I chat with Geographer and Data Scientist Peter Lenz, Head of Data Science at Near, about geo-location data - what is it? How is it used and what are some of the ethical concerns around it? We discuss how it’s collected - from cellphones to Satellites, and we talk about the democratization of space and how accessible it has become for private enterprise to launch satellites. Lastly I get Peter’s perspective on some interesting data-related topics that have been in the news lately.

Fara Ashiru Jituboh, Co-Founder and CEO of Okra, joins me to discuss what it means to build Africa’s financial data network, the social consequences like building and strengthening a middle class. We discuss how they think about the financial data they collect and use for anything from personalization of services to fraud detection all while maintaining privacy and security for their customers.

We also touch on Fara’s experience as a Black Female tech startup founder and hear her one word of advice for anyone embarking on the path of Entrepeneurship.

Lauren S Moores, PhD, Head of Data Innovation at Montai Health joins me to discuss her work on the data advisory board of USA for UNHCR, a nonprofit organization that supports the United Nations High Commission for Refugees and builds awareness and support for the global refugee crisis.

We discuss how data is utilized in that work to help address the Refugee Crisis, her take on corporations doing work for social good, AI and the issue of privacy in health tech, as well as why I won’t be doing the 23 & me thing anytime soon.

James Hodson, CEO and board member of AI FOR GOOD, talks about how the organization defines social good, how Corporations and Academia are hampered in their ability to push social innovation and how AI For Good seeks to fill that void. We discuss a few of their projects, especially around diversity and inclusion in the workplace - quantifying and measuring corporations' adherence to their D&I goals.

Professor Naomi Tague of the UC Santa Barbara Bren School of Environmental Science and Management talks about her research predicting and forecasting forest fire frequency and severity in California as well as modeling how water flows through landscapes, what data is used in the models and how machine learning helps at different points.

Dr. Ira Cohen, Founder and chief data scientist at Anodot, about how his company uses a machine learning technique called anomaly detection to help businesses avoid being impacted by surprises