Avsnitt
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The war with Iran keeps reshaping manufacturing in unexpected places. A bitumen shortage tied to the oil disruption is stalling road construction from India to Italy, and ships stuck in the Gulf are accumulating barnacles and jellyfish that foul their hulls and raise fuel costs. We trace that thread through a packed automotive segment: Ford's secret skunk works racing to build a $30,000 electric truck, the Tesla Semi finally shipping at $290,000 with 300 miles of charge in 30 minutes, and BYD's fleet of eight company-owned car carriers that ferry 300,000 vehicles a year through waters other ships avoid. Amazon is opening its logistics network as a third-party service, and the Trump Mobile phone shipped nine months late looking a lot like an HTC handset from Taiwan. Then we sit down with Alex's new Cost of Quality report, built on a survey of 210 quality decision makers, on what quality actually costs and why most manufacturers can't measure it.
Links from the discussion:
Ticking Time Bomb (John Keller's Takata documentary):__ https://www.tickingtimebombfilm.com/__
Alarm spreads among road-builders as Iran war bitumen shortage bites:__ https://www.ft.com/content/5933b845-96cc-4f11-add2-e1af789946c4__
The secret team blowing up Ford's assembly line to make a $30,000 electric truck:__ https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/ford-ev-electric-truck-7fdb0e0a__
Tesla's Semi truck could jolt the trucking industry:__ https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/19/business/energy-environment/teslas-semi-truck.html__
How BYD gets an edge from ships that brave war, outrun storms:__ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-05-19/china-s-byd-builds-up-shipping-fleet-to-export-cars-amid-war-weather-threats__
Amazon built a massive supply chain for itself, now it's for hire:__ https://www.wsj.com/logistics-report/amazon-built-a-massive-supply-chain-for-itself-now-its-for-hire-c7d128b0__
Barnacles and jellyfish infest ships trapped in the Gulf:__ https://www.ft.com/content/e2344964-03bc-40e1-a8ce-5d62ad9a4e63__
Trump Mobile finally ships, experts say it looks like an HTC phone made in Taiwan:__ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8d8EojYVtCs__
Cost of Quality Report (Lumafield):__ https://www.lumafield.com__
Scan of the Month: BYD car parts:__ https://www.scanofthemonth.com__
Go/No-Go Episode 12: Takata airbag Reconstruction:__ https://www.lumafield.com/podcast__
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Matt Angle is the CEO of Paradromics, a neurotechnology company building high data rate implantable brain-computer interfaces for people who have lost the ability to speak and move. The company's Connexus system, currently entering clinical trials, clocks an information transfer rate of over 200 bits per second (more than 20x the reported performance of comparable systems) and is designed to last more than a decade in the body.
The conversation covers the basic physics of what separates an implanted electrode array from a surface EEG, the design of the Connexus itself, and the engineering choices that distinguish Paradromics from Neuralink: hermetic sealing, modular battery placement, and a deliberate bet on durability over planned obsolescence. We also get into what it takes to manufacture a device at the micro scale, where CT scanning fits into quality control once you've welded a titanium case shut, and the formative go/no-go moment when the team bet their company on a DARPA contract against consortium bids from Berkeley, Harvard, Stanford, and UCSF.
Links from the discussion:
Paradromics: https://www.paradromics.com
Connexus BCI for people unable to communicate: https://www.paradromics.com/product
SONIC benchmarking standard: https://www.paradromics.com/blog/bci-benchmarking
SONIC preprint (bioRxiv): https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.30.679683v1
Tempo BCI for mental health brain-state monitoring: https://www.paradromics.com/tempo
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Saknas det avsnitt?
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Allbirds sold its name and assets for $39 million after a $4 billion IPO in 2021, and the shell listing is now being used to raise $50 million for a GPU-as-a-Service company called NewBird AI. We use it as a window into the D2C brand era and what it takes to build a consumer brand that lasts.
SpaceX filed confidentially for a June IPO targeting $50 to $75 billion at a self-assessed valuation over $1 trillion, with Starlink generating $11.4 billion of that revenue in 2025. Iran acquired a Chinese spy satellite with half-meter resolution for $36.6 million through an in-orbit delivery model designed to sidestep export restrictions. A Citrini Research analyst rode a speedboat through the Strait of Hormuz to find out whether the blockade is real.
