The Race for Nuclear Fusion

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 SystemsAnnie Kritcher is the Co-Founder and Chief Scientist at InertiaAlice Brooks is a Board Member & Partner at Khosla VenturesCary Forest is the Co-Founder & Chief Scientific Officer at Realta FusionCredits: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 LibertyCredits: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.

The spray-and-pray approach to AI investing is dead. Join us as we discuss what it takes to stand out in a saturated market as we move beyond the hype to identify real moats and what’s next for investors in this space. This episode was taped before a live audience at Web Summit Vancouver. We meet: Andy McLoughlin is a seed-stage investor at Uncork Capital focused on B2B software, developer tools, and applied AI — and before VC, he co-founded Huddle, an enterprise collaboration platform that was acquired in 2016. George Mathew is a self-described "deep operator turned venture capitalist" at Insight Partners, with 20+ years building companies including as CEO of Kespry and President & COO of Alteryx, which he scaled through its IPO. Emily Fontaine leads IBM's $500 million Enterprise AI fund and quantum investing strategy — she's spent 15 years at IBM, previously serving as Executive Advocate to IBM's Chairman and CEO, and as AI Federal Leader for IBM Consulting. 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 if we've all become so focused on what technology is capable of that we've lost track of what children are capable of?  We Meet: Andrew Sliwinski is the VP and Head of Product Experience for Lego Education. 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 if the standard approach to responsible AI, built around aspirational values like fairness and transparency, is fundamentally broken in the age of AI agents? We Meet: Reid Blackman is the author of the new book The Ethical Nightmare Challenge and the founder of AI ethics consultancy Virtue.Episode Links:Reid and Jennifer are speaking at the Drawing Room Salon on May 20:https://thedrawingroom.ai/Reid's new book:https://www.amazon.com/Ethical-Nightmare-Challenge-Avoid-Worst-ebook/dp/B0GRC1ZPYXCredits: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.

How do you build intelligent systems that people trust? Then, how do you keep that trust when things go wrong? Because when things do, it’s not the tech that loses face but the brand people relied on. This episode was taped before a live audience on stage at the HumanX Conference in San Francisco.We Meet: Radha Basu, Founder & CEO of iMeritShuman Ghosemajumder, Co-founder & CEO of RekenAndrea Thomaz, Co-founder & CEO of Diligent Robotics 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.

Capital One is the largest issuer of credit cards in the U.S. It’s also one of the largest banks, and car finance companies, in the country.  We learn from its experience building proprietary AI across fraud prevention, agentic workflows, customer experience, and risk and compliance in the latest installment of our oral history project.We Meet: Capital One’s Head of AI Foundations Milind Naphade 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.