Shows
Texas Forward PodcastEp. 8 - The Importance of Debate in a Thriving Democracy (w/ Lucie Repova)Lucie Repova is the host of the Think with Lucie podcast, a State Lead for the Forward Party of California, and the Founder of Iris, an AI-driven community engagement platform used by Braver Angels and several other independent minded organizations.Born in the Czech Republic, Lucie shared her unique insights on the importance of Free Speech and Democracy, her journey as an entrepreneur and how she is working to reduce polarization and get people talking to each other again.
2023-05-101h 00
Foreign Founders#2 Lucie Repova, Founder of Iris NewsWelcome back to Foreign Founders. Today my conversation is with Lucie Repova, founder of Iris News. Lucie and I met at the Antler Austin cohort this summer. We became close through our interest in politics and the issues surrounding polarization, and how technology and modern social media were partly to blame.We learn about Lucie's background and life in Czech Republic and England, her journey to building her company, and why she wanted to come to the United States for the startup program.Please enjoy the show and this series!
2022-10-1018 min
Think with LucieEpisode 35 - Discussion on Nuclear Energy with Sama Bilbao y León (Head of World Nuclear Association) and Arjun Makhijani (President of IEER)The following discussion about nuclear energy features Arjun Makhijani and Sama Bilbao y León.
Arjun is a nuclear engineer and president of the anti-nuclear organization, the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research. He has written several reports analyzing the safety, economics, and efficiency of various energy sources.
Sama is the Director General of World Nuclear Association, the international organization that promotes nuclear power and supports the companies that comprise the global nuclear industry.
Although Arjun and Sama have different viewpoints on nuclear energy, we were able to engage in a friendly constructive d...
2022-05-231h 53Think with LucieEpisode 34 - Discussion Series - Can we make socialism work? with Andres Guilarte and Emerson MurphyThis episode is a discussion about the feasibility of socialism with Andres Guilarte and Emerson Murphy. Andres is a political activist for the freedom of Venezuela. In 2019, he left Venezuela to work with the Keto Institute in Washington DC and currently serves as a research associate for WPA Intelligence. Emerson is a second year politics and economics student at the LSE as well as a student activist and socialist.
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andresguilarte/ - Andres Guilarte
https://www.linkedin.com/in/emersonmurphy/ - Emerson Murphy
...
2022-05-082h 08Think with LucieEpisode 33 - Why did a YC-funded video analytics startup RTCanary fail? with founder Ayan BandyopadhyayIn the following discussion, I spoke with Ayan Bandyopadhyay, the founder of RTCanary, a YC-funded company that was a monitoring and analytics plugin for all video chat platforms.
Ayan and his cofounders got into YC with a Snapchat-like app, but pivoted mid-way through the YC program and built an analytics solution for video platforms. A few months later, they realised there was not enough demand for that product either and shut RTCanary down.
This was an extremely insightful discussion full of lessons learned. I have no doubt that Ayan's next startup will be a success.
2022-04-3047 minThink with LucieEpisode 32 - Female Founder Series with Siobhan Anderson (Founder of The Tyre Collective)Episode 32 features Siobhan Anderson, Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of The Tyre Collective, a startup spearheading tyre wear capture and monitoring. Tyre wear is the second-largest microplastic pollutant in our oceans and a stealthy source of air PM pollution. Siobhan and her team mitigate emissions by capturing tyre wear at the source to ensure clean air, safeguarding our environment and health.
Tyre wear accounts for up to 50% of air particulate emission (PM) from road transport. Tyres wear out from friction every time we brake, accelerate or turn a corner. The particles become airborne affecting our lungs. More...
2022-04-2047 minThink with LucieEpisode 31 - Female Founder Series with Reka Tron (Founder of Multus)Episode 31 features Reka Tron, Co-founder and COO of Multus, a company that is developing the key ingredient, the growth media, to make cultivated meat affordable and profitable. She graduated from Imperial College last year with a Master's degree in Systems and Synthetic Biology and raised $1.6 million in early 2021.
Cultivated meat is genuine animal meat that is produced by cultivating animal cells directly. It is an important invention that will help us tackle climate change. Growing meat this way releases up to 87% fewer greenhouse gases than conventional meat and uses just a fraction of the land and water.
