Africa has often been regarded as a recipient of science, technology, and innovation (or STI) rather than a maker of them. In the book "What Do Science, Technology, and Innovation Mean from Africa?", scholars from a range of disciplines show that STI in Africa is not merely the product of "technology transfer" from elsewhere, but the working of African knowledge. Their contributions focus on African ways of looking, meaning-making, and creating. The authors see Africans as intellectual agents wh...
Feb 15, 2022•44 min•Ep. 216
When Damon Tweedy began medical school, he envisioned a bright future where his segregated, working-class background would become largely irrelevant. Instead, he found that he had joined a new world where race was front and center. The recipient of a scholarship designed to increase black student enrollment, Tweedy soon met a professor who bluntly questioned whether he belonged in medical school, a moment that crystallized the challenges he would face throughout his career. Making matters worse,...
Feb 11, 2022•48 min•Ep. 215
Stephanie Hicks, PhD is a Lecturer at the Program on Intergroup Relations at the University of Michigan and completed her master's degree and PhD in Educational Policy Studies – Social Foundations at the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Stephanie sat down with Google to unpack what it means to be Black in America and discusses the catalysts, realizations and misperceptions of the Black experience through the lens of her own personal experiences and her studies on in...
Feb 08, 2022•32 min•Ep. 214
Belva Davis is a history-maker, an award-winning journalist, and a pioneering feminist. She has traveled the world reporting on politics, terrorism, racial and gender issues, and the role of art and culture in increasing human understanding. From her hardscrabble beginnings in the Deep South during the Great Depression, she broke into journalism and made the move from segregated newspaper and radio work, becoming the first black woman hired as a commercial television news reporter on the West Co...
Feb 04, 2022•54 min•Ep. 213
This week, Jordan Clarkson visits Google to discuss his NBA career & how his Filipino-American heritage has shaped his journey along the way. After foregoing his senior year in college to enter the 2014 NBA draft, Jordan Clarkson was selected by the Washington Wizards with the No. 46 overall pick and was immediately traded to the Los Angeles Lakers. In his first year, he was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team, a rarity for a second round pick. In 2018 Clarkson was traded to the Cleveland...
Feb 01, 2022•49 min•Ep. 212
Born in 1975 in the Himalayan border regions between Tibet and Nepal, Mingyur Rinpoche is among the generation of Tibetan lamas trained outside of Tibet, and he's also a gifted meditator. His brain activity has been measured during meditation, earning him the nickname of "happiest man on earth." He fuses scientific and spiritual considerations, explaining meditation as a physical as well as a spiritual process. Mingyur gknows from experience that meditation can change the brain. He experienced p...
Jan 28, 2022•55 min•Ep. 211
This episode we speak with author & entrepreneur Mo Gawdat about his book "Scary Smart." Artificial intelligence is smarter than humans. It can process information at lightning speed and remain focused on specific tasks without distraction. AI can see into the future, predicting outcomes and even use sensors to see around physical and virtual corners. So why does AI frequently get it so wrong? The answer is us. Humans design the algorithms that define the way that AI works, and the processed...
Jan 25, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 210
Cary Elwes stoped by YouTube Headquarters for a discussion about his book, "As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of the Princess Bride." This first-person account and behind-the-scenes look at the making of the cult classic film is filled with never-before-told stories, exclusive photographs, and interviews with costars Robin Wright, Wallace Shawn, Billy Crystal, Christopher Guest, and Mandy Patinkin, as well as author and screenwriter William Goldman, producer Norman Lear, and direc...
Jan 21, 2022•41 min•Ep. 209
In celebration of #IamRemarkable Week, Ibtihaj Muhammad discusses her journey, values and career as an award winning fencing athlete and Olympian. Ibtihaj Muhammad is an entrepreneur, activist, speaker and Olympic medalist in fencing. A 2016 Olympic bronze medalist, 5-time Senior World medalist and World Champion, in 2016, Ibtihaj became the first American woman to compete in the Olympics in hijab. In 2017, Mattel announced their first hijabi Barbie, modeled in Ibtihaj's likeness, as part of Bar...
Jan 18, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 208
When Temple Grandin was born in 1947, autism had only just been named. Today it is more prevalent than ever, with one in 88 children diagnosed on the spectrum. Our thinking about it has undergone a transformation in her lifetime: Autism studies have moved from the realm of psychology to neurology and genetics, and there is far more hope today than ever before thanks to groundbreaking new research into causes and treatments. Now, Dr. Temple Grandin reports from the forefront of autism science, br...
