What's Your Problem?

Hosted by iHeartPodcasts and Pushkin Industries

Business Technology

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Episodes

219

Latest episode

Oct 2026

Language

EN-US

About the show

Every week on What's Your Problem?, former Planet Money host Jacob Goldstein talks with entrepreneurs and engineers tackling the biggest challenges at the forefront of technology. How do you make a trip to space as routine as a plane flight? How do you turn solar energy into clean fuel? How do you use AI to stop deadly infections before they spread? We hear a lot these days about how the world is getting worse. What's Your Problem? learns from the thinkers and doers trying to make our future better. iHeartMedia is the exclusive podcast partner of Pushkin Industries.

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60 recent

October 29, 202630 min

Every Cell in Your Body Has a Clock

Circadian rhythm isn’t just controlled by your brain. Every cell in your body runs on a 24-hour cycle, including your muscle cells. Karyn Esser is the chair of the department of physiology and aging at the University of Florida, and she’s a leading expert on circadian rhythm in muscle cells. Karyn's problem is this: How does the circadian rhythm in muscle cells change as we age, and how does exercise help keep our system in sync? In this episode, Karyn explains: How every cell in your body has a clock in it How muscle clocks prepare cells for work and schedule recovery during rest How age affects these clocks’ ability to regulate effectively Why exercise can improve clock function Why jet lag and late-night eating can put your body clocks out of sync Connect with us: Follow Jacob Goldstein on LinkedIn , X and Instagram Email us at problem@pushkin.fm Follow Pushkin on Instagram , LinkedIn or X Listen to Jacob’s other show, Business History To listen to the show ad free, sign up for Pushkin+ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

October 26, 202648 min

How a Bad Boss Kickstarted Silicon Valley... from Business History

Throughout the next few weeks, every Monday we'll be sharing some of our favorite episodes from Jacob's other show Business History. We hope you enjoy them and if you want to hear more, subscriber to Business History on Apple , Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. William Shockley was an electronics genius - he even won a Nobel Prize - but he was an awful boss. Shockley was a cruel, paranoid micromanager. And this annoyed the staff of brilliant young engineers he'd assembled in a quiet town in Northern California. In fact, they quit and set up a company of their own inventing silicon chips. Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore and the rest of "The Traitorous Eight" transformed computing, but also blazed a trail for the tech founders who would flock to Silicon Valley and change the world. Members of "The Traitorous Eight" set up Intel and AMD, while also funding businesses such as Google and Slack. Connect with us: Follow Business History on Instagram and TikTok Follow Jacob Goldstein on LinkedIn , X and Instagram Follow Robert Smith on Instagram and X Email us at businesshistory@pushkin.fm Follow Pushkin on Instagram , LinkedIn and X To listen to the show ad free, sign up for Pushkin+ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

October 22, 202640 min

Solving the Trust Problem in AI Shopping

Note: Today’s show is sponsored by PayPal. Kartik Hosanagar is a professor at the Wharton School. The problems he studies include: What will it take for people to trust AI agents to buy stuff for them? And how should businesses prepare for a world where their customers include AI agents? In this episode, Kartik explains: Why trust in agentic shopping will arrive category by category, not all at once How a single old Reddit post erased a thriving brand from ChatGPT’s recommendations Why someone needs to take on the liability risk when purchases go wrong How treating AI as just another sales channel is the mistake the movie studios made with Netflix How to get a language model to pay attention to your brand Connect with us: Follow Jacob Goldstein on LinkedIn , X and Instagram Email us at problem@pushkin.fm Follow Pushkin on Instagram , LinkedIn or X Listen to Jacob’s other show, Business History To listen to the show ad free, sign up for Pushkin+ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

October 15, 202650 min

Can a Robot Build Better, Cheaper Houses?

Jason Ballard is the co-founder and CEO of ICON. Jason's problem is this: Can you use 3-D printing to build houses that are cheaper, better and more interesting than the houses we build now? In this episode, Jason explains: Why construction methods are so slow to change How 3D printing opens up new designs for houses How building on the Moon shaped the way Icon builds on Earth The challenge of scaling to printing thousands of houses Connect with us: Follow Jacob Goldstein on LinkedIn , X and Instagram Email us at problem@pushkin.fm Follow Pushkin on Instagram , LinkedIn or X Listen to Jacob’s other show, Business History To listen to the show ad free, sign up for Pushkin+ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

October 8, 202638 min

Did AI Write This?

