Cool Tools
394 episodes - English - Latest episode: 4 months ago - ★★★★★ - 58 ratingsIn each episode of the Cool Tools Show, Kevin Kelly and Mark Frauenfelder talk to a guest about some of his or her favorite uncommon and uncommonly good tools they think others should know about.
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Episodes
55: Dan Benjamin
May 23, 2016 20:45 - 34 minutes - 15.9 MBDan Benjamin is a podcaster, writer, software developer, and ex-corporate stooge. He is the founder of 5by5, a podcast network where he hosts a handful of shows. He is the author of baconmethod.com and hivelogic.com, and has written for A List Apart and O’Reilly. Dan lives in Austin, Texas with his wife and their children.
54: Jane Metcalfe
May 17, 2016 19:24 - 28 minutes - 12.8 MBJane Metcalfe started Wired Magazine with her life partner Louis Rossetto, and Kevin and I had the honor of working with her during those glory days. More recently Jane was the President of TCHO Chocolate. She’s currently at work on a new startup about how advances in science and technology are conspiring to improve our health.
53: Chris Anderson
May 10, 2016 21:09 - 19 minutes - 8.69 MBChris Anderson is the CEO of 3D Robotics and founder of DIY Drones. From 2001 through 2012 he was Editor in Chief of Wired Magazine. Before Wired he was with The Economist for seven years in London, Hong Kong and New York. He’s the author of the New York Times bestselling books The Long Tail, and Free, as well as Makers: The New Industrial Revolution. His background is in science. He starting with studying physics and doing research at Los Alamos, culminating in six years at the two leading s...
52: Joshua Schachter
April 29, 2016 18:48 - 34 minutes - 15.8 MBJoshua Schachter is the creator of the social bookmarking site, Delicious, the creator of GeoURL, and the co-creator of Memepool.
51: Rose Eveleth
April 26, 2016 21:25 - 22 minutes - 10.4 MBRose Eveleth is a journalist who covers how humans tangle with science and technology. She's the host and producer of Flash Forward, a podcast about the future, and has covered everything from fake tumbleweed farms to sexist prosthetics.
50: Rick Lax
April 15, 2016 22:53 - 32 minutes - 30.1 MBRick Lax created the TV show “Wizard Wars” and has written several books on deception. He’s a non-practicing lawyer, a former MENSA member, and now spends his time creating tricks for other magicians and for Penguin Magic, the biggest magic retailer in the world
49: Meara O'Reilly
April 01, 2016 21:30 - 27 minutes - 24.8 MBMeara O'Reilly is a sound artist and educator, most recently in residence at the Exploratorium in San Francisco. She is co-creator of the Rhythm Necklace app, a musical sequencer that uses two-dimensional geometry to create rhythms. Her collaboration with Snibbe Interactive on sound-based cymatic concert visuals for Björk's Biophilia album was included in the world tour.
48: Andy Baio
March 25, 2016 20:05 - 33 minutes - 30.2 MBAndy Baio loves making things online. He’s written waxy.org for the last 13 years, helped build Kick Starter, and organizes XOXO — an independent art tech festival in Portland. His upcoming projects include the XOXO Outpost, which is an experimental workspace opening this January, and the reboot of the collaborative event calendar, upcoming.org.
47: Matthew Schutte
March 18, 2016 20:05 - 32 minutes - 29.3 MBMatthew Schutte is a San Francisco-based big wave surfer, privacy advocate, political philosopher and innovation consultant. He’s the co-founder of Collaborative Advantage where he helps companies and communities unleash collaborative capacity through transformations in culture, process and information technology.
46: Sean Michael Ragan
February 24, 2016 22:04 - 19 minutes - 27.1 MBSean Michael Ragan is a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. His work has also appeared in ReadyMade, Popular Science, and The Wall Street Journal. He is the co-founder of Foundry.net, a company that helps hardware entrepreneurs design, build, and sell products by connecting them to the tools and services they need to mass-produce goods and grow companies.
45: Matt Haughey
January 21, 2016 01:13 - 27 minutes - 37.4 MBMatt Haughey is the creator of MetaFilter, and the co-creator of Fuelly, among many other sites. He spends his free time shooting photos and also rides and races bikes. These days, he works on the editorial team at Slack.
