Minds Behind Maps

On every Minds Behind Maps episode I ask guests for books they've read they think are worth sharing. This time I'm sharing with you the books I read & recommend from my 2024 reading. Shownotes Note: Links to books are Amazon Affiliate links. I earn a small commission if you buy any of these books. Utopia For Realists ( Amazon Affiliate ) The Capitalist Manifesto ( Amazon Affiliate ) The New Breadl...

Krishna Karra is a data scientist & report for Bloomberg, having used machine learning & satellite images for reporting. Recent stories from him & his team include mapping refugee camps in Rafah & exposing illegal ship oil transfers in the middle of the Ocean. Sponsor: Beemaps by Hivemapper Get access to high quality, fresh map data at https://beemaps.com/minds Use promo code MINDS to get 50% off...

Phil Edwards is a video producer who worked at Vox for nearly 10 years, and now runs his own Youtube channel exploring the history of businesses, and lately has been using more and more maps. We go over one of his latest videos, “The Secret Economics of Google Street View” as a case study of how Phil thinks about maps to tell stories. We also talk about journalism on Youtube, and the business behi...

Awais Ahmed is the co-founder & CEO of Pixxel, a company building a constellation of hyperspectral imaging satellites. Unlike “traditional” cameras, these satellites can see across hundreds of bands, opening up a lot more applications. We talk about the engineering -and funding- required to pull this off and how Awais manages a company between India (where Awais is from) and the US. But that’s jus...

Sina Kashuk is the co-founder & CEO of Fused, who wants to make iterating & deploying in Python faster with serverless computing. We break down what that actually means, why it matters and what data science workflows could look like over the next few years. This also isn’t Sina’s first company, a few years ago he started Unfolded.ai , focused on making visualisations for data scientists faster. Th...

Andrew Peterson is the Co-Founder & CEO of Array Labs, with a simple mission: Mapping the whole world in 3D, at 20cm in near real time. We peel the layers as to what it takes to get there: the engineering that’s required, how to build a constellation to do that, how you fund such a project. Sponsor: OpenCage Use OpenCage for your geocoding needs with their API Geomob About Andrew LinkedIn Array La...

Jamie McMichael-Phillips is the Director of the Seabed 2030 Project, which aims to map all of the world's oceans, by 2030. For context, in 2024, we’re at 26.1%. This is conversation is about why, how we get to 100% and why it’s important in the first place. Sponsor: SatCamp SatCamp is a different kind of conference, from October 1st to October 3rd 2024, in Boulder Colorado About Bio on Seabed 2030...

Check out Jed’s Techs on Text podcast Jed has also been on Minds Behind Maps before . We talked open data, AI, and the role of books for people building things

Jean-Martin Bauer has been working at the World Food Program for over 20years, and the author of the “The New Breadline”. Most recently he was the Country Director for Haiti, in charge of helping make sure the country doesn’t run out of food. Sponsor: SatCamp SatCamp is a different kind of conference, from October 1st to October 3rd 2024, in Boulder Colorado About Jean-Martin LinkedIn Jean-Martin’...

Ashlee Vance is a Tech Journalist, the author of Elon Musk's 1st biography in 2015, the host of "Hello World" on Youtube and the author of "When the Heavens Went on Sale" as well as the accompanying documentary "Wild Wild Space" following 4 New Space companies. We nerd out on rocket companies, 1 rogue NASA administrator, and the time I got to meet Vladimir Putin years ago. Sponsor: OpenCage Use Op...

Luke Fischer is the Co-Founder & CEO of SkyFi, a company that we'll describe in a few ways in this episode, but boils down to an Earth Observation marketplace. We talk about Luke's 20 year time in the military before getting into startups, why Luke is bullish on their approach and many more Sponsor: SatCamp SatCamp is a different kind of conference, from October 1st to October 3rd 2024, in Boulder...

Ben Strong is the Science & Machine Learning Lead at Earth Genome, an NGO working on the intersection of data, science & digital design. Most recently they've been working on Earth Index, an application built on top of Earth embeddings from foundation models. This conversation is the "so what" of Earth foundational model Sponsor: OpenCage Use OpenCage for your geocoding needs with their API Geomob...

Ib Green led the development of 3D visualisation tools like for example Uber’s deck.gl and is now working at Foursquare, after having started Unfolded, which Foursquare acquired. During this conversation we touch on how browser based visualisations are changing This episode is supported by all the people on Patreon Access Behind the Scenes and support the podcast by joining too! About LinkedIn Sho...

