Danielle Newnham Podcast

Today’s guest is Kelsey Hightower, a distinguished engineer and developer advocate at Google and speaker known for his work with Kubernetes, open source software and cloud computing.

As a curious and motivated self-learner, Kelsey dropped out of College and taught himself the skills required to start his career as an independent contractor for BellSouth – a telecoms company in Atlanta helping the community to get online. From there, Kelsey set up his own business – an electronics store before becoming involved in the open source world, working at New Relic, CoreOS, Puppet Labs, and most recently at Google.

A self-taught developer, Kelsey’s work on Kubernetes and at Google, from which he just retired, is well-known* so I wanted to focus our conversation on his life - how he got into tech, his love of learning, what drives him, what it means to be hopeful and the one piece of advice he would offer a younger Kelsey.

I know I am not meant to have favourites – these conversations are like children - but I have to say this is up there with one of my most loved conversations. I learned so much from Kelsey and I think you will too.

Enjoy!

Kelsey on Twitter

Danielle Twitter / Instagram / Newsletter

Photo of Kelsey is part of the Faces of Open Source Project by Peter Adams

*If you want to learn more about Kelsey's work history, give this episode from Ardan Labs a listen.

Today’s guest is the one and only Stephen Wolfram - a physicist, mathematician, computer scientist and entrepreneur He is the founder and CEO of Wolfram Research, the creator of Mathematica, Wolfram Alpha and Wolfram Language, The Wolfram Physics Project and the author of bestselling A New Kind of Science among many other books.

A visionary polymath, Stephen published his first scientific paper at age 15, received his PhD in theoretical physics soon after his 20th birthday and became the youngest recipient of the Macarthur Fellowship Genius grant at age 21.

Over the course of his career which spans more than four decades, he has been a pioneer in the development and application of computational thinking, and has been responsible for many discoveries, inventions, and innovations in the fields of science and technology.

In this episode, we discuss his childhood, how he might reimagine education, the process of undertaking ambitious, long-term innovation projects, why he works in public and the surprising advice he would offer a younger Stephen.

I really enjoyed talking to Stephen and I think you will learn a lot from this episode.

Enjoy!

Stephen Wolfram website / Twitter

I am not on social media this year but stay in touch via my Newsletter / YouTube

Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE is the co-founder of Stemettes, an award-winning social initiative focused on getting girls, young women and non-binary people excited about, and encouraged into STEM fields through mentoring, qualification academies and STEM clubs.

But let’s go back a bit. Because to understand why Anne-Marie chose this path, you need to understand her life story. At age just 10 years-old, Anne-Marie got her GCSE’s in Maths and Computing –these are exams that are normally taken at age 16 here in the UK. By age 11, she had done her A levels (which are usually taken at 18) and by age 13, she had won a scholarship to study at John Hopkins University.

At just 20 years of age, Anne-Marie had graduated from Oxford University with a Masters in Mathematics and Computer Science.

Anne-Marie is also an author She’s In Ctrl: How Women Can Take Back Tech, she’s a seasoned speaker, a podcast host, a Trustee Of the Institute for the Future of Work, a TV presenter (Countdown), and Anne-Marie works with media companies like BBC and 20th Century Fox to ensure that we see more diverse tech role models on screen.

She was also awarded an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in 2017 for her work with young women and the STEM sector.

Enjoy!

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Dr Anne-Marie on Twitter / Instagram / Stemettes / She's In Ctrl book

Danielle on Twitter @daniellenewnham and Instagram @daniellenewnham / Newsletter

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Photo credit: Sam & Simon Photography

Mentioned in this episode:

Hedy Lamarr Documentary Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story

Gladys West

Hidden Figures Book by Margot Lee Shetterly

Today’s guest is Kevin Bethune – designer, innovator, founder, engineer and author.

Kevin has had a multi-faceted career, starting out as a mechanical engineer in the nuclear power industry before focusing on business and design where he ended up at Nike designing two shoes despite being employed on the business side vs a product designer. But that’s Kevin all over – he follows his heart and passion and leads the path for others to do the same.

Kevin is now the founder and Chief Creative Officer of dreams, design and life – a think tank that works with companies to deliver design and innovation services using a very human-centric approach – something much needed today.

In this conversation, Kevin tells me how growing up feeling like an “other” whether it was in his school, his neighbourhood or workplace has somewhat shaped how he views what design should be today, and also how organisations should put design front and centre from the outset to ensure they create a more inclusive and forward-thinking business.

And we talk about his great new book, Reimagining Design: Unlocking Strategic Innovation, published by MIT press which offers Kevin’s personal story as well as leadership lessons on design, innovation and forging a path which is aligned to your purpose.

This was a wide-reaching conversation which I really enjoyed and think you will too.

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Kevin Twitter / Instagram / dreams • design + life

Buy Kevin's book here

Danielle Twitter / Instagram / Newsletter

Today’s guest is Dr Mohammad Al-Ubaydli – a physician, programmer and founder of Patients Know Best.

In this conversation, we talk about Mohammad’s upbringing from his family being exiled from Bahrain in the 1970s, to his childhood spent in the Yemen desert, Syria and Beirut during a civil war.

On top of that, Mohammad suffers from a one a million genetic immune deficiency called Hyper IgM Syndrome which, had it not been for his mother’s astute diligence would have probably cost him his life.

A deep love of technology and medicine led Mohammad to study medicine in order to understand the complexity of our bodies but he was destined to start a company in the technology field where he could combine his experience and passion and have real impact.

With over 3 million registered users, an integration with the NHS apps and plans for more countries using the Patients Know Best system, Mohammad talks me through how and why we should all have more agency over our healthcare.

This is an extremely inspiring and informative episode which I am sure you will enjoy.

Mohammad on Twitter / LinkedIn / Patients Know Best

Danielle on Twitter @daniellenewnham and Instagram @daniellenewnham / Newsletter

Books mentioned in this episode:

Irrationality: The Enemy Within

Selling The Wheel: Choosing The Best Way To Sell For You, Your Company, Your Customers

Chaos: The Amazing Science of the Unpredictable

Also, if you are looking to become a B Corp, Mohammad is happy to answer any questions he can help with over on LinkedIn.