GeekWire

Uncommon Thinkers 2025: Solar spacecraft, sci-fi biology, destroying PFAS, beyond AI chatbots, and better social media

On this special episode of the GeekWire Podcast, recorded backstage at the GeekWire Gala at the Showbox Sodo, we sit down with five of the inventors, scientists, and entrepreneurs selected as the Seattle region's 2025 Uncommon Thinkers, in partnership with Greater Seattle Partners [https://greater-seattle.com/]. Jeff Thornburg spent years building rocket engines for Elon Musk at SpaceX and Paul Allen at Stratolaunch. Now, as CEO of Portal Space Systems, he's moved past chemical rockets to revive a concept NASA studied decades ago but never pursued — a spacecraft powered by focused sunlight. He calls it a "steam engine for space." Read the profile [https://www.geekwire.com/2025/uncommon-thinkers-portal-space-jeff-thornburg/]. Anindya Roy grew up in rural India without electricity, came to the U.S. with two suitcases and $2,000, and earned a spot in the lab of a Nobel Prize winner. Now, as co-founder of Lila Biologics, he's using AI to design proteins from scratch (molecules that have never existed in nature) to treat cancer. Read the profile [https://www.geekwire.com/2025/uncommon-thinkers-a-scientists-journey-from-rural-india-to-turning-science-fiction-into-drug-candidates/]. Jay Graber runs Bluesky, the decentralized social network that's become a leading alternative to X and other centralized platforms. But while most tech CEOs build moats to lock users in, Jay and the Bluesky team are building a protocol designed to let them leave. She sees the network as a "collective organism," and she's creating a tech foundation meant to outlive her own company. Read the profile. Read the profile [https://www.geekwire.com/2025/uncommon-thinkers-bluesky-ceo-jay-graber-is-planting-the-seeds-for-a-decentralized-digital-world/]. Kiana Ehsani came to Seattle from Iran for her PhD and spent four years at the Allen Institute for AI before becoming CEO of Vercept. She and the Vercept team are competing directly with OpenAI, Google and others in AI agents, building efficient agents that handle mundane digital tasks on computers so humans can spend less time on screens. Read the profile [https://www.geekwire.com/2025/uncommon-thinkers-kiana-ehsani-thrives-on-scrappy-persistence-at-ai-startup-and-in-the-outdoors/]. Brian Pinkard spent six months after college flipping rocks and building trails because he wanted to do work that mattered. That instinct led him to Aquagga, where he's proving that the industry standard of filtering and burying "forever chemicals" is obsolete. Instead, he's using technology originally designed to destroy chemical weapons to annihilate PFAS under extreme heat and pressure. Read the profile [https://www.geekwire.com/2025/uncommon-thinkers-brian-pinkard-looks-for-impact-from-flipping-rocks-to-destroying-forever-chemicals/]. Eagle-eyed readers may have noticed we're missing one honoree — Chet Kittleson [https://www.geekwire.com/2025/uncommon-thinkers-tin-can-is-chet-kittlesons-calling-and-a-way-to-foster-deeper-connections/], co-founder and CEO of Tin Can, the startup making WiFi-enabled landline phones to help kids connect without screens. Chet wasn't able to join us, but we plan to speak with him on a future episode. With GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop. Edited by Curt Milton. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Bonus: Trevor Noah on AI, education, and the future of comedy

Trevor Noah speaks with GeekWire's Todd Bishop after Noah taught a 5th grade class at Ardmore Elementary in Bellevue, Wash., for Code.org's Hour of AI [https://code.org/en-US/hour-of-ai] during Computer Science Education Week. The former Daily Show host, comedian, author [https://trevornoahbooks.com/], podcast host [https://www.youtube.com/@WhatNowPodcast], and Microsoft "Chief Questions Officer" [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFPUGjQjckXHAVzDxBpjXENRKgVU6KCzF] talks about learning AI alongside kids, the importance of maintaining unbridled curiosity, and how artificial intelligence may — or may not — reshape the craft of comedy. RELATED STORY: ‘We are all kids in the age of AI’: Trevor Noah teaches 5th graders — and learns a few things himself [https://www.geekwire.com/2025/we-are-all-kids-in-the-age-of-ai-trevor-noah-teaches-5th-graders-and-learns-a-few-things-himself/] See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Amazon’s New Frontiers: Robotaxis, Ultrafast Deliveries, and AI Teammates

