SHIFT

For as far as we’ve come with AI and robotics, there’s still a huge gap when it comes to combining the two. AI excels in the digital space, and in the physical world, robots are often pre-programmed. That’s where physical AI comes in. It’s critical for things that can’t tolerate the kinds of mistakes that are common in today’s statistics based AI, like self driving cars or managing the power grid. In the latest installment of our oral history project, we meet a central figure in these efforts, MIT's Daniela Rus.

We Meet:  

Daniela Rus is the Director of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Credits:

This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.

Clio serves as the "operating system" for more than 400,000 legal professionals worldwide. Its founder and CEO Jack Newton has a lot to say about the field's agentic future, the company's vLex acquisition, and what other professional services can learn from the shifts he’s seen. 

We Meet:  

Clio CEO and Founder Jack Newton

Credits:

This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.

Most geospatial data is gathered by satellites and cameras attached to planes, but a new decentralized network is helping amateur drone pilots capture and contribute ultra high resolution data. 

In this week's show, we go fly a drone and learn how that data is helping power next generation apps for things like disaster response.

This episode originally ran in June 2025.

We Meet:  

Alec Wilson, COO Spexi

Bill Lakeland, CEO Spexi

Credits:

This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.

Enterprises have been slogging through the AI adoption journey, but cybersecurity threat actors have been too. As the time from vulnerability discovery to breach effectively goes to zero, the new cybersecurity playbook is all about how fast you can recover. 

We Meet:  

Anneka Gupta is the Chief Product Officer at Rubrik 

Credits:

This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.

AI agents already perform complex tasks, but they largely work alone, even when they're technically connected. But what if they could collectively learn from each other, and collaborate?  

Our guest wants you to think about when that transition happened for people, with our own intelligence, some 70,000 years ago, when human intelligence stopped being a solo act and became something we did together.

Our guest, Vijoy Pandey, runs Outshift by Cisco. He believes AI is standing at that exact threshold right now, and he's building the layer that gets it across the line. 

A hundred million degrees Celsius. That’s the brutal reality of commercial fusion. This week, we’re sitting down with industry leaders to discuss the front lines of an energy revolution, from surviving extreme thermal stress to building brand-new supply chains.

We Meet:  

Vijoy Pandey is Senior Vice President and General Manager of Outshift by Cisco, the company's internal incubation engine for emerging technology. 

Credits:

This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.

This episode of SHIFT was brought to you by Outshift by Cisco. 

A hundred million degrees Celsius. That’s the brutal reality of commercial fusion. This week, we’re sitting down with industry leaders to discuss the front lines of an energy revolution, from surviving extreme thermal stress to building brand-new supply chains.

We Meet:  

Joe Paluska is the CMO of Commonwealth Fusion Systems

Annie Kritcher is the Co-Founder and Chief Scientist at Inertia

Alice Brooks is a Board Member & Partner at Khosla Ventures

Cary Forest is the Co-Founder & Chief Scientific Officer at Realta Fusion

Credits:

This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.

What do you think it would be like to lead AI efforts and the overall digital transformation of the CIA? This week, we find out as we dive into a world of espionage and secrets in the latest installment of our oral history project. 

We Meet:  

Retired Deputy CIA Director for Digital Innovation Jennifer Ewbank 

Credits:

This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.

This episode originally aired in October 2025.

Microsoft EVP Jason Zander on the materials breakthrough that closed the gap, how AI agents cut the roadmap in half, and why he believes quantum's real job might be to make AI smarter.

We Meet:  

Microsoft EVP of Discovery & Quantum Jason Zander 

Credits:

This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.

Frank McCourt is an American executive and philanthropist. He’s also the author of  “Our Biggest Fight: Reclaiming Liberty, Humanity, and Dignity in the Digital Age”. We talk to him about that fight before a live audience in New York City at a gathering held by the responsible technology non-profit, All Tech Is Human.

This episode originally aired in 2024.

We Meet:

Frank H. McCourt, Jr., civic entrepreneur and executive chairman of McCourt Global, founder and executive chairman of Project Liberty

Credits:

This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.

For as far as we’ve come with AI and robotics, there’s still a huge gap when it comes to combining the two. AI excels in the digital space, and in the physical world, robots are often pre-programmed. That’s where physical AI comes in. It’s critical for things that can’t tolerate the kinds of mistakes that are common in today’s statistics based AI, like self driving cars or managing the power grid. In the latest installment of our oral history project, we meet a central figure in these efforts, MIT's Daniela Rus.

We Meet:  

Daniela Rus is the Director of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Credits:

This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.