Dr. Lonnie Johnson is a literal rocket scientist who also happens to be the mastermind behind the legendary Super Soaker water gun. He’s also racked up over 250 patents and landed a spot in the National Toy Hall of Fame. Inventor, aerospace engineer, and entrepreneur, Dr. Johnson joins this week’s episode of Before IT Happened to talk about growing up during the civil rights movement, helping build stealth bombers and rockets for NASA, and making the the idea for the Super Soaker a reality.

Millions of people have been affected by data breaches and leaks in recent years. But what if there was a better way to keep our digital identities secure? In this week's episode of Before IT Happened, Locke Brown talks about how his company NuID is working to both simplify and strengthen online security by rethinking the traditional password-based approach to authentication in favor of a decentralized, user-controlled solution.

Vlad Panchenko, a lifelong gamer and technologist, is on course to one day build a massive metaverse community and exchange by connecting video gamers on mega gaming platforms. Vlad started his career in Ukraine at the age of 16, where he was paid by the kilobyte to translate pirated video games from English into Russian and Ukrainian. Byte by byte, Panchenko gained the experience that would lead him to create powerful gaming platforms. In this episode, Vlad talks about his latest creation, DMarket, a giant social gaming marketplace where all manner of virtual goods are traded. Join us as we take a step into the brave new world of the future where virtual worlds are a reality.

Feras Bashnak is a serial entrepreneur who knows first-hand the high cost of opening a business. Want to launch a brick-and-mortar restaurant? Half a million. How about a food truck? $100,000. Either way, you’re sinking a lot of cash into a huge commitment that you have yet to prototype ­– risks few young entrepreneurs are willing to take. In this week’s episode of Before IT Happened, Feras talks about the “aha” moment that led him to founding Ferla Bikes, an e-bike-powered food and retail bicycle and push cart manufacturing company. Listen now to hear more about Feras’s journey.

Maurice Carrubba—also known as the Warren Buffett of restaurateurs—has a knack for finding classic restaurants with great bones and transforming them into go-to dining experiences. Born and raised in Sicily, Maurice moved to Silicon Valley in 1989 where he now runs a restaurant group and a catering company and employs over 150 people. Maurice also runs a nearby farm that sustains two of his restaurants, and he is working to reduce his carbon footprint and foster a culture of respecting and taking care of the earth to younger generations. Tune in to hear all about how Maurice is revolutionizing the food industry.

Modern life can be isolating. We’re wrapped up in our social media feeds, rushing to log into the next Zoom meeting, hurtling down the road in our metal capsules, or holed up in our houses. Being cut off from the natural world often leaves us feeling disconnected from ourselves and others. Enter this week’s guest on Before IT Happened, Joe Patitucci, who’s spent the last decade developing devices that connect us to nature by converting the biorhythms of plants into real-time music, or what he calls, “a sonic window into the secret life of plants.” Tune in now to hear how it all came together for Joe, from growing up in a family of piano teachers and electrical engineers to starting a music label and ultimately creating plant music for audiences all over the world.

Silicon Valley is home to some of the world’s most innovative products and companies. Mighty among them are the design firms that help build and shape those products. In this episode of Before IT Happened, Tark Abed, founder and CEO of the product design consultancy Mighty Studios, talks to host Donna Loughlin about how he became an industrial designer, what his first years in the industry were like just down the street from Stanford’s Institute of Design a.k.a. the d.school in Palo Alto, and how he eventually founded his own design studio. Tune in to hear all about Tark’s career building cutting-edge products and to hear what role Tark says design has to play in our future.

Carbon-heavy agriculture is responsible for 11% of greenhouse gases worldwide. That’s where Mark Schwager and his team at Monarch Tractor roll in, with the world’s first electric, autonomous smart tractor. Monarch sees its tractor as the future of sustainable agriculture, allowing growers to apply precision farming while cutting their diesel costs to virtually zero. Co-Founder and President of Monarch Tractor, Mark Schawager talks with host Donna Loughlin about the need for more automation and EV in agriculture in this week’s episode. Schwager has an impressive engineering and factory line pedigree. He previously served as head of the Tesla Gigafactory, leading the project from concept to construction. Now he’s applying his deep engineering and production background to the farm. Join us as we explore the future of cleaner and more efficient farming!

