Made For Us

*** Help shape the next season of Made For Us! Please share your feedback in our 4-minute listener survey for the chance to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card and get instant access to our curated reading list of every book ever recommended on the show: https://forms.gle/pNyrCooa23oYsaVk7

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In this episode:

What happens when AI doesn’t understand you?

For millions of people across Africa, speaking a language that AI doesn’t recognise can be a barrier to accessing services like healthcare and participating in the digital economy.

Pelonomi Moiloa is CEO of Lelapa AI, a research and product lab building language AI for a continent with 2,000+ languages. Named one of TIME's 100 Most Influential People in AI in 2023, Pelonomi unpacks the technical and linguistic challenges she and her team are up against - from the data collection hurdles unique to oral cultures, to the compute constraints on the African continent.

In this episode, we discuss:

1. Why mainstream AI struggles with African languages
2. The creative approaches Lelapa AI is pioneering since scraping the internet or the archives isn't an option
3. What Pelonomi really thinks about being called one of the most influential people in AI

About Pelonomi Moiloa

Pelonomi Moiloa is CEO of Lelapa AI, a socially-grounded research and product lab driving AI for Africans by Africans. A biomedical and electrical engineer by training, Pelonomi has spent almost a decade deriving insights from data to address complex problems.

Learn more about Lelapa AI: https://lelapa.ai

Follow Lelapa AI on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lelapa-ai/

Follow Pelonomi Moiloa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pelonomi-moiloa

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Other episodes you might like:

What's in a name? When your device thinks you're a typo

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Connect with Made for Us

1. Show notes and transcripts: https://made-for-us.captivate.fm/
2. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/madeforuspodcast
3. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madeforuspodcast/
4. Newsletter: https://madeforuspodcast.beehiiv.com/

*** Help shape the future of Made For Us! Take our 4-minute listener survey for the chance to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card and get instant access to our curated reading list of every book ever recommended on the show: https://forms.gle/pNyrCooa23oYsaVk7

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In this episode:

Ethan Pierce couldn't read when he finished third grade, but years later went on to win a full scholarship to Harvard. Recognising that not all students have the support he had, he founded Adaptive Reader, an AI-powered platform that adapts classic literature and other books to different reading levels and languages.

In this episode, Ethan talks about building a product around the learners the education system leaves behind, why your first startup idea is probably wrong (and why that's a good thing), and how listening to teachers changed everything he thought he knew about edtech design.

We discuss:

• How Ethan's own struggles with reading in school inspired Adaptive Reader’s mission
• Why 130 user research interviews convinced him that print was a non-negotiable equity need
• How Adaptive Reader designs for learners across neurological differences, physical disabilities, and languages

About Ethan Pierce

Ethan Pierce is the Founder and CEO of Adaptive Reader, an AI-powered accessibility platform that makes any text accessible to any reader—across languages, reading levels, and formats. A former struggling reader who went on to earn a full scholarship to Harvard, Ethan is passionate about using technology to break down barriers to literacy and learning.

Adaptive Reader has been recognized globally for advancing accessibility and inclusive learning, winning the Harvard President’s Innovation Challenge and the MIT Solve E Ink Prize.

Learn more about Adaptive Reader: https://adaptivereader.com/

Follow Ethan Pierce on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethanpierce13/

Follow Adaptive Reader on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/adaptive-reader/

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If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a rating or review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Send questions for our guests or any feedback to: [email protected]

Other episodes you might like:

Speechify CEO Cliff Weitzman on building the 'voice of the internet'

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Connect with Made for Us

• Show notes and transcripts: https://made-for-us.captivate.fm/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/madeforuspodcast
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madeforuspodcast/
• Newsletter: https://madeforuspodcast.beehiiv.com/

*** Help shape the future of Made For Us! Take our quick listener survey for the chance to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card and get instant access to our curated reading list of every book ever recommended on the show: https://forms.gle/pNyrCooa23oYsaVk7

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In this episode:

What does the world look like when women control more wealth than ever before? In part two of our conversation with Sylvia Kwan, CEO and chief investment officer of Ellevest, we discuss the “feminization of wealth” and why many companies are unprepared for this shift.

Kwan makes the case that financial power isn't just for the wealthy: every woman with capital, no matter how small the sum, has the power to create change.

Catch up on part 1 here:

The women finance forgot: Ellevest CEO Sylvia Kwan on closing the gender wealth gap

In this episode:

• How the Great Wealth Transfer is driving the feminization of wealth
• Why women invest differently and what that means for society
• How Ellevest is preparing for a “seismic shift” in spending and investment

If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to leave a rating or review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Send questions for our guests or any feedback to: [email protected]

You might also like:

Where is the female crash test dummy?

