Beth Pyles talks to Jim about why she left trial law to become a pastor, affluenza, spirituality & religion, peacemaking, foreign intervention, and much more... Beth Pyles talks to Jim about small community living, why she left trial law to become a pastor, the dynamics affluenza & the hedonistic treadmill, how she views meaning & faith, spirituality vs religion, metaphysics, Presbyterianism vs Methodism, the value of community in religion & faith, hell & the devil, her peacemaking experiences i...
Mar 09, 2020•2 hr 32 min•Ep 45•Transcript available on Metacast Steve LeVine talks with Jim about battery tech's role in sustainable transportation, his writing process for The Powerhouse, EV predictions, and much more... Steve LeVine talks with Jim about why battery innovation is so important for sustainable transportation, the challenges & promises of transitioning to electric vehicles, how Steve researched & wrote his book (The Powerhouse), key milestones for electric vehicle range & costs, Tesla’s advantages, Volkswagen's electric aspirations, why charla...
Mar 02, 2020•1 hr 17 min•Ep 44•Transcript available on Metacast Daniel Christian Wahl talks with Jim about bioregional regeneration, Game B, complexity theory, epistemic modesty, questions vs answers, money, spirituality, and much more... Daniel Christian Wahl talks with Jim about catalysis, Game B, geo therapy vs geoengineering, the short-term perspective of fossil fuels & limited resources, viewing population projections in relation to climate impact, the difference between sustainable & regenerative, the bioregional approach, diversity in ecosystems, how ...
Feb 24, 2020•2 hr 51 min•Ep 43•Transcript available on Metacast MIT professor & researcher Jessika Trancik talks with Jim about the dynamics & state of renewable energy tech & policies, decarbonization, carbon taxes, climate despair, and much more... MIT professor & researcher Jessika Trancik talks with Jim about energy return on investment (EROI), the power of learning curves, the feasibility of an all-electric society, base vs intermittent renewable energy, ‘energy storage plus’, the role & power of soft technologies, ‘soft costs’ of energy production, les...
Feb 17, 2020•2 hr 36 min•Ep 42•Transcript available on Metacast Daniel Mezick talks with Jim about agile process & organizations, how agile scrums work, openspace tech, change management, leadership, authority, complex systems, and much more... Daniel Mezick talks with Jim about how he got into business consulting & agile processes, what an openspace organization is & how it scales with business size/type, Jim’s experience with agile, how an agile scrum is structured, the value of DevOps & product managers, types of agile processes & common pitfalls, learned...
Feb 13, 2020•2 hr 34 min•Ep 41•Transcript available on Metacast Eric Smith talks with Jim about geochemistry & the origins of life, monetary systems & dynamics, interdisciplinarity linguistics, sustainability, civil society, and much more... Multidimensional thinker Eric Smith has a wide-ranging talk with Jim about the origins of life, monetary systems, language & sustainability. Eric starts by sharing how geochemistry informs the origin of life topic, the dynamics of autocatalytic processes, how little we know about biological systems & what this might tell...
Feb 10, 2020•1 hr 27 min•Ep 40•Transcript available on Metacast Jim talks to the multi-talented thinker & creator John Koza about his secure lottery ticket tech, his genetic programming work, how & why he created the National Popular Vote bill, and much more... Multi-talented thinker & creator John Koza & Jim start by talking about what led him to create secure lottery ticket tech early in his career. They then go on to talk about how he got interested in genetic algorithms, his pioneering work in genetic programming, how powerful it is, and some of its stan...
Feb 03, 2020•1 hr 17 min•Ep 39•Transcript available on Metacast Tristan Harris & Jim talk about his background in design ethics, dangers of ad targeting, game theory, time well spent, the global information war, trends to be optimistic about, and much more... Tristan Harris & Jim start by talking about how Tristan’s career & education in design ethics are informed by being a magician in his youth. They then go on to talk about his experience at the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab, the history of psychologically informed business, the power of personalized...
