Cover art for podcast FT Tech Tonic

FT Tech Tonic

190 EpisodesProduced by Financial TimesWebsite

We are in the midst of a digital revolution, where the line between our physical world and cyberspace is blurring. Tech Tonic is the show that investigates the promises and perils of this new technological age.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

190 Episodes | 2016 - 2024

Farewell

February 22nd, 2024

0:39

An important message from RadioPublic

Introducing: Swamp Notes from The FT News Briefing

February 5th, 2024

1:11

If you have questions about this year's US presidential election, we have answers.


Swamp Notes is a new podcast from the FT News Briefing. Listen every Saturday morning as our journalists analyse and discuss the latest …

Introducing Untold: The Retreat

January 12th, 2024

1:57

Introducing Untold, a new podcast from the special investigations team at the Financial Times. In its first series, The Retreat, host Madison …

Superintelligent AI: Conscious Machines

December 12th, 2023

26:27

As the race to human-level AI accelerates, researchers are increasingly confronted with the question of what it would mean to develop conscious AI. …

Superintelligent AI: Transhumanism etc.

December 5th, 2023

25:59

What are the ideas driving the pursuit of human-level AI? In the penultimate episode of this Tech Tonic series, hosts Madhumita Murgia and John …

Superintelligent AI: can chatbots think?

November 28th, 2023

28:36

Are generative AI systems such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT really intelligent? Large language models such as GPT 4 appear to use human-level cognitive …

Superintelligent AI: The Utopians

November 21st, 2023

24:48

If even AI companies are fretting about the existential threat that human-level AI poses, why are they building these machines in the first place? …

Superintelligent AI: The Doomers

November 14th, 2023

28:47

In the first episode of a new, five-part series of Tech Tonic, FT journalists Madhumita Murgia and John Thornhill ask how close we are to building human-level artificial intelligence and whether ‘superintelligent’ AI …

Coming soon: Superintelligent AI

October 31st, 2023

4:10

 In a new series of Tech Tonic, FT journalists Madhumita Murgia and John Thornhill look at the concerns around the rise of artificial intelligence. Will superintelligent AI bring existential risk, or a new renaissance? …

Can AI help us speak to animals? Part two

September 19th, 2023

24:50

A hardware revolution in recording devices and a software revolution in artificial intelligence has convinced some scientists that humans will …

Can AI help us speak to animals? Part one

September 19th, 2023

29:12

A hardware revolution in recording devices and a software revolution in artificial intelligence is enabling researchers to listen in to all kinds of …

Can AI help us speak to animals? Karen Bakker interview

September 19th, 2023

32:42

The Canadian scientist and author Karen Bakker, who died unexpectedly in August this year, was a leading voice in the bioacoustic research community. Her 2022 book, The Sounds of Life, explained how it might one day be …

Coming soon: Can AI help us speak to animals?

September 12th, 2023

1:09

Some scientists believe that rapid advances in artificial intelligence may also hold the key to decoding animal sounds, allowing us to ‘translate’ …

The quantum revolution: Live at Founders Forum

August 22nd, 2023

29:47

A bonus episode to go with our Quantum Revolution season. The FT’s John Thornhill and Madhumita Murgia host a panel of experts at the Founders Forum …

Introducing: The Russian Banker

August 18th, 2023

1:44

Who is Sergei Leontiev? To the US asylum system, he’s an exiled Russian banker who was persecuted by the state and forced to flee. To Russia, he’s said to be responsible for massive fraud.  On The Russian Banker, a new …

Peak social media: The future

August 1st, 2023

21:17

In the final episode of this Tech Tonic season, FT correspondents weigh in on the trends that will determine the future of social media. From Meta’s Threads to artificial intelligence, we ask how platforms will look and …

Peak social media: Building better platforms

July 25th, 2023

26:00

Can we get rid of the bad bits of social media and keep the good? Is it possible to create a more positive social media experience than the one we get from the platforms that dominate the landscape today? In this …

Peak social media: The power of influencers

July 18th, 2023

26:42

Social media today is less about making friends and more about following popular content creators. While those creators are starting to hold some …

Peak social media: The debate over young users’ mental health

July 11th, 2023

26:13

There’s a growing feeling that social media is bad for us: bad for society and bad for our wellbeing. That trend has culminated in a new wave of …

Peak social media: The ads machine

July 4th, 2023

27:05

Mark Zuckerberg used advertising to turn Facebook into the first global social media giant, boasting 3bn users around the world. But today there are questions about the business model that has powered it for the past 15 …

Peak social media: Trouble at Twitter

June 27th, 2023

29:28

Elon Musk took over Twitter with the promise of promoting free speech and making the loss-making platform profitable again. But his critics say he’s …

Coming soon: Peak social media

June 23rd, 2023

0:57

Social media platforms have defined our experience of the internet for nearly two decades. But as host Elaine Moore, deputy editor of the FT’s Lex …

Introducing Behind the Money: Night School

April 21st, 2023

1:23

There’s been a lot of big finance and economics news in 2023. Whether it's stories about rising interest rates, tech industry layoffs or bank runs, it can almost feel like you need an MBA just to make sense of it all. …

The quantum revolution: The way the world is

April 11th, 2023

23:41

In the final episode of this series, we hear how radical quantum ideas are reshaping our fundamental understanding of the universe. Nobel Prize winner Anton Zeilinger tells the FT’s Madhumita Murgia about the future of …

The quantum revolution: Brain waves

April 4th, 2023

22:13

Quantum computers aren’t the only form of groundbreaking technology that use quantum physics. Madhumita Murgia hears from Dr. Margot …

The quantum revolution: First port of call

March 28th, 2023

25:20

The Port of Los Angeles is one of the world’s busiest — and most inefficient. It’s now using an early quantum computing application to help solve its …

The quantum revolution: ‘Spooky action’

March 21st, 2023

25:23

In this episode, Tech Tonic dives into the science at the heart of quantum computing. How do technologists use unexplained subatomic phenomena to …

The quantum revolution: The race to build a quantum computer

March 14th, 2023

20:51

Tech companies including Google, Microsoft and IBM are all working on plans for a commercially viable quantum computer. They say that these machines …

The quantum revolution: Q-Day

March 7th, 2023

26:04

In the cybersecurity world they call it Q-Day, the day when a quantum computer will be built that can break the encryption of the internet.


John Thornhill and Madhumita Murgia speak to cybersecurity expert and former …

Coming soon: The Quantum Revolution

February 28th, 2023

1:00

Tech companies and labs around the world are building a revolutionary new computer. Quantum computers harness the mysteries of quantum physics to …

Climate tech to save the planet: Techno-optimism or greenwashing?

November 22nd, 2022

24:22

Billions of dollars are being spent by tech companies and investors on new technology to fight climate change. In the final episode of this series of …

Climate tech to save the planet: Star power

November 15th, 2022

24:09

Nuclear fusion is the reaction that powers stars and scientists say replicating it on Earth could produce all the energy we’ll ever need without the …

Climate tech to save the planet: Hype and hydrogen

November 8th, 2022

24:17

The joke about hydrogen is that it’s the fuel of the future, and always will be. But green hydrogen is made from renewable energy and emits only water vapour, so amidst the fight to reduce carbon emissions, has green …

Climate tech to save the planet: How to keep flying

November 1st, 2022

24:30

As more people fly, aviation is on track to becoming a much bigger problem for climate change. Host Pilita Clark, FT columnist and climate …

Climate tech to save the planet: Out of thin air

October 25th, 2022

24:21

Direct air carbon capture - taking carbon dioxide straight out of the air around us - sounds like science fiction. In this episode Pilita Clark visits Iceland to meet the engineers and scientists at the forefront of this

Coming soon: Will climate tech save the planet?

October 24th, 2022

1:00

The climate crisis threatens the future of the planet. But don’t worry, technology will save us. At least that’s the message from startups, …

A sceptic’s guide to crypto: the crypto Wild West

September 13th, 2022

27:06

In the fifth episode of the latest season of Tech Tonic, FT columnist and host Jemima Kelly looks at crypto regulation, and why there’s so little of …

A sceptic’s guide to crypto: the church of bitcoin

September 6th, 2022

30:22

In the fourth episode of the latest season of Tech Tonic, FT columnist and host Jemima Kelly looks at the enduring faith in cryptocurrency. What do …

A sceptic’s guide to crypto: NFT mania

August 30th, 2022

32:09

In the third episode of the latest season of Tech Tonic, FT columnist and host Jemima Kelly unpacks the craze around non-fungible tokens (NFTs). …

A sceptic’s guide to crypto: bonus interview with a16z’s Chris Dixon

August 23rd, 2022

33:48

A bonus episode of Tech Tonic featuring a full, unedited interview between John Thornhill, FT innovation editor, and Chris Dixon, head of Andreessen …

A sceptic’s guide to crypto: the ‘smart’ money

August 23rd, 2022

25:34

In the second episode of the latest season of Tech Tonic, FT columnist and host Jemima Kelly tries to understand why an influential Silicon Valley …

A sceptic’s guide to crypto: boom and bust

August 16th, 2022

27:07

A new season of Tech Tonic asks whether crypto and its supporting technology - the blockchain - have a future following a market crash. In the first …

Coming soon: A Sceptic’s Guide to Crypto

August 15th, 2022

1:00

Even after the crypto markets crashed this year, there are still a number of people who believe there’s a future for digital assets and blockchain …

Introducing: Hot Money

June 7th, 2022

31:59

When Financial Times reporter Patricia Nilsson started digging into the porn industry, she made a shocking discovery: nobody knew who controlled the …

Behind the Money is back!

