Brave New World -- hosted by Vasant Dhar

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!

Imagine an America where the government provides a floor for all our needs, from housing to health care to college to an income. Natalie Foster joins Vasant Dhar in episode 86 of Brave New World to argue that such a shift is possible -- and the time to make it is now. Useful resources: 1. Natalie Foster on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, the Economic Security Project, the Aspen Institute and her own website. 2. The Guarantee: Inside the Fight for America’s Next Economy -- Natalie Foster. 3. The Economic Security Project. 4. Pulp Fiction and Dirty Dancing. 5. The Narrow Corridor -- Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson. 6. James Robinson on What Makes a Successful State — Episode 19 of Brave New World. 7. Pippa Ehrlich on the Mysteries of the Sea -- Episode 77 of Brave New World. 8. Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better -- Jennifer Pahlka. 9. File your taxes for free -- Internal Revenue Service. 10. Code for America. 11. The FAFSA Fiasco. 12. Caitlin Zaloom on the Explosion of Student Debt — Episode 37 of Brave New World. 13. Indebted: How Families Make College Work at Any Cost — Caitlin Zaloom. 14. The Submerged State -- Suzanne Mettler. 15. Why We Sleep -- Matthew Walker. 16. Andrew Yang on the New Politics America Needs — Episode 27 of Brave New World. 17. Albert Wenger on the World After Capital — Episode 29 of Brave New World. 18. Paul Sheard Demystifies Money -- Episode 73 of Brave New World. 19. Capital in the Twenty-First Century -- Thomas Piketty. 20. The Political Economy of Education, Financial Literacy, and the Racial Wealth Gap -- Darrick Hamilton and William Darity Jr. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

Does life exist outside our planet? Are we alone in the universe? Seth Shostak joins Vasant Dhar in episode 85 of Brave New World to describe his search for the answers. Useful resources: 1. Seth Shostak at The Seti Institute, Wikipedia, TED, Amazon and his own website. 2. Life in the Universe -- Jeffrey Bennett, Seth Shostak, Nicholas Schneider and Meredith MacGregor. 3. Sharing the Universe: Perspectives on Extraterrestrial Life -- Seth Shostak. 4. Confessions of an Alien Hunter -- Seth Shostak. 5. The Copernican Revolution -- Thomas Kuhn. 6. Peter Ward on Life on Earth -- Episode 76 of Brave New World. 7. Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe -- Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee. 8. The Drake Equation. 9. The Gaia Hypothesis. 10. Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth -- James Lovelock. 11. Kevin Mitchell Makes a Case for Free Will -- Episode 80 of Brave New World. 12. The Kessler Syndrome. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

He came to America as a ten-year old, and became invested in both the country and its world of finance. Vlad Barbalat joins Vasant Dhar in episode 84 of Brave New World to discuss his life and learnings. Useful resources: 1. Vlad Barbalat on LinkedIn and Liberty Mutual Investments. 2. The Story Of My Experiments With Truth -- MK Gandhi. 3. The Coddling of the American Mind -- Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt. 4. The Future of Liberal Education -- Episode 11 of Brave New World (w Michael S Roth). Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

He has been a driver of change at Transport for London, which has shown the way to the rest of the world. Shashi Verma joins Vasant Dhar in Episode 83 of Brave New World to share his learnings on urban transport -- and the governance structures that lead to the best results. Useful resources: 1. Shashi Verma on LinkedIn and Centre for London. 2. Albert Wenger on the World After Capital — Episode 29 of Brave New World. 3. Estimating the Social Benefit of Constructing an Underground Railway in London -- CD Foster and ME Beesley. 4. A History of London Transport -- TV Barker and Michael Robbins. 5. The Subterranean Railway --  Christian Wolmar. 6. Evaluating Urban Transport Improvements -- Anthony J Venables. 7. Agglomeration, Productivity and Transport Investment -- Daniel J Graham. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

Smell is the most underrated of our senses -- and it affects everything. Alex Wiltschko joins Vasant Dhar in episode 81 of Brave New World to discuss the role of smell in our lives -- and in this new digital age. Useful resources: 1. Alex Wiltschko on LinkedIn, Google Ventures, Google Scholar and Twitter. 2. Osmo. 3. Perfumes: The A-Z Guide -- Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez. 4.  Perfume: The Story of a Murderer -- Patrick Suskind. 5. The Mystery of Smell -- Lydialyle Gibson on Sandeep Robert Datta. 6. A novel multigene family may encode odorant receptors: a molecular basis for odor recognition -- Linda Buck and Richard Axel. 7. Metabolic activity organizes olfactory representations -- Wesley W Qian et al (including Alex  Wiltschko.) 8. Hyperbolic geometry of the olfactory space -- Yuansheng Zhou, Brian H Smith & Tatyana Sharpee. 9. Odor Perception and the Variability in Natural Odor Scenes -- Geraldine A Wright and Mitchell G.A. Thomson. 10. The Biological Sense of Smell -- Christine WJ Chee-Ruiter. 11. Also check out the work of Jim DiCarlo, David Marr and Eero Simoncelli. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

Given what we know of physics and neuroscience, can there be free will? Kevin Mitchell, a neuroscientist himself, joins Vasant Dhar in episode 80 of Brave New World to unpack his argument for the existence of free will. Useful resources 1. Kevin Mitchell on Amazon, Twitter, Trinity College, Google Scholar, his blog and his homepage. 2. Free Agents: How Evolution Gave Us Free Will -- Kevin Mitchell. 3. Innate: How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are -- Kevin Mitchell. 4. Freedom Evolves -- Daniel Dennett. 5. Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will -- Robert Sapolsky. 6. Free Will -- Sam Harris. 7. Daniel Kahneman on How Noise Hampers Judgement -- Episode 21 of Brave New World. 8. Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment -- Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony and Cass Sunstein. 9. Synthetic Biology -- J Craig Ventor Institute. 10. David Krakauer. 11. David Krakauer on Complexity, Agency, and Information -- Episode 242 of Sean Carroll's Mindscape. 12. Anthony Zador on How our Brains Work — Episode 35 of Brave New World. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

Artificial intelligence is transforming society. And therefore politics. Arthur Spirling joins Vasant Dhar in episode 79 of Brave New World to share his insights from his twin fields of data science and political science. Useful resources: 1. Arthur Spirling at Princeton, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Scholar and his own website. 2. Why open-source generative AI models are an ethical way forward for science -- Arthur Spirling. 3. James Robinson on What Makes a Successful State -- Episode 19 of Brave New World. 4. The Narrow Corridor — Daron Acemoglu and James A Robinson. 5. Why Nations Fail —  Daron Acemoglu and James A Robinson. 6. How Social Media Threatens Society -- Episode 8 of Brave New World (w Jonathan Haidt). Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

How can we use the insights of behavioral economics to make the world a better place? David Halpern joins Vasant Dhar in episode 78 of Brave New World to share his learnings from running the Behavioral Insight Team for the British government. Useful resources: 1. David Halpern on Wikipedia and the Behavioural Insights Team. 2. The work of the Behavioral Insights Team. 3. Inside the Nudge Unit -- David Halpern. 4. Social Capital -- David Halpern. 5, The Hidden Wealth of Nations -- David Halpern. 6. The behavioural science of online harm and manipulation, and what to do about it -- Elisabeth Costa and David Halpern. 7. Subsidies vs Nudges: Which Policies Increase Saving the Most? -- Raj Chetty et al Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!