The Spoon Podcast

In this episode of The Spoon Podcast, Mike talks with Neal Carter, founder and CEO of Okanagan Specialty Fruits, about buying back the company he and his wife Louisa founded nearly 30 years ago. Carter reflects on the long journey behind the Arctic apple, the company’s nonbrowning apple created to reduce waste and get “more apples in more places,” and explains how OSF’s early work with RNA interfe...

This week's guest is former Brava executive Travis Rea, who reflects on building one of the more interesting kitchen startups over the past decade. Rea shares the story behind Brava's light-based cooking technology, the challenges of creating an entirely new appliance category, and the lessons learned about consumer adoption, hardware startups, and innovation in the kitchen. The conversation also...

In this episode of The Spoon Podcast, Michael Wolf talks with Jake Berber, the cofounder and CEO of Prefer, a Singapore-based startup that uses fermentation to create coffee and cocoa extenders from ingredients like rice and chickpeas. Berber explains why rising coffee and cocoa prices, climate pressure, and growing global demand convinced him there was a massive opportunity to help future-proof s...

In this episode of The Spoon Podcast, Mike sits down with Chef Robotics CEO Rajat Bhageria to unpack how the company quietly went from years in stealth to assembling more than 100 million meals. Bhageria explains why assembly, not cooking, is the real bottleneck in food production, how Chef is using its ChefOS platform to build a data-driven approach to food manipulation, and why the messy, variab...

In this episode of The Spoon Podcast, Mike catches up with Mo Abouelsoud, CEO of U The Mind Company, about the emerging intersection of brain health, wellness, and consumer technology. Abouelsoud explains how his company’s non-invasive brain stimulation devices are designed to help treat neurological conditions while also opening the door to cognitive enhancement, better focus, and long-term brain...

In this episode of The Spoon Podcast, Mike catches up with Will Templeton, co-founder and CTO of Allspice, about how the traditional recipe blog model, laden with ads, pop-ups, and static content, is breaking down as users increasingly “lift” recipes into apps, screenshots, or AI tools. The conversation explores how Allspice is building a new infrastructure layer for recipes, using structured ingr...

In this episode of The Spoon Podcast, Mike catches up with Oobli CEO Ali Wing to discuss what Wing calls "nature's trickster protein", the sweet proteins they develop for products like ice teas and chocolate bars. Wing talks about how the company is positioning its sweet protein technology at the center of two major shifts reshaping the food industry: the rise of GLP-1-driven dietary behavior and...

Mike is joined by Matthew Schwarz, CEO of Afresh, who discusses the company’s expansion from fresh produce to an all-in-one AI solution for the entire grocery store. Matt explains how the company's AI tech has prevented 200 million pounds of food waste annually and explores the rise of agentic AI, the balance between automation and humans, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphon...

In this episode of The Spoon Podcast, Michael Wolf talks with Mario Ubiali, founder and CEO of neuroscience company THIMUS, about how brainwave data and AI could reshape how food companies develop new products. Ubiali explains how his company uses wearable EEG technology to measure consumers’ neurological responses to food, capturing signals around liking, familiarity, and emotional engagement tha...

In this episode, Mike sits down with friend, food systems thinker and The Food Corridor founder Ashley Colpaart to talk about the rise of Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operations (MEHKOs) and what they mean for the future of food entrepreneurship. Ashley shares why she believes lawmakers are trying to avoid an “Uberfication moment,” and why she thinks shared commercial kitchens remain a critical ac...

In this episode, Mike sits down with Dr. Nora Khaldi, founder and CEO of Nuritas, to explore how a postdoctoral epiphany about wallaby milk led her to build one of the first AI-powered molecular discovery platforms in food. They discuss how Nuritas uses AI to uncover, validate, and scale molecules into clinically validated ingredients, why ingredient discovery has historically taken decades, and w...

In this conversation, Mike interviews Brent Franson, CEO of Death Clock, a company that uses AI to predict when you're going to die (aka life expectancy) based on health data. Brent and Mike discuss the origins of Death Clock, the importance of preventative health, and the role of consumer responsibility in managing health. Brent shares insights on the demand for longevity solutions, his entrepren...

In this episode, Mike sits down with Rachel Konrad, former head of communications at Impossible Foods and now a lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business, to talk about the state of alternative protein and where Impossible lost its way. Drawing on her experience as the company's first communications hire, Konrad argues that Impossible’s biggest mistake wasn’t market headwinds but a strategi...

