The Disruptors

Sara Seager (@profsaraseager) is an astronomer, planetary scientist and professor at the MIT best known for her work on extrasolar planets and their atmospheres.

Seager was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2013 citing her theoretical work on detecting chemical signatures on exoplanet atmospheres and developing low-cost space observatories to observe planetary transits and developed a parallel version of the Drake equation to estimate the number of habitable planets in galaxy to focus on the presence of any alien life detectable from Earth.

In 2012, Sara was named to Time Magazine's 25 Most Influential in Space. She is the author of two textbooks on these topics and has been recognized for her research by Popular Science, Discover Magazine, Nature and TIME Magazine. She was also on the board of asteroid mining company, Planetary Resources before the company folded.

[spreaker type=player resource="episode_id=19306160" width="100%" height="200px" theme="light" playlist="false" playlist-continuous="false" autoplay="false" live-autoplay="false" chapters-image="true" episode-image-position="right" hide-logo="true" hide-likes="false" hide-comments="false" hide-sharing="false" hide-download="true"]

Subscribe on Apple Podcast | Google Podcast | Android | Overcast | Spotify | Youtube

You can listen right here on iTunes

In today's episode we discuss:

* Why private space entreprise is our path to the stars

* What is the state of the art in our search for intelligent life

* How to increase public funding and excitement for space and science

* Why asteroid mining is so hard and what's holding us back

* Ways to fix our broken education system

* Sara's adaptation of the Drake equation in the search for alien life

* The challenges of finding ET

* Why Mars wouldn't be such a nice place to live but matters anyways

* How to combat smartphone and social media addiction

* What nano and cube sats mean for future of astronomy

* Why even MIT isn't immune from education's woes

* The scary truth about privacy and why Sara's worried

* What was that deal with that UFO sighting

 

Make a Tax-Deductible Donation to Support The Disruptors

The Disruptors is supported by the generosity of its readers and listeners. If you find our work valuable, please consider supporting us on Patreon, via Paypal or with DonorBox powered by Stripe.

Donate

Neal Gorenflo (@gorenflo)  is the co-founder of Shareable, an award-winning news, action, connection hub for the grassroots sharing transformation.

Neal's worked with startups like P2P asset sharing platform Moogul.com, an online DVD exchange, a spinout of Cisco’s corporate asset sharing platform, and Divvy.com. He co-organized The Abundance League monthly salons in SF between 2005 and 2010, consulted with Institute for the Future, Stanford, Lowe's, and has been featured by The Today Show, NBC Nightly News, CBS Sunday Morning, Wired and Fast Company and appeared at SXSW, Sustainable Brands, and SOCAP.

He is co-editor of the books Share or Die: Voices of The Get Lost Generation in the Age of Crisis and Policies for Shareable Cities, the first sharing economy policy guide and is an adviser to governments and NGO initiatives. Grab his free book here!

[spreaker type=player resource="episode_id=19258480" width="100%" height="200px" theme="light" playlist="false" playlist-continuous="false" autoplay="false" live-autoplay="false" chapters-image="true" episode-image-position="right" hide-logo="true" hide-likes="false" hide-comments="false" hide-sharing="false" hide-download="true"]

Subscribe on Apple Podcast | Google Podcast | Android | Overcast | Spotify | Youtube

  You can listen right here on iTunes

In today's episode we discuss:

* How US zoning policies institutionalized racism

* What participatory budgeting can do for revitalizing civic life

* Why the capitalism experiment of the free market failed

* The power of local networks and connections

* How we should rethink cities and urban planning

* Why Neal isn't that excited about driverless cars

* The huge problem with America's suburbs system

* Why the gig economy is eroding our future

* How Neal views the future of government

* Why blockchain isn't the answer to our problems

* What libertarianism gets massively wrong

* Why big tech is the most dangerous force today

* How hundreds of cities are saving the world through sharing

* Why Airbnb and Uber aren't sharing companies at all

Sponsored by Brilliant.org

Special thanks to Brilliant for supporting The Disruptors, and learners worldwide. Brilliant's the place hobbyist's and pros go to build skills in math, science, and computer science with fun and challenging interactive explorations. First 200 listeners get 20% OFF an Annual Premium Membership!

