Our guest on this week’s GeekWire radio show and podcast: Ken Jennings!
The Jeopardy! legend joins us in the KIRO-FM studios to talk about his latest book, “Maphead,” in which he explores the lives and culture of his fellow map geeks — in places ranging from the National Geographic Bee to the Google Earth team to those very special places on the globe known as “integer degree confluences.”
Ken also talks about last year’s widely watched Jeopardy battle with IBM’s Watson supercomputer, and what it taught him about the limitations and potential of machines.
And then comes the fun part, when we try to stump the quiz-show champ with the latest installment in our weekly “Name that Tech Tune” challenge. (At the 27:20 mark in the audio below.)
We had such a good time talking with Ken that this podcast version of the show includes a bonus segment that we couldn’t fit on the radio.
The conversation with Jennings starts around 11:20, after the weekly news segment, in which John and I discuss Amazon Prime’s new Kindle book loan program, Facebook’s Seattle expansion, and the coolest projects from this week’s TechStars Demo Day.
Listen to the full show above or directly via this MP3 file.
Here are this week’s show notes, with links to the stories and topics we discussed.
Amazon Prime’s new killer app: Kindle books by subscription
Facebook doubling down in Seattle, moving to larger office
Zuckerberg: Jeff Bezos is one of the greats, and startups don’t need to be in the valley to win
John’s five favorite pitches from TechStars Demo Day
Ken Jennings: Details on the Maphead book. Info on Ken’s appearance this weekend in Kirkland, Wash.
App of the Week: Fast Customer
Name that Tech Tune: Listen to the sound here.
