Core Memory

• He's Building A Space Station For $1 Billion - EP 38 Jed McCaleb

  Jed McCaleb grew up in Arkansas where he lived in a cabin in the woods that had no electricity or running water. Now, he’s a billionaire building a space station and funding some of the world’s most adventurous science.America remains a thing, I guess.McCaleb, 50, has been at the center of several major technology movements. Back in the peer-to-peer glory days, he released the eDonkey application for music and file-swapping and had the pleasure of being sued by the major record labels. Then, in 2010, he launched the Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange, which dominated the crypto world until it turned into a story of mega woe.A couple of years later, McCaleb developed the Ripple protocol before moving on to build yet more crypto innovations. This work made McCaleb fabulously well-to-do. (He’s worth $3 billion . . . if you believe Forbes.)McCaleb has used his fortune to back a number of start-ups and philanthropic endeavors. When Elon Musk pulled out of supporting OpenAI, McCaleb helped backfill the financial vacuum. He’s also been a major investor in Max Hodak’s Science Corp., which is developing brain computer interface technology and in the rocket maker Firefly Aerospace.McCaleb’s real blockbuster investment is Vast Space. The start-up is building a commercial space station designed to be the successor to the International Space Station, which is very much on its last legs. McCaleb says he’s prepared to put $1 billion of his fortune into Vast to make sure it happens.My conversation with McCaleb travels across these various tech eras. He comes off, at least to me, as an oddly down-to-Earth guy for someone who invests in such a variety of wild ideas.Enjoy!The Core Memory podcast is sponsored by Brex, the intelligent finance platform. Like thousands of ambitious, innovative companies, we run on Brex so we can spend smarter and move faster. And you can too. Learn more at www.brex.com/corememoryThe podcast is also made possible by E1 Ventures, which backs the most ambitious founders and start-ups. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribe

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• The State Of Gene Editing - EP 37 Eryney Marrogi

  We have a proper treat this week. Core Memory special correspondent Eryney Marrogi comes on the pod.Marrogi is a scientist and soon-to-be doctor who has followed the rise of the gene editing tools at humanity’s disposal. He wrote a piece for us a couple of months ago on “Baby KJ,” the child who received a customized, life-saving gene therapy in record time. Now we get into what Baby KJ means for the future of gene therapies.The gene therapy field is advancing quickly but remains costly and technically complex. Marrogi breaks down how hopeful people should be – or not – that new techniques can be applied to more than super rare, single gene problems.We also get into the ups and downs of the DIY Bio movement, Marrogi’s work creating gene-edited mosquitoes and the vaping crisis he sees with America’s youth, who are taking in unfathomable levels of nicotine.Enjoy!The Core Memory podcast is sponsored by Brex, the intelligent finance platform. Like thousands of ambitious, innovative companies, we run on Brex so we can spend smarter and move faster. And you can too. Learn more at www.brex.com/corememoryThe podcast is also made possible by E1 Ventures, which backs the most ambitious founders and start-ups. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribe

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• We Shall Finally Map The Brain - EP 36 Andrew Payne

  In the 1970s, scientists created the first wiring diagram of a worm brain. To do this, they sliced up a worm, imaged the slices under microscopes and then reconstructed a map of the worm’s neurons and their synaptic connections. Wonderful. (It was 302 neurons and really a map of the worm’s central nervous system.)We haven’t come terribly far since then. It took until 2024 for scientists to create a full map – aka a connectome – of an adult fly brain (140,000 neurons) and researchers now dream of completing similar work for a mouse brain and one day perhaps a human brain with its 80 billion neurons and one trillion connections.The belief is that if we have a proper wiring diagram of the brain, we will understand the brain and how it works much better.Things have been slow and hard because mapping something like a mammalian brain requires a lot of laborious work, tons of computing power and some method for labeling all the neurons and their connections in a comprehensible and useful fashion.E11 Bio was founded in 2021 to try and develop new techniques for mapping brains faster and cheaper. And today marks a big moment in the organization’s history. The E11 Bio team has published a paper – in conjunction with loads of high-profile contributors – detailing the success of its techniques. (There’s much more info on E11’s web site here and here.)In very simplified terms, E11 can put viruses in the brain that carry proteins to neurons. Those proteins then distribute markers across the neurons that make them light up in different colors under a microscope. This technology has made it much easier to find individual neurons and trace their connections.E11’s co-founder and CEO Andrew Payne was kind enough to come on the podcast to discuss the organization’s work and its brain mapping process. We also got into why this all matters, the challenges ahead and where neuroscience and artificial intelligence overlap.Enjoy!If you care about science and this type of in-depth reporting, please subscribe and support our work.The Core Memory podcast is sponsored by Brex, the intelligent finance platform. Like thousands of ambitious, innovative companies, we run on Brex so we can spend smarter and move faster. And you can too. Learn more at www.brex.com/corememoryThe podcast is also made possible by E1 Ventures, which backs the most ambitious founders and start-ups. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribe

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• China Builds, The US Regulates - EP 35 Dan Wang

  In this episode, Dan Wang comes on the show to discuss his new book Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future.I’ll start by noting that the book is fantastic, and you should read it. It’s a well-researched, vibrant account of how China became dominated by its engineering culture. The country has displayed an unmatched ability to build over the past forty years, and Wang traces the scale of these accomplishments in detail. He also documents how pervasive this engineering mindset is by diving into the one-child and zero-Covid policies, and the brutally efficient ways they were carried out.Subscribe to the Core Memory podcast here and on all major podcast platforms.Wang contrasts China’s engineering-first culture with the US’s regulation-first culture. China’s top politicians are mostly engineers. The US’s top politicians are mostly lawyers. Wang argues that the US once built like China until the 1960s came, and the US began regulating itself into a collective torpor.As you’ll find in the book and hear in our discussion, Wang is not a China propagandist. Far from it. He offers a sober look at the pros and cons of both China and the US and points out that the two cultures have remarkable similarities.In this episode, we explore the book and much beyond it, discussing what hope, if any, the US has of competing against China in the coming century.Enjoy!The Core Memory podcast is sponsored by Brex, the intelligent finance platform. Like thousands of ambitious, innovative companies, we run on Brex so we can spend smarter and move faster. And you can too. Learn more at www.brex.com/corememoryThe podcast is also made possible by E1 Ventures, which backs the most ambitious founders and start-ups. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribe

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• This Is: How Neuralink Builds A Head

  This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.corememory.comIn January of 2024, Noland Arbaugh became the first human to receive one of Neuralink’s brain-computer interface implants.Ahead of that surgery, Neuralink pulled off a first-of-its-kind engineering feat. The company created a detailed replica of Arbaugh’s skull and brain. With this replica, Neuralink’s surgeons and its surgical robot could practice the …

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