May 19th, 2022

1:21

Behind the Money is back with all-new episodes! From hostile takeovers to C-suite intrigue, Behind the Money takes you inside the business and financial stories of the moment with reporting from Financial Times …

US-China Tech Race: The great decoupling

May 2nd, 2022

26:03

In the final episode of this season of Tech Tonic, we ask if the growing tensions between the US and China could split the world into two competing …

US-China Tech Race: Brave new world

April 25th, 2022

27:54

In this episode, how a mysterious death in Belgrade prompted Serbia to embrace Chinese surveillance technology, raising concerns among Serbian human …

US-China Tech Race: Shock and Awe

April 18th, 2022

28:40

In the latest episode of this Tech Tonic season about US-China tech rivalry, the FT’s US-China correspondent Demetri Sevastopulo tells the inside …

US-China Tech Race: Chips with everything

April 11th, 2022

25:58

How China's growing appetite for computer chips has put Taiwan on the frontline of the US-China battle for global technological supremacy. In this …

US-China Tech Race: Spies & Lies (Part Two)

April 4th, 2022

30:37

In the second episode of this season of Tech Tonic, James Kynge, the FT’s Global China Editor, asks how significant Chinese intellectual property theft has been to the country’s rise as a global tech superpower.

We hear …

US-China Tech Race: Spies & Lies (Part One)

March 28th, 2022

31:37

In the first episode of this season’s six-part series, the FT’s Global China Editor James Kynge tracks China’s dramatic transformation from the manufacturing workshop of the world to the next global superpower. The …

Coming soon, season 3, The US/China Tech Race

March 25th, 2022

1:36

A new six-part series of Tech Tonic brings you stories from the frontlines of the battle between the US and China for global technological supremacy. …

AI with military characteristics

August 16th, 2021

23:39

Last year, the Pentagon watched closely as a human fighter pilot lost to an AI-powered adversary in a simulated dogfight. The US military is working …

Brainstorm

August 2nd, 2021

21:02

In this episode of Tech Tonic, we ask whether AI's potential in the fight against the climate crisis justifies the massive amounts of energy it takes to run these systems. The computing power required to train AI …

You Can’t Always Get What you Quant

July 19th, 2021

28:23

From picking the best stocks to listening in on earnings calls, AI-powered systems are changing finance. But how big are the rewards, really? And what are the risks? In this episode Robin Wigglesworth tells us how AI …

Trust me, I’m a robot

July 5th, 2021

22:53

What does it mean for AI to augment human perception? In this episode the FT’s Madhumita Murgia takes us to a small village in rural India where AI …

Gamechanger

June 21st, 2021

27:39

In this first episode of ourselves five-part series on AI, the FT’s innovation editor and host John Thornhill talks to some of the biggest names in AI research including the CEO of Google's DeepMind Demis Hassabis. He …

Season 2 coming soon

June 13th, 2021

0:44

There is a huge amount of hype surrounding AI. It powers technology that can detect disease through scent, translate between languages in …

Levelling the playing field

March 29th, 2021

25:42

The digital revolution will be shaped by whoever controls our data. What does this mean for consumers and businesses? Tim Bradshaw, the FT’s global …

The digital graduate

March 22nd, 2021

24:01

About 1.4bn students in more than 130 countries have spent parts of the past year adapting to learning online. The crisis has put the education …

Chasing digital footprints

March 15th, 2021

22:43

Early in the pandemic, Taiwan legally gathered location data from more than 600,000 of its citizens to stem the spread of coronavirus. South Korea, another east Asian democracy, has similar legal measures in place. How …

Disrupting the hospital

March 8th, 2021

22:44

Could a piece of high-tech cloth keep Covid-19 patients out of hospital and allow them to be monitored at home? The FT’s pharma and biotech …

The future is here now

March 1st, 2021

19:44

Our lives are increasingly moving from the offline to the online world, leaving a long trail of data in our wake. These data can be used to wield …

A new season of Tech Tonic

February 26th, 2021

0:46

The show that investigates the promises and perils of our digital age is back with a new season. FT innovation editor John Thornhill will take us into the emergency rooms, city centres and even cruise ships where tech …

AI research and big tech

December 16th, 2019

31:16

John Thornhill talks to David Barber, director of the UCL Centre for Artificial Intelligence in London, about how academic researchers can work with business and the wider community to create the best outcomes for …

Niklas Zennström and Tom Wehmeier on the state of European tech

December 9th, 2019

22:28

Niklas Zennström, founder of Skype and Atomico and Tom Wehmeier, Atomico partner and author of The State of European Tech report, talk to the FT's John Thornhill about whether Europe is becoming a tech hub.

Hosted on …

Dave Ferrucci on teaching computers to think

December 2nd, 2019

26:23

Dave Ferrucci, CEO, founder and chief scientist of Elemental Cognition, talks to Richard Waters, the FT's West Coast editor, about his efforts to train computers to use language to reason.

