The Singularity Discussion Series

Today we’re going to talk about how access to water and food impacts global education with Carmen Burbano de Lara, Director of School Feeding for the World Food Programme, and Georgie Badiel, CEO and Founder of the Georgie Badiel Foundation. Access to food and clean water enables millions of children globally to be able to attend school. Today, we’ll talk about what this means for humanity now and...

This week our guest is David Brin, renowned science fiction author of dozens of short stories and novels, including The Postman, which was adapted to film and starred Kevin Costner, as well as the Uplift series, which centers around the theme of genetically engineering pre-sapient species such as chimpanzees and dolphins to a human level of intelligence. While science fiction is what he’s known fo...

We all know about the all-too-familiar retail apocalypse that led to closures of many brick-and-mortar chains due to the ‘08 financial crisis and the e-commerce boom, but it’s not over yet. In this episode, we talk about shifts in consumer behavior, how retailers should cope with the current pandemic and how they can prepare for the future. Meet our guests: V. “Paddy” Padmanabhan is the Unilever P...

For many, balancing work and home life is always a challenge, but now, due to Covid-19, work and home are more intertwined than ever. This can be fun for some, overwhelming for others and downright stressful for many. In this episode, Kyle Nel discusses strategies to balance both work and home life with Jennifer Petriglieri & Karen Tay . Get the Show Notes Meet our guests! Jennifer Petrig...

Singularity University presents the Principle, Meet Practice podcast! Season one is sponsored by our good friends over at INSEAD and focus' on Managing through Uncertainty. Join your host, Kyle Nel , and experts from SU, INSEAD and leading organizations for bi-weekly discussions on what actions society, enterprise, and individuals can take to manage chaos and stay ahead of the growing exponential...

This week our guest is Toby Ord, a senior researcher at Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute, where he focuses on existential risk. Toby recently released his book Precipice: Existential Risk & the Future of Humanity , which explores the many threats capable not only of ending human civilization, but even causing our entire species to go extinct. It may seem like an unrealistic concern out of...

This week our guest is Dr. David Eagleman: renowned Stanford neuroscience professor, author of 8 books, and CEO and co-founder of NeoSensory, a company specializing in creating sensory substitution devices. In this conversation, we'll be exploring his 2020 novel, Livewired, where he examines and redefines the idea of neuroplasticity--the brain’s ability to rewire itself as we experience the world...

This week our guest is Dr. Diana Fleischman, an evolutionary psychologist and active member of the effective altruism community.  We explore a range of topics, including social engineering, our evolutionary relationship with technology and language, effective altruism, and using the concept of Skinner boxes to create systems for ourselves that condition us towards better behaviors. You can fi...

This week our guest is Renee DiResta, the technical research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory , a cross-disciplinary team exploring the abuse of our current information technologies. Specifically, Renee investigates the spread of narratives and propaganda across social networks such as pseudoscience conspiracies, terrorist activity, and state-sponsored information warfare. We focused h...

This week our guest is William Von Hippel, a social psychologist who teaches at the University of Queensland in Australia, and author of the 2018 novel, the Social Leap: The New Evolutionary Science of Who We Are, Where We Come From, and What Makes Us Happy . We explore how the challenges of our evolutionary past shaped many of the most fundamental aspects of our behavior in the modern day, traver...

This week our guest is musical artist, filmmaker, digital storyteller and all around renaissance woman, Taryn Southern . You may recognize her from early career with American Idol or from her Youtube videos which have garnered over 750 million views. But in recent years, Taryn became the first person to create an entire musical album composed by an artificial intelligence and she led the groundbre...

This week our guest is renowned sociologist, physician, and Yale professor, Nicholas Christakis, who was once listed by Time magazine as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in the world. He’s particularly known for his expertise on social networks, as well as his work exploring the evolutionary and socioeconomic determinants of behavior and health. Dr. Christakis is the author of the renown...

This week, our guest on The Feedback Loop is British documentary filmmaker and journalist, Jenny Kleeman. We discuss topics from her recently published and provocative book: Sex Robots & Vegan Meat: Adventures at the Frontier of Birth, Food, Sex, and Death.  In addition to these existential and controversial topics, we also discuss how technology is preventing humans from partaking in the...

This week we sit down with cognitive psychologist and long-time professor at UC Irvine, Donald Hoffman. Hoffman has a long history working with some of the greatest minds in the history of humanity, including Francis Crick who was part of the team that discovered the double helix of DNA. His own endeavors are no less revolutionary, as he's currently spearheading a new theory that argues humans evo...

This week we sit down with journalist, author, and transhumanist, Zoltan Istvan. Zoltan Istvan is most commonly known for his book the Transhumanist Wager, his 2016 Presidential Campaign—where he drove across the United States in a bus shaped like a coffin—and his many contributions and appearance with media outlets such as National Geographic, Vice, and Wired. In this conversation, Zoltan and I e...

The Feedback Loop - Episode 6 This week we talk to author, editor, and consultant to science writers, Annaka Harris, whose brand new book, Conscious: A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind, just became a New York Time's Bestseller. In this episode, we explore some of the fundamental questions Annaka explores in her book, such as: what is consciousness? How did it evolve? Does free wi...

The Feedback Loop - Episode 5 This week we talk to media theorist, professor, and author: Douglas Rushkoff. With roots deep in the psychedelic, philosophical, and techno-utopian culture of the late 80s and early 90s cyberpunks, Douglas Rushkoff is one of the most original thinkers exploring humanity's relationship with technology. Douglas has written more than a dozen books, which include "Throwin...

Feedback Loop - Episode 4 - This week we talk to Mike Gilliland and Euvie Ivanova, who are well known for their widely popular podcast: Future Thinkers. After leaving behind their normal life in the western world, this pair of long-time digital nomads dedicated much of their newly found free time to cultivating their shared passion for personal growth and societal transformation. In this episode,...

Feedback Loop - Episode 3: This week we talk to neuroscientist and social entrepreneur, Raya Bidshahri. After giving a TEDxYouth talk at 18 years old, Raya spent the next 6 years founding numerous organization such as SciFest Dubai, Intelligent Optimism, and her current project of focus: Awecademy. Through the exploration of these endeavors, we dig into the need to update and upgrade our education...

This week we chat with futurist and techno-philosopher, Gray Scott. Together, we explore the philosophical, evolutionary, and biological urges transforming society. This took us on a fascinating tour through the ideas of reflection, mirroring, and simulating as they relate to the digitization of reality, the creation of artificial intelligence, and the psychedelic renaissance taking place in tech.

This week we're joined by Elizabeth Parrish, CEO of biotech and longevity company, Bioviva. Liz gained worldwide renown in 2015 when she flew to Colombia to inject herself with one of the gene therapies her company was testing, making her patient zero. In this conversation, we explore her motivations for such drastic measures, the current state of life-extension and longevity research, and how she...