Utility + Function
Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
Episodes
Chris Miller: Unpacking the Chip War
04 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Chris Miller is Associate Professor of International History at Tufts University, where his research focuses on technology, geopolitics, economics, in...
Anwaar AlMahmeed: Solving the false scarcity problem
18 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Anwaar Al Mahmeed is the Managing Director of Republic MENA, Board Member at CubeFabs Inc, and a Venture Capitalist. She founded Menaverse Ventures to...
Zoe Weinberg: On the future of our informational democracy
05 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Zoe Weinberg is the founder & managing partner of ex/ante, an early-stage fund that works to counter surveillance capitalism and digital authorita...
Tom Irvine: Sensory Data and Operational Jazz
13 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Thomas Irvine is a global historian of music from 1500 CE to the present. After studying viola at conservatoire (at the Shepherd School of Rice Un...
Björn Lomborg: Climate Change, Public Spheres, and Technological Solutions
07 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Björn Lomborg is an academic and author of the bestselling titles "False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and ...
Serge Faguet: Who are we, what have we accomplished, and where are we going?
13 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Serge Faguet is a Russian-Ukrainian entrepreneur and thinker. He has founded multiple tech companies including multi-billion-dollar B2B online travel ...
K. Eric Drexler: Envisioning Abundance Through Artificial Worlds
23 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
K. Eric Drexler is a senior research fellow at Oxford University and widely regarded as the father of nanotechnology. He has authored several seminal ...
S3-E2: Andre Watson: Personalized Medicine, Our Antidotal Future
15 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Andre Watson is Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Ligandal, an industry pioneer in precision genetic medicine. Andre has a background in biomedical engine...
Ranjit Singh: Seeing through the Database
05 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Ranjit Singh is currently a researcher at Data & Society’s AI on the Ground Initiative, a nonprofit research center that convenes experts in ind...
S2. E18. George Kurtz - Thrill of Entrepreneurship
03 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
George Kurtz is the CEO and co-founder of CrowdStrike, a leading provider of next-generation endpoint protection, threat intelligence, and services. K...
E 17. Gaurab Chakrabarti - Understanding the White Space of the Unknown
09 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Gaurab Chakrabarti is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Solugen, which he co-founded with Sean Hunt in 2016 with the mission to decarbonize the che...
E 16. Henrik Fisker - Designing for Experience
25 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Henrik Fisker is a risk taking, innovation loving, protocol challenging legendary designer & entrepreneur who turns dreams into reality and believ...
E 15. Gerald Posner - Investigating For Truth
18 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The author of 13 acclaimed books, including New York Times nonfiction bestsellers Case Closed, Why America Slept and God’s Bankers. Posner was a fin...
E14. Gustav Söderström - The Evolution of Music
27 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Gustav Söderström is the Chief Research & Development Officer at Spotify. He oversees the product, design, data, and engineering teams at Spotif...
E13. Kate Darling - Robots: Sufficiently Like Us
05 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Kate Darling is a leading expert in Robot Ethics. She’s a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, where she inv...
E12. TONY ARCABASCIO - From ALife to the AI-Life
16 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Tony Arcabascio is the Art Director for Nanotronics and oversees all creative design across branding, marketing, and digital platforms. Tony also prov...
S2 - E11 - Sarah Williams - Reimagining Cities
18 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah Williams is currently an Associate Professor of Technology and Urban Planning. She also is Director of the Civic Data Design Lab at MIT's School...
E 10. Shawanna Vaughn - Strength in Community
26 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The founder and the Director of Silent Cry Inc., Shawanna Vaughn, is a native of Bakersfield, California, and a mother of two. Silent Cry, Inc. ...
E9. Alan Murray - Task Above Ego
26 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Alan Murray is the CEO of Fortune. He previously hosted an eponymous show on CNBC and was president of Pew Research Center from 2013 to 2014, where he...
E8. Kweku Mandela - Considering Ourselves Human
13 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Kweku Mandela is a film producer most well-known for Inescapable (2012). He was born in Transkei, South Africa, and grew up in America, returning to h...
E7. Béla Fleck - The Rights Of The Noble Banjo
30 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Béla Fleck, (born July 10, 1958, New York, New York, U.S.), American musician recognized as one of the most inventive and commercially successful ban...
6. Juan Martín Maldacena - Into the Juan Dimension: Black Holes, Quantum Gravity, and String Theory
16 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Juan Martín Maldacena is a theoretical physicist and the Carl P. Feinberg Professor in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced S...
5. Peter Singer - Global Access To Knowledge
01 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Peter Albert David Singer is an Australian moral philosopher. He is the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, and a Laureate P...
4. Janna Levin - Periphery of Comprehensible
17 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Janna Levin is the Claire Tow Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Barnard College of Columbia University. She is also the Chair and Founding Directo...
3. Vijay Kumar - Coordination, Cooperation, Collaboration
03 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Vijay Kumar is the Nemirovsky Family Dean of Penn Engineering with appointments in the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, Co...
2. Lee Smolin - Discovering New Methods
20 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Lee Smolin is a theoretical physicist who has been since 2001 a founding and senior faculty member at Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. His...
1. Caroline Buckee - Digging Through The Data
06 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Caroline Buckee joined Harvard School of Public Health in the summer of 2010 as an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, and was promoted to Associ...
