PODCAST · business
Idea Machines
by Benjamin Reinhardt
Idea Machines is a deep dive into the systems and people that bring innovations from glimmers in someone's eye all the way to tools, processes, and ideas that can shift paradigms. We see the outputs of innovation systems everywhere but rarely dig into how they work. Idea Machines digs below the surface into crucial but often unspoken questions to explore themes of how we enable innovations today and how we could do it better tomorrow.Idea Machines is hosted by Benjamin Reinhardt.
Episodes
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Building the Future, Step by Step with Ada Palmer
A conversation with Ada Palmer about building the future with humility, the process of creating a science fiction world, and many spoiler-heavy deep dives into the world of Terra Ignota. Mentioned in this episode Books and works. Ada Palmer, Terra Ignota — Too Like the Lightning, Seven…
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Speculative Technologies with Ben Reinhardt [Macroscience cross-post]
Tim Hwang turns the tables and interviews me (Ben) about Speculative Technologies and research management.
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Industrial Research with Peter van Hardenberg [Idea Machines #50]
Peter van Hardenberg talks about Industrialists vs. Academics, Ink&Switch's evolution over time, the Hollywood Model, internal lab infrastructure, and more! Peter is the lab director and CEO of Ink&Switch, a private, creator oriented, computing research lab. References Ink&Switch (and their many...
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MACROSCIENCE with Tim Hwang [Idea Machines #49]
A conversation with Tim Hwang about historical simulations, the interaction of policy and science, analogies between research ecosystems and the economy, and so much more. Topics Historical Simulations Macroscience Macro-metrics for science Long science The interaction between science and policy...
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Idea Machines with Nadia Asparouhova [Idea Machines #48]
Nadia Asparouhova talks about idea machines on idea machines! Idea machines, of course, being her framework around societal organisms that turn ideas into outcomes. We also talk about the relationship between philanthropy and status, public goods and more. Nadia is a hard-to-categorize doer of…
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Institutional Experiments with Seemay Chou [Idea Machines #47]
Seemay Chou talks about the process of building a new research organization, ticks, hiring and managing entrepreneurial scientists, non-model organisms, institutional experiments and a lot more! Seemay is the co-founder and CEO of Arcadia Science — a research and development company focusing on...
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DARPA and Advanced Manufacturing with William Bonvillian [Idea Machines #46]
William Bonvillian does a deep dive about his decades of research on how DARPA works and his more recent work on advanced manufacturing. William is a Lecturer at MIT and the Senior Director of Special Projects,at MIT's Office of Digital Learning. Before joining MIT he spent almost two decades as…
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Philanthropically Funding the Foundation of Fields with Adam Falk [Idea Machines #45]
In this conversation, Adam Falk and I talk about running research programs with impact over long timescales, creating new fields, philanthropic science funding, and so much more. Adam is the president of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, which was started by the eponymous founder of General Motors...
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Managing Mathematics with Semon Rezchikov [Idea Machines #44]
In this conversation, Semon Rezchikov and I talk about what other disciplines can learn from mathematics, creating and cultivating collaborations, working at different levels of abstraction, and a lot more! Semon is currently a postdoc in mathematics at Harvard where he specializes in symplectic...
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Scientific Irrationality with Michael Strevens [Idea Machines #43]
Professor Michael Strevens discusses the line between scientific knowledge and everything else, the contrast between what scientists as people do and the formalized process of science, why Kuhn and Popper are both right and both wrong, and more. Michael is a professor of Philosophy at New York...
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Distributing Innovation with The VitaDAO Core Team [Idea Machines #42]
A conversation with the VitaDAO core team. VitaDAO is a decentralized autonomous organization — or DAO — that focuses on enabling and funding longevity research. The sketch of how a DAO works is that people buy voting tokens that live on top of the Etherium blockchain and then use those tokens to...
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The Nature of Technology with Brain Arthur [Idea Machines #41]
Dr. Brian Arthur and I talk about how technology can be modeled as a modular and evolving system, combinatorial evolution more broadly and dig into some fascinating technological case studies that informed his book The Nature of Technology. Brian is a researcher and author who is perhaps best…
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Philosophy of Progress with Jason Crawford [Idea Machines #40]
In this Conversation, Jason Crawford and I talk about starting a nonprofit organization, changing conceptions of progress, why 26 years after WWII may have been what happened in 1971, and more. Jason is the proprietor of Roots of Progress a blog and educational hub that has recently become a...