Bruno Sanchez is the Executive Director of the Clay Foundation, which just released their v1 of a “Foundational Model of Earth”. We talk about what that means, building open source & non profits and can’t help but draw parallels to the not-so-open anymore OpenAI. Previously Bruno was the Program Director of the Microsoft Planetary Computer Sponsor: OpenCage Use OpenCage for your geocoding needs wi...

Dr Fred Calef III has the unofficial title of "Keeper of Maps" at NASA JPL, he's the Lead Mapping Specialist for most of JPL's Mars Rover missions, most recently that being Perseverance & Curiosity. But to land -and navigate- a rover, one needs maps, and Fred makes them. Sponsor: Nimbo by Kermap Try out Kermap's monthly mosaic viewer Nimbo for yourself Support the podcast on Patreon About Fred Twi...

Sponsor: OpenCage Use OpenCage for your geocoding needs with their API Geomob Shownotes Note: Links to books are Amazon Affiliate links. I earn a small commission if you buy any of these books. GeoLayers geolayers.app Johnny Harris Markus’s cameo in a recent video Search Party Felt Procreate dreams Jason Boone’s episode Podcast recommendation: Syntax.fm Timestamps (00:00) - Intro (02:26) - Sponsor...

Volodymyr Agafonkin is the creator of Leaflet, an open-source JS mapping library started in 2008 that is used pretty much everywhere on the Internet today. We end up nerding out on what makes building simple open source software & rendering maps online tricky but also so endlessly interesting. Volodymyr lives in Ukraine, a country shaken by a war for the past few years, which we also talk about. S...

Qiusheng Wu is an Associate Professor in Geography, an active open source contributor behind projects like geemap, leafmap or segment-geospatial also sharing tutorials on his popular Youtube channel. Qiusheng has a desire to teach, share and lower the barrier to entry to geospatial, all things I'm always curious to talk more about Sponsor: OpenCage Use OpenCage for your geocoding needs with their...

Ryan Abernathey is a Climate Scientist, open-source software developer and the CEO & co-founder of Earthmover, a company trying to simplify how scientific computing is done. Ryan also co-founded the Pangeo project in 2016, one of the major efforts to build better tools for scientific computing today. Sponsor: Nimbo by Kermap Try out Kermap's monthly mosaic viewer Nimbo for yourself About Ryan Twit...

Gilberto Camara was the director of INPE, Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research from 2005 to 2012, working there 35y in total and leading the use of satellite imagery to fight deforestation in Brazil, leading to what Nature declared “One of the biggest environmental wins of the 2000s” Sponsor: OpenCage  Use OpenCage for your geocoding needs with their API   Geomob About Gilberto Twitter B...

Thomas Ager worked for 30y at the National Geospatial Agency on Radar satellite images and recently released ‘The Essentials of SAR’ a book breaking down Synthetic Aperture Radar for, as he puts it, “non electrical engineers” Sponsor: Planet Find more about accessing Planet's high resolution & high frequency images About Tom LinkedIn His book: The Essentials of SAR ( Affiliate Link ) Also availabl...

Brian McClendon was one of the earliest investors & later VP of Engineering at Keyhole, which got acquired by Google in 2004. Brian become VP of Engineering and led Google Geo, overlooking the development of Google Earth & Google Maps. He also worked at Uber & is now at Niantic, which you might know for thri most popular app: Pokemon Go Sponsor: OpenCage  Use OpenCage for your geocoding needs with...

Ariel Seidman is one of the co-founders of Hivemapper, a company building a map through selling dashcams & paying contributing drivers with the aim of competing with Google Maps. Ariel has a long history of mapping, working on Map & Search at Yahoo in the mid 2000s. Sponsor: Planet Find more about accessing Planet's high resolution & high frequency images About Ariel Twitter LinkedIn Hivemapper Sh...

It's the end of the year, so time for Christmas sweaters & looking back on the year through 12 conversations ranging from advice for people wanting to build things, discussing academia & companies, thinking about the roles of maps in the world and many others. Support the podcast & my work on Patreon Listen to the full episodes mentioned today: Harold Goddijn Sean Gorman Can Duruk James Killick Mi...

Jason Boone runs the Boone Loves Videos YouTube Channel with nearly 100k subscribers, teaching people visual effects & map animations. This led him to work with some of the biggest YouTubers out there, including Johnny Harris. We talked about running an online business teaching people map animations, using maps to tell stories and Jason's recent dive into tech startups. Sponsor: Planet Find more a...