Celebrated novelists, countless students and at least one billionaire have recently been accused of using AI in their writing. The most commonly cited AI detector in these cases is called Pangram. Max Spero is the co-founder and CEO of Pangram. His problem is this: Can you build tools that reliably detect AI-generated text and images? And a few years from now, will anybody care? In this episode, Max explains: Why AI prose so often sounds the same How often Pangram makes mistakes How detectors like Pangram compete with humanizer tools Why the big AI companies may not be interested in detection The shifting norms around AI-generated writing See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

October 6, 202650 min

Blockers | A Preview of Michael Lewis's New Audiobook

I'm here with a preview of Blockers, a new audiobook from Michael Lewis, the author of Liars Poker, Moneyball, The Big Short and more. In Blockers, Lewis tells the story of a handful of people who dedicated their careers to public service—until the Department of Government Efficiency decided they were a problem. These were people who believed they had a calling—people who kept American's sensitive tax data out of the wrong hands, made sure that politicians and civil servants played by the rules, and figured out how to stop wildfires from destroying suburban neighborhoods—and then discovered they were no longer wanted. Here's an excerpt from the audiobook. You can buy the audiobook exclusively at blockers.fm . See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

October 1, 202638 min

Can We Defeat Deepfakes?

We’ve all heard that nothing ever gets deleted from the internet. Luke Arrigoni says that just isn’t true. His company deletes thousands of deepfakes every day. Luke is the founder and CEO of Loti, and his problem is this: How do you turn the Internet into a place where people have more control over their name, image and likeness? Tens of thousands of famous people pay Loti to scour the internet and take down deepfakes and unapproved endorsements. But in Luke's telling, this is just the beginning. The company will soon allow celebrities to license their likeness for use in AI videos, and it also plans to start offering its services to ordinary people. In this episode, Luke explains: The harm that online deepfakes and impersonations can cause How Loti automates tens of thousands of takedowns per day Why the law may soon make it easier to fight deepfakes Why celebrities are beginning to license their likenesses to AI platforms AI’s role in the future of human creativity Connect with us: Follow Jacob Goldstein on LinkedIn , X and Instagram Email us at problem@pushkin.fm Follow Pushkin on Instagram , LinkedIn or X Listen to Jacob’s other show, Business History To listen to the show ad free, sign up for Pushkin+ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

September 24, 202646 min

The Printing Press: The Invention Built on Debt and Sin… from Business History

Before 1450, books were written out by hand. It was slow and expensive. But Johannes Gutenberg borrowed a ton of money to create a printing press that could crank out Bibles and pamphlets and documents in huge numbers. Science, politics and philosophy were all up-ended. For example, the Catholic Church seized on the invention to sell special certificates absolving people of their sins – a move that made money, but caused a permanent schism in Christianity. And Gutenberg too found himself in trouble – when a financier sued the inventor to reclaim his loan, plus interest. Enjoy this episode from Business History , another Pushkin podcast. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

September 17, 202644 min

Should We Pause AI?

Everybody’s worried about the risks of AI. So we called up one of the most insightful writers we know on the subject: Zvi Mowshowitz. Zvi writes about AI and AI risks at his substack, Don’t Worry About the Vase . Zvi’s problem is this: How do we prevent artificial intelligence from killing everyone? In this episode, Zvi explains: Why it’s often useful to anthropomorphize AI What this summer’s Hugging Face attack tells us about the nature of AI What increasing AI capability means for cybersecurity risk Whether and when we should pause AI development Why powerful pen-weight models may remove the last reliable points of control Connect with us: Follow Jacob Goldstein on LinkedIn , X and Instagram Email us at problem@pushkin.fm Follow Pushkin on Instagram , LinkedIn or X Listen to Jacob’s other show, Business History To listen to the show ad free, sign up for Pushkin+ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

September 15, 202610 min

Bonus: Planning for Your Financial Future

On this bonus episode of What’s Your Problem, Jacob talks to Christine Chase, a Vice President, Financial Consultant at Fidelity Investments. Christine’s problem is this: How do you help clients build a plan to achieve their financial goals? Today’s show is sponsored by Fidelity Investments. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.