PODCAST · technology
Helical Brew
by Sura Hadi | Mike Ouren
Just like the DNA of Life from which the phrase, the DNA of Technology originated, the helical construct is a rollercoaster of endless learning, experimentation, and discovery. The Helical Brew Crew is here to take you along for the ride in a fun, relaxed and informative podcast that explores the twists and turns of technology. We are an enthusiastic group of engineering, scientific, and business professionals that share a passion for the development, mastery, and deployment of technology.
Episodes
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#68 - Building the Software Behind the Automated Lab | Armon Naddaf, Persist AI
Everyone sees the robot. But some of the hardest problems in laboratory automation live in the software underneath it. Armon Naddaf joins Sura Hadi and Mike Ouren to explore what it actually takes to build software around physical science — from hardware drivers, instrument APIs and version…
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#67 - Foundations of the AI-Ready Lab | Aniket Deshpande, NVIDIA
AI can predict what experiment should happen next. But can the laboratory actually execute it? Aniket Deshpande joins Sura Hadi and Mike Ouren to explore the convergence of biological research, scientific computing and laboratory automation - from genomics, GPUs and protein language models to AI...
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#66 - Why Great Laboratory Automation Companies Win | Brian O'Sullivan, Opentrons
Great technology is only the beginning. Some of the best technology in laboratory automation still fails commercially - while other companies build products customers adopt, trust, and buy again. Brian O'Sullivan has spent more than 20 years seeing what separates the two. Across Velocity11,...
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#65 - Unfiltered Brew: We're Back | LRIG, SLAS & What's Ahead #helicalbrew #viral #shorts
Helical Brew: Unfiltered is back. ☕️ After a summer break, Sura Hadi and Mike Ouren catch up on what's happening across the laboratory automation community — from LRIG chapters and the growing Southeast life sciences scene to what's ahead for SLAS 2027 in San Diego. Plus, Mike discovers one…
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#64 - Building the Road to Autonomous Labs | Rui Campos, Automata
First to market with NFC payments two years before Apple Pay. First smartwatch for tarmac environments. Now helping the largest life sciences companies in the world build autonomous labs. Rui Campos has been ahead of the market his entire career, and he's here to talk about where lab automation…
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#63 - The Execution Problem: Lab Donkey
Donkey work. That's what a British scientist called it — the tedious, repetitive, unglamorous work that keeps labs running. Petia and Safwan Hak heard that phrase and built a company around it. Lab Donkey is focused on one of the hardest problems in lab automation: execution, scheduling and...
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#62 - Programming Biology: Why Lab Automation Needs a New Language
Compilers for the wet lab. High-level languages for biology. A co-founder who started pipetting and ended up writing code that talks to robots. Alexandra Rolfness is building something this industry has never seen — and she's here to explain why lab automation needs a new language. Alexandra...
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#61 - Biology Doesn't Scale. Systems Do. | Rich Cohen, Ginkgo Bioworks
Spider silk in yeast. Antibody AI models. Pharma companies pooling data across competitors. Rich Cohen has been at the intersection of biology and systems for over a decade — and he's here to talk about what actually scales and what doesn't. Rich Cohen is Senior Director of Ginkgo Datapoints at...
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#60 - Your Career Is a Business: How to Own It Like One
She walked into one of the most technical industries on the planet and started closing deals. No lab background. No engineering degree. Just relationships, research, and the confidence to own any room. De'Nye Hopkins is a Business eDvelopment Account Manager at E Tech Group managing a $2.5M...
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#59 - Unfiltered Brew: Wrong State, Zombie Airport & Bunny Ears
Unfiltered Brew – Podcast Playlist | #HelicalBrew #ViralVideo #Podcast No guest. No agenda. Just two people in lab automation who haven't talked in a while — and apparently one of them landed in the wrong state. In this Unfiltered Brew episode your favorites hosts catch up on life, travel chaos,...
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#58 - Building the Missing Layer: Open Scheduling, Swarm Automation & Why Labs Need Control
Automation in the Wild – Podcast Playlist | #HelicalBrew #ViralVideo #Podcast Lab automation runs on software nobody talks about. Schedulers, drivers, integration layers — the invisible glue holding million dollar systems together. Today we're pulling it apart. Mike Salmi is the founder of…
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#57 - It Worked Yesterday: What 20 Yrs of Lab Automation Svc Teaches You About Reality
🎙️ Guest: Dave May | Owner & Lead Service Engineer, DCM Bioservices 🎧 Hosts: Mike Ouren & Sura Hadi 📺 Series: Automation in the Wild "You can't lie to the robot. It doesn't know." – Dave May When a 500lb robot dumps a $250,000 instrument on the floor, someone has to show up and fix it. That...
