Ep. 72 — She went from a childhood filled with fears to becoming a fearless stunt performer and wilderness adventurer / Alice Ford, stunt actor and producer/host of “Alice’s Adventures.” Alice Ford has had a long and evolving relationship with fear. An all-star gymnast, athlete, track and field runner, and diver, Ford’s life path came to a dead-end…

On March 7, 2022, The front page of the New York Times ran a graphic photograph that summed up the tragic cost of Russia’s war on innocent Ukrainian civilians. It was a photograph of a mother, her two children, and a church volunteer crumpled to the ground. They were the victims of a Russian mortar attack on civilians as they attempted to flee over…

Ep. 71 — A failed apprentice farmer turns into a renowned futurist / Thomas Frey, Founder and Executive Director, DaVinci Institute & Co-host, Futurati Podcast. Born on a grain farm in South Dakota, Thomas Frey was an unlikely candidate to become a world-renowned futurist and public speaker. But then one day, when he was four years old, Frey’s pare…

Ep. No. 70 — He built a career path at the age of eight to become a U.S. Air Force combat pilot and safe-keeper of U.S. nuclear weapons / Maj Gen Robert Wheeler, USAF (ret), CEO, Strategic Consulting Unlimited. When Robert Wheeler was just 8 years old, his mother took him to the Chicago Air Show. It changed his life. From that moment on, Wheeler be…

Ep. No. 69 — A battered, bloodied, police officer proves her mettle during the January 6th insurrection on the U.S. Capitol / Officer Caroline Edwards, U.S. Capitol Police (USCP). Officer Caroline Edwards of the U.S. Capitol Police’s First Responder Unit reported for duty on January 6, 2021, along with her colleagues, with little warning from her s…

Russia’s war on Ukraine has turned a lot of assumptions about the fundamental nature and trajectory of how wars are fought, on its head. For one thing, Ukraine’s strong defense has upended conventional wisdom about big powers being able to violate at will the sovereignty of little powers. Technology, in particular, drones, has also leveled the play…

Ep. 68 — He survived a near-fatal shooting by a hitman hired by his ex-wife to become one of Hollywood’s top stuntmen / Garrett Warren, Stunt Actor/Director. On May 20, 2000, Hollywood stuntman Garrett Warren was hanging out at his home in Westlake Village, California with his mom when the doorbell rang insistently. When Warren opened the door, he …

Ep. 67 — He built a successful startup while waging a life-threatening battle against bipolar disorder / Andy Dunn, Co-founder, Bonobos, and Author, “Burn Rate: Launching A Startup And Losing My Mind.” Andy Dunn would never have predicted that he would wind up naked and writhing on the floor of Bellevue Hospital’s psychiatric Emergency Room in New …

Do you want to be a writer but suffer from writer’s block? I know I often do! Well, my guest today may have the perfect solution for us — the world’s first AI-powered writing and publishing platform — that she says will help you put words 3x faster on the page, and transform the future of writing, publishing, and connecting. The AI platform is the …

Ep. No. 66 — Fired by President Donald Trump, a distinguished diplomat helps impeach him and reclaims her narrative / Marie Yovanovitch, Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine and author, “Lessons from the Edge”. On April 24, 2019, in the dead of night, with no explanation, Marie Yovanovitch got a call from the U.S State Department, essentially removing…

This past April, the FBI disclosed an astonishing fact about the breach of the blockchain behind the popular “play to earn” game Axie Infinity a few weeks earlier. The FBI said the hackers who stole $615 million dollars in cryptocurrency were, in fact, from the group “Lazarus” which has direct ties to the government of North Korea. To add insult to…

Ep. 65 — An epiphany in Peru results in a kidnapping in Mexico that galvanizes the evolution of a fair trade social entrepreneur / Patrick Struebi, Founder & Executive Chairman, Fairtrasa. Patrick Struebi was eager to fly home to Switzerland on one of his periodic visits after spending eight years in Mexico establishing Fairtrasa, one of the world’…

Ep. No. 64 — Disobeying his boss turned a humanitarian crisis into a calling / Sasha Chanoff, CEO and Founder, RefugePoint and Co-Author, “From Crisis to Calling: Finding Your Moral Center in the Toughest Decisions”. In 2000, refugee expert and humanitarian aid worker Sasha Chanoff was in the Congo on a mission to evacuate a very specific set of Tu…

Ep. No. 63 — Kidnapped and held hostage by drug kingpin Pablo Escobar revealed the best and worst of humanity / Francisco Santos Calderón, former Vice President of Colombia and former Colombian Ambassador to the United States. For months, Pablo Escobar, notorious head of the Medellín drug cartel and journalist Francisco Santos Calderon — one of his…

With Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine — resulting in what’s become the first war to be largely televised and video-recorded — Ukraine has become Ground Zero for how technology is reshaping history’s narratives and the story of politics, war and conflict. I have two great guests to talk about how technology is shaping human history and how it…

