It’s not that simple

What are “Blue Zones”? Where in the world do people live better and healthier lives? What makes them live longer and healthier? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Dan Buettner in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation. The author of five books on longevity and happiness, Buettner discovered the five places in the world—dubbed...

What is scientific knowledge? How can it be relayed to the general public in our era of social media and fake information? What is the role of science in our society? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Brian Cox in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation. A renowned experimental physicist, Brian Cox is the Professor of Particle...

What do we mean by “innovation”? Why do we need it? How can companies and societies encourage it? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Niron Hashai in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation. An expert on innovation and entrepreneurship, Hashai is a Full Professor at the Arison School of Business, The Interdisciplinary Center, He...

What do we mean by “human capital”? What is the relationship between democracy, human rights and economic prosperity? Are poor people doomed to remain poor? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews James Heckman in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation. A Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences laureate in 2000, Heckman is the Henry Schul...

What is Blockchain? What is it for? How does it work? What kind of impact can it have on our societies? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Don Tapscott in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation. One of the world’s leading authorities on the impact of technology on business and society, Tapscott is currently Co-Founder & Ex...

What is “vetting”? How does it work? Why is it so important to the quality of public service and government? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Alyssa Mastromonaco in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation. With many years of experience working in the United States’ government, Mastromonaco served as White House Deputy Chief o...

For the first-time live in Portugal, the historian and writer Yuval Noah Harari, author of «Sapiens» and «Homo Deus», reflects on the advances of humanity, its major threats, and the way in which artificial intelligence must be regulated to prevent it from becoming a «T-Rex» that will destroy humanity as we know it.  In this interview, with the journalist Pedro Pinto, Harari addresses issues such...

Is democracy dying? What challenges do democracies around the world face nowadays? How can they overcome such challenges? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Daniel Ziblatt in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation. An expert on democracy, Ziblatt is Eaton Professor of Government at Harvard University and is director of the Tra...

What is happiness? Can it be studied? Are there steps we can all take in order to become happy? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Laurie Santos in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation. An expert on the science of happiness, Santos is the Chandrika and Ranjan Tandon Professor of Psychology and Head of Silliman College at Yal...

What will the economy of the future look like? How can we prepare for it? What impact is technology having on work and the job market? Are we heading towards a world without work? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Daniel Susskind in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation. An expert on the impact of technology, particularly ar...

What is political polarization? Has social media contributed to its growth? What about Donald Trump? And where does this growing polarization leave “the center” of the political spectrum? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Ezra Klein in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation. A perceptive observer of American politics and soci...

How long can human beings live? Will it become increasingly normal for one to live up to 100 years? What impact will aging have in our societies? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Andrew J. Scott in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation. An expert on longevity and aging society, Andrew J. Scott is Professor of Economics at L...

What makes people migrate? How does climate change drive mass migration in today’s world? How serious is this problem? How serious will it become in the future? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Abrahm Lustgarten in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation. An author and investigative reporter, Abrahm Lustgarten’s work for ProP...

What is climate change? How is it affect our planet? What consequences does it have on our lives? And must we – and can we – do soften them? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Bill McKibben in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation. An expert on climate change, Bill McKibben is a founder of Third Act, which organizes people ov...

How old is the Universe? How was it born? How will it end? Why are we here? What is a black hole and what do they do? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Vítor Cardoso in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation.  A renowned astrophysicist, Vítor Cardoso is Chair of the Physics Department at Instituto Superior Técnico, and V...

What is «corruption»? What different kinds of corruption exist in our modern societies? How does corruption manifest itself in governments, corporations, the judicial system and every other sphere of our lives? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Donatella della Porta in this episode of «It’s Not That Simple», a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation.  An expert on cor...

What is social mobility? How can we measure it? How can we promote it? Is the “American Dream” still alive? How did the Covid-19 pandemic impact social mobility around the world? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews John Friedman in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation.  An expert on social mobility, John Friedman is a Pr...

How much impact did the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have on the global economy? How will technology change sectors like health or education? What is causing the slowdown in economic growth around the world? How worried should we be about inflation? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Michael Spence in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the...

How disastrous was “Brexit”? How much did it affect the United Kingdom’s economy and its living standards? How has it changed the political relationship between the UK and the European Union? Could it ever be reversed? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews R. Daniel Kelemen in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation.  An expe...

What is it like growing up in a country in civil war? What remains to be achieved in the struggle for women's rights? Will it be possible to heal the wounds opened by the wars of the present and the past? Is it possible to reach peace when the scars of war are still visible? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Leymah Roberta Gbowee in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a po...

What does Vladimir Putin want? What makes him so dangerous? How can he be fought? What role could countries like China play in solving the crisis of the Russian invasion of Ukraine? Are we on the brink of nuclear war? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Mark Galeotti in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation.  A renowned a...

What challenges and threats do European democracies face today? How actually democratic are they? What is an illiberal democracy? Will democracy in Europe resist the stress-test of the Covid-19 pandemic? Was “Brexit” a vaccine against Euroscepticism? To answer this questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Catherine de Vries in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple” a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos S...

Has the Covid-19 pandemic changed the world's balance of economic power? How important were political leaders in responding to the crisis born out of the pandemic? Has the latter led to a proliferation of propaganda and disinformation? How serious is the threat of Covid-19 when compared to other problems facing humanity, such as global warming or other public health crises? To answer these questio...

Is it possible to predict the future? What is “data journalism”? Have polls become increasingly unreliable? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Nate Silver in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation.  A statistician famous for correctly predicting the results of the 2008 US presidential election in 49 of the 50 states of th...