Business Wars

Recent visitors to China’s tech zone in Shenzhen have come away in awe of the country’s manufacturing capabilities, including its increasingly advanced humanoid robots. And when iRobot’s Chinese supplier took over the company this year, it looked like another win for Chinese tech. Christopher Mims is a tech reporter for the Wall Street Journal. He’s the author of “Arriving Today: From Factory to Front Door – Why Everything Has Changed About How and What We Buy.” He joins David to discuss robots, AI and what he calls “the new space race.”

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It’s 2017 and the Roomba rules the robotic vacuum market. But cheaper competitors from China, some of whom offer more features for less money, start eating away at its lead. iRobot’s CEO Colin Angle fights back with lawsuits and a bet on premium pricing. But the competition keeps finding ways around him, and as a pandemic-fueled sales boom fades, iRobot’s finances start to crumble. Can a lifeline from Amazon pull the Roomba to safety or is the pioneer of home robots, about to get sucked up by the competition?
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It’s 1984 and MIT professor Rodney Brooks has a radical idea: robots don't need complicated brains to navigate the world — they just need simple rules. Brooks and two of his students, Colin Angle and Helen Greiner, turn that idea into a company called iRobot. The company chases government contracts and builds robotic dolls. But in 2002, iRobot breaks through with the Roomba — a vacuuming robot. The Roomba bumps into chair legs, takes cats for joyrides, and propels iRobot to a blockbuster IPO. But the Roomba is headed for trouble.
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After years on top, Sweet’N Low is sinking fast. Newer artificial sweeteners aspartame and sucralose are spawning fresh competition. But the problems go even deeper – because within its own ranks, fraudsters are draining Sweet’N Low's coffers.
If you’d like to hear more about the artificial sweetener business, you can listen to the audiobook version of “Empty Pleasures” by Carolyn de la Peña right now on Audible.
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The promise seemed miraculous. Sweetness minus the calories. But when studies begin to link artificial sweeteners with cancer, the entire industry faces oblivion. And it'll take some lightning-fast pivots and Donald Rumsfeld to pull it back from the brink.
If you’d like to hear more about the artificial sweetener business, you can listen to the audiobook version of “Empty Pleasures” by Carolyn de la Peña right now on Audible.
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