2022-04-1039 minThink with LucieEpisode 30 (VIDEO FORMAT) - Why do startups fail and what can we learn from it? with Chris Tara-Brown (Founder of Unfurl) -This episode is part of a new series focused on founders who built startups that did not survive or went through a major pivot. Chris Tara-Browne was the founder of Unfurl, a YC-funded company that was building a ghost kitchen that provided many types of food all in one order. It shut down this month.
Tune in to hear why his startup did not work out and what advice he has for aspiring founders.
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/christarabrowne/
https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/unfurl
https://www...
2022-04-0329 minThink with LucieEpisode 30 - Why do startups fail and what can we learn from it? with Chris Tara-Brown (Founder of Unfurl)This episode is part of a new series focused on founders who built startups that did not survive or went through a major pivot. Chris Tara-Browne was the founder of Unfurl, a YC-funded company that was building a ghost kitchen that provided many types of food all in one order. It shut down this month.
Tune in to hear why his startup did not work out and what advice he has for aspiring founders.
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/christarabrowne/
https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/unfurl
2022-04-0325 minThink with LucieEpisode 29 - Why do startups fail and what can we learn from it? with Rishi Raman (Founder of Intelligent)This episode is part of a new series focused on founders who built startups that did not survive or went through a major pivot. Rishi Raman was the founder of Intelligent, a YC funded company that helped businesses cut operational costs by forecasting demand. He was then the Head of Growth at Clerk, and most recently, he’s working on a new startup in the B2B SaaS space.
Tune in to hear why his startup did not work out and what advice he has for aspiring founders.
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in...
2022-04-0157 minThink with LucieEpisode 28 - Female Founder Series with Ahana Banerjee (Founder of Clear)Episode 28 features Ahana Banerjee, cofounder of Clear, the integrated social commerce app for skincare. She is only 22 years old but has achieved more than most people double her age. She graduated from Imperial in BSc Physics last year, started 2 companies, went through the Y Combinator accelerator and has recently raised $800k preseed round.
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ahana-banerjee/
https://getclearapp.com/
https://www.ycombinator.com/
2022-03-261h 25Think with LucieEpisode 27 - Discussion Series - Is the Body Positivity Movement toxic? with Caroline Pope and Evanthia Stirou (Saint Stephen's Episcopal School)In this episode, I spoke with Caroline Pope and Evanthia Stirou, both seniors in Saint Stephen's Episcopal School in Florida. Caroline is also a staff writer and Evanthia a creative director of the Gauntlett, a student-produced news site. In this discussion, we’ll touch upon the difference between the body positivity versus body neutrality movement, common misconception about the BPM, difference of treatment between men and women, what role Lizzo and Adele play in the BPM, why is our society so obsessed with the Kardashians, and what steps we should take to make the effect of social media positive on...
2022-03-1654 minThink with LucieEpisode 26 - Discussion Series - Are employers being too lenient with mental health? with Anna (tech company) and Stevan Balac (LSE)In this episode, we tackle one of the biggest and most widely discussed issues of today - the Mental Health Crisis. We’re joined by a former employee of a well known multinational tech company, who for this podcast wishes to remain anonymous, and we will refer to as ‘Anna’.
She discusses her personal experiences in the industry and how her struggles with mental health have affected her work - as well as what she considers a neglectful response to her personal circumstances. She’s joined by Stevan Balac, a Politics and History student at the LSE, who deba...
2022-03-091h 36Think with LucieEpisode 25 - Female Founder Series with Anna Brightman (Founder of Upcircle Beauty)A few weeks ago, I sat down with Anna Brightman, Co-Founder at UpCircle Beauty, a cosmetics company that uses natural ingredients like coffee grounds or brewed tea as beauty products. I am not personally into makeup, but I do like to take care of my skin and am always on the lookout for new products. Anna explains very well how Upcircle differs from other skin care lines, how they personalize their products to different skin types, how their unique supply chain works, and what challenges she faced in her journey.
We also talked sustainability in relation to t...
2022-03-021h 06Think with LucieEpisode 24 - Founder Series with Paul Clewett (Founder of Emani)Last week, I spoke with Paul Clewett. Paul spent most of his career directing research in the world's most difficult places, investigating everything from violent extremism in Afghanistan to modern slavery in Nigeria. Currently he’s the founder of Emani, a technology start-up helping critical information flow from humans around the world to business and humanitarian decision-makers.
