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Utility + Function

Utility + Function

By Matthew Putman

Utility + Function, a multifaceted, eclectic, and probing podcast hosted by Nanotronics co-founder and CEO, Matthew Putman, covers subjects from Machine Learning, to Jazz, to Community Development.

Utility Function, a definition: individual preferences for goods or services. It calculates desire, and therefore, is relative.
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26. James Gimzewski - Faith in Rarity

Utility + FunctionSep 17, 2020

00:00
01:36:46
Chris Miller: Unpacking the Chip War
May 04, 202333:26
Anwaar AlMahmeed: Solving the false scarcity problem

Anwaar AlMahmeed: Solving the false scarcity problem

Anwaar Al Mahmeed is the Managing Director of Republic MENA, Board Member at CubeFabs Inc, and a Venture Capitalist. She founded Menaverse Ventures to invest in early stage deep tech, and had previously co-founded the East Chain Co. focused solely on blockchain infrastructure investments. She was also the lead organizer of The East Chain Open Hub (ECOH) Conference in Kuwait. Prior to that, Anwaar was product development manager at Boursa Kuwait. She started her career in the Kuwait Investment Authority’s training program where she interned at State Street London, and later joined the Hedge Fund department at the KIA. Anwaar is a CFA Charterholder since 2015

Apr 18, 202359:25
Zoe Weinberg: On the future of our informational democracy

Zoe Weinberg: On the future of our informational democracy

Zoe Weinberg is the founder & managing partner of ex/ante, an early-stage fund that works to counter surveillance capitalism and digital authoritarianism by investing in technology that is more private, secure, and decentralized. Prior, Zoe worked on ethics and policy at the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence and at Google AI. Previously she focused on fragile and conflict-affected states, working on the emergency response in Mosul, Iraq during the counter-ISIL operation in 2017, and at the World Bank (IFC) in over a dozen countries, including Somalia, South Sudan, and Liberia. Prior to the World Bank, she worked in Goldman Sachs’s alternative investment group. Her research and writing has been published in the New York Times and Foreign Affairs, among other publications. She is also a host of the podcast Next in Foreign Policy. Zoe earned her B.A. from Harvard University, a J.D. from Yale Law School, and an M.B.A from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, where she was a Knight Hennessy Scholar.

Apr 05, 202301:03:28
Tom Irvine: Sensory Data and Operational Jazz

Tom Irvine: Sensory Data and Operational Jazz

Dr. Thomas Irvine is a global historian of music from 1500 CE to the present. After studying viola at conservatoire (at the Shepherd School of Rice University and Indiana University Jacobs School of Music) he moved to Germany and played professionally, mostly in Early Music ensembles but also in symphony orchestras. He also taught for a year at the Frankfurt International School and worked as a manager for a large Early Music organization.

In 1999 he found his way to musicology and back to the US, studying performance practice and musicology at Cornell University, where he took his PhD in 2005. His current research focuses on global music history, historical sound studies and the use of machine learning techniques in jazz. He is the author of Listening to China: Sound and the Sino-Western Encounter 1770-1839 (University of Chicago Press, 2020) and the co-editor, with Neil Gregor, of Dreams of Germany: Musical Imaginaries from the Concert Hall to the Dance Floor (Berghahn, 2019).

Feb 13, 202301:46:22
Björn Lomborg: Climate Change, Public Spheres, and Technological Solutions

Björn Lomborg: Climate Change, Public Spheres, and Technological Solutions

Dr. Björn Lomborg is an academic and author of the bestselling titles "False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet", "The Skeptical Environmentalist" and "Cool It". He is currently a visiting fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and President of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, a think tank convening the world’s top economists to conduct research on the most effective methods for resolving global humanitarian crises. Dr. Lomborg’s primary area of research interest is climate change, and his work is dedicated towards edification of the general public as well as policymakers. He is a contributor to preeminent publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Economist, Washington Post, Forbes Magazine, Globe & Mail, The Guardian, The Daily and Sunday Telegraph, The Times, The Australian, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe and Der Spiegel.

Nov 07, 202247:07
Serge Faguet: Who are we, what have we accomplished, and where are we going?

Serge Faguet: Who are we, what have we accomplished, and where are we going?

Serge Faguet is a Russian-Ukrainian entrepreneur and thinker. He has founded multiple tech companies including multi-billion-dollar B2B online travel company Emerging Travel Group, concierge medicine care delivery company Novami, AI drug discovery company Multiomic Health, automated clinical trial recruitment company Nexus and Web2 ⇒ Web3 onboarding product Identix.

A proponent of biohacking, his vision is to build a large-scale commercial data/biobank that gathers healthcare data to make major progress in increasing productivity, longevity, and quality of life.  As a philosopher-entrepreneur, Serge believes that we need to adopt a syncretic approach to innovation; he uses entrepreneurial ideation to enact enduring material change and eventually construct a more hospitable future for all of humanity. Serge is interested in implementing the principles of Web3 and crypto to build decentralized institutions, govern ourselves, and control our own data. His greatest passions lie in inspiring others to discover their authentic selves through communal collaboration and encouraging political action by creating a healthier, more self-aware society.


Oct 13, 202201:43:25
K. Eric Drexler: Envisioning Abundance Through Artificial Worlds

K. Eric Drexler: Envisioning Abundance Through Artificial Worlds

K. Eric Drexler is a senior research fellow at Oxford University and widely regarded as the father of nanotechnology. He has authored several seminal texts including Engines of Creation and Radical Abundance, his previous research focuses on scalable atomically precise manufacturing (APM) for the purpose of manipulating matter from the bottom up. He is currently examining the potential applications of AI-enabled automation in AI research and continues to challenge conventional approaches to AI by proposing a pluri-functional, decentralized intelligent system, Comprehensive AI Services (CAIS). CAIS rejects the notion that superintelligence must be modeled after the human mind, and instead composes broad AI systems out of many diverse, narrower-purpose components. Dr. Drexler has worked to democratize an understanding of nanotechnology and is directing a software development project based in top-down progressive refinement, adopting simulative environments and encouraging users to envision multiple futures for advanced systems.

Sep 23, 202240:29
S3-E2: Andre Watson: Personalized Medicine, Our Antidotal Future

S3-E2: Andre Watson: Personalized Medicine, Our Antidotal Future

Andre Watson is Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Ligandal, an industry pioneer in precision genetic medicine. Andre has a background in biomedical engineering and is using his knowledge of nanomaterials to develop next-generation technologies for personalized gene therapy with the ultimate goal of curing chronic illnesses and rare diseases, revolutionizing pandemic defense strategies, and increasing longevity for all. Ligandal’s expertise is grounded in an innovative delivery system similar to a molecular GPS that scales AI, computational biology, and machine learning to target specific cells for the precise delivery of gene-editing tools such as CRISPR and TALEN. Andre is currently working to build a better future for mankind by perfecting regenerative medicine and enabling equal access to quality healthcare, setting a new standard for 21st century medicine.

