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Welcome to The Freethink Interview, a interview series from our sister channel @freethink where we talk to the new generation of builders, leaders and thinkers shaping technological progress. Join us for thought-provoking conversations with some of the world’s most interesting and ambitious technologists.

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Up next, What’s killing the clean energy revolution? ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFjg1qEsO04

Could solar energy be the key to unlocking a future free from fossil fuels and extreme poverty? Casey Handmer, founder and CEO of Terraform Industries, believes so. His company is pioneering technology that could revolutionize how we produce and consume energy, potentially solving climate change and global energy inequality in one fell swoop.

Terraform Industries is developing machines that create synthetic natural gas from sunlight and air. It sounds like science fiction, but the technology is rooted in simple chemistry and powered by the rapidly advancing field of solar energy.

But Handmer's vision extends beyond just replacing fossil fuels. He sees solar energy as the catalyst for a new era of human progress. By providing cheap, abundant energy to every corner of the globe, we could potentially eliminate extreme poverty within our lifetimes. It's an ambitious goal, but one that Handmer believes we have a responsibility to pursue.

0:00: Introduction

1:20: The future of energy

1:50: Solar vs. nuclear

2:45: Solar deployment

3:23: Solar vs. fossil fuels

4:50: What is a fuel?

6:52: The terraformer

7:49: Industrial Revolution

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What happens when an irredeemable person receives love, gratitude, and respect? After decades of drug and alcohol abuse, chef and television personality Andrew Zimmern learned firsthand.

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As a teenager, Andrew Zimmern experienced deep pain when his mother became permanently disabled, and his father enforced a rule to avoid discussing feelings. Without an outlet, that pain grew into resentment and substance abuse. By 14, Zimmern was drinking daily, and his addiction followed him into adulthood, ultimately costing him his career, relationships, and home.

In January 1992, after hitting rock bottom, Zimmern attempted to take his own life. When he woke up, something shifted. For the first time, he asked for help. His friends intervened, sending him to rehab, where he began confronting his emotions and embracing a mindset of learning and giving.

Zimmern rebuilt his life, becoming a celebrated chef, author, and TV personality. Today, he credits that one vulnerable moment with saving his life and inspiring him to live with purpose and gratitude.

Read more from this interview ► https://bigthink.com/videos/andrew-zimmern/

Explore the Perception Box series hub ► https://bigthink.com/perception-box/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description

We created this video in partnership with Unlikely Collaborators.

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About Andrew Zimmern:

Andrew Zimmern is a chef, food writer, and television personality best known for hosting Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel. A four-time James Beard Award winner, Zimmern has dedicated his career to exploring global cuisines and advocating for culinary diversity. Beyond television, he is a passionate philanthropist, focusing on hunger relief, food sustainability, and social justice. He founded the Andrew Zimmern Project to support food security initiatives and works with organizations like Second Harvest and Services for the Underserved. Through his work, Zimmern strives to create a more equitable food system and inspire cultural appreciation through cuisine.

"There will always be too much to do. You're never going to feel completely ready. You're never going to be able to feel confident about what's coming in the future."

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Up next, 3 powerful mind states: Flow state, good anxiety, and Zen Buddhism ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvHne-U4lcw

Many of us wake up each morning with something Oliver Burkeman calls “productivity debt.” The bestselling author and journalist explains this term as “a sense that you've got to work really hard during the day to pay off this debt of getting things done. Otherwise, you won't quite feel like you're an adequate and acceptable human being.”

It's becoming very obvious that this ever-accelerating treadmill of productivity  isn't going to lead to a final, perfect destination There will always be more to do. You're never going to feel completely ready. You're never going to be able to feel confident about what's coming in the future. 

If you set out on some big project of scheduling your time very, very, very strictly, not only will you probably fail and get very stressed, but even if you succeed, you'll fail in a way because there'll be some lack of spontaneity to that path, a sense of having to carry out these instructions that you've given yourself that is at odds with what we really value from being alive. And so that's why we need a way of understanding and thinking about work and productivity that does not treat getting on top of everything as the goal, explains Burkeman. Here, he lays out four guiding principles to lead a better, more fulfilling life.

Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/the-big-think-interview/oliver-burkeman/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description

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About Oliver Burkeman:

Oliver Burkeman is a bestselling author and journalist. He is best known for Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals (2021), a self-help book on reframing productivity for happiness. He also publishes The Imperfectionist, an email on productivity, mortality, the power of limits, and building a meaningful life in an age of bewilderment.

“I'm here to argue that AI is not going to cause a rise in unemployment. I think it's actually increased employment in the United States, not decreased it.”

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Up next, How COVID-era monetary policy changed everything ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEnxt1cf3MI

When ChatGPT was first rolled out, there was a widespread fear that unemployment was going to rise very quickly. Well, it's been several years since ChatGPT was released, and the unemployment rate in the United States has stayed the same, says Joseph Politano, economic analyst and data journalist.

