3 Takeaways™

Steve Jobs once said that the biggest innovations in the 21st century would be at the intersection of biology and technology. Nature offers tantalizing examples of the magical properties of biology—self-assembly, self-repair, self-replication and more.  Jason Kelly, co-founder and CEO of Ginkgo Bioworks, shares his dream of harnessing nature by reading and writing DNA to program cells like we prog...

Laughter, it turns out, is not primarily a response to humor. Neuroscientist Sophie Scott CBE shares why we laugh, how it works and the many sins it covers.  We explore how laughter bonds us, where it breaks us, and the ways we use it. We should all bring a greater sense of understanding and intention to our laughter. Sophie Scott is a neuroscientist and professor at UCL whose research focuses on...

The president of Princeton University Investment Company (PRINCO), which manages Princeton’s endowment, talks about investing in today’s world. Andy Golden shares how he selects partners, evaluates investments, and creates a winning environment. PRINCO recently earned nearly a 50% return in a single year.  Andy also explores the differences in long term and short term investing and how a ten year...

Dr. Eric Topol explains how we can prepare for the next pandemic, including having stockpiles of variant proof vaccines for the families that are most likely to cause pandemics besides coronavirus and influenza. He also shares recent breakthroughs in medicine which will improve accuracy and diagnosis. Dr. Topol is the founder of Scripps Research. 

David Gergen, White House Advisor to four presidents, warns us about our failing democracy. He shares how our current government has moved from being able to work across the aisle to create win-win outcomes to creating a win-lose environment stoked by an environment of anger. He reminds us that Millennials and Gen Z are capable and available to step up to the plate if we would just let them, and g...

Just as there was nothing inevitable about WW1 which came about because of flawed decisions by political and military leaders, former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd worries that mutual non-comprehension and deep suspicion may lead the US and China into war. He believes that an armed conflict between China and the US is a real possibility. The Chinese Communist Party would see itself as fight...

Power is easier to get, harder to use and easier to lose. Moises Naim explores how power is changing across all sectors of society. Power has shifted from country leaders to public squares, large companies to start-ups, and large armies to insurgents. Being in charge isn’t what it used to be! But at the same time, power is also concentrating in some sectors. Autocrats are reinventing politics and...

President Santos received the Nobel Peace Prize for bringing Colombia's more than 50 year civil war to an end. His unique and humble leadership style allowed him to pivot from being a hawk to a dove on war, and this change is mirrored in his transition from climate change denier to climate change fighter.  These 180 degree pivots are unprecedented for a world leader. He describes the almost i...

Fortune Media CEO Alan Murray shares the dramatic changes in business today due to the tech revolution, which is disrupting so many businesses, and the purpose revolution which is causing companies to re-think what they should be doing.  He believes that fundamental changes in the ways businesses operate today are forcing them to pay more attention to people and the planet.  It used to be that 80%...

Robert A.M. Stern, who designs the most sought after buildings in the world, shares how he sees architecture and design, and what makes his buildings so special that they regularly set records for the highest price per square foot, even when they're not in the best neighborhoods.  He explains how his buildings are informed by the past but situated in the future, how he sees detail and ornamen...

Former Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow argues for greater forgiveness by the law and the justice system. Using examples from around the world, she shares how forgiveness can lower crime and reduce incarceration. She warns about the highly punitive American justice system which forgives bankruptcy but not misdemeanors. The very same kind of crime in the United States and in Sweden or in Finlan...

Legendary investor Ray Dalio, who predicted the 2008 financial crisis, shares a similar urgent warning about what he sees ahead. He believes the times ahead will be radically different from what everyone today has experienced in their lifetimes, and he wants people to be prepared. Bill Gates said, “…super-provocative, super-important… A lot of facts line-up to create a scary picture that’s hard to...

Rory Stewart provides an unconventional perspective on the US and the world, including the mistake of our all-in and all-out mentality, politics without detail and how politicians live in a perpetually paranoid universe and don’t accomplish much in their lives. It doesn't matter whether you're talking about Afghanistan, climate change or populism in the US and Europe, Rory believes the f...

