Nathan Myhrvold is a connoisseur of invention. The onetime CTO of Microsoft founded Intellectual Ventures in the year 2000 to acquire and license patents, and the company has amassed 30,000 patents in the years since. 

Having seen innovation from so many angles over the course of his career, Myhrvold recently sat down with Slate’s Jacob Weisberg for a wide-ranging interview about everything from why he’s pro-nuke to the charms of molecular gastronomy to the relative merits of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.

Here’s the first of four segments from Myhrvold’s interview, the latest in our series “Conversations With Slate”:

Here's Part 2 of the interview with Myhrvold:

Here's Part 3 of the interview:

Here's Part 4, the final excerpt:

Look an audio podcast of the entire conversation in the coming days.