Cool Tools

Robert Stephens is mostly know as the Founder of The Geek Squad and recently he founded his newest company, ChainList — a sort of github for checklists. You can find him on Twitter @rstephens. Website:  https://www.chainlist.com   For show notes and transcript visit:  https://kk.org/cooltools/robert-stephens-founder-of-chainlist/   If you're enjoying the Cool Tools podcast, check out our paperback...

Rolf Potts is the author of five books, including Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel (Random House, 2003), and The Vagabond's Way: 366 Meditations on Wanderlust, Discovery, and the Art of Travel (Ballantine, 2022). You can Rolf on Instagram and Twitter @rolfpotts. Website: https://rolfpotts.com/   For show notes and transcript visit: https://kk.org/cooltools/rolf-p...

Brady Forrest is the Head of Business Development at MobileCoin, a privacy-protecting payment coin that is available worldwide in Signal Messenger. Working with his wife, he runs Ignite Talks, a global talk series which has been held thousands of times around the world including at SXSW, Google, the Gates Foundation and the White House. Brady is on the Board of CAST, a non-profit that buys and man...

Robert Stencel is an emeritus professor of astronomy at the University of Denver, where he taught classes and managed the high altitude observatory atop Mount Evans, Colorado at 14,148 ft elevation. Dr. Stencel previously worked at NASA Houston and Greenbelt centers and at NASA Headquarters in Washington DC, prior to joining Denver University in 1993. His research includes the origin of the elemen...

Foster Huntington is photographer and filmmaker and lives in a treehouse outside of Portland.  For show notes and transcript visit: https://kk.org/cooltools/foster-huntington-filmmaker/   If you're enjoying the Cool Tools podcast, check out our paperback book Four Favorite Tools: Fantastic tools by 150 notable creators, available in both Color or B&W on Amazon: https://geni.us/fourfavoritetools

Paul Jensen is a surfer, wooden surfboard builder, teacher of building wooden surfboards, retired general contractor, remodeler, cabinet maker, stairbuilder, vehicle customizer, consultant/ designer for Homegrown Trailers, husband/father ... Provocateur… Website:  www.hollowsurfboards.com Instagram: @paul___jensen   For show notes and transcript visit:  https://kk.org/cooltools/paul-jensen-hollow-...

Nathan Myhrvold is a scientist, inventor, nature and food photographer, and author of the award-winning Modernist Cuisine cookbooks. After completing a postdoc with Stephen Hawking and serving as Microsoft's first Chief Technology Officer, he founded Intellectual Ventures, which has spun out more than 15 tech startups. Myhrvold is inventor or coinventor of 899 patented inventions to date. His book...

Survival Research Laboratories was founded by Mark Pauline in November 1978 in San Francisco. Since its inception, SRL is made up of creative technicians dedicated to re-directing the tools of industry, science, and the military. Each performance is a unique interaction between machines and special effects in socio-political satire. Humans are present only as audience or operators. Website:  srl.o...

Tim O'Reilly is the founder, CEO, and Chairman of O'Reilly Media, and a partner at early stage venture firm O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures (OATV). He is also on the boards of Code for America, PeerJ, Civis Analytics, and PopVox. His book, WTF: What's the Future and Why It's Up to Us, explores what technology advances teach us about the future economy and government as its "platform." He is a Visiting...

Ryan Phelan is the Co-founder and Executive Director of Revive & Restore, with a mission to enhance biodiversity through the genetic rescue of endangered and extinct species. Ryan works with some of the world's leading molecular biologists, conservation biologists, and conservation organizations to envision and develop pioneering genetic rescue projects using cutting-edge genomic technologies to s...

Howard Rheingold is author of Tools For Thought, The Virtual Community, and Smart Mobs, Net Smart; editor of Whole Earth Review, and Millennium Whole Earth Catalog; Lecturer, Social Media Literacies, Stanford. You can find Howard on Twitter @hrheingold and Patreon @howardrheingold.   For show notes and transcript visit:  https://kk.org/cooltools/howard-rheingold-author-of-tools-for-thought/   If y...

Christopher Michel is the inaugural Artist-in-Residence at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. His appointment is focused on leveraging visual storytelling to elevate the work of scientists, engineers and medical professionals in society. Previously, Chris founded and sold two technology companies. He is also the founder of Nautilus Ventures, a seed venture fund. Prior to...

