What's Your Problem?

Kevin Murach is a professor who studies muscle cells at the University of Missouri. Kevin's problem is this: Can we understand what's going on in our cells when we lift weights – and can we use that knowledge to help people stay healthier as they age?

In this episode, Kevin explains: 

• The technology lets scientists watch individual muscle nuclei during exercise
• The significance of a cancer gene called Myc that is activated after lifting weights 
• How Myc may be linked to cellular age reversal
• Why muscle responds less to exercise with age

Connect with us:

• Follow Jacob Goldstein on LinkedIn, X and Instagram 
• Email us at [email protected] 
• Follow Pushkin on Instagram, LinkedIn or X 
• Listen to Jacob’s other show, Business History 
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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Throughout the next few weeks, every Monday we'll be sharing some of our favorite episodes from Jacob's other show Business History. We hope you enjoy them and if you want to hear more, subscriber to Business History on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

With the news of Warren Buffett stepping down as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, we are revisiting an episode from our two-part series on Buffet.

Warren Buffett rose from obscurity to become the richest person in the world - and he did it in a unique way. As a boy in Omaha he collected information obsessively - writing down car license numbers and hoarding bottle caps. As a young man, Buffett turned his focus on scouring business accounts to find companies that had hidden value no one else could spot.

We tell the story of young Warren Buffett as he quietly worked building up the expertise and accumulating the wealth that would allow him to become the most famous investor of our age.

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Circadian rhythm isn’t just controlled by your brain. Every cell in your body runs on a 24-hour cycle, including your muscle cells. 

Karyn Esser is the chair of the department of physiology and aging at the University of Florida, and she’s a leading expert on circadian rhythm in muscle cells. Karyn's problem is this: How does the circadian rhythm in muscle cells change as we age, and how does exercise help keep our system in sync?

In this episode, Karyn explains: 

• How every cell in your body has a clock in it
• How muscle clocks prepare cells for work and schedule recovery during rest
• How age affects these clocks’ ability to regulate effectively 
• Why exercise can improve clock function 
• Why jet lag and late-night eating can put your body clocks out of sync 

Connect with us:

• Follow Jacob Goldstein on LinkedIn, X and Instagram 
• Email us at [email protected] 
• Follow Pushkin on Instagram, LinkedIn or X 
• Listen to Jacob’s other show, Business History 
• To listen to the show ad free, sign up for Pushkin+ 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Throughout the next few weeks, every Monday we'll be sharing some of our favorite episodes from Jacob's other show Business History. We hope you enjoy them and if you want to hear more, subscriber to Business History on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

William Shockley was an electronics genius - he even won a Nobel Prize - but he was an awful boss. Shockley was a cruel, paranoid micromanager. And this annoyed the staff of brilliant young engineers he'd assembled in a quiet town in Northern California. In fact, they quit and set up a company of their own inventing silicon chips. 

Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore and the rest of "The Traitorous Eight" transformed computing, but also blazed a trail for the tech founders who would flock to Silicon Valley and change the world. Members of "The Traitorous Eight" set up Intel and AMD, while also funding businesses such as Google and Slack. 

Connect with us:

• Follow Business History on Instagram and TikTok
• Follow Jacob Goldstein on LinkedIn, X and Instagram 
• Follow Robert Smith on Instagram and X
• Email us at [email protected] 
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• To listen to the show ad free, sign up for Pushkin+ 

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Note: Today’s show is sponsored by PayPal.

Kartik Hosanagar is a professor at the Wharton School. The problems he studies include: What will it take for people to trust AI agents to buy stuff for them? And how should businesses prepare for a world where their customers include AI agents?

