Peter Byrne is an investigative reporter and science writer based in Northern California. His popular biography, The Many Worlds of Hugh Everett III - Multiple Universes, Mutual Assured Destruction, and the Meltdown of a Nuclear Family (Oxford University Press, 2010) was followed by publication of The Everett Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, Collected Works 1957-1980 , (Princeton University Press, 2012), co-edited with philosopher of science, Jeffrey A. Barrett, of UC Irvine. Everett's formu...
Oct 20, 2022•58 min
Jeffrey D. Sachs is a world-renowned economics professor, bestselling author, innovative educator, and global leader in sustainable development. Professor Sachs serves as the Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University and is a University Professor, Columbia's highest academic rank. Steve and Jeffrey discuss: 0:00 Jeffrey Sachs’ experience on the Lancet Commission for COVID-19 13:41 Potential for bioweapons research 19:06 Why a lab leak is plausible 32:38 Possible d...
Oct 06, 2022•55 min
Rob Henderson grew up in foster homes in California, joined the Air Force at 17, attended Yale on the G.I. Bill, and is currently a Gates Fellow at Cambridge University (UK). He is an acute observer of American society and has coined the term Luxury Beliefs to describe ideas and opinions that confer status on the rich at very little cost, while taking a toll on the lower class. Steve and Rob discuss: 00:00 Early life and foster experience 20:21 Rob’s experience in the Air Force 31:26 Transitioni...
Sep 22, 2022•1 hr 52 min
Professor Lyle Goldstein recently retired after 20 years of service on the faculty of the U.S. Naval War College (NWC). During his career at NWC, he founded the China Maritime Studies Institute (CMSI) and has been awarded the Superior Civilian Service Medal for this achievement. He has written or edited seven books on Chinese strategy and is at work on a book-length project that examines the nature of China-Russia relations in the 21st century. He has a longstanding interest in great power polit...
Sep 08, 2022•1 hr 13 min
The guest for this episode is a recent graduate of Harvard College, now pursuing a STEM PhD at another elite university. We have withheld his identity so that he can speak candidly. Steve and his guest discuss: 0:00 Anonymous student’s academic background and admission to Harvard 21:37 Intellectual curiosity at Harvard 29:36 Academic rigor at Harvard and the difference between classes in STEM and the humanities 46:47 Access to tenured professors at Harvard 50:08 The benefits of the Harvard conne...
Aug 25, 2022•1 hr 38 min
Richard Lowery is a professor of finance at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas, Austin. In this conversation, he describes the ideological climate of his university and the consequent negative effects on undergraduate education and freedom of expression on campus. Links: Richard Lowery at UT Austin: https://www.mccombs.utexas.edu/faculty-and-research/faculty-directory/james-lowery/ National Review coverage: https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/a-brave-prof-fights-the-woke...
Jul 28, 2022•1 hr 19 min
Tim Palmer is Royal Society Research Professor in Climate Physics, and a Senior Fellow at the Oxford Martin Institute. He is interested in the predictability and dynamics of weather and climate, including extreme events. He was involved in the first five IPCC assessment reports and was co-chair of the international scientific steering group of the World Climate Research Programme project (CLIVAR) on climate variability and predictability. After completing his DPhil at Oxford in theoretical physi...
Jul 14, 2022•1 hr 10 min
Kishore Mahbubani is Distinguished Fellow at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore. Kishore enjoyed two distinct careers: in diplomacy (1971 to 2004) and in academia (2004 to 2019). He is a prolific writer and speaker on geopolitics and East-West relations. He was twice Singapore’s Ambassador to the UN and served as President of the UN Security Council in January 2001 and May 2002. Mr. Mahbubani joined academia in 2004, when he was appointed the Founding Dean of the Lee K...
Jun 30, 2022•50 min
Gregory Clark is Distinguished Professor of Economics at UC-Davis. He is an editor of the European Review of Economic History, chair of the steering committee of the All-UC Group in Economic History, and a Research Associate of the Center for Poverty Research at Davis. He was educated at Cambridge University and received a PhD from Harvard University. His areas of research are long-term economic growth, the wealth of nations, economic history, and social mobility. Steve and Greg discuss: 0:00 In...
Jun 16, 2022•1 hr 43 min
This interview with John Mearsheimer was conducted in 2020 on the original Manifold podcast with Corey Washington and Steve Hsu. Parts of the conversation are prescient with respect to US-China relations and the situation in Ukraine. John Joseph Mearsheimer is an American political scientist and international relations scholar, who belongs to the realist school of thought. He is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago. He has been described as the mos...
