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Jay McClelland is a Computational Cognitive Neuroscientist and one of the founding fathers of the field of neural networks and deep learning in the 1980s, which led directly to today's explosion in AI and machine learning algorithms that are transforming our lives. He is the Lucie Stern Professor at Stanford University, where he was formerly the chair of the psychology department, and is currently a Consulting Research Scientist at DeepMind, perhaps the leader in machine learning technologies today.
Jay is best known for his work on statistical learning and parallel distributed processing, applying connectionist models (or neural networks) to explain cognitive phenomena such as spoken word recognition and visual word recognition. Today, he works on integrating language, memory, and visuospatial cognition in an integrated understanding system to capture human intelligence and enhance artificial intelligence, exploring how education and human-invented tools of thought can enhance human and machine intelligence.
EPISODE SUMMARY
In this conversation we talk about:
Talking to Jay really reminded me of the best in mankind, that through curiosity, asking interesting questions, and constructing thought models and experiments, we can unlock such a subtle and fundamental thing like cognition and the connectionist model, which then unlocks all of this power for society at large. We now have this responsibility to reign in the worst of mankind in how we exploit, curate, and share in the benefits of this incredible power. This will be a running topic for us, AI in the future. We explore the power of design and human-centered thinking to create a better future for everyone.
This conversation with Jay is one of many weekly conversations we already have lined up for you with leading authors, thinkers, designers, makers, scientists, and social entrepreneurs who are working to change our world for the better. So follow this podcast on your favorite podcast app, or head over to remakepod.org to subscribe.
And now, let's jump right in with Jay McClelland.
TIMESTAMP CHAPTERS
[7:28] Life in the Present
[9:08] Early Childhood Perspectives
[12:33] A Path to Psychology
[22:16] Modeling Cognition
[27:37] Neural Networks
[35:16] The Significance of Bi-Directionality
[40:21] Bistable Perception
[43:55] The Truth of Mathematics
[49:24] An Emergentist
[55:17] Technology and AI
[1:01:17] An Accumulation of Experience
[1:07:20] On Consciousness
[1:15:47] A Short Sermon
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Today we're talking about transgender issues.
Specifically, what should the rest of us know about transgender people? This is a topic that I admit I know very little about, but one that feels important at the very least, if one wants to avoid causing unnecessary pain. Language itself seems to be changing when it comes to gender, and while some resistance is natural and no generally agreed upon set of rules has been widely accepted, it's important to understand why these changes are happening and what's behind them.
I can't imagine someone more perfect to talk to about this subject than Dr. Eli Green. Eli is the founder and CEO of the Transgender Training Institute. They are an award winning educator and author with over 20 years facilitating transgender related education and supporting other gender educators. Dr. Green has helped thousands of people have a better understanding of what it means to be transgender and nonbinary and how to support and affirm the transgender and nonbinary people in their lives, workplaces, and communities. Eli brings kindness, patience, and authentic connection to the topic, making the gender conversation one that seems inviting, a place you'd like to be rather than a place to avoid.
We spoke in mid January 2022, and it was really the first time I felt like I had a grasp of what we're talking about. When we talk about gender and transgender rights and challenges.
EPISODE SUMMARY
In this conversation we talk about:
What stayed with me most of all is the ever present need for kindness, the need to make an effort to see things from a different person's perspective. This applies equally to cisgendered folks learning about gender dysphoria, as it does to activists understanding that ignorance does not equal malice. In both cases, the smallest gesture of kindness can open the door to a whole new way of relating and moving forward, in which specific details can be discussed from a place of trust.
We already have lined up for you with thinkers, designers, makers, authors, entrepreneurs, and activists who are working to change our world for the better. We have some amazing episodes lined up for you, answering questions like:
Why is prototyping essential to making truly new things?
What's the value of knowing what you're about and crafting a personal manifesto? How can we find the freedom to think in an increasingly connected world?
So follow this podcast on your favorite podcast app, or head over to RemakePod.org to subscribe. And if you're a subscriber already and enjoy our show, you can go to RemakePod.org/support and join our supporter community.
