In Conversation With

Will O'Brien, founder of Ulysses, is building underwater robots and autonomous drones to do the important work of the ocean, for industry, researchers, and the U.S. Navy. In this episode we go deep (literally) on ocean tech, underwater autonomy, illegal fishing, mine detection, UFOs in the ocean, faith, growing up Irish, and why he thinks reading is overrated in San Francisco. We cover the fro...

What happens to meaning when AI accelerates faster than our nervous systems can handle? In this episode of In Conversation With, I sit down with Nicole, astrologer, writer, and rationalist, to trace the path from math to mysticism: why engineers, physicists, and tech builders are turning to astrology, tarot, psychedelics, and the occult during a moment of profound uncertainty. We get into synchron...

on the frontier of peptides & community in conversation with Tori Pastore @bonecondor 00:55 an intro to peptides 08:13 on peptides removing food noise: tori’s experience 14:30 dosing and combatting food engineering 16:14 on the verge of shapeshifting 20:30 bending attention, corporate surrealism, and Tori being a fan of Roy Lee 29:35 the post-atomic bomb societal shift and the origins of “hips...

In conversation with Max Spero and  @PangramLabs  From the grifters, to auto reply bots, to russian influence campaigns, to the rising cost of trainingDive in:00:36 Max's background & pangram labs05:27 AI slop attack vectors13:19 Is this an intractable problem?18:48 The relational value of content21:36 A surprising learning...29:36 Customer problems we're not talking enough about37:04...

In conversation with Mina Fahmi, CEO of Sandbar 00:34 Mina's background 01:42 Robotics, neural interfaces, and hardware 06:06 Bringing nervous system work into designing AI products 10:25 Building with voice 12:38 AI extending self-concept 19:05 AI sycophancy 24:58 Agentic memory 30:11 Hardware decisions at Sandbar 34:16 Hiring at Sandbar 36:04 Bringing AI to more people

On the frontier of storytelling In conversation with Erika Lee, leading branding at Corgi, from their new 24/7 SF cafe. The old branding playbooks are being thrown out the window… & something new is taking it’s place. Whatever form it takes, human resonance will always be what sells, and Erika embodies this. Erika has journeyed from local news broadcasting to crypto to AI…and is now bringing s...

On agent factories, memory, continual learning & building on the frontier while growing a familyIn conversation withSam Whitmore, engineering at  @Cursor  I am so excited to share this because I have been inspired by Sam for years...and this joins agentic products+memory with shining a light on pregnancy and raising a young family← we need more conversations on both! Dive in:00:25 Sam’s backgr...

On pop up villages for folks in frontier tech & science In conversation with Timour KostersTimour and the  Edge City team are on the cutting edge of curating in real life connections for folks on the frontier. In fact, a KPI they have are number of kids conceived because of Edge! Dive in: 00:28 Timour’s background04:55 Edge City - pop up villages for people in frontier tech + science 07:45 The...

Stepping into the golden age of energy techIn conversation with Danielle Fong https://x.com/DanielleFong00:45 Danielle’s background, starting with college at 12 4:16 The global energy crisis 11:15 Productizing: from drones to data centers14:00 Powering your future openclaw with propane 14:34 Selling to the US gov vs consumer applications 19:30 AI, data centers, and new energy sources23:25 Agentic...

On building consumer wearables in 2026In conversation with Andy Kong @oldestasian interested in hardware? me too. fascinating chat, amazing lab aesthetic 00:00 quiz-bowl buzzers to the SF wearables scene 02:25 pebble, kickstarter, and what's changed 05:49 2 ways of developing wearables 06:59 CMs, budgets, and designing your own board 09:53 using Alibaba chat to source partners 14:07 planning a she...

In only 6 months, Zara Zhang - learned to code - grew from 2k→47k followers- consistently goes viral with the products she ships...when it's harder than ever to go viral 00:00 Builders want to learn how to put out content 01:40 Growing on X05:49 How to put out resonant content 10:19 Prolific building 11:47 2k→47k followers on X in 6 months16:59 Advice if you're new to vibe coding 22:31 Coding is t...

In conversation with Evan Conrad, CEO of SF Compute00:00 Rolling with the punches00:36 Bank account is going to $003:10 The upcoming compute shortage4:06 SF Compute as the chill GPU cloud provider company

In an era in which anyone can build anything, the builder playbook must include cultivating an audience. Matt Palmer has done this exceptionally well across platforms with his developer community. Matt breaks down the mindset for starting out with tech media and growing. 00:22 What are people getting wrong about the tech media landscape? 04:01 Few people ask about what it means to bring authentici...

On feeling the AI acceleration in SF, Entering the Year of the Fire Horse, and Staying Grounded in Community In conversation with Loewen Cavill, CEO of Amira and previously Google X & MIT. For the latest, follow me on X https://x.com/ashebytes or join my newsletter https://ashe.ai/newsletter