Amazon is experimenting again. This week, we dig into our scoop on Amazon Now, the company's new ultrafast delivery service. Plus, we recap the GeekWire team's ride in a Zoox robotaxi on the Las Vegas Strip during AWS re:Invent. And in our featured interview, from the show floor, AWS Senior Vice President Colleen Aubrey [https://www.linkedin.com/in/colleen-aubrey-b90816/] discusses Amazon's push into applied AI, why the company sees AI agents as "teammates," and how her team is rethinking product development in the age of agentic coding. RELATED STORIES * Stars on the ceiling, Cher on the speakers: Notes from our first ride in Amazon’s Zoox robotaxi [https://www.geekwire.com/2025/stars-on-the-ceiling-cher-on-the-speakers-notes-from-our-first-ride-in-amazons-zoox-robotaxi/] * Groceries in a flash: We tested ‘Amazon Now’ in Seattle — and got our delivery in 23 minutes [https://www.geekwire.com/2025/groceries-in-a-flash-we-tested-amazon-now-in-seattle-and-got-our-delivery-in-23-minutes/] * AWS CEO Matt Garman thought Amazon needed a million developers, until AI changed his mind [https://www.geekwire.com/2025/aws-ceo-matt-garman-thought-amazon-needed-a-million-developers-until-ai-changed-his-mind/] With GeekWire co-founders Todd Bishop and John Cook. Edited by Curt Milton.   See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Finding signal in the AI noise, with ‘Me, Myself and AI’ host Sam Ransbotham

What's the real value in AI tools — and what separates those who use them well from those who don't? Sam Ransbotham [https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/schools/carroll-school/faculty-research/faculty-directory/sam-ransbotham.html], professor of business analytics at Boston College and host of the "Me, Myself and AI" podcast from MIT Sloan Management Review, compares notes with GeekWire Podcast host Todd Bishop in a two-part collaboration between the shows. On this episode, they discuss the new digital divide emerging in the classroom, AI's measurement problem (and what Wikipedia teaches us about it), the "race to mediocre," how AI is democratizing startup creation, and the tension between AI productivity, time, and the moments that make us human. Find the rest of their conversation in the Me, Myself and AI podcast feed [https://sloanreview.mit.edu/audio-series/me-myself-and-ai/].  See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Bezos is back in startup mode, Amazon gets weird again, and the great old-car tech retrofit debate

This week: Jeff Bezos is back in startup mode [https://www.geekwire.com/2025/jeff-bezos-takes-co-ceo-role-at-secretive-ai-startup-project-prometheus/?utm_source=chatgpt.com] (sort of) with Project Prometheus — a $6.2 billion AI-for-the-physical-world venture that instantly became one of the most talked-about new companies in tech. We dig into what his return to the CEO title really means, why the company’s location is still a mystery, and how this echoes the era when Bezos was regularly launching big bets from Seattle. Then we look at Amazon’s latest real-world experiment [https://www.geekwire.com/2025/amazon-expands-package-return-network-with-new-goodwill-partnership-in-seattle-area/]: package-return kiosks popping up inside Goodwill stores around the Seattle region. It’s a small pilot, but it brings back memories of the early days when Amazon’s oddball experiments seemed to appear out of nowhere. And finally…Todd makes the case for upgrading his 2007 Toyota Camry with CarPlay, Android Auto, and a backup camera — while John questions the logic of sinking thousands into a beloved older car. All that, plus a mystery Microsoft shirt [https://www.linkedin.com/posts/bishoptodd_ok-microsoft-experts-weve-got-a-thrift-activity-7396653197215350785-Lm4Y?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAAmZBMB4ZPLFVeakJlucqgeZbv9Gl1WRKU], a little Seattle nostalgia, and a look ahead to next week’s podcast collaboration with Me, Myself and AI [https://sloanreview.mit.edu/audio-series/me-myself-and-ai/] from MIT Sloan Management Review. With GeekWire co-founders John Cook and Todd Bishop See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.