Dwarkesh Podcast

It was my great pleasure to speak once again to Tyler Cowen. His most recent book is Talent, How to Find Energizers, Creatives, and Winners Across the World . We discuss: - how sex is more pessimistic than he is, - why he expects society to collapse permanently, - why humility, stimulants, & intelligence are overrated, - how he identifies talent, deceit, & ambition, - & much much much more! Watch...

Charles C. Mann is the author of three of my favorite history books: 1491 . 1493 , and The Wizard and the Prophet .  We discuss: * why Native American civilizations collapsed and why they failed to make more technological progress * why he disagrees with Will MacAskill about longtermism * why there aren’t any successful slave revolts * how geoengineering can help us solve climate change * why Bitc...

Austin Vernon is an engineer working on a new method for carbon capture, and he has one of the most interesting blogs on the internet, where he writes about engineering, software, economics, and investing. We discuss how energy superabundance will change the world, how Starship can be turned into a kinetic weapon, why nuclear is overrated, blockchains, batteries, flying cars, finding alpha, & much...

Steve Hsu is a Professor of Theoretical Physics at Michigan State University and cofounder of the company Genomic Prediction . We go deep into the weeds on how embryo selection can make babies healthier and smarter. Watch on YouTube . Listen on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or any other podcast platform. Read the full transcript here . Follow Steve on Twitter . Follow me on Twitter for updates on fut...

Will MacAskill is one of the founders of the Effective Altruist movement and the author of the upcoming book, What We Owe The Future . We talk about improving the future, risk of extinction & collapse, technological & moral change, problems of academia, who changes history, and much more. Watch on YouTube . Listen on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or any other podcast platform. Episode website + Trans...

Joseph Carlsmith is a senior research analyst at  Open Philanthropy  and a doctoral student in philosophy at the University of Oxford . We discuss utopia, artificial intelligence, computational power of the brain , infinite ethics , learning from the fact that you exist, perils of futurism, and blogging. Watch on YouTube . Listen on Spotify , Apple Podcasts , etc. Episode website + Transcript here...

Fin Moorhouse is a Research Scholar and assistant to Toby Ord at Oxford University's Future of Humanity Institute . He co-hosts the Hear This Idea podcast, which showcases new thinking in philosophy, the social sciences, and effective altruism . We discuss for-profit entrepreneurship for altruism, space governance, morality in the multiverse, podcasting, the long reflection, and the Effective Idea...

Alexander Mikaberidze is Professor of History at Louisiana State University and the author of The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History . He explains the global ramifications of the Napoleonic Wars - from India to Egypt to America. He also talks about how Napoleon was the last of the enlightened despots, whether he would have made a good startup founder, how the Napoleonic Wars accelerated the industr...

I flew to the Bahamas to interview Sam Bankman-Fried , the CEO of FTX! He talks about FTX’s plan to infiltrate traditional finance, giving $100m this year to AI + pandemic risk, scaling slowly + hiring A-players, and much more. Watch on YouTube . Listen on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or any other podcast platform. Episode website + Transcript here . Follow me on Twitter for updates on future episod...

Agustin Lebron began his career as a trader and researcher at Jane Street Capital, one of the largest market-making firms in the world. He currently runs the consulting firm Essilen Research, where he is dedicated to helping clients integrate modern decision-making approaches in their business. We discuss how AI will change finance, why adverse selection makes trading and hiring so difficult, & wh...

Ananyo Bhattacharya is the author of The Man from the Future: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann . He is a science writer who has worked at the Economist and Nature. Before journalism, he was a medical researcher at the Burnham Institute in San Diego, California. He holds a degree in physics from the University of Oxford and a PhD in protein crystallography from Imperial College London. Watch...

Stephen Grugett is a cofounder of Manifold Markets, where anyone can create a prediction market. We discuss how prediction markets can change how countries and companies make important decisions. Manifold Markets : https://manifold.markets/ Watch on YouTube . Listen on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or any other podcast platform. Episode website here . Follow me on Twitter for updates on future episod...

Today I talk to Pradyu Prasad (blogger and podcaster) about the book "Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan" by Herbert P. Bix. We also discuss militarization, industrial capacity, current events, and blogging.  Watch on YouTube . Listen on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or any other podcast platform. Podcast website here . Follow Pradyu on Twitter . Follow me on Twitter for updates on fut...

