The KU Hustle

Chairman of Dimensional Fund Advisors, David Booth, c’68, g’69, joins host Jessica Palm, j’11 to discuss his new book, Stay Clam. David also shares the process and basic beginnings to his investing firm and how his first job, selling shoes, has helped define his career.

Tucker Trotter is the CEO of Dimensional Innovations, a Kansas City-based experience design, build, and technology firm that has quietly become one of the most creative companies in the country. 

We’re talking NFL stadiums, presidential libraries, immersive entertainment, and a 46,000-square-foot cinematic universe that just opened.

Tucker is a graduate of KU’s Industrial Design program and continues to keep deep ties with the university. 

Dr. Kalin Baca is CEO and co-founder of Icorium Engineering, a company that is quietly solving one of the most overlooked climate problems hiding in plain sight. From participating in one of the most prestigious startup competitions in the country, where she won the best sustainability pitch out of 42 teams … and walked away with $180,000 in prizes … to landing a $1.2 million NSF federal grant to scale her technology … Kalin’s company is being watched nationally as one of the most promising startups in chemical engineering.

But before any of that … there was a lab and really specific research question … one related to the inside of your refrigerator, air conditioner, and every grocery store cooler you've ever walked past … And that question turned into a decision to launch a company.

00:55 Intro

02:08 How Kalin Baca made her way to KU

03:51 Becoming a scientific entrepreneur 

06:11 Working with refrigerants

07:31 How Icorium got its start and found a market for their technology

12:02 Icorium's leadership structure

14:20 Icorium's experience at the Rice Business Plan Competition

16:26 Kalin's leadership philosophy

20:01 Icorium's direction moving forward

21:51 Icorium's extractive distillation technology

22:35 A validation point for Icorium

24:07 How KU Innovation Park has helped Icorium

25:35 What engineering students should know about entrepreneurship

28:14 Kalin's advice to her younger self

31:36 Jessica's final thoughts

KU Hustle presents an episode recorded before a live audience of students and alumni at the KU School of Business.

It’s a conversation recorded in fall 2025 between one of KU’s most thoughtful and energetic leaders and a Jayhawk who has held executive roles at companies like AOL and Yahoo before becoming an industry leader on financial transactions in the digital age, the development of blockchain technologies, and cryptocurrency.

I know you’ll enjoy this special conversation between Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and KU’s own Nancy Jackson.

00:00 Intro

01:15 Nancy Jackson welcome

01:32 Proud Kansan, Brad Garlinghouse

03:42 Brad's degrees from KU and Harvard

06:09 The Tech Trek

08:35 Investing in KU Alumni's Jayhawk Career Network

10:34 Explaining Ripple's XRP

14:01 Explaining a blockchain

16:05 Ripple's challenges with the SEC

20:55 Angel Investing

24:07 How lucky do you feel?

28:01 Advice for someone pitching to potential investors

29:55 How should people report to their investors?

30:39 Most difficult decision Brad has made as CEO of Ripple

31:47 How do you balance innovation with operational realities?

33:15 How Brad stays informed on a daily basis

34:46 The peanut butter manifesto

KU Hustle presents an episode recorded in front of a live audience that brings a Kansas farm girl back to her first home on the hill. A conversation about the intersection of entrepreneurship, motherhood, and life. The ups, the downs, and everything in between.

What started right here at KU eventually launched the well-known brand Kate Spade.

Elyce discusses how her education and Kansas work ethic prepared her for life as an entrepreneur. How success requires risk. How reinvention and tenacity make entrepreneurs great. How relationships inspire her and drive the success of her newest company, Frances Valentine.

Welcome to KU Hustle … the podcast about the entrepreneurs, innovators, and risk-takers who spent time at the University of Kansas and then went and built something remarkable. Megh Knappenberger is one of the only artists ever licensed by the University of Kansas and has been commissioned for major corporate clients, including American Century Investments, and was trusted to create art with more than 30 carats of real diamonds. But before that, a significant event changed her perspective … and her career.