Razib Khan's Unsupervised Learning

On this episode of Unsupervised Learning Razib talks to Russ Greene , who promoted the idea of “ Total Boomer Luxury Communism .” Greene currently serves as the Executive Director of the Prime Mover Institute, a public interest organization and think tank he launched to advocate for American energy dominance. Previously, he was a Senior Fellow for the Economy at the Stand Together Trust. In this r...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.razibkhan.com Despite the preprint being out for two years, Akbari et al.’s Ancient DNA reveals pervasive directional selection across West Eurasia publication in Nature this week has resulted in a massive media response. Though Razib has discussed this work before, he thought it would be useful to review it, and put it in context i...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.razibkhan.com Today Razib talks to Matthew Schmitz, a journalist who previously served as an editor at the religious journal First Things . He is the cofounder of the online magazine Compact , alongside Edwin Aponte and Sohrab Ahmari. He currently serves as editor of Compact , religion editor of Washington Post Opinions, and co-host...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.razibkhan.com On this episode of Unsupervised Learning Razib talks to returning guest Megan McArdle. She is the author of The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well Is the Key to Success and a Washington Post columnist and op-ed board member. McArdle grew up in New York City and attended Riverdale Country School. She obtained an undergra...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.razibkhan.com On this episode, Razib talks about race, and how to think about this touchy subject. * Categorization of humans in biomedical research: genes, race and disease * The Apportionment of Human Diversity * Human genetic diversity: Lewontin’s fallacy * A Family Tree in Every Gene * How Genetics Is Changing Our Understanding...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.razibkhan.com On this episode Razib talks about where we are when it comes to “Out-of-Africa,” Neanderthal origins and the broader state of understanding the dynamics of Homo evolution. Cited: * Hypothesis: A modern human range expansion ~300,000 years ago explains Neandertal origins * Did Levallois tools make Neanderthals human? *...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.razibkhan.com Today Razib talks to Chris Bradley , a serial entrepreneur and the CEO and Co-Founder of Matter Bio , a company dedicated to preserving genome integrity and addressing the root causes of aging. With a multidisciplinary background spanning neuroscience, cell biology, and computer science, Bradley aims to translate early...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.razibkhan.com Today, Razib talks to Chris Masterjohn , a nutritional scientist and leading expert in mitochondrial biology who believes hidden energy bottlenecks underlie much of modern disease. After years of work as a professor and researcher, he founded Mitome , the first mitochondrial analysis designed for everyday health, and s...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.razibkhan.com On this episode of Unsupervised Learning, Razib talks to Mike White , a Genetics professor at the Washington University in St. Louis. White has a position at the School of Medicine in St. Louis, where he leads a research team focused on understanding the biophysical architecture of regulatory DNA. He earned a B.A. in m...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.razibkhan.com On this episode of Unsupervised Learning Razib talks to Aaron Renn . Renn is a writer , consultant, and urban analyst known for his work on the challenges facing American cities and religious institutions in the 21st century. He is a contributor to The American Reformer and the author of Life in the Negative World , a...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.razibkhan.com On this episode of Unsupervised Learning Razib talks to Daniel Tabin , a 5th-year Ph. D. student in David Reich’s lab in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology. His research focuses on using ancient and modern DNA to answer questions about human history. Tabin completed a degree in Computer Science and Math and M...

Between 2017 and 2020 Razib co-hosted the podcast The Insight . A year ago it went offline, but now the archives are back! On this episode of Unsupervised Learning , Razib re-posts two important episodes from The Insight . First, a conversation with evolutionary anthropologist Joe Henrich about his 2020 book The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particu...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.razibkhan.com On this episode of Unsupervised Learning Razib talks to Peter Nimitz about the rise of the Slavs . His Substack, titled Nemets , explores world history through the lenses of archaeology, paleogenetics, and historical processes. His writing focuses on "deep history," such as the Bronze Age Collapse and the migration of...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.razibkhan.com On this episode Razib talks to Jesse Arm , VP of external affairs at the Manhattan Institute. His writing and commentary have appeared in the New York Times , Wall Street Journal , The Atlantic , New York Post , Fox News, City Journal and Jerusalem Post . Arm graduated with honors from the University of Michigan, where...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.razibkhan.com On this episode of Unsupervised Learning , Razib talks to Davide Piffer , whose Substack examines genetic differences between populations. Piffer has been publishing on human genetic variation for a decade, and recently started a Substack, Piffer Pilfer , exploring similar issues in detail over a series of posts. Razib...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.razibkhan.com Today Razib talks to Aneil Mallavarapu , a scientist and technology leader based in Austin, Texas, whose career bridges the fields of biochemistry, systems biology, and software engineering. He earned his doctorate in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from the University of California, and has held academic positions at Ha...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.razibkhan.com On this episode Razib, talks to Richard Hanania , a returning guest to the podcast . Hanania holds a Ph. D. from UCLA, a J.D. from the University of Chicago, and an undergraduate degree from CU Boulder in linguistics. He is a regular contributor to the Boston Globe and UnHerd , and has his own newsletter . Hanania is a...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.razibkhan.com On this episode, Razib talks about: * Why sex is evolutionarily deep and persists * Why males and females exist * Cultural norms of patriarchy * The feminist revolution and its connection to the rise of modern liberalism * Male-female differences in biology (size, strength and anatomy) * Male-female differences in psyc...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.razibkhan.com On this episode of Unsuperivsed Learning Razib reviews two big stories he has followed and written about on this Substack in 2025, Indo-European origins and how genomics has illuminated human evolution. * Two Steppes forward, one step back: parsing our Indo-European past * The cave where it happened: Denisova cavern’s...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.razibkhan.com On this episode, Razib talks to returning guest , Francis Young , a historian who teaches at Oxford. Young specialises in the history of religion and belief from ancient times to the present day, and provides expert indexes for academic books and translates medieval and early modern Latin. He holds a PhD from Cambridge...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.razibkhan.com On this episode of Unsupervised Learning, Razib again talks to George Washington University archaeologist Eric Cline . The author of 1177 B.C. - The Year Civilization Collapsed and After 1177 B.C. - The Survival of Civilizations , Cline has a new book out, Love, War, and Diplomacy: The Discovery of the Amarna Letters a...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.razibkhan.com On this episode of Unsupervised Learning Razib talks again with Washington Post columnist and repeat guest Shadi Hamid (listen to previous episodes ). A native Pennsylvanian of Egyptian ethnic background and Islamic faith, Hamid completed his Ph. D. in politics at Oxford University. He is co-host of the Wisdom of Crowd...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.razibkhan.com Cyber week deals continue. Lock in a lifetime subscription rate 25% off. Annual subscriptions now at $59/year (a $20 savings). This is my only yearly sale. Thanks for reading and thanks for subscribing! On this episode, Razib talks to Vishal Ganesan and Anang Mittal , two Indian-American Hindus who have been thinking a...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.razibkhan.com On this very special episode, Razib talks to paleoanthroplogists John Hawks and Chris Stringer. Hawks is a paleoanthropologist who has been a researcher and commentator in human evolutionary biology and paleoanthropology for over two decades. With a widely read weblog (now on Substack), a book on Homo naledi , and high...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.razibkhan.com Today Razib talks to Sean Trende . He is a prominent American political analyst who currently serves as the Senior Elections Analyst for RealClearPolitics , a position he has held since 2010. He is also a Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and a lecturer at The Ohio State University, where he earned his...