On the automotive side: the Sony Honda AFEELA is canceled before release, Honda expects a $15 billion loss and its first unprofitable year since 1957, Slate raised $650 million for a bare-bones $25,000 EV pickup, and Stellantis is recalling 700,000 vehicles over a fire risk. We also cover lab-grown chocolate and why cocoa went from $3,000 to $12,000 a ton.
Links from the discussion:
Allbirds pivots to AI hyperscale as NewBird AI: https://www.theverge.com/news/912484/allbirds-ai-hyperscale
SpaceX files to go public, setting stage for huge IPO: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/01/technology/spacex-ipo-elon-musk.html
Iran used Chinese spy satellite to target US bases: https://www.ft.com/content/1fddd2cd-1294-4e9c-a17d-5ea06b399355
Citrini Research: Strait of Hormuz field trip: https://www.citriniresearch.com/p/strait-of-hormuz-a-citrini-field
Sony Honda Mobility cancels AFEELA 1 before release: https://www.shm-afeela.com/en/news/2026-03-25/
Slate Auto raises $650 million Series C: https://www.wardsauto.com/news/slate-auto-says-650m-boost-will-get-it-to-next-stages-of-production/817388/
A new kind of hybrid car is about to hit America's streets (EREV explainer): https://apple.news/AMS9PudLNTgedX0f8eo1MkQ
Stellantis to recall up to 700,000 cars worldwide over fire risk: https://www.reuters.com/business/stellantis-recall-up-700000-cars-worldwide-over-fire-risk-2026-04-01/
Israeli startup makes world's first lab-grown chocolate bar: https://www.ft.com/content/ea3610be-2a9d-45ac-b4c9-5e18225fed6b
CT scan: cacao pod: https://voyager.lumafield.com/project/3af46887-0dea-447a-8629-a0d16cb4073a
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We open with a Takata airbag sitting on the desk in front of us: a unit manufactured at the Monclova, Mexico plant at the center of the recall disaster, purchased on eBay and arrived by UPS ground. We couldn't determine whether it's one of the recalled units.
The Takata airbag recall is the largest and costliest in automotive history, spanning just about every major automaker and now approaching 30 US deaths. We reconstruct the engineering story: how ammonium nitrate became the propellant of choice over cheaper and less stable alternatives, how its crystalline structure degrades through heat cycles and humidity over time, and how that degradation turns a supplementary restraint system into shrapnel. We also CT scanned the airbag, and we walk through what the scan reveals about how these assemblies are constructed.
The organizational story runs alongside the engineering one: falsified test data, a 50-year Honda-Takata supplier relationship that led to complacency instead of accountability, a regulatory revolving door, and a whistleblower who spent years trying to prove that recalled airbags were being shipped as non-hazardous freight. The recall completion rate is now at 98%, a remarkable figure. The remaining 2% represents over a million vehicles still on the road, and the units that haven't been replaced are the oldest and most degraded.
Links from the discussion:
NHTSA Takata Recall Spotlight: https://www.nhtsa.gov/vehicle-safety/takata-recall-spotlight
Check for Recalls using your vehicle identification number (VIN): https://www.nhtsa.gov/recalls
Ticking Time Bomb: The Truth Behind Takata Airbag (documentary): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFL0pnV4hx8
NHTSA Takata recall history and key terms (fact sheet): https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.gov/files/documents/120916-fact_sheet-takata_recall_history_and_key_terms-tagged.pdf
Lumafield CT scan of the Takata airbag: https://voyager.lumafield.com/project/5af653fa-13c1-4287-b3df-db4efebd992b
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Nick Terzulli is Vice President of Research and Development at Fellow, the San Francisco coffee equipment company whose products can be found everywhere from Target shelves to your favorite third-wave coffee shop. Before Fellow, Nick worked on military robotics and designed medical devices at Stryker and Dextera, before spending several years scrubbing toilets at a coffee shop for $10 an hour just to learn how to make coffee using the best equipment available.
The central problem Terzulli came to Fellow to solve has constrained home espresso since the beginning: 120V household power limits thermal and pressure stability in ways that commercial machines, running on much higher amperage, simply don't face. The best home machines either take 40 minutes to heat up or sacrifice performance to achieve fast heat-up times. Terzulli's answer, which became Fellow’s Espresso Series One, uses three separate heating elements staged in sequence to achieve commercial-level stability with a two-minute heat-up time, a novel approach he holds the sole utility patent on.