We sit down with George Will and discuss what conservatism means today and where the Republican and Democratic Parties have both gone wrong - the Republican Party with Donald Trump and the Democratic Party by being “dominated by a tail that wags the bigger dog.”  Progressives, he says, are at most a third of the Democratic Party, but they are 90% of Joe Biden's agenda now and they are “in the...

This week we talk with Clarissa Ward, CNN’s Chief International Correspondent, who has been reporting from Ukraine, and who has covered hot zones and wars in Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, Syria and Afghanistan and been based in Baghdad, Beirut, Beijing and Moscow. She shares the remaking of the world from the front lines and how the situation on the ground differs from what’s reported. She provides a deep...

Ever wondered if we could predict people’s actions through their words? Renowned social psychologist and linguist Dr Jamie Pennebaker shares how words can give away our secrets, feelings and inner state of mind from Putin’s language which predicted his invasion of Ukraine to poets whose use of the word “I” can predict a higher risk of suicide.  Dr. Pennebaker’s groundbreaking research in computati...

From humble beginnings growing up as a trailer park nomad, David rose to be the CEO of Yum! Brands (Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC) where his successful techniques as a leader helped double the number of restaurants and increased market capitalization over 8 times.  He has been recognized as one of the best performing CEO’s by Barron’s, Fortune and Harvard Business Review.  This week we talked about...

Former MI6 Chief Sir Alex Younger – with his years of experience as a spy -  shares how Putin miscalculated with his invasion of Ukraine, why he can’t back down and what the long term impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the US exit from Afghanistan may be on Xi Jinping’s plans for Taiwan. He also provides insights on threats in our globalized world and reveals what it takes to be a succe...

Sometimes, and mostly outside of China, Alibaba is referred to as the Chinese Amazon, but in reality, it’s very different and much larger. Alibaba Group president Michael Evans shares how Alibaba grew to become the world’s largest online commerce company serving nearly 1 billion customers each month, how it’s different than its Western counterparts, and what international companies need to know in...

We talk with Bill Dudley, the former President and CEO of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, about the US economy - where it is headed and what could happen, how the pandemic affected it, why Fed policies benefit the wealthy and what $5 trillion in government spending means for GDP. He also shares his thoughts about cryptocurrencies and how stricter regulation could bring wider adoption. Does he t...

Learn how Payal Kadakia built a start up into a billion dollar unicorn in her 20’s despite many setbacks, and what her most important decisions were. Payal shares what living a Plan A life means, how the moment that enabled her to launch her life was one of the lowest moments of her career,  and what leadership characteristics enabled her to succeed.   Payal is the founder of ClassPass, the world’...

Marshall Van Alstyne shares why platform companies dominate traditional businesses and why 7 of the 10 largest companies in the world are platform companies. Learn how they outcompete traditional companies while employing just a tiny fraction of the number of people, how they are completely different from companies of the past, and why platforms beat products all the time.  Boston University profe...

We are at an inflection point in artificial intelligence today. Find out what the next 3 waves of artificial intelligence will bring — including creativity and consciousness. Learn why AI is accelerating and what we can do to ensure tech is used for good. Hod Lipson is the head of Columbia University’s Creative Machines Lab, which pioneers new ways to make machines that create, and machines that a...

Yale Law School professor Amy Chua shares how group identity has caused bitter partisanship in the U.S. and the failure of U.S. policies in Vietnam and other countries. Learn how children as young as 4 years old identify with groups and consistently display systematic, unconscious bias toward other groups. Amy argues that tribalism has taken over America's political system and that the way fo...

Find out how the founder and CEO of Khan Academy, Sal Khan, built the world’s largest online learning platform, his vision for scaling free educational resources, and how he is reimagining education. Khan Academy is a free remote learning platform that offers lessons for all ages. Today more than 133 million registered users access Khan Academy in dozens of languages in more than 190 countries.  T...