Today we are joined by Geoff Olynyk, who is currently a senior Expert in the Sustainability Practice at McKinsey, where he advises companies, NGOs, and governments in Canada and worldwide on decarbonization, climate risks, and the energy transition. He has also worked in roles at McKinsey such as an engagement manager and associate partner. In the past, he was a research assistant at the MIT plasma science and fusion center whilst getting his Ph.D. in applied plasma physics and fusion.

In this conversation, we talk about his journey of studying fusion at MIT and then going to work at McKinsey, what he learned while working in research, how he chose what to work on during his Ph.D, and more!

Action items:

Today we chat with Kevin Dewald, an Embedded Systems and Firmware Engineer at Neuralink, the biggest neurotech company developing ultra-high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces to connect humans and computers. He has also had two startups, one of which he started in university. We talk to Kevin about major real-world applications of BCIs, how he envisions Neuralink's next steps, and brain surgery automation. As always, here are his action items!

1. Go on LinkedIn and ask a few people you admire if they would be open to going on a quick call with you.

2. Focus on learning something at a very fundamental level.

3. Reflect on and keep in mind this quote by Peter Drucker: "The best way to predict a future is to create it." 

Parth Sareen is a software engineer and has worked in energy products at Tesla, machine learning at Deloitte, and development at Apple. He is currently doing a Bachelor of Applied Science at the University of Waterloo, and is working as a product management intern for Apple. In this episode, we cover frameworks regarding leadership and how to delegate tasks to team members, as well as how to identify and solve problems within companies via the lens of both a product manager and software engineer. We also chat about Parth’s experience presenting his work to large audiences and getting noticed by leadership.

Action items:

Aly is the Co-Founder/CEO of Finaeo, a digital platform powering the life insurance industry to bridge the digital divide between insurers, brokers and clients through a single operating system. It has been called the Amazon of the insurance industry and has raised over $10 million in venture funds. Tune into this episode where we chat with Aly about his journey of founding Finaeo. We cover what hiring looks like for a startup, how to build and maintain a good culture even while a company is expanding and changing, and Aly's process of raising capital for Finaeo.

Action items:

1. Think hard and write about what you care about the most.

Kasha was 16 when she set out to create a documentary, The Sunrise Storyteller, which since being released in 2017, has been screened at 60+ festivals and won 30 awards. She is also a photographer, entrepreneur, and social justice advocate. Kasha has been commissioned by National Geographic Learning, and she is a contributor to Thrive Global, The Huffington Post, Good Magazine, and the Matador Network. She is currently in development for her next feature documentary 1.5 Degrees of Peace—a documentary film to inspire a unified movement for peace and climate justice.

Action items

Fuad Ali is a venture fellow for Susa Ventures where he works on sourcing, diligence, and post-investment support as part of the Susa Fellowship program. He just started as a software engineer at Twitter. In the past he has worked in flight software at SpaceX and has interned at Tesla, Twitter, and Wealthsimple. Apart from working at awesome companies he is the host of the Next Iteration Podcast, and just graduated from McMaster University where he studied electrical and biomedical engineering. In this episode, we talk about his journey so far in the workforce, how he got the internship positions he had, and what makes a good leader.

Takeaways from Fuad:

Tune in for this episode of The Curiosity Podcast where we sit down with Anisha, 16-year-old emerging technology innovator and CEO of Q-munity. We talk to her about her journey in founding a company at 15, striking a balance between work and life, and how resilience has been key to her success. Here are Anisha's 3 action items:

In this episode of The Curiosity Podcast we speak with Andrew Blanchard. After doing management at Procter and Gamble for four years and consulting with McKinsey, he has now founded and is a partner at Jacket River, a boutique consulting shop and growth equity investor. He is also a co-founder of Raven Telemetry, a technology-enabled management system for manufacturers. Tune into our conversation covering topics like compounding skills, the company recruiting process, compartmentalization, and how to manage a team.

As always, here are his 3 action items!

In this episode we are joined by Shaloo Garg, the managing director of growth stage startups and unicorns for Microsoft as well as the United Nations Women leader. In this episode, we talk about the role passion, hard work, and persistence have played in her journey.

As always, here are her three action items!

Today we talk with Jonathan Trent, who, after attending Yale and UCSC, was the lead scientist of NASA's OMEGA project, a system of floating algae pods to produce biofuels whilst purifying wastewater and providing food for aquaculture. He has now left his Civil Servant position at NASA to found UpCycle Systems to address the escalating food, water, and energy crises, although he is still a part of NASA's Astrobiology Institute where he studies life forms that may exist in worlds beyond Earth. Jonathan talks to us about why he felt obligated to take a risk and leave NASA for Upcycle, what his goals are with this company, and his incredible journey within sustainability!

His three action items are to ask yourself the following questions.