Tag: Science

COVID, Innovation, and Optimism with Matt Ridley

The James Altucher Show | 23 November 2021 | 1h 14m | Listen Later | iTunes | Spotify
Interview with Matt Ridley about his book Viral: The Search for the Origin of COVID-19, co-authored with Alina Chan. Discusses the purpose, and journey of writing the book against the context of his earlier books, especially The Rational Optimist. Considers whether we should be optimistic about the pandemic, whether anything good will come out of it, and why it is so hard to look for the origin of the virus.

Alina Chan: Covid-19: What is the Real Truth? The Origin?

The James Altucher Show | 16 November 2021 | 1h 00m | Listen Later | iTunes | Spotify
Interview with Alina Chan about her book Viral: The Search for the Origin of COVID-19, co-authored with Matt Ridley. Discusses their investigation into the source of covid-19; why Covid-19 is much deadlier than other flu-like diseases; and the role of viruses in the world and whether there could be another virus that can eliminate the covid-19 virus.

Terence Kealey: Research and Development

The Human Progress Podcast | 22 October 2021 | 1h 04m | Listen Later | iTunes | Spotify
Interview with Terence Kealey discussing the origins of innovation and how to sustain it into the future. Sets out the arguments against government funding of research and development.

Jason Munshi-South: Rats and Evolution

Razib Khan’s Unsupervised Learning | 13 August 2021 | 1h 03m | Listen Later | iTunes | Spotify
Interview with Jason Munshi-South about the ecology and genetics of rats. Discusses the brown rat versus other species; their interactions with mice and cats; the origins, phylogeography and genetics of brown rats; and their use as a model organism.

Science in the Time of Cancel Culture

Analysis | 12 July 2021 | 0h 28m | Listen Later | iTunes | Spotify
Michael Muthukrishna speaks to a range of experts to assess the impact of modern social justice movements on scientific research and development. Discusses whether fear of personal or professional harm is strengthening conformism or eviscerating robust intellectual debate; whether open-mindedness on controversial issues can really exist in the scientific community; and whether rigorous public assessment of scientific findings helps to achieve better, more equitable and socially just outcomes.

Why We Sweat

KERA’s Think | 2 August 2021 | 0h 31m | Listen Later | iTunes | Spotify
Interview with Sarah Everts about her book The Joy of Sweat: The Strange Science of Perspiration. Discusses the science of sweat, the many advantages it sweat confers and the industry built to fight our body’s natural function.

The Science and Ethics of Rewriting Our DNA | Jennifer Doudna

The TED Interview | 17 June 2021 | 0h 46m | Listen Later | iTunes
Interview with Jennifer Doudna discussing her pioneering work on CRISPR, how CRISPR works, the remarkable effects CRISPR can have on our lives – from eradicating genetic diseases to slowing the climate crisis – as well as the ethical and moral questions we must grapple with when it comes to changing who we are.

The Beginning of Infinity

Naval | 2 July 2021 | 1h 06m | Listen Later | iTunes
Naval Ravikant and Brett Hall discuss David Deutsch’s book The Beginning of Infinity. Covers the importance of good explanations; that all knowledge is conjectural; the fallibility of mathematical methods; reading the best books over and over again; probability and its relationship to the multiverse; that science is an error-correcting mechanism that should not presume to predict the future from the past; that we tend to pessimism because it’s easy to extrapolate how things will get worse, but it’s rational to be optimistic; and more.