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Giant Ideas invites leading minds from tech, business, politics and beyond to explore the giant ideas that use technology as a force for good. Giant Ventures, founded by Cameron McLain and Tommy Stadlen, backs purpose-driven founders solving the world’s most pressing environmental and social challenges.
57 Episodes
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Cameron sits down with Mateo Jaramillo, the former Tesla exec building one of the most ambitious climate companies in the world: Form Energy. In this bonus episode, they dive into WHY he started the company, why one challenge coin in West Virginia changed everything, the three photographs that defined his life so far... Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc. Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan ...
Cameron sits down with Matteo Jaramillo, the former Tesla exec building one of the most ambitious climate companies in the world: Form Energy. They dive into long-duration energy storage, the AI-driven demand boom, and what it takes to scale hard tech from idea to gigawatt-hours. - Why Matteo left a path toward the priesthood after Yale Divinity School - Simple breakdown of iron-air batteries - Why 100-hour duration matters for grid reliability and extreme weather - How iron-air can be ~10x ...
In this episode of Giant Ideas, former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern returns to explore the person behind the public role. Invited to choose three photographs that define her life, Jacinda reflects on a childhood shaped by New Zealand, parents who modelled service and fairness, and the early experiences that forged her lifelong commitment to tackling inequality and child poverty. She shares a candid glimpse into the emotional weight of leadership, including the lasting impact of M...
Today on the podcast we are joined by Jacinda Ardern - former Prime Minister of New Zealand, and the world's youngest female head of government. This is a conversation for anyone who wants to lead with kindness, and learn how to deal with high pressure situations. As PM, Jacinda became famous worldwide for her unique leadership style: leading with compassion and empathy. A 'different kind of power’ as she puts it. Her time in office was marked by her handling of major crises. She rush...
Former UK Deputy Prime Minister and ex‑President of Global Affairs at Meta Nick Clegg returns for a deeply personal conversation. Nick reflects on the three “photographs” that define his life: a chaotic, international childhood; the unexpected joy of being locked down with his wife Miriam and their three sons on a remote ranch in Montana; and the searing public failures of losing power and his parliamentary seat. Along the way, he shares what it takes to sustain a high‑pressure dual‑career ma...
Nick Clegg is the former UK Deputy Prime Minister and former President, Global Affairs at Meta. He has had a front seat to two of the biggest power structures globally: Westminster and Silicon Valley. At Meta, he became the company’s chief policy decision-maker, meeting with world leaders, governments and policymakers around the globe. He has written two best-selling books, Politics: Between the Extremes and How To Stop Brexit (And Make Britain Great Again). His latest book: "How to S...
Andrew Yang joins the Giant Ideas podcast again, this time offering a deeper dive behind the person behind his giant ideas. Andrew ran for president in 2020, and is the founder of a nonprofit called Humanity Forward, and the Forward Party, a new political party in America aiming to bridge partisan divides. Today his focus is on his new company - launched in late 2025. With Noble Mobile, aiming to cut out the middle man and make mobile data cheaper for Americans. In this episode we talk about:...
Today on the Giant Ideas podcast we are joined by Andrew Yang. When Andrew Yang, a political outsider, ran for US President in 2020 his campaign hinged on a warning: he predicted that a huge number of jobs would be lost by automation. His solution was a monthly universal basic income (UBI) of $1,000, designed to offset the job losses. Now, six years later, it appears Yang might have been onto something. Dario Amodei, CEO of AI Giant Anthropic, has predicted that half of entry level whit...
We welcome back Jeremy O'Brien, co-founder and CEO of PsiQuantum, a quantum computing company on a mission to deliver the first commercially useful quantum computers to tackle some of the world’s greatest challenges. O’Brien has dedicated 25 years to this mission and was previously a Professor of Physics & Electrical Engineering at Stanford and Bristol University. This is an episode for anyone curious to understand the person behind the technology with a goal is to unlock problems that a...
Today on the Giant Ideas podcast we welcome Jeremy O'Brien, co-founder and CEO of PsiQuantum, a quantum computing company on a mission to deliver the first commercially useful quantum computers to tackle some of the world’s greatest challenges. O’Brien has dedicated 25 years to this mission and was previously a Professor of Physics & Electrical Engineering at Stanford and Bristol University. This is an episode for anyone curious to peer into the fascinating world of quantum computing, to...
Welcome back to Giant Ideas! Happy new year. We return to normal scheduling next week, but this week we are sharing an exclusive conversation with some of the best television writers in the world right now: Succession writer Lucy Prebble, and the creators of the HBO hit Industry, Micky Down and Konrad Kay. This was conversation was recorded last year - chaired by the legendary Henry Mance, the FT's chief features writer - and was one of my favourites from our Giant Ideas event in London last...
Immad Akhund is the Co-founder & CEO at Mercury - one of the most widely used business banking platforms globally. He is also an active investor in Silicon Valley - as an active investor in 350 startups at their earliest stages including Airtable, Substack, and Rappi. In this episode we talk about the three photographs that define Immad's life so far, the fateful weekend of the Silicon Valley Bank failure, and his leadership lessons learnt in a time of crisis. Building a purpose dr...
1Immad Akhund is the Co-founder and CEO at Mercury - one of the most widely used business banking platforms globally. He is also an active investor in Silicon Valley - as an active investor in 350 startups at their earliest stages including Airtable, Substack, and Rappi. This year he announced that Mercury raised $300 million at $3.5 billion valuation. He also announced his $26 million fund to back early-stage startups. In this episode we talk about why founders make the best ven...
Today on the Giant Ideas podcast we welcome back visionary architect Bjarke Ingels, founder of @BIGSOLUTIONS (Bjarke Ingels Group), whose work includes Google’s Silicon Valley campus, the Danish Maritime Museum, and 2 World Trade Center. In this episode, Bjarke shares his philosophy on how your home should be a portrait of who you are. He also reflects on the three photographs that have defined his life, how his early love of drawing shaped his path to becoming an architect, and...
Today on the Giant Ideas podcast we welcome visionary architect Bjarke Ingels, founder of BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group), whose work includes Google’s Silicon Valley campus, the Danish Maritime Museum, and 2 World Trade Center. In this episode, Bjarke shares his philosophy of “utopian pragmatism,” the inseparable link between form and function in architecture, and his thoughts on why architecture matters. Bjarke also discusses collaborations with fellow visionary Thomas Heatherwick, the eco...
Doug Bernauer, founder of Radiant (one of Giant’s most exciting growth investments) joins us again on the Giant Ideas podcast. We backed Radiant in their Series C round to mass produce portable nuclear reactors. The founder, Doug, worked with Elon Musk for 12 years at SpaceX - including their reusable rocket prototype and the Mars Colonisation project. In this episode, he shares the 3 photographs that define his life, what he learnt from SpaceX, and why good companies need 'unreasonable' lea...
Today we are joined by Doug Bernauer, founder of Radiant – one of Giant’s most exciting growth investments. We backed Radiant in their Series C round. Their vision is to mass produce portable nuclear reactors. But their vision goes far beyond that. They want to first manufacture nuclear reactors for Earth - giving clean energy to remote areas. And they then want to use this profit to develop a reactor for Mars, to send it on a Starship to power the potential future civilisation of Mars. It’s...
What are the moments that defined you? Last week we had an in depth conversation with star investor Halle Tecco about creating massively better healthcare in the US. Today, she joins us to talk about the 3 moments that defined her and the wisdom gained so far in life. From choosing a life partner, to deciding whether to have children, to choosing to leave your home town and prioritise adventure. About Halle Tecco: Halle Tecco is an entrepreneur and investor passionate about fixing the hea...
Today on the podcast, we are excited to be joined by Halle Tecco - an entrepreneur and investor passionate about fixing the healthcare system. Halle is the co-founder of Co-fertility - a company rewriting the egg freezing and egg donation experience. She is also the founder of Natalist and Rock Health, one of the pioneering digital health early-stage venture funds. Now, as Course Director at Harvard Medical School and Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School, she supports future healthc...
Today on the podcast we have Narayana Murthy - Founder and former CEO of Infosys - a giant which reached $100BN, one of the largest companies in history, and transformed India’s economy. Infosys - founded in 1981 - offers consulting, IT, and outsourcing services across the globe. Starting with a small loan, 18 years later it became the first ever Indian company to be listed on NASDAQ. Murthy has been listed among the 12 greatest entrepreneurs of our time by Fortune magazine. He has akso...
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