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About Sylvia Kwan

Sylvia Kwan is the CEO and Chief Investment Officer of Ellevest, a women-founded and women-led financial services firm dedicated to closing the gender wealth gap. Prior to Ellevest, she founded SimplySmart Asset Management and held senior portfolio management positions at Financial Engines and Charles Schwab. A Chartered Financial Analyst with more than 30 years of industry experience, Sylvia serves on the Board of Exit 182, the investment committee that oversees the endowment of Grinnell College.

Learn more about Ellevest: https://www.ellevest.com/

Sylvia’s Monthly Market Insight (Sept. 2025): https://www.ellevest.com/magazine/2025-september-market-insights

Follow Ellevest on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ellevest/

Follow Ellevest on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ellevest

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Connect with Made for Us

• Show notes and transcripts: https://made-for-us.captivate.fm/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/madeforuspodcast
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madeforuspodcast/
• Newsletter: https://madeforuspodcast.beehiiv.com/

Ellevest CEO Sylvia Kwan has a striking statistic she uses to explain why the company was founded: in a survey of asset managers by BNY Mellon Investment Management, 86% said their default customer is a man.

In this episode, the first of a two-part conversation, Sylvia Kwan shares why Ellevest is on a mission to close the gender investing gap and why it may be just as important as the gender pay gap.

We discuss:

1. Why the gender investing gap exists and how it contributes to the wealth gap
2. What Ellevest discovered about women’s attitudes towards risk
3. Sylvia's surprising route to becoming chief investment officer and then CEO
4. How Ellevest is breaking down the barriers that keep women from investing

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About Sylvia Kwan

Sylvia Kwan is the CEO and Chief Investment Officer of Ellevest, a women-founded and women-led financial services firm dedicated to closing the gender wealth gap. Prior to Ellevest, she founded SimplySmart Asset Management and held senior portfolio management positions at Financial Engines and Charles Schwab. A Chartered Financial Analyst with more than 30 years of industry experience, Sylvia serves on the Board of Exit 182, the investment committee that oversees the endowment of Grinnell College.

Learn more about Ellevest: https://www.ellevest.com/

Follow Ellevest on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ellevest/

Follow Ellevest on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ellevest

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If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to leave a rating or review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Send questions for our guests or any feedback to: [email protected]

Other episodes you might like:

Where is the female crash test dummy?

AI vs the feedback gap

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Connect with Made for Us

1. Show notes and transcripts: https://made-for-us.captivate.fm/
2. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/madeforuspodcast
3. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madeforuspodcast/
4. Newsletter: https://madeforuspodcast.beehiiv.com/

Made For Us is back for Season 3 - and we’re talking about ambition. Hear from founders building AI for underserved languages and designing inclusive medical devices, and investors closing wealth gaps.

Listen to the trailer and subscribe to get notified of new episodes.

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Connect with Made for Us

1. Show notes and transcripts: https://made-for-us.captivate.fm/
2. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/madeforuspodcast
3. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madeforuspodcast/
4. Newsletter: https://madeforuspodcast.beehiiv.com/

So your name’s been mistreated by autocorrect. What harm does that cause? And what would it take to fix it?

In this episode, Northeastern University law professor Rashmi Dyal-Chand discusses her research into autocorrect's bias and shares her blueprint for change - from what consumers can do to where the law might need to step in.

Plus: journalist Dhruti Shah on her viral 2018 BBC article that first brought the issue to light.

This is Part 3 of "What's in a Name?", our mini-series about autocorrect and inclusive technology.

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New to the series? Start with Part 1 and Part 2

Listen to the trailer

Enjoying the show? Leave a rating to help others discover it, or share your autocorrect story at [email protected]

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About Rashmi Dyal-Chand

Rashmi Dyal-Chand is a law professor at Northeastern University. Her research and teaching focus on property law, poverty, economic development and consumer law. She is the author of the article, “Autocorrecting for Whiteness”, published in the Boston University Law Review in 2021.

Learn more about Rashmi Dyal-Chand: https://law.northeastern.edu/faculty/dyal-chand/

Read the “Autocorrecting for Whiteness” article: https://www.bu.edu/bulawreview/files/2021/03/DYAL-CHAND.pdf

About Dhruti Shah

Dhruti Shah is a creative practitioner, storyteller and journalist who focuses extensively on belonging. She is a collaborator with I Am Not A Typo.

Read Dhruti’s article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46362259

Follow Dhruti on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dhrutishahstoryteller/

Follow Dhruti on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dhruti_journo/

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Connect with Made for Us

Show notes and transcripts: https://made-for-us.captivate.fm/

Newsletter: https://madeforuspodcast.beehiiv.com/

Social media: LinkedIn and Instagram

Enjoyed this episode and want to support the show? Please share your feedback in our quick listener survey for the chance to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card and get instant access to our curated reading list of every book recommended by our guests: https://forms.gle/pNyrCooa23oYsaVk7

The I Am Not a Typo campaign managed to get tech companies' attention. So what happened next?

