3 Takeaways™

Technology is advancing at exponential speed, and humanity is having serious trouble keeping up. Azeem Azhar, a tech seer who has founded and sold four companies, shares his unique insights into what he calls the “exponential gap” and its impact on business and society.

He’s been called “a successor to Einstein.” Here you’ll see why, as physicist Brian Greene offers profound insights into our place in the universe, how the world ends, the possibility of a parallel universe, and the cosmic pursuits of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. Don’t miss this brilliant and deeply stimulating conversation.

Current debates over climate change are focused almost entirely on reducing emissions - which is something we should do - but we also need to answer the question, how should we be adapting?  MIT’s Robert Pindyck shares what we know and don’t know and how we can adapt given the enormous climate uncertainty.

Did you know that by asking better questions, you get better answers and better results from negotiations, as well as conversations? Learn what the 2 best questions are, and why these 2 questions work almost magically in negotiations as well as in conversations - including those with spouses, children, and colleagues.  Negotiation is not a zero-sum game. It’s an essential skill for your career tha...

Your entire life is an open book of information collected by tech companies. According to Tom Wheeler, former head of the Federal Communications Commission, the privacy problem is shockingly large, getting bigger, and has frightening consequences. What, if anything, can be done? Listen and find out.

Being a leader of any organization today may be more difficult than ever. What enables some leaders to thrive while others fail? What are some of the qualities and actions vital for success? Vik Malhotra, McKinsey and Company’s Chairman of the Americas, shares his insights from interviewing and advising today’s elite business leaders. He is a co-author of the New York Times bestseller, CEO Excelle...

How can we reduce or neutralize unconscious bias? It’s a critical question these days – especially with DEI in mind – answered by an expert: Iris Bohnet, the former Academic Dean of the Kennedy School and co-Director of the Women and Public Policy Program. She calls it “unfreezing” our minds, and offers some surprisingly simple solutions.

“Education runs on lies. That’s probably not what you’d expect from a former Secretary of Education, but it’s the truth.” Arne Duncan exposes the lies and the broken system that have caused American kids to fall behind. He also shares what really works.

The research is in, and it shows that a large part of being successful is understanding how to form the right habits. In fact, forming habits can be more important than willpower and self-control. Wendy Wood, noted USC Psychology Professor, shares some of her research findings and simple strategies that enable many people to live successful, satisfying lives. She is the author of Good Habits, Bad...

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...