Aug 18, 2026

Elon's Former Battery Chief on Making Transformers 100x Smaller | Drew Baglino, Heron Power

Drew Baglino, former Tesla Powertrain & Energy head and now CEO of Heron Power, reveals why the current electricity grid is inadequate for the explosive growth of AI data centers. He explains how Heron Power's wideband gap power semiconductors will revolutionize grid-to-chip infrastructure, cutting power losses by half, shrinking massive transformers by 100x, and transforming data centers into grid-positive assets for a more efficient and sustainable energy future.

Aug 15, 2026

How Nuclear Will Unlock Energy Abundance with Valar Atomics Founder Isaiah Taylor

Valar Atomics, led by Isaiah Taylor, is redefining nuclear energy by building and iterating advanced reactors, including powering an NVIDIA Blackwell chip directly with a live nuclear reactor for a website. This episode delves into Valar's hardware-first approach, their navigation of regulatory pathways, and their vision for how cheap, abundant nuclear power, especially with AI-driven demand, will lead to 'hyper-technoindustrialism' and vastly improve human quality of life.

Aug 14, 2026

Susan Kare: How I Designed the Original Apple Mac Icons

Susan Kare, the legendary designer behind the original Macintosh's iconic visual language, shares her journey from art history to computing. She discusses the creation of typefaces like Chicago and memorable icons such as the Happy Mac and the Command key symbol. Drawing lessons from Steve Jobs, Paul Rand, and others, Kare highlights key design principles: focusing on meaning and memorability, embracing technical constraints, iterating constantly, and using just enough detail to ensure instant clarity and universal appeal in human-computer interaction.

Aug 11, 2026

The Past, Present & Future of Programming Languages • Kevlin Henney • YOW! 2025

Kevlin Henney explores the slow but profound evolution of programming languages, revealing how many 'new' features are decades-old concepts. He analyzes language popularity rankings, highlighting the dominance of 20th-century languages and the impact of the "von Neumann bottleneck." The talk delves into historical innovations from Fortran to Algol, coroutines to functional programming, and concludes by examining how Large Language Models (LLMs) are becoming clients of existing languages, further entrenching the mainstream rather than causing radical change, often due to their training data favoring established codebases.

Aug 07, 2026

Max Hodak: What Really Kills Deep Tech Startups?

Max Hodak, CEO of Science, reveals that deep tech startup success, exemplified by their retinal implant, is fundamentally driven by robust internal infrastructure. He argues that meticulous design of processes like purchasing, hiring, and unique 'EigenReviews' dictate a company's iterative speed. Hodak emphasizes the irreplaceable founder's judgment, action-driven information generation, and the critical role of custom operating systems, including AI-native tools, in achieving impactful outcomes in complex, capital-intensive fields like biotech.

Aug 06, 2026

A Long Spring: 19 Years of Living with Your Past Mistakes • Arjen Poutsma • GOTO 2025

Arjen Poutsma, a Spring Framework veteran, reflects on 19 years of evolving the framework. He shares insights on API design from XML to functional programming, detailing anecdotes like bubble sort in MVC and the challenges of HTTP method enums. Poutsma emphasizes the critical role of diversity, empathy, humility, and restraint in open-source stewardship to maintain developer trust and foster innovation under constraints.