Jan 14, 2022•1 hr•Ep. 207
Neal Brennan is an Emmy nominated writer, director, producer, standup comedian, and co-creator of Comedy Central's legendary Chappelle's Show . This week, Neal visits Google to discuss his career journey and his comedy show Unacceptable . In his new theatrical comedy show Neal Brennan: Unacceptable , Neal meticulously examines his own defects, attempting to understand his baffling inability to fit into a group and the alienation that comes along with it. Incorporating true stories from childhood...
Jan 11, 2022•53 min•Ep. 206
Foreign Policy managing editor and former CNN South Asia bureau chief Ravi Agrawal takes us on a journey across India, through remote rural villages and massive metropolises, to highlight how one tiny device - the smartphone - is effecting staggering changes across all facets of Indian life. The rise of smartphones, and with them access to the internet, has caused nothing short of a revolution in India. In the West, technological advances have progressed step-by-step - from dial-up Internet conn...
Jan 07, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 205
In celebration of #IamRemarkable Week, Dr. Jane Goodall discusses her podcast "Hopecast", and the moral and spiritual convictions that have driven her during her career journey as a researcher. For the past 30 years, Dr. Goodall has been speaking about the threats facing chimpanzees, other environmental crises, and her reasons for hope that humankind will solve the problems it has imposed on the earth. In July 1960, Dr. Jane Goodall began her landmark study of chimpanzee behavior in what is now ...
Jan 04, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 204
Can reading a book make you more rational? Can it help you understand why there is so much irrationality in the world? These are the goals of Rationality, Steven Pinker's follow-up to to his book Enlightenment Now. In the 21st century, humanity is reaching new heights of scientific understanding—and at the same time, appears to be losing its mind. How can a species that developed vaccines for Covid-19 in less than a year also produce so much fake news, medical quackery, and conspiracy theorizing...
Dec 21, 2021•59 min•Ep. 203
Few American chefs, much less female chefs, can say they've run Michelin-starred restaurants abroad. Chef Alexandra Guarnaschelli can make such a boast, having embarked on a culinary journey in France that saw her working in some of that country's top restaurants, including esteemed chef Guy Savoy's eponymous three-star kitchen. In 2003, Guarnaschelli became the executive chef at Butter Restaurant in New York City , which provided the opportunity for her to develop a menu based on her own choice...
Dec 17, 2021•54 min•Ep. 202
Award-winning journalist Katie Couric discusses her recent book "Going There", the fast-paced, emotional, riveting story of a thoroughly modern woman, whose journey took her from humble origins to superstardom. Katie Couric is a New York Times best-selling author and a co-founder of Stand Up To Cancer. Since its launch in 2008, Stand Up To Cancer has raised more than $600 million to support cutting edge collaborative science, and its research has contributed to nine new FDA approved therapies. I...
Dec 14, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 201
Nightline anchor Dan Harris embarks on an unexpected, hilarious, and deeply skeptical odyssey through the strange worlds of spirituality and self-help, and discovers a way to get happier that is truly achievable. After having a nationally televised panic attack on Good Morning America, Dan Harris knew he had to make some changes. A lifelong nonbeliever, he found himself on a bizarre adventure, involving a disgraced pastor, a mysterious self-help guru, and a gaggle of brain scientists. Eventually...
Dec 10, 2021•53 min•Ep. 200
Sanjay Gupta, MD discusses "World War C: Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic and How to Prepare for the Next One", his new book that offers the unvarnished story behind the pandemic, including insights about the novel virus's behavior, and practical tools to ready ourselves for what lies ahead. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is CNN's multiple Emmy Award–winning chief medical correspondent and the host of the acclaimed podcasts Coronavirus: Fact vs Fiction and Chasing Life, America's go-to resource for advice o...
Dec 07, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 199
NASA is on a journey to Mars, and we are closer to reaching the Red Planet with human explorers than we have ever been in our history. Across the country, and around the world, NASA and its partners are working right now on the technologies and missions that will enable human "boots on Mars" in the 2030s. Humanity is currently testing advanced technologies for the next giant leaps of space exploration. From solar electric propulsion to cutting edge life support systems, to the first crops grown ...
Dec 03, 2021•58 min•Ep. 198
In 1925, a young student named Werner Heisenberg retreated to an island archipelago on the north coast of Germany called Helgoland to escape a terrible bout of hay fever. On the treeless, pollen-free island, Heisenberg made crucial breakthroughs for the creation of quantum mechanics, setting off a century of scientific revolution. Full of alarming ideas such as ghost waves, distant objects that seem to be magically connected, and cats that appear to be both dead and alive, quantum physics has le...