Sep 15, 202201:06:28
Ranjit Singh: Seeing through the Database

Ranjit Singh: Seeing through the Database

Ranjit Singh is currently a researcher at Data & Society’s AI on the Ground Initiative, a nonprofit research center that convenes experts in industry and academia to address interdisciplinary questions surrounding the development of new technologies with the goal of advancing an understanding of the social relationships governing and governed by data and automation. As a qualitative sociologist, Ranjit treats technology as an object of its own so that he may study the cultural implications of it and how it is appropriated in contemporary society. Ranjit is currently writing on Big Data, and his work is often centered around Aadhaar, India’s biometrics-based identification system. Aadhaar is unique in its massive scale, and its purpose is to allow the Indian government to determine who is eligible for their services. By questioning issues of data representation and shifting definitions of citizenship, Ranjit’s research examines data infrastructures as a collection of relationships, to both one another and to governments.

Aug 05, 202201:38:16
S2. E18. George Kurtz - Thrill of Entrepreneurship

S2. E18. George Kurtz - Thrill of Entrepreneurship

George Kurtz is the CEO and co-founder of CrowdStrike, a leading provider of next-generation endpoint protection, threat intelligence, and services. Kurtz is an internationally recognized security expert, author, entrepreneur, and speaker. He has more than 28 years of experience in the security space, including extensive experience driving revenue growth and scaling organizations across the globe. His entrepreneurial background and ability to commercialize nascent technologies have enabled him to drive innovation to market throughout his career. His prior roles at McAfee, a $2.5 billion security company, include Worldwide Chief Technology Officer and GM as well as EVP of Enterprise.

Prior to joining McAfee, Kurtz started Foundstone in October 1999 as the founder and CEO responsible for recruiting the other founding team members. Foundstone, a worldwide security products and services company, had one of the leading incident response practices in the industry, and was acquired by McAfee in October of 2004. Kurtz has been quoted or featured in many major publications, media outlets, and television programs including CNN, Fox News, ABC World News, Bloomberg, CNBC, New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Associated Press, Network World, and may others. He also authored the best-selling security book of all time, Hacking Exposed: Network Security Secrets & Solutions.

Sep 03, 202153:45
E 17. Gaurab Chakrabarti - Understanding the White Space of the Unknown

E 17. Gaurab Chakrabarti - Understanding the White Space of the Unknown

Gaurab Chakrabarti is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Solugen, which he co-founded with Sean Hunt in 2016 with the mission to decarbonize the chemicals industry. Gaurab is a physician-scientist focused on using biology in unconventional ways to solve incredibly complex problems. As CEO, Gaurab is using his insights from enzyme engineering to develop and scale chemienzymatic process technologies.

Gaurab studied computational neuroscience as an undergraduate at Brown University and received his MD & PhD in cancer biology and enzymology at the University of Texas. Gaurab is an author or co-author on more than 20 peer-reviewed publications and patents and an alumnus of Y Combinator and Forbes 30 Under 30 in Industry and Manufacturing. Gaurab lives in Houston with his wife, daughter, and Goldendoodle.

Jul 09, 202101:07:59
E 16. Henrik Fisker - Designing for Experience

E 16. Henrik Fisker - Designing for Experience

Henrik Fisker is a risk taking, innovation loving, protocol challenging legendary designer & entrepreneur who turns dreams into reality and believes in never giving up.

An entrepreneur, creator, innovator, mentor, brand ambassador and a leading automotive designer. Best known among his creations are iconic cars such as BMW Z8, Aston Martin DB9, Aston Martin V8 Vantage, Artega GT, Fisker Karma, Viking motorcycle, Rocket and more recently Destino V8 and Force 1.

Henrik Fisker is the founder, Chairman and CEO of Fisker Inc., an American automaker based in California USA, revolutionizing the development of electric vehicles with game changing battery solutions. Previously, Henrik Fisker founded Fisker Automotive in 2007 as the world’s first green luxury lifestyle automotive company, and took the idea from conception to a team of 600 people, from concept to full scale production, and sales of the company’s first model, Fisker Karma that sold more than 2000 vehicles. Under the leadership of Henrik, Fisker Automotive won numerous awards, including 2012 Time Magazine Best Inventions of the Year. Henrik Fisker resigned from Fisker Automotive in March 2013 due to major differences with management on strategy.

In January 2016, Henrik Fisker cofounded VLF Automotive with Bob Lutz and Gilbert Villarreal, an American luxury sports car manufacturer based in Auburn Hills, Michigan that specialized in low volume, specialty cars. Henrik Fisker is head of design and product strategy at VLF, that currently has 3 models the VLF Destino V8, VLF Force 1 V10 and VLF Rocket.

In 2016, HenrikFiskerlifestyle was launched, a lifestyle brand dedicated to creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship.

In June 2013, he founded and currently serves as the CEO of HF Design, a design and innovation company developing a number of first-to-market consumer products in categories ranging from automotive, lifestyle, homeware, education and smart devices. The company announced a partnership with Benetti Yachts in April 2016, launching a 164-foot super yacht series called the Benetti Fisker 50.

Previously, Henrik founded Fisker Coachbuild in 2005, an automotive design house that revived the art of coachbuilding by combining beautiful design with existing world-class engineering. Fisker Coachbuild created cars such as the Artega GT (German sports car), and the Fisker Latigo & Fisker Tramonto. From 2001 to 2005, Fisker held prominent executive positions at Ford Motor Company. He was creative director at Ingeni, Ford’s London-based design and creativity center. At the same time, Fisker served as Board Member and Design Director at Aston Martin in Gaydon, UK. As a board member, Fisker was part of a team that led the turnaround of Aston Martin. Henrik designed the Aston Martin V8 Vantage and was responsible for the production launch design of the DB9, variants of which were James Bond’s preferred vehicles. Fisker was also director of Ford’s Global Advanced Design Studio in southern California. Designed under his direction were several show cars including the Shelby GR1 concept showcased at the 2005 North American International Auto Show. From 1997-2000, as president and chief executive officer of BMW Designworks USA, BMW’s California-based industrial design subsidiary, Henrik led a team of 130 people and was responsible for both internal and external clients. Henrik created notable cars such as the BMW Z07 concept (1997) and BMW Z8 roadster (1999), another Bond car.

Henrik sits on the advisory board of Panasonic Aviation and is a senior advisor to McKinsey.

Jun 25, 202130:44
E 15. Gerald Posner - Investigating For Truth

E 15. Gerald Posner - Investigating For Truth

The author of 13 acclaimed books, including New York Times nonfiction bestsellers Case Closed, Why America Slept and God’s Bankers. Posner was a finalist for the Pulitzer in History. “A merciless pit bull of an investigator” concluded the Chicago Tribune.  The New York Times said his latest book (2020), PHARMA, was “a withering and encyclopedic indictment of a drug industry that often seems to prioritize profits over patients…[it] reads like a pharmaceutical version of cops and robbers."

Posner was one of the youngest attorneys (23) ever hired by Cravath, Swaine & Moore. A Political Science major, he was a Phi Beta Kappa and Summa Cum Laude graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, where he was also a national debating champion. At Hastings Law School, he was an Honors Graduate and was the Law Review’s Associate Executive Editor. He was a litigation associate at the Wall Street law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore before leaving in 1981 to co-found Posner & Ferrara, a New York public interest law firm. Several years of a pro bono legal representation on behalf of surviving twins of Nazi experiments at the Auschwitz death camp led him to coauthor his first book in 1986, MENGELE: The Complete Story, a bestselling and critically acclaimed biography of the infamous Nazi “Angel of Death,” Dr. Josef Mengele. Read a profile on Gerald on how the Mengele book led to him to leave the law. Publishers Weekly explains how he changed from being a Wall Street lawyer to a bestselling nonfiction author. In the past, he was a regular panelist on HistoryCENTER, the History Channel’s Sunday current events program. He has been a freelance writer for many news magazines, and a regular contributor to NBC, the History Channel, CNN, FOX News, CBS, and MSNBC. He is represented by BrightSight Group for lectures about investigative journalism and his books. His wife, author, Trisha Posner, works with him on all projects.

