Announcement | On the Future of this Podcast
The full lowdown on where this podcast is going from here.
Jul 01, 2018•21 min•Season 1Ep. 32
The After On Podcast
We dive deep into the science, tech, and social issues explored in the novel "After On." It's NOT necessary to be an "After On" reader to listen, learn & enjoy this podcast!
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Episodes
31: Expanding DNA's Alphabet (by half!) | Floyd Romesberg
Floyd Romesberg added two letters to DNA's ancient four-letter alphabet. He got this running in cells. And coding proteins. His cell lines have passed it down hundreds of generations. Now what?
Jun 26, 2018•1 hr 21 min•Season 1Ep. 31
30. De-extinction, The Whole Earth, and Way More|Stewart Brand
Over six consecutive decades, Stewart Brand has impacted society, tech and science in outlandishly diverse ways. This truly unhurried conversation explores the scope of his intensely original American life.
Jun 12, 2018•1 hr 43 min•Season 1Ep. 30
Jordan Harbinger | Bonus Episode
An examination of the science of psychopathy from my buddy Jordan Harbinger's terrific podcast. This bonus episode is in addition to the two new original episodes I'm creating this month.
Jun 08, 2018•1 hr 28 min•Season 1Ep. 27
28: Exponential Medicine | Daniel Kraft
Key aspects of medical technology are improving even faster than computers. What are the ramifications for our health? For our lifespans? Dr. Daniel Kraft has tremendous insights into all of this - particularly as it relates to cancer.
May 29, 2018•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 28
27. Depression: The Psychedelic Cure | Katya Malievskaia & George Goldsmith
The largest-ever clinical trial of a psychedelic drug will soon begin in Europe and North America. The drug is psilocybin - the active ingredient in magic mushrooms. The target is treatment-resistant depression.
May 15, 2018•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 27
26: Reality Isn't | Don Hoffman
Quantitative Psychologist Don Hoffman has a head-spinning take on the true nature of reality vs. what our senses report to us. Is it the most counterintuitive insight since Pythagoras figured the Earth is round?
Apr 30, 2018•1 hr 22 min•Season 1Ep. 26
25. A Night at the Battery
In this very atypical episode, the tables turn and I'm the interviewee! We discuss all of my creative projects, including this podcast series. Recorded live at The Battery in San Francisco.
Apr 17, 2018•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 25
24: BioEngineering |George Church
George Church helped found 22 companies, and co-invented the paradigm-shattering gene editing technique CRISPR. In our interview, he delivers a sweeping survey of the world of synthetic biology, and makes some astounding predictions
Apr 03, 2018•1 hr 21 min•Season 1Ep. 24
23: AI & Robotics - Their Present and Future| Rodney Brooks
Rodney Brooks is a founding luminary of TWO vital domains in tech: robotics and AI. He's the father of the Roomba, the long-time head of MIT's AI lab, and a serial entrepreneur. Few can rival his breadth & depth in technology.
Mar 20, 2018•1 hr 23 min•Season 1Ep. 23
22: Creating the 6th, 7th & 8th Sense | David Eagleman
Neuroscientist David Eagleman has done groundbreaking work on how we perceive time. Now he hopes to radically expand the pantheon of human senses.
Mar 06, 2018•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 22
21: Neural Imaging and ... Telepathy? | Mary Lou Jepsen
After stints at Google and Facebook, serial entrepreneur Mary Lou Jepsen is ready to upend the worlds of medical imaging and ... telepathy. Yup, TELEPATHY. Give it a listen!
Feb 20, 2018•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 21
20: Radical Life Extension | Aubrey de Grey
Aubrey de Grey is a highly credentialed scientist who believes it's within our grasp to REVERSE human aging in the next few decades. Dozens of scientists are now executing on his plan, funded by extremely smart backers including Peter Thiel.
Jan 17, 2018•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 20
19: A Lightning Tour of the After On Universe
A wide-ranging set of excerpts from the After On audiobook, read brilliant folks including John Hodgman, Felicia Day, Jesse Cox, Tom Merritt. Back to "normal" episodes next week, promise! :-)
Jan 02, 2018•1 hr 14 min•Season 1Ep. 19
18: It's Really After On
This week, Broadway's own January LaVoy and legendary fantasy writer Patrick Rothfuss read/perform the the opening of the After On audiobook (plus quite a bit more). With some notes & observations from the author.
Dec 22, 2017•1 hr 25 min•Season 1Ep. 18
17: The Past Present & Future of Cryptocurrency | Coinbase Co-Founder Fred Ehrsam
Whether you're a cryptocurrency novice or expert, this episode will teach you a ton. My guest, Fred Ehrsam, founded the world's largest platform for storing & trading Bitcoin and more. Just us for a full crypto education!
