TechCrunch Mixtape show

TechCrunch Mixtape

Summary: Welcome to TechCrunch Mixtape the TechCrunch podcast that looks at how technology impacts culture. Listen to TechCrunch Senior Reporter Megan Rose Dickey and Editorial Director Henry Pickavet as they dive into the week's headlines followed by interviews with influencers and innovators in the field.

Podcasts:

 Robot assistants and a marijuana incubator | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:31:10

We’ve had plenty of time to get used to our robot overlords and Boston Dynamics is helping us get there. This week we talk about the company’s addition of a door-opening arm to its SpotMini robot. It’s not spooky at all. We then switch gears and discuss Facebook’s Messenger for Kids. Is it good, bad or the company’s master plan to get every last human being with a smartphone on the platform.

 The future is flying cars, rockets and diabetes-detecting Apple Watches | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:44:43

This week's episode is all about the future. Thanks to technology, the highest capacity rocket platform ever, the Falcon Heavy, blasted up into space.
Meanwhile, over on Earth, Uber is working to make urban air travel a thing, and companies are developing products and conducting studies that can detect diabetes, just by wearing the Apple Watch. This is the world we live in.
On this week's episode, we chat with Uber Head of Policy of Autonomous Vehicles and Urban Aviation Justin Erlich.
Check it out.

 Teeth, flamethrowers and DeRay Mckesson on the racial wealth gap and mass incarceration | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:46:40

On this week's episode of CTRL+T, it's all about flamethrowers (yes, the devices that throw flames), startups trying to get inside your mouth and education in the prison system. Later on, I chat with the one and only DeRay Mckesson, who is known for his social justice activism via #BlackLivesMatter protests in Ferguson, Missouri and Baltimore, Maryland. He's also the host of Crooked Media's Pod Save the People and co-founder of policy platform Campaign Zero. This year, McKesson and his team are focused on two areas: the racial wealth gap and mass incarceration, Mckesson told me on CTRL+T. Specifically, Campaign Zero is trying to "create an entrance for people that's an easy entrance but also high impact" and solutions-oriented, he said.

 Artificial intelligence may become a human rights issue | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:40:57

Welcome back to another glorious episode of CTRL+T. This week, Henry Pickavet and I explore Amazon's new cashier-less stores that promise no waiting in line -- except to get in -- and Uber's newest C-level executive hire. Later in the episode, I rage with Safiya Umoja Noble, a professor at the University of Southern California and author of "Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism." Full disclosure, I went to USC but Noble was not a professor there at the time. Additional disclosure, I wish I could have had her as a teacher because she's smart as hell. Final disclosure, Henry applied to USC but was rejected.

 Blockchain explained and Tide Pod Challenge interrupted | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:37:35

Blockchain, contraceptive app being blamed for unwanted pregnancies, Uber safety move in the UK and people have been ingesting laundry detergent via pods.

 Diversity and its discontents | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:41:54

If you thought last year was intense for diversity, hold on tight, because based on the way this year is unfolding, it looks like we're in for a wild ride. Already, Google was hit with a revised gender pay lawsuit that alleges Google underpaid women in comparison with their male counterparts and asked new hires about their prior salaries.

 As long as it tastes like chicken, folds my clothes for cheap and doesn’t run me over | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:42:24

Wait, what? Yeah, this week a company called SuperMeat announced that it raised $3 million to create chicken in a lab. It requires real chicken cells, Petrie dishes probably and some patience. The benefits for fake (fake real?) chicken are numerous, not the least of which it's better for the environment. But we wonder how it will taste. Like chicken? Like fake chicken? In the lead-up to CES 2018, the topic of robots that fold laundry is on our minds. Apparently it's a thing and it costs a lot of money. Like, a lot of money. Two companies, FoldiMate and Seven Dreamers (which is working with Panasonic) don't want you to have to fold your clean clothes, which is arguably not the worst part of doing laundry (at least according to Henry). And finally, Volkswagen and Hyundai announced that, by 2021, they intend to have autonomous taxi fleets on the roads. Autonomous cars are coming, so why not start with taxis? The only thing better would be autonomous pizza-delivery vehicles. Our guest this week is Ryan Rzepecki, CEO of Social Bicycles, the startup behind Jump, a dockless, electric bike-sharing startup.

 Automating your life | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:31:57

People can be lazy. So it's no wonder why on this week's episode of CTRL+T, we were drawn to some news that touched on home assistants and personal assistants for when you're out in the wild.

 The identity politics of emoji | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:34:12

This week we wondered if cell phones can adversely affect your health (or kill you), the madness of Magic Leap and the problem Twitter has with the hateful people on its platform. Then later in the ep, Megan chats up Jeremy Burge, the Aussie founder of Emojipedia. They talk about the need for a pedia for emoji, Simpsons yellow and the skin-shade politics of mobile communication. It’s complicated.

 Shonda Rhimes talks Netflix and not getting too comfortable | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:29:07

On this week's episode, hear about Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya's declaration that the social network is effectively "destroying how society works," the FCC's vote on repealing net neutrality and Netflix reminding everyone it's spying on its customers. Later in the show, MRD chats with Shonda Rhimes, the creator of network hits like Scandal, Grey's Anatomy and How to Get Away with Murder. We discussed her new contract with Netflix, what we can expect to see from her on the streaming media platform, differences between network and streaming media and strong black women.

 Welcome to CTRL+T | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:01:31

Welcome to CTRL+T, the TechCrunch podcast that looks at how technology impacts culture. Listen to TechCrunch reporter Megan Rose Dickey and Editorial Director Henry Pickavet as they dive into the week's headlines followed by interviews with influencers and innovators in the field. Premier episode launches December 16th.

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