The conversation covers how that architecture came together, what it takes to design for both the beginner and the specialist, how Fellow uses firmware and over-the-air updates to build community around its machines, and why designing coffee burrs from scratch was, in his view, the hardest technical challenge of his career.
Links from the discussion:
Fellow: https://www.fellow.com
Espresso Series One: https://fellowproducts.com/products/espresso-series-1
Ode Brew Grinder: https://fellowproducts.com/products/ode-brew-grinder-gen-2
Fellow Drops (coffee subscription): https://fellowproducts.com/pages/fellow-drops
Aiden Pourover Coffee Maker: https://fellowproducts.com/products/aiden-precision-coffee-maker
Coffee Bean Roast Level CT Analysis: https://www.lumafield.com/first-article/posts/the-industrial-ct-guide-to-coffee-roast-levels
Coffee Scan of the Month: https://www.lumafield.com/scan-of-the-month/coffee
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The conflict with Iran has reached U.S. supply chains: an Iranian-linked cyberattack wiped devices across Stryker's global operations overnight, cutting the medical device company off from the hospitals it serves. We also cover the Pentagon's 3,000-drone Skydio order completed in 72 hours, California gas at $5.89 per gallon, a Fraunhofer Institute study finding that plug-in hybrid owners mostly don't plug in, criminal charges against a former ExThera Medical executive for concealing patient deaths from the FDA, Cargill's computer vision system that found $200 million in beef without adding a single cow, the OmniPod 5 recall, and iFixit's MacBook Neo teardown.
Links from the discussion:
How Cargill uses AI to get more meat from the bone as beef prices soar: https://www.ft.com/content/9089e369-92f4-48dc-ac09-46b6a62035a6?syn-25a6b1a6=1
Iran-linked hackers wipe Stryker devices in cyberattack: https://www.wsj.com/articles/stryker-hit-with-suspected-iran-linked-cyberattack-52f6615c
Suspending the gas tax, reducing refinery regulations pushed by two Democrats running for governor: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-03-17/suspending-gas-tax-reducing-refinery-regulations-pushed-by-two-democrats-running-for-governor
The uncomfortable truth about hybrid vehicles: https://www.theverge.com/column/890135/truth-hybrid-vehicles
U.S. Army places largest single-vendor drone order in American military history with Skydio: https://www.skydio.com/blog/u-s-army-usd52-million-order-skydio-x10d
ExThera cancer filter federal charges: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/business/exthera-cancer-filter-federal-charges.html
Uber’s $1.25bn deal with Rivian for robotaxis: https://www.ft.com/content/9e09df32-cfc7-4a9e-9acd-fab25653a25c?syn-25a6b1a6=1
MacBook Neo is the most repairable MacBook in 14 years: https://www.ifixit.com/News/116152/macbook-neo-is-the-most-repairable-macbook-in-14-years
Insulet OmniPod 5 recall (FDA): https://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls-market-withdrawals-safety-alerts/insulet-initiates-voluntary-medical-device-correction-certain-omnipodr-5-pods-us
Scan of the Month: Drug delivery devices: https://www.lumafield.com/scan-of-the-month/health-wearables
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In May 1996, ValuJet Flight 592 crashed into the Florida Everglades six minutes after takeoff from Miami, killing all 110 people on board. Investigators traced the fire to chemical oxygen generators loaded into the forward cargo hold without safety caps on their firing pins. What they could not trace was a single point of failure, because there was not one.
We work through the layered collapse William Langewiesche documented in his landmark 1998 Atlantic article: work orders written in language the mechanics could not parse, safety caps that did not exist anywhere in the shop, paperwork signed off on work that was never done, a shipping clerk who put quotation marks around the word "Empty" on the manifest, and a copilot who recognized what he was looking at and said nothing. Drawing on Charles Perrow's theory of the normal accident and Diane Vaughan's concept of the normalization of deviance, we examine how the same mechanism that produced Challenger produced this, and where the two failures diverge.
The deeper question the episode keeps returning to is one Langewiesche raises and does not fully resolve: if the failure emerged from the gaps between organizations rather than from within any one of them, and if adding more procedure to a system can increase the complexity that makes these accidents possible, what actually closes the gap between what the paperwork says and what happened on the floor?