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Google's Kate Brandt on sustainable tech

November 25th, 2019

23:49

Kate Brandt talks to John Thornhill about Google’s drive to minimise and offset the energy used in its operations and supply chains, and about its environmental insights explorer which helps cities find ways to reduce …

Digital technologies and the developing world

November 18th, 2019

26:48

Economist Stefan Dercon tells John Thornhill about the findings of a research project he led, showing how, used wisely, technology can enable …

ENCORE: Jeni Tennison on open data

November 11th, 2019

24:48

John Thornhill talks to Jeni Tennison, chief executive of the Open Data Institute, about her work in helping to develop best practice for the use and sharing of data, and about how Brexit will affect Britain's data …

Scott Kupor on VC funding

November 3rd, 2019

31:07

John Thornhill talks to Scott Kupor, managing partner at Andreessen Horowitz, about his book Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It, about the conditions needed to grow tech companies and the …

Rana Foroohar on taming big tech

October 28th, 2019

22:51

John Thornhill talks to FT colleague Rana Foroohar about her book Don’t Be Evil - How Big Tech Betrayed Its Founding Principles - And All Of Us

Stuart Russell on losing control of AI

October 21st, 2019

30:35

John Thornhill discusses how to make artificial intelligence safe for humans with Stuart Russell, professor of computer science and engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of new book ‘Human …

Jaan Tallinn on AI safety

October 14th, 2019

22:05

John Thornhill talks to Jaan Tallinn, founding engineer at Skype and Kazaa, about his subsequent career as a tech investor and his concerns about AI safety.

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Wanted: work for humans

October 7th, 2019

25:13

Madhumita Murgia discusses what happens when robots can do most of the work humans do with Calum Chace of the Economic Singularity Club, Mike …

What kind of art can AI produce?

September 30th, 2019

19:55

Mathematician Marcus du Sautoy puts his theories about creative AI to the test before a live audience at the recent FT Weekend Festival in London.

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John Maeda on designing the future

September 23rd, 2019

28:03

Design guru John Maeda tells Tim Bradshaw why he thinks a diversity of viewpoints and listening to what consumers want will be more valuable to the …

Sarah Chan on neural interfaces

September 16th, 2019

23:57

Bioethicist Sarah Chan contributed to a report this month on neurotechnology by the UK’s senior scientific academy. She talks to John Thornhill about …

Alice Bentinck on harnessing tech talent

September 9th, 2019

24:12

Alice Bentinck, co-founder of Entrepreneur First, tells John Thornhill about her mission to harness the entrepreneurial talents of a new generation of people from diverse backgrounds.

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Improving decision making through AI

September 2nd, 2019

25:44

Vishal Chatrath, chief executive and co-founder of Prowler, tells John Thornhill how his company is helping to improve decision making in the worlds of finance and logistics.

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Priya Lakhani on AI's power to transform education

August 26th, 2019

30:10

Priya Lakhani, founder and chief executive AI company Century Tech, talks to John Thornhill about her mission to improve the life chances of students around the world using AI-assisted learning.

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Nicolas Berggruen on democracy in the digital age

August 19th, 2019

24:22

John Thornhill talks to the billionaire investor and philanthropist Nicolas Berggruen about his book: Renovating Democracy: Governing in the Age of …

Ben Goertzel on benevolent robots

August 12th, 2019

35:30

Ben Goertzel talks to John Thornhill about his work for Hanson Robotics, the company that created the robot Sophia, about SingularityNET, the …

Frances Arnold on directed evolution of enzymes

August 5th, 2019

30:18

Nobel laureate Frances Arnold talks to Anjana Ahuja about her pioneering a work harnessing the power of nature to engineer enzymes, her long career …

Digital printing for the fourth industrial revolution

July 29th, 2019

28:00

Joseph DeSimone, chief executive of Carbon, talks to Richard Waters about the manufacturing technique he invented that can craft objects in seconds using the power of light and digital projection systems

Hosted on …

Directing innovation towards sustainable growth

July 22nd, 2019

32:27

John Thornhill talks to economist Mariana Mazzucato about her work to promote collaboration between governments and companies to direct innovation …

Paul Clarke on robotics and digital twins

July 15th, 2019

31:05

Paul Clarke, chief technology officer at the online grocery Ocado, talks to John Thornhill about how the use of robotics, machine learning and …

Jennifer Doudna on gene editing

July 8th, 2019

30:23

Jennifer Doudna talks to Richard Waters, the FT's San Francisco bureau chief, about how she discovered the CRISPR Cas-9 system and how it is transforming the world of gene editing.

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John Browne on engineering the future

July 1st, 2019

25:36

 John Thornhill talks to Lord John Browne, former chief executive of BP, about his book: Make, Think, Imagine on engineering and the future of civilisation.