Razib Khan is a writer, geneticist, and blogger with an interest in history, genetics, culture, and evolutionary psychology. Watch on YouTube . Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify , or any other podcast platform. Podcast website here .Follow Razib on Twitter . Follow me on Twitter for updates on future episodes Thanks for reading The Lunar Society! Subscribe to find out about future episodes! Time S...

Jimmy Soni is the author of The Founders: The Story of Paypal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley. Watch on YouTube . Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify , or any other podcast platform. Episode website here . Follow Jimmy on Twitter . Follow me on Twitter for updates on future episodes! Timestamps: (0:00:00) - Bell Labs vs PayPal (0:05:12) - Scenius in Ancient Rome and America's Fo...

I interview the economist Bryan Caplan about his new book, Labor Econ Versus the World , and many other related topics. Bryan Caplan is a Professor of Economics at George Mason University and a New York Times Bestselling author. His most famous works include: The Myth of the Rational Voter , Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids , The Case Against Education , and Open Borders: The Science and Ethics o...

Richard Hanania is the President of the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology and the author of Public Choice Theory and the Illusion of Grand Strategy: How Generals, Weapons Manufacturers, and Foreign Governments Shape American Foreign Policy. Watch on YouTube . Listen on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or any other podcast platform. Episode website here . Follow Richard on Twitter . Follo...

David Deutsch is the founder of the field of quantum computing and the author The Beginning of Infinity and The Fabric of Reality . Read me contra David on AI . Watch on YouTube . Listen on Apple Podcasts , Spotify, or any other podcast platform. Read the full transcript with helpful links here . Follow David on Twitter . Follow me on Twitter for updates on future podcasts. Timestamps (0:00:00) -...

Byrne Hobart writes The Diff, a newsletter about inflections in finance and technology with 24,000+ subscribers.   Watch on YouTube . Listen on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or any other podcast platform. Episode website here . The Diff newsletter: https://diff.substack.com/ Follow Byrne on Twitter . Follow me on Twitter for updates on future episodes! Thanks for reading The Lunar Society! Subscribe...

David Friedman is a famous anarcho-capitalist economist and legal scholar.   Watch on YouTube . Listen on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or any other podcast platform. Episode website + transcript here . David Friedman's website: http://www.daviddfriedman.com/ Follow me on Twitter for updates on future episodes. Timestamps: ( 0:00:00 ) - Dating market  ( 0:12:15 ) - The future of reputation  ( 0:...

Sarah Fitz-Claridge is a writer, coach, and speaker with a fallibilist worldview. She started the journal that became Taking Children Seriously in the early 1990s after being surprised by the heated audience reactions she was getting when talking about children. She has spoken all over the world about her educational philosophy, and you can find transcripts of some of her talks on her website. Wat...

Michael Huemer is a professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado. He is the author of more than sixty academic articles in epistemology, ethics, metaethics, metaphysics, and political philosophy, as well as eight amazing books.   Watch on YouTube . Listen on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or any other podcast platform. Podcast website here .  Buy Knowledge, Reality, and Value and The Problem...

Robert Martin (aka Uncle Bob) is a programming pioneer and bestselling author or Clean Code. We discuss the prospect of automating programming, spotting and developing coding talent, occupational licensing, quotas, and the elusive sense of style.   Watch on YouTube . Listen on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or any other podcast platform. Listen to his fascinating talk on the future of programming: htt...

Scott Aaronson is a Professor of Computer Science at The University of Texas at Austin, and director of its Quantum Information Center.  He's the author of one of the most interesting blogs on the internet: https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/ and the book “ Quantum Computing since Democritus”. He was also my professor for a class on quantum computing. Watch on YouTube . Listen on Apple Podcas...

Scott is the author of Ultralearning and famous for the MIT Challenge, where he taught himself MIT's 4 year Computer Science curriculum in 1 year. I had a blast chatting with Scott Young about aggressive self-directed learning. Scott has some of the best advice out there about learning hard things. It has helped yours truly prepare to interview experts and dig into interesting subjects.   Wat...