The Singularity Discussion Series

This week my guest is Michael Bhaskar , who has authored several books exploring the impact of technology, specifically around the publishing and curation of content. In his latest work, the Human Frontier: The Future of Big Ideas in the Age of Small Thinking, Michael instead turns his attention towards the creation of content, and in particular how humanity seems to be running out of big ideas. I...

This week my guest is Jeremy Lent, who is the author of several books, including The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity's Search for Meaning , and his more recent work, The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find our Place in the Universe . Importantly, a great deal of Jeremy’s work addresses many of the topics that are near and dear to our hearts at Sin...

This week my guest is Philip Rosedale, who is well known as the founding creator of Second Life and his subsequent work with VR and spatial audio company, High Fidelity.  We were extremely lucky to catch Philip the day after the major announcement of his return to Second Life as an advisor after nearly a decade away from the company. This set the foundation for our conversation, which then to...

This week our guest is Christian Madsbjerg who is the Professor of Applied Humanities at The New School in New York and co-founder of the consultancy Red Associates. In this episode, we primarily discuss the ideas put forth in Christian’s latest book, Sensemaking: The Power of the Humanities in the Age of the Algorithm. Amongst other things, this includes exploring some of Christian’s key principl...

This week my guest is futurist Eva Galperin who is the director of cybersecurity at the electronic frontier foundation, which might be argued to be the world’s leading non-profit when it comes to defending digital privacy, free speech, and innovation. As you’ll hear her explain, Eva specializes in issues around vulnerable populations, such as journalists, activists, and people who are victims of d...

This week my guest is futurist Tracey Follows, who recently released her book, The Future of You: Can Your Identity Survive 21st-Century Technology? In this episode we explore many different aspects of identity and privacy, including narcissism, how our identities are being flattened into carbon copies of one another, anonymity, how our digital identities are influencing how we live, and much more...

This week my guest is science fiction author and activist, Cory Doctorow, who has such an extensive and prolific background that I’ll let him describe it to you at the top of the podcast. But I will say that whether you agree with him or not, Cory has an incredible clarity of insight that brings together a very wide variety of topics, and luckily he also has the ability to articulate those thought...

This week our guests are evolutionary biologists, Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying, who many of you might recognize from their frequent appearances on the Joe Rogan Podcast, or from their very own show, the Darkhorse Podcast , where they explore current affairs through an evolutionary lens. They’ve recently released a brand new book, A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century: Evolution and th...

This week our guest is journalist and author Elizabeth Kolbert whose work focuses heavily on climate change. Her books on the subject include Field Notes From A Catastrophe, The 6th Extinction (which won a Pulitzer prize), and her most recent 2021 book: Under A White Sky. In this episode, we explore the content and ideas that Elizabeth puts forth in these books, with a particular focus on what kin...

This week our guest is sociologist Steve Fuller, who has a long history exploring Transhumanism, including his 2011 book Humanity 2.0: What it Means to be Human. Past, Present and Future. To start this conversation, we first ask: what is Humanity 1.0? What is the version of humanity we’ve had since the dawn of civilization until today? And from there, we take a journey into the details of our tran...

This week our guest is social psychologist, Katy Cook, who authored the 2019 book: The Psychology of Silicon Valley : Ethical Threats and Emotional Unintelligence in the Tech Industry. And so as you might expect, that’s exactly what we talk about. That takes us on a tour exploring ideas like empathy, capitalism, and the concept of progress. In a lot of ways, the key focus of Katy’s work and this c...

This week our guest is British transhumanist David Pearce, who was one of the co-founders of the World Transhumanist Association, which has since been rebranded as Humanity+. In addition to being on the front lines of the early transhumanist movement, David is also well known for his active work on what he calls the “Hedonistic Imperative,” which seeks to use genetic engineering and nanotechnology...

This week we have our first-ever return guest, Douglas Rushkoff, who was one of our first guests on the show. If you missed that episode or you’re not familiar with Douglas, then let me tell you--you’re in for quite the treat. Douglas is a no-bullshit media theorist who is undeniably one of the most influential thinkers who has been steering digital culture. We touch on many topics in this episode...

