Aella is an analyst at blockchain-based dating company Luna.  Her blog details the escape from a homeschooled fundamentalist Christian community; time as a prankster camgirl; her experience taking LSD every week for 10 months and the art that it produced as well as surveys, philosophy, cartography, modelling and fiction. 

We chat about most of the above as well as rationality, nootropics and delve into a few healthy tangents. 

Show notes and links hereAella's Work:Knowing Less - Aella's BlogAella on Twitter

Recorded in Christchurch, New Zealand

Theme song by Cosmic Tortoise

This episode features Carmel Johnston. Carmel was the commander and soil scientist for HI SEAS IV, a year long mars simulation sponsored by NASA's Human Research Program. Six subjects participated in the study which located on the mars-like slopes of Hawaii's Mauna Loa volcano.

The crew spent an entire year in a simulated mars dome - growing their own crops and donning spacesuits for outdoor excursions.Carmel and I chat about life in the dome and the many challenges that a future mars crew will likely face.

Daring Greatly by Brené Brown - recommended reading by Carmel for future spacefarers 

hi-seas.org

Recorded in Christchurch, New ZealandTheme song by Cosmic Tortoise

Daniel M Ingram is a high level meditation practitioner and emergency medicine physician.

He is the author of Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha: An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book and is the founder of popular meditation resource dharmaoverground.org

Daniel and I chatted about the fundamentals of buddhism and meditation practise; the nature of thought and thought/body identity; tips for increasing visualisation capacity; morality and video games; technology and limits to empathy; food in buddhism; sex/celibacy in buddhism; the potential benefits and dangers of psychedelics; causality vs objective reality; philosophy of personal identity; risks/benefits of high level meditation; and the intersection of medicine and meditation - with a few tangents thrown in for good measure.

Show notes and links hereDaniel's Work:dharmaoverground.orgintergrateddaniel.infofirekasina.orgmastering the core teachings of the buddhaDownload MCTB here (free)Download Fire Kasina here (free)

Twitter @danielmingram

Recorded in Christchurch, New ZealandTheme song by Cosmic Tortoise

Patrick Fuller is associate Professor of Neurology at both Harvard Medical School and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and is involved with numerous organisations including the Society for Neuroscience and the Sleep Research Society.Patrick enlightened me on present and potential future technological hacks for different brain wave states and sleep; some of the major neurotransmitters and hormones involved in sleep/wake regulation; the circadian clock and how we are affected by temperature and blue light; what monophasic, biphasic and polyphasic sleep patterns are and how to create an ideal sleeping environment.   Show notes and links here

Recorded in Christchurch, New ZealandTheme song by Cosmic Tortoise

Stanley Krippner is a Professor of Psychology at Saybrook University.I caught up with Stanley in Vienna in October. We sat down to talk about free will, the definition of different entities and their influence on humanity, the nature of life in the universe and how to find meaning in an increasingly unpredictable world. 

 Show notes and links hereRecorded in Vienna, Austria and Orange, AustraliaTheme Song by Cosmic Tortoise

Robin Hanson has studied physics, philosophy, artificial intelligence, economics, and political science, and is the founder and curator of the blog Overcoming Bias, the theme of which is how to move our beliefs closer to reality.

Electric James joined us to talk rationality, biases, social institutions, transhumanism, prediction markets/economics, the blockchain, cryonics and human emulation.

 

 Show notes and links hereRobin's work:The Age of EmThe Elephant in the BrainOvercoming Bias (Robins Blog)Recorded in Leipzig, GermanyTheme Song by Cosmic Tortoise

Jonathan Heppner studied Psychology at the University of Groningen and is a student of Philosophy. Jonathan is a deep thinker and an excellent conversationalist.

This conversation was recorded in Vienna amongst a myriad of inspirational people and institutions of the past and present. There's certainly a vibe in Vienna that seems to seep intellectual discourse, as we had already been chatting for around 3 hours before we hit record on this one.

Show notes and links hereRecorded in Vienna, AustriaTheme song by Cosmic Tortoise

Waldemar Ingdahl is the founder of a Swedish transhumanist think-tank; a science writer with work published in the Wall Street Journal Europe, the Financial Times, Tech Central Station; has appeared on Swedish television and on TedX Stockholm and is the author of several books including Cities On The Edge. 

I find transhumanism to be an ethos full of intrigue and wonder and on the topic Waldemar delivered intelligent, open and lucid conversation.If you're curious about the future this is an episode for you.

Show notes and links hereWaldemar's work:Humanity+Waldemar's twitter

Recorded in Leipzig, Germany

Theme song by Cosmic Tortoise

Mimi, Ammie and Maureen are chimpanzee experts and have all spent time in Africa studying wild chimpanzee populations. I was fortunate enough to discover that one of the main centres in the world for Primatology was right here in Leipzig, and so one hot summer's day Michael and I sat down with the girls over beer and coffee and talked deep into the chimp world.

I highly recommend curious minds check out the citizen's science project mentioned in this conversation - it's called Chimp and See and it's awesome.

Show notes and links hereMimi, Ammie and Maureen's work:DNApes (Mimi's Facebook/Blog)Chimp And See (Citizens Science Project)

Recorded in Leipzig, GermanyTheme Song by Cosmic Tortoise

Pubudu Senannayake holds a PhD in physics, works as a statistical analyst at Stats New Zealand and volunteers for Generation Zero,a youth based climate change initiative. Michael and I chat with Pubudu chat about the applications of quantum mechanics in technology and the present and future issues of climate change.

 

Show notes and links here 

Recorded in Leipzig, Germany

Theme song by Cosmic Tortoise