We discuss his early work in Think Tanks and startups, the political consequences of the Syrian refugee crisis, and the secret to growing a business in developing countries.
Have fun!
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in...
2022-02-221h 01Think with LucieEpisode 23 - Female Founder Series with Tanvi Bhardwaj (Cofounder of Mishipay)In this episode, I sat down with Tanvi Bhardwaj, cofounder and CTO of Mishipay, a company that empowers shoppers to scan and pay for their shopping with their smartphones, rather than wasting time queuing at the checkout. Tanvi started the company when she was only 24 years old and has transformed it into a global fintech brand.
Tune in to hear more about the early days of Mishipay and how they started testing the concept with a pop-up store which then led into them joining an accelerator which helped them get access to large retailers who eventually became p...
2022-02-171h 07Think with LucieEpisode 22 - Female Founder Series with Katie Vanneck-Smith (Founder of Tortoise Media)In Episode 22, I spoke with Katie Vanneck-Smith, cofounder of Tortoise Media, a news website and a publishing house for slower and wiser news. As someone who is a news junkie, I found this episode extremely insightful. We talked about Tortoise Media, fundraising, commercial opportunities in the industry, drivers of news events and our failure to predict the rise of Trump or Brexit, how providing different perspectives matters especially in the age of social media which keep us in echo chambers, news personalisation, social media affecting mental health, how can we make open newsroom conversations scalable, what is the ideal...
2022-02-101h 23Think with LucieEpisode 21 - Female Founder Series with Tolúlọpẹ́ Ògúnrẹ̀mí (Founder of Coders of Colour and Computer Science PhD at Stanford)Today’s episode is with Tolúlọpẹ́ Ògúnrẹ̀mí, founder of Coders of Colour, an organisation aimed at empowering and enabling young underrepresented people of colour to pursue a career in tech by providing them with a safe space for them to learn, explore and grow. They do this primarily by running free coding workshops for young people.
Tolúlọpẹ́ is also a PhD student in Computer Science at Stanford University, working on low resource natural language processing (NLP).
This episode covers lots of different topics that I was excited to discuss. Tolúlọpẹ́ talked abo...
2022-02-041h 17Think with LucieEpisode 20 - Female Founder Series with Rachita Saraogi and Rebecca Thomson (Founders of Sisterhood)Today’s episode is with Rachita Saraogi and Rebecca Thomson, co-founders of Sisterhood, a program where all girls and gender expanding youth can design their place in the world and build confidence. My favorite part of this episode was talking about the projects Sisterhood is working on and how design is not just how things look, but also how things work, processes are established, and problems are solved. If you want to know more about design, definitely give this a listen.
Links:
https://www.oursisterhood.co.uk/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/sisterhood/...
2022-02-031h 22Think with LucieEpisode 19 - Discussion Series - Should sex work be decriminalised? with Cari Mitchell (ECP) and Jessica Masterson (University of Birmingham)Some say the criminalization of sex work makes sex workers more vulnerable to violence on the job and less likely to report violence. It prevents sex workers from accessing health care and other critical services, feeds an out of control mass incarceration system, and further marginalizes some of society’s most vulnerable groups, such as trans women and immigrants.
But others suggest that to support decriminalising the sale of sex would be to support prostitution itself. In reality, prostitution of women is a particularly lethal form of violence against women, and a violation of a woman’s most...
2022-02-011h 08Think with LucieEpisode 18 - Discussion Series - Space tourism with Kevin Cook (The Burning Blue) and Richard Hollingham (BBC, Space Boffins Podcast)In this episode, I am discussing the pros and cons of space tourism, how it relates to space exploration, why are billionaires venturing into space, what are the risks associated with it and what we should or should not be looking forward to in the future of space travel.
My guests are Kevin Cook, writer and editor. His recently published book The Burning Blue tells the story of Christa McAuliffe and NASA’s Challenger Disaster from 1986. Kevin has written for the New York Times, WSJ, GQ, Smithsonian, and many other publications and has appeared on...
2022-01-281h 06Think with LucieEpisode 17 - Female Founder Series with Amna Akhtar (Founder of GirlDreamer)In this episode, I spoke with Amna Akhtar, the founder of GirlDreamer, a non-profit organisation that supports the personal and professional development of women of colour to tackle social inequality and pursue their dreams.