Jan 27, 2020•2 hr 35 min•Ep 38•Transcript available on Metacast Jared Janes talks with Jim about spiritual language, altered states vs traits, suffering, the confabulated self, embodiment, concentration practices, metaphysics, and more... Meditator & thinker Jared Janes talks with Jim about why he still uses the word ‘spiritual’, altered states vs altered traits, the equation & dynamics of suffering, understanding our own intentions, the confabulating mind, embodied intuition, the value & limits of conceptuality, what the self is & its usefulness, attention ...
Jan 23, 2020•1 hr 27 min•Ep 37•Transcript available on Metacast Hanzi Freinacht talks with Jim about postmodernism, value memes, cognitive complexity, societal code, the promises/dangers of metamodernism, and much more... Hanzi Freinacht, political philosopher, historian, sociologist, & author has a wide-ranging talk with Jim that starts by exploring what postmodern views are, how many postmodernists there might be & how they act. They, then go on to cover effective values memes & how they arise/interact, the dynamics of the model of hierarchical complexity,...
Jan 20, 2020•2 hr 37 min•Ep 36•Transcript available on Metacast Ken McCarthy talks with Jim about the commercial shift of the internet, the evolution of internet media, online market potential, the high cost of free, and much more... Internet pioneer Ken McCarthy talks with Jim about why & how he first got on the internet in 1993, what it was like to be in tech in the 90’s, the walled gardens of the early internet, the birth of email, Well.com, the pre-commercial internet, brand vs direct response advertising & how they made their way to the internet, Ken’s ...
Jan 16, 2020•1 hr 27 min•Ep 35•Transcript available on Metacast Joe Edelman talks with Jim about values, social norms & ideological commitments, pluralism & coherence, ‘time well spent’, ethical advertising, and much more... Joe Edelman, philosopher, social scientist & designer starts this conversation with Jim by talking about how meaningfulness is connected to values, social norms & ideological commitments. Then, they go on to talk about the pros & cons of pluralism & coherence in today’s digital world, why Joe coined the phrase/metric ‘time well spent’ & ...
Jan 13, 2020•1 hr 25 min•Ep 34•Transcript available on Metacast Melanie Mitchell & Jim talk about the many approaches to creating AI, hype cycles, self-driving cars, what can be learned from human intelligence, and much more... Professor & Author Melanie Mitchell and Jim have a wide-ranging talk about her work in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). They explore the differences between deep learning, symbolic techniques & hybrid systems, AI springs/winters & hype cycles, self-driving cars, strong (general) vs weak (narrow) intelligence, the black-box e...
Jan 06, 2020•1 hr 21 min•Ep 33•Transcript available on Metacast Author & Professor Jason Brennan talks with Jim about teaching business school, libertarianism, poor incentives/outcomes in democracy & academia, and much more... Author & Research Professor Jason Brennan talks with Jim about teaching in business school after studying philosophy, what a bleeding heart libertarian is, the ignorance & irrationality of voters, how well group identity predicts personal values, whether political engagement leads to rational politics, political discrimination, social ...
Dec 30, 2019•2 hr 32 min•Ep 32•Transcript available on Metacast The multi-talented Forrest Landry talks with Jim about what motivates him, ethics & metaphysics, meaning & sense-making, collective action, collapse, and much more... Forrest Landry, philosopher, writer, researcher, scientist, engineer, craftsman, and teacher talks with Jim about his company (Magic-Flight), what motivates his work, how he defines ethics, metaphysics & its connection to realism, free will & choice, the nature of time, how he defines & utilizes meaning, value & purpose, interactio...
Dec 16, 2019•2 hr 35 min•Ep 31•Transcript available on Metacast Nora Bateson talks with Jim about her recent book, her father & grandfather’s academic impact, thinking transcontextually, Game B, warm data labs, and much more... Nora Bateson, award-winning filmmaker, writer, educator, and President of the International Bateson Institute talks with Jim about the work of the International Bateson Institute, her father (Gregory Bateson) & grandfather’s (William Bateson) academic histories & the impact they had on her work, complex systems, the dangers of mental ...
