Converging Dialogues

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Nick Romeo on different and alternative economies. They talked about reimagining capitalism, improving economic pedagogy in academia, True Price, a living wage, and Job Guarantee program. They discuss the gig economy, purpose economy, scaling alternative economies, and many more topics.

Nick Romeo is a Journalist and Author who has focused his writing on economics, policy, and culture. Currently, he is a writer for The New Yorker and has written pieces in outlets such as The Atlantic, The New York Times, and The New Republic. He is the author of the latest book, The Alternative: How To Build A Just Economy.

Website: https://www.nickromeowriter.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with B. Rosemary Grant on her life and work on genetics and evolutionary change. They discuss an overview of her life and research, her childhood and being raised in England in WWII, her interest in genetics, and moving to Canada and meeting her husband. They discuss how she balanced raising a family and her career, her work over 40 years in the Galapagos Islands, retirement and continued research, her legacy, and many other topics.

B. Rosemary Grant is an evolutionary biologist and Emeritus Professor at Princeton University. Her research focuses on phenotypic variation and the process of speciation in natural environments. She is well-known for the research done with her husband (Peter Grant) on Darwin’s Finches on the Galapagos Islands for over 40 years. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society and received many awards for her research. She is the author numerous books, including her recent memoir, One Step Sideways, Three Steps Forward: One Woman’s Path to Becoming a Biologist.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Anthony Sattin about the history of Nomads on our planet. They discuss humans as naturally nomadic, Göbekli Tepe, Çatalhöyük and early settlements, Uruk and the epic of Gilgamesh, and domestication of horses. They talk about the Persian empire, Scythian empire, and nomadic identity. They discuss the impact of Islam, Chinggis Khan and the Mongol empire, Ottoman empire, Native Americans, future of nomads, and many more topics.

Anthony Sattin is a writer and broadcaster who has written a fiction and non-fiction works. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, editorial advisor on Geographical Magazine, founder-member of Travel Intelligence and ASTENE (the Association for the Study of Travel in Egypt and the Near East). He is the author of the latest book, Nomads: The Wanderers who Shaped our World.

Website: https://www.anthonysattin.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Adam Forrest Kay about the history and current state of quantum mechanics. They discuss the current state of quantum mechanics, overview of modern physics, and the impact of Niels Bohr. They also talk about light and vision, double slit experiment, Fourier analysis, Schrödinger’s equation, Bell’s theorem, and many other topics.

Adam Forrest Kay is a postdoctoral associate in mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has two PhDs, one in literature from the University of Cambridge and the other in Mathematics from the University of Oxford. His interests and research have centered around Hydrodynamic Quantum Analogies (HQA), quantum mechanics, relativity theory, and variable coefficient wave equations. He is the author of, Escape From Shadow Physics: The quest to end the dark ages of quantum theory.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Kenneth Harl about the various nomadic empires of the steppes. They discuss the origins of nomadic peoples, Tocharian texts, and why language is essential for understanding nomadic peoples. They talk about the Turkish language, nomadic spread over 35 centuries, the Steppe, and nomadic identity. They discuss the Scythians, impact of China, Kublai Khan, Uyghurs, administrative might of the Mongols, Orkhon valley and Mongolia, legacy of the Nomadic peoples, and many more topics.

Kenneth Harl is Professor Emeritus of Classical and Byzantine history at Tulane University. He has his Bachelors in history from Trinity College, Masters in history from Yale University, and PhD in history from Yale University. He specializes in ancient history, specifically in classical Anatolia and on Imperial Roman Coinage. He is the author of many books including, Empires of the Steppes: A History of the Nomadic Tribes Who Shaped Civilization.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Alexandre Lefebvre about the many facets of liberalism. They discuss morals and values from liberalism, Christianity’s impact on liberalism and Western society, defining liberalism, and the differences between liberalism and conservatism. They also talk about the philosophy of Rawls, swearing, fairness, spiritual exercises, public dialogue, liberalism as a way of life, and many more topics.