 

 

Make a Tax-Deductible Donation to Support The Disruptors

The Disruptors is supported by the generosity of its readers and listeners. If you find our work valuable,

Jim Pugh (@dr_pugh) is a co-founder of the Universal Income Project, a fiscally sponsored organization focused on raising awareness and support for UBI.

Jim's also the founder and CEO of ShareProgress, a social-good startup that helps progressive organizations use the power of data and technology to grow their base and win their campaigns.

He previously served as the Director of Analytics and Development for President Obama’s Organizing for America (OFA) and the Democratic National Committee and was the founding Chief Technology Officer at Rebuild the Dream.

[spreaker type=player resource="episode_id=19195018" width="100%" height="200px" theme="light" playlist="false" playlist-continuous="false" autoplay="false" live-autoplay="false" chapters-image="true" episode-image-position="right" hide-logo="true" hide-likes="false" hide-comments="false" hide-sharing="false" hide-download="true"]

Subscribe on Apple Podcast | Google Podcast | Android | Overcast | Spotify | Youtube

  You can listen right here on iTunes

In today's episode we discuss:

* Why we NEED universal basic income before the robots come

* The true impact of giving people free money

* How to pay for UBI

* The problems and possibilities of universal basic income

* How we should rethink immigration, especially if we enact UBI

* Why America's two-party system is fundamentally flawed

* The surprising truth about working in politics

* Why Jim thinks we need to fix antitrust

* How grassroots movements and decentralization go forward from here

* Why universal healthcare is so connected to universal income

* The reason governments need to run more pilot programs

* Why Trump broke (and fixed) politics in the US

* What's the future of capitalism in America

 

Make a Tax-Deductible Donation to Support The Disruptors

The Disruptors is supported by the generosity of its readers and listeners. If you find our work valuable, please consider supporting us on Patreon, via Paypal or with DonorBox powered by Stripe.

Donate

Big On Health and Human Optimization?

Designed for and by athletes and top performers like Joe Rogan,

Robin Chase (@rmchase) is the founder and former CEO of Zipcar, the largest carsharing company in the world; Buzzcar, a carsharing marketplace in France; and GoLoco, an online ridesharing community as well as co-founder of Veniam, a company that moves TBs of data between vehicles and cloud. Her recent book is Peers Inc: How People and Platforms are Inventing the Collaborative Economy and Reinventing Capitalism and current passion is working with cities to maximize the transformation possible with the introduction of self-driving cars.

Robin is on the Board of the World Resources Institute, the National Advisory Council for Innovation & Entrepreneurship for the US Department of Commerce and the OECD's International Transport Forum Advisory Board. She also served on the Intelligent Transportations Systems Program Advisory Committee for the US Department of Transportation, the Massachusetts Governor's Transportation Transition Working Group and Boston Mayor's Wireless Task Force.

She lectures widely, is frequently featured in major media and has received many awards including Time 100 Most Influential People, Fast Company Fast 50 Innovators and BusinessWeek Top 10 Designers.

[spreaker type=player resource="episode_id=19159221" width="100%" height="200px" theme="light" playlist="false" playlist-continuous="false" autoplay="false" live-autoplay="false" chapters-image="true" episode-image-position="right" hide-logo="true" hide-likes="false" hide-comments="false" hide-sharing="false" hide-download="true"]

Subscribe on Apple Podcast | Google Podcast | Android | Overcast | Spotify | Youtube

  You can listen right here on iTunes

In today's episode we discuss:

* How Robin invented the ride-sharing market almost a decade before Uber

* What does the future of urban transportation look like

* The important difference between ridesharing and car-sharing, and what that means for climate change

* Why Europe is so far ahead of the US when it comes to livable cities

* The reason decentralization is so valuable and why it doesn't always work

* How to fix our cities for healthier, happier people

* What will driverless vehicles mean for the future of car ownership

* Why electrics bikes and scooters change everything when it comes to transforming cities

* What Robin thinks about Lyft and Uber's business models

* Why Robin is intrigued and worried about blockchain and Bitcoin

141-lessons-learned-inventing-ridesharing-almost-a-decade-before-uber-and-what-it-means-for-future-of-urban-transportation-robin-chase

Make a Tax-Deductible Donation to Support The Disruptors

The Disruptors is supported by the generosity of its readers and listeners. If you find our work valuable, please consider supporting us on Patreon, via Paypal or with DonorBox powered by Stripe.