And now, without further ado, let's jump right in with Dr. Eli Green.
TIMESTAMP CHAPTERS
[5:31] Life in the Present
[6:53] Early Childhood Realizations
[15:56] Coming Out as a Trans
[20:42] Significance, Evolution and Expansion of Labels and Languages
[28:30] Learning Human Sexuality in Academia
[32:07] From Academia to Establishing the Transgender Training Institute
[35:50] The TTI Teaching Pedagogy
[38:37] Success Stories
[42:29] LGBTQ+ Present Issues and Obstacles
[47:33] Alliance vs Friendship
[51:19] Elements of being a Good Ally
[53:04] Gender Pronouns
[57:15] Importance of Being Kind
[01:02:51] Company Design and Structure
[01:09:33] Short Sermon
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In the early 2010s, he recognized that contemporary technology not only disrupts our historical established ways of thinking and doing, but also creates new ones: radically new possibilities that unfold beyond what we take for granted. This, he believes, is not only a sweeping event in the history of thought, but also a major opportunity; technology itself has become philosophical, and it has become possible to "do" philosophy by building and inventing new technologies.
This led him on a path to building a new institution, dedicated to the interplay of philosophy, art, science, and engineering, and to the way they blur the lines between the human and nonhuman.
EPISODE SUMMARY
In this conversation we talk about:
This conversation with Tobias is one of many weekly conversations we already have lined up for you with thinkers, designers, authors, makers, activists, and leaders who are working to change our world for the better. So follow this podcast on your favorite podcast app, or head over to RemakePod.org to subscribe.
And now let's jump right in, with Dr. Tobias Rees.
TIMESTAMP CHAPTERS
[5:18] Life in the Present
[7:00] Early Childhood Silence
[13:44] An Educational Journey
[22:49] The Importance of Concepts
[32:04] A Period of Growth and Sadness
[40:47] An Opening of Doors
[44:55] The Term 'Human'
[56:12] Anthropology of Machines
[1:11:35] Merging Philosophy with Engineering
[1:17:55] A Short Sermon
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In 2020 the EU Council named her one of the 8 most inspiring women in Europe. In 2021, she was a speaker at the TED conference in Monterey, CA talking about reinventing the passport.
EPISODE SUMMARY
In this conversation we talk about:
This conversation with Karoli is one of a dozen or so weekly conversations we already have lined up for you with thinkers, designers, makers, authors, entrepreneurs, activists, and impact investors who are working to change our world for the better. So follow this podcast on your favorite podcast app, or head over to remakepod.org to subscribe.
And now let's jump right in with Karoli Hindriks.
TIMESTAMP CHAPTERS
[2:45] Life During Covid
[6:27] Early Childhood Encouragement
[9:35] The Singing Revolution
[12:42] The Youngest Inventor
[14:27] Making a Difference
[16:45] The Inspiration for Jobbatical
[20:19] A Mobility Revolution
[26:33] The State of Immigration and the Passport
[33:38] The UX of a Country
[38:40] Reinventing the Passport
[46:18] Advantages of Hiring Globally
[50:29] A Short Sermon
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TODAY'S GUEST
Dr. Hila Lifshitz-Assaf is an Associate Professor at NYU Stern. She is also a faculty associate at Harvard's Lab for Innovation Science. Her work received the prestigious INSPIRE grant from the National Science Foundation, has been recognized to have a strong impact on industry, and has been taught at a variety of institutions around the world including MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, London Business School, Columbia, and Carnegie Mellon.
Hila spent 3 years at NASA, studying their adoption of open innovation processes, which led to many insights and an award-winning dissertation and paper. She continues to investigate new innovation processes such as crowdsourcing, open source, open online innovation communities, Wikipedia, hackathons, makeathons, etc.
EPISODE SUMMARY
In this conversation we discuss:
[2:47] Covid situation, teaching remotely.
[4:41] Leading COVID-19 hackathons, open innovation.
[10:37] Crisis as impetus for change.
