Revisiting Just Mercy (with Bryan Stevenson)

Stay Tuned with Preet | 26 December 2019 | 1h 00m | Listen Later | iTunes
Interview with Bryan Stevenson about his memoir Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, also released as a movie. Discusses his work as a civil rights attorney representing death row prisoners, and challenging racial injustice and mass incarceration.

Richard Meadows – Optionality: How To Make Your Own Luck In Life

Modern Wisdom | 14 January 2021 | 1h 24m | Listen Later | iTunes
Interview with Richard Meadows about his book Optionality: How to Survive and Thrive in a Volatile World. Discusses why you should earn as much money as you can when you’re young, how to make life-changing choices under uncertain conditions, protect against financial disaster, develop a system to create our own luck and more.

This was my favourite book of 2020.

Richard Holmes – The Age of Wonder

Bookclub | 9 April 2019 | 0h 34m | Listen Later | iTunes
Interview with Richard Holmes about his book The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science. Describes the scientific ferment that swept through Britain in the late-18th century and tells stories of the celebrated innovators and their great scientific discoveries: from telescopic sight and the discovery of Uranus to Humphrey Davy’s invention of the miner’s safety lamp, and from the first balloon flight to African exploration.

This is one of my wife’s favourite books.

Noubar Afeyan on the Permission to Leap

Conversations with Tyler | 13 January 2021 | 0h 55m | Listen Later | iTunes
Interview with Noubar Afeyan, co-founder of Moderna and CEO of Flagship Pioneering. Discusses teaching entrepreneurship; predictions on the future of gene editing and CRISPR technology; why the pharmaceutical field can’t be winner takes all; why “basic research” is a poor term; the secret to Boston’s culture of innovation; the potential of plant biotech; the role of systematic processes that include embracing unreasonable propositions and even unreasonable people in exceptional achievement; why Montreal is (still) a special place to him; how his classical pianist mother influenced his musical tastes; his discussion-based approach to ethical dilemmas; how thinking future-backward shapes his approach to business and philanthropy; the blessing and curse of Lebanese optimism; the importance of creating a culture where people can say things that are wrong; what we can all learn by being an American by choice, and more.

Primatologist Frans De Waal Explores What Humans Can Learn From Animal Emotions

On Second Thought | 27 August 2019 | 0h 48m | Listen Later | iTunes
Interview with Frans de Waal about his book Mama’s Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves. Discusses the evidence for animal emotions, how they compare with human emotions, and how this challenges notions of animals as stimulus response machines.

Open: The Story of Human Progress

Cato Daily Podcast | 31 December 2020 | 0h 19m | Listen Later | iTunes
Interview with Johan Norberg about his book Open: The Story of Human Progress. Notwithstanding the backlash against openness in much of the world, Norberg argues that humanity’s embrace of openness is the key to our success.

Amy Stanley on Stranger in the Shogun’s City

New Books Network | 12 November 2020 | 0h 41m | Listen Later | iTunes
Interview with Amy Stanley about her biography Stranger in the Shogun’s City: A Japanese Woman and Her World. Discusses the life of Tsuneno, from growing up in a rural community through her escape to the city of Edo, where she lives in the final decades of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Also covers the historical setting and how Tsuneno’s life tells us more about life, especially the life of women, during this period of Japanese history.

Chris Dixon – The Future of Blockchain at a16z

Capital Allocators | 11 January 2021 | 1h 03m | Listen Later | iTunes
Interview with Chris Dixon about his work on Andreesen Horowitz’s Crypto Funds. Covers his early interest in computers and business; lessons from starting companies and angel investing; new computing platforms; the history of centralized and decentralized computing; development of blockchain technologies; potential killer apps; token basics; and investor perception.