Dec 09, 2019•1 hr 25 min•Ep 30•Transcript available on Metacast Michael Mauboussin talks with Jim about his latest book, SFI, investment, using variance & complexity, luck & skill, bias, IQ vs RQ, forecasting, and more... Michael Mauboussin, Director of Research at BlueMountain Capital Management, Author, and Adjunct Professor at Columbia University talks with Jim about how he came to be the Chairman of the Board at the Santa Fe Institute, his perspective on investing & its challenges, the Colonel Blotto game, using variance & complexity in game theory, defi...
Dec 02, 2019•1 hr 28 min•Ep 29•Transcript available on Metacast Author, founder & scientist Mark Burgess talks with Jim about his career, physics skill set, CFEngine, Promise Theory, AI, free will, spacetime, and much more... Author, founder & scientist Mark Burgess talks with Jim about why he made the switch from theoretical physics to computer science, the widely applicable skill set of physicists, what led him to create CFEngine, computer immunology, how he came up with Promise Theory & its connection to physics & network science, the relativity of system...
Nov 25, 2019•2 hr 46 min•Ep 28•Transcript available on Metacast Jamie Wheal talks to Jim about flow, intrinsic & extrinsic motivation, group flow, GameB, the future of ecstatic state tech, cult leaders, and much more... Author Jamie Wheal talks with Jim about working with the Navy SEALs, what characterizes flow, intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation, the Eleusinian Mysteries, Plato, Aristotle & Pythagoras, soft-leadership & dynamic hierarchies, group flow, if courage & integrity can be taught & what that means for Game B, coherent pluralism, spiritual bypassing,...
Nov 21, 2019•1 hr 3 min•Ep 27•Transcript available on Metacast Jordan Hall & Jim outline Game B's advantage over Game A, explore embodied wisdom, meaningfulness, Game B transitions & life, parasitizing Game A, and much more... Jordan Hall and Jim have another wide-ranging conversation about Game B. They start with a quick overview of Game A and then move on to talk about the emerging collaboration of Game B & how it happened, its competitive advantage over Game A, liminal spaces, embodied wisdom, sovereignty & sense-making, the pre-B phase, changing our liv...
Nov 19, 2019•2 hr 3 min•Ep 26•Transcript available on Metacast Author & CEO Gary Marcus talks with Jim about his book, Rebooting AI, driverless cars, AI learning & intelligence, hybrid AI models & AI bias, and much more... Scientist, author & entrepreneur Gary Marcus talks with Jim about his latest book, Rebooting AI. In this wide-ranging conversation they cover the gullibility gap, the illusory progress gap, the robustness gap, driverless car progress & safety, how narrow AI is today, model building, the free-lunch theorem, nativism in animals & humans, ho...
Nov 14, 2019•1 hr 18 min•Ep 25•Transcript available on Metacast Bret Weinstein & Jim talk about unsustainable culture, dangerous algorithms, GameB, complexity, trade-offs, social media, today's left, Darwinian religion, and much more... Bret Weinstein and Jim talk about the evolutionary & game-theoretic dynamics that have led humanity to an unsustainable place, the impact of today’s algorithms & how they’re connected to human evolution, the recent shift of corporate values, how Game B should view complex systems, design vs. navigation, trade-offs from a theo...
Nov 11, 2019•2 hr 30 min•Ep 24•Transcript available on Metacast Jim talks with CEO Jeff Gomez about working on movies, games & media, transmedia storytelling, fandom, working with the US gov, propaganda, Game B, and much more... CEO Jeff Gomez and Jim have a wide-ranging talk about Jeff’s work with massive movies like Pirates of the Caribbean, his work with transmedia storytelling & worldbuilding, how nerdy Jim really is, how narrative & story differ & the role the audience plays, fandom, the perennial Star Wars vs Star Trek question, the far reaches of fan ...
