Core Memory

In this episode, we’re joined by the test pilot Elliot Seguin to learn what it’s like to put your life on the line on a regular basis.

Unlike most of the people in his profession, Seguin did not do the whole Top Gun-style military training. He earned his status as a test pilot the hard way by putting in the hours flying all kinds of aircraft and convincing people to give him a go in their birds.

He’s an engineer. A racer. And a brave and possibly nuts soul.

We talk with Seguin about the test pilot lifestyle, his career and The Mojave.

Fresh off closing a $200 million funding round, Ben Lamm from Colossal Biosciences - now valued at more than $10 billion - joins Core Memory - now valued at less than $10 billion - to talk about bringing extinct animals back to our fair planet.

The company has set to work on woolly mammoths, the dodo bird, and the thylacine (aka Tasmanian Tiger) in its effort to restore animals and ecosystems. To pull this off, Colossal must develop a host of gene editing technologies and artificial wombs, and we get into all this beautiful science.

It’s cool and bonkers and controversial - the holy pod trinity.

A few weeks ago, I went out to Zipline’s test facility in Half Moon Bay, California for a dinner and to see their delivery drones in action. I was not expecting much.

It feels like we’ve been promised delivery drones for years and years. And, in fact, we have. These visions of the future don’t always arrive on schedule, but the delivery drones were feeling extra tardy. I also wasn’t even sure if delivery drones made that much sense.

Drones run loud. They could obviously crash into things. It’s hard to imagine a sky full of these aircraft working that well.

During the dinner, though, Zipline pulled off a sneak attack maneuver and plopped some cookies down right beside me without me noticing the drone at all.

The technology was quiet and precise, and it made me want to learn more - which is why we’re bringing you Keller Rinaudo Cliffton, the company’s co-founder and CEO, on this latest podcast.

Sam Altman has placed a few very large bets. There’s OpenAI, of course, and Helion Energy for fusion; World (fka Worldcoin) for finance and identity; and then Retro Bio for longevity.

In late 2023, I did a deep dive on Retro’s technology and Altman’s $180 million investment in the company. [Update: Would like to make it clear that MIT Technology Review reporter Antonio Regalado broke the story on Retro’s existence and Altman’s backing. This post previously had some self-congratulatory language that made it sound like I got there first. My apologies to Antonio, who does brilliant work.] Along the way, I got to know the Retro co-founder and CEO Joe Betts-LaCroix and have spent a lot of time following Retro’s work since. Betts-LaCroix has an unusual background and an original philosophy on life. In this episode, we explore both along with the heart of Retro’s science.

This is the first episode of the Core Memory podcast, and we’re beyond amazed to reveal that James Mercer and Jon Sortland of The Shins worked up the music for the show. We go hard.