We hear from one of the campaign organisers about the conversations with tech giants - and whether anything actually changed.

This is Part 2 of “What’s in a name?”, a new mini-series about autocorrect and inclusive technology.

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New to the series? Start with Part 1

Listen to the trailer

Enjoying the show? Leave a rating to help others discover it, or share your autocorrect story at [email protected]

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About Cathal Wogan

Cathal Wogan is a lead collaborator with I Am Not A Typo, a collective aiming to create social change so no one feels like an oversight. I Am Not A Typo looks at the link between identity and technology, and its flagship UK-based campaign asks tech giants to update their name dictionaries to better reflect the modern multi-cultural United Kingdom.

Cathal is a Senior Consulting Director at communications consultancy Blurred, the agency that convenes I Am Not A Typo and its many cross-industry collaborators.

Learn more about I Am Not A Typo: https://www.iamnotatypo.org/

Follow Cathal on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cathal-wogan/

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Connect with Made for Us

Show notes and transcripts: https://made-for-us.captivate.fm/

Newsletter: https://madeforuspodcast.beehiiv.com/

Social media: LinkedIn and Instagram

For years, people added their "unusual" names to their phone's dictionary, treating it as a minor inconvenience. Then some decided to fight back.

In this episode, we meet the people whose names are constantly "corrected" by their devices and hear how I Am Not A Typo, a grassroots campaign to fix autocorrect, got the attention of tech giants.

This is Part 1 of “What’s in a name?”, a new mini-series about autocorrect and inclusive technology.

Listen to Part 1 and Part 2

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If someone came to mind while you were listening, send this episode their way. And if you have an autocorrect story of your own, we'd love to hear it. Email us at [email protected].

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Guests

Cathal Wogan, Xaymaca Awoyungbo, Vedrana Koren, Wanyu Zhang and Angharad Planells

Learn more about I Am Not A Typo

Website: https://www.iamnotatypo.org/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamnotatypo

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/i-am-not-a-typo/

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Connect with Made for Us

Show notes and transcripts: https://made-for-us.captivate.fm/

Social media: LinkedIn and Instagram

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Enjoyed this episode and want to support the show? Please share your feedback in our quick listener survey for the chance to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card and get instant access to our curated reading list of every book recommended by our guests: https://forms.gle/pNyrCooa23oYsaVk7

Across the world, millions of people's names are treated as errors by our devices. In the UK alone, 41% of baby names are flagged as "incorrect."

In a new mini-series, we'll meet the people pushing tech companies to do better and explore what autocorrect reveals about how - and for whom - technology gets built.

Subscribe now so you don't miss new episodes.

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Connect with Made for Us

Show notes and transcripts: https://made-for-us.captivate.fm/

Newsletter: https://madeforuspodcast.beehiiv.com/

Social media: LinkedIn and Instagram

If some of the conversations you've heard in this season of Made For Us have felt like a glimpse into the future, then you're not alone.

Our final guest of season 2, Marcus Engel, feels like he's already living in the future, thanks to AI, apps like Be My Eyes and other assistive devices.

Marcus is a speaker, author and compassion consultant. He's also an advisor to Haptic, whose founder, Kevin Yoo, was our guest last week. Haptic is the company behind one of the world's first touch-based navigation apps and it was a meeting with Marcus that inspired Kevin to start the company.

Today, we'll hear Marcus' story, how surviving massive trauma led him to become a compassion consultant and how he thinks haptic technology could impact mobility for people who are blind or low vision.

You’ll learn:

• Haptic technology's potential to guide people living with sight loss
• Marcus’s four-part definition of compassion and how it’s different to empathy
• Which products Marcus considers to be ‘compassionate'

Enjoyed the episode? Text it to a friend. Loved the episode? Tell the world with a 5-star review.

You might also like:

Navigation you can feel: the startup making the world accessible through touch

How to design a fairer healthcare system

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About Marcus Engel

Marcus Engel is an adjunct professor at the University of Notre Dame teaching compassion science to pre-meds. He's also a survivor of massive trauma, a keynote speaker, author and hospital/system consultant. He's written two books that have been adopted by scores of nursing and health profession programs across the country.

Learn more about Marcus Engel: www.MarcusEngel.com

Compassion & Courage podcast

Compassion is Action training video

Books by Marcus Engel

Follow Marcus on LinkedIn

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Connect with Made for Us

• Show notes and transcripts: https://made-for-us.captivate.fm/
• Social media: LinkedIn and Instagram
• Newsletter: https://madeforuspodcast.beehiiv.com/