Bold Names

Lamborghinis dominate pop culture – from rap lyrics to blockbuster movies – but the reality is few people actually own them. Every year, the luxury carmaker delivers around 10,000 vehicles worldwide. Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann says that scarcity is central to the brand’s appeal. On Bold Names, Winkelmann joins WSJ’s Tim Higgins to explain how the company leans into exclusivity, why it’s choosing hybrids over a fully electric future, and how tariffs and global trade pressures are challenging the business.

To watch the video version of this episode, visit our WSJ Podcasts YouTube channel or the video page of WSJ.com. 

Check Out Past Episodes:

How SAP's CEO Is Remaking the European Tech Giant For The Age Of AI

Affirm’s Max Levchin: Why ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ Beats Credit Cards

How Athletic Brewing Sells Beer for a Post-Alcohol Generation 

Let us know what you think of the show. Email us at [email protected]. 

Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter. 

Read Tim Higgins’s column. 

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In 2020, SAP CEO Christian Klein decided to shift the 50-year-old German software giant entirely to the cloud. The immediate result? The stock price dropped 20% in a single day. Fast-forward to today: SAP is one of the most valuable companies in Europe. In this episode of Bold Names, Klein joins WSJ’s Tim Higgins to discuss navigating that tumult, the cultural overhaul required to modernize the company, and why Europe needs to focus on applied AI to compete with the U.S. and China.

To watch the video version of this episode, visit our WSJ Podcasts YouTube channel or the video page of WSJ.com.

Check Out Past Episodes:

The Boldest Ideas of 2025 — And What’s in Store for 2026

How Corning Is Using Trump’s Tariffs To Its Advantage

Condoleezza Rice on Beating China in the Tech Race: 'Run Hard and Run Fast'

Let us know what you think of the show. Email us at [email protected].

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

When Bill Shufelt left Wall Street to make non-alcoholic beer, most people thought he was crazy. At the time, the category made up less than 1% of U.S. beer sales and was widely seen as a joke. But nearly a decade later, Shufelt’s company Athletic Brewing is at the center of a major cultural shift around health and wellness. On this episode of Bold Names, he joins Christopher Mims and Tim Higgins to talk about the rise of non-alcoholic beer, how his company is navigating President Trump’s tariffs, and why beer giants like Heineken and Guinness are now chasing the category he helped create.

To watch the video version of this episode, visit our WSJ Podcasts YouTube channel or the video page of WSJ.com.

Check Out Past Episodes:

How Corning Is Using Trump’s Tariffs To Its Advantage

The Boldest Ideas of 2025 — And What’s in Store for 2026

McLaren CEO Zak Brown On F1 And Business Strategy At 200 Miles Per Hour

How Tubi Is Coming for Netflix and YouTube in the New Streaming Wars

Let us know what you think of the show. Email us at [email protected].

Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter.

Read Christopher Mims’s Keywords column.

Read Tim Higgins’s column. 

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Corning is everywhere: from the fiber optic cables powering the internet to the Gorilla Glass on your iPhone. Now, the 175-year-old company is making domestic manufacturing profitable. In this week’s episode of Bold Names, CEO Wendell Weeks sits down with WSJ's Christopher Mims to discuss how he plays the long game with technology investments and why his company is uniquely positioned to take advantage of the Trump administration’s tariffs and industrial policy.

To watch the video version of this episode, visit our WSJ Podcasts YouTube channel or the video page of WSJ.com.

Check Out Past Episodes:

Condoleezza Rice on Beating China in the Tech Race: 'Run Hard and Run Fast'

Biden’s Antitrust Architect on How Big Tech Threatens U.S. Prosperity

This CEO Says Global Trade Is Broken. What Comes Next?

Reid Hoffman Says AI Isn’t an ‘Arms Race,’ but America Needs to Win

Let us know what you think of the show. Email us at [email protected].

Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter.

Read Christopher Mims’s Keywords column.

Read Tim Higgins’s column. 

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Is "buy now, pay later" a debt trap or the future of finance? Affirm CEO Max Levchin says the real problem is the credit card in your wallet. On this week’s episode of Bold Names, Levchin joins WSJ’s Tim Higgins to discuss how his early days as a co-founder of PayPal led him to his latest venture: using “buy now, pay later” loans to reinvent how people buy things. We talk about why he thinks financing is more transparent than credit, the personal reason he hates late fees and how AI is changing shopping.

To watch the video version of this episode, visit our WSJ Podcasts YouTube channel or the video page of WSJ.com.

Check Out Past Episodes:

The Boldest Ideas of 2025 — And What’s in Store for 2026

Inside Visa’s Tech-Charged Future: From Crypto to AI

This CEO Says Global Trade Is Broken. What Comes Next?

Why Bilt’s CEO Wants You To Pay Your Mortgage With a Credit Card

Let us know what you think of the show. Email us at [email protected].

Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter.

Read Christopher Mims’s Keywords column.

Read Tim Higgins’s column.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Bold Names is gearing up to be bigger and bolder than ever in 2026. Get ready for another year of the best minds in business and tech going deep on the latest industry moves. From the C-suite of tech companies like SAP, Qualcomm and Affirm, to leaders from Lamborghini, Southwest Airlines and Chobani, WSJ’s Christopher Mims and Tim Higgins will be back next week to kick off a new year of conversations with the leaders shaping tomorrow.