Jonathan Levi (@entreprenewer) is an experienced entrepreneur, angel investor, superlearner and lifehacker from Silicon Valley.

He runs the SuperHuman Academy Podcast (3M+ downloads) and since 2014, has was one of the top instructors (over 60k students) on Udemy, with his course Become a SuperLearner® (now retired), in addition to his Masterclass course.

In addition to his own bestselling book, Becoming a SuperLearner, Jonathan's been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Inc. Magazine, TEDx, Entrepreneur On Fire, Mixergy, Dream. Think. Do and many more.

[spreaker type=player resource="episode_id=19116333" width="100%" height="200px" theme="light" playlist="false" playlist-continuous="false" autoplay="false" live-autoplay="false" chapters-image="true" episode-image-position="right" hide-logo="true" hide-likes="false" hide-comments="false" hide-sharing="false" hide-download="true"]

Subscribe on Apple Podcast | Google Podcast | Android | Overcast | Spotify | Youtube

 

You can listen right here on iTunes

In today's episode we discuss:

* The science of memory and speed learning

* What's wrong with the education system and how to fix it

* How LSD transformed Jonathan's life for the better

* Where we're headed with brain-machine interfaces and cyborg citizens

* Why we're headed towards a jobless future

* How to increase creativity and productivity

* The scary future of American democracy

* Why Jonathan is terrified about AI

* How blockchain threats governments and the status quo

* Which life hacks Jonathan's implemented from his incredible guests

* Why depression and mental health issues are common amongst high performers

* How online education and courses plays into our future

Sponsored by RocketDollar

Special thanks to RocketDollar, the low-fee startup helping individuals invest securely and easily in Real Estate, Precious Metals, and more. Build Your Perfect Retirement Portfolio with a Self-Directed Solo 401(k) or Self-Directed IRA and put your money to work. Use PROMO CODE: DISRUPTORS to support and set yourself up for financial freedom!

Make a Tax-Deductible Donation to Support The Disruptors

The Disruptors is supported by the generosity of its readers and listeners. If you find our work valuable, please consider supporting us on Patreon, via Paypal or with DonorBox powered by Stripe.

John Stossel (@johnstossel) is an American consumer television personality, author, and libertarian pundit, known for his career on both ABC News on 20/20 and a weekly news show on Fox for almost a decade. He now runs StosselTV, a Youtube channel to reach younger audiences on his views about liberty and freedom.

John's been a reporter for 50 years, received 19 Emmy Awards and five awards from the National Press Club and written three bestselling books: Give Me a Break, Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity, and No They Can't! Why Government Fails but Individuals Succeed.

John also started and runs the non-profit Center For Independent Thought to educate young people about free-market ideas, which reaches ~10M students per year.

[spreaker type=player resource="episode_id=19087694" width="100%" height="200px" theme="light" playlist="false" playlist-continuous="false" autoplay="false" live-autoplay="false" chapters-image="true" episode-image-position="right" hide-logo="true" hide-likes="false" hide-comments="false" hide-sharing="false" hide-download="true"]

Subscribe on Apple Podcast | Google Podcast | Android | Overcast | Spotify | Youtube

  You can listen right here on iTunes

In today's episode we discuss:

* How John went from government supporter to staunch libertarian

* The sad truth about America's healthcare system and why it's so expensive

* Why John says free enterprise is always the answer

* The problems and possibilities of universal basic income

* How we should rethink immigration

* Why the American government could implode due to rising debt

* The reason John's big on blockchain and bought into Bitcoin earlyish

* What we can (and can't) do about America's gun problem, and why John thinks it isn't a huge problem

* How John's view on climate change have changed since first being skeptical

* Why John says we need less government regulation

* Pros and cons of European and American systems

* Why John doesn't think we should fund efforts to fight climate change

* What's the future of news and media

* The danger of the algorithm

Make a Tax-Deductible Donation to Support The Disruptors

The Disruptors is supported by the generosity of its readers and listeners. If you find our work valuable, please consider supporting us on Patreon, via Paypal or with DonorBox powered by Stripe.