Nov 05, 2019•1 hr 23 min•Ep 23•Transcript available on Metacast Consultant Sara Kindsfater-Yerkes & Jim talk about leadership today, HR teams, embracing change, team engagement, honesty, gender dynamics, being offended, and much more... Business Consultant Sara Kindsfater-Yerkes and Jim start this episode by reflecting on working together in their earlier careers. They then go on to talk about today’s multi-generational workforce, commonalities of Gen Z & Boomers, workplace mindsets, recruitment strategies & HR teams, shifts in today’s leadership approaches,...
Oct 31, 2019•1 hr 1 min•Ep 22•Transcript available on Metacast AI expert Roman Yampolskiy & Jim have a wide-ranging talk about simulation theory, types of intelligence, AI research & safety, the singularity, and much more... This conversation with Jim and Dr. Roman V. Yampolskiy–author, tenured associate professor, founding director of Cyber Security Lab–starts by covering the vast variance of possible minds. They then go on to talk about Boltzmann brains, the implications of an infinite universe, simulation theory’s limits & if we could find its glitches, ...
Oct 28, 2019•1 hr 12 min•Ep 21•Transcript available on Metacast Author Pamela McCorduck talks to Jim about her new book, the humanities & sciences divide, her friendships with AI pioneers, risks of AI, feminism, and more... Author Pamela McCorduck talks with Jim about themes of her latest book, This Could Be Important: My Life and Times with the Artificial Intelligentsia. They talk about C.P. Snow’s Two Cultures thesis that explores the divide between the humanities & sciences, Pamela’s professional & personal friendships with AI pioneers (Julian Feldman, Al...
Oct 24, 2019•1 hr 8 min•Ep 20•Transcript available on Metacast Author, inventor, tech analyst, engineer, and military pilot John Robb talks to Jim about drone attacks, internet-age networks, geopolitics, AGI, and much more... This conversation with Jim and John Robb–author, inventor, entrepreneur, technology analyst, astro engineer, and military pilot–starts by covering the impact of the recent drone attack on a Saudi fuel processing center, and the current US political situation. They then go on to talk about how John compares resistance and the insurgency...
Oct 21, 2019•1 hr 27 min•Ep 19•Transcript available on Metacast Professor, MacArthur Fellow & author Stuart Kauffman talks with Jim about complexity, biology & the origins of life, social/technical evolution, and much more... Professor, MacArthur Fellow and author Stuart Kauffman talks with Jim about the major themes of his career: complexity, auto-catalytic chemical sets, protocells and the origins of life, the problem of the error catastrophe, human evolution, social and technical evolution, the Fermi Paradox and much more. Stuart also introduces his new T...
Oct 17, 2019•1 hr 1 min•Ep 18•Transcript available on Metacast Bonnitta Roy teaches insight practices for individuals who are developing meta-cognitive skills, and hosts collective insight retreats for groups interested in breaking away from limiting patterns of thought. She teaches a masters course in consciousness studies and transpersonal psychology at the Graduate Institute. Her teaching highlights the embodied, affective and perceptual aspects of the core self, and the non-egoic potentials from which subtle sensing, intuition and insight emerge. Throug...
Oct 14, 2019•2 hr 47 min•Ep 17•Transcript available on Metacast Peter Wang is Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of Anaconda, the leading Python tools and data analytics company. Peter holds a B.A. in Physics from Cornell University and has been developing applications professionally using Python since 2001. Before co-founding Anaconda (formerly Continuum Analytics) in 2011, Peter spent seven years designing and developing applications for a variety of companies, including investment bankers, high-frequency trading firms, oil companies, and others. Pete...
Oct 07, 2019•1 hr 26 min•Ep 16•Transcript available on Metacast 
