Numbers And Narrative

Former producer and friend of the show Quint Gribbin sits down with Jagan Kaja, a traffic engineer at WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff, to talk about the complex problems facing our current traffic infrastructure. There's a gap between mathematically optimal traffic patterns and the unpredictable nature of human behavior. What are traffic engineers doing to solve these problems, and what will the future of transportation look like?

The critically acclaimed, Sundance- and Cannes-screened film Songs My Brothers Taught Me just hit Netflix, so we're revisiting our interview with director Chloe Zhao. When she sat down with Joe, they talked about making independent movies, entrepreneurship, and the beauty of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

As CTO of Splunk, Snehal Antani leads the technology vision for the innovative, high-growth company that enables IT operations, cyber analysts, and business analytics professionals to collect, index, sort, and analyze machine data. In this episode, Snehal explains how every time he has made a career move, people have told him he’s crazy. For example, in the middle of the year 2000 tech bubble, he chose to work for IBM in Poughkeepsie over Silicon Valley. Then he jumped from a software development role to product management and business development. Later, he left IBM for GE Capital. Recently, he left GE for the CTO role at Splunk. When he sat down with Renny McPherson, he shared his theory of apprenticeship and how it has allowed him to grow as a leader and keep moving in directions that look impossible to others. 

Joe Flood talks to Bailey Clifford, a budding but stymied entrepreneur on the Pine Ridge reservation.

Joe talks to Bailey Clifford, a budding but stymied entrepreneur on the Pine Ridge reservation.

Joe Flood brings the recording gear on a trip to New Orleans to talk to French Quarter street artists and performers. He starts with his old friend and former teaching colleague, Jenelle Campion to talk about how Jackson Square artists work together to bring their individual artwork to life, to fellow painter Morghan Brookens about bringing New Orleans' musical history to bear on her work, and caricaturist and puppeteer Andrew Wilkie about...a  bunch of things.

Portfolio Manager, Author, Marine Vet Dr Wesley Gray Before launching his asset management firm Alpha Architect, Dr. Wesley Gray served as a Marine Corps officer in Iraq. Already a student of economics at the time he joined the Marine Corps after graduating from Penn’s prestigious Wharton undergraduate program, he found that his military experience gave him insights into the nature of people and financial markets alike. Now an acclaimed author and portfolio manager who received a doctorate in finance from University of Chicago, Wesley shares in this conversation the lessons he took from the military that he applies to his current investment approach. Musing on the balances between human emotion and the systematic procedures that curb it, between confidence and humility, and between narrative and formula, Wesley illustrates just how universal the rules of combat and competition can be.

Thomas joins Joe Flood to talk about her new book, Louisa, on the life of Louisa Catherine Adams, wife of president John Quincy Adams.  A woman both ahead, and very much of, her times, Louisa is a fascinating history that deals with thoroughly modern issues like race, electoral posturing, and women's roles in politics. A former Grantland editor, tennis writer, and author of the book Conscience, about World War I and it's impact on her great grandfather, Socialist presidential candidate Norman Thomas, Louisa Thomas talks about the forces that shaped America's early political history and their implications for today's political climate -Numbers and Narrative

Todd Johnson, CEO of HealthLoop   Summary: HealthLoop, a rapidly scaling automated patient engagement solution, is a pioneer in the changing paradigm of how health care can be provided. Todd Johnson, a successful health care tech entrepreneur, talks about the company, its important mission, and their business model. The brainchild of a high-end concierge doctor whose mission is to bridge the gap between care at the doctor's office and what happens when the patient is at home, HealthLoop coordinates care across the continuum. HealthLoop collects actionable data through engaging guidance and reassuring interactions to provide timely intervention when patients need it most.

Not many people get the idea for a financial technology on thebeach in Ibiza, but not many people come up with some of theformative ideas for Facebook, either. Entrepreneur, Olympic rower,and co-founder of the bitcoin investment fund Gemini, TylerWinklevoss joins Joe Flood to talk before this week's Consensus2016 bitcoin and blockchain technology conference in New YorkCity.

Summary: Joe Flood sits down with Babiators sunglasses founders Molly and Ted Fienning to discuss how they turned a spontaneous idea on a military base runway into a children's fashion company.

