Best Matthew Putman Podcasts (2024)

1
Peter Thiel // The Diversity Myth, 30 Years Later 1:08:53

12M ago1:08:53

1:08:53

Nearly 30 years after publishing “The Diversity Myth,” Peter Thiel sits down with Mike Solana to unpack what the book got right and wrong. Thiel argues that social distractions have stunted scientific progress, slowed economic growth and weakened our geopolitical standing. How did anti-Western rhetoric popularized on college campuses in the 90s mor…

1
Chris Miller: Unpacking the Chip War 33:26

1+ y ago33:26

33:26

Chris Miller is Associate Professor of International History at Tufts University, where his research focuses on technology, geopolitics, economics, international affairs, and Russia. He is author of Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology, a geopolitical history of the computer chip. He is the author of three other books on Rus…

1
Anwaar AlMahmeed: Solving the false scarcity problem 59:24

1+ y ago59:24

59:24

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 (…

1
Zoe Weinberg: On the future of our informational democracy 1:03:27

1+ y ago1:03:27

1:03:27

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. …

1
Tom Irvine: Sensory Data and Operational Jazz 1:46:22

1+ y ago1:46:22

1:46:22

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…

1
Björn Lomborg: Climate Change, Public Spheres, and Technological Solutions 47:07

2y ago47:07

47:07

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,…

1
Serge Faguet: Who are we, what have we accomplished, and where are we going? 1:43:25

2y ago1:43:25

1:43:25

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 onboardin…

1
K. Eric Drexler: Envisioning Abundance Through Artificial Worlds 40:28

2y ago40:28

40:28

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. H…

1
S3-E2: Andre Watson: Personalized Medicine, Our Antidotal Future 1:06:28

2y ago1:06:28

1:06:28

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, revolution…

1
Ranjit Singh: Seeing through the Database 1:38:15

2y ago1:38:15

1:38:15

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 da…

1
S2. E18. George Kurtz - Thrill of Entrepreneurship 53:45

3y ago53:45

53:45

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 …

1
E 17. Gaurab Chakrabarti - Understanding the White Space of the Unknown 1:07:58

3y ago1:07:58

1:07:58

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 d…

1
E 16. Henrik Fisker - Designing for Experience 30:44

3y ago30:44

30:44

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, Ast…

1
E 15. Gerald Posner - Investigating For Truth 1:47:14

3y ago1:47:14

1:47:14

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 indi…

1
E14. Gustav Söderström - The Evolution of Music 1:32:21

3+ y ago1:32:21

1:32:21

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. Sö…

1
E13. Kate Darling - Robots: Sufficiently Like Us 48:44

3+ y ago48:44

48:44

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 desi…

1
E12. TONY ARCABASCIO - From ALife to the AI-Life 1:07:58

3+ y ago1:07:58

1:07:58

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…

1
S2 - E11 - Sarah Williams - Reimagining Cities 1:30:03

3+ y ago1:30:03

1:30:03

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 br…

1
E 10. Shawanna Vaughn - Strength in Community 45:08

3+ y ago45:08

45:08

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,…

1
E9. Alan Murray - Task Above Ego 1:05:16

3+ y ago1:05:16

1:05:16

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 o…

1
E8. Kweku Mandela - Considering Ourselves Human 1:03:25

3+ y ago1:03:25

1:03:25

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 M…

1
E7. Béla Fleck - The Rights Of The Noble Banjo 1:10:31

3+ y ago1:10:31

1:10:31

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 musi…

1
Patri Friedman // Starting Over 33:22

3+ y ago33:22

33:22

What if we just... left? The challenges facing our cities are enormous. Our problems could take years to correct, or decades. The purpose of this season is to explore new ways to reinvigorate our cities, but it's worth entertaining the alternative. What if we built something new, from the foundation up? I sat down with Patri Friedman, founder of bo…

1
Robert Poole // Gridlock 33:01

3+ y ago33:01

33:01

Why is the traffic so bad? And why is so hard to build new transportation infrastructure? Robert Poole is the co-founder and director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation, and the author of Rethinking America’s Highways. We talked about congestion, variable pricing, light rail, tunnel boring machines, and why they don’t seem to work in our…

1
6. Juan Martín Maldacena - Into the Juan Dimension: Black Holes, Quantum Gravity, and String Theory 1:04:27

3+ y ago1:04:27

1:04:27

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 …

1
5. Peter Singer - Global Access To Knowledge 1:01:04

3+ y ago1:01:04

1:01:04

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. …

1
4. Janna Levin - Periphery of Comprehensible 1:37:23

4y ago1:37:23

1:37:23

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 spa…

1
3. Vijay Kumar - Coordination, Cooperation, Collaboration 1:17:32

4y ago1:17:32

1:17:32

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 Scie…

1
Garrett Langley // Standing Guard 37:08

4y ago37:08

37:08

Flock Safety is building a national network of security cameras monitoring neighborhood traffic. In some cities, their work has been instrumental in reducing property crime by as much as 70 percent. In this episode of Anatomy of Next, Mike Solana sits down with Garrett Langley, the CEO and founder of Flock. They talk about the network — where it ca…

