Episode 96 of Brave New World features Deogratias Niyizonkiza in conversation with Vasant Dhar. From surviving the genocide in Burundi to rebuilding lives through healthcare and education, Deo’s journey is one of extraordinary resilience and purpose.

Useful Resources:1. Deogratias “Deo" Niyizonkiza, Founder and CEO, Village Health Works. 2. Strength In What Remains - Tracy Kidder. 3. Louis Rwagasore, Burundian Prince and Politician.4. Hutu, Tutsi and Twa, Ethnic Groups In Burundi. 5. The Assassination of Burundian President Melchior Ndadaye. 6. Rwanda Genocide of 1994. 7. Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe. 8. Termination of USAID.

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Pre-order Thinking With Machines: The Brave New World of AI - Vasant Dhar.

In Episode 95 of Brave New World, Palaeontologist Peter Ward returns to explore life's evolutionary journey and examine compelling possibilities for its future direction.

Useful Resources: 1. Peter Ward on Wikipedia and The University Of Washington. 2. Stephen Jay Gould. 3. Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and Nature Of History – Stephen Jay Gould. 4. Cambrian Explosion. 5. Burgess Shale. 6. Nick Lane. 7. Oxygen: The Molecule That Made The World – Nick Lane. 8. Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution – Nick Lane. 9. David Catling on Wikipedia and the University Of Washington. 10. Eukaryote. 11. Lynn Margulis. 12. Carl Sagan. 13. Chemoreceptors. 14. My Octopus Teacher. 15. Pippa Ehrlich On The Mysteries of The Sea – Episode 77 Of Brave New World. 16. Methuselah Foundation and Methuselah Mice. 17. CRISPR. 18. Future Evolution – Peter Ward. 19. After Man: A Zoology Of The Future - Dougal Dixon. 20. Future Evolution with Alexis Rockman 21. Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe – Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee. 22. Seth Shostak on Extraterrestrial Life – Episode 85 of Brave New World. 23. Drake Equation. 24. Endangered Species Act, Clean Air Act. 25. Daniel J. Evans. 26. David Battisti 27. Edward O. Wilson 28. Biophilia – Edward O. Wilson

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Neuroscientist Anil Seth explores how the brain constructs our sense of self and reality in Episode 94 of Brave New World with Vasant Dhar, offering insights on the boundary between perception and consciousness.

Useful Resources: 1. Anil Seth2. Being You: A New Science Of Consciousness – Anil Seth. 3. TED Talk: Your Brain Hallucinates Your Conscious Reality – Anil Seth. 4. Predictive Coding5. Hermann Helmhotz and Unconscious Interference. 6. Priming In Psychology. 7. Reality Is A Controlled Hallucination – Anil Seth. 8. Computational Functionalism. 9. How The Mind Works – Steven Pinker. 10. Ned Block, Co-Director, Centre for Mind, Brain and Consciousness, NYU. 11. Thomas Nagel. 12. Claude Shannon and Information Theory. 13. David Chalmers, Co-Director, Centre for Mind, Brain and Consciousness, NYU. 14. Panel Discussion at The World Science Festival, Moderated By Brain Green. 15. Stevan Harnard and the Symbol Grounding Problem. 16. Pippa Ehrlich On The Mysteries of The Sea – Episode 77 Of Brave New World. 17. A Tiger For Malgudi – RK Narayan. 18. Kevin Mitchell Makes A Case For Free Will – Episode 80 Of Brave New World. 19. Marcello Massimini20. Robert Sapolsky. 21. Robert Sapolsky on Free Will. 20. Compatibilism. 21. The Emergent Properties of The Connected Brain. 22. Aaron Schurger. 23. Benjamin Libett. 24. Readiness Potential.

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How do we get meat that is more nutritious, sustainable, and less cruel to animals? Dr Uma Valeti, a cardiologist turned CEO of Upside Foods, joins Vasant Dhar in episode 93 of Brave New World to discuss the future of cultivated meat.

Useful Resources: 1. Dr Uma Valeti, MD, Upside Foods. 2. Clean Meat - Paul Shapiro. 3. ‘Animal Liberation NOW’ - Peter Singer. 4. How India Eats, Vegetarians vs Non Vegetarians percentage in India. 5. Maneka Gandhi On Animal Rights – Episode 44 of Brave New World. 6. Peter Singer On Animal Liberation – Episode 74 of Brave New World. 7. Paul Shapiro on Growing Meat Without Animals – Episode 54 of Brave New World. 8. Sean Sullivan, IndieBio, CPT Capital and Unovis Capital. 9. Cargill, Tyson Foods and Norwest Foods International. 10. CRISPR. 11. The Florida lab-grown meat ban. 12. The Alabama lab-grown meat ban.

