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Join host Michael Wolf as he explores the world of food, ag and how innovation is changing what we eat.
156 Episodes
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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 conference (produced by The Spoon and MIke!) out.
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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 to food-tech founder, and why he believes egg-based supply chains are destined for disruption as avian flu risks intensify.
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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 only half the recommended amount, and how social media, CPG innovation, and even CGMs are reshaping consumer nutrition habits.
If you haven't subscribed to Carolyn's podcast, you can find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
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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 assistants to back-of-house restaurant robots, will arrive long before humanoids.
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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 industrial scale. Mike and Anna discuss her career path, the economics of upcycling, and how food waste is quickly becoming a real business opportunity.
Enjoy the podcast.
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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,
Why ChatGPT was a consumer inflection point
How the AI ecosystem is stratifying between foundation-model providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, Google) and an emerging wave of vertical and agentic applications built on top
Derrick's belief that infrastructure players will sell “picks and shovels” while domain experts own the higher-order use cases.
We'll have a part 2 with another AI expert in just a couple of weeks.
Enjoy!
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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!
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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
How Jasmin and Shiru have evolved their company and how they talk with food brands about integrating AI
How Jasmin would advise young food scientists to move forward in an era of AI
It's a fun and interesting conversation, so take a listen!
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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 location, temperature, and even freshness.
The conversation explores the potential for reducing food waste, enabling dynamic expiry dates, and creating “demand chains” that respond in real time, while also tackling the privacy challenges and brand impacts of AI-driven purchasing. Steve balances excitement about the technology’s climate and efficiency benefits with caution about its role in feeding increasingly powerful AI systems.
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In this episode of The Spoon Podcast, Michael Wolf sits down with Mark Cuban for a wide-ranging conversation recorded live at the SKS 2025. Mark and Mike discuss the transformative power of AI, exploring why Cuban believes it's more disruptive than the internet, mobile, or streaming, and how it's already reshaping education, jobs, and entrepreneurship. Cuban shares his views on the broken U.S. healthcare system, his motivations behind launching Cost Plus Drugs, and how GLP-1s might reshape food and wellness. They dive into the changing innovation landscape, the future of hardware and robotics, and why Cuban stepped away from Shark Tank and sold majority control of the Mavericks.
You won't want to miss it!
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In this episode, Mike catches up with Babette Pepaj, founder of Bakespace and the new AI-powered platform BakeBot.
Babette shares her journey from reality TV producer to social media pioneer, launching one of the first food-focused social networks in 2006. She reflects on the rise of food bloggers, the shifting digital landscape, and how she’s using AI to create more responsive, accessible, and personalized cooking tools for home cooks.
Babette will be at Smart Kitchen Summit. Head over to smartkitchensummit.com and use code PODCAST for 15% off your tickets.
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This episode's guest is Zach Rash, the co-founder and CEO of Coco Robotics. Mike talks to Zach about his journey from aspiring professional surfer to becoming of a robot delivery company backed by OpenAI's Sam Altman.
Zach shares how he and his co-founder started building robots out of their UCLA dorm room during the pandemic, why they focused on human-piloted delivery over full autonomy, and how Coco has grown into a multi-city operation.
Zach will speak at Smart Kitchen Summit. You can get your ticket for SKS at www.smartkitchensummit.com. Use discount code PODCAST for 15% off tickets.
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On this episode of The Spoon podcast, catches up with with longtime food tech innovator and friend of The Spoon Scott Heimendinger about the hidden challenges of U.S. manufacturing, the future of kitchen robotics, and why tooling expertise has all but disappeared in America.
Scott shares insights from his stealth startup Seattle Ultrasonics and his experience navigating domestic vs. overseas prototyping. The two also explore whether a new wave of robot-ready kitchen appliances is coming, what makes Thermomix a surprise hardware juggernaut, and how AI is powering everything from sous vide to smart food storage.
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In this episode, Michael Wolf chats with Zevia CEO Amy Taylor about her journey from helping to shape Red Bull into a cultural force to leading Zevia, a mission-driven brand making zero-sugar, clean-label sodas. They explore Zevia's evolution as one of the better-for-you sodas, its strategy for staying relevant in a competitive beverage market, and its commitment to affordability and authenticity. Amy also shares insights on emerging health trends, ingredient transparency, and how Zevia leverages AI and innovation to build trust and scale impact.
Amy will be at our virtual event Smart Kitchen Summit in July. Make sure to get a ticket at www.smartkitchensummit.com and use the discount code PODCAST for 15% off tickets.
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We were live this week at ReFED's Food Waste Solutions Summit in Seattle. We had an interview stage on the show floor, where we caught up with a number of great folks to hear their thoughts on innovation in food waste and beyond.
This conversation is with Andrew Shakman, the CEO of Leanpath. You can read my article about this conversation at The Spoon.
You'll also want to check out Eva Goulbourne's conversations with folks from the ReFED conference over on her podcast, Everything But The Carbon Sink.
Finally, make sure to check out The Smart Kitchen Summit, our virtulal event in July where we'll talk to leaders across the food system about the state of food tech and much more! Use discount code PODCAST for 15% off tickets.
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In this episode we sit down with Mesh Gelman, the founder and CEO of Cumulus Coffee, to talk about reinventing the cold brew experience. A former Starbucks innovation executive, Gelman shares how his journey from coffee burnout to cold brew evangelist led him to build a sleek countertop system that delivers barista-quality nitro cold brew and cold espresso in under 60 seconds, without the need for nitrogen tanks. The two dive into the challenges of building a hardware startup, the evolution of consumer coffee habits, why cold is the future, and how Cumulus is positioning itself as both a coffee company and a tech innovator.
Check out our upcoming virtual event, Smart Kitchen Summit 2025 at www.smartkitchensummit.com. Podcast listeners can use the discount SPOONPOD for 20% off of tickets.
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This episode's guest is Brian Canlis, a third-generation co-owner of the famed Canlis restaurant in Seattle. Brian's last day at Canlis was last week as he looks to launch a new adventure with his college roommate Will Guidara, owner of Eleven Madison Park and author of Unreasonable Hospitality.
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In this episode of The Spoon Podcast, host Michael Wolf sits down with Carl-Emil Grøn, CEO and co-founder of Reshape Biotech, a Copenhagen-based company transforming the world of biotech research. While much of the tech industry has embraced automation and AI, Carl-Emil realized that biotech labs were still operating like it was the 1990s. Reshape is changing that by bringing robotics, machine learning, and a vast proprietary dataset to the lab bench—helping major companies like Unilever and Nestlé run millions of experiments and drastically accelerate the development of safe, natural ingredients. This conversation explores how AI is being used to reengineer food, personal care, and health products—and what it means for the future of the global food system.
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This episode's guest is Eva Goulbourne, founder of Littlefoot Ventures and one of the most insightful voices at the intersection of food, climate, and finance. Eva’s career has taken her from the halls of the World Economic Forum to the launch of ReFED, where she helped build one of the most influential organizations in food waste reduction. Through her work at Littlefoot, she advises brands, foundations, and startups on how to drive meaningful change across our global food system. She’s also the host of the new podcast Everything but the Carbon Sink, where she dives deep into the tough, often-overlooked challenges facing the future of food.
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We catch up with Andrew Simmons to chat about his new pizza subscription platform and to hear what his thoughts are after a year of change.
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