Alan Greene, MD, FAAP practices at Crescendo MD, a membership-based medical practice located in Silicon Valley, California. He is a graduate of Princeton University and the University of California at San Francisco. He is currently an Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Greene and his wife Cheryl helped shape online health through their involvement with m...

Larry Keeley has worked for over four decades as an innovation scientist. He helped pioneer the specialized field of innovation effectiveness and has taught thousands of Masters and PhD innovators both at Kellogg's MMM Program and at Chicago's highly regarded Institute of Design. He is now an independent innovation researcher, working on pioneering new tradecraft.   For show notes and transcript v...

Paul Saffo is a technology forecaster based in Silicon Valley. An Adjunct Professor in the School of Engineering at Stanford University, Saffo teaches courses on the future of engineering and the impact of technological change on the future.   For show notes and transcript visit:  https://kk.org/cooltools/paul-saffo-technology-forecaster/   If you're enjoying the Cool Tools podcast, check out our...

A.J. Jacobs is an author, journalist, lecturer and human guinea pig. He has written four New York Times bestsellers that combine memoir, science, humor and a dash of self-help. Among his books are The Year of Living Biblically and The Know-It-All. He has given several TED talks that have amassed over 10 million views. His latest book is "The Puzzler," which Booklist called "ridiculously entertaini...

Derek Sivers is an author of philosophy and entrepreneurship, known for his surprising quotable insights and pithy succinct writing style. Formerly a musician, programmer, TED speaker, and circus clown, he sold his first company for $22 million and gave all the money to charity. Sivers' books (How to Live, Hell Yeah or No, Your Music and People, Anything You Want) and newest projects are at his we...

Charles Platt lives in the Arizona wilderness where he writes books about electronics and builds rapid cooling devices for the cryonics community.   For show notes and transcript visit:  https://kk.org/cooltools/charles-platt-author-2/   If you're enjoying the Cool Tools podcast, check out our paperback book Four Favorite Tools: Fantastic tools by 150 notable creators, available in both Color or B...

Austin Kleon is the New York Times bestselling author of a trilogy of illustrated books about creativity in the digital age: Steal Like An Artist, Show Your Work!, and Keep Going. He's also the author of Newspaper Blackout, a collection of poems made by redacting the newspaper with a permanent marker. His books have been translated into dozens of languages and have sold over a million copies world...

Diego Rodriguez has had a career spanning business, design, and technology. He served as Intuit's Chief Product & Design Officer, a Senior Partner at IDEO, and as a member of the Harvard University Board of Overseers. He is a founding faculty member of the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford (aka "the d.school"). Over the last several years he has been an investor, advisor, and member o...

Our guest this week is Robert Stephens. Robert is the founder of The Geek Squad and former CTO of Best Buy. The Geek Squad will turn 30 in 2024 and employs over 24,000 people. His newest company launching soon, is ChainList, a platform for re-usable checklists and was inspired by CoolTools. A native of Chicago, he now lives in the Bay Area. Robert's newest company, ChainList will enter public beta...

  Brian Lam is the Founding Editor of The Wirecutter.   For show notes and transcript visit:  https://kk.org/cooltools/brian-lam-founding-editor-of-the-wirecutter/   If you're enjoying the Cool Tools podcast, check out our paperback book Four Favorite Tools: Fantastic tools by 150 notable creators, available in both Color or B&W on Amazon: https://geni.us/fourfavoritetools

Charles Lindsay is an artist-adventurer whose work synthesizes ideas about time, technology, eco-systems and semiotics. You can find out more at charleslindsay.com  or follow him on Instagram @charles_lindsay_.    For show notes and transcript visit: https://kk.org/cooltools/charles-lindsay-artist-adventurer/   If you're enjoying the Cool Tools podcast, check out our paperback book Four Favorite T...

Gary Wolf is a writer and journalist and co-founder of Quantified Self, as well as the Director of Article 27, a non-profit organization which supports the human right to participate in science through education, advocacy, and the development of open tools for self-research. You can find him on Twitter @agaricus or visit  https://quantifiedself.com .    For show notes and transcript visit:  https:...

James Home is a designer and technologist living aboard a forty-foot sailboat called Rejoice. You can follow him on Twitter @jameshome, or visit his website at jameshome.com   For show notes and transcript visit:  https://kk.org/cooltools/james-home-designer-and-technologist/   If you're enjoying the Cool Tools podcast, check out our paperback book Four Favorite Tools: Fantastic tools by 150 notab...