Something Ventured -- Silicon Valley Podcast

Raj Kapoor contracted Covid in mid-March.  He and his family are recovered and well. But Raj is taking aim at shortening the path to a post-Covid world.  He partnered with Clara Health to create www.worldwithoutcovid.org.  The site let’s people register to help researchers worldwide accelerate their race to find better testing, treatments, and vaccines.

Raj has been a venture capitalist (Mayfield) and a entrepreneur (SnapFish).  He is currently the Chief Strategy Officer at Lyft. 

In this episode we discuss Raj’s journey from contracting to recovering from Covid.  We also discuss the path to finding a treatment, and the why’s and how’s of California’s lockdown.  We also discuss (Caifornia Governor) Gavin Newsom’s “6 Criteria for lifting quarantine”, and the current state of the US Presidential race.

We turn to Lyft, and the future of transportation (the original topic of this episode):   How Lyft is faring during the Covid crisis, how will change cities, and how Lyft affect climate change.

Finally, we briefly discuss the effect Covid might ultimately have on the music industry.

World Without Covid:  www.worldwithoutcovid.org

Clara Health:  www.clarahealth.com

Lyft:  www.lyft.com

Something Ventured:  www.somethingventured.us

 

Direct download: 132_Raj_Kapoor_to_upload.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 12:59pm EDT

In the midst of the Covid crisis, how should Silicon Valley think about China?  Kaiser Kuo is founder and host of the Sinica podcast, and has been a longtime journalist and tech executive in China. Few people know more about the intricacies of China’s politics and their interaction with technology companies.

In this episode we discuss China’s responsibility for Covid, and compare its response times to those of the US.  We discuss how the US should think about China going forward as a new world order emerges.  Also, as this crisis passes what can we do to make sure it doesn’t happen again?

Finally, Kaiser discusses how we’ve flip flopped on how we view technology and other governments.  Is technology a tool of revolution? (Arab Spring) or of control (WeChat contact tracking apps).

Sinica Podcast:  https://supchina.com/series/sinica/

Something Ventured:  www.somethingventured.us

Direct download: 131_kaiser_kuo_to_upload.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 2:56pm EDT

Joe Garofoli is the Senior Political Writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, and host of the “It’s All Political” podcasts.  He recently broke the story of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, which ultimately led to the resignation of the Acting Secretary of the Navy. 

In this episode we discuss the political implications of the COVID outbreak, and how Donald Trump is (not) doing in managing the crisis.  We discuss the next moves for candidate Joe Biden and now-former candidate Bernie Sanders.

Also discussed is the performance of California Governor Gavin Newsom and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and how their styles differ.

Finally we discuss the implications for the California economy, and Silicon Valley in particular.

https://projects.sfchronicle.com/tools/podcasts/

www.somethingventured.us

Direct download: 130_Joe_Garofoli_Covid_.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 3:11pm EDT

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