To watch the video version of this episode, visit our WSJ Podcasts YouTube channel or the video page of WSJ.com.

Check Out Past Episodes:

The Boldest Ideas of 2025 — And What’s in Store for 2026

McLaren CEO Zak Brown On F1 And Business Strategy At 200 Miles Per Hour

This Tech Founder's $1.3 Billion Company Is Taking On Apple and Samsung

This CEO Says Global Trade Is Broken. What Comes Next?

Let us know what you think of the show. Email us at [email protected].

Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter.

Read Christopher Mims’s Keywords column.Read Tim Higgins’s column.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Who will take care of you in old age? Jeff Cardenas, the CEO and co-founder of Apptronik, says the answer is robots. The startup founder set out to build a smart, dexterous robot after watching his grandfathers grow old and dependent in their later years. Beyond healthcare, Cardenas sees robots as essential to U.S. economic growth and national security with applications across industries. Even with the latest advances in artificial intelligence and hardware, what will it take for humanoid robots to make the leap from science fiction to reality? On the latest episode of the Bold Names podcast, Cardenas tells WSJ’s Christopher Mims and Tim Higgins why Apptronik is betting it will create the home robot helper that everyone will want.

To watch the video version of this episode, visit our WSJ Podcasts YouTube channel or the video page of WSJ.com.

Check Out Past Episodes:

Condoleezza Rice on Beating China in the Tech Race: 'Run Hard and Run Fast'

Reid Hoffman Says AI Isn’t an ‘Arms Race,’ but America Needs to Win

Why This Investor Says the AI Boom Isn’t the Next Dot-Com Crash

How the U.S. Stacks Up to China’s ‘Engineering State’

Let us know what you think of the show. Email us at [email protected].

Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter.

Read Christopher Mims’s Keywords column.Read Tim Higgins’s column. 

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

As a special bonus, we’re bringing you an episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week. Co-host Telis Demos and guest host WSJ Chief Economics Correspondent Nick Timiraos are joined by Beth Hammack, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, to discuss the state of the U.S economy, interest rates and the central bank itself.

Hammack shares her views on what she’s hearing from businesses in her district and what that could mean for consumer prices and the labor market. She emphasizes the importance of Fed independence and the chairman’s role in fusing differing viewpoints to create stable monetary policy. She also offers her perspective on the so-called neutral rate as well as artificial intelligence.

If you like what you hear, subscribe to WSJ’s Take On the Week for weekly market previews and analysis.

Visit our WSJ Podcasts YouTube channel or the video page of WSJ.com.

Check Out Past Episodes:

Inside Visa’s Tech-Charged Future: From Crypto to AI

Why This Investor Says the AI Boom Isn’t the Next Dot-Com Crash

This CEO Says Global Trade Is Broken. What Comes Next?

Further Reading:

Cleveland Fed’s Beth Hammack Skeptical of Further Cuts

Let us know what you think of the show. Email us at [email protected].

Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter.

Read Christopher Mims’s Keywords column.Read Tim Higgins’s column. 

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this special episode, Tim Higgins and Christopher Mims revisit some of their favorite moments from the first year of Bold Names. We look back on conversations with guests including Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on the explosive growth of AI and the complexities of the U.S.-China trade war. Then, Mims and Higgins flip the script to interview each other about the technological breakthroughs and geopolitical shifts that defined 2025 — and ask if the AI industry is heading toward a bubble burst next year. Plus, we answer your questions.

To watch the video version of this episode, visit our WSJ Podcasts YouTube channel or the video page of WSJ.com.

Check Out Past Episodes:

How Microsoft’s AI Chief Defines ‘Humanist Super Intelligence’

This CEO Says Global Trade Is Broken. What Comes Next?

Condoleezza Rice on Beating China in the Tech Race: 'Run Hard and Run Fast 

Why IBM's CEO Thinks His Company Can Crack Quantum Computing

Let us know what you think of the show. Email us at [email protected].

Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter.

Read Christopher Mims’s Keywords column.

Read Tim Higgins’s column. 

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Gaming is a $200 billion industry that dwarfs Hollywood — and PlayStation is at the center of it all. On this week’s episode of Bold Names, Sony Interactive Entertainment SVP Eric Lempel joins WSJ’s Christopher Mims and Tim Higgins to discuss how the company plans to compete in a mobile-first gaming world. We talk about keeping the “soul” of game development as artificial intelligence becomes more integrated into businesses, the success of games like “Fortnite” and “The Last of Us,” and what the next decade holds for the console wars.

To watch the video version of this episode, visit our WSJ Podcasts YouTube channel or the video page of WSJ.com.

Check Out Past Episodes:
This Tech Founder's $1.3 Billion Company Is Taking On Apple and Samsung

Why This Investor Says the AI Boom Isn’t the Next Dot-Com Crash

The Google-Backed Startup Taking on Elon Musk in Humanoid Robotics

Let us know what you think of the show. Email us at [email protected].

Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter.

Read Christopher Mims’s Keywords column.

Read Tim Higgins’s column.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.