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Join host Michael Wolf as he explores the world of food, ag and how innovation is changing what we eat.
164 Episodes
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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 that traditional surveys often miss.
The conversation explores why consumers frequently say one thing but feel another when tasting food, how neuroscience can reveal those hidden reactions, and why combining brain data with AI could create a new generation of predictive tools for food and beverage innovation.
You can find more about THIMUS at their website, https://thimus.com/
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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 access point for food founders. Drawing on her own origin story growing up in a family hot sauce business that couldn’t scale without infrastructure, Ashley explains why she became interested in shared kitchens as her professional focus and explains how it led her to build her company.
You can read Ashley's recent essay on MEHKO movement here on her blog: https://www.thefoodcorridor.com/blog/mehkos-2026-2/
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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 what she's learned over the past decade building Nuritas.
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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 entrepreneurial journey, and the potential for health tech to democratize access to quality healthcare.
The conversation also touches on the challenges and opportunities in the longevity movement, including the impact of big tech companies.
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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 strategic shift away from its original biotech ambition toward a conventional CPG playbook.
Mike and Rachel discuss founder vision, venture capital incentives, and the missed opportunity to license core technology to major food brands. They also discuss what a real turnaround would require if Impossible hopes to reclaim its original mission and relevance in the future of food
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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 available, the cooling of investment in the sector, hybrid products as a bridge to scale, and the political pushback against alternative proteins. Alex also talks about the origin story and the future of the Cultured Meat Symposium.
You can find and support Alex's Kickstarter for The Scientists's Cookbook here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hotdogfyi/a-scientists-cookbook/description
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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 fiber on the market today either doesn’t work or creates trade-offs consumers won’t tolerate.
Barnard and Amicucci explain their new consumer line, GoodVice, which they view as a reference product, why GLP-1 drugs have accelerated awareness of fiber deficiency, and how restoring whole-food signals to everyday products could change the future of metabolic and gut health without requiring discipline, restriction, or sacrifice.
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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 entering professional and home kitchens, where automation will take hold, and why creativity, culture, and the human touch remain essential.
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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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