Stefano Vaj (Author, futurist and transhumanism activist) is today's featured guest. (This is the first half of his interview.)

Topics include: Why transhumanism is taken seriously by the Italian public and the Italian press (as opposed to the American public and American press which often view transhumanism as a delusional fantasy). Why Europeans do not share the American view that Intellectuals are outside the loop in their ivory towers and are therefore unimportant. The influence of the Catholic Church in public and political life in Italy, and as the main opponent to transhumanism. How politicians in Europe use fear of transhumanist ideas as a tool to get more votes. What Stefano does as a transhumanism activist, and what listeners can do in their own lives and in their own ways if they wish to help this cause too. He also talks about the new Singularity University, and the new transhumanist periodical, H+ Magazine.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the February 25, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 44 minutes]

Stefano Vaj is author of the book Biopolitics of the New Paradigm which covers the biotechnological areas of transhumanism. He is also: a public speaker fluent in several languages; on the Board of Directors of the Italian Transhumanist Association; an Italian lawyer with offices in Milan, Italy and Brussels, Belgium; an Architect of the Order of Cosmic Engineers; and an active contributor to the Hplus2, Extropy and World Transhumanist Association discussion boards. (Though fluent in several languages, his own blog and his books are written in Italian and not yet available in English.)

News in this episode: [1] Google's new Latitude lets you see the location of your friends on Google maps using the GPS in their phone, and lets you immediately contact them with IM, SMS or a phone call. [2] Google has made one million public domain books freely available for reading on iPhones.