Nick Thompson (@nxthompson) is the editor-in-chief of WIRED, the 5th since its founding. Under his leadership, WIRED has broken massive stories about Facebook, cyber-warfare, the Robert Mueller investigation, and numerous other topics. Prior to WIRED, he was the editor of newyorker.com. Nick is also a co-founder of The Atavist, a software company and National Magazine Award-winning digital publication that was acquired by WordPress in 2018. He's the author of The Hawk and the Dove: Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War and has appeared multiple times on every major cable and broadcast news network. He has given public speeches on the most important issues facing the tech industry, the future of narrative journalism, how computers are changing our minds, the role of tech in political revolutions, and the way that Silicon Valley thinks about circular economics. Nick's also testified in front of the Mexican Senate about fake news and moderated/spoken at events hosted by WIRED, The New Yorker, the World Economic Forum, CES, Google Zeitgeist, Google I/O, and many more...

[spreaker type=player resource="episode_id=19038673" width="100%" height="200px" theme="light" playlist="false" playlist-continuous="false" autoplay="false" live-autoplay="false" chapters-image="true" episode-image-position="right" hide-logo="true" hide-likes="false" hide-comments="false" hide-sharing="false" hide-download="true"]

Subscribe on Apple Podcast | Google Podcast | Android | Overcast | Spotify | Youtube

You can listen right here on iTunes

In today's episode we discuss:

* The future of media and state of fake news

* A deeper dive into the issues of social media and how to address them

* Why Nick's optimistic Facebook can become a force for good 

* An insider's perspective on the Huawei debate and China trade war

* Possible ways to redesign democracy

* Nick's thoughts on AI and its potential to upend existing power structures

* Why Nick is very concerned with the prospect of nuclear war

* How Nick thinks about privacy, convenience, and future of the internet

* Why there's no impeachment coming from Mueller's investigation

* An in-depth examination of existential risk

* What the government should do about big tech

* The reason Nick's not worried about AGI

* How AI can empower individuals or inspire tyranny

* Why climate change is still the biggest problem to tackle

* Can we save journalism

Make a Tax-Deductible Donation to Support The Disruptors

The Disruptors is supported by the generosity of its readers and listeners. If you find our work valuable, please consider supporting us on Patreon, via Paypal or with DonorBox powered by Stripe.

Carson Bruns (@BrunsenBurner) is an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he directs the Emergent Nanomaterials Lab, inventing nanomaterials, tech-enabled tattoos and more that Sci-Fi authors have forever dreamed of. Carson's has co-authored more than 30 peer-reviewed scientific publications, including the celebrated book The Nature of the Mechanical Bond: From Molecules to Machines and his work has been featured in Inked Magazine, Chemical and Engineering News, Colorado Public Radio and TEDx.

[spreaker type=player resource="episode_id=19019195" width="100%" height="200px" theme="light" playlist="false" playlist-continuous="false" autoplay="false" live-autoplay="false" chapters-image="true" episode-image-position="right" hide-logo="true" hide-likes="false" hide-comments="false" hide-sharing="false" hide-download="true"]

Subscribe on Apple Podcast | Google Podcast | Android | Overcast | Spotify | Youtube

You can listen right here on iTunes

In today's episode we discuss:

* The future of implantable computing

* How molecular machinery works and what it means for our future

* Why Carson's so bullish on tech-enabled tattoos

* The pros and cons of embeddable vs wearable tech

* Augmented reality and wearables

* How far off are we from a Star Trek replicator

* The key difference between nanotech and synthetic biology

* Why Carson went on a 3-day silent Buddhism retreat and studied philosophy

* What Japan taught Carson about life

* The value of being well-rounded in today's world

* Why diverse teams actually leads to better outcomes

* How Carson thinks about the research funding landscape today

* What technologies most worry and excite Carson most, and why

Make a Tax-Deductible Donation to Support The Disruptors

The Disruptors is supported by the generosity of its readers and listeners. If you find our work valuable, please consider supporting us on Patreon, via Paypal or with DonorBox powered by Stripe.

