Brainstorm

Brainstorm

Technology is disrupting our world and reshaping our lives, sometimes in ways we don't realize. In this weekly podcast, Fortune Senior Writer Michal Lev-Ram and Deputy Editor Brian O'Keefe dig behind the headlines to explore the world of tech. They speak with leaders of some of the biggest companies - and others perhaps you've never heard of - and call on industry experts for insight. Fortune's team of tech reporters and writers also weighs in on what's happening in technology news and why it matters for everyone.

Episodes

July 29, 2021 29 mins
The last time Tokyo hosted the Summer Games was 1964. That was the first Olympics to be televised live, around the world, and in color. The event continues to be a hotspot of innovation for broadcast. Tuning in this year you may hear mention of an athlete's metabolic data, or analysis comparing the acceleration of runners. New tech is capturing this information and spitting out the details within seconds. In today's Brainstorm you'...
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In the past two weeks, both Sir Richard Branson and Amazon's Jeff Bezos flew into space on their own rockets. Space tourism, they say, is just around the corner: anyone who can pay the price of admission can now travel outside our home planet. In the flurry of headlines that followed, it’s easy to forget these billionaire-astronauts – along with Elon Musk – have been investing heavily in the commercial space industry for nearly two...
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In a digital world, the ability to code – to train a computer, using its own language – is key, hence the enormous push to make people literate in programming languages. “Don’t just play on your phone,” urged President Barack Obama in 2013, “program it.”  But today the demand for digital applications outstrips the programming talent. The became especially clear during COVID-19, when digital accessibility became a necessity. Enter l...
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Fortune's Brainstorm podcast is on vacation this week, but will return next Thursday with a new episode. In the meantime, we bring you another Fortune podcast: Leadership Next (subscribe wherever you get your podcasts). Each Week, Alan Murray and Ellen McGirt interview CEOs from major companies like Intel, Hilton and Etsy. This episode of Leadership Next features Peggy Johnson, CEO of Magic Leap. The company's augmented headset nev...
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Driverless cars are supposed to eliminate traffic, prevent millions of deaths and injuries, reduce congestion, and slash carbon emissions. And, they were supposed to be on our streets by now. In 2016, then-Secretary of Transportation, Anthony Foxx, now the Chief Policy Officer at Lyft, said in an interview that by 2021 “families will be able to walk out of their homes and call [an autonomous] vehicle, and that vehicle will take the...
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June 24, 2021 27 mins
Semiconductors are an essential part of computer chips and, therefore, power much of the technology our modern world increasingly relies upon. This is especially the case during the COVID-19 pandemic, as demand for personal electronics and internet connectivity has skyrocketed. Along with toilet paper and lumber, though, semiconductors are in short supply, due to erratic, pandemic-related bottlenecks in the global supply chain. But...
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Over the past year, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum have garnered lots of attention, due to their meteoric rise in value. Even Dogecoin, which began as a spoof, had a market cap larger than that of Ford Motor Company this spring. But there’s a growing awareness of the massive computing power these currencies require; how can something as intangible as cryptocurrency have such an enormous environmental footprint?  On toda...
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When was the last time you visited a bank branch? Called a broker to make a stock trade? Paid the babysitter in cash? Increasingly, our financial lives are online. And in today's Brainstorm podcast we dig into the growth of the fintech industry. First up, Matt Harris, a partner at Bain Capital Ventures. He's been closely following - and investing in - the intersection of finance and technology for over twenty years. Zach Perret is ...
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Ever since 1955 Fortune has published the Fortune 500 - a list of the country's biggest companies, ranked by revenue. And each year, that list reflects the biggest trends in business. This year, one trend stands above all others: technology is pushing business to new heights. The technology sector pulled in more profits than any other, and its market cap continues to grow. Scott DeCarlo, Fortune's list editor, breaks out some of th...
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Summer is right around the corner which means ... grilling! And this season there are more plant-based meats on the market than ever before. But startups are increasingly using other methods to develop alternative proteins too - and investors are flocking to support their efforts. Today's Brainstorm podcast is all about these alternative meats: the case for developing them, how Silicon Valley is embracing the challenge, who is most...