There’s never been a better time to get on the electric bandwagon, or should we say highway? Alan Dowdell, CEO of REVO Powertrains, joins our host Donna Loughlin on this episode of Before IT Happened to talk about the $400 billion global environmental problem he and his company are working to tackle, converting existing, gas-powered trucks and buses to electric. Alan and his team are meeting this enormous challenge head-on with an integrated platform that retrofits large vehicles with electric systems. Join us and discover how a powertrain kit could be the key to taking our vehicles into the future.

The motorcycle industry is constantly evolving and Amber Spencer, a triple threat as Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at Damon Motorcycles, as well as a racer and bodybuilder, is now playing an active role in that transformation. As a minority in the motorcycle industry (women make up only 20% of the rider demographic, and women racers are nearly non-existent), Spencer is ready to confront the barriers to diversifying the sport. Ultimately, she sees a future where instead of being adapted for smaller bodies, motorcycles might be built from scratch, for all shapes, sizes and abilities. Hop on this ride with us now to hear how Amber is blazing the trail for women in this traditionally male-dominated industry.

Fast fashion has created mountains of unwanted clothing that are rotting in landfills and even washing up on beaches. In this episode of Before IT Happened, host Donna Loughlin talks with Pawan Gupta, CEO and co-founder of the manufacturing platform Fashinza. The son of a factory manager in a small town in India, Pawan Gupta saw small factory owners, textile and fashion designers, and assembly line workers who couldn’t access larger suppliers and control how their products were made. Enter Fashinza, Gupta’s new platform that enables independent producers to innovate and automate smart factories with a mobile app and smartphone camera. Workers digitize their processes, capture production data, and quantify output, inventory, and quality control – increasing the efficiency and speed of their businesses.

If robots are coming to take our jobs, let’s give them a really dangerous one: window washing. Ross Blum, president and COO at Skyline Robotics, joins host Donna Loughlin to talk about his company’s window washing robot, Ozmo. And cleaning is just the start. If Skyline Robotics achieves its vision, inspections, polishing, masonry, repairs, and testing, “all work at height” will be automated.

Humans have been exploiting the planet's natural resources since the dawn of civilization. This week’s guest on Before IT Happened, Troy Carter, would argue that even the term ‘natural resources’ is exploitative in and of itself. Co-founder and CEO of Earthshot Labs, a venture-funded non-profit backed by the National Science Foundation, Troy Carter joins host Dona Loughlin on the show to talk about his work repairing the planet through nature restoration, forest protection, and the conservation of ecosystems.

Technology is transforming our world in a myriad of ways. Witnessing some of those changes from the frontlines is artist and documentarian Agnieszka Pilat whose subjects range from aging machinery to emerging technology. In this episode of Before IT Happened, Pilat joins host Donna Loughlin to talk about growing up behind the Iron Curtain in Poland, her fascination with robotics, NFTs, and her newest posting as artist-in-residence at Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Commercial and industrial buildings waste around $200 billion worth of energy every year, and that is just in the US. Mark Chung is the Co-founder of Verdigris, a breakthrough AI-based sensor technology that helps companies monitor and reduce their energy usage. In this episode, Mark joins our host Donna Loughlin to discuss his mission to cut down on energy waste for the good of future generations, talking about how he identified an issue that went unnoticed for years and how he has since built a game-changing company that is truly making a difference.

We’ve talked a lot about electrification and sustainable energy and transformational technologies shaping the ways we move through the world on Before IT Happened. In this episode, award-winning industrial designer and co-founder of Untitled Motorcycles Hugo Eccles joins the show to talk about his creative process driven by a passion for both riding and design, talking about his family’s deep connection with automobiles all the way to his current challenges designing e-bikes and trying to attract new groups of riders through innovation and conscious development.