Links from the discussion:
"The Lessons of ValuJet 592" by William Langewiesche, The Atlantic (1998): https://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/98mar/valujet1.htm
Normal Accidents: Living With High-Risk Technologies by Charles Perrow: https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691004129/normal-accidents
The Limits of Safety: Organizations, Accidents, and Nuclear Weapons by Scott Sagan: https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691021010/the-limits-of-safety
The Challenger Launch Decision by Diane Vaughan:https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo22781921.html
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Brian Potter is the author of Construction Physics and The Origins of Efficiency, published by Stripe Press in 2025. He is a senior infrastructure fellow at the Institute for Progress.
Manufacturing has gotten dramatically cheaper over two centuries. Construction has not, and that gap isn’t closing anytime soon. Brian Potter has spent years trying to understand why, first as a structural engineer, then inside Katerra, the SoftBank-backed startup that raised billions to factory-build housing and went bankrupt trying. His conclusion is that the forces behind falling manufacturing costs resist construction for reasons that are structural, not accidental.
Jon and Brian trace those forces from Ford's interchangeable parts to SpaceX's materials choices to the specific dynamics that have kept American shipbuilding uncompetitive for 150 years, and turn at the end to whether anything seems likely to change.
Links from the discussion:
Construction Physics (Brian Potter's newsletter): https://www.construction-physics.com
The Origins of Efficiency (Stripe Press): https://press.stripe.com/origins-of-efficiency
The Origins of Efficiency on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Origins-Efficiency-Brian-Potter/dp/1953953522
Institute for Progress: https://ifp.org
Katerra (background on the SoftBank-backed construction startup): https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/01/softbank-backed-construction-giant-katerra-said-to-be-shutting-down-after-raising-billions
"Why Can't the U.S. Build Ships?" (Brian Potter, Construction Physics):https://www.construction-physics.com/p/why-cant-the-us-build-ships
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Tesla reallocates production capacity toward robotics and autonomy. Ferrari challenges screen-first design in its new electric Luce. Amtrak begins deploying its Airo fleet from a 60-acre Siemens facility. Olympic medals fail in competition. Airlines tighten power bank rules. Sugar markets shift under GLP-1 demand changes. A DJI robot vacuum security flaw exposes IoT risk. And frozen orange juice reaches the end of the line.
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iFixit’s Shahram Mokhtari joins us to talk about the hidden engineering behind modern electronics. What do glue, modularity, and repairability reveal about design and manufacturing? Plus: CES-week stories on cooling, satellites, and packaging, and a Reconstruction of Juicero, the over-engineered $700 juicer that became Silicon Valley’s favorite cautionary tale.
Links from the discussion:
iFixit: RedMagic 11 Pro Teardown: The Phone With a Tiny Pump Inside : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHcglQFr-Ss
The Verge – Racks of AI chips are too damn heavy : https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/844966/heavy-ai-data-center-buildout
The Verge – Starlink and Chinese satellites nearly collided last week : https://www.theverge.com/news/844502/starlink-and-chinese-satellites-nearly-collided-last-week
FT – The surprising survival of fashion catalogues : https://www.ft.com/content/ca0a447d-f8d5-4b6d-9143-a659be311a92
TechCrunch – How Luminar’s doomed Volvo deal helped drag the company into bankruptcy : https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/16/how-luminars-doomed-volvo-deal-helped-drag-the-company-into-bankruptcy/
Packaging Dive – Cold-chain packaging companies adapt as dry ice supply falters : https://www.packagingdive.com/news/cold-chain-packaging-adapt-dry-ice-supply-co2/807720/
Juicero on Bloomberg : https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-04-19/silicon-valley-s-400-juicer-may-be-feeling-the-squeeze
Juicero Teardown on Bolt : https://blog.bolt.io/juicero/
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Spencer Wright, Editor-in-Chief of Scope of Work, joins Jon to uncover the hidden history of the plastic bottle, one of the most widely produced and least appreciated manufactured objects in the world. His essay, Evolution of the Plastic Bottle, published here on First Article, examines the bottle’s long evolution from early glass and acrylonitrile designs to today’s lightweight PET systems, exploring how advances in polymer chemistry, injection molding, and mass production turned an everyday object into an icon of industrial efficiency.
Jon and Alex also discuss the week’s biggest stories in manufacturing and materials—from Boeing’s completed Spirit AeroSystems acquisition to the growing strain of AI’s energy demand on the U.S. grid, and the expanding role of large-scale battery storage in stabilizing renewable energy.