Dec 13, 2017•1 hr 45 min•Season 1Ep. 17
16: The Promise & Peril in YOUR Genes | Robert Green
You will soon have access to a dizzying battery of facts about your health. Some could be horrid or positive on a life-changing scale! But most will be wildly ambiguous. Should you peek? NOTE: This is NOT just hypothetical.
Nov 29, 2017•1 hr 36 min•Season 1Ep. 16
15. Music Piracy | The Extraterrestrial Threat
A vast alien civilization is so into American pop music, it recently committed the biggest copyright violation since the dawn of time. Against us! How should humanity respond? A special (and rather playful) episode with John Hodgman.
Nov 21, 2017•1 hr 23 min•Season 1Ep. 15
14: The Future (if any) of Jobs | Andrew McAfee
Andy McAfee of MIT is a leading thinker about how robotics and other automation will influence the future of work and jobs. We touch on some scary stuff - plus some delightful notes of optimism!
Nov 14, 2017•1 hr 17 min•Season 1Ep. 14
13: Medium, Twitter, and Networked Words | Ev Williams
Ev Williams co-founded and ran both Twitter and Blogger.com, and is now the founder/CEO of Medium. He's a deep thinker about ideas morph & travel, and is carving out a place for thoughtful, serious writing online.
Oct 31, 2017•1 hr 18 min•Season 1Ep. 13
12. TED Talks + Organization | Chris Anderson
You've probably seen a TED Talk or two (or 500!) online. Chris runs the TED organization, and has some fascinating thoughts both on how we're wired to process oratory, and how we might build a better world.
Oct 24, 2017•1 hr 20 min•Season 1Ep. 12
11. Space Archaeology | Sarah Parcak
Sarah Parcak is a pioneer in the emerging field of space archaeology. In 2016 she won the TED Prize to launch a "citizen science" platform, which is finding lost sites and fighting archaeological looting throughout the world.
Oct 17, 2017•1 hr 38 min•Season 1Ep. 11
10. Tech's Past & Future | Tim O'Reilly
Technology's pre-eminent publisher, Tim O'Reilly helped trigger the rise of the commercial Web, the open source community, the Web 2.0 era, and the maker movement. I discuss tech's past and future with one of its most original thinkers.
Oct 10, 2017•1 hr 18 min•Season 1Ep. 10
9. Drones |Chris Anderson of Wired & 3DR
Chris Anderson was Wired's editor-in-chief for 12 years, then started one of the world's great drone companies. We discuss all this – and his origins as a high school dropout living in a squat and playing bass for a band called REM (no, not that REM).
Oct 03, 2017•1 hr 23 min•Season 1Ep. 9
8: Fermi's Paradox (or, where are all the aliens?) | Stephen Webb
Our universe's vastness and age has given alien intelligence ample space and time in which to arise. Why can we detect no sign of it? This is actually a momentous and scientifically serious question. Yes, really! With British astronomer Stephen Webb.
Sep 26, 2017•1 hr 50 min•Season 1Ep. 8
7. The Dangers of Superintelligence| James Barrat
James Barrat's book "Our Final Invention" helped touch off a public debate about the possible dangers of superintelligence, which continues to this day. We discuss these dangers in depth in our interview. For those who are reading the novel After On, Tom Meritt and I discuss pages 380-464 in the very last section of the podcast.
Sep 19, 2017•56 min
6. On Terrorism | Sam Harris
Sam Harris is one of the most visible and controversial commentators on terrorism and its roots. Our interview dives deep into this subject, as well the personal journey that made Sam into the public intellectual he has become. For those who are reading the novel After On, Tom Meritt and I discuss pages 289-380 in the very last section of the podcast.
Sep 12, 2017•2 hr 16 min•Season 1Ep. 6
5. Quantum Computing |Steve Jurvetson
Quantum computers could be almost farcically powerful compared to classical computers. Venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson and I discuss how & why this is – and whether this potential will ever be realized. For those who are reading the novel After On, Tom Meritt and I discuss pages 241-288 in the very last section of the podcast.
Sep 05, 2017•1 hr 9 min•Season 1Ep. 5
4: Synthetic Biology | Andrew Hessel
It took 13 years and $3 billion to read the first human genome in 2003. Now takes #$1K and just hours. What happens when we can WRITE DNA as easily as we now read it? For those who are reading the novel After On, Tom Merritt and I discuss pages 180-241 in the very last section of the podcast.
Aug 24, 2017•1 hr 18 min•Season 1Ep. 4
3: Privacy + Govt Intrusion | Cindy Cohn (EFF)
In this episode, we discuss patent trolls, government hacking, privacy in the digital age, and other vital issues with Cindy Cohn, who runs the Electronic Frontier Foundation. For those who are reading the novel After On, Tom Merritt and I discuss pages 110-180 in the very last section of the podcast.
Aug 17, 2017•1 hr 17 min•Season 1Ep. 3
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