In this episode, Mike sits down with Alex Shirazi, a food technologist, conference organizer, and longtime observer of the cultivated meat industry, to talk about his latest project, A Scientist’s Cookbook. Shirazi explains why he chose to launch a cookbook via Kickstarter as cultivated meat products inch closer to market. They discuss writing a cookbook for products that aren't yet widely availab...

Michael Wolf sits down with Matt Barnard and Matt Amicucci, PhD, the cofounders behind one.bio and its newly launched consumer brand GoodVice, to discuss why they believe the modern food system is broken and why it starts with fiber. The conversation examines the science of dietary fiber as a biological signal and how decades of food processing have stripped those signals. They talk about why most...

At CES 2026, the future of cooking took center stage in a conversation about whether robots will replace chefs or simply become their collaborators. The Spoon Podcast host Michael Wolf moderated a discussion with Tyler Florence, celebrity chef and longtime Food Network host; Nicole Maffeo, founder of Gambit Robotics; and Ali Kashani, CEO of Serve Robotics. They discuss how AI and robotics are ente...

In this episode, Mike is joined by Tim Beissinger (CTO of Heritable) and Charlie Andersen (CEO of Burro) to explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping agriculture. The conversation explores everything from AI-driven plant breeding to how autonomous robots are tackling labor shortages, improving yields. Both Tim and Charlie will be at CES in January, so make sure to check the CES Ag Tech conf...

In this episode, Michael talks with Arturo Elizondo, founder and CEO of The EVERY Company, about the company’s nationwide rollout inside Walmart products, its $55 million Series D fundraise, and the strategic shift toward becoming a “boring but sexy” B2B ingredient supplier powering baked goods behind the scenes. Arturo talks about the early IndieBio days, the decade-long journey from USDA intern...

In this episode of The Spoon Podcast, registered dietitian and longtime CNN food journalist Carolyn O’Neil joins Mike to traverse the fiberverse and discuss the growing trend of fibermaxxing. Carolyn discusses the science behind different types of fiber, and why Gen Z’s favorite prebiotic sodas are suddenly everywhere. She also breaks down how fiber actually works in the body, why most people get...

In this episode, Michael talks with Eliot Horowitz, founder of MongoDB and now CEO of Viam, about why the physical world is lagging behind the AI revolution and how Viam is building the foundational platform robotics has been missing. Eliot shares why robotics needs its “AWS moment,” how better tools can shrink development timelines from years to months, and why practical automation, from kitchen...

In this episode, Mike is joined by Anna Hammond, founder of Matriarch Foods, a social-impact food company that turns farm surplus and manufacturing byproducts into shelf-ready ingredients and meals for food banks, disaster relief, and food service. Anna has an interesting career journey, going from museums and art publishing to building a triple-bottom-line food startup tackling food waste at indu...

This episode features a wide-ranging conversation between The Spoon's Michael Wolf and his old friend, long-time veteran tech journalist Derrick Harris, about the state of AI in 2025. Topics discussed include: The evolution from the early cloud and big-data era to today’s generative-AI boom How Nvidia became dominant on the training side How inference is becoming the true infrastructure bottleneck...

This week, we catch up with Nicole Papantoniou, the Director of the Good Housekeeping Kitchen Appliances and Innovation Lab. We hear from Nicole about what it's like running one of the preeminent testing labs for kitchen appliances in the world, her personal journey to her current position and what she's excited about in terms of kitchen innovation. Enjoy the podcast! Learn more about your ad choi...

In this episode of The Spoon Podcast, Mike welcomes Shiru CEO Jasmin Hume to the podcast to catch up on where things sit within the AI and food space in the context of Shiru's own evolution over the past couple of years. The highlights include: Talking about how VCs and entrepreneurs talk differently about how AI is being embraced in food Who will own the foundation models for food in the future H...

In this episode of The Spoon Podcast, Mike talks with Steve Statler, CEO and co-founder of AMB.AI, about the rise of ambient AI and energy-harvesting Bluetooth beacons could transform the supply chain. Steve shares his journey from pioneering Bluetooth beacons at Qualcomm to envisioning a future where everyday items like food, medicine, and clothing are connected and continuously monitored for loc...