Donate

 

Bruce Friedrich (@BruceGFriedrich) is co-founder and executive director of The Good Food Institute (@GoodFoodInst), a nonprofit that promotes plant, dairy, and eggs-based meats as well as clean meat (also known as cultured meat and cell-based meat), as alternatives to the products of conventional animal agriculture.

Bruce is a TED Fellow (whose TED Talk has been viewed over 1M times), Y Combinator alum, and popular speaker on food innovation. He has also been featured in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Wired, and many other publications and appeared on The Today Show, NBC Nightly News, CBS Evening News, TED Radio Hour, and a variety of programs on MSNBC, Fox News, and CNN

[spreaker type=player resource="episode_id=18977058" width="100%" height="200px" theme="light" playlist="false" playlist-continuous="false" autoplay="false" live-autoplay="false" chapters-image="true" episode-image-position="right" hide-logo="false" hide-likes="false" hide-comments="false" hide-sharing="false" hide-download="true"]

Subscribe on Apple Podcast | Google Podcast | Android | Overcast | Spotify | Youtube

You can listen right here on iTunes

In today's episode we discuss:

* The pros and cons of the various types of clean meat alternatives

* How market dynamics will determine the adoption of plant and cell-based meats

* Why animal agriculture is one of THE BIGGEST contributors to climate change

* Why Bruce believes lab-grown meat will ultimately be the biggest alternative meat

* The reason Bruce started a non-profit rather than a benefit corp

* How effective altruism makes non-profits more impactful

* What YCombinator startups taught Bruce about successful charity organizations

* How to engineering healthier meat

* What does the future of agriculture really look like

* Bruce's thoughts on GMOs and their future

* Why plastic straws aren't a big deal in the grand scheme of things

* Why individuals should evaluate their efforts and possible effect before choosing careers

Make a Tax-Deductible Donation to Support The Disruptors

The Disruptors is supported by the generosity of its readers and listeners. If you find our work valuable, please consider supporting us on Patreon, via Paypal or with DonorBox powered by Stripe.

Donate

Dan Faggella (@danfaggella) is the Founder and CEO of Emerj Artificial Intelligence Research that helps world-leading organizations like the World Bank, the United Nations, INTERPOL, CERN, Harvard and more navigate the competitive landscape of AI capabilities, and build strategies that win. He's also the host of AI in Industry podcast and grown and sold two previous companies.

[spreaker type=player resource="episode_id=18958573" width="100%" height="200px" theme="light" playlist="false" playlist-continuous="false" autoplay="false" live-autoplay="false" chapters-image="true" episode-image-position="right" hide-logo="false" hide-likes="false" hide-comments="false" hide-sharing="false" hide-download="true"]

Subscribe on Apple Podcast | Google Podcast | Android | Overcast | Spotify | Youtube

You can listen right here on iTunes

In today's episode we discuss:

* How human-machine augmentation could help humanity last longer

* The reason humanity's future is bleak at best

* Is conflict between China and the US inevitable

* Why the question of consciousness is the most important one we SHOULD be solving

* How AI will impact the future of power, nations and life

* Why Dan thinks we're all headed to a VR powered matrix of bliss

* The reason Dan's not too optimistic about our future

* Why building AI is creating our successors

* What happens when we automate more and more jobs

* Why Chinese dominance is almost inevitable

* Is breaking up big tech more dangerous than it's worth

* Why driverless cars are anything but the most exciting aspects of AI

* How close we are to real-time translation

* Why Dan's not so sure about UBI

Make a Tax-Deductible Donation to Support The Disruptors

The Disruptors is supported by the generosity of its readers and listeners. If you find our work valuable, please consider supporting us on Patreon, via Paypal or with DonorBox powered by Stripe.

Donate

Big On Health and Human Optimization?

Designed for and by athletes and top performers like Joe Rogan, ONNIT makes top-notch supplements and workout gear. Big fan of MCT oil when I’m doing keto, their