SHIFT

Hosted by Jennifer Strong

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158

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Aug 2026

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About the show

Hosted by Jennifer Strong, SHIFT is a weekly podcast taking a closer look at the far-reaching impact of automation on our daily lives. From policy to process, we seek to understand how lives are changing alongside rapid breakthroughs in frontier technologies and artificial intelligence. Join us as we navigate the challenges and opportunities presented by this reshaped reality. ]]>

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August 19, 202617 min

The Hidden Water Cost of AI

Water shows up at every stage of the AI supply chain: to manufacture chips, to generate the power that runs them, and then more water to cool the chips in data centers. It's believed that AI's water needs by 2030 could roughly match the drinking needs of the entire United States, and less than 5% of this water is currently recycled. Ecolab CEO Christophe Beck joins us with a look at how he thinks the industry can grow without draining communities dry. We Meet: Ecolab CEO Christophe Beck Credits: This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.

August 12, 202612 min

Nobody Knows How Many AI Agents They Have, and it’s Risky Business

From Las Vegas, where AI and security conferences are putting agentic risk front and center, we explore the identity crisis inside enterprise AI, and what it means to have machines managing machines. We Meet: SailPoint President Matt Mills Credits: This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.

August 5, 202621 min

Invent Now: The Next Leap in Moonshots

What if you could build solutions that unlock entirely new realities for millions of people? Aiming for something so big and so audacious that it seems almost impossible to imagine is often referred to as a moonshot. And what might it mean if a big part of what’s standing in the way of your moonshot… is your mindset? We Meet: Salima Bhimani, author of Invent Now: The Next Leap in Moonshots Credits: This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.

July 29, 202621 min

These Robots Might Solve Space's Labor Problem

What’s an astronaut’s time worth? Answering that question is not a perfect science, but at more than $100,000 an hour (not counting salary - that's just to keep one alive) on the International Space Station, it’s safe to say it’s more than you want to pay for bagging up trash. This week, we take a field trip in New York City to see some space robots that could help with this problem. We Meet: Icarus Robotics CEO Ethan Barajas Icarus Robotics CTO Jamie Palmer Credits: This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.

July 22, 202625 min

How to Build AI for the Physical World

For as far as we’ve come with AI and robotics, there’s still a huge gap when it comes to combining the two. AI excels in the digital space, and in the physical world, robots are often pre-programmed. That’s where physical AI comes in. It’s critical for things that can’t tolerate the kinds of mistakes that are common in today’s statistics based AI, like self driving cars or managing the power grid. In the latest installment of our oral history project, we meet a central figure in these efforts, MIT's Daniela Rus. We Meet: Daniela Rus is the Director of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Credits: This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.

July 15, 202618 min

Most People With Legal Problems Never See a Lawyer. AI Might Change That.

Clio serves as the "operating system" for more than 400,000 legal professionals worldwide. Its founder and CEO Jack Newton has a lot to say about the field's agentic future, the company's vLex acquisition, and what other professional services can learn from the shifts he’s seen. We Meet: Clio CEO and Founder Jack Newton Credits: This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.

July 8, 202616 min

Building a Decentralized Drone Imaging Network

Most geospatial data is gathered by satellites and cameras attached to planes, but a new decentralized network is helping amateur drone pilots capture and contribute ultra high resolution data. In this week's show, we go fly a drone and learn how that data is helping power next generation apps for things like disaster response. This episode originally ran in June 2025. We Meet: Alec Wilson, COO Spexi Bill Lakeland, CEO Spexi Credits: This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.

July 1, 202613 min

Assuming Breach and AI Agent Overreach

Enterprises have been slogging through the AI adoption journey, but cybersecurity threat actors have been too. As the time from vulnerability discovery to breach effectively goes to zero, the new cybersecurity playbook is all about how fast you can recover. We Meet: Anneka Gupta is the Chief Product Officer at Rubrik Credits: This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.

June 24, 202633 min

Building an Internet of Cognition

AI agents already perform complex tasks, but they largely work alone, even when they're technically connected. But what if they could collectively learn from each other, and collaborate? Our guest wants you to think about when that transition happened for people, with our own intelligence, some 70,000 years ago, when human intelligence stopped being a solo act and became something we did together. Our guest, Vijoy Pandey, runs Outshift by Cisco. He believes AI is standing at that exact threshold right now, and he's building the layer that gets it across the line. A hundred million degrees Celsius. That’s the brutal reality of commercial fusion. This week, we’re sitting down with industry leaders to discuss the front lines of an energy revolution, from surviving extreme thermal stress to building brand-new supply chains. We Meet: Vijoy Pandey is Senior Vice President and General Manager of Outshift by Cisco, the company's internal incubation engine for emerging technology. Credits: This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco. This episode of SHIFT was brought to you by Outshift by Cisco.

June 17, 202626 min

The Race for Nuclear Fusion

A hundred million degrees Celsius. That’s the brutal reality of commercial fusion. This week, we’re sitting down with industry leaders to discuss the front lines of an energy revolution, from surviving extreme thermal stress to building brand-new supply chains. We Meet: Joe Paluska is the CMO of Commonwealth Fusion Systems Annie Kritcher is the Co-Founder and Chief Scientist at Inertia Alice Brooks is a Board Member & Partner at Khosla Ventures Cary Forest is the Co-Founder & Chief Scientific Officer at Realta Fusion Credits: This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.