The episode concludes with a Reconstruction segment on the 1982 Tylenol murders, when tampered capsules killed seven people and forced an industry-wide redesign of consumer packaging. The tragedy led to the creation of the tamper-evident seals and safety standards that are still with us today.
Links from the discussion:
Evolution of the Plastic Bottle: https://www.lumafield.com/first-article/posts/evolution-of-the-plastic-bottle
Scope of Work: https://www.scopeofwork.net/
Boeing completion of $4.7bn Spirit purchase paves way for Airbus supplier deal: https://www.ft.com/content/16abd98d-ae90-4876-b840-55725f2ca6a3
Millions of Defective Air Bags Have Been Recalled—but They’re Still Not Fixed: https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/recall-air-bag-not-fixed-050694a2
The power crunch threatening America’s AI ambitions: https://ig.ft.com/ai-power/
Once a Gamble in the Desert, Electric Grid Batteries Are Everywhere: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/business/energy-environment/battery-prices-electric-grids.html
We Bought a 450-Pound Mystery Pallet Packed With Returned Goods From Amazon and Beyond: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/mystery-amazon-pallet-unboxing/
Ralph Nader’s Pens Are Drying Out: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/ralph-nader-pens-drying-out/
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Kyle Vogt, founder of Twitch, Cruise, and now The Bot Company, joins Go/No-Go to discuss what it takes to build practical, everyday robots. Drawing on his experience at Cruise and The Bot Company, he describes how AI and autonomy are merging with traditional hardware disciplines to create machines that can safely perform useful household and industrial tasks.
Jon and Kyle explore how today’s robotics startups must balance complexity and manufacturability to develop systems that can evolve through software while remaining cost-effective to produce at scale. Vogt also reflects on why the robotics field has generally shifted away from humanoid ambitions toward focused, purpose-built designs that solve real problems.
Jon and Alex round out the episode with manufacturing news, including iRobot’s near-collapse, the mixed reception of 1X Neo’s tele-operated home robot, our own investigation into battery quality issues with Haribo powerbanks. The Reconstruction segment revisits the decline of the American large sedan and the rise of crossover platforms that now define modern auto manufacturing.
Other links from the discussion:
The Bot Company Eyes $4 Billion Valuation: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-10-28/cruise-founder-kyle-vogt-s-robotics-startup-eyes-4-billion-valuation
iRobot Is in Trouble: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/roomba-obit/
1X Neo Home Robot: https://www.wsj.com/tech/personal-tech/i-tried-the-robot-thats-coming-to-live-with-you-its-still-part-human-68515d44
Honda Wheels Could Fall Off Due to an Italian Fence Mishap: https://www.ien.com/safety/video/22954694/honda-wheels-could-fall-off-due-to-an-italian-fence-mishap
The ultralight gummy bear power bank just got yanked from Amazon: https://www.theverge.com/news/818906/haribo-gummy-bear-power-bank-amazon-removed
Recycling Lead for U.S. Car Batteries Is Poisoning People: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/11/18/world/africa/lead-poisoning-car-battery.html
Aldi effect sweeps US supermarkets: https://www.ft.com/content/d70ff7b2-8096-45e4-829b-1de0ca321be9
Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA): https://global.toyota/en/mobility/tnga/
Upcoming Lumafield events: https://www.lumafield.com/events
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Skydio CEO Adam Bry joins Go/No-Go to talk about how drones have evolved from toys to tools to infrastructure, and how autonomy and AI could help American manufacturers regain ground in an industry long dominated by China.
Jon and Alex also cover this week’s headlines: the FCC’s new authority to ban DJI drones, private jet owners renting engines during supply shortages, the death of San Francisco’s bodega cat KitKat by a Waymo car, Coca-Cola’s recall over possible metal contamination, a chip startup challenging ASML, and the rise of luxury “superfakes.”
The episode closes with a Reconstruction segment on the modern history of civilian drones, from the early hobbyist days and GoPro’s Karma to DJI’s global dominance and the ongoing effort to rebuild a secure supply chain.
