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Flux

Flux is a podcast about the pioneers building companies at the frontier of technology. This series of interviews goes beyond the soundbites, allowing some of the most interesting players in technology to share their insider expertise and explain the challenges they face in building the future.
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Now displaying: 2019
Sep 16, 2019
In this episode we try out a new format. I talk remotely with LaTurbo Avedon, an online avatar who has been active as an artist and curator since 2008. Her responses have been run through a speech synthesizer.
 
Recently we've seen a wave of next-gen virtual stars rise up, from Lil Miquela in the west to pop-stars like Kizuna AI in the east. As real-time avatar representation becomes more accessible, what emergent behaviors will we see and what will our virtual relationships look like? LaTurbo was early to exploring these questions of identity and experimenting with telepresence. She has shape-shifted across media types, spending time in everything from AOL and chat rooms, to MMOs, virtual worlds and social media platforms. She shares her thoughts on how social networks have breached our trust, why a breakup is likely, and how users should take control of their data. We get into the rise of battle royale gaming, why multiplicity of self is important, and how we can better express agency and identity online.

This episode was produced by Adriene Lilly. Full transcript with links on Medium.

Aug 23, 2019

In this episode I talk with Matt Cauble the co-founder of Kin Euphorics, a functional beverage company that aims to reduce stress — “all bliss, no booze.” Matt was previously a co-founder of Soylent and he shares tales from the company’s early days, describing how they made one of the largest pivots in YC history from building software-defined radios to meal-replacement shakes. He explains why Soylent resonated and we get into co-founder Rob Rhinehart's latest interest in space settlement and the Mars industry event he hosted in the Mojave. Matt shares why he is now interested in wellness, how he's applying lessons from Soylent to building the Kin community, and why strong companies often look like new social movements. We get into the product’s formula, which includes nootropics and adaptogens, and what it means to challenge a ritual as ancient as alcohol.

Aug 15, 2019
Eric Marcotulli is the co-founder of Elysium, a life sciences company developing consumer-facing health products based on aging research. Elysium's first product is Basis, a supplement that increases NAD levels and activates sirtuins, boosting cellular health and longevity. 
 
In the latest episode of Flux we discuss why longevity companies like Sirtris Pharmaceuticals failed, which was initially bought for $720 million in 2008. Eric explains why going direct to consumer is the best strategy and what the current Basis user base looks like. He shares what its like working with eight nobel laureates on his science advisory board and how they decide what product research to pursue. He gets into the importance of bringing peer review rigor to the category, how he plans to build consumer trust, why cellular senescence is a particular area of interest, what his personal health routine is and how he thinks about the singularity. 
Jan 3, 2019

In the this episode I sit down with Isaac Cohen (Cabbibo), a fascinating creator at the forefront of VR and AR who has released a number of apps and experiences that push the boundaries - you can find some of his pieces on Steam. He has a background in physics and interface design, previously worked at Leap Motion, and has been an artist in residence at Unity and Adobe. Isaac shares his views on why realism in VR is the wrong approach and how developers need to approach it in a transformative rather than a derivative way. He describes the ARkit workflow, how he thinks about using AR to give users agency, and why emotional efficiency is important in computing. He gets into some of the UX insights he's picked up along the way, which creators inspire his work, what today's corporates can learn from the long-term research done at places like Xerox PARC, and the role artists play in pointing them towards the right questions.

Full transcript on Medium.
 
This episode was produced by Adriene Lilly and Allison Behringer. 
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