44: Gareth Brawnwyn, former Editorial Director of MAKE
January 05, 2016 23:50 - 30 minutes - 41.4 MBOur guest this week is Gareth Branwyn, Gareth is the former Editorial Director of MAKE. He was also the senior editor at bOING bOING print, a section editor at Mondo 2000, and a Wired contributing editor for 12 years. Gareth has also written and edited over a dozen books. His most recent book, a combo best-of collection and “lazy man’s memoirs” is called Borg Like Me (& Other Tales of Art, Eros, and Embedded Systems).
43: Mythbusters' Tory Belleci
November 30, 2015 20:56 - 34 minutes - 31.7 MBOur guest this week is Tory Belleci. Tory is best known as the daredevil of MythBusters, and can build just about anything. He has worked with Industrial Light and Magic on films such as: Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace and Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. The Federation battleships and podracers are some of Belleci's pieces.
42: Evil Mad Scientist Lenore Edman
November 07, 2015 00:21 - 23 minutes - 21.4 MBOur guest this week is Lenore Edman. Lenore is the co-founder of Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories, an open source hardware, hobby electronics, and robotics company. She likes projects at the intersections of cooking, electronics, papercraft and sewing.
41: Tara Tiger Brown
October 15, 2015 20:33 - 24 minutes - 22.1 MBTara Tiger Brown is the founder of the nonprofit organization LA Makerspace, the premier STEAM service provider for the Los Angeles Public Library. She’s also the co-founder of Kithub, creative electronics kits for kids, and co-founder of Connected Camps, which has online camps for kids including a Minecraft coding club.
40: Andrew Leonard, Writer
October 03, 2015 17:28 - 31 minutes - 28.6 MBOur guest this week is Andrew Leonard (twitter @koxinga21). Andrew is a journalist who writes features for San Francisco magazine, Men’s Journal, Rolling Stone and other outlets. He previously wrote for Salon.com between 1995 and 2014 where he covered technology, business, Internet culture, science fiction, and economics, among other topics.
39: Glenn Fleishman, Writer
September 27, 2015 22:58 - 29 minutes - 26.8 MBGlenn Fleishman is a Seattle-based technology journalist, and two-time winner on Jeopardy! He’s a senior contributor at Macworld, regularly writes for The Economist, and pens stories about parking and cryptography for Fast Company.
38: Limor Fried, founder of Adafruit Industries
September 21, 2015 23:37 - 29 minutes - 27.4 MBLimor Fried is an MIT engineer and founder of Adafruit, a company she founded in 2005 with the goal to create the best place online for learning electronics and making the best designed products for makers of all ages and skill levels. Adafruit offers tools, equipment, and electronics that Limor personally selects, tests, and approves.
37: Jesse Genet
September 11, 2015 23:43 - 28 minutes - 26.5 MBJesse Genet is the CEO and Founder of Lumi, a company that makes it easy to order custom manufactured goods online, like rubber stamps, silkscreen kits and decals. Jesse's picks this week follow the same spirit of prioritizing high quality, simple solutions and resources to enrich and support a creative lifestyle.
36: Ryan Holiday
September 07, 2015 22:47 - 29 minutes - 27 MBRyan Holiday is a well respected marketing guru, media strategist and author. He spearheaded viral marketing campaigns as Director of Marketing for American Apparel and has produced several world renowned books on his marketing strategies and philosophy. The list of tools Ryan brings to the table this week emphasizes quality and simplicity above all else, priorities we can all get on board with.
35: Jimmy DiResta
August 17, 2015 15:56 - 27 minutes - 25 MBJimmy DiResta is a maker, toy designer, and TV show host. He’s been the host of a number of DIY shows including Dirty Money, Trash to Cash, Against the Grain, and Hammered with John and Jimmy DiResta. He co-hosts the Making It Podcast, and has a fantastic YouTube channel called DiResta.
34: Ziya Tong
August 10, 2015 05:05 - 24 minutes - 22.3 MBZiya Tong is host and producer of the television program Daily Planet, Canada's daily science show, which airs on Discovery Canada. Before that, Ziya was host and field producer for Wired Science, produced in conjunction with Wired Magazine and NOVA ScienceNOW on PBS. She is on the board of WWF Canada and the founder of Black Sheep.