Other links from the discussion:
The FCC gives itself power to make a DJI drone ban stick: https://www.theverge.com/report/808104/fcc-order-retroactive-ban-transmitter-national-security
Private jet owners are renting aircraft engines amid shortages: https://www.ft.com/content/d97e30cf-ac15-40a6-a630-86a50745c28b
Waymo confirms its car killed San Francisco’s beloved bodega cat, KitKat: https://missionlocal.org/2025/10/waymo-confirms-its-car-killed-kitkat-mission-bodega-cat/
Coca-Cola recalls several products for potential metal contamination: https://www.today.com/food/recall/coca-cola-recall-2025-rcna239130
A startup challenges ASML’s dominance in chipmaking equipment: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/28/technology/can-a-start-up-make-computer-chips-cheaper-than-the-industrys-giants.html
How “superfakes” transformed luxury fashion and weakened major brands: https://www.the-independent.com/life-style/fake-handbags-fashion-luxury-dupes-b2827074.html
A massive airship spotted over San Francisco hints at the future of sustainable flight: https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/pathfinder-1-airship-san-francisco/3971667/
Reports of disguised DJI drones sold through major retailers to evade restrictions: https://www.theverge.com/report/714103/dji-skyrover-x1-evade-ban-amazon
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In this episode of Go/No-Go, Jon Bruner visits Northwood Space in Los Angeles to talk with Bridgit Mendler and Griffin Cleverly about how they’re rethinking satellite connectivity. Northwood is designing and manufacturing phased-array ground stations that make communicating with satellites faster, cheaper, and easier to scale.
Jon and Alex also break down the week’s manufacturing and product quality news — from cyberattacks on automakers to lead contamination in protein powder — and close with a Reconstruction of the 1986 Challenger disaster, unpacking the engineering and decision-making that led to tragedy.
Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts to stay up to date when new episodes are released.
Other links from the discussion:
Northwood Space: https://www.northwoodspace.io/
Jaguar Land Rover Cyberattack: https://www.ft.com/content/49a49961-0dc9-4d19-bb26-7020e07e465c
Lithium Battery Fire Aboard Air China Flight Forces an Emergency Landing: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/18/world/asia/air-china-flight-lithium-battery-fire.html
Wyoming nuclear waste storage: https://wyofile.com/radiant-scraps-wyoming-nuclear-microreactor-manufacturing-facility/
Lead in protein powder: https://www.consumerreports.org/lead/protein-powders-and-shakes-contain-high-levels-of-lead-a4206364640/
Pork price fixing: https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/tyson-price-fixing-pork-lawsuit-settlement-85m/802256/
Challenger O-Ring explainer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-O_DMyHdq_M
The Challenger Launch Decision by Diane Vaughan: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo22781921.html
Upcoming Lumafield events: https://www.lumafield.com/events
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Introducing Go/No-Go, a podcast that dives deep into the reality of designing, manufacturing, and delivering products that change the world. Our first guest is Tony Fadell, creator of the iPod, founder of Nest Labs, and principal at Build Collective. He reflects on the small and large decisions that made his products into category-defining successes. We also talk through recent news headlines and look back on the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 recall, an event that brought battery fires into popular consciousness. Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts to stay up to date when new episodes are released.
The Battery Quality Report: https://www.lumafield.com/battery-report
CT scans of iPods: https://www.lumafield.com/scan-of-the-month/ipod-evolution
Other links from the discussion:
Trump's Tariffs Are Damaging America's Biggest Foreign Source of Screws: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/business/taiwan-manufacturing-trump-tariffs.html
Waiting to buy a game console will cost you: https://www.theverge.com/report/782532/game-console-price-hikes-xbox-ps5-switch
Trump’s port fees will weaken China’s shipbuilding dominance, says shipping boss: https://www.ft.com/content/4000f841-58cd-4006-9b68-1d71bf5c0afd
De minimis elimination strains Lululemon’s fulfillment model: https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/lululemon-de-minimis-elimination-impact-2025/760670/
Shipping industry enlists AI to tackle rising number of cargo fires: https://www.ft.com/content/8e9c70f1-af80-4e9b-8171-59b1ad54aaf6
The US can't build ships: https://www.construction-physics.com/p/why-cant-the-us-build-ships
iMessage blog post: https://medium.com/message/its-kind-of-cheesy-being-green-2c72cc9e5eda
Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making (2022): https://www.buildc.com/the-book
Upcoming Lumafield events: https://www.lumafield.com/events
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Go/No-Go is about the calls that make or break great products. We go deep into the reality of designing, manufacturing, and delivering products that change the world and reflect on the small and large decisions that make them what they are. We also cover the latest manufacturing and recall news, and look inside products using industrial CT to learn how things get built right (or wrong). Hosted by Jon Bruner and Alex Hao.