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Fusion, Planning, Programs, and Politics with Stephen Dean [Idea Machines #39]
In this conversation, Dr. Stephen Dean talks about how he created the 1976 US fusion program plan, how it played out and the history of fusion power in the US, technology program planning and management more broadly, and more. Stephen has been working on making fusion energy a reality for more…
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Policy, TFP, and airshiPs with Eli Dourado [Idea Machines #38]
Eli Dourado on how the sausage of technology policy is made, the relationship between total factor productivity and technological progress, airships, and more. Eli is an economist, regulatory hacker, and a senior research fellow at the Center for Growth and Opportunity at Utah State University.…
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In the Realm of the Barely Feasible with Arati Prabhakar [Idea Machines #37]
In this conversation I talk to the Amazing Arati Prabhakar about using Solutions R&D to tackle big societal problems, gaps in the innovation ecosystem, DARPA, and more. Arati's career has covered almost every corner of the innovation ecosystem - she's done basically every role at - DARPA she was…
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Shaping Research by Changing Context with Ilan Gur [Idea Machines #36]
In this conversation I talk to Ilan Gur about what it really means for technology to "escape the lab", the power of context to shape the usefulness of research, the inadequacies of current institutional structures, how activate helps technology escape the lab *by* changing people's context, and...
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Your Equity is a Product with Luke Constable [Idea Machines #35]
In this conversation I talk to Luke Constable about the complicated tapestry of finance, funding projects, incentives, organizational and legal structures, social technologies, and more. Luke is the founder of the hedge fund Lampa Capital and publishes a widely-read newsletter full of fascinating...
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Venture Research with Donald Braben [Idea Machines #34]
In this conversation I talk to Donald Braben about his venture research initiative, peer review, and enabling the 21st century equivalents of Max Planck. Donald has been a staunch advocate of reforming how we fund and evaluate research for decades. From 1980 to 1990 he ran BP's venture research...
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Focusing on Research with Adam Marblestone [Idea Machines #33]
A conversation with Adam Marblestone about his new project - Focused Research Organizations. Focused Research Organizations (FROs) are a new initiative that Adam is working on to address gaps in current institutional structures. You can read more about them in this white paper that Adam released...
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Hanging Out in the Valley of Death with Michael Filler and Matthew Realff [Idea Machines #32]
Michael Filler and Matthew Realff discuss Fundamental Manufacturing Process innovations. We explore what they are, dig into historical examples, and consider how we might enable more of them to happen. Michael and Matthew are both professors at Georgia Tech and Michael also hosts an excellent...
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The Decline of Unfettered Research with Andrew Odlyzko [Idea Machines #31]
A conversation with Professor Andrew Odlyzko about the forces that have driven the paradigm changes we've seen across the research world in the past several decades. Andrew is a professor at the University of Minnesota and worked at Bell Labs before that. The conversation centers around his paper...
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On the Cusp of Commerciality with Eleonora Vella [Idea Machines #30]
A conversation with Eleonora Vella about getting the right people in the room, finding research on the cusp of commercializability, and generally how TandemLaunch's unique system works. Eleonora is a Program director at TandemLaunch. Tandemlaunch is a startup foundry that builds companies from...
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Innovating Through Time with Anton Howes [Idea Machines #29]
A conversation with Dr Anton Howes about The Royal Society of Arts, cultural factors that drive innovation, and many aspects of historical innovation. Anton is a historian of innovation whose work is expansive, but focuses especially on England in the 18th and 19th centuries as a hotbed of...
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Inventors, Corporations, Universities, and Governments with Ashish Arora [Idea Machines #28]
A conversation with Ashish Arora about how and why the interlocking American institutions that support technological change have evolved over time, their current strengths and weaknesses, and how they might change in the future. Ashish Arora is the Rex D. Adams Professor of Business…
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Invention, Discovery, and Bell Labs with Venkatesh Narayanamurti [Idea Machines #27]
In this episode I talk to Venkatesh Narayanamurti about Bell Labs, running research organizations, and why the distinction between basic and applied research is totally wrong. Venkatesh has led organizations across the research landscape: he was a director at Bell Labs during its Golden Age, a VP...
