Bold Names

Who will take care of you in old age? Jeff Cardenas, the CEO and co-founder of Apptronik, says the answer is robots. The startup founder set out to build a smart, dexterous robot after watching his grandfathers grow old and dependent in their later years. Beyond healthcare, Cardenas sees robots as essential to U.S. economic growth and national security with applications across industries. Even with the latest advances in artificial intelligence and hardware, what will it take for humanoid robots to make the leap from science fiction to reality? On the latest episode of the Bold Names podcast, Cardenas tells WSJ’s Christopher Mims and Tim Higgins why Apptronik is betting it will create the home robot helper that everyone will want. To watch the video version of this episode, visit our WSJ Podcasts YouTube channel or the video page of WSJ.com. Check Out Past Episodes: Condoleezza Rice on Beating China in the Tech Race: 'Run Hard and Run Fast' Reid Hoffman Says AI Isn’t an ‘Arms Race,’ but America Needs to Win Why This Investor Says the AI Boom Isn’t the Next Dot-Com Crash How the U.S. Stacks Up to China’s ‘Engineering State’ Let us know what you think of the show. Email us at [email protected]. Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter. Read Christopher Mims’s Keywords column.Read Tim Higgins’s column.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As a special bonus, we’re bringing you an episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week. Co-host Telis Demos and guest host WSJ Chief Economics Correspondent Nick Timiraos are joined by Beth Hammack, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, to discuss the state of the U.S economy, interest rates and the central bank itself. Hammack shares her views on what she’s hearing from businesses in her district and what that could mean for consumer prices and the labor market. She emphasizes the importance of Fed independence and the chairman’s role in fusing differing viewpoints to create stable monetary policy. She also offers her perspective on the so-called neutral rate as well as artificial intelligence. If you like what you hear, subscribe to WSJ’s Take On the Week for weekly market previews and analysis. Visit our WSJ Podcasts YouTube channel or the video page of WSJ.com. Check Out Past Episodes: Inside Visa’s Tech-Charged Future: From Crypto to AI Why This Investor Says the AI Boom Isn’t the Next Dot-Com Crash This CEO Says Global Trade Is Broken. What Comes Next? Further Reading: Cleveland Fed’s Beth Hammack Skeptical of Further Cuts Let us know what you think of the show. Email us at [email protected]. Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter. Read Christopher Mims’s Keywords column.Read Tim Higgins’s column.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this special episode, Tim Higgins and Christopher Mims revisit some of their favorite moments from the first year of Bold Names. We look back on conversations with guests including Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on the explosive growth of AI and the complexities of the U.S.-China trade war. Then, Mims and Higgins flip the script to interview each other about the technological breakthroughs and geopolitical shifts that defined 2025 — and ask if the AI industry is heading toward a bubble burst next year. Plus, we answer your questions. To watch the video version of this episode, visit our WSJ Podcasts YouTube channel or the video page of WSJ.com. Check Out Past Episodes: How Microsoft’s AI Chief Defines ‘Humanist Super Intelligence’ This CEO Says Global Trade Is Broken. What Comes Next? Condoleezza Rice on Beating China in the Tech Race: 'Run Hard and Run Fast  Why IBM's CEO Thinks His Company Can Crack Quantum Computing Let us know what you think of the show. Email us at [email protected]. Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter. Read Christopher Mims’s Keywords column. Read Tim Higgins’s column.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gaming is a $200 billion industry that dwarfs Hollywood — and PlayStation is at the center of it all. On this week’s episode of Bold Names, Sony Interactive Entertainment SVP Eric Lempel joins WSJ’s Christopher Mims and Tim Higgins to discuss how the company plans to compete in a mobile-first gaming world. We talk about keeping the “soul” of game development as artificial intelligence becomes more integrated into businesses, the success of games like “Fortnite” and “The Last of Us,” and what the next decade holds for the console wars. To watch the video version of this episode, visit our WSJ Podcasts YouTube channel or the video page of WSJ.com. Check Out Past Episodes:This Tech Founder's $1.3 Billion Company Is Taking On Apple and Samsung Why This Investor Says the AI Boom Isn’t the Next Dot-Com Crash The Google-Backed Startup Taking on Elon Musk in Humanoid Robotics Let us know what you think of the show. Email us at [email protected]. Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter. Read Christopher Mims’s Keywords column. Read Tim Higgins’s column. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What business lessons are forged at 200 miles per hour? On this week’s Bold Names, McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown joins Christopher Mims and Tim Higgins to talk about his new book, “Seven Tenths of a Second.” A racecar driver turned executive, Brown leads a global racing organization worth hundreds of millions of dollars. We talk about the pressure and focus required to run a winning Formula One team, and what racing has taught Brown about leading a competitive business. To watch the video version of this episode, visit our WSJ Podcasts YouTube channel or the video page of WSJ.com. Check Out Past Episodes: How Uber Plans to Win the Self-Driving Car Race 70,000 Bets a Minute: How FanDuel’s Parent Is Winning at Sports Gambling How Tubi Is Coming for Netflix and YouTube in the New Streaming Wars Space Trucks: One Startup’s Plan to Get the U.S. Back on the Moon Let us know what you think of the show. Email us at [email protected]. Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter. Read Christopher Mims’s Keywords column.Read Tim Higgins’s column.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices