The Innovation Blueprint

Episode 39 Flipping the Script: Making Grass-Fed Beef Accessible to All with Chris Kerston

Co-founder of Origin Provisions Chris Kerston explains how rising beef prices, a shrinking US cattle herd, and shifting consumer values pushed him to build a grass-fed brand for Middle America, one that trades premium margins for scale, transparency, and shelf space in everyday grocery stores.

Episode 38 Why Cancer Keeps Winning: Randall Riggs on drug failure, mutation, and limits of progress

30 years in pharma and one approved drug says everything. Randall B. Riggs breaks down why cancer resists even the best science, how mutation outpaces static treatments, and why resilience matters more than breakthroughs. Progress is real, but the odds, funding gaps, and biology keep the fight brutally uneven.

Episode 37 Where Automation Breaks Down: Why manufacturing resists AI and easy answers with Matthew

Small-batch manufacturing leaves little room for clean automation or plug-and-play AI. Matthew unpacks the friction between theory and shop floor reality, from unbuildable designs to endless automation projects. Real progress depends less on tools and more on experience, constraints, and hard-earned judgment.

Episode 36 Building Medicine Beyond Earth: Mari Anne Snow on Medecine's Space Future

What happens when better medicine depends on leaving Earth? Mari Anne Snow shares how Eascra Biotech is using microgravity to build more stable, precise drug delivery systems, why space manufacturing changes pharma, and what it takes to create the first FDA pathway for medicines made in orbit.

Episode 35 The Cost of Change in Complex Industries: David Truch Take on Energy, AI and the Future

Technology fails fast when teams solve the wrong problem. Dave Truch reflects on 40 years in energy, from seismic systems to AI and quantum sensing, and why real transformation starts long before code. In oil and gas, adoption depends less on tools and more on timing, trust, and who’s willing to change.