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#56 - Shorts, Algorithms & the Reality of Growing a Science Podcast
🎙 Hosts: Sura Hadi & Mike Ouren After 55 episodes of Helical Brew, we’re cracking open an Unfiltered Brew - a candid, behind-the-scenes conversation about what’s actually working, what’s changed, and what growing a technical podcast really looks like. From YouTube algorithms and Shorts strategy…
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#54 - Why Endgame Strategy Beats Firepower Every Time
A quick Unfiltered Brew from Mike - Warzone endgame chaos, a clutch moment, and the most satisfying kind of win: using someone’s own gear against them. More shorties like this coming. 🔔 Subscribe to Helical Brew We explore the intersection of AI, automation, and the future of science. Subscribe…
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#55 - Standardization B4 Intelligence: Building the AI-Ready Lab Stack
Guests: 🎙️ Lukas Bromig - Co-CEO & Founder at UniteLabs (Munich), building infrastructure for AI-ready labs 👩🔬 Hosts: Sura Hadi & Mike Ouren 🎧 Episode Title: “Standardization Before Intelligence: Building the AI-Ready Lab Stack” AI is moving fast - but labs are still stuck in the interface...
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#53 - Mac Brew with Mike Ouren
This week on Helical Brew, Mike Ouren takes the mic solo for a deep dive into Apple — from the early PowerBook days to today’s M4 Macs, iPhone evolution, and the massive shift coming with iPadOS 26. From the “every-year iPhone upgrader” cycle to the future of Mac silicon and the return of Apple’s...
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#52 - Beyond the Algorithm: Measuring AI Confidence in Biomanufacturing
🎙️ Masaki Yamada — Head of Product at Invert, helping biomanufacturing teams quantify trust in AI. 👩🔬 Hosts: Sura Hadi & Mike Ouren 🎧 Episode Title:“Beyond the Algorithm: Measuring AI Confidence in Biomanufacturing” Hallucinations, trust, and the space between - that’s where the future of...
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#51 - Dogs, Planes & Pizza Slices – Helical Brew Goes Off-Script
Hosts: Sura Hadi & Mike Ouren Series: Unfiltered Brew – Helical Brew Podcast Bold summary: After a few weeks abroad, Mike’s back — jetlagged, caffeinated, and ready to unpack everything from the Munich SLAS meetup to airplane fuel stats, Aurora Borealis sightings, and why Sura’s dog might just be...
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#50 - ISPE Boston at Gillette Stadium –Robots, Enclosures & Boston Energy
🎙️ Hosts: Sura Hadi, Mike Ouren 🎧 Episode Title: ISPE Boston at Gillette Stadium – Robots, Enclosures & Boston Energy From Rockwell rails to Germfree enclosures (and a field-goal after-party), Sura and Mike unpack what went down at ISPE Boston 2025 — hosted inside Gillette Stadium.This Helical...
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#49 - Class Rings, Metric Fails & Why Women’s Pockets Suck
🎙️ Hosts: Sura Hadi, Mike Ouren, Elizabeth Rodziewicz 🎧 Episode Title: Unfiltered Brew - Class Rings, Metric Fails & Why Women’s Pockets Still Suck From class rings and college debt to metric vs. imperial hardware fails, McMaster wins, and a Theranos throwback — this Unfiltered Brew episode is...
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#48 - The 2025 Hiring Curve (Part 2)
🎙️ Hosts: Mike Ouren, Sura Hadi, Elizabeth Rodziewicz 🎧 Episode Title: The 2025 Hiring Curve: Biotech, Automation & What’s Next (Part 2) Ghosting. Bottlenecks. Myths about hiring made easy. In Part 2 of our Science Means Business conversation with Ian Cooper and Chris Gaetani of BioMed...
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#47 - The 2025 Hiring Curve (Part 1)
🎙️ Hosts: Mike Ouren, Sura Hadi 🎧 Episode Title: The 2025 Hiring Curve: Biotech, Automation & What’s Next (Part 1) What’s changed in biotech hiring since January? What hasn’t? And what’s next for lab automation jobs in 2025? In this exclusive two-part episode of Science Means Business, Sura and...