33: Windell Oskay
August 02, 2015 16:22 - 24 minutes - 22.7 MBWindell Oskay is the co-founder of Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories, a Silicon Valley company that has designed and produced specialized electronics and robotics kits since 2007. Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories also runs a popular DIY project blog, and many of its projects have been featured at science and art museums and in Make, Wired, and Popular Science magazines. He's the oo-author of the recently published book, “The Annotated Build-It-Yourself Science Laboratory.”
32: Zander Rose
July 26, 2015 04:01 - 30 minutes - 28 MBAlexander "Zander" Rose is the executive director of The Long Now Foundation, which was founded in 1996 to become the seed of a very long-term cultural institution that fosters very-long-term planning. He was hired to build their clock that lasts 10,000 years. He’s also the founder of the Robot Fighting League, and a contestant on the ABC series Battlebots (airing Sunday nights)
31: Jared Zichek
June 30, 2015 00:07 - 21 minutes - 19.3 MBJared Zichek is owner of Goldenagefigurines.com, which produces limited edition hand painted resin figurines of selected superhero, science fiction, and horror characters from the Golden Age of Comics.
30: Andrew Mayne: Magician, Author, Inventor
June 29, 2015 23:29 - 32 minutes - 29.9 MBOur guest this week is Andrew Mayne. He is a magician, maker, and the author of five bestselling mystery and thriller novels. He’s the star of A&E's magic reality show Don't Trust Andrew Mayne, and he’s worked for David Copperfield, Penn & Teller, and David Blaine. His latest book is a thriller titled Name of the Devil
29: Ben Krasnow, Maker and YouTube Star
June 29, 2015 23:10 - 27 minutes - 25.5 MBBen works at Google[x], Google’s semi-secret technology development facility, where he creates advanced prototypes. Ben previously developed virtual reality hardware at Valve. After work, he spends time on various projects that usually involve circuit design, machining, and chemistry. You can follow Ben’s projects on his youtube channel, Applied Science.
28: John Edgar Park, Producer at Disney Research
April 14, 2015 00:19 - 25 minutes - 23.3 MBJohn is a maker, technical/artistic problem solver, teacher, builder of quirky electro-mechanical contraptions, husband, and father of two. He hosted the Make: Television series on PBS, has worked in CG animation for 20 years, is now a producer at Disney Research, and writes for MAKE, Boing Boing, Adafruit Learning, and other places online and in print. You can find him at JPiXL.net and @johnedgarpark on twitter
27: Douglas Coupland, author, artist, inventor
April 09, 2015 00:30 - 31 minutes - 28.8 MBOur guest this week is Douglas Coupland. Since 1991, Douglas has written thirteen novels published in most languages. He has written and performed for England's Royal Shakespeare Company and is a regular columnist with the Financial Times. He began a visual art practice in 2000, and his first museum retrospective opened in summer 2014 at the Vancouver Art Gallery and travels to Munich this summer.
26: Bob Parks, freelance writer
April 02, 2015 23:21 - 19 minutes - 17.9 MBBob Parks is a freelance magazine writer who lives in Vermont. He writes for Popular Science, Runner’s World, and Bloomberg Businessweek. In his spare time he does projects with his two children and renovates his family’s 1870s farmhouse. He can be found on the Web at judder.net and on Twitter at @bobparks.
25: Mark Krawczuk, creative instigator
March 18, 2015 20:24 - 21 minutes - 19.6 MBMark Krawczuk calls himself a creative instigator: he is either coming up with interesting things for people to experience, or he is helping creative people do interesting things. Mark throws all sorts of prankstery and adventurous events which you can find out about at KrawczukIndustries.com Mark has worked extensively to make the Lost Horizon Night Market happen - it's a guerrilla art event, where people create experiences in the back of a box trucks, then all meet up on the same secluded...
24: Simone Davalos, roboticist
March 12, 2015 22:05 - 27 minutes - 24.8 MBSimone Davalos has a long and storied history of aspiring to being a technological reprobate. For many years she settled for moving people to terrified delight with competitions and events involving as many different kinds of robot as possible, a move which has landed her in the Guinness Book Of World Records - twice. Her careers have included, but are not limited to: dive bar gal Friday, assistant marching band pyrotechnician, circus dork, online used car part sales, Survival Research Lab...
23: Mike Evans, Secret Dad Society
March 05, 2015 01:47 - 25 minutes - 23.7 MBChildren at heart rejoice! Mike Evans has a list for you (and your kids) that will have you playing and learning with a selection of entertaining guides and tools. Mike's picks reduce the initial learning curve of trying to get into a new activity so you and your kids can jump right in and start having fun! To see more of Mike's toys, tools and projects, be sure to head over to his blog, Secret Dad Society.