Garry Wills calls Posner "a superb investigative reporter” and the Los Angeles Times says he is “a classic -style investigative journalist.” “Painstakingly honest journalism,” concluded The New York Times. “Posner, a former Wall Street lawyer, demolishes myths through a meticulous re-examination of the facts," reported the Chicago Tribune. "Meticulous research," Newsday. John Martin, former national correspondent for ABC News says “Posner is one of the most successful investigators I have encountered in thirty years of journalism.”

Praise for Posner comes from all sides of the political spectrum. “One of America’s finest investigative reporters,” according to MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann. “Gerald Posner is maybe the best known and most thorough investigative journalist in this country. There aren't many left,” says FOX News’s Tucker Carlson.

Anthony Lewis in The New York Times: "With 'Killing the Dream, he has written a superb book: a model of investigation, meticulous in its discovery and presentation of evidence, unbiased in its exploration of every claim. And it is a wonderfully readable book, as gripping as a first-class detective story."

Jeffrey Toobin in the Chicago Tribune: "Unlike many of the 2,000 other books that have been written about the Kennedy assassination, Posner's Case Closed is a resolutely sane piece of work. More importantly, 'Case Closed' is utterly convincing in its thesis, which seems, in light of all that has transpired over the past 30 years, almost revolutionary....I started Case Closed as a skeptic - and slightly put off by the presumptuous title. To my mind historical truth is always a slippery thing. The chances of knowing for sure what happened in any event - much less one as murky as the Kennedy assassination - seem remote. But this fascinating and important book won me over. Case closed, indeed."

Jun 18, 202101:47:15
E14. Gustav Söderström - The Evolution of Music

E14. Gustav Söderström - The Evolution of Music

Gustav Söderström is the Chief Research & Development Officer at Spotify. He oversees the product, design, data, and engineering teams at Spotify and is responsible for their product strategy. Mr. Söderström is a startup seed investor and was formerly an advisor to 13th Lab (acquired by Facebook’s Oculus). Before joining the Company in 2009, Mr. Söderström was director of product and business development for Yahoo! Mobile from 2006 to 2009. In 2003, Mr. Söderström founded Kenet Works, a company that developed community software for mobile phones and served as the company’s Chief Executive Officer until it was acquired by Yahoo! in 2006. Mr. Söderström holds a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from KTH Royal Institute of Technology.

May 27, 202101:32:21
E13. Kate Darling - Robots: Sufficiently Like Us

E13. Kate Darling - Robots: Sufficiently Like Us

Dr. Kate Darling is a leading expert in Robot Ethics. She’s a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, where she investigates social robotics and conducts experimental studies on human-robot interaction. Kate explores the emotional connection between people and life-like machines, seeking to influence technology design and policy direction. Her writing and research anticipate difficult questions that lawmakers, engineers, and the wider public will need to address as human-robot relationships evolve in the coming decades.

Forever interested in how technology intersects with society, Kate has a background in law & economics and intellectual property. She has researched economic incentives in copyright and patent systems and has taken a role as intellectual property expert at multiple academic and private institutions. She currently serves as intellectual property policy advisor to the director of the MIT Media Lab.

Her passion for technology and robots has led her to interdisciplinary fields. After co-teaching a robot ethics course at Harvard Law School with Professor Lawrence Lessig, she began to work at the intersection of law and robotics, with a focus on legal and social issues. Kate is a former Fellow at the Harvard Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society and the Yale Information Society Project,  and is also an affiliate at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies.

Kate’s work has been featured in Vogue, The New Yorker, The Guardian, BBC, NPR, PBS, The Boston Globe, Forbes, CBC, WIRED, Boston Magazine, The Atlantic, Slate, Die Zeit, The Japan Times, and more. She was a contributing writer to Robohub and IEEE Spectrum and currently speaks and holds workshops covering some of the more interesting developments in the world of robotics, and where we might find ourselves in the future.

Kate graduated from law school with honors and holds a doctorate of sciences from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) and an honorary doctorate of sciences from Middlebury College. In 2017, the American Bar Association honored her legal work with the Mark T. Banner award in Intellectual Property.

She is the caretaker for several domestic robots, including her Pleos Yochai, Peter, and Mr. Spaghetti.

She tweets as @grok_

May 05, 202148:45
E12. TONY ARCABASCIO - From ALife to the AI-Life

E12. TONY ARCABASCIO - From ALife to the AI-Life

Tony Arcabascio is the Art Director for Nanotronics and oversees all creative design across branding, marketing, and digital platforms. Tony also provides creative input on design for some engineering projects such as nHale™.

Tony joined the Nanotronics team with over 25 years of experience in the streetwear and the fashion industry. In 1999, he co-founded the sneaker and apparel company Alife. Its headquarters on Orchard St. and their world renowned sneaker boutique, The Alife Rivington Club, on Rivington Street, served as a hub for a cross-section of the Lower East Side creative scene: artists, photographers, actors, musicians, sneaker-heads, skaters, and graffiti writers. Tony’s legacy of popularizing street wear serves as a perfect example for what Malcolm Gladwell highlighted in his pop-culture book, The Tipping Point, namely that ideas, attitudes and behaviors tend to spread contagiously in the same way as some infectious diseases.

Tony is known in the New York arts and culture scene as a prescient brander and behind-the-scenes trend-setter. He has been the creative contributor to many of the brands New Yorker’s know and love today such as The Standard Hotel, WeSC, Damiani, and Buscemi.

Today, Arcabascio makes a significant contribution to the Nanotronics ecosystem and culture where artists, designers, engineers, marketers, and business leaders work together to envision, and passionately work toward building, a more sustainable future.

Apr 16, 202101:07:58
S2 - E11 - Sarah Williams - Reimagining Cities

S2 - E11 - Sarah Williams - Reimagining Cities

Sarah Williams is currently an Associate Professor of Technology and Urban Planning. She also is Director of the Civic Data Design Lab at MIT's School of Architecture and Planning. The Civic Data Design Lab works with data, maps, and mobile technologies to develop interactive design and communication strategies that expose urban policy issues to broader audiences.

Trained as a Geographer (Clark University), Landscape Architect (University of Pennsylvania), and Urban Planner (MIT), Williams's work combines geographic analysis and design. Williams is most well known for her work as part of the Million Dollar Blocks team which highlighted the cost of incarceration, Digital Matatus which developed the first data set on an informal transit system searchable in Google Maps, and a more a recent project that uses social media data to understand housing vacancy and Ghost Cities in China.

Her design work has been widely exhibited including work in the Guggenheim, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York City. Before coming to MIT, Williams was Co-Director of the Spatial Information Design Lab at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation (GSAPP). Williams has won numerous awards including being named top 25 planners in the technology and 2012 Game Changer by Metropolis Magazine. Her work is currently on view in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Seoul Biennale Cities Exhibition in Korea.

