Blindspot

Today’s episode is co-hosted by my colleague, Sloan fellow and education expert Joe Ballou.

Our guest today is Robert Pondiscio, on the line from New York.

Robert Pondiscio is senior fellow and vice president for external affairs at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. He is also a senior advisor to Democracy Prep Public Schools, a network of high-performing charter schools based in Harlem, New York. He writes and speaks extensively on education and education-reform issues, with an emphasis on literacy, curriculum, teaching, and urban education. After twenty years in journalism, including senior positions at TIME and BusinessWeek, Robert became a fifth-grade teacher at a struggling South Bronx public school in 2002. He subsequently served as vice president for the Core Knowledge Foundation.

I am joined by returning guest Professor Neil Malhotra. We spoke about President Trump, the immigration ban and the power of institutions.

Neil is the Professor of Political Economy in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.

We recorded today on the campus of Stanford University at the Graduate School of business, live from the Seminar series : moving forward after political confrontation and are joined by a cross section of students and faculty from across the university.

I'm very happy to welcome on the show this week, Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer.

This week we talk about power and why it's a BlindSpot and how played out in the 2016 elections. Also how Donald Trump is a power master.

JEFFREY PFEFFER is the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University where he has taught since 1979. He is the author or co-author of 14 books including:

The Human Equation: Building Profits by Putting People First;
Power: Why Some People Have It—and Others Don’t;

I'm very happy to welcome onto the podcast today, previous guest on my old show, long time contributor and friend Russell Lamberti.

This week we talk about the economic hangover of the financial crisis, the banning of interest and the revolt against technocratic socialism. We also dig into the political results of 2016 and why it might be good for the world.


Russell is the head strategist of ETM analytics, a Global macro research & advisory firm. His specialties include monetary economics and currency, gold, hyperinflations, capital markets, and long term wealth protection strategies. Russell is the author of When money destroys nations.

Today is a special episode of Blindspot as I'm joined by guest host Matt Cooke.

Our Guest today is Michal Kosinski. We discussed Big Data, micro targeting and why computers can know you better than your spouse.

Dr.Michal Kosinski is Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Dr Kosinski received his PhD in Psychology from the University of Cambridge (UK) in 2014. Kosinski’s research has had a significant impact on both academia and the industry.

His research focuses on individual differences in behavior, preferences, and performance. Specifically, he is interested in the mechanisms linking psychological traits (such as personality) with a broad range of organizational and social outcomes, including job performance, person-job fit, consumer preferences, and ideology, as well as the expression and recognition of psychological traits from behavioral residues, language, and facial features.

Kosinski conducts his research using a range of computational methods, including machine learning, data mining, and observational studies involving millions of participants.

eve Blank spent 21 years in 8 high technology companies. His last company E,piphany was started in his living room. Steve's other startups include two semiconductor companies, Zilog and MIPS Computers, a workstation company Convergent Technologies, a consulting stint for Pixar, a supercomputer firm, Ardent, a computer peripheral supplier, SuperMac, a military intelligence systems supplier, ESL and a video game company, Rocket Science Games.

In 2001 Steve moved from being an entrepreneur to teaching entrepreneurship.
He teaches at at U.C. Berkeley, Stanford's MS&E department and the Columbia University/Berkeley Joint Executive MBA program.

Steve is the author of the Four Steps to the Epiphany, Holding a Cat by the Tail and The Startup Owner's Manual.

Dr. Schake is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. She is the editor, with Jim Mattis, of the book Warriors and Citizens: American Views of Our Military. She teaches Thinking About War at Stanford, is a columnist for Foreign Policy magazine, and a contributor to War on the Rocks. Her history of the Anglo-American hegemonic transition is forthcoming (2017) from Harvard University Press.

She has served in various policy roles including at the White House for the National Security Council; at the Department of Defense for the Office of the Secretary and Joint Chiefs of Staff and the State Department for the Policy Planning Staff. During the 2008 presidential election, she was Senior Policy Advisor on the McCain-Palin campaign.

We sat down to discuss Trump's Foreign Policy, his cabinet appointments and civil military relations.

My guest today is Professor Neil Malhotra.

Neil Malhotra is Professor of Political Economy in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. He also holds a courtesy appointment in the Department of Political Science. He serves as the Louise and Claude N. Rosenberg, Jr. Co-Director of the Center for Social Innovation at the Stanford GSB.

He has authored over 60 articles on numerous topics including American politics, political behavior, and survey methodology. His research has been published in the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, Science, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, among other outlets. He currently serves as an Associate Editor of Public Opinion Quarterly and the Journal of Experimental Political Science.

He received his MA and PhD in political science from Stanford University, where he was the Melvin & Joan Lane Stanford Graduate Fellow. He received a BA in economics from Yale University.

We spoke today about the elephant in the room, the President – elect Donald Trump, the future of the Republican and Democratic parties and what this means for the USA.

Dr. William Perry was the nineteenth secretary of defense for the United States, serving from February 1994 to January 1997. He previously served as deputy secretary of defense (1993–94) and as undersecretary of defense for research and engineering (1977–81). Perry currently serves on the Defense Policy Board, the International Security Advisory Board, and the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board. He is on the board of directors of Covant, Fabrinet, LGS Bell Labs Innovations, and several emerging high-tech companies.

Dr. Perry is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Freeman Spogli Institute of International Studies. He is the Michael and Barbara Berberian Professor at Stanford University and serves as codirector of the Nuclear Risk Reduction initiative and the Preventive Defense Project. He is an expert in US foreign policy, national security, and arms control.

Dr. Perry's most recent book, My Journey at the Nuclear Brink, is a continuation of his efforts to keep the world safe from a nuclear catastrophe. Today we discuss innovation in the military, nuclear proliferation and the future of war.

Thomas H. Henriksen is an emeritus senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, where he focuses on American foreign policy, international political affairs, and insurgencies. He specializes in the study of US diplomatic and military courses of action toward terrorist havens in the non-Western world and toward rogue regimes.

His most recent book Eyes, Ears & Daggers: Special Operations Forces and the Central Intelligence Agency in America's Evolving Struggle against Terrorism, will be published by the Hoover Press in October 2016.

He is also a senior fellow at the US Joint Special Operations University (JSOU), where he concentrates on counterinsurgency practices.

This conversation focusses on his new book, the role of special forces in the projection of US power and how to deal with rogue states.