote gadget repair and recycling. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
12/14/2016 • 19 minutes, 51 seconds
Inside Google's innovation factory
Alphabet's research and development lab X is the breeding ground for Google's biggest technological bets, including self-driving cars and a network of internet-providing balloons. Astro Teller, the entrepreneur and scientist at the helm of X, talks to the FT's Richard Waters about the new technologies he is helping to bring to market, and what he has learned in the six years of running an innovation factory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
12/7/2016 • 23 minutes, 26 seconds
When data rules the world
John Thornhill talks to author and historian Yuval Noah Harari about his vision of a future when humans are no longer the smartest algorithm on the planet. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
11/30/2016 • 26 minutes, 22 seconds
The driverless car revolution
Driverless cars will improve our lives dramatically but, as with all technologies, there will be a dark side as millions of jobs disappear, Vivek Wadhwa, entrepreneur and academic, tells John Thornhill. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
11/23/2016 • 18 minutes, 43 seconds
Keeping the cyber hackers at bay
Nadav Zafrir, a former Israeli intelligence officer and co-founder of cyber security company Team8, talks to John Thornhill about tracking down cyber criminals and training the tech entrepreneurs of the future Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
11/16/2016 • 24 minutes, 19 seconds
Truth, lies and how to separate fact from fiction
Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, talks to John Thornhill about truth and lies, the role of the media, and his mission to make the sum of human knowledge available to people all over the world Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
11/9/2016 • 20 minutes, 23 seconds
Harnessing the technological revolution
Tech utopia or tech dystopia? Carlota Perez of the London School of Economics talks to John Thornhill about the radical changes she believes are needed if we are to harness the benefits of the current technological revolution Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
11/2/2016 • 21 minutes, 54 seconds
Introducing FT Tech Tonic
In a new podcast from the Financial Times hear John Thornhill and correspondents around the globe in conversation with scientists, entrepreneurs and academics as they examine the way technology is changing the way we live, work and even the way we think. FT Tech Tonic starts on Wednesday November 2. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.