In fact, if you look at employment in the U.S., it's near some of the highest levels on record -- and they've only increased over the last few years since the start of the pandemic. The economy has gone through tectonic economic shifts before. Think: the rise of the smartphone, or the rise of the internet, or the rise of the phone in the first place. Or even things as simple as elevator buttons that put elevator operators out of work. These created new jobs that more than replaced the jobs lost by technological change.

In fact, if you look at data from the U.S. Census Bureau, on one of the most comprehensive surveys of businesses in America, the vast majority of businesses said that AI has not affected their employment levels at all. And if you look at the subset of businesses that said AI affected their employment levels, the majority said that it increased the number of people they had on staff, not decreased. That's not to say that all industries and all occupations are going to be completely unaffected. There's going to be a shift away from the kind of work that AI is able to do exceptionally well, and towards the kind of work that humans can specialize in. Here’s what to expect from the job market with the rise of generative AI.

Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/devils-advocate/joseph-politano-ai/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description

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About Joseph Politano:

Joseph Politano is a Financial Management Analyst at the Bureau of Labor Statistics working to support the Labor Market Information and Occupational Health and Safety surveys that BLS conducts. He writes independently about economics, business, and public policy for a better world at apricitas.substack.com.

“The truth is there are very few supplements that have good evidence-based medicine to support them.”

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Up next, The science of menopause in 13 minutes ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ8p_BViUKc

Supplements and vitamins constantly go viral with claims that they can transform your health just by integrating these pills into your daily routine. But before you add to cart, take a pause and make sure you’re buying exactly what you think you are. In the US, supplement companies can’t explicitly claim to cure, treat, or prevent a disease. So how can you know which ones are legit, and which ones might just be a money grab?

Besides being potentially ineffective and a waste of money, some supplements have been shown to contain heavy metal, fungi, or even mold contaminants, and others contain just a fraction of what they claim to.

OB/GYN and bestselling author Dr. Jen Gunter says that you can easily discern snake oil salesmen from legitimate supplements grounded in good science with these 3 tips.

Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/great-question/jen-gunter-supplements/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description

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About Dr. Jen Gunter:

I am an OB/GYN and a pain medicine physician. I write a lot about sex, science, and social media, but sometimes I write about other things because, well, why not?

I’ve been called Twitter’s resident gynecologist, the Internet’s OB/GYN, and one of the fiercest advocates for women’s health. I have devoted my professional life to caring for women.

I’m here to build a better medical Internet. You can’t be empowered about your health if you have incorrect information. I got interested in online snake oil and dubious science when my own children were born extremely prematurely. I found separating the facts from the fiction difficult and I am a doctor, so I started thinking if this is hard for me how does everyone else manage? It put the bad information that my own patients were bringing into the office in perspective. I know people sit up late at night Googling things and fall down rabbit holes of misinformation because I’ve been there!

The one phrase that changed Diana Nyad’s life, and set her on course to become the first person ever to conquer the 110 mile, 53 hour swim from Florida to Cuba.

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At 64, Diana Nyad swam 110 miles from Cuba to Florida, facing jellyfish, exhaustion, and tough ocean currents for over 53 hours. But this feat was more than just physical - it was the result of a lifetime of mental endurance.

As a young swimmer, she faced sexual abuse from her coach, which derailed her Olympic dreams and left deep emotional scars. Instead of letting those experiences hold her back, she found a way to channel that pain into something powerful. She talks about developing a "steel trap mind," using her struggles as motivation to pursue her goals.

Diana's journey goes beyond breaking records. It’s a powerful reminder of the human spirit's ability to persevere and heal, no matter the odds. Her swim from Cuba to Florida, completed on her fifth attempt, showcases her incredible willpower and serves as an inspiration to people everywhere.

Read more from this interview ► https://bigthink.com/perception-box/diana-nyad/

Explore the Perception Box series hub ► https://bigthink.com/perception-box/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description

We created this video in partnership with Unlikely Collaborators.

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About Diana Nyad: Diana Nyad is an endurance swimmer, author, and motivational speaker best known for her 2013 record-breaking swim from Cuba to Florida at age 64. Completing the 110-mile journey without a shark cage, she demonstrated unparalleled resilience and determination. Nyad is also a bestselling author, journalist, and co-founder of EverWalk, a fitness initiative promoting community through walking. Her story of perseverance, chronicled in her memoir Find a Way, continues to inspire audiences worldwide.

“Many people get stuck in feeling responsible for their psychological state, and there's a way in which simply being with whatever uncomfortable emotions rather than believing that you are controlling them can be extremely beneficial for psychological wellbeing.”

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Up next, Science is shattering our intuitions about consciousness ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0UjqT45JsQ

Are you actually in the driver’s seat of your own life? The illusion of free will says that our choices are determined by factors greater than our intentions and actions, that total conscious control is purely an illusion.

We may assume that illusions like this have evolved for their usefulness, but most illusions that we experience are actually glitches, says bestselling author Annaka Harris.

Take for example the illusion of self – the other side of the illusion of free will coin. We think of ourselves as solid, unchanging entities that move through time and space, separate from the rest of the physical world. This illusion confuses us about our place in nature, and the state of our reality.

Harris explores these two illusions and how they shape our everyday experience.

Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/explain-it-like-im-smart/annaka-harris-illusions/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description

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About Annaka Harris:

Annaka Harris is the New York Times bestselling author of CONSCIOUS: A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind and writer and producer of the forthcoming audio documentary series, LIGHTS ON. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Nautilus Magazine, the Journal of Consciousness Studies, and IAI Magazine. She is also an editor and consultant for science writers, specializing in neuroscience and physics. Annaka is the author of the children’s book I Wonder, coauthor of the Mindful Games Activity Cards, and a volunteer mindfulness teacher for the organization Inner Kids.

“We've engineered a volatile world where Starbucks is completely unchanging from year to year, but democracies are collapsing and rivers are drying up.”

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Up next, Everything does NOT happen for a reason ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hm62KTbZE4Q

As modern humans we experience a different world and experience than anyone who has ever come before us. This is because we've inverted the dynamics of how our lives unfold. We live on a planet defined by local stability, but global instability. The hunter-gatherers that came before us lived in a world that was defined by local instability, but global stability, says political scientist Dr. Brian Klaas.

As hunter-gatherers, their day-to-day lives in their local environment was unpredictable. Now we have flipped that world. We experience local stability, but global instability. We have extreme regularity in our daily lives. We can order products online and expect exactly when they're going to arrive. We can go to Starbucks anywhere in the world and it's going to taste roughly the same.

But our world is changing faster than it ever has before. Consequentially, when things do go wrong, the ripple effects are much more profound and much more immediate. This is where that sort of aspect of global instability becomes very dangerous.

Timestamps:

0:00: Modern volatility

1:20: Complex systems theory

6:06: The sandpile model

6:47: Basins of attraction

7:49: Black swan events

Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/explain-it-like-im-smart/brian-klaas/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description

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About Brian Klaas:

Dr. Brian Klaas is an Associate Professor in Global Politics at University College London, an affiliate researcher at the University of Oxford, and a contributing writer for The Atlantic. He is also the author five books, including Fluke: Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters (2024) and Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us (2021). Klaas writes the popular The Garden of Forking Paths Substack and created the award-winning Power Corrupts podcast, which has been downloaded roughly three million times.

Klaas is an expert on democracy, authoritarianism, American politics, political violence, elections, and the nature of power. Additionally, his research interests include contingency, chaos theory, evolutionary biology, the philosophy of science and social science, and complex systems. In addition to Fluke and Corruptible, Klaas authored three earlier books: The Despot's Apprentice: Donald Trump's Attack on Democracy (Hurst & Co, 2017); The Despot's Accomplice: How the West is Aiding & Abetting the Decline of Democracy, (Oxford University Press, 2016) and How to Rig an Election (Yale University Press, co-authored with Professor Nic Cheeseman; 2018).

"Humans, like most mammals, tend to shut down in really frightening situations for which they have no training or prior experience. Researchers call it negative panic. People do nothing. They shut down."

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Up next, She studied extreme psychopaths. Here’s what it taught her about human nature ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyow7KAHDks

We all have ideas about how we're gonna behave in a crisis or emergency, but it’s almost never how it actually plays out when we’re faced with a disaster situation, says bestselling author Amanda Ripley.

In fact, you have another personality – a ‘disaster personality’ –, and it's helpful to understand what it is before you are forced to embody it. Studying human behavior in different disasters across history reveals a huge spectrum of responses. Sometimes people start hysterically screaming, others shut down. Some laugh in the face of a life or death situation.

In Ripley’s book, "The Unthinkable," the author followed people who had survived disasters of all kinds, and found that there's a pattern, even across very different contexts, from plane crashes to earthquakes. Almost always, people go through a period of certain emotions. Do you want to learn how to master your disaster response before facing a crisis? Ripley explains how.

Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/great-question/amanda-ripley/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description

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About Amanda Ripley:

Amanda Ripley is a New York Times bestselling author, Washington Post contributor, and co-founder of consultancy firm, Good Conflict. Her books include The Smartest Kids in the World, High Conflict, and The Unthinkable.

"Understanding more about monetary policy and the economic regime that you're living under can help ease some of the fundamental uncertainties [that have been] prevalent since COVID, and help you make better decisions in your day-to-day life."

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Up next, Why the ultra rich get rich, explained in two charts ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pUxqKqnMlQ

In the wake of the pandemic, our economy entered into a new era marked by supply chain shortages, rapidly rising inflation, and a sharp increase in interest rates. And consumers, businesses, and governments are more uncertain than they've ever been.

It's impossible to understand the changes that we've gone through over the last four years and, in a broader sense, over the last two decades without understanding the shifts in monetary policy over that time period, says Joseph Politano, an economic analyst, a data journalist, and the writer behind Apricitas Economics.

We interviewed Politano on April 30th, 2024 and he explained this global economic shift.

Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/the-big-think-interview/joseph-politano/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description

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About Joseph Politano:

Joseph Politano is a Financial Management Analyst at the Bureau of Labor Statistics working to support the Labor Market Information and Occupational Health and Safety surveys that BLS conducts. He writes independently about economics, business, and public policy for a better world at apricitas.substack.com.