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Month: June 2021

163 Avi Loeb — Extraterrestrials in our Solar System: What Happened in October of 2017?

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Avi Loeb is author of the book “Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth”.  It’s a story you can hardly believe, once you hear it.  But here it is — the story of the day in 2017 when telescopes around the world started tracking an object in our solar system.  It was moving in such a way that scientists around the world came to the same, startling conclusion:  It was an extraterrestrial spaceship. 

Avi Loeb is a professor of the Harvard Astronomy Department.  He is also a member of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (which is a collaboration of Harvard College Observatory and Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. 

Professor Loeb received a PhD in plasma physics at age 24 from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1986) and was subsequently a long-term member at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (1988-1993), where he started to work in theoretical astrophysics. In 1993 he moved to Harvard University where he was tenured three years later.  He is now the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science and former chair of the department.

He also holds a visiting professorship at the Weizmann Institute of Science and a Sackler Senior Professorship by special appointment in the School of Physics and Astronomy at Tel Aviv University.

Loeb has authored nearly 700 research articles and 4 books.

Avi Loeb:  https://astronomy.fas.harvard.edu/people/avi-loeb

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162 Jamie Ducharme on her book “Big Vape: The Incendiary Rise of Juul”

Jamie Ducharme
Staff Writer, TIME

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Big Vape is a nicotine-high of a book: An intense ride-along with the story of the rise of Juul. The story begins innocently – a couple guys don’t want to quit smoking, but also do not want to suffer the ill effects of cigarettes. They start Juul, and its rise – the massive wealth created, the social phenomenon, and the arrival of Big Tobacco are the touchpoints of Jamie Ducharme’s book “Big Vape: The Incendiary Rise of Juul”.

Jamie Ducharme is a staff writer at TIME magazine, where she covers health and science. (Right now, that means she’s writing almost exclusively about COVID-19.) Her work has won awards from the New York Press Club, the Deadline Club, and the Newswomen’s Club of New York. Previously, she was the health editor at Boston magazine.

Jamie Ducharme’s first book, Big Vape: The Incendiary Rise of Juul, was published by Henry Holt on May 25, 2021. It’s a deep-dive into the e-cigarette company Juul Labs and an exploration of the complicated search for an alternative to cigarettes.

Jamie Ducharme

Something Ventured

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161 Ryan Nece of Next Play Capital: From the NFL to Venture Capitalist

Ryan Nece
Next Play Capital

Episode on Spotify, iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.

Ryan and his dad are one of only two father/son NFL players to win Superbowl rings. Today Ryan’s a venture capitalist at the firm he founded: Next Play Capital. His many co-investments include Hippo, ByteDance (TikTok), Flexport, Hims, Impossible Foods, Peloton, (IPO), and Rubrik among others.

We’ve covered a lot of paths to becoming a VC on Something Ventured, but none has run through the NFL!

In this episode we discuss the football roots of the name “Next Play”, and why there were historically so few Black people in venture capital, among many other topics. We finish with an amazing thought from Ryan on how someone might be supportive of diversity in Silicon Valley – one of the most thoughtful and poignant I’ve heard.

Next Play Capital

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