The All Turtles Podcast

What do you do when a global pandemic wipes out your business model as an early-stage startup? If you’re Sebastian Müller, cofounder of Lanterne, you quickly pivot to create a product to help people stay safe as coronavirus spreads. That’s how he and his team began building Crowdless, an app that provides real-time information on the crowdedness of supermarkets to help with social distancing. Today Sebastian is sharing Lanterne’s approach to meeting the world’s most pressing needs on rapid timelines.   Show notes Sebastian Müller is the cofounder of Lanterne, which builds crisis technology. Crowdless is an app that tells you how crowded supermarkets are so you can social distance effectively.    We want to hear from you. Please send us your comments, suggested topics, and listener questions for future All Turtles Podcast episodes.  Email: hello@all-turtles.com Twitter: @allturtlesco

Where did the conspiracy that “Bill Gates engineered coronavirus” come from? This is the type of query that Renée DiResta investigates as the technical research manager at Stanford Internet Observatory, where she tracks the spread of misinformation (and disinformation) online. She’s been monitoring the dissemination of narratives about the emergence of COVID-19, how it’s treated, and how the government has responded, and has an explanation for why there’s so much speculation at every level.  Show notes Renée DiResta is the technical research manager at Stanford Internet Observatory.  Renée follows epidemiologists and others on Twitter who share verifiable information about COVID-19.   We want to hear from you Please send us your comments, suggested topics, and listener questions for future All Turtles Podcast episodes.  Email: hello@all-turtles.com Twitter: @allturtlesco

And now for an episode that was recorded pre-COVID-19. Today, David Yakobovitch is joining the show to share his perspectives on AI and the future of work. David hosts the HumAIn Podcast, a show about artificial intelligence, data science, and developer education. He’s also a Principal Data Scientist at Galvanize, a technology learning company that works with startups and large enterprises on deploying data science and AI solutions.    Show notes David is a Principal Data Scientist at Galvanize, a technology learning company. David is also the host of the HumAIn podcast.

George Arison is the founder and CEO of Shift, an online marketplace for buying and selling used cars. George has led his company through the first phase of their response to the coronavirus pandemic, which involved creating a program to reduce prices for healthcare workers. The pandemic’s economic impact has also meant that they’ve had to furlough some employees. Today, George is sharing how he’s navigating tough decisions while managing a company during a global crisis.  Show notes George Arison is the founder and CEO of Shift. Shift is an online marketplace for buying and selling used cars. George spoke to Protocol about how he’s been managing Shift during this global pandemic.   We want to hear from you. Please send us your comments, suggested topics, and listener questions for future All Turtles Podcast episodes.  Email: hello@all-turtles.com Twitter: @allturtlesco

Over the past couple weeks on the podcast, we’ve talked about COVID-19’s impact on the future of work and the future of health. Today, we’re delving a little deeper into how we can come back from the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which Phil is calling “the great unpause.” Why are “recession” and “recovery” ill-fitting terms to describe our current situation? What does hitting the pause button mean for different sectors of the economy, and what will it take to reset?   We want to hear from you. Please send us your comments, suggested topics, and listener questions for future All Turtles Podcast episodes.  Email: hello@all-turtles.com Twitter: @allturtlesco 

The COVID-19 pandemic is fundamentally changing the way we think about and manage health. We’d already suspected that the future of work and the future of health were intrinsically linked, but this pandemic has shown how the trajectory of one is fully determining the course of the other. Today on the podcast, we’re discussing a 3-phase framework for thinking through how we’ll make it to the other side of this together.  We want to hear from you Please send us your comments, suggested topics, and listener questions for future All Turtles Podcast episodes.  Email: hello@all-turtles.com Twitter: @allturtlesco

COVID-19 has thrown so much into uncertainty, including the way we work. With shelter-in-place regulations falling over increasing swathes of the population, companies who have the capacity to instruct employees to work from home have done so. Due to the global economic downturn that the pandemic has brought forth, it’s safe to say that COVID-19 is having a massive impact on the future of work. Today, we’ll discuss the nuances of that impact.     We want to hear from you. Please send us your comments, suggested topics, and listener questions for future All Turtles Podcast episodes.  Email: hello@all-turtles.com Twitter: @allturtlesco

A single patient’s healthcare data is likely stored in different silos. It can therefore be difficult to assemble a complete picture of health when old records, more recent information, and regularly updated stats from a smartwatch should all be taken into account. Enter Seqster, a Saas solution for compiling healthcare data and making it easily accessible. Ardy Arianpour, cofounder and CEO of Seqster, joins the podcast today to talk about how his product is shaping the future of health.  Show notes Ardy Arianpour is the cofounder and CEO of Seqster. Seqster is a SaaS solution for collecting, owning, and sharing healthcare data.     We want to hear from you Please send us your comments, suggested topics, and listener questions for future All Turtles Podcast episodes.  Email: hello@all-turtles.com Twitter: @allturtlesco

Have you ever had an online conversation with someone only to realize later that you’d been talking to a bot? Computers are reshaping our idea of what it means to be human. Today on the podcast, author Brian Christian explores how computers reveal our most human capabilities and other themes from his book The Most Human Human. He also discusses the book he wrote with Tom Griffiths, Algorithms to Live By, about how computer algorithms can untangle human questions. Show notes Brian Christian is an author and a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. The Most Human Human is a book Brian wrote to explore the ways in which computers are reshaping our ideas of what it means to be human. Brian co-wrote Algorithms to Live By with Tom Griffiths about how computer algorithms can be applied to our everyday lives.    We want to hear from you Please send us your comments, suggested topics, and listener questions for future All Turtles Podcast episodes.  Email: hello@all-turtles.com Twitter: @allturtlesco

On prior episodes of this podcast, we’ve discussed Carrot, a company that’s pioneering the future of work and health by providing global fertility benefits to employers. Because there’s so much to discuss, we made a whole new podcast for Carrot called Baby Steps. It’s about the many diverse paths people take in the pursuit of parenthood, and we’re playing the first episode of Baby Steps here for you today. If you like what you hear, search for Baby Steps wherever you get your podcasts. Show notes Baby Steps is a podcast from Carrot Fertility about the diverse paths people take to pursue parenthood. Carrot is the leading global fertility benefits company for employers. Leslie Schrock, author of Bumpin, discusses the concept of trimester zero, the period of preparation before any fertility journey begins.    We want to hear from you Please send us your comments, suggested topics, and listener questions for future All Turtles Podcast episodes.  Email: hello@all-turtles.com Twitter: @allturtlesco

How is the internet making people more or less seen? Researcher Mary Gray’s new book Ghost Work explores the lives of people who are paid to train AI. These workers are contributing to the AI we use every day, but they’re often left out of conversations about how this technology is evolving. Mary asserts that AI is not replacing or eliminating work; it’s dismantling full-time employment. She shares how and why that’s happening in today’s episode.   Show notes Conversation with Mary Gray Mary is a senior principal researcher at Microsoft.  She’s also an E.J. Safra Center for Ethics fellow. Mary is a faculty affiliate at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. Ghost Work: How to Stop Silicon Valley from Building a New Global Underclass is Mary’s new book.    We want to hear from you Please send us your comments, suggested topics, and listener questions for future All Turtles Podcast episodes.  Email: hello@all-turtles.com Twitter: @allturtlesco 

Designers and medical professionals are both key to building the future of health. Dr. Kyra Bobinet is working within that intersection by using neuroscience to help people design healthy lives. She’s an MD and the CEO of engagedIN, a neuroscience-based design firm. Both design and behavioral change are iterative processes, and Dr. Bobinet has experience applying behavioral strategies as a corporate executive to scale the impact of her programs.    Show notes Conversation with Dr. Kyra Bobinet Dr. Kyra Bobinet is an MD MPH.  EngagedIN is a neuroscience-based design firm. Dr. Bobinet is the CEO. Dr. Bobinet wrote Well-Designed Life, a book about the intersection of health and design.    We want to hear from you. Please send us your comments, suggested topics, and listener questions for future All Turtles Podcast episodes.  Email: hello@all-turtles.com Twitter: @allturtlesco