26. James Gimzewski - Faith in Rarity
17 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. James Gimzewski is a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles; Faculty Director of the Nano & Pico Ch...
25. Joscha Bach - Asking The Right Questions
10 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Joscha Bach, Ph.D., is the VP of Research at the AI Foundation. He formerly held research positions in Cognitive Artificial Intelligence at MIT and Ha...
24. Scott Aaronson - Before and After The Machine
03 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Scott Aaronson is a David J. Bruton Centennial Professor of Computer Science at The University of Texas at Austin, and director of its Quantum Informa...
23. Jill Neimark - Marveling at Nature’s Resilience
27 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Jill Neimark is a veteran science journalist and author of adult and children's fiction. She is a former contributing editor at Discover Magazine, she...
22. Stephon Alexander - The Music of Spheres
20 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Physicist and musician Stephon Alexander has straddled the worlds of theoretical physics and jazz music over the last two decades. He works on the con...
21. Gary Marcus - AI Builder, AI Skeptic
13 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Gary Marcus is a scientist, best-selling author, and entrepreneur. He is Founder and CEO of Robust.AI, and was Founder and CEO of Geometric Intel...
20. Anima Anandkumar - The Immediate and Future Impact of How We Build AI
06 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Anima Anandkumar is Director of Machine Learning at NVIDIA and Bren professor at Caltech. Anima has led research in tensor-algebraic methods, lar...
19. Pamela McCorduck - History of Artificial Intelligence
01 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Pamela McCorduck has authored and co-authored several books, including the iconic Machines Who Think, her personal, original, and groundbreaking inqui...
18. Joe Pistone, the Real Donnie Brasco
09 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Joseph Dominick Pistone (born September 17, 1939), also known by his undercover alias Donnie Brasco, is an American former FB...
17. Najee Dorsey - Building Together
02 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Najee Dorsey is an Artist, a Collector, and the CEO / Founder of Black Art In America. Najee's work has been exhibited in multiple museum shows, inclu...
16. Stephen Wolfram - Inevitable, Beautiful Connections
25 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Stephen Wolfram is a scientist, physicist, and businessman best known for his work in computer science, mathematics, and theoretical physics. Over mor...
15. Tom X. Lee, MD - A Path Toward Healthcare For All
22 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Tom X. Lee, MD, is the CEO and founder behind Galileo Health, a telemedicine company that aims to provide quality healthcare that is af...
14. Smriti Keshari - Energy Doesn’t Die
11 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Artist and director Smriti Keshari’s work covers a spectrum of the moving image and explores under-represented themes and experiences. Smriti i...
13. Steve Hanke - And then, there is the 95% Rule
04 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Utility + Function, Matthew sits down with world-renowned economist, Prof. Steve Hanke, at his offices at Johns Hopkins University....
12. Angeline Butler - Civil Rights Icon, Musical Force, Living Legend
20 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When asked if she is ever disappointed in the way the world is going, Living Legend Professor Angeline Butler is unwavering. "The revolution is never ...
11. Jeff Holden - Inventions Lifeline
13 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On today’s episode, Matthew talks to Jeff Holden, the CEO and Co-Founder of Atomic Machines and former CPO of Uber, Senior Vice President of Groupon...
10. Stephen Delaporte - To Bot or Not
07 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On today’s episode, Matthew talks to Stephen Delaporte, Founder & CEO of Avar Robotics--whose goal is to create the most high-functioning ...
9. Dan Widmaier - Threads to Sustainability
16 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Bolt Threads' CEO Dan Widmaier sits down with Matthew to discuss their individual evolution from scientist to CEO, the timelines of Startups, how to b...
8. Alexis Gambis - Butterfly Blues
15 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Matthew talks to Alexis Gambis, French-Venezuelan biologist and filmmaker, about feeling small when you look through a microscope and how being a dire...
7. Beth Comstock - That's My Van Gogh!
08 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Matthew interviews Beth Comstock about creativity, freedom, and investigation: how do these impulses translate within an organization and w...
6. Andrew Shearer - How to Grow a Company
23 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Today marks Nanotronics' sixth podcast and we are looking inward. It is time for us to ask what makes a startup tick, and who better to talk to than F...
5. Michael Vassar - Does Michael Vassar Dream of Electric Sheep?
16 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Vassar, founder of the Singularity Institute among many other accomplishments, speaks to Matthew about Thomas Edison, Climate Change, Railroad...
4. Julie Orlando - I Didn't Think There Was Any Way I Couldn't Do it
10 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Builder, Mentor, Business Leader. Julie Orlando, Nanotronics CPO, talks to Matthew about building a wooden box for her rare rock collection in kinderg...
3. Antoinette Roberson - Mentorship by Creative Collaboration
01 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Matthew sits with grammy-nominated, singer song-writer, Antoinette Roberson, his partner in helping to mold our next generation of leaders. Here, they...
2. David Belt - They're Not All Evil, Right?
28 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Two Brooklyn-based CEO’s, Matthew Putman and David Belt, friends and partners in philanthropy and technology discuss the zeitgeist in all its incarn...
1. John Putman - A Grander Vision
23 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Nanotronics co-founders Matthew Putman and John Putman discuss their influences, the drive to invent, starting new ventures, the importance of walking...