3 Takeaways™

Former Secretary of the Treasury and President of Harvard Larry Summers talks about the defining trends of the 21st century, including how we are going to achieve collective solutions, the shift in the center of gravity of the world’s economy and culture to the east, the upcoming transformation in education, the hard choices facing the leading universities, and the exponential growth in what information technology will be capable of.

Former Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd, who has known China’s leader Xi Jinping for decades, reveals how Xi Jinping sees China and the world, and what he really wants. Find out why America needs its allies more than ever before and what the U.S. and its allies can do.

Did you know that Antarctica used to be ice-free and earth used to be 20 degrees warmer than it is now? Find out why climate change then wasn’t a problem, and why it is now with Princeton University’s Daniel Sigman.  Also find out how climate change caused horses to grow from the size of large house cats to their size today. 

97% of people plead guilty, they plea bargain, even if they’re innocent. No one can take the risk of going to trial, even innocent people, because if they're convicted they'll face huge amounts of time in prison. The possibility of being acquitted by a jury is almost gone. Find out why the innocent plead guilty and why the innocent no longer have trials from Judge Jed Rakoff, who’s seen it from all sides as a judge, former prosecutor and former criminal defense attorney. 

With nearly 30 years of combined Amazon experience, former Amazon Vice Presidents Colin Bryar and Bill Carr reveal the proven way Amazon innovates and scales businesses. Colin spent all day every day with Jeff Bezos for 2 years as his technical advisor. Bill led the launch and growth of the Kindle, Amazon Music, and Prime Video. Find out how Amazon’s success is due to a well-defined set of principles and practices which they reveal here and illustrate with stories. Find out also what Jeff Bezos is really like and why his siblings hated to go to movies with him. 

Learn about Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman’s latest findings on “noise” and how there is more noise and flaws in human judgement than you think — Find out why you should see a doctor in the morning and go to court after lunch.

Tom Friedman, author, New York Times columnist, and winner of three Pulitzer Prizes, talks about the world getting flatter and more fragile; abolishing recessions and interrupting the natural laws of capitalism; why the U.S. needs a healthy Republican Party; and how the world AC (After Corona) will be very different from the world BC (Before Corona).

We all think we know what’s right and wrong but we don’t because right/wrong changes over time. Our great grandchildren might be shocked by people eating meat, and the risks of pregnancy, childbirth and unedited genes. Find out which things we're doing now that will be viewed as wrong, and learn about the almost inconceivable things that will become “right" because of new technology.  Will genetic engineering of humans for space travel become acceptable? Bigger brains? More compact bodies? Different species of humans to increase our odds of survival?

Learn how scarcity of anything — money, food or social connections — affects our daily lives and leads us astray. Scarcity reduces both intelligence and control. Having too little preoccupies and taxes the mind, making life much harder.  "Even smiling and being pleasant is hard when your mind is taxed. The employee snaps at rude customers ... The parent snaps at the child ... The server rings up the wrong item.” Learn about the latest cutting edge behavioral science to find out how the poor can escape the scarcity trap and how we can all manage scarcity for better satisfaction and success. 

Find out why Harvard’s Chair of Astronomy Avi Loeb says we are not alone in the universe and that there are more intelligent and sophisticated civilizations than ours. Learn about the evidence that we aren't the “smartest cookie in the jar.” Find out when we were visited by another civilization and how we can create life on other planets by launching what he calls "Noah's spaceship.”