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Roadmapping Science with Adam Marblestone [Idea Machines #26]
In this episode I talk to Adam Marblestone about technology roadmapping, scientific gems hidden in plain sight, and systematically exploring complex systems. Adam is currently a research scientist at Google DeepMind and in the past has been the chief strategy officer at a brain-computer interface...
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Distributed Innovation with Jude Gomilla [Idea Machines #25]
In this episode I talk to Jude Gomilla about distributed innovation systems focused especially around the bottom-up response to the coronavirus crisis. Jude is a physicist, founder and CEO of the knowledge compilation platform Golden, and a prolific angel investor. He's also been in the thick of...
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Analogies, Context, and Zettleconversation with Joel Chan [Idea Machines #24]
Intro In this episode I talk to Joel Chan about cross-disciplinary knowledge transfer, zettlekasten, and too many other things to enumerate. Joel is an a professor in the University of Maryland's College of Information Studies and a member of their Human-Computer Interaction Lab. His research...
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Funding Breakthrough Research with Anna Goldstein - [Idea Machines #23]
In this episode I talk to Anna Goldstein about how the ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) model works and what makes it unique. We focus on ARPA-E: the department of Energy's version of DARPA that funds breakthrough energy research. Anna is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of...
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Systems of Progress with Jason Crawford - [Idea Machines #22]
In this episode I talk to Jason Crawford about his work on the history of progress, funding and incentivizing inventions, ideas behind their time, and more. Jason is the author of the Roots of Progress blog, where he focuses on telling the story of human progress in an amazingly accessible way.…
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Seeding Ecosystems with Eli Velasquez [Idea Machines #21]
In this episode I talk to Eli Velasquez about creating startup ecosystems, commercializing research, especially when it's not necessarily venture-backable, and how the US government thinks about startups. Eli is the head of Venture Development at VentureWell - a non profit organization that funds...
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Bubbly Innovation with Bill Janeway [Idea Machines #20]
In this episode I talk to Bill Janeway about previous eras of venture capital and startups, how bubbles drive innovation, the role of government in innovation. Bill describes himself as "theorist-practitioner": he did a PhD in Economics, was a successful venture capitalist in the 80's and 90's…
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Venturing into "Deep" Tech with Mark Hammond [Idea Machines #19]
In this episode I talk to Mark Hammond about how Deep Science Ventures works, why the linear commercialization model leaves a lot on the table, and the idea of venture-focused research. Mark is the founder of Deep Science Ventures, an organization with a fascinating model for launching...
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Promoting Science Patronage with Alexey Guzey [Idea Machines #18]
Alexey Guzey is an independent researcher focusing on how to systemically increase the rate of biology discoveries and the idea that reviving the patronage system may be a way to do that. We spend most of our time talking about the project he's been working on for the past year but also touch on...
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"Other" Options in Science and Companies with Cindy Wu and Denny Luan [Idea Machines #17]
Cindy Wu and Denny Luan are the founders of experiment.com - a platform that allows anybody to request funding for a science project and anybody to fund them. It's fascinating because it stands completely outside of the grant funding and publication system that drives most science today. In this...
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Bridging Labs and Markets with Errol Arkilic [Idea Machines #15]
In this episode I talk to Errol Arkilic about different systems involved in turning research into companies. Errol has been helping research make the jump from the lab to the market for more than fifteen years: he was a program manager at the National Science Foundation or NSF, Small Business...
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Compounding Ideas with Sam Arbesman [Idea Machines #16]
In this conversation Sam Arbesman and I talk about unlocking cross-disciplinary innovations, long term organizations, combinatorial creativity and much more. As you might expect from someone with Generalist Thinking as a main area of interest, Sam has out-of-the-box insights in a ton of domains…
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Unleashing Talent with Matt Clifford [Idea Machines #14]
In this episode I speak to Matt Clifford about talent investing, how big long term projects can start small, and financial innovations. Matt is the CEO and co-founder of Entrepreneur First. Entrepreneur First, abbreviated as EF, is a fascinating system. It starts with cohorts of around fifty to a...