It’s no secret that Russia has become the world’s playground for ransomware groups —- and that America is target #1. The threat of ransomware attacks on U.S. businesses and critical infrastructure recently took an ominous turn when a prominent Russian ransomware group named Conti — threatened to attack any nation or organization retaliating against…

“Accountants with guns” — These are the special agents of the Criminal Investigation division of the Internal Revenue Service. There’s 2,000 of them. And they have not only plenty of firepower, but they’re also armed with the sole mandate across the US Government to investigate violations of federal tax laws and related crimes. For more than a cent…

Ep. 62: She went from poverty in communist-era Poland to becoming the artist of choice of Silicon Valley billionaires for her renaissance-inspired conceptual art of machines and robots/ Agnieszka Pilat, Conceptual Artist.Born in the shadow of communism, in the grip of poverty, in the cradle of post-industrial Central Poland, Agnieska Pilat acted on…

Ep. 61 — He became a celebrated anti-landmine crusader after a horrific landmine accident but then began questioning his superhero narrative / Jerry White, Nobel Peace Laureate / Author / Professor of Practice, University of Virginia.In 1984, Jerry White went to Israel for his junior year, “study abroad” program at Hebrew University. On their sprin…

Ep. 60 — How history, geography, lineage, and duty converged to shape this retired four-star General’s decorated career / James L. Jones, Commandant, United States Marine Corps, Commander, United States European Command, Former Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, & Chairman, Jones Group International.It was by no means pre-ordained but perhaps it was…

Ep. 59 — A Portuguese Roman Catholic janitor and immigrant to Canada becomes the “Bar Mitzvah Photography king” of Montreal / Braulio Rocha, Photographer & Co-Founder, Rocha Studio.I thought it would be so nice to start the New Year with a heartwarming success story. This is the rags-to-riches journey of a Portuguese Roman Catholic immigrant to Can…

Welcome to the final episode of Season 1 of Techtopia! I thought it would be appropriate to end the year as we began it, talking about Covid-19 and its pernicious impact on our lives, psyche, and the healthcare system at large. Hard as it may seem to imagine, we’re now entering year three of COVID-19 with a new variant, Omicron, upending lives glob…

Jeffrey Epstein never faced the consequences for allegedly trafficking dozens of girls, some as young as age 14, and engaging in sex acts with them. He committed suicide in jail 35 days after he was arrested, avoiding a trial and potentially, half a century in prison for his evil actions. Now, however, more than two years later, at the Thurgood Mar…

The world is engaged in a new form of war — this one centered around the technology called artificial intelligence — which, put simply — is the science and art of making machines more human. But at what cost? The race to dominate in Artificial Intelligence, also known as the global AI arms race has deep implications for how our society evolves in t…

Ep. 58 — A shocking loss leads a grieving daughter and budding communications leader to rethink the meaning of human connectivity / Susan McPherson, founder and CEO of McPherson Strategies, and author, “The Lost Art of Connecting: The Gather, Ask, Do Method for Building Meaningful Relationships.”When Susan McPherson was 22 years old, her parents we…

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has been on the forefront of some of the biggest technological innovations in history. At the same time, the so-called, defense industrial complex — that is, DoD, in cahoots with the big legacy defense contractors or the so-called “Beltway Bandits” — have also built some of the most expensive, bloated, and bungl…

As we approach the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, the frenetic U..S. pullout of Afghanistan under dangerous conditions has reopened the wounds of those strikes and once again raises the specter of al Qaeda and ISIS taking root in Afghan soil — posing new global threats to American security and those of our allies for d…

Ep. 57 — The Journalist and Author who Predicted the Rise of Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda Examines the Legacy of the 9/11 Mastermind and the Global Jihad that he Spawned / Peter Bergen, CNN National Security Analyst & Author, “The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden.”In 1983, a British university student named Peter Bergen traveled to Pakistan with tw…

Ep. 56 — A Retired Police Executive Returns to Duty to Help Rebuild the United States Capitol Police after the Violent January 6 Insurrection / J. Thomas Manger, USCP Chief of Police.After 42 years in policing, including for two of the largest police agencies in the National Capital Region, J. Thomas Manger had retired and was enjoying his life as …

As the situation in Afghanistan deteriorates with shocking speed, tens of thousands of Americans and Afghan citizens — who’ve worked closely with Americans over the past two decades, are confronting perilous conditions as they try to reach the Kabul airport and leave the country. Major news organizations are trying to extract both U.S. and fellow A…

The world’s wireless systems are going through a major technology transformation through fifth-generation cellular networks — known as 5G for short. In addition to lightning-speed downloads for your smartphones, and faster speeds for your favorite streaming videos, 5G is expected to help the growth and adoption of other cutting-edge technologies su…

Ever since the disease was recognized more than 100 years ago, patients with Alzheimer’s, and their families and caregivers, have longed for an effective drug for this brutal and tragic disease. But last month, when the Food and Drug Administration finally approved a drug named Aduhelm for use as the first Alzheimer’s drug in 18 years, there was li…