Alexandre Lefebvre is Professor of Politics and Philosophy at The University of Sydney. He has his PhD from Johns Hopkins University and his teaching and his research are in political theory, the history of political thought, modern and contemporary French philosophy, and human rights. He is the author of the latest book, Liberalism As A Way Of Life.

Website: https://www.alexlefebvre.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a conversation with Michael Cook about the history of the Muslim world. They discuss Islamic civilization from origins to modernity, early antecedents before Islam, genesis of Islam, and the Prophet Muhammad and his creation of a monotheistic religion and state. They discuss succession after the death of Muhammad and the caliphate, the Umayyid dynasty, the Abbasid dynasty, and how important Islam and the Arabic language were for an Islamic civilization. They talk about the origin of the Turks, Bilga Qaghan, Turks being pagan and interacting with Islam, and the three ways the Turks spread out of the Steppe. They discuss the Mongols and their relationship with Islam, the Seljuk dynasty, the Safawid dynasty and the impact of Shiism. They also talk about the Ottoman Empire and their administration and integration of other cultures. They discuss the spread of Islam into India by conquest and merchants, Islam in Southeast Asia and around the Indian Ocean, Sahara and central Africa, and conflict between Christians and Muslims in Ethiopia. They also discuss Arab identity, Islam’s spread through conquest, Islam juxtaposed with other religions and cultures, Islam in the modern period, future of Islam, and many other topics.

Michael Cook is the Class of 1943 University Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. He was educated at Cambridge studying English and European history and learned Turkish and Persian. He was also educated at the School of Oriental and African Studies in the University of London, emphasizing research into Ottoman population history in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. He spent many years teaching and researching Islamic history at the School of Oriental and African Studies. He is the author of numerous books, including the most recent book, A History of the Muslim World: From its Origins to the Dawn of Modernity.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Tom Chivers about Bayesian probability and the impact Bayesian priors have on ourselves. They define Bayesian priors, Thomas Bayes, subjective aspects of Bayes theorem, and the problematic elements of statistical figures such as Galton, Pearson, and Fisher. They talk about the replication crisis, p-hacking, where priors come from, AI, Friston’s free energy principle, and Bayesian priors in our world today.

Tom Chivers is a science writer. He does freelance science writing and also writes for Semafor.com’s daily Flagship email. Before joining Semafor, he was a science editor at UnHerd, science writer for BuzzFeed UK, and features writer for the Telegraph. He is the author of several books including the most recent, Everything Is Predictable: How Bayesian Statistics Explain Our World.

Website: https://tomchivers.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Thomas Cech about RNA as a major catalyst in organic systems. They discuss why RNA does not get discussed as much as DNA, basics of DNA, RNA as a catalyst, and the splicing capabilities of RNA. They also talk about transcription, translation, and splicing, RNA as internal catalyst and external catalyst, and the origins of life. They talk about telomeres and extended life, different types of RNA, mRNA vaccines, CRISPR, and many more topics.

Thomas Cech is distinguished professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Colorado-Boulder. He has been an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) since 1988 and was President of HHMI in 2000-2009. He has his PhD from the University of California-Berkeley and completed his postdoctorate at MIT. His main interests are in RNA and telomeres. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (with Sidney Altman) in 1989 and the National Medal of Science in 1995. He is the author of the latest book, The Catalyst: RNA and the Quest to Unlock Life’s Deepest Secrets.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Wendy Pearlman about the voices from the new Syrian Diaspora. They discuss the various reasons for telling Syrian stories, protests around the world, the ongoing Syrian conflict, concept of home and internal displacement. They also talked about leaving Syria and rebuilding elsewhere, maintaining culture, future of the Syrian diaspora, and many other topics.

Wendy Pearlman is Crown Professor of Middle East Studies and Interim Director of Middle East and North Africa Studies Program at Northwestern University. Her main interests are comparative politics of the Middle East. She has her Bachelors from Brown University and her PhD from Harvard University. She is the author of numerous books, including the most recent, The Home I Worked to Make: Voices from the new Syrian Diaspora.