Change My Mind

I am joined by neuroscientist Karl Friston to discuss, from first principles, what trust is. The trust we put in others, and in our institutions, is a sociological feature emergent from biology. It is here that predictions first appear.  This conversation inspired an article we co-wrote: https://schweizermonat.ch/trust-is-a-law-of-nature/

Lukas Leuzinger and Alex Buxeda interview Cass Sunstein for Schweizer Monat . They dissect the mechanics of liberalism. Sunstein defines a tradition that encompasses Hayek and Burke . He counters the claims of Patrick Deneen. He argues that choice does not destroy faith or family. The dialogue shifts to nudges . Sunstein explains how choice architecture assists humans without it being manipulation...

Barbara Kolm, President of the Austrian School of Economics, joins Alex Buxeda to dismantle the myths of monetary nationalism, expose the political incentives behind inflation, and explain why trust collapses when money becomes a political tool. They explore Carl Menger’s legacy, why money is a  discovery  not an invention, how time and information shape economic order, and why Europe is quietly d...

In this episode, we explore how consilience collapses concepts, the nature of entropy, markets as anticipation machines, biology as a model of past environments that survives by matching the present and future, the division of labor freeing mental bandwidth, energy as the basis of value, and the provisional nature of all knowledge.

Today, I had a conversation with Fengzheng Gao. Fengzheng is a researcher specializing in Microalgal Biotechnology, and he holds two doctorates, one in Bioprocess Engineering and another one in Aquatic Product Processing and Storage Engineering. He has contributed to over 20 scientific publications. We talked about the potential of microalgae in optimizing the food chain in order to provide abunda...

Abel Abelson, a neurodivergent writer and YouTuber, has navigated the unique challenges of being distinct from the majority, on which our conversation focuses mainly. He was recognized by Mensa with an IQ of 133, which places him in the 98th percentile in terms of cognitive ability. Today we talked about whether every problem can be solved through further understanding, how one can be content with...

Today I am joined by my friend Abdi. In this conversation we talked about: that what causes suffering is the interpretation of the facts, not the facts themselves, framing free will as the ability to ditch a vice, how we don't choose to choose-proving the inexistence of free will as unconstrained decisions, how uncaused behavior is an incoherent concept as a round square, how 99% of the cost o...

Today I had a conversation with Lukas S, he is a personal coach that focuses on human performance and mindset training. Check him out on Instagram at ⁠⁠ otokstrength⁠⁠ or online at ⁠⁠ otokstrength.com⁠ ⁠ and ⁠⁠ theprotocol.life⁠⁠ We talked about how complaining is useless but it feels good to us, how finding common ground with people who believe opposite ideas is what allows your or others' mi...

Today I had the pleasure to have a conversation with Harvey Silverglate, he is an American attorney, author, and civil liberties advocate. He is best known for his work in defending individual rights and freedom of speech. Silverglate has been involved in numerous high-profile cases and has written extensively on issues related to civil liberties and the criminal justice system. He co-founded the...

Victor Dover is an innovator in city planning, neighborhood design and street design, he serves as president of the Parks Foundation of Miami-Dade and as a board member of the National Recreation & Parks Association. We talk about how the cost of car dependency is hidden from the individual by governmental subsidies, how the promised ‘’car freedom’’ in the 50s became car dependence which newer...

Today I had a conversation with David E. Feldman, he is an author of mysteries, crime fiction and the occasional standalone novel, which might be called literary fiction, historical drama or family saga. David has overcome drug addiction, spinal problems that were heading for paralysis, 2 hip replacements, intestinal resection with colostomy and cancer. He is also a working musician and painter. W...

I am joined today by my friend Emilio to discuss the inevitable end of our journey, the value of noticing your own mortality, the dichotomy between life and death, the process of appreciating things and people while they are around us, the need for acting in a virtuous manner while we can, how the Stoics dealt with death and whether developing an objective morality is possible.

Jeevan Matharu is a wealth management partner at True Potential LLP and transformational coach at Vanquish transformational coaching. We discussed limiting thoughts, imposter syndrome, unconditional commitments leading to deeper consequences(as in marriage, the externalization of justice through the legal system and not stealing organs) not foreseeable by a narrow analysis, how being rational requ...