In this episode, Kartik explains:

• Why trust in agentic shopping will arrive category by category, not all at once
• How a single old Reddit post erased a thriving brand from ChatGPT’s recommendations
• Why someone needs to take on the liability risk when purchases go wrong
• How treating AI as just another sales channel is the mistake the movie studios made with Netflix
• How to get a language model to pay attention to your brand

Connect with us:

• Follow Jacob Goldstein on LinkedIn, X and Instagram 
• Email us at [email protected] 
• Follow Pushkin on Instagram, LinkedIn or X 
• Listen to Jacob’s other show, Business History 
• To listen to the show ad free, sign up for Pushkin+

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jason Ballard is the co-founder and CEO of ICON. Jason's problem is this: Can you use 3-D printing to build houses that are cheaper, better and more interesting than the houses we build now?

In this episode, Jason explains: 

• Why construction methods are so slow to change 
• How 3D printing opens up new designs for houses
• How building on the Moon shaped the way Icon builds on Earth
• The challenge of scaling to printing thousands of houses 

Connect with us:

• Follow Jacob Goldstein on LinkedIn, X and Instagram 
• Email us at [email protected] 
• Follow Pushkin on Instagram, LinkedIn or X 
• Listen to Jacob’s other show, Business History 
• To listen to the show ad free, sign up for Pushkin+ 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Celebrated novelists, countless students and at least one billionaire have recently been accused of using AI in their writing. The most commonly cited AI detector in these cases is called Pangram. 

Max Spero is the co-founder and CEO of Pangram. His problem is this: Can you build tools that reliably detect AI-generated text and images? And a few years from now, will anybody care?

In this episode, Max explains: 

• Why AI prose so often sounds the same
• How often Pangram makes mistakes
• How detectors like Pangram compete with humanizer tools 
• Why the big AI companies may not be interested in detection
• The shifting norms around AI-generated writing

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I'm here with a preview of Blockers, a new audiobook from Michael Lewis, the author of Liars Poker, Moneyball, The Big Short and more. In Blockers, Lewis tells the story of a handful of people who dedicated their careers to public service—until the Department of Government Efficiency decided they were a problem. These were people who believed they had a calling—people who kept American's sensitive tax data out of the wrong hands, made sure that politicians and civil servants played by the rules, and figured out how to stop wildfires from destroying suburban neighborhoods—and then discovered they were no longer wanted.

Here's an excerpt from the audiobook. You can buy the audiobook exclusively at blockers.fm. 

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We’ve all heard that nothing ever gets deleted from the internet. Luke Arrigoni says that just isn’t true. His company deletes thousands of deepfakes every day.

Luke is the founder and CEO of Loti, and his problem is this: How do you turn the Internet into a place where people have more control over their name, image and likeness?

Tens of thousands of famous people pay Loti to scour the internet and take down deepfakes and unapproved endorsements. But in Luke's telling, this is just the beginning. The company will soon allow celebrities to license their likeness for use in AI videos, and it also plans to start offering its services to ordinary people. 

In this episode, Luke explains: 

• The harm that online deepfakes and impersonations can cause 
• How Loti automates tens of thousands of takedowns per day 
• Why the law may soon make it easier to fight deepfakes 
• Why celebrities are beginning to license their likenesses to AI platforms 
• AI’s role in the future of human creativity 

Connect with us:

• Follow Jacob Goldstein on LinkedIn, X and Instagram 
• Email us at [email protected] 
• Follow Pushkin on Instagram, LinkedIn or X 
• Listen to Jacob’s other show, Business History 
• To listen to the show ad free, sign up for Pushkin+

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Before 1450, books were written out by hand. It was slow and expensive. But Johannes Gutenberg borrowed a ton of money to create a printing press that could crank out Bibles and pamphlets and documents in huge numbers. Science, politics and philosophy were all up-ended. 

For example, the Catholic Church seized on the invention to sell special certificates absolving people of their sins – a move that made money, but caused a permanent schism in Christianity.   

And Gutenberg too found himself in trouble – when a financier sued the inventor to reclaim his loan, plus interest. 

Enjoy this episode from Business History, another Pushkin podcast. 

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