SUMMARY: Our interview is with Simon Adler, a producer and reporter for the fantastic NPR show and podcast Radiolab. Simon reported and produced a story about an American millionaire who recently hunted and killed a black rhino—one of the most endangered animals on the planet. At first blush, it’s a disconcerting, colonial, image of a rich Western white guy gunning down an endangered African animal. But as Simon reveals in his story, there’s a lot more at play here. While extremely controversial, this kind of big game hunting has actually become one of the most successful ways of saving these black rhinos. One country where it’s done, Namibia, actually has an increasing population of rhinos, elephants and lions, and Namibian government officials and conservationists directly attribute those numbers to big game hunting. Whereas in many countries like Kenya, where hunting has been banned, animal populations are rapidly declining thanks largely to poachers and people encroaching on the animals’ habitats. To put

Geoff Orazem, Managing Partner and co-founder of Eastern Foundry   Summary: Geoff Orazem created Eastern Foundry, the company he wished existed as he suffered through the maze of government contracting. A workspace, a community, and a beacon for cutting through the noise of the contracting process for innovative product and services companies, Eastern Foundry is growing rapidly. A Marine Corps vet, Harvard Law School grad, and McKinsey alum, Geoff combines many talents as he builds an important company for those who wish to have the government as a client. 

James Reinhart, CEO and co-founder of thredUP   Summary: James Reinhart, CEO and co-founder of thredUP, discusses how looking at his own closet several years ago led to what is now the biggest online consignment store in the world, thredUP.  Reinhart and his team over time learned how to make the experience of selling clothes as easy as possible for people who might not otherwise do so. Founded in 2009, the company has been incredibly successful as a pioneer in clothing resale, collaborative consumption, and in providing a concierge service in place of its early days as more of a pure marketplace. ThredUP continues to scale its business of providing like-new women's and kids' clothing at exceptional prices. 

Professor Aswath Damodaran with guest host Dan Rasmussen. Summary: The world's leading expert on valuation, Aswath Damodaran, discusses his theory that valuing companies requires understanding both numbers and narratives. Damodaran talks about why he believes the future will be won by "poets with discipline" and "number crunchers with imagination" and why he wants his son to study English literature.

Marine Corps Vet Arthur Karell, VP Ops of Fiscal Note   Summary: Arthur Karell learned many management and culture lessons as a leader in the Marine Corps. Now these important lessons are coming in very handy as Arthur and the executive team scale the business, which just named former U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal to its board of directors.

A Numbers and Narrative interview with Jody Avirgan of FivethirtyEight.com Summary: Five thirty eight. That is the number of delegates up for grabs in US Presidential elections and the professional home, FiveThirtyEight.com, of guest Jody Avirgan, podcast host and producer for the Nate Silver website that dives into the data for things like sports, news, culture and, of course, politics. Jody is one of the best in the business at finding ways to use data to tell compelling stories, particularly in radio and podcast form. Jody and co-host Joe Flood discuss Jody’s work on NPR, geek out about their mutual love of WNYC radio host Brian Lehrer, talk about the excitement and challenges of telling data stories through 538’s podcast channel, and about Jody’s own project, Ask Roulette.

Numbers And Narrative Podcast - Episode 51: The $350,000 in a Knapsack and Hyper-Scaling a Construction Business   An Interview with Isaac Lidsky, Speaker, Author, and CEO of ODC Construction   Summary: Isaac Lidsky and his business partner bought a Florida-based construction company five years ago. Since, they've hyper-scaled the company by installing processes and proprietary software. Isaac's story is inspiring. Isaac, who graduated Harvard at 19 and has been blind for nearly two decades, has worked as a childhood actor, an internet entrepreneur, a clerk on the Supreme Court and now leads ODC Construction. 

Interview with Peter Maglathlin, Co-founder and CFO, HourlyNerd Summary: While pursuing his MBA at Harvard Business School, Peter Maglathlin and his co-founders came up with the idea to create a curated marketplace for MBA alums to offer consulting services. On the third birthday of HourlyNerd, Renny sits down with Peter to talk about how they got to where they are. Now with 20,000 experts or 'nerds' on the platform, and offering for the enterprise and SMB's, HourlyNerd continues its trajectory for success. 

Summary: For their final football pod, Joe Flood and screenwriter Jesse Andrews discuss the crushing loss their Patriots and Steelers suffered at the benumbed hand of Peyton Manning, misbehavior by key players, and their continuing obsession with the drug that is American football. Joe and Jesse she'd a few Skype tears over the last football pod, discuss Jesse's big wins for his novel/movie Me and Earl and the Dying Girl this time last year at Sundance, and promise to do a movies podcast before the Oscars at the end of February