Brainstorm

At the end of January, Tesla CEO Elon Musk grilled Vlad Tenev, the CEO of investing app Robinhood, about the frenzied trading of GameStop stock. The billionaire tech titans weren’t on TV having their unscripted conversation about one of the biggest stories of the month; they weren’t even on a podcast. Instead, they spoke to a live audience on the new, invite-only, iPhone-only, audio-only app, called Clubhouse.  

What exactly is Clubhouse? The next big thing, or the latest flash in the pan? On today’s Brainstorm, hosts Michal Lev-Ram and Brian O’Keefe ask Fortune’s Danielle Abril to show them around the app and explain the hype. 

Jon Sakoda, founding partner of venture-capital firm Decibel Partners explains how Clubhouse is the perfect app for pandemic life. It’s hardly a coincidence, then, that the app is valued at a billion dollars, officially making Clubhouse a unicorn startup.  

Finally, Eliran Sapir, founder and CEO of Apptopia, discusses how social media startups manage to stick around, despite the competition, and how Clubhouse appears to be measuring up.  

 

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It’s been a year since kids across the country left their classrooms and started learning from home. Many students find the virtual classroom a poor substitute for the real thing. And far too many families aren't properly equipped for remote learning, which only exacerbates the persistent social and racial inequities in education. Still, the pandemic is ushering in a new reliance on technology in education - and investors are betting tech only becomes more integral to the classroom.  

On today’s Brainstorm, hosts Michal Lev-Ram and Brian O’Keefe discuss the growth of education technology, and ask how well it works.

Hardeep Gulati, CEO of PowerSchool, explains that the company’s end-to-end platform serves not just students and teachers, but parents and administrators as well.  

James Kim, a partner at Reach Capital – a venture capital firm focused on education – tells us about some of the innovations he’s seeing from ed-tech startups. 

Finally, Ellen Meier and Karen Kirsch Page of Teachers College Columbia University discuss the importance using technology to engage students in new ways, and how to best help teachers make the most of digital tools.  

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While mid-February brought some unusual cold to much of the U.S., Texas was frigid. Dallas reached its third-coldest temperature on record at minus-2 degrees. Austin had its largest two-day snowfall since 1949. Natural gas lines froze, as did wind turbines. When Texans cranked up their heaters, the electric grid couldn't keep up; millions lost power and at least 40 people died, although that figure is likely an undercount. Some blame the state’s go-it-alone approach to its grid, while others point to lack of regulation. Still a larger question remains: Why do traditional electric grids fail?  

On today’s Brainstorm, hosts Michal Lev-Ram and Brian O’Keefe examine what's needed to modernize the electric grid, to make it smarter and more reliable. According to Emmanuel Lagarrigue, Chief Innovation Officer of Schneider Electric, the “smart grids” of tomorrow will rely on a network of solar panels hosted by businesses and homeowners, connected by software and made efficient through artificial intelligence.  

Dr. Elta Kolo, Grid Edge Research Content Lead at Wood Mackenzie says we are entering something of a grid-renaissance as technologies scale, thanks - at least in part - to venture capital and investments from energy majors like Shell and BP.  

And finally Michael Putt, Director of Smart Grid Innovation at Florida Power and Light ,describes how the utility is already implementing smart-grid technology and seeing impressive results.  

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In the last few years, professional, competitive video-gaming, or “e-sports,” has seen tremendous growth. In 2018, over 100 million people watched the League of Legends World Championship Finals, held in South Korea, which beat viewership of the Super Bowl that year. Before COVID, e-sports could sell out venues like Madison Square Garden. During the pandemic, even more fans have been flocking to events online.

And this has caught the attention of more corporate sponsors.  

On today’s Brainstorm, hosts Michal Lev-Ram and Brian O’Keefe explore just how big e-sports have become. Dillon Price, otherwise known as “Attach,” is a professional Call of Duty player for the Minnesota RØKKR. At age 18, he became the youngest ever world champion, winning $100,000 in prize money.  Today, he receives a salary from his team, all while capitalizing on streaming and sponsorship opportunities.

We also hear from Johanna Faris of video game giant, Activision Blizzard. She’s the Commissioner of Call of Duty E-sports and explains how the league functions, identifies talent, and how it's been conducting events remotely. 

Finally, Marty Strenczewilk, Head of Competitive Gaming for OneTeam Partners, explains how e-sports fans also happen to be the target consumer base for major brands, driving mainstream companies from Nike to BMW to sponsor events and players. 

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While technology has enormous power to solve problems, it can also systematize the most toxic elements of our culture. Think algorithms that equate beauty with lighter skin, or that disproportionately disqualify black people from receiving bank loans. Why haven’t the creators behind the tech corrected these problems? And what will it take to fix them? 

Brainstorm hosts Michal Lev-Ram and Brian O’Keefe speak with tech insiders and experts committed to building more inclusive technology. Sharae Gibbs is an Interaction Designer at Google and the CEO of She Designs, which is building a pipeline into the tech industry for women, especially women of color, through online courses, mentorship and job-training.  

