Razib Khan's Unsupervised Learning

Today Razib talks to Scott Greer, an American conservative writer, author, and podcaster who focuses on nationalism, immigration, online political culture, and the transformation of the Republican Party. Formerly an editor and columnist at The Daily Caller, he now hosts the Highly Respected podcast and newsletter and contributes to The American Conservative. He is the author of No Campus for White...

On this episode of Unsupervised Learning Razib talks to Brian Chau. A graduate of the University of Waterloo and former software engineer with a background in pure mathematics, today Chau is CEO of Effort. News. He was previously with The Alliance for the Future. Most of this conversation is around why it took so long to put together something like Effort. News, and what they've discovered (e.g.,...

Today Razib talks to Kyle Orton . Orton is a freelance researcher, writer, and editor specializing in security and foreign policy, with a particular focus on the Middle East, the Syrian war, regional geopolitics, and terrorist movements including the Islamic State (ISIS), Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). His work also ranges widely across hi...

Nikolai Yakovenko  is back on the podcast because of the  Hugging Face hack . Yakovenko is a former professional  poker player , and was a research scientist at Google, Twitter and Nvidia. With a decade in  computer science , Yakovenko has been at the forefront of the  large-language-model  revolution that has driven to prominence companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and DeepMind, and an ecosystem th...

Today, Razib talks to  Collin Hogue-Spears , a cybersecurity and artificial intelligence governance expert with more than 20 years of experience in technology, product management, federal compliance and software security. Hogue-Spears is an independent researcher and the author of  From Lab to Life: How AI Works in China . His analysis has appeared in publications including  The Wall Street Journa...

On this episode, Razib talks to  Daniel Di Martino , a Venezuelan-born economist, speaker, and fellow at the  Manhattan Institute , where his research centers on immigration policy, including selection, assimilation, and high-skilled migration. Born in 1999 and raised in Venezuela, he witnessed firsthand the impacts of socialism, including hyperinflation and shortages, which prompted him to immigr...

On this episode of  Unsupervised Learning  we have a double-feature with  Richard Hanania  and  Steve Sailer . Hanania holds a law degree from the University of Chicago and a PhD in political science from UCLA, and was previously a research fellow at Columbia University's Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies. He founded the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology (CSPI) and writes...

Today Razib talks to  Jason Scharf , a  biotech investor  and  podcaster . A native of San Diego, Scharf is an angel investor and startup advisor focused on the intersection of biology, technology, and business, particularly within TechBio and digital health. He has leadership experience in strategy and market intelligence at major companies like Illumina and Amgen. Scharf now targets investments...

On this episode, Razib talks to streamer and political commentator  Destiny  (Steven Bonnell II). Destiny first gained prominence in the late 2000s as a professional player and content creator in the video game StarCraft II. Over time, he transitioned from gaming into politics, philosophy, culture, and current events, becoming one of the most influential figures in online debate culture. Known for...

The UK is now in political turmoil, as Keir Starmer has announced his  resignation . The next British election is still three years away, but it is hotly anticipated because Labour is going to faceoff against three parties of the Right: the Tories (also known as the Conservaties), Reform UK and Restore Britain. Reform, led by Nigel Farage and stocked with defections from the Tories, has a good cha...

Today on  Unsupervised Learning  Razib talks to  Zineb Riboua , a research fellow and program manager of Hudson Institute's Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East. She specializes in Chinese and Russian involvement in the Middle East, the Sahel, and North Africa, great power competition in the region, and Israeli-Arab relations. Riboua's pieces and commentary have appeared in the  Wall S...

On this episode of  Unsupervised Learning  Razib talks to  Brianna Wu . Wu is an American video game developer, programmer, and political activist best known as the co-founder and CEO of the independent game studio Giant Spacekat. Raised in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, she attended the University of Mississippi to study journalism and political science but withdrew in 2001 without earning a degree in...

On this episode of  Unsupervised Learning  Razib has a wide-ranging conversation, again, with Dan Hess, the man behind the  More Births  account on social media. An engineer with a large family in the DC area, Hess' essays on topics like  Israelis' high birth rate  have gained the attention of X. He has an account that has come from a few hundred followers to more than 45,000 in less than 4 years....

On this episode of  Unsupervised Learning  Razib talks to geneticist  Leonidas-Romanos Davranoglou  about two papers,  Ancient DNA evidence for the history of the Albanians  and  Uniparental analysis of Deep Maniot Greeks reveals genetic continuity from the pre-Medieval era . He is an entomologist and evolutionary biologist specializing in insect morphology, biomechanics, bioacoustics, systematics...

It's been a minute since we've had  Nikolai Yakovenko  on the podcast. Yakovenko is a former professional  poker player ,and was a research scientist at Google, Twitter and Nvidia. With a decade in  computer science , Yakovenko has been at the forefront of the  large-language-model  revolution that has driven to prominence companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and DeepMind, and an ecosystem that has b...

On this episode of  Unsupervised Learning  Razib talks to  Christopher Rufo . Rufo is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. A contributing editor at  City Journal , author of the  New York Times  bestseller  America's Cultural Revolution , and 2025 Bradley Prize recipient, he also serves as a New College of Florida board member and Distinguished Fellow at Hillsdale Colleg...

On this episode of  Unsupervised Learning , Razib talks to physicist  Gregory Cochran . Cochran is best known for his work in human evolution, often at the intersection of biology, anthropology, and history. Trained in physics, he later turned to population genetics and became widely known through collaborations with researchers like  Henry Harpending , producing influential but controversial work...

On this episode of Unsupervised Learning Razib talks to  Russ Greene , who promoted the idea of " Total Boomer Luxury Communism ." Greene currently serves as the Executive Director of the Prime Mover Institute, a public interest organization and think tank he launched to advocate for American energy dominance. Previously, he was a Senior Fellow for the Economy at the Stand Together Trust. In this...

The full episode is available here: https://www.razibkhan.com/p/10000-years-of-selection-in-western Despite the preprint being out for two years, Akbari et al.'s  Ancient DNA reveals pervasive directional selection across West Eurasia  publication in  Nature  this week has resulted in a massive media response. Though Razib has discussed this work before, he thought it would be useful to review it,...

Today Razib talks to Matthew Schmitz, a journalist who previously served as an editor at the religious journal  First Things . He is the cofounder of the online magazine  Compact , alongside Edwin Aponte and Sohrab Ahmari. He currently serves as  editor  of  Compact ,  religion editor  of  Washington Post  Opinions, and co-host of the podcast  Against the Grain .  Compact  His essays on politics a...

On this episode of Unsupervised Learning Razib talks to returning guest Megan McArdle. She is the author of The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well Is the Key to Success and a Washington Post columnist and op-ed board member. McArdle grew up in New York City and attended Riverdale Country School. She obtained an undergraduate degree in English from University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Univ...

You can find the complete monologue here: https://www.razibkhan.com/p/monologue-race-genetics-history-and This is where you will find all the podcasts from Razib Khan's Substack and original video content. On this episode, Razib talks about race, and how to think about this touchy subject.

You can find the complete monologue here: https://www.razibkhan.com/p/monlogue-out-of-africa-is-not-dead On this episode Razib talks about where we are when it comes to "Out-of-Africa," Neanderthal origins and the broader state of understanding the dynamics of  Homo  evolution.

Today Razib talks to  Chris Bradley , a serial entrepreneur and the CEO and Co-Founder of  Matter Bio , a company dedicated to preserving genome integrity and addressing the root causes of aging. With a multidisciplinary background spanning neuroscience, cell biology, and computer science, Bradley aims to translate early-stage biotech concepts into practical therapies that can extend human lifespa...