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Nathan Jurgenson on social media and the selfie

June 24th, 2019

31:56

Nathan Jurgenson, sociologist at Snapchat’s parent company Snap, talks to Tim Bradshaw about his book The Social Photo and about how the smartphone …

Eric Topol on making healthcare more human

June 17th, 2019

29:27

Hannah Kuchler talks to American cardiologist Eric Topol about his book Deep Medicine, which looks at the potential for artificial intelligence …

New season starts on Monday

June 12th, 2019

0:50

Tech Tonic, the podcast that looks at the way technology is changing our lives, is returning for a news season starting on Monday 17th June. We’ll be …

Andrew Ng on building an AI workforce

April 17th, 2019

24:23

Artificial intelligence expert Andrew Ng talks to John Thornhill about his concern that AI technology is concentrating wealth in the hands of a few …

Rana Yared on investing in fintech

April 10th, 2019

23:24

John Thonhill talks to Rana Yared, a partner and managing director at Goldman Sachs’ Principal Strategic Investments, about how technology is …

Marcus du Sautoy on creative AI

April 3rd, 2019

26:52

John Thornhill talks to Oxford mathematician Marcus du Sautoy about his book: The Creativity Code: How AI is Learning to Write, Paint and Think

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James Vlahos on voice technology

March 27th, 2019

23:04

Elaine Moore talks to American journalist James Vlahos about the chatbot he created to keep the memory of this father alive and about the potential …

Peter Schwartz on automating the brain

March 20th, 2019

24:25

Peter Schwartz, senior vice-president of strategic planning at Salesforce, futurist and author, talks to John Thornhill about the impact on our …

Tim Berners-Lee on reshaping the web

March 12th, 2019

25:17

John Thornhill talks to Tim Berners-Lee about the achievements of the world wide web which he invented 30 years ago, what he thinks has gone wrong and what he is doing to help fix some of these problems.

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Jack Conte on crowdfunding for creators

March 6th, 2019

25:33

John Thornhill talks to Jack Conte about Patreon, the platform he invented to help creative artists receive a steadier income from modern-day patrons.

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Jeni Tennison on data ethics

February 27th, 2019

24:46

John Thornhill talks to Jeni Tennison, chief executive of the Open Data Institute, about her work in helping to develop best practice for the use and sharing of data.

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James Williams on the attention economy

February 20th, 2019

25:47

Former Google employee James Williams talks to John Thornhill about his book: Stand Out of Our Light: Freedom and Resistance in the Attention Economy and why he turned to philosophy to try to understand how the tech …

Shoshana Zuboff on surveillance capitalism

February 13th, 2019

27:05

John Thornhill talks to the social scientist Shoshana Zuboff about her book, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, and what we need to do to reclaim …

Will Marshall on mapping the earth

February 6th, 2019

24:51

John Thornhill talks to Will Marshall, whose San-Francisco-based start-up is helping companies like Google and Monsanto, as well as governments and NGOs, to observe day-to-day changes on the earth’s surface using data …

Taavet Hinrikus on disrupting the banks

January 30th, 2019

23:40

John Thornhill talks to Taavet Hinrikus, co-founder of Transferwise, about shaking up the lucrative money transfer business and how he helped build a tech unicorn that is not only highly valued but is profitable too.

AI and software's 'singular moment'

January 23rd, 2019

28:34

John Thornhill talks to Chris Bishop, director of Microsoft’s Cambridge research lab, about the potential for exponential growth in the development of software, thanks to machine learning.

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The risks and rewards of gene-editing

January 16th, 2019

29:57

Robin Lovell-Badge, developmental biologist and geneticist, talks to FT science columnist Anjana Ahuja about the gene-edited babies controversy in …

Vivienne Ming on solving human problems

January 9th, 2019

31:30

John Thornhill talks to Vivienne Ming, a theoretical neuroscientist, entrepreneur and artificial intelligence guru about her work in trying to make …

Diego Piacentini on GovTech

January 2nd, 2019

27:57

The former Amazon executive tells John Thornhill how he applied the lessons he’d learnt at the US technology company to help transform Italians’ …

Trust in the digital age

December 26th, 2018

31:00

John Thornhill talks to the academic and author Rachel Botsman about the evolution of trust in the digital age and the way technology has undermined …

Graphcore's next generation chip technology

December 19th, 2018

25:28

Nigel Toon, founder and chief executive of Graphcore, talks to John Thornhill about the chip technology his company is developing and its potential …

What robots can teach humans

December 12th, 2018

35:26

John Thornhill talks to Maja Pantic, Professor of Affective and Behavioural Computing at Imperial College in London, about her work testing the …

Making the most of work chat

December 5th, 2018

26:21

Stewart Butterfield, co-founder and chief executive of San Francisco-based Slack tells John Thornhill how his fascination for technology that …

Artificial intelligence that learns on the fly

November 28th, 2018

18:10

Physicist Zdenka Kuncic tells FT science editor Clive Cookson about the difference between software-based and hardware-based approaches to artificial intelligence and her work to develop autonomous intelligent systems …

The business of cybercrime

November 21st, 2018

23:59

Sociologist Jonathan Lusthaus spent seven years talking to cyber criminals.  He tells Hannah Kuchler what he discovered about the extent of their …

Technology and the human brain

November 14th, 2018

26:01

Murali Doraiswamy, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, Duke University Health System, tells Shannon Bond about his research into …

Investing in deep tech

November 7th, 2018

21:44

Investor Alice Newcombe-Ellis tells John Thornhill about her strategy for discovering and investing in the next generation of disruptive technology …

Puncturing the AI hype

October 31st, 2018

23:45

Zia Chishti's latest business venture Afiniti uses artificial intelligence to match customers and employees, but he tells John Thornhill he sees the …

Who sets the internet standards?

October 24th, 2018

24:29

Hannah Kuchler talks to American social scientist and cyber security expert Andrea Little Limbago about the worrying lack of agreement among governments on how best to promote the beneficial aspects of the internet.

David Sanger on cyber warfare

October 17th, 2018

30:44

John Thornhill talks to the New York Times journalist about his latest book: The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage and Fear in the Cyber Age.  

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Adrian Lovett on fighting for a better web

October 10th, 2018

27:14

Web Foundation president and CEO Adrian Lovett talks to John Thornhill about open data, net neutrality and widening global internet access.


Web Foundation website


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Jocelyn Bell Burnell on new frontiers in astronomy

October 3rd, 2018

22:26

Clive Cookson talks to astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell about her decision to give away her $3m Breakthrough Prize in physics and about what she sees as the most exciting new areas of future research.

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Tristan Harris on digital Frankensteins

September 26th, 2018

28:00

The former Google employee turned campaigner has made it his mission to alert society about the dangers of using computer algorithms to capture our attention. He tells John Thornhill why he co-founded the Centre for …

Liberty and morality in the AI era

September 19th, 2018

25:05

Jamie Susskind, author of Future Politics, Verity Harding of Google DeepMind, and Tabitha Goldstaub, co-founder of CognitionX, discuss liberty and …

Irene Ng on redistributing the economic power of data

September 12th, 2018

23:51

Entrepreneur and academic Irene Ng talks to John Thornhill about the Hub of all Things - a microserver that allows people to own and control their …

What's next for Dropbox?

September 5th, 2018

26:24

Drew Houston, co-founder of the business software company, tells John Thornhill how he caught the entrepreneurial bug and what's next for Dropbox.

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Tech Tonic returns

August 29th, 2018

1:35

John Thorhill and guests return for a news series of Tech Tonic, the show that looks at the way technology is changing our lives.

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How can we make governments smarter?

May 9th, 2018

24:27

Robyn Scott talks to John Thornhill about her company Apolitical, a global news and networking site that seeks to share knowledge and spread best …

The new AI battleground

May 2nd, 2018

22:09

Nicole Eagan, chief executive of Darktrace, tells John Thornhill corporate networks have become the new battleground in a cyberwar waged by criminals …

Terah Lyons on fashioning the AI future

April 25th, 2018

27:32

John Thornhill talks to Terah Lyons, founding executive director of the Partnership on AI, a US initiative that brings civil society groups into a debate with big tech companies to promote the benefits of machine …

What we can learn from ancient DNA

April 18th, 2018

21:10

David Reich, professor of genetics at Harvard, talks to Clive Cookson, the FT's science editor, about how the genomic revolution is affecting …

Julia Shaw on a bot you can trust

April 11th, 2018

25:30

Psychologist Julia Shaw talks to John Thornhill about her research into the fragility of human memory and how this helped her design a software tool …

The consumer awakening

April 4th, 2018

29:52

How can we fix the digital future? Writer and Silicon Valley critic Andrew Keen tells John Thornhill our best resource is human agency and the power of consumers to reject products that they have lost faith in

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Facebook and Google: platforms or publishers?

March 28th, 2018

47:05

The big tech platforms where many people get their news wield significant power. How do they work with publishers, and are they doing enough to combat "fake" news? FT global media editor Matt Garrahan put the questions …

Removing bias from AI

March 21st, 2018

25:23

Kriti Sharma talks to John Thornhill about her work for the UK software company Sage and about her mission to bring greater diversity and accountability to the algorithms that guide our decisions.

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Rethinking the way we earn money

March 14th, 2018

22:34

Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes joins the FT's Hannah Kuchler to talk about economic inequality in the age of "big tech", and his proposal to shrink the income gap in the US. It's the subject of his book Fair Shot: …

Erel Margalit on investing in peace

March 7th, 2018

29:07

John Thornhill talks to Erel Margalit, founder and chairman of Jerusalem Venture Partners, about his plan to help create a regional hub for tech …

Is there anyone out there?

February 28th, 2018

21:19

Clive Cookson, FT science editor, discusses the possibility of alien life and whether we would recognise it if we encountered it with British …

ENCORE: When data rules the world

February 21st, 2018

26:15

In this encore episode, John Thornhill talks to author and historian Yuval Noah Harari about his vision of a future when humans are no longer the smartest algorithm on the planet.

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Road testing self-drive cars

February 14th, 2018

23:23

John Thornhill talks to nuTonomy's Gretchen Effgen about why the company chose Singapore as well as Boston to test its self-drive cars and why it uses a formal methods approach to developing its software.

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Jacqueline Poh on digital government

February 7th, 2018

23:08

John Thornhill talks to the head of Singapore's GovTech about her work in advancing the country's Smart Nation ambitions

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Martin Rees on saving the planet

January 31st, 2018

27:19

John Thornhill talks to leading astrophysicist Martin Rees about why he thinks we need to pay greater attention to the risks posed by environmental …

Silicon Valley's coming of age

January 24th, 2018

28:49

Historian Leslie Berlin talks to the FT's Hannah Kuchler about the generation of entrepreneurs and investors, from Mike Markkula to Sandra Kurtzig, …

Calum Chace on a world without work

December 27th, 2017

24:47

Business and science fiction writer Calum Chace talks to John Thornhill about the exponential growth of AI and why we need to start planning now for a world without work.