Mar 18, 202101:30:04
E 10. Shawanna Vaughn - Strength in Community

E 10. Shawanna Vaughn - Strength in Community

The founder and the Director of Silent Cry Inc., Shawanna Vaughn, is a native of Bakersfield, California, and a mother of two.  Silent Cry, Inc. is the product of the tears she shed while overcoming the pain and hardships of incarceration, the loss of a brother to gang initiation violence and surviving cancer. She is the true definition of strength, courage and determination.

"I've been impacted by the aftermath of senseless violence and I'm also formerly incarcerated. With that, I've turned tragedy into Healing through my pain. I now find my voice in justice and healing our communities and hearts. I’ve crafted a policy called, Post Traumatic Prison Disorder Shawanna W76337. It is a comprehensive policy on mental health reconstruction for children of incarcerated parents, Inclusive to long term individuals with vendor therapies available to combat depression and suicide prevention. And, offering services of holistic approach to post incarceration individuals because healthy lifestyles and mental stability reduces repetitive behaviors which lead to reincarnation. My life has been a journey one that has lead me to many places and I've had the wonderful pleasure to work with Columbia business school in simulations. My lifestyle is changing the narrative in criminal justice issues. I'm a member of the Confined arts project. A member of Peace and Justice studies. Proud to say May of 2019, I will be attending Columbia University. Education over adversity is a model I believe in and advocate to young people."

Feb 26, 202145:09
E9. Alan Murray - Task Above Ego

E9. Alan Murray - Task Above Ego

Alan Murray is the CEO of Fortune. He previously hosted an eponymous show on CNBC and was president of Pew Research Center from 2013 to 2014, where he oversaw a rapid expansion of the center’s digital footprint. Prior to that, Murray was at The Wall Street Journal for more than two decades. He served as deputy managing editor and executive editor of online from 2007 to 2012, with editorial responsibility for the company’s websites, mobile products, television, video, books, and conferences. During his time as Washington bureau chief, from 1993 to 2002, the bureau won three Pulitzer prizes.

Prior to his current position, Mr. Murray was assistant managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, and author of the paper's "Business" column, which runs every Wednesday.

Previously, he served as CNBC’s Washington, D.C., bureau chief and was co-host of “Capital Report with Alan Murray and Gloria Borger." While working at CNBC, he also wrote the Journal's weekly "Political Capital" column. Prior to that, he spent a decade as the Washington bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal.

Mr. Murray joined The Wall Street Journal in 1983, as a reporter covering economic policy. He was named Washington deputy bureau chief in January 1992 and became bureau chief in September 1993. During his tenure as bureau chief, the Washington bureau won three Pulitzer Prizes, as well as many other awards.

Mr. Murray is the author of three best-selling books: “Revolt in the Boardroom, The New Rules of Power in Corporate America,” published by HarperCollins in 2007; “The Wealth of Choices: How the New Economy Puts Power in Your Hands and Money in Your Pocket,” published by Random House in 1991; and “Showdown at Gucci Gulch: Lawmakers, Lobbyists and the Unlikely Triumph of Tax Reform,” co-authored with Jeffrey Birnbaum and published by Random House in 1987. “Gucci Gulch” received the American Political Science Association’s Carey McWilliams Award in 1988. Mr. Murray also garnered two Overseas Press Club awards for his writings on Asia, as well as a Gerald Loeb award and a John Hancock award for his coverage of the Federal Reserve.

Mr. Murray began his journalism career in June 1977 as the business and economics editor of the Chattanooga (Tenn.) Times. He joined the Congressional Quarterly in Washington as a reporter in June 1980, and the following year became a reporter at the Japan Economic Journal in Tokyo on a Luce Fellowship.

He serves on the Governing Council of the Miller Center for Public Affairs at the University of Virginia and is a member of the Gridiron Club, The Economic Club of New York and the Council on Foreign Relations. He has served on the Board of Visitors of the University of North Carolina.

Mr. Murray received a bachelor’s degree in English literature from the University of North Carolina, where he was a John Motley Morehead scholar, a merit scholar and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He earned a master’s degree in economics at the London School of Economics. In 2005, he completed the Stanford Executive Program.

He is married to Dr. Lori Murray, a foreign policy consultant and former special adviser to the president for chemical weapons.

Jan 26, 202101:05:16
E8. Kweku Mandela - Considering Ourselves Human

E8. Kweku Mandela - Considering Ourselves Human

Kweku Mandela is a film producer most well-known for Inescapable (2012). He was born in Transkei, South Africa, and grew up in America, returning to his homeland in 1993. He attended APA International Film School in Sydney and is very active in the South African Film and Entertainment industries.

He is dedicated to honoring his grandfather Nelson Mandela’s legacy by being heavily involved in both the entertainment and activist industries. He is a partner and President in one of South Africa’s largest Film and TV production companies, Out of Africa Entertainment and co-founder of the Africa Rising Foundation. Along with his cousin Ndaba, he is also the Global Ambassador for UNAIDS Global HIV/AIDS campaign called “Protect the Goal,” and is a founding member and ambassador for GenEndIt, which is aimed to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic. He also sits on the board of the Global Citizen Festival where he champions youth activism.

He has worked with and supported Oxfam Australia and Make Poverty History. He supports the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety and the Long Short Walk, a world walk for road safety, in memory of his 13-year old cousin Zenani Mandela who was killed in a crash 2 years ago.

Jan 13, 202101:03:26
E7. Béla Fleck - The Rights Of The Noble Banjo

E7. Béla Fleck - The Rights Of The Noble Banjo

Béla Fleck, (born July 10, 1958, New York, New York, U.S.), American musician recognized as one of the most inventive and commercially successful banjo players of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Fleck became fascinated by bluegrass music during his youth in New York City.

He began to play banjo when he was 15 years old, inspired by the music of guitarist-singer Lester Flatt and banjoist Earl Scruggs—the performers of the theme song of the then popular television series The Beverly Hillbillies. Throughout his student years at New York’s High School of Music and Art, he studied banjo privately, experimenting with new sounds, techniques, and genres—particularly jazz.

After graduation he joined the Boston-based bluegrass band Tasty Licks and recorded two albums with the group. In 1979 Fleck made his solo recording debut with Crossing the Tracks. He then toured with the Kentucky-based band Spectrum before joining the progressive bluegrass group New Grass Revival (NGR), with which he performed and recorded throughout the 1980s. While with NGR he also produced a number of solo albums, including the highly acclaimed Drive (1988). Following the release of NGR’s final album, Friday Night in America (1989), Fleck recorded The Telluride Sessions (1989), a landmark bluegrass album, with the all-star acoustic group Strength in Numbers. By this time Fleck’s technical proficiency on the banjo and his adventurous musical experimentation had earned him an international following.

Dec 30, 202001:10:32
6. Juan Martín Maldacena - Into the Juan Dimension: Black Holes, Quantum Gravity, and String Theory

6. Juan Martín Maldacena - Into the Juan Dimension: Black Holes, Quantum Gravity, and String Theory

Juan Martín Maldacena is a theoretical physicist and the Carl P. Feinberg Professor in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study. He has made significant contributions to the foundations of string theory and quantum gravity. His most famous discovery is the AdS/CFT correspondence, a realization of the holographic principle in string theory.