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Sciencing Science with Evan Miyazono [Idea Machines #13]
In this episode I talk to Evan Miyazono about tackling metaresearch questions, how novel physical phenomena go from "oh that's cool" to devices that harness cutting edge physics, and how we could better incentivize the creators of innovations where traditionally it's hard to capture value, like...
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Inside (Publishing) Baseball [Idea Machines #12]
In this episode I talk to William Gunn about the guts of science publishing, changing incentives in science, and the relationship between publishing and funding. William is currently the Director of Scholarly Communication at Elsevier. He joined Elsevier when they acquired Mendeley, which is a...
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New Things in Big Healthcare [Idea Machines #11]
In this episode I talk to Torben Nielsen about creating new products and systems in health insurance. We touch on the tension between insurer's well-founded risk aversion and trying new things, the process of insurance companies working with startups, and how to even know if things are working....
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Medical (d)Evolution with Dr. Robert McNutt [Idea Machines #10]
In this episode I talk to Dr Robert McNutt about medical innovation, medical research and publishing, and patient choice. Robert has been practicing medicine for decades and has published many dozens of medical research papers. He is a former editor of JAMA - the Journal of the American Medical...
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Hacking Politics with Craig Montouri [Idea Machines #8]
In this episode I talk to Craig Montouri about nonprofits and politics. Specifically their constraints and possibilities for enabling innovations. Craig is the executive director at Global EIR - a nonprofit focused on connecting non-U.S. founders with universities so that they can get the visas...
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NASA, Crowdsourcing, and Starshots with Mason Peck [Idea Machines #7]
Overcast Link. My Guest this week is Mason Peck, Professor of Aerospace and Systems engineering at Cornell University and former Chief Technologist at NASA. Previously Mason was a was a Principal Fellow at Honeywell Aerospace and has an extremely colorful history we get into during the podcast.…
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Bypassing Systems with Gary Bradski [Idea Machines #9]
In this episode I talk to Gary Bradski about the creation of OpenCV, Willow Garage, and how to get around institutional roadblocks. Gary is perhaps best known as the creator of OpenCV - an open source tool that has touched almost every application that involves computer vision - from...
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Accelerating Biotech with Jun Axup [Idea Machines #5]
Link to this Episode in Overcast In this episode I talk to Jun Axup about accelerating biotechnology, how to transition people and technology from academia to startups, the intersection of silicon valley and biology, and biology research in general. Jun is a partner at IndieBio - a startup...
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Rethinking R&D with Adam Wiggins [Idea Machines #4]
My Guest this week is Adam Wiggins, the cofounder of Ink & Switch — an independent industrial research lab working on digital tools for creativity and productivity. The topic of the conversation is the future of product-focused R&D, the Hollywood Model of work in tech, Ink & Switch's unique...
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Changing How We Do Science with Brian Nosek [Idea Machines #3]
My guest this week is Brian Nosek, co-Founder and the Executive Director of the Center for Open Science. Brian is also a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Virginia doing research on the gap between values and practices, such as when behavior is influenced by factors...
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Venture Capital Meets Fusion Power with Malcolm Handley [Idea Machines #2]
My Guest this week is Malcolm Handley, General Partner and Founder of Strong Atomics. The topic of this conversation is Fusion power - how it's funded now, why we don't have it yet, and how he's working on making it a reality. We touch on funding long-term bets in general, incentives inside of...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Idea Machines is a deep dive into the systems and people that bring innovations from glimmers in someone's eye all the way to tools, processes, and ideas that can shift paradigms. We see the outputs of innovation systems everywhere but rarely dig into how they work. Idea Machines digs below the surface into crucial but often unspoken questions to explore themes of how we enable innovations today and how we could do it better tomorrow.Idea Machines is hosted by Benjamin Reinhardt.
HOSTED BY
Benjamin Reinhardt
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Idea Machines have?
Idea Machines currently has 50 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Idea Machines about?
Idea Machines is a deep dive into the systems and people that bring innovations from glimmers in someone's eye all the way to tools, processes, and ideas that can shift paradigms. We see the outputs of innovation systems everywhere but rarely dig into how they work. Idea Machines digs below the...
How often does Idea Machines release new episodes?
Idea Machines has 50 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Idea Machines?
You can listen to Idea Machines 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 Idea Machines?
Idea Machines is created and hosted by Benjamin Reinhardt.
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