1
2. Lee Smolin - Discovering New Methods 1:14:53

4y ago1:14:53

1:14:53

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 relat…

1
ASYLUM #3 — Trivial Pursuit 41:02

4y ago41:02

41:02

In San Francisco, how does government work? Who is in charge, what can they do — structurally, what are they actually capable of? — and most importantly: what are they focused on? A look at our Board of Supervisors, its apparent war on growth (and possibly tech), and an argument for moving forward (spoiler alert: you just have to vote (sorry))Featu…

1
1. Caroline Buckee - Digging Through The Data 56:19

4y ago56:19

56:19

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 …

1
26. James Gimzewski - Faith in Rarity 1:36:46

4y ago1:36:46

1:36:46

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 NanoAr…

1
25. Joscha Bach - Asking The Right Questions 1:51:36

4y ago1:51:36

1:51:36

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 …

1
Daniela Perdomo // A New Signal 30:55

4y ago30:55

30:55

There's almost nothing more terrifying than losing communication in the heat of a blazing wildfire. In recent months, California has been brought to its knees by natural disaster. Now more than ever we need the help of our firefighters, and to keep them safe. An entirely centralized communication infrastructure is a single point of failure we just …

1
24. Scott Aaronson - Before and After The Machine 1:11:41

4y ago1:11:41

1:11:41

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 comp…

1
23. Jill Neimark - Marveling at Nature’s Resilience 50:27

4y ago50:27

50:27

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…

1
Fnnch // Brand New Paint Job 42:41

4y ago42:41

42:41

Who owns our streets? Our bus and train stops? Our public walls and public parks? If public property truly belongs to the public, can members of the public (which is to say: us) do with our property whatever we want? And on the absolute ground floor, can we not just... make it all look a little bit nicer? Fnnch is an artist based in San Francisco, …

1
22. Stephon Alexander - The Music of Spheres 1:25:49

4y ago1:25:49

1:25:49

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 …

1
21. Gary Marcus - AI Builder, AI Skeptic 50:58

4y ago50:58

50:58

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 …

1
20. Anima Anandkumar - The Immediate and Future Impact of How We Build AI 1:08:42

4y ago1:08:42

1:08:42

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 i…

1
Matthew Putman // Nano City 37:09

4y ago37:09

37:09

Consider the computer mouse. It takes a massive, sprawling, global system, and thousands of parts and people from all over the world, many months, or even years after conceptualization, and design, to get that product to your desk. But what if you could do it all in a "factory" the size of your one-bedroom apartment… in a building down the street? …

1
19. Pamela McCorduck - History of Artificial Intelligence 47:18

4y ago47:18

47:18

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 artific…

1
Alexis Rivas // House Factory 21:20

4y ago21:20

21:20

Separate from our government's anti-housing policies, a big piece of our crisis in affordability comes down to the way we think about new homes. In Japan, for example, where housing is significantly more affordable, newer homes are far more popular than older homes, and this has galvanized both construction and prefabrication. At scale, this reduce…

1
18. Joe Pistone, the Real Donnie Brasco 28:40

4y ago28:40

28:40

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…

1
17. Najee Dorsey - Building Together 53:56

4y ago53:56

53:56

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 …

1
ASYLUM #2 — Legalize Housing 52:49

4y ago52:49

52:49

The housing crisis is the root of almost every serious challenge San Francisco faces. From property to construction to regulation, when it’s possible to build at all it’s too expensive to meaningfully increase supply. Because it’s too expensive to build here, most people can’t afford to live here. So let’s get into it: why does the housing crisis e…

1
16. Stephen Wolfram - Inevitable, Beautiful Connections 2:02:08

4y ago2:02:08

2:02:08

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 h…

1
Andrew Farah // Density 24:43

4y ago24:43

24:43

Almost every infrastructural challenge our cities face begins with the question of density. How many people are actually in the city? Where are they spending their time? Which trains are overcrowded? What about parks? Sidewalk traffic? San Francisco has one of the worst housing crises in history. Which of our buildings are being used at capacity? W…

1
Ryan Delk // School is Not a Place 31:52

4+ y ago31:52

31:52

Ryan Delk is the founder and CEO of Primer, a company rethinking the way we educate our children, beginning with tools to help out homeschoolers. If we started over today, with today's technology, with today's educational research, and with everything we’ve learned about learning this past century — if you could start our approach to education over…

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