unSILOed with Greg LaBlanc

What are the problems facing academic journals today? What changes to the system could be made to address them? How could being more open about studies that aren’t successful actually be a success strategy overall? Faye Flam is a science and medical journalist, a columnist for Bloomberg, host of the podcast Follow the Science, and the author of The Score: The Science of the Male Sex Drive . Greg a...

When did humans learn to communicate through language? Did it coincide with the invention of fire? Or was it more a gradual process that involved much more than just making sounds with our mouths?  Steven Mithen is a professor of prehistory at the University of Reading and the author of numerous books on human evolution including, The Singing Neanderthals: The Origins of Music, Language, Mind, and...

How can Legacy companies transform themselves to compete with Startups? What lessons can be learned from the different ways legacy companies Microsoft and IBM navigated the new business landscape. What can we expect from the new tech hubs popping up around the world that aim to be a recreation of what makes Silicon Valley work? Vivek Wadhwa is an academic, entrepreneur, and author of five best-sel...

Is it time to drastically change the way we think about failure? What if failure is the key to success?  John Danner is a faculty member at UC Berkeley and Princeton University and the author of Built for Growth and The Other “F” Word . His research focuses on leadership, strategy, and innovation. He regularly consults with Fortune 500 companies, offering actionable strategies to help them adapt t...

What are the ways founders are using AI to experiment and optimize their start-ups faster than ever before? How does this shift affect the various makeups of different companies and industries, and who will be the winners and losers in the new age of AI? Jeff Bussgang is the GP and Founder of Flybridge Capital, a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School, and also the author of the new book The E...

Given the advancements in technology and AI, how have humans learned to navigate the ever-shifting boundaries of morality in an increasingly complex world?  Webb Keane is a professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan. Through his books like, Ethical Life: Its Natural and Social Histories and most recently Animals, Robots, Gods: Adventures in the Moral Imagination , Webb offers insights...

Why are external accountability and thoughtful integration of algorithms necessary now to ensure fairer labor dynamics across work environments? What’s the puzzling problem that comes with increasing the level of transparency of these algorithms? Hatim Rahman is an Associate Professor of Management & Organizations at Northwestern University in the Kellogg School of Management, and the author of th...

With AI becoming more advanced every day, what are the ethical considerations of such emerging technologies? How can the way we treat animals and other species of intelligence inform the way we can and should think of personhood in the realm of increasingly advanced artificial intelligence models? James Boyle is a professor of law at Duke University’s law school, former chair of the Creative Commo...

What is the difference between risk and uncertainty? Why does mainstream economics often overlook uncertainty altogether? Amar Bhidé is a professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University, professor emeritus at Tufts University, and the author of several books, his latest of which is entitled, Uncertainty and Enterprise: Venturing Beyond the Known . Greg and Amar discuss Amar’s rece...

What truly is the relationship between tech giants and government, especially with the recent change of administrations? How does democracy remain at the forefront when corporations are amassing so much capital and power? How can the US hope to balance out the influence of Big Tech money with the needs of a population that will often have different needs and goals? Marietje Schaake is a fellow at...

What are the psychological and biological underpinnings of human violence and our collective propensity for war? How important really is leadership in wartime decision-making? Richard Overy is an honorary professor at the University of Exeter, and the author of several books. His latest are the brand new Rain of Ruin: Tokyo, Hiroshima, and the Surrender of Japan , and also Why War? , and Why the A...

The world of decision-making is now dominated by algorithms and automation. But how much has the AI really changed? Haven’t, on some level, humans always thought in algorithmic terms?  Kartik Hosanagar is a professor of technology at The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania. His book, A Human's Guide to Machine Intelligence: How Algorithms Are Shaping Our Lives and How We Can Stay in C...

How is market signaling tied to economic growth, and what will the introduction of AI do to the wave of economic development in the US and abroad? Will other surging economies surpass the United States as dynamics continue to change? Michael Spence is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute at Stanford University, also the author of a number of books, including The Next Convergence: The Future of...

How are happiness and success intertwined when it comes to business? What crucial element do you lose as a company when the boss or the culture becomes one of stress or pressure?  Emma Seppälä teaches at the Yale School of Management and is a Scientific Director at the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research at Stanford University. She is also the author of several books, most recently Soverei...

How did Chile's economic experiment reshape global economic thinking, and what can it teach us about the future of neoliberalism and populism in Latin America and beyond? Sebastián Edwards is a professor of international economics at UCLA and writes about Latin American history, economics, and politics. His books include Left Behind: Latin America and the False Promise of Populism , American Defau...

Why do our most complex systems—from financial markets to corporate behemoths—consistently produce outcomes that nobody intended, and what forgotten science might hold the key to fixing them? Dan Davies is an economist and author of the books, Lying for Money: How Legendary Frauds Reveal the Workings of Our World and most recently, The Unaccountability Machine: Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisi...

Why have philosophers historically failed to think seriously about privacy? How do invasions of privacy really impact a person? What do we give up when we let our data be freely commoditized by Big Tech companies without being fully aware of how they’re doing it? Carissa Véliz is an Associate Professor in Philosophy at the Institute for Ethics in AI, a Fellow at Hertford College at the University...

What effects will generative AI have on coding and software engineering? Will it make anyone a coder? Will it just turn software engineering into copy/paste exercises? How will the top coders use AI to hack their own efficiency and productivity, and why is it so hard for the large tech companies to do the same things that the smaller ones do? Clive Thompson is a journalist for the New York Times M...

What more can be learned about a topic like the origins of economic growth that has been covered so extensively? When pulling back and looking at all the connected threads, is there an order in which things must happen to spark the change? Mark Koyama is a Professor of Economics at George Mason University, Research Associate at the Centre for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), and Mercatus Cente...

We learn the skill of talking as toddlers and by the time we’re adults, most of us don’t think twice about the inner workings of a conversation. But the reality is, there’s a science and an art to conversing. And understanding that science could unlock so much potential in your professional and personal life.  Alison Wood Brooks is a professor at Harvard Business School and the author of the book,...

Where is the line between fact and fiction in the capabilities of AI? Which predictions or promises about the future of AI are reasonable and which are the creations of hype for the benefit of the industry or the company making outsized claims? Arvind Narayanan is a professor of computer science at Princeton University, the director of the Center for Information Technology Policy, and an author. H...

Raising boys in post-MeToo times is beyond challenging. So how do moms balance societal pressures with the desire to raise happy, healthy, and emotionally intelligent boys? Ruth Whippman is a journalist and author of the books, BoyMom: Reimagining Boyhood in the Age of Impossible Masculinity and America the Anxious: How Our Pursuit of Happiness Is Creating a Nation of Nervous Wrecks . In BoyMom ,...

What brought about the rise of cryptocurrencies, and whats the difference between tokens and money? How are some of these modern concepts of currency much older than people may think, with older and older examples being unearthed in different parts of the world? Rachel O’Dwyer is a writer and lecturer in Digital Cultures in the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. She’s also the author of T...

With more and more data available about each of us all the time, what are the consequences of rapid data-driven decision making by organizations, and what are the implications of it for democracy and social well being? William Davies teaches Politics at Goldsmiths University of London and is the author of several books, including Nervous States: Democracy and the Decline of Reason . Greg and Willi...

How is artificial intelligence reshaping social dynamics, knowledge sharing, and the workplace in the digital age? Alex “Sandy” Pentland is a fellow at Stanford University’s Human Centered AI Institute and helped create the MIT Media Lab. He’s the author of numerous books including, Honest Signals: How They Shape Our World , Social Physics: How Social Networks Can Make Us Smarter , and most recent...