Maldacena obtained his licenciatura (a 6-year degree) in 1991 at the Instituto Balseiro, Bariloche, Argentina, under the supervision of Gerardo Aldazábal. He then obtained his Ph.D. in physics at Princeton University after completing a doctoral dissertation titled "Black holes in string theory" under the supervision of Curtis Callan in 1996, and went on to a post-doctoral position at Rutgers University. In 1997, he joined Harvard University as associate professor, being quickly promoted to Professor of Physics in 1999. Since 2001 he has been a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey and in 2016 became the first Carl P. Feinberg Professor of Theoretical Physics in the Institute's School of Natural Sciences.

Maldacena has made numerous discoveries in theoretical physics. Leonard Susskind called him "perhaps the greatest physicist of his generation... certainly the greatest theoretical physicist of his generation". His most famous discovery is the most reliable realization of the holographic principle – namely the AdS/CFT correspondence, a conjecture about the equivalence of string theory on Anti-de Sitter (AdS) space, and a conformal field theory defined on the boundary of the AdS space. According to the conjecture, certain theories of quantum gravity are equivalent to other quantum mechanical theories (with no gravitational force) in one fewer spacetime dimensions.

Dec 16, 202001:04:28
5. Peter Singer - Global Access To Knowledge

5. Peter Singer - Global Access To Knowledge

Peter Albert David Singer is an Australian moral philosopher. He is the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, and a Laureate Professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the University of Melbourne. He specializes in applied ethics and approaches ethical issues from a secular, utilitarian perspective. He is known in particular for his book Animal Liberation (1975), in which he argues in favor of veganism and his essay “Famine, Affluence and Morality”, in which he argues in favor of donating to help the global por. For most of his career, he was a preference utilitarian, but he stated in The Point of View of the Universe (2014), coauthored with Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek, that he had become a hedonistic utilitarian.

On two occasions, Singer served as chair of the philosophy department at Monash University, where he founded its Centre for Human Bioethics. In 1996 he stood unsuccessfully as a Greens candidate for the Australian Senate. In 2004 Singer was recognized as the Australian Humanist of the Year by the Council of Australian Humanist Societies. In 2005. The Sydney Morning Herald placed him among Australia’s ten most influential public intellectuals. Singer is a cofounder of Animals Australia and the founder of The Life You Can Save.

Journalists have tagged him as the ‘world’s most influential living philosopher’ as Singer’s work on ethics behind the treatment of animals have been credited to starting the modern animal rights movements. He is a known critic of the sanctity of life ethics in bioethics.

Several key figures in the animal movement have said that his book Animal Liberation, led them to get involved in the struggle to reduce the vast amount of suffering we inflict on animals. To that end, he co-founded the Australian Federation of Animal Societies, now Animals Australia, the country's largest and most effective animal organization. He and his wife, Renata, stopped eating meat in 1971.

He is the founder of The Life You Can Save, an organization based on his book. It aims to spread Peter’s ideas about why we should be doing much more to improve the lives of people living in extreme poverty, and how we can best do this. You can view his TED talk on this topic here.

He has written, co-authored, edited or co-edited more than 50 books, including Practical Ethics, The Expanding Circle, Rethinking Life and Death, One World, The Ethics of What We Eat (with Jim Mason) and The Point of View of the Universe (with Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek.)

Dec 01, 202001:01:05
4. Janna Levin - Periphery of Comprehensible

4. Janna Levin - Periphery of Comprehensible

Janna Levin is the Claire Tow Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Barnard College of Columbia University. She is also the Chair and Founding Director of the Science Studios at Pioneer Works. A Guggenheim Fellow, Janna has contributed to an understanding of black holes, the cosmology of extra dimensions, and gravitational waves in the shape of spacetime. She is the presenter of the NOVA feature Black Hole Apocalypse, aired on PBS—the first female presenter for NOVA in 35 years. Her previous books include How the Universe Got Its Spots and a novel, A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines, which won the PEN/Bingham Prize. Her latest book, Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space, is the inside story on the discovery of the century: the sound of spacetime ringing from the collision of two black holes over a billion years ago. Her most recent book, Black Hole Survival Guide, was published on November 10, 2020.

Nov 17, 202001:37:24
3. Vijay Kumar - Coordination, Cooperation, Collaboration

3. Vijay Kumar - Coordination, Cooperation, Collaboration

Vijay Kumar is the Nemirovsky Family Dean of Penn Engineering with appointments in the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, Computer and Information Science, and Electrical and Systems Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Kumar served as the Deputy Dean for Research in the School of Engineering and Applied Science from 2000-2004. He directed the GRASP Laboratory, a multidisciplinary robotics and perception laboratory, from 1998-2004. He was the Chairman of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics from 2005-2008. He served as the Deputy Dean for Education in the School of Engineering and Applied Science from 2008-2012. He then served as the assistant director of robotics and cyber physical systems at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (2012 – 2013).

Dr. Kumar’s research interests are in robotics, specifically multi-robot systems, and micro aerial vehicles. He has served on the editorial boards of the IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, ASME Journal of Mechanical Design, the ASME Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics and the Springer Tract in Advanced Robotics (STAR).

He is the recipient of the 1991 National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator award, the 1996 Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching (University of Pennsylvania), the 1997 Freudenstein Award for significant accomplishments in mechanisms and robotics, the 2012 ASME Mechanisms and Robotics Award, the 2012 IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Distinguished Service Award, a 2012 World Technology Network (wtn.net) award, a 2014 Engelberger Robotics Award and the 2017 IEEE Robotics and Automation Society George Saridis Leadership Award in Robotics and Automation. He has won best paper awards at DARS 2002, ICRA 2004, ICRA 2011, RSS 2011, and RSS 2013, and has advised doctoral students who have won Best Student Paper Awards at ICRA 2008, RSS 2009, and DARS 2010.

Nov 03, 202001:17:32
2. Lee Smolin - Discovering New Methods

2. Lee Smolin - Discovering New Methods

Lee Smolin is a theoretical physicist who has been since 2001 a founding and senior faculty member at Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. His main contributions have been so far to the quantum theory of gravity, to which he has been a co-inventor and major contributor to two major directions, loop quantum gravity and deformed special relativity. He also contributes to cosmology, through his proposal of cosmological natural selection: a falsifiable mechanism to explain the choice of the laws of physics. He has also contributed to quantum field theory, the foundations of quantum mechanics, theoretical biology, the philosophy of science and economics. He is the author of more than 150 scientific papers and numerous essays and writings for the public on science.

He also has written four books which explore philosophical issues raised by contemporary physics and cosmology. These are Life of the Cosmos (1997), Three Roads to Quantum Gravity (2001), The Trouble with Physics (2006) and Time Reborn (2013).  Most recently, he coauthored The Singular Universe and The Reality of Time with Roberto Mangabeira Unger.

