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The Transformative Ideas Podcast
The Transformative Ideas Podcast episodes
- #25: Tackling Climate Change through Carbon Capture with Lee BeckIn this episode, host Manuel Brenner is joined by Lee Beck, international director of global carbon capture strategies for the clean air task force.In this capacity she lead the carbon capture strategy, program, and team, which is by now represented in the US, Europe, and the Middle East, and has tripled in size in recent years.This is the second episode of a 3-part miniseries that ACIT is hosting together with the CATF. The Clean Air Task Force (CATF) is a global non-profit organization working to safeguard against the worst impacts of climate change by catalyzing the rapid global development and deployment of low-carbon energy and other climate-protecting technologies through research, analysis, public advocacy leadership, and partnership with the private sector.In this episode, we go in depth into carbon capture and storage, what the state of technology is, how policy shapes incentives in the carbon capture space, how carbon capture connects to more ambitious climate goals and negative emissions, how carbon pricing has changed the landscape, what pilot projects are being built, how the US and Europe differ in mentality and how they can be complimentary, optimism and optionality, and many more topics.Find out more about the Clean Air Task Force: https://www.catf.us/about/Stay updated with future episodes and other events ACIT is hosting: https://mailchi.mp/0346443b6ddf/acit-global-signup1 hr 6 min
- #24: The Clean Air Task Force with Armond Cohen
In this episode, Manuel Brenner is joined by Armond Cohen.
Armond Cohen is co-founder and Executive Director of the Clean Air Task Force, which he has led since its formation in 1996.
The Clean Air Task Force (CATF) is a global non-profit organization working to safeguard against the worst impacts of climate change by catalyzing the rapid global development and deployment of low-carbon energy and other climate-protecting technologies through research, analysis, public advocacy leadership, and partnership with the private sector.This is the first episode of a 3-part miniseries that ACIT is hosting together with the CATF.In this episode, we discuss what the CATF is and how it works, current paradigms in the climate movement, the importance of optionality, why wind and solar will probably not be exclusive solutions to the issue of climate change, how to advance a carbon-free energy sector in developing countries without falling back to neo-colonial policies, optimism vs. apocalyptic thinking in the climate movement, politics and partisanship in the US and internationally and how they interact with innovation in the energy sector, what changes the endorsement of the CATF by the effective altruism foundation have made possible in recent years, and much more.Find out more about the Clean Air Task Force:https://www.catf.us/about/Stay updated with future episodes:https://mailchi.mp/0346443b6ddf/acit-global-signup1 hr 10 min - #23: The Hidden Spring of Consciousness with Mark Solms
In this episode, host Manuel Brenner talks to Mark Solms.
Mark Solms is the Chair of Neuropsychology at the University of Cape Town, President of the South African Psychoanalytical Association, and the author of 8 books and hundreds of scientific articles. His most well-known scientific contributions include discovering the brain mechanisms of dreaming, and combining psychoanalysis and neuropsychology in an approach he coined "neuropsychoanalysis".In this episode, we primarly discuss ideas from his newest book "The Hidden Spring", which delves into the relationships between affect, its source in the brainstem, Karl Friston's free energy principle, and how it all relates to a new theory for a "hidden spring" of consciousness.We discuss Mark Solm's motivation for combining psychoanalysis and neuropsychology and historic reasons for why the subject has been long neglected in psychology. We move on the talking about affect and valence, what role they play in our experiental life, and how they might give us a new handle for approaching a scientific theory of consciuousness. We discuss how current cortical theories of consciousness interact with problems surrounding Chalmer's hard problem of consciousness, epistemology, and metacognition, and why the current neuroscientific evidence points away from the cortical towards an affective view of consciousness.We close by discussing the relationship of affective consciousness to Karl Friston's free energy principle and the theory that Mark Solms developed with Friston, and questions of responsibility around using this theory to build an artificial consciousness.
Click here to stay updated with new episodes.
1 hr 29 min - #22: Psychotherapy and Psychedelics with Henrik Jungaberle
Dr. sc. hum. Henrik Jungaberle is the Director of the MIND Foundation and a CEO of OVID. He is a researcher, science entrepreneur, and author in public health, psychedelics, and psychotherapy.
In this episode, Henrik Jungaberle speaks with host Manuel Brenner about augmenting psychotherapy with psychedelics, how psychedelic substances can and need to be combined with therapy in a clinical setting, whether psychedelics work more strongly on the mind or on the brain, in what ways they could transform psychotherapy (and in which ways they probably won't), what role capitalism and enterpreneurship will play, how to factor in historical perspective, and many more topics.Find out more about ACIT under acit-science.com50 min - #21: International Criminal Law and Human Rights with Amal Ounali
In this episode, Amal Ounali is joining our host Manuel Brenner for a discussion on international criminal law, European law, how national laws and international laws interact (and sometimes collide), human rights, discrimination, and many more topics.