Then we hear from Nikkia Reveillac, Head of Research for Twitter, about how the company is increasing healthy participation on its platform. And finally, Mutale Nkonde, CEO of the non-profit AI for the People, details how technology can negatively impact users based on their race...and how we can fix that problem.

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Social distancing; quarantining; avoiding bars and restaurants. The very public health guidance that saves lives and slows the spread of COVID-19 would seem to make dating during a pandemic impossible. But people have flocked to online dating apps: Tinder set a record for daily swipes, counting 3 billion on March 29, 2020. Between March and May of last year, OkCupid saw a 700% increase in dates.  

Brainstorm hosts Michal Lev-Ram and Brian O’Keefe look at the pandemic-fueled boom in online dating. We hear from Catherine Connelly, a co-founder of The Meet Group, which owns and operates popular dating apps MeetMe, Skout, Tagged, LOVOO and GROWLr.  She explains how video dating has driven big revenue at the company over the past year.

Then we hear from ex-Fortune-writer Jon Birger who’s written a new book, “Make Your Move: The New Science of Dating and Why Women Are in Charge.” He tells us why women seeking men might find that a little boldness goes a long way right now.  

Also in the episode: Alison Stevenson, a Los Angeles-based writer and comedian, who tells us why she’s giving up on dating apps (at least for now).

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You may have heard of the SolarWinds hack. Or, maybe not. News of the incident began trickling out slowly, in the midst of the U.S. election dispute and rising COVID-19 numbers. But the more we've learned about the attack, the more clear it's become that this is a big deal.

Brainstorm hosts Michal Lev-Ram and Brian O'Keefe explain how the attack was carried out, who was involved, and what the fallout may be. They are assisted by Fortune writer David Z. Morris, and Dmitri Alperovitch, Chair of the Silverado Policy Accelerator, and founder and previous CTO of CrowdStrike, a large cybersecurity company.

Then the conversation shifts to prevention. Protecting our country from sophisticated cyber espionage will require some big changes. Suzanne Spaulding helps tell this part of the story. She's a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and a member of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission. She formerly ran cybersecurity infrastructure in the Department of Homeland Security.

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We’re all familiar with the science-fiction trope of a computer getting so smart it takes on a mind of its own. That fantasy nowadays feels all too realistic, thanks to advances in Natural Language Processing (NLP). On today’s Brainstorm, hosts Michal Lev-Ram and Brian O’Keefe examine what it means to teach a computer to understand and even “think” like a human. What are the innovative possibilities this unlocks? What are the dangers? 

Fortune Senior Writer Jeremy Kahn guides us through the latest developments in NLP. Then we hear from Will Hanschell, CEO of Pencil, a company that uses algorithms to generate commercial ads more quickly, cheaply, and - it hopes - more effectively for clients.

Also in the episode is Jesse Shemen, CEO of PaperCup, which uses AI to automate voice translation, giving content creators the keys to unlocking a larger audience than ever before. 

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The coronavirus vaccine rollout has been anything but smooth. Like everything related to COVID-19, the reasons behind that are complicated.  On today’s Brainstorm, hosts Michal Lev-Ram and Brian O’Keefe highlight one of the problems: the struggle to report and share data related to the virus. They dig into how this is hindering the vaccination effort.    

Three guests help tell the story. 

Tarek Tomes is the Chief Information Officer for the State of Minnesota and the Commissioner of Minnesota IT Services.  

Dr. Rebecca Weintraub is a physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, Director at Ariadne Labs and Managing Director at the DRK Foundation.  

And Sy Mukherjee reports on health and healthcare for Fortune.  

Together, they lay out the myriad groups involved with distributing the vaccine and the vast amounts of data that’s collected, pointing out these groups have no centralized method of sharing this data. Also a concern: tracking an individual’s vaccination record.

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COVID-19 has been no friend to our collective mental health. Rates of anxiety and depression have soared since the pandemic began, as has alcohol and drug use.

In this episode of Brainstorm, Michal Lev-Ram and Brian O’Keefe talk to business leaders leveraging technology to address the problem.

Robin McIntosh, co-founder and co-CEO of Workit Health, a virtual rehab service, extols the ability of telemedicine to increase accessibility for those seeking treatment.

And while that’s unquestionably a good thing, says venture capitalist Hunter Walk; investors in these companies can't adopt a growth-at-all-costs mentality. He explains why.

Finally, Cisco’s Chief People Officer, Fran Katsoudas, discusses how the company is protecting employees’ mental health in these unprecedented times.

Visit MakeItOK.org to get resources, tips for talking about mental health, and more.

If you or anyone you know is struggling, there's help available, any time. It's free and you'll reach a trained volunteer. You can reach the Crisis Text Line by texting the word HOME to 741-741, or call the Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK.

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