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#46 - Red Chair, Closet Beer, #peloton Fame & #frenchie Drama #helicalbrew #viral #shortvideo
🎙️ Hosts: Mike Ouren, Sura Hadi, Elizabeth Rodziewicz 🎧 Episode Title: Red Chair, Closet Beer, Peloton Fame & Frenchie Drama Red chair returns. Closet beer gets cancelled. Peloton price therapy, Frenchie recovery, and a lab-events blitz. This week on Helical Brew: Unfiltered Brew (Ep. 46)…
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#45 - Cristian Ponce on Robots, AI Engineers & the Cloud Lab Revolution
🎙 Episode 45 – Cristian Ponce | CEO & Co-Founder – Tetsuwan Scientific "Interfacing with the Future: Why Lab Robots Still Don’t Understand Scientists "What’s really broken in lab automation? According to Cristian Ponce, it’s not the hardware—it’s the human interface.In this episode of our AI...
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#44 - Flying Tylenol, Gamer Rage & BBQ Sauce: Travel & Tech Talk
🎙️ Hosts: Mike Ouren, Sura Hadi 🎧 Episode Title: Flying Tylenol, Gamer Rage & BBQ Sauce: Unfiltered Travel & Tech Talk Cloud storage meltdowns. Overnight flight delays. Double Wild Turkey. In this episode of Unfiltered Brew, Mike and Sura unpack the real reason people drink on airplanes…
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#43 - From Lanyards to Lollapalooza: Unfiltered Trade Show Tales
🎙️ Hosts: Mike Ouren, Sura Hadi 🎧 Episode Title: From Lanyards to Lollapalooza: Unfiltered Trade Show Tales Lanyards, swag regrets, boutique hotels, and a diagnostics mega-show colliding with Lollapalooza. Your favorite lab automation crew gets real about ADLM 2025, diagnostics business models,...
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#42 - Unfiltered Brew: Summer Trade Shows, Surf Racks & Shrinkage
🎙️ Hosts: Mike Ouren, Sura Hadi, Elizabeth Rodziewicz 🎧 Episode Title: Unfiltered Brew: Summer Trade Shows, Surf Racks & ShrinkageBold opinions. Bigger laughs. No guests, just guts. Your favorite lab automation crew gets real about diagnostics, biotech trends, and a little turbulence—literally....
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#41 - Blueprints, Bots & Breaking In: Building The Automated Lab
🎙️ Guest: Madeline Wolf | Founder, The Automated Lab 🎧 Hosts: Mike Ouren, Sura Hadi, and Elizabeth Rodziewicz 📺 Series: Automation in the Wild Title: Blueprints, Bots & Breaking In: Building The Automated Lab from the Ground Up "You can’t automate what you don’t understand." – Madeline Wolf In...
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#40 - From Bench to Buy-In: How Real Innovation Wins the Market
🎙️ Guest: Ali Glaser | Antibody Discovery & Cell Therapy Automation Strategist 🎧 Hosts: Mike Ouren & Sura Hadi 📺 Series: Science Means Business "You can’t innovate in a vacuum." - Ali Glaser In this episode, Ali Glaser shares field-tested lessons from the frontlines of lab automation, platform...
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#39 - Built to Fail: What Lab Ops Gets Wrong (and How to Fix It)
🎙️ Guest: Steven Laflin, Former Principal SHE Program Manager, Genentech🎧 Hosts: Mike Ouren, Sura Hadi & Elizabeth Rodziewicz📺 Series: Science Means BusinessLabs aren’t failing because the science is wrong—they’re failing because the systems were built to break.Steven Laflin has managed over...
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#38 - Fluent in the Field: How One Neuroscientist Traded Brain Slices for Robots
🎙️ Guest: Kate Halter, PhD – Field Sales Engineer at Tecan 🎧 Hosts: Mike Ouren, Sura Hadi & Elizabeth Rodziewicz 📺 Series: Automation in the Wild – Helical Brew Lab automation doesn’t sell itself. In this episode of Automation in the Wild, Kate Halter, PhD, joins us to talk about what really...