Amal is studying for her Master of Law at the University of Geneva and is currently doing am exchange in the University of Utrecht, focusing on criminal law in a European and transnational context.Find out more about ACIT under https://acit-science.com/1 hr 21 min - #20: (Post) World Music Experimentalism with Rim Jasmin Irscheid
In this episode, host Manuel Brenner is joined by Rim Jasmin Irscheid. Rim is a doctoral candidate in the Music Department at King's College London, working on experimental music and 'world music' festival culture in Europe. Her research sits at the boundary between ethnomusicology and sociology.
We discuss the controversial history of the term "world music", the role music plays in narratives of integration and in the way Germany is dealing with its past, the instrumentalisation of narratives of other cultures, hallmarks of experimental music, the role of experimental music in Germany and the Middle East, making money in the modern music scene, organizing music festivals and the importance of life music, the role of Spotify and Youtube in today's music industry, affective musicianship, and many more topics.Find out more about ACIT: https://acit-science.com/1 hr 8 min - #19: Viruses, Pandemics and Effective Altruism with Jasper Götting
In this episode, we are joined by Jasper Götting, PhD Candidate at the Institute of Virology of the Hannover Medical School, where his research focuses on the sequencing and monitoring of viruses.
We discuss what a virus is, the differences between RNA and DNA viruses, how we are all infected by Herpes viruses, and why this matters for organ transplants. We delve into flu viruses and corona viruses and some of their elegant and dangerous features, monitoring in the context of pandemics, virological weather forecasts, pandemic risk, manmade pandemics vs. natural pandemics, the risks of gain-of-function research, and the early warning center in Berlin.We talk about Jasper's engagement in the Effective Altruism community and how this has shaped his career choices, about wild animal suffering, meat production, 80 000 hours, and many more topics.The podcast is hosted by Manuel Brenner.1 hr 51 min - #18: AI for Drug Discovery and Longevity with Noah WeberIn this episode, we are joined by Noah Weber, CTO and Head of Machine Learning at Celeris Therapeutics and lecturer at FH Technikum Vienna.We discuss the challenges of developing new drugs, protein degradation, the promises of AI in revolutionizing the field, the pipeline Celeris Therapeutics is developing, and how graph neural networks and geometric deep learning come in handy in modeling protein interactions.We talk about AI transforming medicine at large, from genomic-based diagnostics to a completely new outlook on longevity.We close by discussing general artificial intelligence, machine learning and statistics, reinforcement learning, AlphaGo, software development vs. fundamental research, and many more topics.The podcast is hosted by Manuel Brenner.Find out more about us on: https://acit-science.com/2 hr 10 min
- #17: The Mathematics of Deep Learning with Julius BernerIn this episode, host Manuel Brenner is joined by Julius Berner. Julius is a PhD Student at University of Vienna, where his research focuses on the mathematical analysis of deep learning at the intersection of approximation theory, statistical learning theory, and optimization.We begin by talking about deep learning and its relationship to machine learning and artificial intelligence. We then delve deeper into the mathematical theory behind deep learning, distinguishing between approximation, generalization and optimization, and discuss some of the most important results and insights of recent years.We talk about scientific machine learning and how mathematics, computer science and physics can come together, Julius' research in partial differential equations, and how neural networks can help solve them.We close by discussing a typical research day, the difference between working theoretically and practically, what motivates research on a daily basis, the importance of not knowing where things are going, how you come up with ideas through geometric intuition, and Julius' favorite books.1 hr 25 min
- #16: The Origins of Computer Science & Verifying Code With Logic with Marcel Moosbrugger
In this episode, we are joined by Marcel Moosbrugger, computer science PhD Candidate at Vienna University of Technology.
We talk about getting into coding and computer science, the advantages of being a researcher in computer science and implementing ideas quickly, the foundations of computing and mathematics, Gödel incompleteness, the halting problem and how it connects to free will and determinism, Marcel's work on the halting of probabilistic programs and its relationship to debugging, how formal methods are becoming increasingly important in making industrial applications like the Amazon Web Services smart contracts more secure, and how industry in science are working closely together on the frontier of AI.
The podcast is hosted by Manuel Brenner.1 hr 34 min
About The Transformative Ideas Podcast
From the publisher's feed
The Transformative Ideas Podcast (formerly the ACIT Science Podcast). This podcast is to provide a glimpse into the life of scientists: to learn about the ideas they are passionate about, to find out…
what gets them out of bed every day to face the challenges and frustrations of working at the frontier to the unknown, and to share in some of the most important lessons they have learned in their career. For inquiries, reach out to [email protected].