If anyone considers dropping out of college, give this a listen. Amna dropped out of college after the first few days and had no idea what to do in life. She wrote a book and pursued a few projects before founding GirlDreamer a few years later.
Have fun!
Check out GirlDreamer here https://www.girldreamer.co...
2022-01-2554 minThink with LucieEpisode 16 - Female Founder Series with Vanja Peric (Founder of Aymo Live)In this episode I’ll be speaking with Vanja Peric, the founder of Aymo Live, a live streaming platform for creatives where people come together to create, watch, discover, and connect.
Vanja is a second time founder and has learned many lessons along the way which she shares on the podcast. This episode is very insightful and fun.
If you are an artist or a fan of art, sign up here: https://aymolive.com/
2022-01-211h 15Think with LucieEpisode 15 - Discussion Series - Violence against women with Ruth Tweedale (Nia) and Rosie Hodsdon (National Ugly Mugs)In this episode I discussed violence against women with Rosie Hodsdon and Ruth Tweedale. Rosie is a Marketing and Communications Representative for National Ugly Mugs, a non profit organisation which provides greater access to justice and protection for sex workers who are often targeted by dangerous offenders but are frequently unwilling to report incidents to the police.
Ruth is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Roehampton and co-chair at Nia, an organisation that delivers services for women, girls and children who have experienced sexual and domestic violence.
2021-12-161h 38Think with LucieEpisode 14 - Female Founder Series with Alexandra Rico-Lloyd (Founder of Bike Club)Female founders episode with Alexandra Rico-Lloyd, the founder of Bike Club, a startup that offers subscription-based kids bikes that can be exchanged as children grow. Alexandra is a superwoman and everyone who has kids and wants to start a business should listen to this episode. She proves that everything is possible.
2021-12-1053 minThink with LucieEpisode 13 - Discussion Series - Brexit with John Stevens (Chairman at The Federal Trust) and Alan Sked (Founder of UKIP)In this episode, I am discussing Brexit with Alan Sked (pro Brexit) and John Stevens (pro EU). Alan is a Scottish eurosceptic academic notable for having founded the Anti-Federalist League and its successor the UK Independence Party. He is Professor Emeritus of International History at the LSE.
John is a British politician, a conservative member of the European Parliament from 1989 to 1999 and currently Chairman of The Federal Trust, a think tank that studies the interactions between different levels of government.
In this episode, we will cover the consequences of referenda, to what extent misinformation influenced...
2021-12-101h 48Think with LucieEpisode 12 - Discussion Series - Populism with Guido Rowe (LSE) and Guillermo Gonzalez (LSE)This episode covers the definition of populism and how it has evolved over time and in different regions, examples of populist leaders, why is populism popular and what are the dangers associated with populist ideas.
Guido is an advocate of populism and Guillermo thinks populism poses a threat to democracy.
2021-12-021h 53Think with LucieEpisode 11 - Exclusive interview with a female lawyer who is fighting for her life in AfghanistanI recorded a special interview that needs your attention. This is really important so please listen to the whole episode where I will be speaking with an Afghan female lawyer and human rights defender who is facing a serious security threat and needs immediate evacuation out of the country.
For safety purposes, I will not reveal her real name, and for this podcast, she will go by Nahira.
To give you background, prior to the Taliban takeover, Nahira worked as a defense lawyer on various cases including violence against women in Afghanistan.
When...
2021-11-2643 minThink with LucieEpisode 10 - Discussion Series - Cancel Culture with Camilla Cerruti (UCL) and Debo Abudu (UCL)In this episode, Camilla and Debo discussed what is cancel culture, if it threatens the freedom of speech and due process, how do we balance freedom of speech with accountability, and comment on examples of individuals who have been cancelled.
2021-11-261h 26Think with LucieEpisode 9 - Founder Series with Guillaume Kendall (Founder of Zedosh)In this episode, I spoke with Guillaume Kendall, the founder of Zedosh, a startup that is redefining advertising to bring fair value and transparency to both brands and consumers. In other words, Zedosh is paying you to watch relevant ads based on your credit card transactions. Who wouldn't want to be paid for their attention?
Tune in to this episode to hear about Zedosh's early days, how they raised seed funding, how Zedosh works and how to sign up, what brands are working with them, their monetization strategy as well as comments on the...