Sita Magnuson has the spirit of an entrepreneur and the heart of an artist. She’s been able to make a career for herself by channeling both of these strengths into cofounding initiatives like Fort Future, Dpict, and Easthampton Co.Lab. Today on the podcast, she shares her thoughts on process design and the creative methods she uses to generate discussion and productivity in a workplace.    Show notes Conversation with Sita Magnuson Sita is an artist and entrepreneur who works in the spaces of multimodal, multi-sensory experimentation in service of mutual learning. Fort Future is a space for intergenerational curiosity in Easthampton, Massachusetts. Dpict is a facilitation firm that specializes in process design, visualization, and collaborative environments.  Easthampton Co.Lab is a membership-based coworkspace in Easthampton, Massachusetts.   We want to hear from you. Please send us your comments, suggested topics, and listener questions for future All Turtles Podcast episodes.  Email: hello@all-turtles.com Twitter: @allturtlesco

What does it mean to democratize DNA? Shirley Wu is answering that question as the Director of Health Product at 23andMe. 23andMe’s mission is to pioneer the future of health with their genetic testing technology, and to help people understand, access, and benefit from the human genome. They’ve had to stay ahead of the quickly evolving pace of the genomics industry, so the story of their work provides valuable lessons for any entrepreneur looking to build a lasting company in a fast-paced world.   Show notes Conversation with the Shirley Wu (0:37) Shirley Wu is the Director of Health Product at 23andMe. 23andMe is a personal genomics and biotechnology. 23andMe provides a wide variety of information for customers in their genetic reports.    Listener question “Could you have [insert name here] as a guest on your podcast?”   We want to hear from you. Please send us your comments, suggested topics, and listener questions for future All Turtles Podcast episodes.  Email: hello@all-turtles.com Twitter: @allturtlesco

In many ways, the future of fertility is closely tied to the future of work, as companies determine how to best ensure that their employees are holistically supported. Employers have a unique and important role to play when it comes to access to fertility care, especially in the U.S. where 150 million people get their health coverage through employers. Carrot is a fertility benefits company solving the growing problem of access to inclusive fertility care.  Show notes Conversation with Tammy Sun (0:35) Tammy is the cofounder and CEO of Carrot.  Carrot is a global fertility benefits company.  More females above the age of 30 are giving birth than females below the age of 30. Carrot has been global from the start and is operational in over 40 countries today.     Listener question From Leah via email: “I recently listened to another podcast - Tales of Silicon Valley - which talked about the 10's of thousands of people who are employed as contract workers by Facebook and other companies to act as 'human filters' for social media sites. These individuals are exposed to horrific images repeatedly all day, every day in order to keep the sites clean and safe for public consumption. I was greatly disturbed by the realization that in order to protect me from seeing these images, a subset of the population has the grueling task of looking at photos posted by the worst of humanity and clicking ‘Ignore, Delete, or Escalate.’  I immediately thought back to the conversation Phil and Brittney had during their SciFi-preneurship - another amazing All Turtles podcast series! They spoke about The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula Le Guin where all the world is at peace except for the suffering of one child. Since learning about these human filters, I've struggled with the moral dilemma: There are people suffering so that I can enjoy looking at family and friends' pictures and posts. I see these human filters as necessary 'for the greater good' because AI is not advanced enough to protect the public- however, this is definitely a role where AI can be a force for good. My question is this: Do you think we'll ever get there? Will technology become so skilled it can accurately block gruesome, inappropriate, hateful images and speech? And if so, how long will it take? The narrator Danny Fortson didn't seem to think it was possible.”   We want to hear from you. Please send us your comments, suggested topics, and listener questions for future All Turtles Podcast episodes.  Email: hello@all-turtles.com Twitter: @allturtlesco