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All meaningful reform happens when there is one smooth pipeline from research to policy to execution. Angela Hawken joins Vasant Dhar in episode 92 of Brave New World to discuss her work as both a thinker in academia and a doer with government. Useful resources 1. Angela Hawken at Marron Institute of Urban Management. 2. Solly Angel's Atlas of Urban Expansion. 3. Graduated Reintegration: Smoothing the Transition from Prison to Community -- Angela Hawken and Mark Kleiman. 4. Unorthodox Philanthropy. 5. Bias in Smart City Governance -- Constantine Kontokosta and Boyeong Hong. 6. The Civic Analytics program. 7. Litmus. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

Memory, consciousness and the self aren't what you think they are. Michael Levin joins Vasant Dhar in episode 91 of Brave New World to explain why the distinction between machines and organisms will soon fall apart. Useful resources 1. Michael Levin at Tufts, Wikipedia, Twitter, Google Scholar and The Levin Lab. 2. There's Plenty of Room Right Here: Biological Systems as Evolved, Overloaded, Multi-scale Machines -- Joshua Bondard and Michael Levin. 3. Self-Improvising Memory: A Perspective on Memories as Agential, Dynamically Reinterpreting Cognitive Glue -- Michael Levin. 4. The Space Of Possible Minds -- Michael Levin. 5. Endless forms most beautiful 2.0 -- Wesley Clawson and Michael Levin. 6. My Octopus Teacher — Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed. 7. Pippa Ehrlich on the Mysteries of the Sea -- Episode 77 of Brave New World. 8. Turing Patterns. 9. Mark Solms’ theory of consciousness -- SelfAwarePatterns. 10. Mark Solms on Consciousness. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

We take it for granted -- but we shouldn't: smell is incredibly powerful and plays a critical role in our lives. Sandeep Robert Datta joins Vasant Dhar in episode 90 of Brave New World to discuss what neuroscience has taught him about the power of smell. Useful resources: 1. Sandeep Robert Datta at Harvard, Datta Lab, LinkedIn and Google Scholar. 2. Alex Wiltschko on the Sense of Smell -- Episode 81 of Brave New World. 3. Dmitry Rinberg on the Mysteries of Smell -- Episode 62 of Brave New World. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

There's always risk at the cutting edge of technology. Driverless cars are awesome -- but can we rely on the tech? Missy Cummings joins Vasant Dhar in episode 89 of Brave New World to share her insights on why we need to proceed with caution. Also check out: 1. Missy Cummings on LinkedIn, Wikipedia, GMU and Google Scholar. 2. California Bans GM's Cruise Robotaxis After Near-Fatal Pedestrian Accident -- Justin Banner. 3. Setbacks and Prospects for Autonomous Vehicles -- Henry Petroski. 4. Joshua Brown, Who Died in Self-Driving Accident, Tested Limits of His Tesla -- Rachel Abrams & Annalyn Kurtz. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

He lifted The Stern School of Business up significantly in the rankings, and is now making NYU a major global player in higher education. Raghu Sundaram joins Vasant Dhar in episode 88 of Brave New World to share his learnings about higher education where so much is changing, and yet, some foundational truths persist. Useful resources: 1. Raghu Sundaram on LinkedIn, Wikipedia, Google Scholar and NYY Stern. 2. Nandan Nilekani on an Egalitarian Internet — Episode 15 of Brave New World. 3. The Future of Liberal Education — Episode 11 of Brave New World (w Michael S Roth). 4. Indebted: How Families Make College Work at Any Cost — Caitlin Zaloom. 5. Caitlin Zaloom on the Explosion of Student Debt -- Episode 37 of Brave New World. 6. Susan Dynarski's papers on education and student debt. 7. Degrees of Return: Estimating Internal Rates of Return for College Majors Using Quantile Regression -- Liang Zhang, Xiangmin Liu and Yitong Hu. 8. Law and Education in Our Modern World — Episode 5 of Brave New World (w John Sexton). Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

What does it mean to be geeky -- and how are geeks changing the world? Andrew McAfee joins Vasant Dhar in episode 87 of Brave New World to share his insights on how geeks have created a brave new innovation culture. Useful resources: 1. Andrew McAfee on Twitter, LinkedIn, Amazon, MIT and his own website. 2. The Geek Way -- Andrew McAfee. 3. The Second Machine Age -- Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee. 4. Elon Musk -- Walter Isaacson. 5. No Rules Rules -- Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer. 6. Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128 -- AnnaLee Saxenian. 7. The New Argonauts -- AnnaLee Saxenian. 8. What the Dormouse Said -- John Markoff. 9. John's Markoff's interview of Raj Reddy. 10. The Secret of Our Success -- Joseph Henrich. 11. The Knowledge Machine -- Michael Strevens. 12. When It Comes to Culture, Does Your Company Walk the Talk? -- Donald Sull, Stefano Turconi and Charles Sull. 13. The Paradigm Shifts in Artificial Intelligence -- Vasant Dhar. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!