floating questions
by Rui
Latest episode
Wen Tong: The Color You See Isn't the Color That's There
Wen Tong: The Color You See Isn't the Color That's There
About this podcast
Who do you have to become to do what you do?
Each episode enters through a different door — tech/AI, art, food, policy, faith — but the conversation always turns toward what's on the other side: identity, meaning, and what it feels like to still be figuring it out.
The guests are data scientists, game designers, chefs, founders, professors — but beyond the titles, who are they, really?
Subscribe to float along!
Official website: https://www.floatingquestions.com/
Ideas or collabs: [email protected]
Episodes
- Wen Tong: The Color You See Isn't the Color That's There · 50 min · Season 1 Episode 20Wen Tong is an imaging engineer and (aspiring) colorist — his job is to make sure what you see on screen is exactly what the director intended. Turns out, that's almost…
- Mason Grimshaw: Probabilistic Living, Indigenous Data Sovereignty, and Foundation Models for the Earth · 39 min · Season 1 Episode 19In this episode of Floating Questions, we sit down with Mason Grimshaw, an MIT alum and mission-driven data scientist driving critical progress at the intersection of…
- Amine Bennouna: The "Fossil Fuel" of AI, Decisioning Under Uncertainty, and the Tenure Trap · 54 min · Season 1 Episode 18You might have heard of Amine Bennouna from a previous episode (here) – from the Math Olympiad in Morocco to an MIT PhD and now a Professor at Northwestern's Kellogg School of…
- Eric Wang: Cooking on Wall Street – From Private Equity to Culinary Craft · 35 min · Season 1 Episode 17For the final episode of 2025, we are joined by a guest who embodies the spirit of exploration: Eric Wang. By day, Eric works in private equity in New York City, managing…
- Shaka Mitchell: Civil Discourse Through Music, School Choice & the Rise of AI in Learning · 1 h 7 min · Season 1 Episode 16Today on Floating Questions, we sat down with Shaka Mitchell - Aspen Institute Civil Society Fellow, Senior Fellow at the American Federation for Children, constitutional law…
- Timothy Chen: From “Not Good Enough for Microsoft” to Building Trust in Code and Capital · 1 h 6 min · Season 1 Episode 15Timothy Chen’s story isn’t your typical Silicon Valley success arc. He didn’t start as a hotshot coder - Microsoft once slotted him into the IT track, nothing more. Yet he went…
- Julia Morton: What AI Changes (and Doesn’t) About Art · 49 min · Season 1 Episode 14In this episode, we sit down with Julia Morton - a writer, art curator, fashion designer, early YouTuber, and author of a Substack chronicling how artists are experimenting with…
- Joshua Pulsifer: Encountering Life, Death, and Art Through Video Games · 43 min · Season 1 Episode 13In this episode, we are joined by Joshua Pulsifer - narrative designer and co-director at Zipit! Games, an indie studio in New York. Joshua and his partner Ben are building The…
- Chad Sanderson: Fixing Broken Data Culture, One Contract at a Time · 1 h 18 min · Season 1 Episode 12Data breaks. AI models go crazy. Downstream teams scramble to put out the fire. In this episode, I talk with Chad Sanderson, CEO and co-founder of Gable - a startup rebuilding…
- Stephanie Franklin: The Role of Data in Making Education Policy Count - and the Challenges Behind It · 48 min · Season 1 Episode 11How do you measure whether an education policy is actually working? In this episode, I talk with Stephanie Franklin, Deputy Associate Commissioner of Strategy and Analytics at…
- Sean Chen: From Google to the Streets - Startup Hustler & Content Creator · 45 min · Season 1 Episode 10In this episode, we sit down with Sean Chen - a former data scientist at Google and one of the first AI product managers at Walmart/Sam’s Club - to unpack his whirlwind journey…
- Clarence Chio: Hacking, Risk x AI, Building with Pragmatism, and the Fine Line Between Delusion and Persistence · 53 min · Season 1 Episode 9From a hacker's perspective, what are some of the most overlooked - yet critical - problems in tech? In this episode, Clarence Chio shares his journey from giving DEFCON talks on…
- Ashish Ranjan Jha: Founder of Nativ (a16z Speedrun), Former AI Lead at Revolut - An Unscripted Journey · 59 min · Season 1 Episode 8Floating Questions welcomes Ashish Ranjan Jha - former AI lead at Revolut, author of Fight Fraud with Machine Learning, and now founder of Nativ. In this episode, we trace…
- Matt LeMay: Practical Wisdom, Business Impact, and Ethical Dilemmas in Product Management · 51 min · Season 1 Episode 7Floating Questions welcomes Matt LeMay, a product leader, musician, and author of two books: Impact First Product Teams and Product Management in Practice. With experience at…
- Nivedita Gaur: From Space to Silicon - A Trailblazing Journey of Ambition, Family, and Empowerment · 43 min · Season 1 Episode 6Floating Questions welcomes Nivedita Gaur, whose extraordinary journey spans from India's Space Applications Centre to shaping the future of augmented reality (AR) as a Silicon…
- Brian Hsu: Definition & Assumption Behind AI Ethics, Shift in AI Talents & Career Choice · 36 min · Season 1 Episode 5What is even fairness in AI? Is there such a thing as too much diversity in AI output? Should AI reflect the world as it is, or the world we wish it to be? In this episode of…
- Amine Bennouna: From Morocco to MIT, From International Maths Olympiad to NGO, and From Research to Teaching · 51 min · Season 1 Episode 4In this episode of Floating Questions, we sit down with Amine Bennouna, a postdoctoral researcher at MIT and soon-to-be professor at the Kellogg School of Management. We explore…
- Daniel Kofman: Challenges in Solar, Ethics in Defense Tech, Spirituality in Science, and the Paradoxes in Human Nature · 49 min · Season 1 Episode 3In this episode of Floating Questions, we sit down with Daniel Kofman, a serial entrepreneur who co-founded a solar panel company and started a defense technology startup…
- Shane Weisberg: Hiking, Creative Writing, and Navigating Data Science in MLB & Climate Policy · 37 min · Season 1 Episode 2In this episode of Floating Questions, we sit down with Shane Weisberg, an MIT graduate, hiking in the woods and dabbling in creative writing. Our conversation delves into…
- Tristan Aubert: A Journey Beyond Borders From Childhood to Social Forestry and Data Science · 29 min · Season 1 Episode 1Dive into our debut episode of "Floating Questions" where we explore the intersections of data science, social enterprise, and personal history with Tristan Aubert. From his…