For decades, like in many other sports, track and field athletes and coaches have been stymied by their inability to easily use analytics to help athletes reach their highest potential, with their performance data trapped largely in paper silos. In the lead-up to the Tokyo Summer Olympics, Seattle-based startup Zelos has integrated roughly 20 milli…

Over the past seven months, non-fungible tokens or NFTs have captured the world’s imagination and hype cycle, especially after the digital artist known as Beeple sold an NFT, which is a blockchain-verified proof of transfer of ownership, for one of his prints, for a record $69 million. Since then, demand for these types of collectible digital art h…

After decades of secrecy, the US Government last week shared a new report about unidentified flying objects or UFOs and the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligence. The bottom line: more studies are needed, the report said, raising more questions than it answered. Renowned astrophysicist Adam Frank says there’s little evidence to show a correl…

UFOs are back in the news. After decades of secrecy, the American public and especially UFO-believers are waiting for a report from the Defense Department to Congress this month. The report is expected to reveal what our military, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies know, and don’t know, about unidentified aerial phenomena or UAPs. That’s th…

Ep. 55 — A fighter pilot and great-granddaughter of a SciFi pioneer sees a UFO and connects with the vast community of UFO believers / Lt. Cmdr. Alex Dietrich, U.S. Navy (retired).Lt. Cmdr. Alex Dietrich was going about her business this spring, getting ready to retire from active duty as one of the first female fighter pilots in the US. Then she g…

COVID-19 virtually overnight changed the tone, tenor, and texture of cities, bringing the global economy to a slow grind and forcing people to retreat into bubbles, silos, and pods, and remote work — connected mainly through social media and Zoom. Now, as we slowly start to get a grip on the virus and think about reopening society, what will the lo…

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the entertainment industry was being upended by the rapid pace of streaming and other technology. Then COVID-19 hit, shuttering movie theaters, shutting down the world, and driving people into their homes and in front of our television screens, where we’ve largely remained over this past year. The pandemic has bee…

Technology is shaking up the news media — as content creators of every ilk and genre have taken advantage of the digital revolution, commoditizing content and forever blurring the lines between e-commerce and content, news and entertainment, information and disinformation. One media executive who saw the digital revolution coming long before others…

Ep. 54 — How writing a best-selling book on the deadly 1918 influenza pandemic positioned this author to become a prescient thought leader on the COVID-19 pandemic / John M. Barry, Author, Distinguished Scholar, Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.John Barry remembers the exact moment he gave up his boyhood dream of doing medical r…

When tech entrepreneur Anjana Rajan joined Polaris as its Chief Technology Officer last year, she thought she was setting aside her prior focus on domestic terrorism to help Polaris with its core mission of fighting human trafficking. But then Rajan learned the far-right conspiracy group QAnon had been making outlandish human trafficking allegation…

For nine years, Vanessa Slavich took a traditional, reactive, “whack-a-mole” approach to manage her battle against a rare and aggressive tumor, working with highly specialized doctors operating in various treatment silos. Frustrated with the outcomes, this year, Slavich is taking a new more proactive and strategic approach. She’s using her career i…

The extraordinary scientific and technological innovations around the COVID-19 vaccines have enabled the U.S. government and governments around the world to deploy multiple vaccines against the lethal virus — allowing a gradual reopening of society and return to a new normal. What do we need to do to defeat COVID-19 once and for all and how can tec…

A large number of women participated in the rioting at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 by violent supporters of former President, Donald Trump. Some allegedly played a key role in plotting the protests and two of the five people killed in the riots were women. How have women exploited technology to expand their reach and influence in the alt-right mo…

There’s a global semiconductor chip shortage brought on by the massive supply chain disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And it’s hurting U.S. industries in a big way. President Joe Biden recently signed an executive order to try to help industries ranging from medical supplies to electric vehicles, that have been affected by this shortage. Bu…

What’s causing Bitcoin mania and massive investments in cryptocurrency by institutional investors? Perianne Boring, Founder and President of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, explains the economic and geo-political forces at play. Read the Transcript Download the PDF Chitra Ragavan: Well, Bitcoin mania is sweeping the world. Investors, big and small…

How did technology fuel the explosive birth and growth of the nationalistic extremist movements fueled by former President Donald Trump? How does it compare to the proliferation of foreign terrorist threats? And how can the U.S. government wield technology to combat domestic radicalization? Anne Speckhard, Director of the International Center for t…

Ep.53 — A journalist upends her life and career to help identify and bring to justice the network of militants who murdered her friend and fellow correspondent at The Wall Street, Daniel Pearl / Asra Nomani, journalist, author, activist and co-founder, The Pearl Project.On January 23rd, 2002, Asra Nomani was waiting at her home in Karachi, Pakistan…

How did technology fuel the conspiracy theories that resulted in the unprecedented sacking of the U.S. Capitol on January 6th by violent Donald Trump supporters? Joseph Coohill, professor of modern world history and host of the popular Professor Buzzkill History Podcast offers perspectives on how this event compares to others in history and its imp…