22: Laura Welcher, Director of Operations of the Long Now Foundation
February 18, 2015 22:28 - 32 minutes - 30 MBThis week Laura Welcher joins us. Laura is a Linguist, Director of Operations for the Long Now Foundation and volunteer at the Global Lives Project.
21: Erik Knutzen, urban homesteader
February 11, 2015 19:33 - 21 minutes - 19.7 MBThis week Erik Knuzten, co-author of Urban Homestead:Your Guide to Self-Sufficient Living in the Heart of the City and Making It: Radical Home Ec for a Post-Consumer World joins us with a list of must have tools for self-sufficient, DIY home living. Check out Erik’s identically named website and podcast, Root Simple for more on how to build yourself a sustainable DIY lifestyle.
20: Matt Cutts, Head of Web Spam Team at Google
February 04, 2015 00:10 - 19 minutes - 17.8 MBOur guest this week, Matt Cutts, is a well-known blogger and the head of the Web Spam team at Google.
19: Peter Rojas, founder of Gizmodo
January 19, 2015 00:41 - 30 minutes - 27.9 MBPeter Rojas is the founder Engadget, gdgt and Gizmodo. He is currently co-hosts MVP, a podcast about new tech products, alongside Ryan Block, a former guest on our show. Peter focused his picks for this episode on personal impact, his philosophy being that truly worthy tools not only change your life, but they also change the way you think about the world. With help from some of the following carefully chosen tools, you may find yourself acting and thinking a little differently.
18: Tom Merritt, tech journalist and podcaster
December 19, 2014 20:50 - 22 minutes - 20.3 MBTom Merritt's tool selections emphasize streamlining complex or time consuming tasks for maximum efficiency. If you are interested in tools that will shave precious minutes off your schedule, Tom's suggestions are worth the time it takes to listen to this episode of the Cool Tools Show.
17: Ryan Block, co-founder of Engadget
December 11, 2014 21:49 - 27 minutes - 25.2 MBOur guest this week is Ryan Block. He’s the co-founder of gdgt, and the co-founder and former editor of Engadget. These days he is VP of Product at Aol, and is co-host of MVP, a show about technology products. Quality and staying power are the primary criteria in Ryan’s list of essential day-to-day tools. His impeccable taste for the tried-and-true tools is revealed in the invaluable picks and advice offers in this episode.
16: Brett Doar, Multidisciplinary Artist
December 04, 2014 23:45 - 25 minutes - 22.9 MBBrett Doar, an artist/maker renowned for his Rube Goldberg machines, shows us some little tools that can make a big impact. He cites both a penny and the humble paperclip as his two most valuable tools. He also recommends an inexpensive 3D printer for making custom components.
015: Co-founder of Quantified Self, Gary Wolf
November 24, 2014 00:24 - 21 minutes - 19.8 MBIn this week's episode of the Cool Tools Show, Gary Wolf, Co-founder of Quantified Self, shows us how his favorite Quantified Self inspired apps help him stay consistent, motivated and aware about his most important daily routines. If you're struggling to keep your healthy habits in check, this week's episode may help you diagnose where those dips in motivation are coming from.
014: Sword and Laser Host, Veronica Belmont
November 11, 2014 23:27 - 21 minutes - 19.8 MBThis week Veronica Belmont stops by to share some of the tools that make her life as a professional podcaster for the show Sword & Laser a little easier: Patreon and Levelator. She also recommends Rootcup and Ello. Veronica’s creative, beautifully made picks are highly recommended for anyone looking to break into the audio/visual or social media arenas.
013: Bestselling Author and Entrepreneur, Seth Godin
November 01, 2014 04:28 - 25 minutes - 23 MBSeth Godin enlightens us this week with an unexpected assortment of tools that will have you exploring the deepest recesses of your subconscious while, at the same time, enriching your hobbies and lifestyle.
012: Lifehacker founder Gina Trapani
October 20, 2014 20:50 - 23 minutes - 21.3 MBLifehacker founder and ThinkUp co-founder, Gina Trapani introduces us to a few web based apps that offer elegant design and features well worth their minuscule price-points. Fans of an uncluttered web experience will rejoice to hear what Gina offers up in this installment of the Cool Tools Show.