First Principles

First-Principles Podcast
  • 4.0 (1)
  • Technology
  • Updated Weekly

First Principles is the podcast that deconstructs the complex, invisible systems shaping our modern world. Ever wonder how a social media algorithm works, how AI really thinks, or how GPS knows your exact location? Each episode, we break down one concept from its fundamental truths, giving you clarity without the technical jargon. If you're curious about the tech you use every day and want to finally understand it, this is your starting point. If you enjoy the show and want to support it, you can buy me a coffee: https://paypal.me/podcast8

  1. 1d ago

    EP75 - The Chip That Feels You: Inside MEMS Motion Sensors

    Descend a spiral parking ramp with every satellite out of sight and your map still traces every curve, as if something above were watching. Nothing is, because a speck of vibrating silicon has been feeling your motion the whole way down. We crack open MEMS motion sensing, from springs holding nanometer breaths to the strange truth that your phone has never felt gravity at all. If you enjoy the show and want to support it, you can buy me a coffee: https://paypal.me/podcast8

  2. 1d ago

    EP74 - Starlink: Ten Thousand Tiny Routers Stitched Across the Sky

    Midway across an ocean, miles from any tower or cable, passengers now join video calls as if the whole sky had gone online overnight. It looks impossible, internet delivered by machines falling permanently around the Earth. This episode tears open satellite internet, from the relay of fast-moving satellites stitching that sky together, to the reason nothing here would work if the network failed to plan around the speed of light itself. If you enjoy the show and want to support it, you can buy me a coffee: https://paypal.me/podcast8

  3. Sep 20

    EP73 - Direct Air Capture: Wringing Carbon From the Endless Sky

    On a black volcanic field in Iceland, rows of fan-walled machines inhale ordinary air and hand the carbon they extract to the ground, which turns it to stone. It sounds like science fiction, or like an impossible way to clean something as vast as the sky. We crack open direct air capture, from the chemical sponges that snatch one molecule in twenty-five hundred, to the thermodynamic law that guarantees this cleanup will never come cheap. If you enjoy the show and want to support it, you can buy me a coffee: https://paypal.me/podcast8

  4. Sep 17

    EP72 - Federated Learning: Teaching Machines Without Showing Your Secrets

    Your phone's keyboard has learned your slang, your nicknames, the strange words only your group chat uses, which means some machine somewhere studied your most private typing. Except it didn't have to. We crack open federated learning, the elegant inversion that sends the student to the data instead of the data to the student, and uncover the cryptographic trick that lets a million strangers whisper in perfect chorus while saying nothing alone. If you enjoy the show and want to support it, you can buy me a coffee: https://paypal.me/podcast8

  5. Sep 14

    EP71 - Perovskite Solar Cells: Printing a Second Chance at Sunlight

    Solar panels have quietly become the cheapest way to make electricity in human history, yet for decades they have been stuck converting barely a fifth of the sunlight that touches them, pinned by a sixty-year-old law of physics. Then scientists started printing an exotic crystal right on top of the silicon, and the ceiling shattered. We break down bandgaps, bus fares, and the strange defect-riddled material that breaks the rules precisely because it never learned them. If you enjoy the show and want to support it, you can buy me a coffee: https://paypal.me/podcast8

  6. Sep 11

    EP70 - AI Watermarking and C2PA: Chain of Custody for Truth

    A photograph used to be proof. Then generative AI arrived, and now the most convincing image of the Pope in a puffer jacket, or a politician saying words they never said, costs nothing and takes seconds. We crack open the emerging technology that fights back without even looking at the picture, using cryptographic hashes, digital signatures, and a chain of custody that starts inside the camera at the instant of capture. If you enjoy the show and want to support it, you can buy me a coffee: https://paypal.me/podcast8

  7. Sep 8

    EP69 - Orbital Debris Removal: To Catch Space Junk, Slow Down

    Thousands of dead rockets and shattered satellites are falling around the Earth at seventeen thousand five hundred miles per hour, and we have finally started sending machines up to catch them. The first thing engineers learned is that everything your instincts say about the chase is wrong. We break down the strange physics of cleaning up the sky, from slowing down to catch up, to grabbing a tumbling giant that will never, ever stop spinning. If you enjoy the show and want to support it, you can buy me a coffee: https://paypal.me/podcast8

  8. Sep 5

    EP68 - Post-Quantum Cryptography: The Multidimensional Grid That Foils Quantum Computers

    When you hit the pay button, invisible math scrambles your secrets so only the right key can read them, and we take it for granted that this lock is unbreakable. But a quantum computer is being built that could crack the exact math our locks are made of. We decode post-quantum cryptography, and the strange multidimensional geometry that is becoming the new shield for your digital life. If you enjoy the show and want to support it, you can buy me a coffee: https://paypal.me/podcast8

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About

First Principles is the podcast that deconstructs the complex, invisible systems shaping our modern world. Ever wonder how a social media algorithm works, how AI really thinks, or how GPS knows your exact location? Each episode, we break down one concept from its fundamental truths, giving you clarity without the technical jargon. If you're curious about the tech you use every day and want to finally understand it, this is your starting point. If you enjoy the show and want to support it, you can buy me a coffee: https://paypal.me/podcast8

Information

  • Creator
    First-Principles Podcast
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    75
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © First-Principles Podcast

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