Jun 02, 2022•1 hr 1 min
Theodore A. Postol is professor emeritus of Science, Technology, and International Security at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . He is widely known as an expert on nuclear weapons and missile technology. Educated in physics and nuclear engineering at MIT, he was a researcher at Argonne National Lab, worked at the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, and was scientific advisor to the Chief of Naval Operations. After leaving the Pentagon , Postol helped to build a program at St...
May 19, 2022•1 hr 56 min
Raghu Parthasarathy is the Alec and Kay Keith Professor of Physics at the University of Oregon. His research focuses on biophysics, exploring systems in which the complex interactions between individual components, such as biomolecules or cells, can give rise to simple and robust physical patterns. Raghu is the author of a recent popular science book: So Simple a Beginning: How Four Physical Principles Shape Our Living World. Steve and Raghu discuss: 1:34 - Early life, transition from Physics to...
May 05, 2022•1 hr 21 min
Carl Zha is the host of the Silk and Steel podcast , which focuses on China, history, culture, and politics. He is a former engineer now based in Bali, Indonesia. Find Carl on Twitter @CarlZha . Steve and Carl discuss: 1. Carl’s background: Chongqing to Chicago, Caltech to Bali, Life as a digital nomad 2. Xinjiang (35:20) 3. Ukraine (1:03:51) 4. China-Russia relationship (1:16:01) 5. U.S.-China competition (1:49:26) Music used with permission from Blade Runner Blues Livestream improvisation by S...
Apr 21, 2022•2 hr 10 min
Scott Aaronson is the David J. Bruton Centennial Professor of Computer Science at The University of Texas at Austin , and director of its Quantum Information Center . Previously, he taught for nine years in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. His research interests center around the capabilities and limits of quantum computers, and computational complexity theory more generally. Scott also writes the blog Shtetl Optimized: https://scottaaronson.blog/ Steve and Scott discuss: Scot...
Apr 07, 2022•1 hr 21 min
Sebastian Mallaby is a writer and journalist whose work covers financial markets, international relations, innovation, and technology. He is the author of "The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future." Steve and Sebastian discuss venture capital, tech startups, business model and technology innovation, global adoption of the Silicon Valley model, and the future of innovation. Biography: https://www.cfr.org/expert/sebastian-mallaby https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebastian_Malla...
Mar 24, 2022•1 hr 16 min
Vlatko Vedral is Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford and Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT) at the National University of Singapore . He is known for his research on the theory of Entanglement and Quantum Information Theory . Steve and Vlatko discuss: History of quantum information theory, entanglement, and quantum computing Recent lab experiments that create superposition states of macroscopic objects, including a living creature (tardigrade) Whether quantum me...
Mar 10, 2022•1 hr 15 min
Richard Sander is Jesse Dukeminier Professor at UCLA Law School. AB Harvard, JD, PhD (Economics) Northwestern. Sander has studied the structure and effects of law school admissions policies. He coined the term "Mismatch" to describe negative consequences resulting from large admissions preferences. Topics discussed: 1. Early life: educational background and experience with race and politics in America. 2. Mismatch Theory: basic observation and empirical evidence; Law schools and Colleges; Duke a...
Mar 03, 2022•1 hr 26 min
Shai Carmi is Professor of Statistical and Medical Genetics at Hebrew University (Jerusalem). Carmi Lab: https://scarmilab.org/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShaiCarmi Topics and links: Shai's educational background. From statistical physics and network theory to genomics. Shai's paper on embryo selection: Schizophrenia risk. Modeling synthetic sibling genomes. Variance among sibs vs general population. RRR vs ARR, family history and elevated polygenic risk. (Link to paper: https://www.biorxiv.or...
Feb 24, 2022•1 hr 15 min
Jon Y produces Asianometry, which focuses on Asia technology, finance, and history: Podcast , YouTube channel , and Substack . Steve and Jon discuss the global semiconductor industry with an emphasis on U.S.-China technology competition. Topics discussed: Jon's background and his move to Taipei. Key components of the semiconductor ecosystem: fabs, lithography, chip design. US-China tech war TSMC, ASML, Huawei Taiwan politics: Green and Blue parties, independence PRC invasion / blockade of Taiwan...
Feb 17, 2022•1 hr 34 min
Richard Hanania is President of the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology (CSPI). He is a former Research Fellow at the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University. His interests include personality differences between conservatives and liberals, morality in international politics, machine learning algorithms for text analysis, and American foreign policy. In addition to his academic work, he has written in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The W...
Feb 10, 2022•1 hr 21 min
Steve answers questions about recent progress in AI/ML prediction of complex traits from DNA and applications in embryo selection. Highlights: Overview of recent advances in trait prediction Would cost savings from breast cancer early detection pay for genotyping of all women? How does IVF work? Economics of embryo selection Whole embryo genotyping increases IVF success rates (pregnancy per transfer) significantly Future predictions Some relevant scientific papers: Preimplantation Genetic Testin...
Feb 03, 2022•1 hr 10 min
James Lee is a professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota. He is a leading researcher working in behavior genetics and statistical genetics. In this episode, he discusses recent progress in the genomic prediction of complex traits such as cognitive ability and educational attainment. Lee also discusses his recent Wall Street Journal editorial on embryo selection, Imagine a Future Without Sex. Resources Imagine a Future Without Sex: Reproductive technology may lead us to realize too l...
Jan 25, 2022•1 hr 4 min
Steve and Corey talk to Warren Hatch, President and CEO of Good Judgment Inc. Warren explains what makes someone a good forecaster and how the ability to integrate and assess information allows cognitively diverse teams to outperform prediction markets. The hosts express skepticism about whether the incentives at work in large organizations would encourage the adoption of approaches that might lead to better forecasts. Warren describes the increasing depth of human-computer collaboration in fore...
Jun 11, 2020•1 hr 16 min
Corey and Steve interview Leif Wenar, Professor of Philosophy at Stanford University and author of Blood Oil. They begin with memories of Leif and Corey’s mutual friend David Foster Wallace and end with a discussion of John Rawls and Robert Nozick (Wenar’s thesis advisor at Harvard, and a friend of Steve’s). Corey asks whether Leif shares his view that analytic philosophy had become too divorced from wider intellectual life. Leif explains his effort to re-engage philosophy in the big issues of o...
Jun 04, 2020•1 hr 30 min
Steve and Corey speak with Dr. Michael Kauffman, co-founder and CEO of Karyopharm Therapeutics, about cancer and biotech innovation. Michael explains how he and Dr. Sharon Schacham tested her idea regarding nuclear-transport using simulation software on a home laptop, and went on to beat 1000:1 odds to create a billion dollar company. They discuss the relationship between high proprietary drug costs and economic incentives for drug discovery. They also discuss the unique US biotech ecosystem, an...
May 28, 2020•1 hr 24 min
Corey and Steve talk to Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert and author of Loserthink. Steve reviews some of Scott’s predictions, including of Trump’s 2016 victory. Scott (who once semi-humorously described himself as “left of Bernie”) describes what he describes as Trump’s unique “skill stack”. Scott highlights Trump’s grasp of the role of psychology in economics, and maintains that honesty requires admitting that we do not know whether many of Trump’s policies are good or bad. Scott explains why he...
May 21, 2020•1 hr 18 min
Steve and Corey talk to James Oakes, Distinguished Professor of History and Graduate School Humanities Professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, about “The 1619 Project” developed by The New York Times Magazine. The project argues that slavery was the defining event of US history. Jim argues that slavery was actually the least exceptional feature of the US and that what makes the US exceptional is that it is where abolition first begins. Steve wonders about the views o...
May 14, 2020•1 hr 21 min
Steve and Corey talk with Robert Atkinson, President of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation about his philosophy of National Developmentalism. They discuss the history of industrial policy and mercantilism in the US and China. Why did the US lose 1/3 of its manufacturing jobs in the 2000s? How much was due to automation and how much to Chinese competition? Atkinson discusses US R&D and recommends policies that will help the US compete with China. Other topics: Forced technol...
May 07, 2020•1 hr 21 min
Steve and Corey talk with theoretical physicist Raman Sundrum. They discuss the last 30 years in fundamental physics, and look toward the next. Raman argues that Physics is a marketplace of ideas. While many theories did not stand the test of time, they represented avenues that needed to be explored. Corey expresses skepticism about the possibility of answering questions such as why the laws of physics have the form they do. Raman and Steve argue that attempts to answer such questions have led t...
Apr 30, 2020•1 hr 19 min
Steve and Corey talk with theoretical physicist turned hedge fund investor Vineer Bhansali. Bhansali describes his transition from physics to finance, his firm LongTail Alpha, and his recent outsize returns from the coronavirus financial crisis. Also discussed: derivatives pricing, random walks, helicopter money, and Modern Monetary Theory. Resources Transcript LongTail Alpha LongTail Alpha’s OneTail Hedgehog Fund II had 929% Return (Bloomberg) A New Anomaly Matching Condition? (1993)...
Apr 23, 2020•1 hr 22 min