Born in New York City, Smolin attended Hampshire College and Harvard University. After postdocs at IAS Princeton, ITP Santa Barbara, and the University of Chicago he held faculty positions at Yale, Syracuse and Penn State University. A Fellow of the American Physical Society and of the Royal Society of Canada, Smolin was awarded the 2009 Klopsteg Memorial Award from the American Association of Physics Teachers and in 2008 was voted 21st on a list of the 100 most influential public intellectuals by Prospect and Foreign Policy Magazines. He is again on that list in 2015.   This year Marina Cortes and he were also awarded the Inaugural Buchalter Cosmology Prize.  He is also adjunct professor of physics at the University of Waterloo and a member of the graduate faculty of the philosophy department at the University of Toronto.


Oct 20, 202001:14:53
1. Caroline Buckee - Digging Through The Data

1. Caroline Buckee - Digging Through The Data

Dr. Caroline Buckee joined Harvard School of Public Health in the summer of 2010 as an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2017. In 2013, Dr. Buckee was named the Associate Director of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics.

The Buckee Lab uses mathematical models and data science to understand the mechanisms driving the spread of infectious diseases, with a focus on pathogens like malaria that effect vulnerable populations in low income countries. After receiving a D.Phil from the University of Oxford, Caroline worked at the Kenya Medical Research Institute to analyze clinical and epidemiological aspects of malaria as a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellow. Her work led to an Omidyar Fellowship at the Santa Fe Institute, where she developed theoretical approaches to understanding malaria parasite evolution and ecology. In 2013 Dr. Buckee was named one of MIT Tech Review’s 35 Innovators under 35, a CNN Top 10: Thinker, and Foreign Policy Magazine’s Global Thinkers. Her work has appeared in high profile scientific journals such as Science and PNAS, as well as being featured in the popular press, including CNN, The New Scientist, Voice of America, NPR, and ABC. 

Dr. Buckee’s group uses a range of mathematical models, experimental and pathogen genomic data, and “Big Data” from mobile phones and satellites to understand how human pathogens spread and may be controlled. A major focus of the group is the human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, which is still a major global killer of children under 5. Dr. Buckees work spans both the within-host processes that determine pathogenesis in individual hosts, and the population processes that sustain transmission and disease, working with vector biologists to understand the impacts of novel vector control approaches, and with mobile phone operators to track the migration patterns of people that import infections and drug resistant parasites when they travel. Dr. Buckee’s group is also interested in how to predict and contain the spatial spread of emerging pandemics.


Oct 06, 202056:20
26. James Gimzewski - Faith in Rarity

26. James Gimzewski - Faith in Rarity

Dr. James Gimzewski is a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles; Faculty Director of the Nano & Pico Characterization Core Facility of the California NanoSystems Institute; Scientific Director of the Art|Sci Center and Principal Investigator and Satellites Co-Director of the WPI Center for Materials NanoArchitectonics (MANA) in Japan.  Prior to joining the UCLA faculty, he was a group leader at IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, where he researched nanoscale science and technology from 1983 to 2001. Dr. Gimzewski pioneered research on mechanical and electrical contacts with single atoms and molecules using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and was one of the first persons to image molecules with STM. In 2001 Gimzewski became Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and in 2009 was elected Fellow of the Royal Society, the highest award in Britain for excellence in Science. He received the 1997 Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology, the 1997 The Discover Award for Emerging Fields, the 1998 “Wired 25” Award from Wired magazine and the Institute of Physics 2001 Duddell Medal and Prize for his work in nanoscale science. He holds two IBM “Outstanding Innovation Awards” and is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and a Chartered Physicist.

Sep 17, 202001:36:46
25. Joscha Bach - Asking The Right Questions

25. Joscha Bach - Asking The Right Questions

Joscha Bach, Ph.D., is the VP of Research at the AI Foundation. He formerly held research positions in Cognitive Artificial Intelligence at MIT and Harvard. Joscha’s work explores the workings of the human mind, intelligence, consciousness, life on Earth, and the possibly simulated fabric of our universe. He has been called the leading philosopher of AI today.

Sep 10, 202001:51:37
24. Scott Aaronson - Before and After The Machine

24. Scott Aaronson - Before and After The Machine

Scott Aaronson is a David J. Bruton Centennial Professor of Computer Science at The University of Texas at Austin, and director of its Quantum Information Center. Prior to coming to UT Austin, Aaronson taught for nine years in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. His interests center around the capabilities and limits of quantum computers and, more generally, computational complexity theory


Sep 03, 202001:11:42
23. Jill Neimark - Marveling at Nature’s Resilience

23. Jill Neimark - Marveling at Nature’s Resilience

Jill Neimark is a veteran science journalist and author of adult and children's fiction. She is a former contributing editor at Discover Magazine, she also written for Scientific American, Science, Nautilus, Aeon, The New York Times, NPR, Quartz, and Psychology Today. She published the adult nonfiction book, coauthored with bioethicist Stephen Post, PhD, Why Good Things Happen to Good People. She has also written five children’s books and one novel, Bloodsong.

"Humans truly are part god part devil," - Jill Neimark. 

The theme of this episode is resilience.  Jill Neimark invites us to marvel at nature.  She speaks of the failure of the human species to quell overpopulation and overconsumption in the face of climate change,  and the flaws that snag us despite our talent for planning and foresight.  She also delves into the potential post traumatic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing, as well as the way giving is written into our DNA--and how genetic hardwiring contributes to our ability to face adversity as a species. 


Aug 27, 202050:28
22. Stephon Alexander - The Music of Spheres

22. Stephon Alexander - The Music of Spheres

Physicist and musician Stephon Alexander has straddled the worlds of theoretical physics and jazz music over the last two decades. He works on the connection between the smallest and largest entities in the universe pushing Einstein’s theory of curved space-time to extremes, beyond the big bang with subatomic phenomena.

Alexander is a Professor of Physics at Brown University, with previous appointments at Stanford University, Imperial College, Penn State, Dartmouth College and Haverford College. Alexander is a specialist in the field of string cosmology, where the physics of superstrings are applied to address longstanding questions in cosmology.

In 2001, he co-invented the model of inflation based on higher dimensional hypersurfaces in string theory called D-Branes. In such models the early universe emerged from the destruction of a higher dimensional D-brane which ignites a period of rapid expansion of space often referred to as cosmic inflation.

In his bestselling book, The Jazz of Physics, Alexander revisits the ancient interconnection between music and the evolution of astrophysics and the laws of motion. He explores new ways music, in particular jazz music, mirrors modern physics, such as quantum mechanics, general relativity, and the physics of the early universe. He also discusses ways that innovations in physics have been and can be inspired from “improvisational logic” exemplified in Jazz performance and practice. Alexander also recently served as a scientific advisor for the Walt Disney film A Wrinkle In Time, directed by Ava DuVernay, and currently serves as President of the National Society of Black Physicists (NSPB).

Aug 20, 202001:25:50
21. Gary Marcus - AI Builder, AI Skeptic

21. Gary Marcus - AI Builder, AI Skeptic

Gary Marcus is a scientist, best-selling author, and entrepreneur. He is Founder and CEO of Robust.AI, and was Founder and CEO of Geometric Intelligence, a machine learning company acquired by Uber in 2016. He is the author of five books, including The Algebraic Mind, Kluge, The Birth of the Mind, and The New York Times best seller Guitar Zero, as well as editor of The Future of the Brain and The Norton Psychology Reader.

He has published extensively in fields ranging from human and animal behavior to neuroscience, genetics, linguistics, evolutionary psychology and artificial intelligence, often in leading journals such as Science and Nature, and is perhaps the youngest Professor Emeritus at NYU. His newest book, co-authored with Ernest Davis, Rebooting AI: Building Machines We Can Trust aims to shake up the field of artificial intelligence

Aug 13, 202050:58
20. Anima Anandkumar - The Immediate and Future Impact of How We Build AI

20. Anima Anandkumar - The Immediate and Future Impact of How We Build AI

Anima Anandkumar is Director of Machine Learning at NVIDIA and Bren professor at Caltech. Anima has led research in tensor-algebraic methods, large-scale learning, deep learning, probabilistic models, and non-convex optimization, among others.

She is the youngest named professor at Caltech, the highest honor bestowed to an individual faculty. She is part of the World Economic Forum's Expert Network consisting of leading experts from academia, business, government, and the media.

She is the recipient of several awards including Alfred. P. Sloan Fellowship, NSF Career Award, Young investigator awards from the Air Force and Army research offices, Faculty fellowships from Microsoft, Google and Adobe, and several best paper awards.

Anima Anandkumar is also deeply passionate about democratizing AI and eliminating bias in the data we use to build AI systems as well as the other subtle ways bias infiltrates research, device-building, and industry. She is spearheading important research and groundbreaking work that is changing our model for AI and its impact on the world we all live in.

Aug 06, 202001:08:43
19. Pamela McCorduck - History of Artificial Intelligence

19. Pamela McCorduck - History of Artificial Intelligence

Pamela McCorduck has authored and co-authored several books, including the iconic Machines Who Think, her personal, original, and groundbreaking inquiry into the history and possibilities of AI, first published in 1979.

Through her writing, Pamela has worked alongside Marvin Minsky, John McCarthy, Ed Feigenbaum, and other seminal figures of artificial intelligence. McCorduck has also consulted for a wide range of firms and other organizations in the high technology, financial, and transportation sectors. She served on a panel to advise the National Academy of Engineering and has co-authored studies on women in information technology and women in design.

Aug 01, 202047:19
18. Joe Pistone, the Real Donnie Brasco

18. Joe Pistone, the Real Donnie Brasco

Joseph Dominick Pistone (born September 17, 1939), also known by his undercover alias Donnie Brasco, is an American former FBI agent who worked undercover between September 1976 and July 1981, as part of an infiltration primarily into the Bonanno crime family, and to a lesser extent the Colombo crime family, two of the Five Families of the Mafia in New York City.

Pistone was a pioneer in long-term undercover work, and the evidence he collected led to over 200 indictments and over 100 convictions of Mafia members. Pistone's work later helped convince the FBI that using undercover agents in lieu of relying exclusively on informants was a crucial tool in law enforcement Pistone detailed his undercover experience in his 1988 book Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia, the basis of the 1997 film about his life Donnie Brasco.

Jul 09, 202028:41
17. Najee Dorsey - Building Together

17. Najee Dorsey - Building Together

Najee Dorsey is an Artist, a Collector, and the CEO / Founder of Black Art In America. Najee's work has been exhibited in multiple museum shows, including his first major solo exhibition at the Columbus Museum in Columbus Georgia, entitled: Leaving Mississippi -- Reflections on Heroes and Folklore in 2014. In addition, Dorsey has shown his work in numerous solo and group exhibitions. He has been the recipient of awards that include a 2006 Patrons Purchase Award from the Polk Museum of Art.

BLACK ART IN AMERICA™ (BAIA) is the leading online portal and social network focused on African-American Art with visitors from over 100 countries visiting our site each month and about half a million visitors to our social media pages for Black Art In America™ and Do You Basel?™. Black Art In America™, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr and Twitter comprise our online virtual network and resource. BAIA amplifies thought-provoking commentary on today's visual arts news from a variety of perspectives, including breaking news, gallery meet-ups, market trends, and profiling leading (and emerging) Black visual artists in the country. In addition, BAIA offers stories about collecting and provides a weekly eNewsletter that helps art enthusiasts worldwide keep up to date on the changing and forever evolving Black visual arts market. Visit and join www.blackartinamerica.com

Jul 02, 202053:56
16. Stephen Wolfram - Inevitable, Beautiful Connections

16. Stephen Wolfram - Inevitable, Beautiful Connections

Stephen Wolfram is a scientist, physicist, and businessman best known for his work in computer science, mathematics, and theoretical physics.

Over more than four decades, Wolfram has been a pioneer in the development and application of computational thinking—and has been responsible for many discoveries, inventions, and innovations. Based on both his practical and theoretical thinking, Wolfram has emerged as an authority on the implications of computation and artificial intelligence for society and the future, and the importance of computational language as a bridge between the capabilities of computation and human objectives.

He is the creator of Mathematica, the creator of Wolfram|Alpha, and the founder and CEO of Wolfram Research. He is the author of Cellular Automata And Complexity, Adventures of a Computational Explorer, The Mathematica Book, How to Teach Computational Thinking, On the Quest for Computable Knowledge, A New Kind of Science, An Elementary Introduction to the Wolfram Language, and most recently, Idea Makers: Personal Perspectives on the Lives & Ideas of Some Notable People.

Jun 25, 202002:02:09
15. Tom X. Lee, MD - A Path Toward Healthcare For All

15. Tom X. Lee, MD - A Path Toward Healthcare For All

Tom X. Lee, MD, is the CEO and founder behind Galileo Health, a telemedicine company that aims to provide quality healthcare that is affordable and accessible to everyone. He has a track record of innovation that bridges technology and healthcare. Before founding Galileo, he created Epocrates, the very first medical app on Apple's mobile platform, currently used by millions of healthcare professionals to reduce medical errors. He later went on to create One Medical Group, a membership-based primary care practice which IPO’d earlier this year, valued at more than $1.5 billion.

From 2000 to 2007, Lee served as an associate at the University of California, San Francisco. Before that, he was a senior program officer at California HealthCare Foundation.

Lee holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and master’s degree from Stanford University Graduate School of Business. He also holds a medical degree from the University of Washington School of Medicine.

Tom Lee is a true health pioneer whose passion and professional interests are driven by his internal desire to help people. He believes in elevating the quality of healthcare for all. During the fight against COVID-19, he strives to give access to good healthcare to those who need it most.

Apr 22, 202027:57
14. Smriti Keshari - Energy Doesn’t Die

14. Smriti Keshari - Energy Doesn’t Die

Artist and director Smriti Keshari’s work covers a spectrum of the moving image and explores under-represented themes and experiences. Smriti is known for her acclaimed film, the bomb, which has been shown throughout the world and was heralded as a stunning approach to the plea for nuclear disarmament. She is currently working on a five-part multi-media series that delves into the ethical questions surrounding Artificial Intelligence. Her film within this series film debuts this summer. In this interview, Keshari discusses the artist’s role as conduit or translator and the ability to transcend philosophical questions through creation.