My good friend Luca joins me to discuss the difference between what FEELS good and what IS good, a doughnut feels good but is not good(in the long term), our feelings fool us. We talk about the trueness and fakeness of different feelings which is in the bullseye of effective altruism’s principal flaw: that what feels the best when doing good is not what has the biggest impact, zero sum vs positive...

I am joined by my friend Patric for a second time (we discussed what failure is on a previous occasion)to discuss the limits of self-improvement and why everyone should try it. Improving yourself is actually worth the effort. We talk about how dopamine is the ultimate currency , that discipline is consistently doing what is known to be good even if it feels bad, the factors affecting Luck vs unluc...

Roman Mironov is a coach, he helps men get their act together by getting them out of their porn addiction, he himself wasted many years addicted to porn. You don’t have to make his same mistake. Roman and I talked about: 1: How porn is to sex as McDonald’s is to food. 2: That any male can now see more naked females in 1 day than kings did in their whole lives. The reward mechanism of males is hija...

Brett Hoffstadt is an aerospace Engineer, Innovator and a prolific Author. His books are mainly focused in inspiring children’s curiosity in STEM fields, he has authored titles such as " Exploring Smart Cities for Kids "," Goodnight Moon Base " and " How To Be a Rocket Scientist: 10 Powerful Tips to Enter the Aerospace Field and Launch the Career of Your Dreams ". We talk about the fundamental rol...

I explain in this bonus episode my views on how incompatible simultaneously stating that a public library and copyright laws are a good thing is. It is socially accepted for public libraries to exist so that in principle everyone has access to any book without paying for it in the moment, but this is not coherent with another belief that society simultaneously holds as unacceptable: downloading th...

Jan Goss is the Founder of Show Up Well Consulting, an Austin based firm specializing in personal and professional development. On this episode we talked about grief, the process of healing from it, how achieving success in spite of social pressure dragging you to mediocrity can happen if you have enough drive and know how to play your cards, what wisdom is, gratitude and the unfortunate fact that...

I am joined today by Dr. Jay Garfield, Jay is a professor in the humanities, philosophy, logic and buddhist studies at Smith College, he specialized in Tibetan Buddhism, the philosophy of mind, cognitive science, epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of language, ethics and hermeneutics, he is also a visiting professor for buddhist philosophy at Harvard Divinity School, and author of his latest bo...

Victoria is an Internal Medicine Physician, she claims that medicine is how we eat, think, feel, our relationships and more, that there’s no one pill solution. During her first 6 months of residency she quickly realized that traditional medicine was not addressing the root of the problem. She became intrigued in addressing the root of the problem to prevent patients from frequently returning to th...

On this occasion I chat with Chef Dennis over food, its omnipresence among all cultures due to the shared biology of the human condition, how the obesity epidemic could be ameliorated returning to the diet of our grandparents, the importance of taking into account personal differences when looking for the optimal diet, the unfortunate fact that the cheapest food that we can consume are junk foods,...

Mark Henick is a mental health activist and advocate, author, host and public speaker who has appeared on tv, radio and online podcasts on multiple occasions, he is especially well known for his popular TedX  talk on YouTube which now has had more than 6 million views. We talk about: Suicide, why some people choose it and how to avoid it, the meaning of life, public policy measures relating t...

Julius H. Grey is a Canadian lawyer and university professor, he was born in Poland. He is particularly known for his expertise in constitutional and human rights law. He is a senior partner at the law firm Grey Casgrain, s.e.n.c. I talk with Julius about the importance of freedom of speech in correcting incorrect thoughts-opinions, the threats to freedom of speech that political correctness creat...

Peter Christian was an engineer, consultant and teacher of management, worked in Crayola Corporation and he is also the author of two business books Influences and Influencers: How Our Relationships Affect and Shape Us and What About the Vermin Problem: A Guide to Avoiding Damaging Business Practices . We chat over why businesses succeed or fail, possible conflict of interests between customers an...