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Social media in the classroom

December 20th, 2017

29:16

How is the use of mobile technology and social media affecting the lives of children and adolescents? Sonia Livingstone, professor of psychology at …

Garry Kasparov on the risks and rewards of AI

December 13th, 2017

24:12

Artificial intelligence is an important tool, but human beings have to be creative to understand how best to make use of it, former world chess …

Guarding against the next cyber attack

December 6th, 2017

26:05

Army veteran and cyber security expert Rick Howard talks to the FT's Hannah Kuchler about the current state of cyber security, what we have learned from recent large-scale attacks known as WannaCry and NotPetya and what …

Why AI is the future

November 29th, 2017

24:35

Phil Libin, former chief executive of Evernote, tells John Thornhill why he thinks artificial intelligence will soon be part of the fabric of all our lives and about his plan to create a global AI incubator

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Using tech to fight poverty

November 22nd, 2017

29:30

Elisabeth Mason, founding director of the Stanford Poverty & Technology Lab, talks to the FT's Hannah Kuchler about solving problems such as …

What has gone wrong with the internet revolution?

November 15th, 2017

27:30

Internet pioneer Martha Lane Fox talks to John Thornhill about her work in trying to ensure that the technology lives up to its early ideals and …

Human friendly robotics

November 8th, 2017

20:56

Artificial intelligence entrepreneur Mark Palatucci talks to John Thornhill about the consumer robot revolution and his efforts to help create …

The social media effect

November 1st, 2017

30:52

Microsoft researcher and Data & Society president danah boyd talks to the FT's Hannah Kuchler about the effect of everyday technology, such as …

Reclaiming Europe's digital sovereignty

October 25th, 2017

26:20

Francesca Bria tells John Thornhill how she is helping citizens in Barcelona design their digital future, moving from an economy fuelled by advertising and surveillance and towards transparency and a new social pact on …

Seth Stephens Davidowitz on data mining

October 18th, 2017

21:53

John Thornhill talks to Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, a former Google data scientist, about what our internet searches reveal about who we really are.


Listen to Tech Tonic on iTunes or Stitcher


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Mary Lou Jepsen on the wearable MRI

October 11th, 2017

27:42

Scientist and former Facebook and Google executive Mary Lou Jepsen talks to the FT's Hannah Kuchler about her latest startup, Openwater, where she and a team of researchers are working to develop a ski helmet-sized …

Tech Tonic returns for a second series

October 4th, 2017

1:03

Tech Tonic returns for a second series, starting next week. Our first guest is a former Google and Facebook executive who is working on a wearable diagnostic product that can read your mind. We’ll also be hearing how …

What lies ahead for AR

June 21st, 2017

35:12

Matt Miesnieks, creator of one of the first augmented reality apps and co-founder of startup 6D, tells the FT's Tim Bradshaw about the technological …

Tim Wu on addictive apps

June 14th, 2017

25:33

The author of "The Attention Merchants" talks to John Thornhill about his concerns about the way some web apps are eating into our time

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The graphics chip powering AI technology

June 7th, 2017

22:50

Jensen Huang, chief executive of graphics chipmaker Nvidia, tells the FT's Tim Bradshaw how the graphics processing unit, or GPU, the company pioneered in the 1990s is being used in everything from virtual reality to …

Silicon Valley's newest recruits

May 31st, 2017

24:01

Jeremy Johnson, chief executive of Andela, talks to the FT's Hannah Kuchler about how his company recruits and trains software engineers from several African countries and then places them with the top tech companies.

The limits of artificial intelligence

May 24th, 2017

26:04

Despite billions being spent on research, even our best deep learning neural networks look pitiful when compared to the intricate design of the brain …

Using blockchain to fight fraud

May 17th, 2017

23:46

Leanne Kemp's company Everledger uses blockchain technology to track the provenance of assets, from diamonds to fine wines. She talks to John …

Uber's plans for aviation on demand

May 10th, 2017

22:18

Jeff Holden, Uber's chief product officer, talks to the FT's Leslie Hook about the company's ambitious plan to start testing an aerial taxi service …

How US companies find the right talent

May 3rd, 2017

18:58

Mehul Patel, chief executive of Hired, talks to the FT's Hannah Kuchler about hiring trends in Silicon Valley and other technology hubs in the US, …

What's next for Stripe and online payments

April 26th, 2017

23:40

Stripe's John Collison speaks to the FT's Leslie Hook about what he and his co-founder brother have planned for the $9bn online payments company, why …

What self-driving cars could do for robotics

April 19th, 2017

30:10

Jeremy Conrad, co-founder of hardware incubator and VC fund Lemnos Labs, talks to the FT's Tim Bradshaw about the way economies of scale in the …