Mar 11, 202032:20
13. Steve Hanke - And then, there is the 95% Rule

13. Steve Hanke - And then, there is the 95% Rule

In this episode of Utility + Function, Matthew sits down with world-renowned economist, Prof. Steve Hanke, at his offices at Johns Hopkins University. Prof. Hanke is a leading expert on currency boards, measuring and stopping hyperinflation, privatization, currency and commodity trading, as well as water resource economics. He has advised heads of state, public and private institutions, and U.S. presidents on these issues for several decades. Dr. Hanke is a Professor of Applied Economics and Founder & Co-Director of the Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise at The Johns Hopkins University. He is also a Senior Fellow and Director of the Troubled Currencies Project at the Cato Institute, a Senior Advisor at the Renmin University of China’s International Monetary Research Institute, and a Special Counselor to the Center for Financial Stability.

As a senior economist on President Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers, he led a team of economists in re-writing the federal government’s Principles and Guidelines for Water and Land Related Resources Implementation Studies. Prof. Hanke was responsible for designing President Reagan’s major privatization initiatives.

Prof. Steve Hanke is known for popularizing the term “privatization” and addresses in this episode how the private sector, not government, will innovate to solve the globes most pressing issues. Listen to hear his theories on carbon reduction, open free trade, and reliance on China.

Mar 04, 202001:18:59
12. Angeline Butler - Civil Rights Icon, Musical Force, Living Legend

12. Angeline Butler - Civil Rights Icon, Musical Force, Living Legend

When asked if she is ever disappointed in the way the world is going, Living Legend Professor Angeline Butler is unwavering. "The revolution is never over." 

Angeline Butler is a founding SNCC activist, performer, director, and teacher who has consistently fought for change, whether through her creativity or her activism. Her legacy continues to inspire as a professor at John Jay College and in her involvement in theater production, music, and storytelling. 

***

Angeline Butler is an original coordinator and participant the Nashville Sit-Ins, a founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). She is a coordinator of the 1961 Freedom Rides, a coordinator of voter education and registration drives. Participant in the 1960 Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) “Miami Summer” with James Farmer, an organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, and a participant in the Crisfield, Maryland Movement in December 1961.

Angeline Butler has performed theatrically was featured in over 146 television appearances including “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson” (NBC),” “The Dick Cavett Show” (ABC), “The Virginia Graham Show,” “The Steve Allen Show,” The Mike Douglass Show, The Joey Bishop Show (ABC), A TV Special “Presenting Davy Jones and Angeline Butler”(Syndicated TV), “Nightlife” with Jan Murray and William B Williams (Syndicated TV).

She is currently on the faculty of John Jay College for Criminal Justice in New York. She previously taught as an instructor of Ethnic Studies at the University of Southern California.  Butler also created and coordinated the Ellington Tree Project (1981), and as a director in theatre, she revived Lorraine Hansberry’s Les Blancs.  She was, also, a company member at the Metropolitan Opera from 2003 to 2011 and previously worked at the Los Angeles Opera in 1996-97. Ms. Butler also recorded two albums, one in pop-rock music and one in folk music:  Angeline Butler/Impressions on CoBurt-MGM Records and The Pilgrims/ Just Arrived on Columbia Records (Producer Tom Wilson) with Robert Guilluame, Gilbert Price (and later Millard Williams).

Feb 20, 202055:27
11. Jeff Holden - Inventions Lifeline

11. Jeff Holden - Inventions Lifeline

On today’s episode, Matthew talks to Jeff Holden, the CEO and Co-Founder of Atomic Machines and former CPO of Uber, Senior Vice President of Groupon, and the Senior Vice President of Consumer Websites Worldwide at Amazon. During their conversation, the friends share their thoughts on invention, fatherhood, and big tech. How do children mold one’s thinking? How does one navigate being a mentor that pushes ideas forward? How can large companies keep pushing innovation?

Jan 13, 202001:00:17
10. Stephen Delaporte - To Bot or Not

10. Stephen Delaporte - To Bot or Not

On today’s episode, Matthew talks to  Stephen Delaporte, Founder & CEO of Avar Robotics--whose goal is to create the most high-functioning and efficient robots. During their conversation, the friends share their thoughts on the art of invention. What are the barriers to creating something? What is scientific lineage--an exchange of energy? Delaporte delineates the iteration of the robots his company builds, and what defines a human task versus one that can be easily automated. Sometimes what we don't think of as a human task is incredibly human and  emotionally valuable. 

Jan 07, 202053:04
9. Dan Widmaier - Threads to Sustainability

9. Dan Widmaier - Threads to Sustainability

Bolt Threads' CEO Dan Widmaier sits down with Matthew to discuss their individual evolution from scientist to CEO, the timelines of Startups, how to build a team, and create partnerships.

Dec 16, 201929:17
8. Alexis Gambis - Butterfly Blues

8. Alexis Gambis - Butterfly Blues

Matthew talks to Alexis Gambis, French-Venezuelan biologist and filmmaker, about feeling small when you look through a microscope and how being a director allows one to put a spotlight on our own vulnerabilities. How does science open new territories for film and vice versa?


Nov 15, 201939:10
7. Beth Comstock - That's My Van Gogh!

7. Beth Comstock - That's My Van Gogh!

This week, Matthew interviews Beth Comstock about creativity, freedom, and investigation: how do these impulses translate within an organization and within a life? How does one “justify” or capitalize on creative endeavors in our society? How does one return to childlike creative wonder?

Beth Comstock is an American business executive and the former vice chair of General Electric.She is a member of Nike, Inc's Board of Directors and Trustee president of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Forbes named her one of “The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women” in 2015 and 2016 and PRWeek ranked her among their “Top 20 Most Influential Communicators.”

Beth graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Biology from The College of William and Mary in 1982 and began her career doing local television production in Virginia.

Nov 08, 201956:45
6. Andrew Shearer - How to Grow a Company

6. Andrew Shearer - How to Grow a Company

Today marks Nanotronics' sixth podcast and we are looking inward. It is time for us to ask what makes a startup tick, and who better to talk to than Farmshelf founder and fellow Navy Yard resident, Andrew Shearer. Matthew Putman speaks to Shearer about his experience working in a cherry-packing facility and the twists and turns that led him on his quest to allow everyone to grow their own fresh produce. As a founder, how do you push beyond doubt? Is there a magic formula? "The best founders go that extra mile to help someone else," Shearer says. 

Oct 23, 201952:23
5. Michael Vassar - Does Michael Vassar Dream of Electric Sheep?

5. Michael Vassar - Does Michael Vassar Dream of Electric Sheep?

Michael Vassar, founder of the Singularity Institute among many other accomplishments, speaks to Matthew about Thomas Edison, Climate Change, Railroads, President Lincoln, Modern Times, Alien Invasion, and searches for a happy ending. Thank you for listening!

Oct 16, 201901:01:37
4. Julie Orlando - I Didn't Think There Was Any Way I Couldn't Do it

4. Julie Orlando - I Didn't Think There Was Any Way I Couldn't Do it

Builder, Mentor, Business Leader.

Julie Orlando, Nanotronics CPO, talks to Matthew about building a wooden box for her rare rock collection in kindergarten, taking apart complex machinery at twelve, managing a windshield-wiper factory at 19, cosigning her first patent before graduating college, finding impactful stories to tell about process control, her training in mechanical and polymer engineering, taking over advanced software projects, being a hands-on American manufacturer, nonlinear thinker, world traveller, and so much more. 

A phenomenal person. A wonderful listen.


Production and Direction: Antoine Blake and Cameron Conover, Sound and photography: James Williams

Oct 10, 201938:19