This week our guest is Josiah Zayner, who just might be the most prominent and controversial biohacker out there right now. He’s done numerous experiments that have drawn both positive and negative attention, such as transplanting the microbiome of another person into his body, attempting to genetically alter the color of his skin, and injecting CRISPR modifications into his body to enhance his mu...

This week our guest is author and speaker, Amber Case, who amongst many things is well known for her TedTalk titled, We Are All Cyborgs Now, and her book “Calm Technology.” In this episode we focus almost exclusively on the principles and ideas Amber puts forth in her book, Calm Technology, exploring how we can design technology in ways that won’t dominate our attention and undermine our humanity....

This week our guest is science writer, Annie Murphy Paul, who just recently released her latest book, The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain . In the Extended Mind, Annie takes us on a tour of the different types of intelligence we are able to tap into, focusing primarily on three often overlooked forms: thinking with our bodies, thinking with our surroundings, and thinking wit...

This week our guest is renowned futurist, Amy Webb. Amongst her many accomplishments, she is the founder of the Future Today Institute, a professor of strategic insight at the NYU Stern School of Business, and author of numerous books including The Big Nine: How the Tech Titans and Their Thinking Machines Could Warp Humanity and The Signals Are Talking: Why Today’s Fringe Is Tomorrow’s Mainstream....

Anna Lembke is a psychiatrist currently working as the Chief of Addiction Medicine at Stanford’s Dual Diagnosis clinic. She was recently interviewed for the Social Dilemma, the amazing Netflix documentary exploring the dangers of social media.  On this episode, we really dive deep into the heart of addiction--how it starts, how it controls our behavior, and how to escape its magnetic pull. Bu...

This week our guest is Tan Le, who is CEO of the bioinformatics company Emotiv, which makes wearable EEG neuro-headsets that enable people to collect data on their brain activity. Tan Le has a truly remarkable story, from Vietnamese refugee, to studying Law, to becoming the Young Australian of the Year, all the way to her current role helping to drive the accessibility of neuroscience. In this epi...

Today we are joined by actor, comedian, and musician, Reggie Watts, who many of you might recognize from the Late Late Show with James Corden, where he leads the house band, or from one of his many amazing performances, including TedTalks and music videos that have garnered tens of millions of views. In this episode, Reggie and I talk about creating content with technology, the failures of the dig...

Today we have one of my favorite comedians, Duncan Trussell, who many of you might recognize from his frequent appearances on the Joe Rogan Podcast, on Drunk History, or his latest Netflix show, The Midnight Gospel. He also has his own podcast, the Duncan Trussell Family Hour , which provides a steady stream of humor and thought-provoking conversation. On this episode, we take a wide exploration o...

This week our guest is Stephen Fry, famed actor, comedian, writer, and director whose prolific list of creative and intellectual endeavors have touched so many aspects of our lives.  On this episode, we start by exploring the lessons myth can teach us about technology in honor of Stephen’s latest book release, Troy, which follows Mythos and Heroes , a series of compendiums where Stephen retel...

This week our guest is the renowned Kevin Kelly, who many of you will no doubt recognize as the founding executive editor of Wired magazine, and author of revelatory books such as What Technology Wants and The Inevitable. We dig deeply into what drives Kevin’s techno-optimism, the ideas of spiritual technology, China’s future, the regulatory landscape of AI, and ultimately how technology has shape...

Principle, Meet Practice, with Kyle Nel. Episode 4: Today we’re going to cover the topic Sustainable Organizations with Ryan Kushner, Co-Founder and Director of Startups at Third Derivative, and Carola Wijdoogen, Director of Sustainability University Foundation. Creating a sustainable organization is imperative in today’s world. We are living in a critical time to action against the global climate...

This week our guest is Liv Boeree, who got her start studying astrophysics in England, became well known as one of the world's most successful poker players, then transitioned into effective altruism and science communication. In this conversation, we dip our toes into Liv’s background, game theory, and the mental frameworks and motivations Liv uses to navigate reality. But the greater part of dis...