Parasite, the Malaria (Tech & Science) Edition

16 Minutes News by a16z

original episode notes and transcript here:

https://future.a16z.com/podcasts/malaria-vaccine-tech-science-news/

Longtime podcast showrunner (2014-2022), primary host, and editor Sonal Chokshi shares three best-of episodes as she shifts gears and the show goes on hiatus until relaunched with a new host.

As with all of the episodes on this show about tech & science trends in the news, and where they are on the long arc of innovation -- this one is actually a story of human ingenuity over 100 years in the making, with the ultimate breakthrough in a malaria vaccine just last year that we discuss here. (And while we were one of the very first to cover the coronavirus pandemic back in Jan 2020, and several episodes all about vaccines, this is an unusual one: fighting a parasite vs a virus, what that means, how, and why it matters.)

It is also one of Chokshi's signature “2x explainers”, where we quickly cover the headlines and tech trends, but also offer evergreen explainers, analysis, frameworks, and more to understand those trends -- whether it was TikTok’s algorithm, GPT-3, the opioid crisis, or the anatomy of a hack.
Thank you to you all for listening, sharing, engaging and coming along with us on this journey! Thank you as well to our brilliant audio editors, expert guests, and several others. The team will be putting this feed on hiatus temporarily, and in the meantime, you can follow my other work here at a16z as well as other projects on Twitter @smc90. Stay tuned for more!