[14:21] Developing curiosity in early childhood. Questioning boundaries.
[19:01] Pre-academic career: law, consulting, listening to people and seeing their psychology as business drivers.
[25:27] Getting interested in innovation, innovation as the "Big Question" of business.
[28:25] Working with NASA, NASA's culture.
[40:22] Open innovation study at NASA.
[48:01] How peoples' identity can hold innovation back.
[53:28] Growth mindset & belief.
[55:34] The pace of change.
[57:30] The causes of dysfunction.
[1:01:09] Embracing a little chaos.
[1:12:14] Bias towards action.
[1:14:10] Remote work & creativity.
[1:22:05] Managing for creativity.
[1:30:24] A short sermon for creative managers.
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Shari Davis is a TED speaker, a participatory budgeting facilitator, and as she defines it, a recovering local government employee. She joined the Participatory Budgeting Project (PBP) after nearly 15 years of service and leadership in local government. As director of youth engagement and employment for the City of Boston, she launched Youth Lead the Change, the first youth participatory budgeting process in the US, which won the US Conference of Mayor's City Livability Award.
We spoke at the end of February, and I was very excited to talk to Shari because of her work on participatory budgeting, which seems to be one of the most promising new ways for everyday citizens, from all walks of life, to supervise and have a say in how public funds are being spent. Participatory budgeting has the potential for having an enormous impact on corruption, on efficient use of funds, on creating better, more efficient and more impactful programs, and also a huge effect on how people feel about their government. And all of this is already happening around the world, so I was very excited to hear about this from someone who's really leading this movement.
It was really fun to chat with Shari. She clearly has a lot of practice at connecting with, and including many different kinds of people. And so she puts you right at ease and she uses humor effectively. But it was the topic of the conversation that was really amazing to hear about.
( * Please note: this episode was originally recorded under they/she pronouns. )
EPISODE SUMMARY
In this conversation we talk about:
What stayed with me is this idea that by bringing people together and putting them in the right kind of process, and then paying attention and designing the process itself, how much better decisions are. Talking to Shari was really energizing and hopeful, and this is one of our goals with every conversation we bring you including several conversations we already have lined up for you with thinkers, designers, makers, authors, entrepreneurs, and activists who are working to change our world for the better. So if you're interested in these types of hopeful conversations, follow this podcast on your favorite podcast app, or head over to remakepod.org to subscribe.
And now let's jump right in with Shari Davis.
TIMESTAMP CHAPTERS
[4:48] Life During Covid
[9:26] Early Childhood Guiding Forces
[16:22] A Journey From Martial Arts to Government
[22:29] Democracy's Fatal Flaw
[26:51] Youth Lead the Change
[34:56] Participatory Budgeting Project
[43:04] Inclusive Design
[45:16] Traveling Into the Future
[49:54] Where Hope Lives
[53:02] A Short Sermon on Change
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TODAY'S GUEST
Dr. Shahar Avin is a Senior Research Associate at the Center for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) at Cambridge University, focusing primarily on risks associated with artificial intelligence and deep learning algorithms.
EPISODE SUMMARY
We discuss:
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Today, we're talking about coliving.
I've long believed that paying attention to the fact that humans evolved to live in tribes, as opposed to isolated nuclear families, was the key to unlocking a tremendous amount of latent needs, wellbeing, and happiness. Today, a convergence of different trends is making coliving a real movement in the west.
Whereas in much of the world, living in community is a thing as old as time. The rise in real estate costs, financial recession, urban loneliness, the digital nomad lifestyle, and the advent of online communities and coworking spaces led many to a natural conclusion — that living more densely when it involves a real community of like-minded individuals could be not only more affordable, but actually more fulfilling.
Commercial coliving companies such as Selina, Outpost, and Adam Neumann's new Flow, as well as thousands of coliving communities around the world, are offering a less lonely, more connected, and fuller hospitality, travel, or long-term living experience. They help making sense of a new city, finding new friends, and experiencing belonging, a much more straightforward process, and in the process help us challenge the way things have always been done. That's why I was excited to talk to Leah Ziliak.
Leah founded The Coliving Consultant in 2019 and has become one of the most sought-after coliving professionals in the field. She's an international speaker, writer, and entrepreneur, and works with coliving brands around the world to create positive customer experiences within shared living. As a digital nomad, Leah travels the world full-time and works with clients both on-site and remotely.
We spoke in January 2023, and it was really great to learn from Leah, who's clearly thought about these topics deeply and has deep experience, both living in and designing these sorts of communities.
EPISODE SUMMARY
In this conversation we talk about:
Design is all about challenging defaults, and so what stayed with me the most is how important it is to challenge societal defaults in terms of our living situation, geography, and lifestyle. Who said the right way to live is to work hard all day so that you can afford a large house with a fence and smart locks to keep everyone else out? And who said that we have to wait until retirement to spend significant time traveling the world?
We have some amazing episodes lined up for you with thinkers, designers, makers, authors, and activists, answering questions like:
So follow this podcast on your favorite podcast app, or head over to RemakePod.org to subscribe. And if you're a subscriber already and enjoy our show, you can go to RemakePod.org/support and join our supporter community.
And now, without further ado, let's jump right in with Leah Ziliak.
TIMESTAMP CHAPTERS
[5:53] Life in the Present
[7:52] A Childhood Connection
[9:16] A Transition to Travel
[10:06] The Community of Ship Life
[11:37] A Journey to Coliving
[15:13] What is Coliving?
[17:32] Coliving Space Examples
[20:07] Values and Cultures
[25:36] The Coliving Consultant
[28:06] On Community
[31:59] Coliving for Seniors
[36:41] A Cultural Divide
[41:27] Navigating Travel and Roots
[45:43] A Short Sermon
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TODAY'S GUEST
Jordan Ellenberg is a professor of mathematics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the bestselling author of How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking. His new book, Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy, and Everything Else, came out earlier this year. Jordan lives in Madison, Wisconsin, and his blog is called Quomodocumque, which means "after whatever fashion" in Latin.
EPISODE SUMMARY
In this conversation we discuss:
[2:56] Takeaways from teaching online
[8:27] Early revelations about math
[15:56] From academia to writing
[18:54] A new way of teaching math
[31:08] Lincoln and geometry
[36:35] The geometry of gerrymandering
[44:59] Comparing between the Israeli and the US political systems
[52:21] How geometry helps in deep learning and AI
[57:20] The geometry of reality
[1:04:26] The philosophy of entropy
[1:08:09] A non-sermon about sermons
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Leidy studies how we transform things from the way they are to the way we want them to be. His research on the science of design has appeared in both Nature and Science, and he has written for The Washington Post, Fast Company, Lit Hub, and the Behavioral Scientist. Leidy has authored more than 80 original research articles and secured more than $10 million in competitive funding to support his and others' work in this area.
EPISODE SUMMARY
In this conversation we talk about:
We also discuss:
Leidy's insights are especially crucial for designers, and has encouraged me to incorporate a moment of subtraction in our design processes. I think we'd all be better off if our products, our laws, our routines, and our homes, occasionally got simpler, instead of more complex.
This conversation is one of a dozen or so weekly conversations we already have lined up for you with top thinkers, designers, makers, authors, entrepreneurs, and impact investors who are working to change our world for the better. So follow this podcast on your favorite podcast app, or head over to remakepod.org to subscribe.
And now let's jump right in with Dr. Leidy Klotz.
TIMESTAMP CHAPTERS
[4:06] Life During Covid
[10:06] Early Childhood Lessons
[12:31] Transitioning
[15:16] An Aha! Moment
[21:31] Adding Versus Subtracting
[23:27] The Biology of Subtracting
[27:52] Entropy
[32:12] Functional Subtraction
[38:46] Loss Aversion
[42:17] The Civilizational Level of Adding and Subtracting
[48:45] Subtracting in Design
[51:53] A Subtraction Clause
[55:22] Spirituality in Subtracting
[1:06:05] A Short Sermon
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