2021-11-261h 26Think with LucieEpisode 8 - Discussion Series - Climate Change, Green New Deal & COP26 with Cosmo Le Breton (Eton) and Harry Efthymiou (LSE)In this episode, Cosmo and Harry discussed the definition of climate change, why we should be paying attention to it, what about climate change is not covered by mainstream media and what we should do on an individual and legislative level to tackle it.
Cosmo also talked about the recent COP26 conference that he attended and what the deal that was negotiated includes.
2021-11-181h 28Think with LucieEpisode 7 - Discussion Series - Transgender Clarence (law student) and Fiona (Beaumont Society) agree and disagree on trans rights and policiesIn this episode, Clarence and Fiona will be discussing the difference between gender and sex, transgender policies, transgender rights as well as the controversies surrounding trans issues.
Questions addressed:
Is gender identity genetic or environmental?
What's the difference between gender and sex?
What are your opinions on nonbinary identity?
Should sex reassignment and hormonal therapy be allowed in children?
Should transwomen compete with females in sports?
Should we demedicalise the process of changing legal gender?
Is there health care coverage...
2021-10-271h 57Think with LucieEpisode 6 - Discussion Series - Should the British monarchy be abolished? with Reem Ibrahim (LSE) and Shaurya Chandravanshi (LSE)In this episode, Reem and Shaurya discussed the role of monarchy in our society and if we should or shouldn’t keep supporting it.
Reem will be defending the existence of the British monarchy and Shaurya will be opposing it.
We talked about the role of the monarchy in the UK, powers of the Queen, the royals' relationship with the media, how they make money, how they're adapting to modern times and what the exit of Harry and Megan means for the royal family.
Enjoy.
2021-10-271h 26Think with LucieEpisode 5 - Discussion Series - Hitler vs Churchill (Can we draw any comparisons? Who was more evil?) with Tasnime Akunjee (criminal defence solicitor) and Joseph Taylor-Livesey (LSE)Joseph Taylor-Livesey, a second year Politics and International Relations student at the LSE, and Tasnime Akunjee, a criminal defence solicitor working in the field of Terrorism, discussed Winston Churchill and Adolf Hitler. Can we draw any comparisons? Who had more blood on their hands? Who was more evil?
Joe defends Churchill while Tasnime believes Churchill is not a hero, rather a villain.
2021-10-261h 40Think with LucieEpisode 4 - Discussion Series - Is wealth a better predictor of success than intelligence/grit? with Mariana Calo (Imperial)Me and my friend Mariana Calo talk about the factors that influence success.
2021-10-2650 minThink with LucieEpisode 3 - Discussion Series - Public vs Private Education (Are private schools bad for society?) with Kai Li (LSE) and Aaron Thomas (LSE)Kai Li, Geography student at the LSE and president of the LSE Conservative Society, and Aaron Thomas, Economics student at the LSE and vice president of the 93% Club, discussed if private schools add value to our society or if they should be abolished.
Kai went through the private school system and was educated at Abingdon school in Oxfordshire.
Aaron attended state schools.
Below are some of the questions that we tried to answer:
Does the private school system help bring us closer together to build a fairer society...
2021-10-261h 09Think with LucieEpisode 2 - Discussion Series - Socialism vs Capitalism (Can any form of socialism succeed in our society?) with Emerson Murphy (LSE) and Jan Kozdra (LSE)Emerson Murphy, a second year Politics and Economics student at the LSE and Jan Kozdra, a PhD student at the Department of International History at the LSE discussed the benefits and drawbacks of socialism and capitalism.
Jan is of Polish origin and his family lived through the communist regime. He is an advocate of capitalism.
Emerson is from the UK and is a member of the Labor society at the LSE. He is an advocate of socialism.
Below are some of the questions that we tried to answer:
...
2021-10-123h 26Think with LucieEpisode 1 - Female Founder Series with Francesca Hodgson (Founder of GoodBox)I had fun speaking with Francesca who is the Cofounder and Chief Operating Officer of GoodBox - an impact-driven technology company helping nonprofit companies with digital fundraising. You may know them for their tap-to-give contactless donation points across the UK.
We spoke about Francesca's experience prior to founding GoodBox, the transformation of the charity sector in the digital age, advice for founders and to-be-founders as well as failures and any lessons learned.
Enjoy
2021-10-081h 04