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#37 - Unfiltered Brew: Lab Chaos, Coolant Caps & Automation Day Throwbacks
🎙 Hosts: Sura Hadi | Mike Ouren | Elizabeth Rodziewicz 🎧 Series: Unfiltered Brew – Helical Brew Intermission ☕️ Lab chaos, cool cars, and even cooler stories. This unscripted intermission episode gives the Helical Brew crew a chance to go off-the-rails (and off-the-record) about robot mishaps,...
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#36 - Scaling Lab Innovation: Turning Automation into Business Success
🎙️ Guest: Constantin Radu, Commercial Leader at Molecular Devices (Danaher) 🎧 Hosts: Mike Ouren, Sura Hadi & Elizabeth Rodziewicz 📺 Series: Science Means Business Automation is only as successful as the problems it solves. In this episode of Helical Brew, Constantine Radu joins us to explore…
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#35 - Charbel Eid
🎙️ Guest: Charbel Eid, VP of Platform at BigHat Biosciences 🎧 Hosts: Sura Hadi & Mike Ouren Antibody discovery meets AI copilots. In this episode of Helical Brew, Charbel Eid walks us through how BigHat Biosciences is blending synthetic biology, machine learning, and real-world biotech to...
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#34 - SLAS Europe 2025 Wrap-Up: The Best in Lab Automation from Hamburg
▶️ Hosts: Mike Ouren & Elizabeth Rodziewicz 🎙️ Recorded live from the show floor at SLAS Europe 2025 in Hamburg 📻 In this wrap-up edition of Helical Brew, Mike and Elizabeth unpack two packed days in Hamburg - from record-setting product launches to UI upgrades we didn’t see coming. If you like...
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#33 - SLAS 2025 Hamburg Live | Lab Automation in Europe: Trends, Tech & Tea with Tim & Martin
▶️ Guests: Tim Verweij (Lab Services) & Martin Pinzer (Lab Automation Network) 🎙 Host: Mike Ouren 📻 Live from SLAS 2025 in Hamburg, this special episode of Helical Brew captures the energy, innovation, and late-night gossip of Europe's premier lab automation conference. From modular robotics to...
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#32 - Experiences from the Field with Andrew Hurder
▶️ Guest: Andrew Hurder, Field Application Scientist at Artel (Advanced Instruments) 🎙 Hosts: Sura Hadi, Mike Ouren & Elizabeth Rodziewicz 📻 In this episode of Automation in the Wild - titled “Hands-On with Lab Automation: Experiences from the Field with Andrew Hurder” - we drop straight into…
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#31 - Shrinkflation, Seth Rogen & Skateboards: Unfiltered Brew Returns
▶️ Guests: None – It’s just us this time 🎙 Hosts: Sura Hadi & Mike Ouren 📻 This episode of Helical Brew takes a break from guest interviews and dives into the chaos, comedy, and commentary that happens when two automation nerds are left alone with coffee, curved monitors, and too many dogs.…
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#30 - Molecular Simulations & AI: Accelerating Drug Discovery
▶️ Guest: Ingrid Barbosa-Farias, Founder of SimAtomic 🎙 Hosts: Sura Hadi, Mike Ouren & Elizabeth Rodziewicz 📻 This episode of AI Thought Leaders dives into the powerful intersection of molecular simulations and AI - and how one founder is using smarter algorithms to accelerate drug discovery…
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#29 - What Success Really Takes: Simplicity, Trust & Saying No to Clients
▶️ Guest: Tim Verweij, Global Automation Expert, Lab Services B.V. 🎙 Hosts: Sura Hadi & Mike Ouren 📻 This episode of Automation in the Wild explores what actually makes automation successful - and why simplicity, trust, and saying no are more powerful than the flashiest robot on the showroom...
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#28 - Earthquakes, TikTok Chaos, Amazon Scams, and Gaming Dreams
▶️ Hosts: Sura Hadi & Mike Ouren📻 Between AI episodes, we’re keeping it casual - over earthquakes, TikTok confessions, Amazon scams, PS5 dreams, and nostalgic tales of moving and gaming through the decades.This Helical Brew Intermission brings Sura and Mike into an unfiltered conversation across...
