In Episode #241, writer, podcast host, and author Chad Sanders joins Osi to discuss what it takes to break into the entertainment industry in 2025, especially for young artists. They also discuss AI and how it's reshaping the creative landscape, what the future of opportunity might look like in the next 5 to 10 years, and how emerging technologies are transforming the artistic process.

Chad Sanders is the author of Black Magic: What Black Leaders Learned from Trauma and Triumph. He is the host of the Yearbook podcast on the Armchair Expert network and the Audible Originals podcast, Direct Deposit. Chad’s work has been featured in The New York Times, Time, Fortune, Forbes, Deadline, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and other publications. Chad has also written for TV series on Max and Freeform. Chad was raised in Silver Spring, Maryland, and earned his BA in English at Morehouse College. He lives in New York City.

In Episode #240, Mark Lynas joins Osi to confront one of the most urgent and underdiscussed threats facing humanity today: nuclear war. They discuss why nuclear war poses a far more immediate danger than climate change, the troubling lack of public awareness and political will, and consider what actions can still be taken to pull us back from the brink.

Six Minutes To Winter - Bloomsbury.com/us/six-minutes-to-winter-9781399410519/

Mark Lynas is an environmental writer and campaigner whose books have drawn attention to the perils of global warming. He is Vice-Chair of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Emerging Technologies, a Visiting Research Associate at Oxford University's School of Geography and the Environment, and was Climate Advisor to the President of the Maldives from 2009 to 2011. He has contributed extensively to global media, writing for the Guardian, New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and numerous others. He is research lead at the Alliance for Science at the Boyce Thompson Institute, an affiliate of Cornell University, and has co-authored peer-reviewed papers on vaccines, climate and GMOs. He is co-founder of the pro-science environmental campaign network RePlanet, launched in 2021 and now active in 12 countries.

In Episode #239, historian and human rights lawyer Steve Swerdlow returns to the podcast for a wide-ranging conversation on the Russia and Ukraine conflict, viewed through the lens of the rising "America First" movement.

What role should the United States play on the global stage when it comes to foreign aid and intervention? Is America truly stronger when it focuses inward? Are Americans actually upset about helping other countries, or does the anger come from feeling ignored while others receive support? Steve and Osi do their best to honestly grapple with these questions.

Steve Swerdlow, esq. is a human rights lawyer and Associate Professor of the Practice of Human Rights in the Department of Political and International Relations at the University of Southern California. An expert on the former Soviet region, Swerdlow teaches international human rights law, human rights research and advocacy, and human rights across Eurasia. Swerdlow has been a visiting professor at the American University of Central Asia in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Webster University in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, the Kyiv School of Economics, and the University of San Diego. Swerdlow was Senior Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch from 2010-2019, heading the organization’s work on Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, also founding its Kyrgyzstan field office, and conducting field missions to Azerbaijan, Moldova, Russia, and Kazakhstan.

In Episode #238, comedian and political commentator Davidson Boswell returns to the podcast for a wide-ranging conversation. Who is Zohran Mamdani, and why does his political ascent matter not just for New Yorkers, but for the nation at large? Why do so many U.S. politicians appear to have an unrelenting appetite for war? And in a time overshadowed by uncertainty, what reasons do we have to hold onto hope? Osi and Davidson attempt to answer these questions and more.

For more of Davidson's content, visit the following:

Substack - DavidsonBoswell.substack.com

Patreon - Patreon.com/TheDavidsonBoswellShow

Instagram - Instagram.com/davidsonboswell/

In Episode #237, award-winning science journalist Chris Berdik joins Osi for a conversation about something we often overlook: noise. They discuss how the sounds that surround us every day, even the ones we barely notice, can disrupt sleep, increase stress, affect heart health, and slow childhood development. They also discuss how noise is transforming ecosystems, from busy city streets to the depths of the ocean.

Link to read Clamor - Norton.com/books/9781324006992

Follow Chris' Substack at - Substack.com/@chrisberdik

Chris Berdik is a journalist who covers science, health, technology, and education. He is the author of Clamor: How Noise Took Over the World—and How We Can Take It Back (W. W. Norton, 2025), which explores the power of noise and soundscapes, and Mind Over Mind: The Surprising Power of Expectations (Penguin, 2012), a deep dive into the placebo effect across medical and non-medical settings. His journalism career includes roles as a staff editor at The Atlantic, a research editor at Mother Jones, and a senior science and medicine writer for Boston University's news and alumni publication, Bostonia.

In Episode #236, historian Ian Kumekawa joins Osi to trace the hidden history of globalization through an unlikely protagonist: a barge. In his book Empty Vessel, Ian follows a single ship as it morphs from a barracks in the Falklands to a floating jail in New York to worker housing in Germany, changing names and nations with each new economic demand. The ship becomes a powerful symbol of a world shaped by neoliberalism, offshore economies, and market flexibility. They discuss how this unremarkable barge reveals the architecture of our modern global economy and the forces that continue to shape it.

Link to Empty Vessel: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/741342/empty-vessel-by-ian-kumekawa/

Ian Kumekawa is a historian at the Center for History and Economics at Harvard University. He is the author of Empty Vessel: The Story of the Global Economy in One Barge and The First Serious Optimist: A. C. Pigou and the Birth of Welfare Economics (2017). He has taught at Harvard and MIT. He hails from Clinton, CT and now lives in Boston.

In Episode #235, journalist and professor Alan Weisman sits down with Osi to talk about why it’s still worth holding on to hope even when the future feels uncertain. They cover issues like mass extinction, climate change, and food insecurity, and take a look at how the oil industry is fueling the crisis. But through it all, they arriive at one central question: Can we innovate our way out of these problems?

Alan Weisman is an award-winning journalist whose reports have appeared in Harper’s, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, Discover, and on NPR, among others. A former contributing editor to The Los Angeles Times Magazine, he is a senior radio producer for Homelands Productions and teaches international journalism at the University of Arizona. His essay “Earth Without People” (Discover magazine, February 2005), on which The World Without Us expands, was selected for Best American Science Writing 2000 - 2007.

Link for Hope Dies Last - https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/624630/hope-dies-last-by-alan-weisman/

Vauhini Vara began her journalism career as a technology reporter at The Wall Street Journal before helping to launch and lead the business section of The New Yorker’s website, where she served as editor and writer. Her work has since appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Businessweek (where she is a contributing writer), and other major publications. Her journalism has received recognition from the Asian American Journalists Association, the International Center for Journalists, the McGraw Center for Business Journalism, and additional organizations.

Her latest book, Searches (Pantheon, 2025), blends memoir and investigative reporting to explore how big tech companies are reshaping — and often exploiting — human communication, and the ways in which we all play a role in that dynamic.

With over 15 years of experience, Hannah Selinger is an accomplished writer whose work spans a wide range of subjects, including food, wine, travel, politics, lifestyle, real estate, and parenting. Her debut memoir, Cellar Rat: My Life in the Restaurant Underbelly (Little, Brown, 2025), has been praised by The New York Times as “a mix of Joris-Karl Huysmans, M.F.K. Fisher, and Regina George ... a howling account ... a fundamentally kind and generous book.” Her high-level print and digital content has appeared in prominent publications such as The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, Travel + Leisure, Food & Wine, and The Wall Street Journal.

Daryl Fairweather is chief economist at Redfin, where she analyzes US housing markets and consumer behavior, and a member of the academic advisory council of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. A former senior economist at Amazon, she is a regular contributor to Forbes, and she has been featured in 60 Minutes, Today, the New York Times, and Bloomberg, among other outlets.