Nov 30, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 197
Horatiu Boeriu is the CEO and Founder of BMWBLOG, a Chicago-based website dedicated to automotive journalism with a focus on the BMW brand. Horatiu built his website from a passion project into a respected media outlet in the car industry and has grown his audience to several million car enthusiasts. This episode is part of a miniseries called PubCast that explores the stories of website creators and app developers who've turned their passions into digital businesses. Hear from founders about ho...
Nov 23, 2021•26 min•Ep. 196
Paul Husbands is the CEO and Founder of Selecta Charts, a first of its kind music streaming platform for Caribbean artists. Since its launch, Selecta Charts has drawn thousands of listeners and propelled hundreds of Caribbean artists to new heights. This episode is part of a miniseries called PubCast that explores the stories of website creators and app developers who've turned their passions into digital businesses. Hear from founders about how they got started, their challenges growing, and th...
Nov 19, 2021•24 min•Ep. 195
Bestselling author, neuroscientist, and computer engineer Jeff Hawkins joins computational neuroscience researcher and software technologist Subutai Ahmad to discuss the recent book "A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence" and how those concepts are being applied to Machine Learning. For all of neuroscience's advances, we've made little progress on its biggest question: How do simple cells in the brain create intelligence? Jeff Hawkins and his team discovered that the brain uses maplike...
Nov 16, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 194
Christeen Skinner is the Director of City Scopes, an astrology focused company founded in 1998 in London. Since then, the company has grown to offer a variety of astrology sites, training courses, books and more. Christeen now focuses more of her time to expand into other areas where she uses astrology to predict financial markets. This episode is part of a miniseries called PubCast that explores the stories of website creators and app developers who've turned their passions into digital busines...
Nov 12, 2021•30 min•Ep. 193
Todrick Hall visits Google to discuss his fourth studio album and most personal work to date, Femuline. Femuline finds Todrick sharing the spotlight with some of music's biggest names, including Nicole Scherzinger, Tyra Banks, longtime LGBTQ+ ally Chaka Khan, and R&B legend Brandy. Todrick Hall's resume reads like a Wikipedia entry for "Major Pop Culture Events Of The 21st Century." He's worked with everyone from Taylor Swift to Beyoncé to Pentatonix, going from national fame on American Ido...
Nov 09, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 192
Chef Dennis Littley got his start as a classically trained chef and kindled his passion for teaching by creating a Culinary Program at the high school he worked at. Now living in Florida, Chef Dennis works full time on his food and travel site, Ask Chef Dennis, helping millions of people create restaurant-quality meals at home. This episode is part of a miniseries called PubCast that explores the stories of website creators and app developers who've turned their passions into digital businesses....
Nov 05, 2021•28 min•Ep. 191
Author Jordan Shapiro discusses his book " Father Figure: How to be a Feminist Dad." Shapiro is a globally celebrated American thought leader, whose column in Forbes Magazine has been read by over 5 million people around the world. He writes about global education, learning through digital play, children, and culture. Additionally, he is an international speaker and consultant whose fresh perspective combines psychology, philosophy, and economics in unexpected ways. In his book, Shapiro offers a...
Nov 02, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 190
Jessica Rovello is the CEO and Co-Founder of Arkadium, a game development company based in New York that has built hundreds of games enjoyed on over 800 million devices worldwide. Arkadium has been voted as one of Inc.'s best places to work and takes an employee-centric approach to growth. This episode is part of a miniseries called PubCast that explores the stories of website creators and app developers who've turned their passions into digital businesses. Hear from founders about how they got ...
Oct 29, 2021•39 min•Ep. 189
This week, actor Andrew Rannels discusses his directorial debut with an episode of Modern Love, a co-production of Amazon Studios and The New York Times. Each episode brings to life a different story that has been inspired by the newspaper's popular Modern Love column. This anthology series explores love in all of its complicated and beautiful forms, as well as its effects on the human connection, and the episode Rannells directed is based upon a personal essay that he penned for the New York Ti...
Oct 26, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 188
Samuel Brinton, the son of two Southern Baptist ministers, shares his experiences with years of so-called "conversion therapy" designed to "cure" him of his homosexuality. In this talk, Sam speaks about his experiences in the hopes that others who have endured similar struggles will find hope. Today, Samuel is the Vice President of Advocacy and Government Affairs at the Trevor Project, a leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ youth un...
Oct 22, 2021•51 min•Ep. 187