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#27 - Pear Phones, Tesla Stickers & Gen Z Rizz: A Tech Culture Tangent
▶️ Hosts: Sura Hadi, Mike Ouren & Elizabeth Rodziewicz 📻 In this Helical Brew Intermission, the crew dives deep into the chaos of modern tech, from Disney’s Pear computers to Tesla-vandal-proof bumper stickers, and the Gen Z slang your pilot probably shouldn’t use. We talk cloud storage…
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#26 - From Brews to Bots: Scotch Rituals, Sci-Fi Tangents & Lab Legends
▶️ Hosts: Sura Hadi & Mike Ouren 📻 Between AI episodes, we took a detour - into Scotch rituals, comic book logic, nostalgic TV, science jokes, and what lab automation might smell like. This Helical Brew Intermission brings co-hosts Mike and Sura into an unfiltered conversation covering…
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#25 - The Machine Learning Blueprint: AI Architecture with G. Tony Reina
▶️ Hosts: Elizabeth Rodziewicz, Sura Hadi, Jeff Nagle, and Mike Ouren 🎙 Guest: G. Tony Reina | Head of Machine Learning, Exthymic 🔍 Episode Title: “The Machine Learning Blueprint: AI Architecture with G. Anthony Reina” In the third episode of our AI Thought Leaders Series, we welcome AI…
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#24 - Building AI Software for the Future, Insights from John Conway
▶️ Hosts: Elizabeth Rodziewicz, Sura Hadi, Jeff Nagle, and Mike Ouren 🎙️ Helical Brew - AI Thought Leaders Series | Episode 2 What if AI hallucinations held the key to scientific progress? In this episode, we’re joined by John Conway, founder of 20/15 Visioneers and longtime pharma executive…
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#23 - Will AI Replace Scientists? Automating Science with Nick Edwards
▶️ Hosts: Elizabeth Rodziewicz, Sura Hadi, Jeff Nagle, and Mike Ouren 🧠 The next scientific revolution is here - and it’s powered by AI. In the premiere episode of our AI Thought Leaders Series, we sit down with Nick Edwards, PhD, neuroscientist and CEO of Potato AI, to explore the future of AI…
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#22 - When Lab Automation Fails: The Hidden Costs of Bad Automation
▶️Hosts: Elizabeth Rodziewicz, Sura Hadi, Jeff Nagle, and Mike Ouren 🚀 Lab automation is supposed to make work easier - but why are scientists still stuck babysitting machines? Companies spend hundreds of thousands on automation, only to assign full-time staff to ensure it actually works. That’s...
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#21 - Julie O'Shaughnessy
▶️Hosts: Elizabeth Rodziewicz, Sura Hadi, Jeff Nagle, and Mike Ouren 🚀 The best ideas don’t always win—execution does.In the final episode of our Blueprints to Breakthroughs series, we sit down with Julie O’Shaughnessy, COO of Vivodyne, to uncover why biotech operations are the secret weapon...
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#20 - Mostafa ElSayed
Title: 🤖 Connected Labs: How Automata is Scaling Scientific Automation | Mostafa ElSayed | Helical Brew Hosts: Elizabeth Rodziewicz, Sura Hadi, Jeff Nagle, and Mike Ouren🚨 Lab automation is evolving—beyond isolated robots to fully connected, scalable workflows. But are we thinking big enough?…
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#19 - Intermission
Hosts: Elizabeth Rodziewicz, Sura Hadi, Jeff Nagle, and Mike Ouren No guest this week, but Jeff, Sura, and Mike talk Hockey, MacBook Dongles, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rush and more on a relaxed intermission episode. Enjoy!
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Just like the DNA of Life from which the phrase, the DNA of Technology originated, the helical construct is a rollercoaster of endless learning, experimentation, and discovery. The Helical Brew Crew is here to take you along for the ride in a fun, relaxed and informative podcast that explores the twists and turns of technology. We are an enthusiastic group of engineering, scientific, and business professionals that share a passion for the development, mastery, and deployment of technology.
HOSTED BY
Sura Hadi | Mike Ouren
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Helical Brew have?
Helical Brew currently has 68 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Helical Brew about?
Just like the DNA of Life from which the phrase, the DNA of Technology originated, the helical construct is a rollercoaster of endless learning, experimentation, and discovery. The Helical Brew Crew is here to take you along for the ride in a fun, relaxed and informative podcast that explores the...
How often does Helical Brew release new episodes?
Helical Brew has 68 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Helical Brew?
You can listen to Helical Brew on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Helical Brew?
Helical Brew is created and hosted by Sura Hadi | Mike Ouren.
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