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May 20, 2021 24 mins
Over the course of 2020, when car trips were at a minimum due to the pandemic, Americans still spent a day of their lives, on average, sitting in traffic. Things were much worse pre-pandemic: In 2019, the average driver in Los Angeles spent almost 120 hours in traffic—nearly an entire work week. Traffic is one of the foremost inconveniences of modern life; it’s also unhealthy, inefficient and wasteful, which is why technologists ar...
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Virtual reality (VR) is no longer futuristic fantasy: it’s a growing market across many industries, from gaming to education. In healthcare, doctors, nurses and therapists are immersing patients in computer-generated, interactive environments. And while it's no silver bullet, VR is proving to be powerful medicine. Studies show it can improve health outcomes in many situations, whether in labor and delivery, managing chronic pain, o...
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At the end of April, the European Union outlined ambitious new regulations for the use of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.). Systems that determine who gets a job, or who’s eligible for a bank loan, will have to prove their trustworthiness. While implementation is several years away, companies worldwide are already adjusting. The EU says the new rules reflect its human-centered values; skeptics say the laws intend to clip the wings of...
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April 29, 2021 28 mins
Apple’s new iOS 14.5 contains a privacy feature that’s worrying the digital advertising industry. iPhone and iPad users will now be asked if they’d like to allow individual apps to track their activity across other apps. Digital advertisers, like Facebook, fear the answer will overwhelmingly be “no,” which is why some say Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature could seriously change how much advertisers get to know about ...
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Global carbon emissions fell in 2020 for the first time in decades, due to the pandemic and the resulting economic slowdown. Empty airports and quiet highways meant fewer planes and cars spewing carbon dioxide into the air. The decline was significant, but emissions need to fall even more - for several years in a row - in order to reach the emissions goals set by the Paris Climate Agreement. To make matters worse: emissions are ris...
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After months and months of staying put, people are itching to travel. According to recent Google Trends, searches in the U.S. for “resort” and “hotel” are at five and 10-year highs, respectively. While the CDC recommends delaying travel until fully vaccinated, the number of vaccinated people grows each day, as does demand for a return to normalcy.     On today’s Brainstorm, Michal Lev-Ram and Brian O’Keefe examine how technology ca...
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April 8, 2021 29 mins
Proponents of artificial intelligence say it can eliminate human bias in hiring. Critics argue the algorithms are as flawed as the people making them. Nonetheless, A.I is becoming a mainstay in how employers attract applicants and select talent. According to the Brookings Institution, 55 percent of U.S. human resource leaders use some kind of predictive algorithms: A.I. matches candidates with job openings; it analyzes facial expre...
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COVID-19 has pushed small businesses to the brink. A survey from the Federal Reserve Bank shows three out of every 10 small businesses in the U.S. say they won’t survive 2021 without additional government assistance. For the ones lucky—or savvy—enough to stick around, a digital presence is key.   On today’s Brainstorm, hosts Michal Lev-Ram and Brian O’Keefe trace the path small businesses must take to digitize. Visa’s Mary Kay Bowm...
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On March 11, the digital artist Beeple sold his “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” collage in a Christie’s online auction for $69.3 million. Its buyer didn't receive anything to display on a wall. Instead he received a NFT, a “non-fungible token.” NFTs are essentially a certificate of ownership, recorded on the blockchain, for a digital asset that is seemingly just a Google search away for the rest of us. On today’s Brainstorm, hosts...
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March 18, 2021 27 mins
At the end of January, Tesla CEO Elon Musk grilled Vlad Tenev, the CEO of investing app Robinhood, about the frenzied trading of GameStop stock. The billionaire tech titans weren’t on TV having their unscripted conversation about one of the biggest stories of the month; they weren’t even on a podcast. Instead, they spoke to a live audience on the new, invite-only, iPhone-only, audio-only app, called Clubhouse.   What exactly is Clu...
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