How I Built This with Guy Raz Wondery

Biofire founder and CEO Kai Kloepfer believes there’s at least one way to decrease gun deaths in America. Early next year, his company will begin shipping the world’s first handgun with an electronic firing system that unlocks instantaneously upon fingerprint or facial verification.

This week on How I Built This Lab, how Kai spent the past decade designing a firearm intended to prevent unauthorized use, particularly by children and adolescents. Plus, why past efforts to bring a smart gun to market have failed and an assessment of the changing U.S. gun market.

This episode was produced by Casey Herman and edited by John Isabella, with research by Alex Cheng.
Our music was composed by Ramtin Arablouei. Our audio engineer was Neal Rauch.

You can follow HIBT on Twitter & Instagram, and email us at hibt@id.wondery.com.

Vuori founder Joe Kudla built a 4-billion-dollar company on a risky idea: that men actually cared about the clothes they worked out in. When Joe launched Vuori in 2015, women’s athleisure brands like Lululemon were exploding, but there wasn’t a similar brand that catered to men. So Joe set out to sell men’s workout clothes that didn’t scream “hey, these are workout clothes!” and tried to place them into yoga studios and other small stores. At first Vuori didn’t get much traction – so Joe made a quick pivot to DTC, soon learning that men were more likely to buy activewear if it worked for everything: yoga, running, hiking, or just hanging out. After risking its dwindling cash on a major marketing campaign, Vuori hit its stride, becoming profitable within two years after launch.




This episode was produced by Rommel Wood, with music by Ramtin Arablouei.

Edited by Neva Grant, with research help from Alex Cheng.

Our engineers were Gilly Moon and Josh Newell.




You can follow HIBT on Twitter & Instagram, and email us at hibt@id.wondery.com.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Refefine Meat co-founder and CEO Eshchar Ben-Shitrit long had aspirations to lead a company, though he never imagined taking the risk to start his own. But learning about the environmental harms of mass beef production, plus having to answer his kids’ questions about what happens to baby cows at certain farms, was enough to convince him to say goodbye to corporate life and join the plant-based revolution.

This week on How I Built This Lab, Eshchar recounts his path from product manager to marketing executive to Redefine Meat — the company he launched in 2018 to commercialize 3D-printed, plant-based steaks. Today the company’s printed beef, lamb and pig alternatives can be found across Israel and Europe, with imminent plans to enter the U.S. market.




This episode was produced by Kerry Thompson and edited by John Isabella, with research by Chris Maccini.

Our music was composed by Ramtin Arablouei. Our audio engineer was Gilly Moon.

You can follow HIBT on Twitter & Instagram, and email us at hibt@id.wondery.com.







See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Amanda Klane and Drew Harrington are childhood friends, and co-founders of Yasso; they defied the advice of experts by creating a recipe for frozen Greek yogurt treats, and building Yasso into a $200 million dollar brand. When Amanda got the idea in 2009 to freeze Greek yogurt into popsicles, she reached out to Drew, who had already started a business selling—and there’s no way you could guess this—inflatable beer pong tables. The two friends set out to make a high protein, low-calorie yogurt bar, and despite initial bad reviews from family, and a series of “No’s” from prospective manufacturers, they eventually landed Yasso onto the shelves of Costco and BJ’s. It wasn’t long before they faced competition from the top players in the freezer aisle, but Yasso continued to grow, and was recently acquired by one of the biggest consumer goods companies in the world.  




This episode was produced by J.C. Howard, with music by Ramtin Arablouei

Edited by Neva Grant, with research help from Katherine Sypher.




You can follow HIBT on Twitter & Instagram, and email us at hibt@id.wondery.com.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Pierre Thiam is a renowned chef, restaurant owner, cookbook author, and co-founder of Yolélé – a company working to introduce the world to fonio, an ancient West African grain built for climate change.

But it hasn't been all sunshine and good harvests for Pierre. In fact, he was robbed just days after he first arrived in New York City from Senegal.

It was 1989, and he had just traveled to the U.S. to study chemistry and physics. This chance incident, however, set Pierre’s life on an entirely different course.

This week on How I Built This Lab, Pierre talks with Guy about his company’s work circulating fonio, a nutrient-dense and drought-resistant food source. Pierre also shares how he overcame cultural norms to embrace his cooking career, and his take on the connection between colonization and the vulnerability of our global food systems.




This episode was produced by Katherine Sypher and edited by John Isabella, with music by Ramtin Arablouei. Our audio engineer was Gilly Moon.




You can follow HIBT on Twitter & Instagram, and email us at hibt@id.wondery.com.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

By her early thirties, Ava DuVernay was already a successful entrepreneur, having founded her own film publicity agency in Los Angeles. But after years of watching other people make films, she started to get an itch to tell her own stories onscreen. Ava's first films were rooted in deeply personal experiences: growing up with her sisters in Compton, performing Hip Hop at Open Mic Night at the Good Life Café in L.A. Her self-funded and self-distributed projects began to draw attention, and in 2012, Ava won the award for best directing at the Sundance Film Festival. She went on to direct powerful projects like Selma, 13th, and When They See Us; and through her production and distribution company ARRAY, she's created a movement that is helping change how movies are made—and who gets to make them.




This episode was produced by Rachel Faulkner, with music by Ramtin Arablouei.

Edited by Neva Grant, with research help from Liz Metzger.




You can follow HIBT on Twitter & Instagram, and email us at hibt@id.wondery.com.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.