What's Your Problem?

By iHeartPodcasts and Pushkin Industries

Every week on What's Your Problem?, former Planet Money host Jacob Goldstein talks with entrepreneurs and engineers tackling the biggest challenges at the forefront of technology. How do you make a trip to space as routine as a plane flight? How do you turn solar energy into clean fuel? How do you use AI to stop deadly infections before they spread? We hear a lot these days about how the world is getting worse. What's Your Problem? learns from the thinkers and doers trying to make our future better. iHeartMedia is the exclusive podcast partner of Pushkin Industries.

11 episodes

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All Episodes

Inflammation and AI Replace Clogged Arteries in Heart Attack Prevention

Jan 29, 2026

Inflammation, not just blockages, drives heart attacks. New AI and blood markers reveal hidden dangers in "low risk" individuals, enabling precise, proactive prevention.

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SunCulture: Building Infrastructure to Unlock Smallholder Farmer Markets

Jan 22, 2026

SunCulture transforms smallholder farming by building an entire infrastructure of finance, services, and technology, enabling profitable mechanization and creating a new consumer market.

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Automating iPSC Manufacturing for Scalable, Cost-Effective Cell Therapies

Jan 15, 2026

Automated iPSC manufacturing bypasses prohibitive costs and manual labor, enabling scalable, AI-driven cell therapies for millions and accelerating curative medicine development.

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Smart Glasses Resurgence Signals AI Integration, Privacy Erosion

Dec 25, 2025

Smart glasses blend fashion and AI, offering discreet convenience. This resurgence signals societal readiness for wearable AI, but raises profound questions about privacy and constant public recording.

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Autonomous Tractors Revolutionize Specialty Crops With Precision Navigation

Dec 18, 2025

Autonomous tractors precisely navigate specialty crops, eliminating herbicides and addressing labor shortages. Experience hands-on trials to see the future of farming firsthand.

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Leveraging Automotive Scale to Solve Electric Boat Techno-Economics

Dec 11, 2025

Electrify boats by leveraging automotive scale for cost-effective battery integration, transforming marine design and performance while meeting growing demand for sustainable solutions.

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Giving Boosts Happiness: Overcoming Biases to Give Well

Dec 02, 2025

Giving to others scientifically boosts happiness and well-being, yet psychological biases often make us underestimate generosity's impact and others' trustworthiness, hindering our own joy.

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Shadow Banking's Rise: Lessons from 2008's Debt Crisis

Nov 25, 2025

Fifteen years after 2008, risk-taking prestige migrated from banks to hedge funds, while Bitcoin emerged as a critique of the system's inherent instability.

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Bloom Money: Digitizing Ancient Trust for Immigrant Finance

Nov 20, 2025

Bloom Money digitizes ancient ROSCAs, building trust and financial inclusion for immigrants by transforming informal social capital into a powerful, data-driven credit foundation.

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Edison's Invention Factory: Industrializing Genius

Nov 18, 2025

Thomas Edison didn't just invent devices; he industrialized innovation, transforming invention into a systematic process that reshaped modern research and development.

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From Prostate Failure to Non-Invasive Cancer Robotics

Nov 13, 2025

HistoSonics redefines cancer treatment, transforming a failed prostate therapy into a non-invasive robotic surgery platform that liquefies tumors cell by cell, offering new hope.

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