Geoff Anders is the director of Leverage Research, a think tank devoted to understanding the nature of progress and the arc of scientific insights. Anders wants to understand what sort of cultural context creates the ability to make valuable insights into the mechanisms of nature. After mapping some of the interplay between science, society, and religion, we turn to the questions of how to spark a golden age at a time where institutions feel increasingly frail, just how effective we want our science to be, and what to do with the fact that everyone seems to really love magic.