Bold Names

When Bill Shufelt left Wall Street to make non-alcoholic beer, most people thought he was crazy. At the time, the category made up less than 1% of U.S. beer sales and was widely seen as a joke. But nearly a decade later, Shufelt’s company Athletic Brewing is at the center of a major cultural shift around health and wellness. On this episode of Bold Names, he joins Christopher Mims and Tim Higgins to talk about the rise of non-alcoholic beer, how his company is navigating President Trump’s tariffs, and why beer giants like Heineken and Guinness are now chasing the category he helped create.

To watch the video version of this episode, visit our WSJ Podcasts YouTube channel or the video page of WSJ.com.

Check Out Past Episodes:

How Corning Is Using Trump’s Tariffs To Its Advantage

The Boldest Ideas of 2025 — And What’s in Store for 2026

McLaren CEO Zak Brown On F1 And Business Strategy At 200 Miles Per Hour

How Tubi Is Coming for Netflix and YouTube in the New Streaming Wars

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Read Christopher Mims’s Keywords column.

Read Tim Higgins’s column. 

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Corning is everywhere: from the fiber optic cables powering the internet to the Gorilla Glass on your iPhone. Now, the 175-year-old company is making domestic manufacturing profitable. In this week’s episode of Bold Names, CEO Wendell Weeks sits down with WSJ's Christopher Mims to discuss how he plays the long game with technology investments and why his company is uniquely positioned to take advantage of the Trump administration’s tariffs and industrial policy.

To watch the video version of this episode, visit our WSJ Podcasts YouTube channel or the video page of WSJ.com.

Check Out Past Episodes:

Condoleezza Rice on Beating China in the Tech Race: 'Run Hard and Run Fast'

Biden’s Antitrust Architect on How Big Tech Threatens U.S. Prosperity

This CEO Says Global Trade Is Broken. What Comes Next?

Reid Hoffman Says AI Isn’t an ‘Arms Race,’ but America Needs to Win

Let us know what you think of the show. Email us at [email protected].

Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter.

Read Christopher Mims’s Keywords column.

Read Tim Higgins’s column. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is "buy now, pay later" a debt trap or the future of finance? Affirm CEO Max Levchin says the real problem is the credit card in your wallet. On this week’s episode of Bold Names, Levchin joins WSJ’s Tim Higgins to discuss how his early days as a co-founder of PayPal led him to his latest venture: using “buy now, pay later” loans to reinvent how people buy things. We talk about why he thinks financing is more transparent than credit, the personal reason he hates late fees and how AI is changing shopping.

To watch the video version of this episode, visit our WSJ Podcasts YouTube channel or the video page of WSJ.com.

Check Out Past Episodes:

The Boldest Ideas of 2025 — And What’s in Store for 2026

Inside Visa’s Tech-Charged Future: From Crypto to AI

This CEO Says Global Trade Is Broken. What Comes Next?

Why Bilt’s CEO Wants You To Pay Your Mortgage With a Credit Card

Let us know what you think of the show. Email us at [email protected].

Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter.

Read Christopher Mims’s Keywords column.

Read Tim Higgins’s column.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bold Names is gearing up to be bigger and bolder than ever in 2026. Get ready for another year of the best minds in business and tech going deep on the latest industry moves. From the C-suite of tech companies like SAP, Qualcomm and Affirm, to leaders from Lamborghini, Southwest Airlines and Chobani, WSJ’s Christopher Mims and Tim Higgins will be back next week to kick off a new year of conversations with the leaders shaping tomorrow.

To watch the video version of this episode, visit our WSJ Podcasts YouTube channel or the video page of WSJ.com.

Check Out Past Episodes:

The Boldest Ideas of 2025 — And What’s in Store for 2026

McLaren CEO Zak Brown On F1 And Business Strategy At 200 Miles Per Hour

This Tech Founder's $1.3 Billion Company Is Taking On Apple and Samsung

This CEO Says Global Trade Is Broken. What Comes Next?

Let us know what you think of the show. Email us at [email protected].

Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter.

Read Christopher Mims’s Keywords column.Read Tim Higgins’s column.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Who will take care of you in old age? Jeff Cardenas, the CEO and co-founder of Apptronik, says the answer is robots. The startup founder set out to build a smart, dexterous robot after watching his grandfathers grow old and dependent in their later years. Beyond healthcare, Cardenas sees robots as essential to U.S. economic growth and national security with applications across industries. Even with the latest advances in artificial intelligence and hardware, what will it take for humanoid robots to make the leap from science fiction to reality? On the latest episode of the Bold Names podcast, Cardenas tells WSJ’s Christopher Mims and Tim Higgins why Apptronik is betting it will create the home robot helper that everyone will want.

To watch the video version of this episode, visit our WSJ Podcasts YouTube channel or the video page of WSJ.com.

Check Out Past Episodes:

Condoleezza Rice on Beating China in the Tech Race: 'Run Hard and Run Fast'

Reid Hoffman Says AI Isn’t an ‘Arms Race,’ but America Needs to Win

Why This Investor Says the AI Boom Isn’t the Next Dot-Com Crash

How the U.S. Stacks Up to China’s ‘Engineering State’

Let us know what you think of the show. Email us at [email protected].

Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter.

Read Christopher Mims’s Keywords column.Read Tim Higgins’s column. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices