Arjun Khemani is one of the sharpest young thinkers in the progress movement.He dropped out of high school at 16, built apps with Naval’s team, ran a podcast with guests like David Deutsch and Balaji, and found himself inside the Bitcoin–Zcash privacy debate before turning 20.

Niklas sits down with Arjun to explore how COVID shifted his worldview, how The Beginning of Infinity pushed him toward a deeper model of progress, and why privacy became central to his thinking about innovation.

They unpack Zcash as an encrypted monetary system, how zero-knowledge proofs work in practice, how privacy shapes creativity and risk-taking, and what a modern Renaissance of talent could look like in a world built on cryptography.

They also cover:

* The path from Bitcoin to Zcash and the tech behind shielded transactions

* Privacy as a foundation for authenticity, safety, and experimentation

* AI-driven surveillance and its implications for money

* Funding talented people and the lessons from the Medici era

* The philosophical lineage: Deutsch, Popper, Schmer, optimism, error correction

* How Zcash fits into the broader landscape of crypto protocols

A conversation for anyone thinking about cryptography, progress, startup societies, and how the next wave of talent emerges and gets supported.

More about Arjun’s work:

* Arjun’s X

* Substack/Podcast

Explore Infinita City:

* Explore the Archive: The Infinita City Times

* Visit Infinita City

* Join the Builders’ Hub on Telegram

* Follow Infinita City on X

Ep. 101: Bryan Caplan: Pro Market & Pro Business, the Real Ethics of Entrepreneurship

Bryan Caplan is a professor of economics at George Mason University and the author of several books, including Open Borders - The Science and Ethics of Immigration, The Case Against Education and the Myth of the Rational Voter.

Niklas sits down with Bryan to talk about his new books and why markets often work better than we give them credit for. They dig into how governments block progress in the name of safety, why antitrust usually backfires, and how “free” public services wipe out space for affordable alternatives. Bryan makes a compelling new case for free markets - even free market advocates have often been overly critical of business, and he comes up with a novel concept: there are things that sound good and bad, and things that are good and bad. Politics is promoting things that sound good but are bad - markets are promoting things that sound bad but are good.

They also cover:

* the Microsoft antitrust case and its real cost

* why poor countries suffer from too little big business

* entrepreneurship as real-world experimentation

A conversation for anyone building around regulation or trying to understand how progress really happens.

More about GUEST’S work:

* Bryan’s Wiki

* Bryan’s X

Explore Infinita City:

* Explore the Archive: The Infinita City Times

* Visit Infinita City

* Join the Builders’ Hub on Telegram

* Follow Infinita City on X

Niklas sits down with biomedical researcher and libertarian author Mary Ruwart (Death by Regulation) to dissect how decades of FDA rules derailed innovation, extended timelines from 4 to 14 years, and quietly reshaped the entire pharma industry, from discovery to delivery.

Together, they unpack:

* The pivotal moments: 1962’s Kefeuver-Harris amendments and 1992’s PDUFA and how they changed the game

* Why the system now favors chronic medication over simpler or even one-shot cures

* How off-label use and underground networks (like HIV buyers clubs) filled the gaps left by regulation

* What the rollback of “Chevron Deference” means and why this may be the biggest opening in decades

* How “statistical significance” became a misleading gold standard

* Why founders still building in the U.S. need to understand the incentives behind drug lag, suppression of short-term treatments, and the quiet cartelization of Big Pharma

* What it means to build around, beyond or outside the FDA: from Montana to Próspera

More about Mary’s work:

* Mary’s X

* Wiki

* Amazon Books

Explore Infinita City:

* Explore the Archive: The Infinita City Times

* Visit Infinita City

* Join the Builders’ Hub on Telegram

* Follow Infinita City on X

Cremieux went from arguing against the death penalty as a teenager to becoming one of the most influential voices dissecting science online. Now with 250k+ followers on X, he’s known for exposing p-hacking, outcome switching, and selection effects that skew research.

In this conversation with Niklas, here’s what they actually talk about: why effect sizes in journals rarely match FDA data, how gene therapy’s real bottleneck is delivery not targets, and why siRNA is the most underrated modality in biotech right now.

What you’ll hear in this episode:

* The heuristics he uses to spot bad research at a glance

* Why published effect sizes are often 2–3x inflated compared to FDA data

* Selection effects that quietly shape everything from education outcomes to clinical trials

* The real bottleneck in gene therapy (delivery, not targets) and why germline bans hold back obvious wins

* How pragmatic trials and IRB reform could finally fix a broken system

* Why measles might come back and the case for vaccine mandates for kids

* The truth about longevity research: most “breakthroughs” just stop early deaths, not extend the right tail

* China’s clinical trial engine vs the slow US system

* The modality he thinks is most underpriced today: siRNA

For builders in science who care more about getting it right than playing along.

More about GUEST’S work:

* Cremieux’s X

Explore Infinita City:

* Explore the Archive: The Infinita City Times

* Visit Infinita City

* Join the Builders’ Hub on Telegram

* Follow Infinita City on X

Two years ago, policymakers floated a global AI pause, some even suggested bombing data centers to stop progress. Today, the U.S. is pulling back from the brink.

Adam Thierer, author of Permissionless Innovation and Evasive Entrepreneurs, joins Niklas to unpack:

* How the “war on computation” began and the moment the tide turned

* Why sectors “born free” explode with innovation, while “born in captivity” stay stuck

* The explosion of 1,000+ AI-related bills across U.S. states and the risk of a regulatory maze

* The strange alliance between the far left and far right to slow progress

* Why AI could be the ultimate technology of freedom or a tool for repression

* Why compared to 2 years ago there are reasons to be more optimistic now.

If you’re building in AI, biotech, or any frontier space, this is your field guide to defending the right to build.

More about Adam’s work:

* Adam’s X

* Medium

* Amazon Books

Explore Infinita City:

* Explore the Archive: The Infinita City Times

* Visit Infinita City

* Join the Builders’ Hub on Telegram

* Follow Infinita City on X

In this episode, Michael Levin, Director of the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts, breaks down how his lab is rethinking regeneration, cancer, and aging, not through genetics, but through bioelectricity as the software of life.

From pioneering living robots made from frog skin cells to repairing birth defects and regenerating limbs, Levin’s work shows how tissues act as intelligent agents and how future medicine will be about communicating goals to cells, not micromanaging their chemistry.

We cover:

* Why Levin believes the “anatomical compiler” is the endgame: designing an organ or organism on a computer and compiling it into bioelectric instructions for cells.

* How cancer emerges as a breakdown of collective memory and why reconnecting cells electrically can normalize tumors without killing them.

* Proof-of-concept experiments that restore normal brains in tadpoles with birth defect mutations, regenerate frog legs, and even grow functioning eyes in new locations.

* The creation of Anthrobots, synthetic multicellular organisms built from adult human cells that can repair neural damage.

* Why development and regeneration show that genomes don’t dictate fixed outcomes bioelectric memories do.

* The philosophical implications: recognizing agency and intelligence at every level of biology.

If you’re building in biotech, longevity, or frontier medicine, this is a field guide to rewriting the software of life and a preview of the systems that could make aging, cancer, and trauma solvable problems.

More about Michael Levin’s work:

* Dr. Michael Levin's X

* Dr. Michael Levin Website

Explore Infinita City:

* Explore the Archive: The Infinita City Times

* Visit Infinita City

* Join the Builders’ Hub on Telegram

* Follow Infinita City on X

In this episode, Sondre Rasch, founder & CEO of SafetyWing, breaks down how his team is building global health insurance and infrastructure for digital nomads, and what it takes to operate in one of the most regulated industries in the world.

* From policy advisor in the Norwegian government to a $50M revenue insurance company

* The legal and regulatory hacks that let SafetyWing serve nomads across 180+ countries

* Why differentiated products can thrive where generic ones die, even under heavy regulation

* The hidden traps of “innovation labs” and how to actually partner with insurers

* How SafetyWing’s Nomad Citizen program is taking first steps toward an “internet country”

* How SafetyWing is the “oddly mature company” within the network state community

If you’re building in insurance, frontier tech, or the network state space, this is a field guide to turning regulatory complexity into a moat — and building systems that outlive any single jurisdiction.

More about Sondre’s work:

* Sondre’s X

* Safety Wing

Explore Infinita City:

* Explore the Archive: The Infinita City Times

* Visit Infinita City

* Join the Builders’ Hub on Telegram

* Follow Infinita City on X

John Martin Fischer is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at UC Riverside and a leading thinker on death, free will, and immortality. He joins Niklas to explore:

* Why most philosophers argue against immortality and why he disagrees

* The logic behind boredom, meaning, and the “human shape” of life

* How AI and free will intersect and what it means for future minds

* Ethical blind spots in Silicon Valley’s pursuit of radical life extension

Stranded Technologies Podcast is the channel for the Infinita community, dedicated to accelerating longevity biotech and building the future of innovation-friendly cities.

More about GUEST'S work:

* John Martin Fischer Website

Explore Infinita City:

* Explore the Archive: The Infinita City Times

* Visit Infinita City

* Join the Builders’ Hub on Telegram

* Follow Infinita City on X

Jose Luis Ricón Fernández de la Puente is widely known for his influential blog “Nintil” and in his current role as Head of Theory at Retro Biosciences, a leading company in the longevity biotech space funded with $180m by Sam Altman. Niklas and Jose Luis dive into:

* Why the current scientific institutions often fail to deliver on its promises

* The most promising pathways and bottlenecks in longevity biotech

* Lessons from libertarianism and economics for building better scientific institutions

* The role of network cities, special jurisdictions, and parallel systems

Stranded Technologies Podcast is the channel for the Infinita community, dedicated to accelerating longevity biotech and building the future of innovation-friendly cities.

More about GUEST'S work:

* Retro.bio

* Nintil

Cush is the founder of Odisea Labs, an accelerator for Latin American frontier tech (crypto, AI). Cush is inspired by effective accelerationism (e/acc) and consequently coined the memes “latam/acc” and “Latin American Dynamism” in reference to their US-based counterpart.

In this episode, we learn all about why Latam is awesome for tech. Financial innovation and crypto have a fertile ground here and are widely adopted due the lack of banking access for large populations, regulatory capture and government mismanagement.

Odisea Labs has been a major partner to the past March Startup Residency Month, and is now announcing another partnership with Infinita City for the following:

Crypto Cities Theme Month

This is a one-month program for builders to deploy crypto-native projects, not just online, but in a functioning city with enabling legislation, crypto taxes, and a supportive community.

🗓️ | June 1 - 30, 2025📍 | Próspera Zone, Roatan (Honduras)➡️ | Signup: infinita.city/crypto-cities