How DeepMind vanquished Go

April 12th, 2017

32:04

Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of DeepMind, talks about what he learnt from the Alpha Go experience and the complex problems his artificial …

Engineering your own chatbot

April 5th, 2017

32:06

Lili Cheng and her team at Microsoft's FUSE Labs are at the forefront of research on social interaction with artificial intelligence. She joins the …

Political disruption and the internet

March 29th, 2017

20:06

Helen Margetts, head of the Oxford Internet Institute, talks to the FT's Madhumita Murgia about fake news, echo chambers, big data and why we need …

The virtue of cash

March 22nd, 2017

23:26

Rutger Bregman tells John Thornhill there is evidence to show that we can end poverty by handing out cash to those who need it. The idea of a universal basic income is one whose time has come, he says, and it is finding …

A look inside Uber

March 15th, 2017

27:10

Uber investor and adviser Bradley Tusk talks to the FT's Leslie Hook about the highs and lows of the ride-sharing company's rapid expansion, and how …

Science and security

March 8th, 2017

23:34

Entrepreneur Tom Ilube talks about his work with scientists to deploy their research in the battle against cybercrime, tech advances and education in Africa and why companies need to take cyber security more seriously.

Cracking the ed-tech market

March 1st, 2017

34:38

Duolingo cofounder and chief executive Luis von Ahn talks to the FT's Tim Bradshaw about creating the snackable language learning app that now serves …

Coding for everyone

February 22nd, 2017

24:47

Madhumita Murgia speaks to Kathryn Parsons about her work in promoting digital literacy through the company she co-founded, Decoded, which aims to teach people to code in a day.

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Sharing the cost of driving

February 15th, 2017

24:35

Frédéric Mazzella tells the story of BlaBlaCar, the ride-sharing company he founded, which now operates in over 20 countries, and talks about the rise of tech entrepreneurship in France.

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The future of work

February 8th, 2017

23:34

What will displaced professionals and workers do when intelligent machines take their jobs? Will poets, thinkers and musicians become sought-after occupations? Or will people slump into a world of virtual reality …

When machines outsmart their human designers

February 1st, 2017

24:42

Stuart Russell, a professor of computer science and engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, was one of the first researchers to sound the alarm bell on the risks of developing artificial intelligence. He …

Living in a modern surveillance state

January 25th, 2017

32:21

Jennifer Granick, director of civil liberties at Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society, talks to the FT's Hannah Kuchler about …

Disrupting the banking industry

January 18th, 2017

26:50

Mike Cagney, chief executive and founder of online lender SoFi, talks to the FT's Tom Braithwaite about building a fintech company from refinancing student loans; the high-income millennials the service targets; and why …

The changing face of Russian cyber espionage

January 11th, 2017

32:51

Kevin Mandia, chief executive of cyber security firm FireEye, joins the FT's Hannah Kuchler to discuss how Russian hackers changed the rules of …

Blazing a trail for women in tech

January 4th, 2017

20:00

Madhumita Murgia, the FT's European technology correspondent, talks to Dame Stephanie Shirley, a pioneer of the computer software industry and one …

Re-empowering the consumer

December 28th, 2016

23:04

Nigel Shadbolt, co-founder of the Open Data Institute, talks to John Thornhill about the imbalance between the personal and private control of data …

Hacking foreign policy

December 22nd, 2016

28:50

As the first US ambassador to Silicon Valley, Zvika Krieger is trying to harness the tech capital's brain power to solve some of the country's …

Fighting back against the throwaway culture

December 14th, 2016

19:51

Kyle Wiens, chief executive of iFixit, made his name by tearing apart mobile phones and laptops to understand how they were built and publishing his findings in open source repair manuals. He talks to the FT's Tim …

Inside Google's innovation factory

December 7th, 2016

23:26

Alphabet's research and development lab X is the breeding ground for Google's biggest technological bets, including self-driving cars and a network …

When data rules the world

November 30th, 2016

26:22

John Thornhill talks to author and historian Yuval Noah Harari about his vision of a future when humans are no longer the smartest algorithm on the planet.

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The driverless car revolution

November 23rd, 2016

18:43

Driverless cars will improve our lives dramatically but, as with all technologies, there will be a dark side as millions of jobs disappear, Vivek …

Keeping the cyber hackers at bay

November 16th, 2016

24:19

Nadav Zafrir, a former Israeli intelligence officer and co-founder of cyber security company Team8, talks to John Thornhill about tracking down cyber criminals and training the tech entrepreneurs of the future

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Truth, lies and how to separate fact from fiction

November 9th, 2016

20:23

Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, talks to John Thornhill about truth and lies, the role of the media, and his mission to make the sum of human …

Harnessing the technological revolution

November 2nd, 2016

21:54

Tech utopia or tech dystopia? Carlota Perez of the London School of Economics talks to John Thornhill about the radical changes she believes are …

Introducing FT Tech Tonic

October 25th, 2016

1:05

In a new podcast from the Financial Times hear John Thornhill and correspondents around the globe in conversation with scientists, entrepreneurs and …

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